Swallows

In Saint Michael and All Angels Church, Taddington, Derbyshire, UK.

Synthesiser And NEo-Tantric Oscillating Nostrum

The S.A.N.T.O.N.

· Lulls you into an untroubled frame of mind
 · Helps clear the head
· Comforts and soothes after a stressful day

Whether you’re panicking about an interview, dreading a visit to the dentist, of distracted by family problems, everyone reacts to stressful events in their life.

 The S.A.N.T.O.N. is intended to mimic the effect of your illness, so encouraging the body into greater defense efforts.

 Sometimes at the start of treatment you may find your symptoms actually get slightly worse. This is common and it’s a sign that your body’s starting to heal itself. However, if symptoms persist you should consult your GP. T

These therapeutic sounds were recorded by direct line input on 15 August 2015 in a haven of peace and tranquility close by the A390 in Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

Monstermind: The magical life and art of Tony "Doc" Shiels

Monstermind by Rupert White is packed with rare photos, a well-researched tale of the magical life and art of Tony “Doc” Shiels, surrealist, magician and creator of folklore.

From Doc’s involvement  in the ‘50s St Ives art scene– then the hippest happening place in the world for abstract art - to being barred from St Ives pubs for being a beatnik (I  know how it feels, I was there a decade or so later), being banged up in St Ives nick for barmy behaviour  (likewise), and onto  increasingly surrealistic monster-raising stunts...
Check out how Doc conjures up Morgawr, the Falmouth sea serpent, (or was it a sea-slug?), the Ponsanooth Fairy Photos, the Owlman of Mawnan.

Many other curious entertainments feature in the book.

In the mid-70s Shiels and his family became known in tabloid newspapers as “The weirdest family in the land”.

As it says on the cover, “Shiels used skills learnt as an artist to manipulate the public in a brazen and audacious display of theatrical, imaginative daring. In the process he left an indefinable but not insignificant magical and artistic legacy”.

 All these years after the two sevens clashed, I’m not sure what rates as the magical highlight of 1977, was it the situ-shamanism of the New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, was it the Hammer House of Windsor’s Jubilee itself, or was it was it Doc Shiels’ manifestation of the Loch Ness Monster?

Monstermind offers a welcome antidote to the horrid occult practices of the likes of Aleister Campbell and may help those of you still suffering from the theeee goth hangover onto the road to recovery…

A cracking read.
Doc's paintings rock.
Also, there's some very good  bits in here where Rupert contextualises Doc's practice in terms of developments in dematerialised art.

Now I want the big glossy coffee table-sized monograph. 

 (Will somebody publish one, please?)


Nnid Nid!!!

Monstermind: The Magical Life and Art of Tony 'Doc' Shiels:
Paperback: 157 pages
Publisher: Antenna Publications; First edition (1 Feb. 2015)
 ISBN-10: 0993216412
ISBN-13: 978-0993216411
Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monstermind-Magical-Life-Tony-Shiels/dp/0993216412


 

A Lifetime of Resistence: Interview at Quietus

Amelia Phillips came down to Cornwall and did an interview with me, you can find it at 
http://thequietus.com/articles/18434-nigel-ayers-interview

Peter's Stone

Peter's Stone is a mass of limestone which has slipped downhill on a clay layer in Cressbrook Dale.  Once called the Gibbet Stone as the bodies of executed criminals were displayed there. In ancient Greek, a rock was called "petros"; the Bible claims that Jesus called his disciple Simon "The Rock" or literally "Peter" in Greek. It is likely that the change from "Gibbet" to "Peter's" Stone is an example of the 19th century effort to erase barbaric or rude place names when guide books and ordnance maps were compiled. In this case the result is to call the site in effect "stone stone" but to link it to the New Testament.

Information from http://www.peakscan.freeuk.com/faq_s___peak_district.htm
 
Video footage by Nigel Ayers, 1989,

Music from Nocturnal Emissions "Spiritflesh"

Desiring machine - work in progress

Desiring- machines "work only when they break down, and by continually breaking down"