Peter Irvine is a modern Scottish polymath who is conscious of the many rabbit holes interviewers can lose themselves in when piecing together his extraordinary life.
asserted
interviewers → lose → life
Now there is a new string to an already well-stretched bow: he has written a novel.
asserted
he → be → novel
Before submitting to any of my questions on the genesis of his new project he wonders if he might share some background notes he has jotted down to answer them.
uncertain
he → submit → them
So he begins reading aloud: ‘It is said life is a journey.
asserted
life → begin → ?
I see mine as an actual journey, travelling far and wide, propelled by an insatiable curiosity, almost a compulsion, to be in the right place at the right time.
asserted
I → see → time
And then we are off, hurtling through the decades and across the globe.
asserted
we → hurtle → globe
Over the next 20 minutes, stories and vignettes pour out of him – all curated from his quest to stand in the eye of the countercultural hurricane wherever it was moving next.
asserted
it → pour → hurricane
In an early adventure the unworldly Edinburgh University student from Jedburgh in the Borders hitchhikes to London.
asserted
student → hitchhike → London
Peter Irvine has written many books but this is his first work of fiction
He goes to a nightclub, takes drugs and finds himself climbing through a window into a squat occupied by members of two underground bands, The Pretty Things and The Social Deviants.
asserted
himself → write → bands
He is back in London in the summer of 1969 to see the Rolling Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park two days after the death of their founding member Brian Jones.
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He → see → member
The following year he pays £1 for entry and free farm milk at the first Glastonbury festival.
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he → pay → festival
Only 1,500 attended.
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1,500 → attend → ?
Some sixth sense told Irvine he had to be there.
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he → tell → Irvine
‘I just had a nose for it, and always have,’ he says.
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he → have → it
This nose takes him to San Francisco for hippie gatherings involving bands such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
asserted
nose → take → Airplane
‘I got the “call” and I had to go to San Francisco.
asserted
I → get → Francisco
I met a guy at Edinburgh University, he was the only interesting guy there at the time … and this guy did wear flowers in his hair, and he came to classes with his bare feet and a kaftan.
asserted
he → meet → feet
It was an incredible time, and I just had to go there.’
asserted
I → have → ?
In the next breath he is ‘bumming around’ Asia and the hippie trail, taking in Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Thailand, crossing Cambodia on a motorbike, spending two summers in Ibiza, exploring temples in Central America and hitchhiking his way across the US four times.
asserted
he → bum → US
At the conclusion of one of those journeys, he joins a commune in Oregon.
asserted
he → join → Oregon
‘We were called The Children of Mu.
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We → call → Mu
My job was to squeeze the apples into apple juice because I didn’t want to work with the goats …
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I → squeeze → goats
I’ve hated goats ever since.’
asserted
I → hat → goats
A short while after Irvine left, a Californian teenager called Steve Jobs arrived in the commune.
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teenager → leave → commune
He preferred the apples too.
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He → prefer → apples
He named a tech empire after them.
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He → name → them
You wonder if this is the time to interject with your first question about Irvine’s novel, Crossing The Sound – a story about music and restless spirits – but it is not.
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it → wonder → music
By the mid-70s the wandering hippie has returned to Edinburgh and is sensing the arrival of a new hurricane – punk.
asserted
hippie → wander → hurricane
He and business partner Barry Wright approach the venue and ask if they can put on live music there on Monday nights.
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they → approach → nights
Incredibly, Scotland’s Central Belt was then a virtual wasteland for the happening bands of the day.
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Belt → happen → day
There were actually no real venues for bands and we latched on to the agents, we got to know the bands and the managers and we had a kind of open territory.
‘Nobody else was doing it.
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Nobody → be → it
We were the only people in the game, so it became the Scottish date.’
asserted
it → become → game
An endless stream of punk and punk-inspired bands now beat a path north: Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Adam and the Ants, The Police … and Irvine speaks their language.
asserted
Irvine → inspire → language
Peter Irvine worked with many legendary bands, including Simple Minds
Irvine also helped bring U2 to Scotland in the 1980s
Now operating as Regular Music, the partners open a venue called The Nite Club in an upstairs room at the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1980 and paint it black.
asserted
partners → work → it
It holds just 250 people but they witness blistering performances in the early lives of two of the biggest bands of that decade – Simple Minds and U2.
asserted
they → hold → decade
‘We were then able to go with that connection and, on their coattails, almost, to arenas and stadiums.’
asserted
We → go → arenas
Over in Glasgow, Regular Music help bring the Barrowland Ballroom back from the dead, rebranding it as a live music venue.
asserted
Music → help → venue
When the SECC opens in the city in 1985 they become the key players in breaking the massive warehouse-style building into the touring circuit.
asserted
they → open → circuit
The following year they break into stadium rock with their old friends Simple Minds – a band they had known since Tiffany’s days – headlining at Ibrox.
asserted
they → break → Ibrox
In 1987, U2, then the biggest band in the world as they toured their Joshua Tree album, play Murrayfield.
asserted
they → tour → Murrayfield
…and 68 more, not listed.
The Aporia
