Here is Eva Tomas' official seal, which was identified by Jeep Solid as two goshawks on a cadge, as in "cadge a compliment". A high ranking noblewoman who was involved in her mews in the Crown area circa Inverness 1361. In 1362 northern Forres boatbuilders arrived in Kensington, USA and planted the Kensington stone - this was also the time of the Black Death. It's clear that the gentle hawk or Goshawk was a priceless commodity second only to the Greenland falcon.
Return trip to Berlin beckons for Birdman
Roderick Mackenzie with what he believes is the goshawk skull he found in a Highland Forest. Berlin has its own big goshawk population. Pictures John Baikie
By Margaret Chrystall
INVERNESS musician Roderick Mackenzie - inspired by sightings of goshawks on his first trip to Berlin last year - returns there next week with the song now triggering his latest compilation.
Roderick (68) - best-known on the cities music scene as Jeep Solid - is fascinated by raptors, and goshawks in particular.
He chanced upon the image of a goshawk on the seal of a 14th century noblewoman attached to some historic documents in Inverness Museum some time ago.
And later he began to investigate the history of part of Inverness which was then included in the Kingdom of Moray.
The parallels he discovered with present times later grew into his exhibition at Inverness Museam last March the Kingdom of Moray: a conversation with film-maker Graham Roger.
One of those links was discovering strong women, including noble-woman Eva Tomas who owned land in what is now Crown and Kinmylies, and Edona of Auldcastle.
Roderick’s own music career took off in 1966, inspired by the acts he first saw in the Highland club called the Two Red Shoes. He moved on from the first band Size 4 to Edinburgh and Three's a Crowd, then in London he was invited to join a band called White Trash and moved to America before returning and forming a band called Choker.
In recent years, he has performed rarely as a solo singer-songwriter.
Roderick has recent concerns that the goshawk - revered in earlier times in Scotland - has been under threat locally.
But he was heartened to discover on arrival in Berlin that the city has 100 pairs of goshawks currently living in the many parks and green spaces of the city.
"They came there naturally," he said. "Central Berlin is a huge extended park and there is a lot we could learn there."
Along with the goshawk link Roderick discovered artefacts at his hotel - a vintage 1950s' Holiday Inn with film antiques and posters, some relating to Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl began her career as a young actress before moving onto directing. The pioneering film-maker found her reputation was damaged for the rest of her life aftet her work included directing three propaganda films for Hitler.
She later said meeting him was one of the greatest regrets of her life. Roderick said: "My mother remembers her as a young actress who went on to live along life making films till
the year before she died at 101. In Berlin, I found myself about her and the goshawks."
"And it reminded me when I was with my first serious band the Size 4 we went to play at the Edinburgh Festival for 16 guineas or something."
"And as our Bedford van stopped in George Street, who came out of this Bentley but Marlene Dietrich and she was exquisite, wearing a slate-grey couture dress. I can smell her perfume now — it just totally affected me."
"We were down from lnverness and her musical director, the man she was with, was a young Burt Bacharach. That was in 1960, so I have a piece about her, I have a piece about Leni Riefenstahl, the goshawks and it all ties together through my impressions of Berlin - the conundrum that is Berlin."
There is also a first song, Fraulein Fantastische, about Roderick's experience of Berlin which he wants to complete as a compilation of songs about the city.
He said: "I was writing so much during my six days there that the hotel manager Rudolf Helmel asked me what I working on.
"When I mentioned Leni, Rudolf said that his boss had been a great friend of hers and that he would be happy to ‘pass on what I'd been writing. So I'll be taking the pieces I've done since - and a copy of the song - back to Berlin with me next week."
“My
dad's beautiful”, she said, “he used to work for Ronnie Kray”.
She was all fur coats and shoes. I distinctly remember fucking her
and how good she looked in these pink and turquoise crocodile skin
Terry De Havilland shoes (open-toe one platform, red varnish!!).
A couple
of years later ---on Earls Court Road!!-----pissed!----- I hadn't
noticed that I was trying to catch her attention in the sweaty
gorilla suit that I was wearing, Ooh la la. I was never very Marquis
of Queens-bury.!!------A Bad boxer!!-----ME!
The crow
cawed at Tomnahurich as crow craw craw craw as usual as usual as
usual as the first wild autumn wind howled down the fault
line.!!---and the Loch Ness Ladies gathered the Peats Indoors!
Yet
everything was quiet in Eva's Royal Mews, in the KOM.
In my own
60's and 70's London I held on to a wildly prescribed gravity like a
salamander on a wall, what way was up? My own weight perplexing me,
in the sea of talent that was SoHo. I myself played a minor key in
this dope-fuelled legacy. This salamander somehow observed everything
through his slimy comEdic skin. Here was Duffy Power, Tony Serenity,
The Sweet Smell of Success (The SSS), the aroma of vanilla!
Prescription madness, very ill but fairly-well- equipped! A sponge
and a beacon on the dark side of Ladies Walk. Hitler's methedrine had
me on Lemmy's roof, I just had to survive! Salamander's are equipped
for survival, yet a fulfilled life is what I wanted. The SSS eluded
me, but I just had to hang on with Tony Serenity.
As Derek
Taylor once said----
“Being
born in Scotland carries with it a great responsibility!?”.
All very
well but no one was listening to me, a modern day Colombo, except I
was a bit more Ronnie Columba. However that's better than our
giggling screen-obsessed present day society, go figure? The thing
about your own piss is it stinks after a while!
A new
viaduct of rock n' roll ricochet is already a hard sell, but equally
so the Scottish referendum. Remember my junk is in your back yard and
it ain't going nowhere. God made Heaven and Earth, that's what way,s
up!? and Duffy Power and the Duchess of Argyll live somewhere East of
Eden, etched in a salamander's conscience.
There is
a lot of suspense in Stornoway, a lot of coffee in Brazil, a lot of
wisdom of Solomon, backwards piping with the Loch Nest Ladies
Operative. How many Germans are in Berlin? I couldn't say. When I
couldn't look after myself the London Jewish mafia looked after me !!
and there
was a cocaine frenzy in No.11 Downing Street. The autopsy (mine),
will be interesting and probably quiet. Breath in, breath out, one
day, one moment, one more shovel full of love, you fukers!!--- I'm
dying to get home.!!
I find it
perplexing, I'm perplexed to this day in fact as to how sweaty and
distressed I was in that gorilla suit, in Earl's Court road. You can
blow up a beach ball but you can't expect a salamander to survive in
that heat, its like playing badminton when you are hypnotised. So
there. This is fucking ridiculous! I've got a headache. 6 days to
go.... Is it? How could she?
“They
say only the good die young. What does that make me, a clairvoyant?”
THE
forecast However IS Durable!!! So there!!
A Short Clip from Cape Reality, the Old High Church, Inverness:
Cape Reality - by Graeme Roger and Jeep Solid (2006) A Multi-media performance featuring one of the city’s prodigal musician sons. Cape Reality draws on a personal Highland genealogy within the highly charged historical context of the Old Kirkyard. Performance at 10pm, 10th August 2006.
Beamer Night 1 from Beamer Nights on Vimeo.
Including some of the numbers from his birth date, the year led him back to a time in history when part of Inverness - including the Crown and Kinmylies - was included in the Kingdom Of Moray.
It saw him looking more deeply into those times and discovering parallels and inspirations – and it planted a seed that has flowered into a unique collaboration of film, photographs, music and words."
"But alongside the music, he has many interests. He’s a passionate supporter of raptors and was one of the first in Scotland to ask about the impact wind turbines were having on the birds – he’d first come the phenomenon while visiting America.
Having experienced bullying in his own later life, he wanted to form a group to stand up to bullies."
"And his own experience of being diagnosed with autism has made him sensitive to the obstacles it can put in the path of anyone trying to live a full, creative life."
"He’s tuned to spotting establishment organisations pulling a fast one on the people of Inverness and connections – such as the ones he sees between strong women from ancient Inverness, such as noblewoman Eva Tomas who owned land in what is now the Crown and Kinmylies, to the late Inverness Courier owner and editor Evelyn Barron with whom he trained briefly as a junior reporter.
He is excited that his work is on show: "This is like a spiritual high," he says.
But it’s also pointing the way to more work – people have asked if he has a book with his work in it – so he is hoping to produce one."
Author: Margaret Chrystall.
Source: http://www.whatson-north.co.uk/Whats-On/Music/Museum-show-stars-rocker-Roderick-04032016.htm
Find photos and video of the project here:
The Kingdom of Moray
A New Project for 2016 at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
I’d wondered why all this conflict!?—and then a gem—it hit millions of years back yes the great Glen fault line tsunami had hit here in wells street the exact spot where I dream was the exact spot where I’d lived pinpointed was the joy and the heartache and the invigorating stimuli off why and How THIS SPOT gets me lit!---the Kingdom was not a theory any-more my Kingdom of Moray was a fact---we’d been discussing the Right-ENOUGH! brain-- mild mannered way of the bodach you have NO idea grandfather that afternoon and then I gazed into the crab’s eyes---she said ---
Project Caberfeigh
A blog dedicated to the artwork of the artist Jeep Solid.