I thought I would report on the set which RH played at his "25th Anniversary of the last Isle of Wight Festival" gig:

There was no problem finding Platform 1 at the disused station: there was only one platform. The waiting room had been converted into a community centre, and originally Robyn was thinking about playing indoors. However, he was soon persuaded to go out where the rails used to be, and we sat on the edge of the platform and listened to an acoustic set including:

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED (Jimi Hendrix)
THE DEVIL'S RADIO
SERPENT AT THE GATES OF WISDOM
DE CHIRICO STREET
THE WIND CRIES MARY (Jimi Hendrix)
IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH, IT TAKES A TRAIN TO CRY (Bob Dylan)
MADONNA OF THE WASPS
AIRSCAPE

Interval for free cups of tea!

COOL BUG RUMBLE
I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS
BASS
VISIONS OF JOHANNA (Bob Dylan)
THE YIP SONG
ONLY THE STONES REMAIN

Robyn was in chatty and nostalgic mood as he described where the 1968 and 1969 festivals took place, where he used to walk when he lived on the island, how the ghosts now walk in mid-air since the cliffs eroded away, how Bob Dylan played harmonica in the wrong key at the 1968 festival, why Robyn writes songs about fish, where AIRSCAPE was written and so on. He apologised for using harmonicas to much (crude but effective) and said we would have got something better if we had paid!

There were some interesting guys at the gig who have been writing a book about music and poetry in the Isle of Wight (called ISLE OF WIGHT ROCK, I think) which contains INTERVIEWS WITH ROBYN HITCHCOCK on the topics of THE GLASS HOTEL and AIRSCAPE, and also has an article about Robyn's father, Raymond Hitchcock. Jonathan Turner (jturner@rpms.ac.uk) has full details of this book which I expect he will be posting.

It was fun meeting Jonathan and Susan; I had previously had some "Turing Test" doubts that I was just talking to a computer somewhere out there...

* * * HAL: "Do you want me to open the door, Dave?" * * *

- Mike (Color Out Of Space) G