Lach (aka Anti-Folkiebooknerd!)

It's my birthday today! And, a good couple of weeks after my early birthday weekend in London, it was time to celebrate again... So Spokes and I took the day off work and enjoyed a day of culture and cake. Perfect.

In fact, the celebrations began last night when we went to FACT to see a UK preview of a superb Australian film, '52 Tuesdays' - the story of 16 year old Billie and her mother filmed in chronological order over 52 actual Tuesdays as Jane (the mother) makes the transition to become James, the man s/he truly wants to be. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Today, after breakfast in bed and lunch in town, we finally made it to see 'The Gang', the exhibition of Catherine Opie's photographs currently on show at the Walker Art Gallery. Amazing pictures which generated a lot of conversation. We followed this with a visit to the Planetarium to see a show about The Winter Night Sky - great stuff which will leave me scanning the heavens much more closely. Then, after a spot of afternoon tea, we headed over to Spokes' bookshop for a poetry reading by the lovely man you see before you. The legend that is Lach.

But first, some personal back-story…

My life as a serious music lover began at secondary school in the late ‘70s when, along with my beloved British bands, such as The Clash, I was enamoured of the great New York bands of the time – Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith Group, Ramones etc – all of whom formed the soundtrack to my early teen years. A couple of years later though, looking for something new, I picked up a copy of Anthony Scaduto’s 1971 Bob Dylan biography at the local library (remember libraries?) and my musical horizons expanded exponentially. I was still fascinated by the NY music scene but now it was less CBGB and more the early ‘60s Greenwich Village folk scene that captured my imagination.

It seems Lach was influenced by many of the same things as me but, unlike me, he was right there on the spot in New York carving out a niche as a writer and performer. Spurred into action by finding that the scene of his dreams no longer existed or had become a moribund parody of itself – unwelcoming to anyone with energy and ideas – he started his own scene on the Lower East Side, running his own clubs, open-mic nights and record label and galvanising other similarly inclined artists. The Anti-Folk movement was born and continues to have an enormous influence in both the US and UK.

Lach has now put out 6 albums, worked with luminaries such as Suzanne Vega and less universally heralded acts including The Moldy Peaches as well as recruiting Television’s renowned drummer Billy Ficca to play in his own band – which is pretty darn cool in my opinion!

Three years ago he moved from NY to Edinburgh where he continues to busy himself working with musicians, artists and performers of various kinds and is still organising club nights and events. He’s recently had two great series of ‘The Lach Chronicles’ aired on BBC Radio 4 and has just published his first slim volume of poetry The Thin Book of Poems .

Today was the first day of his tour to promote the book and his first ever public poetry reading. Suffice to say he was excellent! Having told him, pre-show, that it was my birthday he dedicated his first poem, ‘Birthday’, to me (I was suitably chuffed!) and when I bought his book after the reading he made sure that I got limited edition number 27 to mark my birth date. He’s an absolute delight of a man and it was a huge pleasure to meet him.

If you’re an Edinburgh Blipper do keep an eye out for him if you’re not already familiar with his oeuvre. I also urge everyone else to check him out if you can.

Thanks to Spokes for a wonderful day and to Lach for being the icing on my birthday cake.