Ivor Cutler – Are You A Tory?

30th December 2022 · 1980s, 1985, Music

Ivor Cutler was an eccentric Scottish poet whose chronicles of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room became popular during the punk era after being championed by John Peel.

Here’s a song – well, a poem, a very short poem – for my oldest friend Ben Buchanan who is not very well at the moment and is definitely not, and never has been, a Tory.

Ben was lucky enough to have Ivor Cutler as his English, Drama and Dance teacher when he was at school, and he once told me about the time Ivor gave the whole class a handwritten sticker as part of their homework.

A gold peel-off sticker, it was cryptic, and funny – like his poems – with the message: “The essence of a label is to inform. But not this one, amigo.”

I first became a fan of Ivor Cutler when John Peel began playing his whimsical anecdotes, collected under the title: Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, in 1977 or thereabouts.

And while I have not followed his career assiduously, and never got to see him perform, whenever I hear anything by him it is immediately obviously him, and is invariably deadpan and droll.

Like this.