Ivor Cutler at 102: Scottish North Londoner
Ivor Cutler was born on 15th January 1923 and died on 6th March 2006 aged 83.
Some will know him from his appearance in the Beatles 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour, others may recall sessions on the John Peel show perhaps particularly his Life in Scottish Sitting Room.
Cutler was in one sense quintessentially Scottish, albeit he exaggerated this in his public persona but in reality he was a North Londoner. He lived in Gospel Oak in what is now the Parliamentary Constituency represented by the Labour leader (do not expect to see Starmer’s tweet on the anniversary).
I never met Cutler in person but heard him perform quite often and even more frequently saw him cycling in North London, dressed somewhat eccentrically for many parts of the country, but perfectly normal for Camden Town.
His Harmonium and slow measured delivery of words that were often both amusing and sometimes perplexing was a perfect North London dialectic, Scottish though Cutler was.
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