Latest news with #SavoyHotel
The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Masterpiece' - Scot blew the door of psychedelic revolution wide open
The Glasgow-born troubadour, whose mission was, in his own words, 'to bring poetic vision to popular music', began to make his name when, as yet unsigned, he appeared on the television show Ready Steady Go! in January 1965. On March 12 he sang his debut single, Catch the Wind, on TV, impressing a certain Little Steve Wonder, who was in the audience. The song zipped into the charts at number four, and continuing exposure on television and radio helped ensure that 'my name, my face and my music were in every home in Britain'. America beckoned, and he found himself on the Ed Sullivan Show – the same show that had broken the Beatles in the USA, less than a year earlier. His refusal not to join the rest of the performers for a final bow at the end brought him to the attention of industry heavyweight Allen Klein, who rang the renowned record producer, Mickie Most, and recommended Donovan to him. Donovan also toured Britain, where he was linked in the public mind with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, the rising stars of folk music. A second single, Colours, reached the same chart position as Catch the Wind. His debut album, What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, was released in May, a few days after his 19th birthday; it peaked at number three in the charts. Such sudden fame did not come without its critics, however. Some in the music press had sniped that Donovan was but a pale imitation of Dylan, but after Donovan had met Dylan in his room at London's Savoy Hotel, the American told Melody Maker: 'He played some songs to me. I like him. He's a nice guy'. So ended, the magazine reported, 'one of the biggest controversies that has ever split the British music scene'. One Savoy encounter, incidentally, was immortalised by D.A. Pennebaker for Dont Look Back, his documentary about Dylan's 1965 British tour; Donovan borrowed Dylan's guitar to play a song, To Sing for You; Dylan responded with It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. Little could impede Donovan's rise. He played the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (the one in which Dylan famously 'went electric') and was feted in the States. He was friends with the Beatles (below), the Byrds and PJ Proby, was introduced to Paul Simon, had chart success with an EP featuring Buffy Saint-Marie's Universal Soldier, and took his first LSD trip. He had fallen in love, too, with a woman, Linda Lawrence, the former girlfriend of the Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones, and mother to his son Julian. The Beatles appeared on the same showA second Donovan album, Fairytale, was released in October 1965. It contained some of his finest songs: Colours, Sunny Goodge Street and Ballad of a Crystal Man, and a cover of Oh Deed I Do, the work of his fellow Scot, the brilliant pioneering guitarist, Bert Jansch. In his memoir Donovan refers to the 'new way of seeing' that he was industriously developing at that time. He cites the lyrics to the jazz-fusion track, Sunny Goodge Street: 'I was describing the sub-culture emerging from the underground and the elusive search for the self. Two years before the beginning of 'Flower Power' and before the Beatles used the same refrain' he was singing … 'I tell you his name is/ Love, love, love''. He also records that he 'felt the need to introduce key spiritual ideas' . [The album] set the scene for my performance as a 'Bard' who would present a way of seeing the wonder of the natural world. I was mocked as a simpleton, when I sang of birds and bees and flowers like a child. Indeed, I was keeping the 'wonder eye' open - just like a child'. Among the many budding musicians who bought and loved Fairytale, here or in the States, was a young man in Indiana named John Mellencamp. The year 1965 had not quite finished with Donovan: in December, at Abbey Road studios, he began work on his 'experimental' third album, Sunshine Superman, with producer Mickie Most and the noted arranger John Cameron. Most, Donovan writes, 'realised I was hearing sounds which came from many sources: classical, jazz, ethnic, medieval minstrelsy, and he saw the potential for a veritable new fusion of music, a 'world music' sound, before this term was thought of'. Read more The album itself was a clever blend of folk music and some of the first psychedelia to ever be committed to vinyl. Musicians such as the double bass player Danny Thompson guested on the album. Shawn Phillips, a Texan musician, contributed sitar. By this time, Donovan's relationship with Linda, who was living thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, was looking uncertain. The title track (on which Jimmy Page, then a session guitarist, played) was the first song to emerge from his oppressive fog of sorrow. When Most heard it in the studio, he instinctively knew that it would be a hit single. He was right: it went to number two in the charts towards the end of 1966. The second track, Legend of a Girl Child Linda, saw Donovan finger-picking his acoustic guitar in front of an orchestra. 'We certainly broke the mould of pop music – and folk music, for that matter', he recalls in Hurdy Gurdy Man. '…There were no songs like mine to compare with. It was all new directions, uncharted seas'. Donovan continued to write songs for the new album in the new year of 1966. Linda appeared in most of the songs on one guise or another, including the gorgeous track, Celeste. Its aching lyric, Donovan notes, said he was disillusioned with everything. One striking line – 'I intend to come right through them all with you' – was in one respect about the changes his generation was encountering but at a deeper level was a song to Linda. In February he enjoyed another turning-point in his career when he headlined at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall, accompanied by Phillips on sitar and 12-string guitar. It was the first time that a Western pop audience had witnessed the former instrument on a stage. Donovan writes entertainingly of his adventures in the States that year as he finished work on the new album in LA. 'This much I knew then: I was making the music and writing the songs which reflected the emerging consciousness of my generation. I was here to do this … I felt the spirit move within me. I knew that this album would be my masterpiece'. When the album was released in the States in September, the LA Times's Pete Johnson said: 'Donovan, a very talented, if unearthly, writer and singer of folk songs, croons 10 songs to form an album follow-up to his very popular single record, 'Sunshine Superman'. The LP does not fulfill the promise of his single, but it supplies a good measure of his soft understated singing of the medieval-modern, dream-reality mystical imagery. 'The best tracks', Johnson added, 'are 'Sunshine Superman', 'The Trip', 'Season of the Witch', 'Legend of a Girl Child Linda' and 'The Fat Angel'. Like many other singers, Donovan has fallen under the spell of Indian music, which provides structure for most of his non-rock songs'. For business-related reasons the album did not go on sale in the UK until June 1967. It reached 25 in the album charts, someway short of the exalted number-one status it enjoyed in many countries across the world. Melody Maker wrote that "every number has a mood, an atmosphere, a current along which the perceptive listener can float. Donovan glides playing beautiful guitar and singing his songs like they should be sung - with love'. Much lay ahead of Donovan, including a sold-out January 1967 headline appearance at at the Royal Albert Hall, his continuing involvement with the Beatles, his lasting popularity in the States and elsewhere, his 1968 masterwork – the double album box-set, Gift From a Flower to a Garden – and bestselling singles such as Mellow Yellow, Jennifer Juniper and Hurdy Gurdy Man. In a recent interview with Mojo magazine, John Cameron, Donovan's arranger and collaborator, reflected: 'The amount of work we did between '66 and '70 was phenomenal, we had a string section that rode motorbikes. They'd be on Yamahas with their Strads [violins] strapped to their backs, going from studio to studio. It was the only way they'd get from one to the other on time'. Donovan himself reconnected with Linda, and they were married in October 1970. Having done everything he had wanted to do, he then took a decisive step back from the industry. New records followed, but his time in the cultural spotlight was over. Read more On the Record Interviewed by Mojo magazine's Sylvie Simmons in 1996, to promote his 'comeback' album, Sutras, which was produced by Rick Rubin, Donovan explained: "If I can do a thumbnail sketch of 20 years, around about 1970 I had achieved everything I could have possibly dreamed of and much more. "Having been at the top of the ladder, there was nowhere else to go. So I walked onto a British Airways jet in Tokyo and out of a tax plan called a drop-out year where I was going to earn more millions of dollars than any young solo artist of his time. It had ended. I didn't burn out, I wasn't a drug addict, but I was wounded in some way, and I came home to my cottage in England.... I married Linda, my great love and teenage muse — four years of '60s madness had kept us apart — and I walked away from fame, the Rolls Royce, the yacht, the mansion. "We went to Joshua Tree in the California desert for much of the '70s and brought up the children up as an alternative family... But something was happening while I wasn't watching. In the '80s, things were getting very dark, the earth was wounded, and I felt dispirited. In '83 I stopped making records completely, I had a personal crisis, musical crisis, and Linda saw me through it. I came out around 1990. "A new impulse got me... I'd gone into the studio and started recording these song ideas... Rick Rubin had been in the studio with Tom Petty, who was playing one of my songs. Rick says, 'I love Donovan, I've always wanted to record him'. Tom says, 'Why don't you phone him up?'. So he did. We met and we found similarities extraordinarily alike." Speaking to Record Collector magazine in January 2024, he said: 'When I started singing, the message was in the song. The revolution was on. The important part was giving young people a shock in that there were different things to talk about in songs, other than, 'I love you, why'd you make me blue?' This was important' In the same interview he noted: 'I think my songwriting was very influential. Breaking all the rules and experimenting in the studio was encouraging to others'. Things came full circle in a way in 2102, when Donovan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by none other than John Mellencamp. Donovan was introduced as the man who "blew the door of the psychedelic revolution wide open". Recalling the first time he had bought a Donovan album, in 1965, Mellencamp told the audience: 'I was in the seventh grade, and back then we waited for every record and I waited for every album to come out so that I could learn to play those songs. I wasn't just listening to Donovan, I was living Donovan. I was stealing all the s— from Donovan'. A few moments later, to applause and cheers, he held up his original, much-played copy of Donovan's second album, Fairytale. The word 'Mellencamp' was etched in ink along the top of the cover. 'See how it says Mellencamp?' he said. 'In Indiana, we used to use these things like money. If you didn't have any money, you would sell this for a dollar and a half or trade it for two Led Zeppelin records and then they'd trade it back. You always wanted to keep track of your stuff. That's why I have my name all over it'. * Donovan is marking his 60th year as a recording artist with a week of events in Paris between June 1 and 7. Website:
Edinburgh Live
25-05-2025
- General
- Edinburgh Live
Queen's favourite sandwich she had 'for every afternoon tea' since she was a girl
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Queen Elizabeth II, known for her consistency, particularly relished her afternoon tea, a ritual she devoutly maintained irrespective of her location worldwide. The late Queen's itinerant Royal obligations saw her traversing the globe, where an ensemble of skilled personal chefs ensured her daily culinary needs were met; yet, for her favourite tea-time sandwich, an insider has disclosed that from childhood, Her Majesty consistently favoured a rather straightforward option. Typically, the late monarch and Royal Family partake in their afternoon tea within a window of 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm, indulging in an array of savoury items alongside sweet pleasures such as her beloved chocolate biscuit cake. READ MORE -Kate Middleton's brilliant response after being mistaken for William's assistant READ MORE -Kate Middleton's 'very strict' rule for her children 'just as important as maths' Darren McGrady, a former Royal chef who spent 15 years preparing meals for the Royals and trained at London's prestigious Savoy Hotel, once shared insights into the Queen's preferred sandwich. Marking the reinvigoration of Buckingham Palace garden parties, McGrady recounted in a YouTube video how jam pennies became one of the queen's cherished afternoon delights, reports the Mirror. His words were clear: "The Queen was served jam pennies in the nursery as a little girl. She's had them for afternoon tea ever since. It's simple: just bread and jam with a little butter-usually strawberry jam. We'd make the jam at Balmoral Castle with the gorgeous Scottish strawberries from the gardens." For those unable to access the poll, a link is provided here. Former Royal chef Owen Hodgson disclosed that the late Queen was quite partial to a tuna mayonnaise sandwich, appreciating it well buttered with delicate cucumber slices and a dash of pepper. Her afternoon tea rituals were renowned, indeed no high tea would be complete without the classic scones, which she savoured using the Cornish tradition of jam first, followed by cream. McGrady, another former Royal culinary expert, reflected: "She'd always have afternoon tea wherever she was in the world. We'd flown out to Australia and were on the Royal Yacht. It was five o'clock in the morning, but for the Queen, it was five in the afternoon, so my first job was making scones." Adding to his memories, he shared: "When I started as a young chef at Buckingham Palace, it was fascinating to see how important afternoon tea was to the Queen." He detailed her enjoyment of "full afternoon tea of sandwiches and pastries". Notably, he mentioned the variety in her scone preference: "In terms of scones - one day plain and one day with raisins folded through," alongside "Also, tiny pastries like raspberry tartlets and a cut cake, honey and cream sponge, fruit cake, banana bread, or her favourite chocolate biscuit cake. It would all be 'washed down with a delightful steaming hot cup of Earl Grey tea.", all accompanied by "Also, tiny pastries like raspberry tartlets and a cut cake, honey and cream sponge, fruit cake, banana bread, or her favourite chocolate biscuit cake. It would all be 'washed down with a delightful steaming hot cup of Earl Grey tea."
Daily Mirror
24-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Queen's favourite sandwich she had ‘for every afternoon tea' since childhood
When it came to enjoying her daily afternoon tea, the late Queen Elizabeth had one particular favourite sandwich that she always tucked into - and it's a surprisingly simple one The late Queen Elizabeth was a creature of habit, especially when it came to enjoying her afternoon tea. The former monarch never missed afternoon tea, no matter what she was doing or where she was in the world. Her duties took her all over the globe, and she had a host of talented private chefs ready to cater for her every day, but when it came to her preferred sandwich—an insider has revealed—there was one surprisingly simple choice that she always opted for since childhood. Generally, the late monarch and the rest of the Royal Family enjoy their afternoon tea between 3.30 pm and 5.30 pm. This regal spread tends to feature a range of savoury snacks and delicious sweet treats, including her favourite chocolate biscuit cake. Former royal chef Darren McGrady worked for the Royal Family for 15 years, receiving his formal training at the Savoy Hotel in London. He previously revealed the Queen's favourite sandwich. In one YouTube video to mark the return of garden parties at Buckingham Palace, McGrady revealed that one of The Queen's favourite afternoon treats was jam pennies. He said, "The Queen was served jam pennies in the nursery as a little girl. She's had them for afternoon tea ever since. It's simple: just bread and jam with a little butter—usually strawberry jam. We'd make the jam at Balmoral Castle with the gorgeous Scottish strawberries from the gardens." If you can't see the poll, click here According to another former royal chef, Owen Hodgson, the Queen was also fond of a simple tuna mayonnaise sandwich. She reportedly liked her sarnie well buttered and served with thin slices of cucumber and a sprinkle of pepper. While the late monarch enjoyed a few other treats with her afternoon tea, the whole affair would certainly not have been complete without some scones. She also followed the traditional Cornish method when eating her scones, spreading the jam on first before adding a dollop of cream. McGrady previously said: "She'd always have afternoon tea wherever she was in the world. We'd flown out to Australia and were on the Royal Yacht. It was five o'clock in the morning, but for the Queen, it was five in the afternoon, so my first job was making scones." In another interview, he added: "When I started as a young chef at Buckingham Palace, it was fascinating to see how important afternoon tea was to the Queen." He revealed that she enjoyed a "full afternoon tea of sandwiches and pastries". "In terms of scones - one day plain and one day with raisins folded through," he said. "Also, tiny pastries like raspberry tartlets and a cut cake, honey and cream sponge, fruit cake, banana bread, or her favourite chocolate biscuit cake. It would all be 'washed down with a delightful steaming hot cup of Earl Grey tea." Get Royal Family updates straight to your WhatsApp! As the royals get back to their normal duties after a difficult year, the Mirror has launched its very own Royal WhatsApp community where you'll get all the latest news on the UK's most famous family. We'll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Economic Times
10-05-2025
- General
- Economic Times
Story of London's last ‘Fart Lamp': How the English capital once lit its streets with sewage
Behind London's luxurious Savoy Hotel burns a bizarre piece of Victorian innovation—the city's last 'fart lamp.' This sewer-powered streetlamp once used human waste to light the streets and ventilate toxic gases. Ingenious, grim, and oddly green, it's a relic of a time when necessity turned filth into flame. Discover how London once lit its nights from below. Tucked away behind London's Savoy Hotel stands the city's last surviving 'fart lamp'—a Victorian marvel that turned sewer gas into streetlight. Fueled by methane from human waste, these lamps once lit the city while ventilating dangerous fumes. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A Flame Above, A Sewer Below Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Forgotten Network of Foul Flames Design of London's gas lamp designed by Webb. The Lamp That Refused to Die From Gaslight to Ghost Light Down a discreet alley just behind the opulent Savoy Hotel, where celebrities sip cocktails and guests enjoy five-star comfort, stands a solitary streetlamp with a surprisingly stinky past. This unassuming lamp on Carting Lane—cheekily nicknamed Farting Lane by some—is no ordinary light source. It is the last of its kind in London: a Webb Patent Sewer Gas Lamp , a piece of Victorian-era ingenuity designed to turn the city's waste into fire and it may sound like satire from a Dickensian novel, this lamp truly was powered in part by the methane gas rising from London's extensive sewer system. Its purpose was twofold: not just to illuminate the streets, but also to siphon off and burn the foul gases festering below the surface—gases that were once feared to cause both disease and deadly in the 1890s by Birmingham engineer Joseph Edmund Webb, these lamps were as much about public health as public light. Cities were growing, sewage systems were expanding, and so too were the smells and hazards. Webb's innovation offered a uniquely efficient solution: let the waste light the how it worked: A small dome-shaped chamber within the sewer system collected methane and other combustible gases produced by organic waste. These gases were piped into the lamp above street level, where a constant flame helped draw them up and burn them off. The flame, however, wasn't entirely dependent on sewer gas. The lamps were 'dual-powered,' using municipal gas supplies to maintain a heat of around 700 degrees Fahrenheit. This intense heat created an upward draft, ventilating up to three-quarters of a mile of sewer short, Londoners didn't just walk past pretty gas lamps—they unknowingly passed a safety mechanism, a silent guardian against sewer explosions, and a rather poetic symbol of waste turned into their peak, these lamps dotted areas like Westminster, Hampstead, and Shoreditch. Unfortunately, a fire at the Webb Lamp Company in 1925 destroyed most production records, so no one knows exactly how many were installed across London and beyond. But they were once common enough to light entire neighborhoods—and even cities hospitals, including the famed London Hospital in Whitechapel, installed them to ventilate post-mortem rooms and septic tanks. In other towns, they stood along public walkways, quietly burning off the gasses that would otherwise bubble ominously beneath Victorian use wasn't limited to Britain either. These peculiar devices found homes in Canada, where engineers adapted them for harsh winters by adding internal burners to prevent freezing. In towns like Sheffield and Durham, a few remain functional, still silently serving their original the lone survivor in central London—tucked away on Carting Lane—has endured quite the journey. Years ago, it was knocked over by a reversing lorry. Thankfully, engineers from Thames Gas stepped in to restore it, and Westminster Council placed it under protection. It now stands proudly once more, a marvel of forgotten engineering in one of the city's most elite adds to the poetry is the knowledge that guests at the Savoy Hotel, some of the most pampered visitors in the capital, are unknowingly contributing to the flame above with every rise of electric lighting and modern sewer ventilation eventually rendered these lamps obsolete. Many were dismantled, destroyed, or simply forgotten as the city modernized. Yet their legacy lingers—quietly burning in scattered corners of the UK, quietly celebrated by those who know where to a world where green energy and recycling are buzzwords of the future, London's sewer gas lamps seem oddly prophetic—Victorian sustainability before the term even existed. They remind us that even in the filthiest places, light can find a way.
Time of India
10-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Story of London's last ‘Fart Lamp': How the English capital once lit its streets with sewage
Behind London's luxurious Savoy Hotel burns a bizarre piece of Victorian innovation—the city's last 'fart lamp.' This sewer-powered streetlamp once used human waste to light the streets and ventilate toxic gases. Ingenious, grim, and oddly green, it's a relic of a time when necessity turned filth into flame. Discover how London once lit its nights from below. Tucked away behind London's Savoy Hotel stands the city's last surviving 'fart lamp'—a Victorian marvel that turned sewer gas into streetlight. Fueled by methane from human waste, these lamps once lit the city while ventilating dangerous fumes. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A Flame Above, A Sewer Below Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Forgotten Network of Foul Flames Design of London's gas lamp designed by Webb. The Lamp That Refused to Die From Gaslight to Ghost Light Down a discreet alley just behind the opulent Savoy Hotel, where celebrities sip cocktails and guests enjoy five-star comfort, stands a solitary streetlamp with a surprisingly stinky past. This unassuming lamp on Carting Lane—cheekily nicknamed Farting Lane by some—is no ordinary light source. It is the last of its kind in London: a Webb Patent Sewer Gas Lamp , a piece of Victorian-era ingenuity designed to turn the city's waste into fire and it may sound like satire from a Dickensian novel, this lamp truly was powered in part by the methane gas rising from London's extensive sewer system. Its purpose was twofold: not just to illuminate the streets, but also to siphon off and burn the foul gases festering below the surface—gases that were once feared to cause both disease and deadly in the 1890s by Birmingham engineer Joseph Edmund Webb, these lamps were as much about public health as public light. Cities were growing, sewage systems were expanding, and so too were the smells and hazards. Webb's innovation offered a uniquely efficient solution: let the waste light the how it worked: A small dome-shaped chamber within the sewer system collected methane and other combustible gases produced by organic waste. These gases were piped into the lamp above street level, where a constant flame helped draw them up and burn them off. The flame, however, wasn't entirely dependent on sewer gas. The lamps were 'dual-powered,' using municipal gas supplies to maintain a heat of around 700 degrees Fahrenheit. This intense heat created an upward draft, ventilating up to three-quarters of a mile of sewer short, Londoners didn't just walk past pretty gas lamps—they unknowingly passed a safety mechanism, a silent guardian against sewer explosions, and a rather poetic symbol of waste turned into their peak, these lamps dotted areas like Westminster, Hampstead, and Shoreditch. Unfortunately, a fire at the Webb Lamp Company in 1925 destroyed most production records, so no one knows exactly how many were installed across London and beyond. But they were once common enough to light entire neighborhoods—and even cities hospitals, including the famed London Hospital in Whitechapel, installed them to ventilate post-mortem rooms and septic tanks. In other towns, they stood along public walkways, quietly burning off the gasses that would otherwise bubble ominously beneath Victorian use wasn't limited to Britain either. These peculiar devices found homes in Canada, where engineers adapted them for harsh winters by adding internal burners to prevent freezing. In towns like Sheffield and Durham, a few remain functional, still silently serving their original the lone survivor in central London—tucked away on Carting Lane—has endured quite the journey. Years ago, it was knocked over by a reversing lorry. Thankfully, engineers from Thames Gas stepped in to restore it, and Westminster Council placed it under protection. It now stands proudly once more, a marvel of forgotten engineering in one of the city's most elite adds to the poetry is the knowledge that guests at the Savoy Hotel, some of the most pampered visitors in the capital, are unknowingly contributing to the flame above with every rise of electric lighting and modern sewer ventilation eventually rendered these lamps obsolete. Many were dismantled, destroyed, or simply forgotten as the city modernized. Yet their legacy lingers—quietly burning in scattered corners of the UK, quietly celebrated by those who know where to a world where green energy and recycling are buzzwords of the future, London's sewer gas lamps seem oddly prophetic—Victorian sustainability before the term even existed. They remind us that even in the filthiest places, light can find a way.
