The good ship Stargazer on Newport Quay
(the Jubilee Stores where Vic works behind all the boats)
The good ship Stargazer on Newport Quay
(the Jubilee Stores where Vic works behind all the boats)
Stargazer - Where is Shelagh McDonald?
Picture Vic King, words Mike Plumbley
Vic King just happens to work in the old Jubilee Stores on Newport Quay where my grandad once plied ships from as an oil can engineer with no qualifications but an ear for the sound of an engine. Wandering about on the Quay one day this summer Vic with his trusty camera caught a picture of a boat called Stargazer.
Stargazer is the title track of Shelagh McDonald's second B&C album released and then pretty much forgotten in the early 1970s. Vic had the chance to replace his worn vinyl copy this year when the said album was released on CD. We now hear that the first Shelagh McDonald album The Shelagh McDonald Album is now released on CD. Mine was lost in the mists of time but thankfully we've relied on Vic's worn vinyl till now.
What has this got to do with the Isle of Wight you are asking. Plenty says I. Here's a long and convulated take on it all:
Shelagh McDonald played the Sloop Inn, Folk Club in Wootton a couple of times as did other unknowns like Billy Connolly (why even Jackson C. Frank 'Blues Run The Game', played the Anglesea in the Ryde).
The first Shelagh McDonald album features an Andy Roberts song called Richmond. Richmond is about Eel Pie Island, 'Jeff and the Tridents' in the song being Jeff Beck. Two well known Island musicians the late and great Tom Taylor and Cliff Maidment were in at the start of Eel Pie Island in the fifties helping Arthur Snapper who turned the place into a rock'n'roll legend.
In one of Isle of Wight Rock's first interviews for the now out of print book Vic King and I asked Vivian Stanshall the late and very great English eccentric and Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band leader if he could put us in touch with Andy Roberts as he'd played the 1969 Wootton Festival with Liverpool Scene. Vivian Stanshall picked up the phone and left a message on Andy Robert's answermachine:
'Hello Andy, you wee incubus. There's a couple of people here from the Isle of Wight. They luuuuuuuuvvve your song Richmond very much, old fruit.'
About a month later I went up to interview Andy Roberts about his Isle of Wight festival performance Andy has a line in his song Homegrown which relates to that day when Dylan played on the Island 'KC won't you sing that song, fill my mind with peace. Trace the words along again about I Shall Be Released.' (KC was a long legged blonde in a backing band called the Thunder Thighs . . .) Andy Robert's excellent Nina and Dream Tree Sequence album was also released on B&C Records with Shelagh McDonalds Stargazer album. Andy Roberts plays on the first Shelagh McDonald album too. Definitely one of the great songwriters and performers, his song Moths and Lizards in Detroit is a great favourite around here.
I digress, neither Andy Robert's or anyone we have spoken to knows what happened to Shelagh McDonald. It's said she worked in a bookshop in Edinburgh for a time and it was also rumoured that she went to America. All leads seem to draw a blank. But the albums remain and they are excellent. Nick Drake's friend and collaborator Robert Kirby does the strings on the first album.
A while back Geoff Owen contacted us after a search engine found a reference to Shelagh McDonald on our website. It was just me shooting the breeze about being at Vic's. Often under the jet black, starless and Bible black skies, as Dylan Thomas might say of Laugharne, it is truly dark there, as is Niton and Olema, Marin County (see the Youngbloods in Olema at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater) and when it gets to Winter nights in Niton and the night sky is jet black and clustered with stars Vic will put the coco on and then load up the record player with Nick Drake or Shelagh McDonald. McDonald's Stargazer song is perfect for stardancing (couldn't resist the Tom Rapp reference).
Anyway Geoff's been in touch again recently still trying to track Shelagh McDonald down. We'd love to know where she is too, just to say thanks for making Niton skies at night so damn perfect.
Mike Plumbley
Geoff has a website where he keeps track of stuff on Shelagh McDonald including the latest news that the first Shelagh McDonald album is being released on CD. Put the coco on Vic I'll be out . . .