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Book: Ivor Cutler

Chapter: A Life Outside the Limelight

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.42545

Blurb:

This chapter explores Ivor Cutler’s life away from the studio or stage – a domestic life lived in a small London flat, an active campaigning life in support of issues close to his heart and a social life that included visits to London Zoo, Kew Gardens and the South Bank Centre. Ivor once declared that “Amplification is the curse of civilisation.” He was not comfortable with loud noise, often instructing sound engineers to turn down the volume and imploring audiences to clap quietly. Noise is one example of issues which he felt strongly about: euthanasia, war, politics, and the benefits of cycling were others. Sometimes, his campaigning emerged in his poems and lyrics. At other times, he campaigned through organisations such as the Noise Abatement Society, through his “stickies,” or via his album cover illustrations.

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