Category Archives: Wavelength

Wavelength – February 15th Marcel Duchamp, Ivor Cutler

Marcel Duchamp talks about Ready-Mades + tracks from Ivor Cutler”s A Flat Man.

Wavelength – 2008 February 22nd Benghazi re-form

Benghazi re-form to discuss and enact Misery. Not for those of a nervous disposition. This includes a duet by James Tregaskis and myself singing “Misery” (Lennon/McCartney). This is the only known recording of me singing and is not recommended.

William English

2007 December 14th Inaugural Concert by ‘Benghazi’

Inaugural ‘concert’ by Benghazi: Gwenda Jones on paper cup, James Tregaskis on balloons and vomiting and Mtebe Noginga on piledriver and toys. Recorded live in the studio on Borough High Street. Naturally these highly strung individuals came to loggerheads shortly after this event and went their own separate ways only to reform the following day. Tregaskis’s distinctive vomiting technique spawned numerous clones, Noginga gained a reputation for extracting the most from a wind up tin toy but little of merit can be said about Gwenda Jones?s lacklustre performance which prompted the acrimonious break-up. A classic.

Wavelength – 2007 December 7th Christie’s Auction

Recording from a Christie’s Auction, King Street London + Georg Baselitz lecture “The Painters’ Equipment” A lecture at the Royal Academy of Arts 1987. (Audio Arts LP, recorded by William Furlong and William Archer)

William English

Wavelength – 2007 November 30th The Red Suede Jacket

“The Red Suede Jacket”: Bob Hughes remembers the 1960s in Leicester. Cut into the interview is a rare track by The Farinas later to become Family, and also Country Line Special by Cyril Davies and his Rhythm and Blues All Stars (1963).
The red suede jacket became a fixation for me; worn in the 1960s by John Nixon otherwise known as Jelly for reasons unknown, the jacket became emblematic of that period. Bob Hughes recalls some of the events, recorded in The Modena Cafe in Leicester which has hardly changed since the early 1960s. The Farinas were a Leicester group who later became Family . The track played here is their first and only single apart from an incredibly rare demo disc and features the harmonica playing of James King. My elder brother Jack took me to see The Farinas at The Pit which was a club underneath the notorious Bond Street Caff in Leicester City Centre. I was probably eleven years old, still in short trousers. The Farinas were playing rhythm and blues and memorably a track about a train, with harmonica by Jim King.

William English

Wavelength – 2007 November 23rd London Artists Book Fair at the ICA

Wandering round the Artists’ Book Fair asking various book artists for a definition of what an Artist’s Book is and getting a variety of answers.

William English

Wavelength – 2007 November 9th La Monte Young and Terry Riley

La Monte Young and Terry Riley 1960 “Concert for Two Pianos and Five Tape Recorders” (1960) With La Monte Young, recorded live 11 May 1960, Nam June Paik Works 1958.1979.
Text of Light by Lee Ranaldo, Christian Marclay, Alan Licht, Uli Krieger, DJ Olive (Table of the Elements 2004).

William English

Wavelength – 2007 November 2nd Dogs in Datchet

Telephone interview with Captain Maurice Seddon who describes his unique telephone apparatus and his ongoing legal battle with his local council and neighbour to retain his dogs. Maurice lives in humble circumstances in Datchet at the end of the Heathrow flight path.
Planes fly directly overhead every 90 seconds. The large garden, surrounded by a high but dilapidated wooden fence contains all manner of unwanted and outdated electrical goods, motorcycles, refrigerators, tarpaulins, a small caravan and a pack of 18 mongrels which live wild and occasionally start to bark in unison. Maurice has lived here for 50 years.
A neighbour who moved in a few years ago has complained consistently about the noise of the dogs resulting in a series of eccentric court cases. At time of writing the dogs remain in situ.

William English