Dan Morelle

‘We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.’
Marshall McLuhan

At a North East London health centre some devilishly good illustration is hanging on the walls. A great charity called The Nightingale Project unveiled Quentin Blakes latest work. The charities objective is to brighten the dreary and depressing world of hospitals, with Quentins help and some bloody great big printing machines they have acheived just that.

Huge blow-ups of scenes from Planet Zog adorn the walls and Monsieur Blake was there to present his wonderful works.

The alien world of ‘Planet Zog’ is intended to warm the reflection of the world of the institution to the child. The vivid colours combined with the subtle details and minimal pen-strokes evoked smiles from everyone who cast their eyes on Zog.

Nick Rhodes the director of the Nightingale Project kindly took me on a private tour of the illustrations. There are no plans to publish them so unless you are a patient or staff at the centre its unlikely that you will get an opportunity to see the rest - so thats why I took all of these photos!

All the pictures are all hung at adult eye-level. I am sure the staff will absorb the good vibes. They just need a few steps for kids to climb up in to Planet Zog too.

Its a brilliant idea, more art in hospitals but I was told that convincing health-care trusts to put a line in their budget for art when its continually being stripped back is an uphill battle. Arts Council England should be throwing money at this!

There’s a great article about some other work Quentin did for the Nightingale Project at the BBC’s website here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6216758.stm

This morning I heard that Quentin Blake was giving a lecture at the Institute of Education in London about 125 miles away and I decided instantly that I had to be there.

My new friend, Drew Anderson (Millions of Hundred Dollar Ideas) is opening a gallery to sell 1 x 1 inch pieces of art in his hometown of Portland, Oregon (USA). He is pimping his sketchbook (at http://www.buymysketchbook.com/) to raise funds to fit out the gallery. Yesterday I decided to help him by working on my own sketch book and donating it for auction.

So this evening I found myself at the Institute, near Russell Square in London.

At the end of the engaging and educational lecture I humbly joined the que for autographs. I read Quentin Blake’s pictures as a child and read them now with my children - Roly Poly Birds, Vermicious Knids - the whole kit and caboodle. Quentin was wearing very cool white shoes, I was amazed how clean they were and complimented him on them. A real dude!

I didn’t have a book for him to sign (most people had a Roald Dahl one of some form or other) but asked for a doodle for my Moleskine - he was happy for me to offer it to Drew’s cause.

Here it is. Its a beautiful picture. One of a kind. And I am giving it away! There are 99 pages left in the book for me to fill and I have a ridiculously high standard to reach. Maybe I will just give it to Drew as it is…

‘In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes’
Andy Warhol

Well this is the future. Every one in the world can get at least 1 second of fame (if that floats your boat).

The world is so small.

Following on in the series of re-publishing interviews I did a while ago, here is an interview with The Aloof. I honestly have no recollection of doing the interview and was surprised when I stumbled upon it in a dusty back issue of G-echo December ‘99! Alas, The Aloof do not appear to have done much since this outing although band members are also elements of the gestalt entities that are Sabres of Paradise and Red Snapper. This is the interview:
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“Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Albert Einstein

At five to nine Monday on BBC Radio 4 a full frontal assault on user-generated content was made by the new self-styled (user-generated?) ‘anti-christ of silicon valley’.

Andrew Keen has written a book entitled ‘Cult of the Amateur‘, he discussed his belief that “the Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy”.

I have ordered a copy so reserve judgement on the book however Andrew said some pretty interesting things that went against the grain for me.

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Following on from my interview with Talvin Singh, in May 1999 I spoke to Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry AKA The Herbaliser in who were releasing their new album ‘Very Mercenary‘. I had learned my lesson to let the interviewee speak and not make the interview about me. It helped that they were very chatty and I had their records in my box. Here we go:

After a hiatus of two years The Herbaliser, a crew led by Jake Wherry and DJ Ollie Teeba, have emerged from their home made studio in Twickenham to unleash their third album. Jake took time out of his busy schedule of rehearsing for the forthcoming tour and spoke to Dan Morelle.

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No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett

Nottingham, UK. Its raining and its muddy but for one little girl and her family Sunday 25th June 2007 is a momentous day. Ella Morelle (5) can ride a bike without stabilizers! “I just kept telling myself - I CAN DO IT ” Ella said.

3 hours of mud, tears and persistance finally paid off when little Ella peddled in to the horizon. “We lost count the number of times she fell off” said Dan Morelle, Ella’s daddy “Ella showed enormous character - She will achieve great things”. Ella’s mummy was also gushing with pride “it was difficult to see her falling off so many times but she kept trying even through the tears”. Rosa (2), Ella’s sister and best friend said “Pedal!, pedal! , pedal!”

When asked what her secret for riding a bike was Ella said “Keep pedalling and don’t fall off, if you do then stand up and just get back on and try again”.

So, this was the first ever interview I did for G:Echo in November 1998. My University was around the corner from Brick Lane AKA Banglatown in East London. I saw Talvin across the road from me one day on Brick Lane and decided to approach him and ask for an interview he’d just released the eponymous first album entitled ‘ok‘ and was running Anhoka, Sounds of the Asian Underground - a night-club every Monday at the Blue Note in Hoxton – he gave me his number and I called him up, quite simple really! Anyway, the editor thought it was a major coup and it made the front page. Read more »

Quite a few years ago I edited the music section of the magazine at the now rebranded London Metropolitain University. Its a typical ‘Dan’ story how I became appointed - for another time maybe. Needless to say it fully opened the already ajar door of blaggadon (my record/cd collection was doubling on a almost weekly basis) and meant I had some amazing oportunities to meet and interview some really creative people like Blackalicious/Quannum, Talvin Singh, The Herbalizer, Skunk Anansie, Tjinder Singh (of Cornershop) and loads of others. It also laid a nice foundation for my next project - setting up a radio station to broadcast to the whole of east london and beyond for 4 weeks in the summer of 2000.

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I put this mix together especially for my friends at olo radio. Check it out and let me know what you think.

 

 Failing Forward [70:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Playlist:

01: Gossip - Standing in the way of Control (Soulwax Remix)
02: Kid Carpet - Breakbeatles
03: Fela Kuti - Ololufe Mi
04: Apsci -Cherubic
05: Danger Doom - Space Ho’s
06: Nas - Understanding (feat AZ& Biz Markie)
07: Van Dyke Parks - Steel Band
08: Shuggi Otis - Sweet Thang
09: Leadbelly - In The Pines
10: Lonnie Donegan - New Burying Ground
11: Toots and the Maytals - Louie Louie
12: Blackalicious- Alphabet Aerobics (The Cut Chemist Remix)
13: Unknown - Harmonica Blues
14: Alpha - Lipstick From the Asylum
15: Kathryn Williams - All Apologies
16: Ultra Magnetic MCs - Poppa Large
17: Mylo - Sweet Child of Mine
18: Zbigniew Flakus - Evening Coffe
19: King Biscuit Time - Izzum
20: Lucas Dawson - I’m so miserable
21: Blue Bongo - Lewis, Ramsey

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