alastair jackson photography blog

I'm going to be using this photography blog as a music blog for the next two months, as my book, 'Dear Smash Hits, We're From Scotland - An Alternative History of Zines & DIY Culture' comes out on the excellent Earth Island Books on 2nd August '24.

Essentially, it does what it says on the tin, and I'll post more details, and some extracts as we we get closer to the publication date. Meanwhile, apologies those looking for landscape images - normal service will be resumed in a few months time!

Shetland in July
24th May 2024 - 0 comments

Well, bought my Ordnance Survey map of Shetland North Mainland, which is very exciting for a map geek! Planning trips to the islands of Muckle Roe and Papa Stour, as well as several long coastal walks to photograph the amazing cliffs and stacks. Staying at Sandness on the west coast of Mainland Shetland. Bring it on!

Date For Photography Book
16th May 2024 - 0 comments

Excited to report publication date of 15th March for Scottish West Coast Isles in Photographs. I'll post up progress on this as we get nearer the time...

Island Hopping
20th July 2023 - 0 comments

Walking the North Skye Coast – Section 1 (Gesto Bay to MacLeod's Maidens)

It was never my original intention to turn this into a walking or photography project. For almost as long as I can remember, parts of this coastline have been an integral part of my life. As a youngster growing up in Dunvegan in North West Skye, it was hard to avoid this part of the coast. We went fishing to Neist and Ramasaig, picked whelks at Skinidin and I recall at least once going with the family to Oisgill Bay so that my Gran could collect Carrageen (a kind of seaweed used to make what I always thought was an unappetising gelatinous pudding!).

As an adult I had walked round the south Duirinish coastline, out to Waternish & Greshornish points, latterly with a camera in hand, hoping to capture some moody wave and weather action, so I had notched up a fair few miles when I hit on the idea of covering the entire coastline as set out on my trusty Ordnance Survey Landranger 23 map. This runs from a non-specified point on Loch Harport, northwest up the Bracadale shores up to Roskhill and then to Idrigill on the South Westerly edge of the map. It the runs northwest again over the uninhabited lands of south Duirinish, along what Ralph Storer describes as the finest cliff top walk in the British Isles;awesome and breathtaking. From the clearance township of Lorgill over the stunning vantage point of Waterstein Head, around the tourist honeypot of Neist Point past Oisgill Bay and finishing up at the Old Watermill in Glendale.

As this section represents something in excess of 65kms of rough (mostly trackless) walking, I'm going to take you on a visual journey split into a number of smaller sections - many which can be done over several shorter walks -all of which give a grand sense of space and remoteness.

The journey begins on the edge of Harport, roughly at Gesto Bay, and up and west of the village of Struan (insert struan reflections image) towards Uillinish Point, where you can walk across to the tidal island of Oronsay across a nice causeway of rounded stones. (insert causeway image) The most usual route is from minor road end near Uillinish, a mere kilometre over a muddy path, or a gentle four kilometre hike from Struan Jetty to Uilllinish Point. Once across to the island (having checked tide times beforehand of course), you can make a pleasant circuit of the island, taking in the views of the other islands in Loch Bracadale and the distant hills, Healabhal Mhor & Healabhal Bheag (MacLeod's Tables) away to the NW. and the Bracadale cliffs SW.

Heading back to Uillinish, the coast heads past the townships of Eabost (insert shore from Eabost image) and Ose, (insert storm on lochcaroy image) changing direction in a southerly route towards Harlosh Point. It's a fairly unfrequented spot that has a couple of caves and a rock stack, and is a good stopping point on a coastal trek to capture some images. (insert harlosh point colour image).
The eagle eyed amongst you will have have noticed that my images range from flat calm sunnylochs to storm lashed rocks. That's Skye for you. Potentially four seasons in one day. You have been warned!

From there, it's back north towards Roskhill, and then another abrupt turn south past Roag and the 'nearly island' of Ardroag, where I stopped to make some images (insert ardroag image). You'll note that this peninsula with the narrow neck has an actual tidal island attached to it, at least part of the day, and you might want an easy stroll out to it. The next short section from the cliffs at Greepe down to Loch Bharcasaig is pleasantly wild and unfrequented, with the clifftop headland of Meall Greepa provided unparalleled views down the islands and peninsulas of Loch Bracadale. (insert meall greepa better image) A great lunch spot, as long as the wind isn't too strong, as it's quite an exposed spot., and there is no fence separating you and the cliff edge. From there it's an amble down to Bharcasaig following the line of the cliffs, again taking care with your footing. (insert greep to bharcasaig image) I think that many years of walking the mountains in Scotland has made me confident, but always aware of the dangers of cliff and coastal walking in Skye. The golden rule is, if you don't feel confident, then don't do it! It also goes without saying that proper boots, warm & waterproof clothing and food are an essential, even on a short coastal walk.. A map and compass are always a good idea. In fact, for certain certain sections, such as the South Duirinish cliffs, you should prepare as if for a day in the mountains as the weather, and terrain can be challenging, and in poor visibility, navigation can be difficult.

From the shores of Loch Bharcasaig, (insert bhracasaig bay to meall greepa image) there is a track and path all the way south to Idrigill Point, and the famous rock stacks of MacLeod's Maidens. I've done this particular walk several times, and each time I do it I have a great sense of optimism at the start, quickly eroded by a muddy path and a lack of clear views, but always finishing with a sense of awe as you emerge once again on the cliffs.

The first point of interest (for ageing music fans!) is the plantation known as 'Rebels Wood', planted by the Joe Strummer Foundation, in memory of the Clash frontman's commitment to Carbon Neutral citizenship. Perhaps it's not the first thing you'd think of finding on a Hebridean island, but Joe's grandparents came from the neighbouring island of Raasay, and I believe that he'd always wanted to make the pilgrimage back before he passed away. The path undulates through grassy moorland and small birchwood ( a haven for midges, if I recall) the inlet of Loch Brandersaig, which is worth a slippery detour down to explore is cave and shores. From there it's uphill to the ruined clearance village of Idrigill which has an interesting history, and slightly further on, if you wanted to leave the path to the small promontory of Ard Beag, there are some amazing views of natural arches, hidden from main path.

From here it's a short hop to Idrigill Point & the Maidens. If you are doing this part as a one off walk, most of the guides recommend walking a further kilometre or so to the other side of the bay known as Inbhir a' Gharraidh, where you will get the best view of the rock tacks. The general consensus is that they resemble Queen Victoria and her offspring, and it's hard to disagree with that view! If you are a photographer, try and get there when the light is falling onto the adjacent cliff. I've always failed with that, and as a result, I've been left with images that are not as good as they should be. It's certainly a challenge for the photographer! (insert maidens image)

So, that is a very brief overview of the first section of the North Skye walk. Hopefully it's enough to give a flavour of some of Britain's best coastline which might encourage you to explore it for yourself. From here, you can choose to head back, or follow my on one of the most exciting sections of this adventure...........

Island Blogging With a Tent - Part 1:Skye
09th May 2022 - 0 comments

Well, it's been a long, long time since I've blogged anything! But seeing as I'm doing this round of Scottish West Coast islands, I thought it might be cool to take you along the journey with me.

I suppose it started may years ago on Skye, after all, that's where my family are from, it's where I grew up, went to school and messed about. Much later in life, it's where I focussed my energies on when I took up photography, and I suppose it's inspired me to keep exploring the familiar for inspiration.

I've always enjoyed travelling, but it occurred to me, and it's probably true of many islanders, that tourists are much better acquainted with these landfalls than ourselves. By my mid-30s, I had only been to Skye, Harris and Raasay. Not a great haul of islands really. And, visiting my parents for years after I left, there was little incentive to visit any other places.

However, circumstances changed, and I began to have the notion for travelling Scotland's bejewelled west coast, and I'm now 21 islands in, with another 20 to go before deadlines loom next June for this book of mine.

I've tried to capture the flavour of the islands by speaking to people, and where appropriate, photographing them. After all, without communities, islands are just empty spaces, and the 19th Century landlords had a good go at that during the 19th Century.

So far I've discovered friendly faces, stunning beaches, wild moors and sea views. I've been startled by stags, eaten great fish & chips, explored historical sites, and watched new industries being created.

So far it's been a gas! Warning - Make sure you do what these tourists at Kinloch Campsite didn't. Book first. Or better still, leave your camper van and home and use a tent.........

Raasay Calling - the search for Joe Strummer's ancestors
30th March 2020 - 0 comments

Interview with journalist Damien Love who went across to Raasay with ex-Clash bass player, and now artist, Paul Simonon
Growing up in Skye, the Clash were one of my favourite bands. I had no idea of the Raasay connection, and I always associate them with Hammersmith & the Westway. Did it feel odd trekking up to trace Joe’s origin?
DL: I know what you mean – I guess with The Clash you think of London first, but the international thing comes close behind. Both their music and their outlook developed into something more global pretty quickly as the band went on. And, of course, with Strummer, that citizen of the world thing was there from the very first – he was born in Turkey, after all, and had Armenian and German ancestors on his father’s side. I was aware he had a Scottish side of the family through his mother, but I didn’t really know much about it and, yeah: walking deeper into the more silent, barren stretches of Raasay felt a long, long way removed from any kind of a rock and roll thing. It felt quite removed from everything. But the whole trip took on a stranger and much more personal feel – it was something about Joe Strummer the man rather than “Strummer” the image/ icon, or even the musician, largely because of Paul Simonon, who did really seem to be thinking about Joe a lot during the days of that expedition.

Did you feel that Strummer brought anything of this heritage to his music, or is that too much of a stretch?
DL: Well, Strummer’s stuff increasingly took on the dimensions of what we used to call “world music,” with a really wide range of influences in the stew, from jazz to hip-hop to folk roots to desert music and on and on. He started out under the influence of Woody Guthrie, and later played with The Pogues – so he was undoubtedly aware of folk songbooks and a lot of traditional Scottish and Irish tunes, ballads, etc. He spent some time visiting family in Scotland and Glasgow growing up, and those kinds of get-togethers can sometimes involve a song or two coming out as the night wears on – the kind of campfire mood he always tried to bring to gatherings, from what I’ve heard. His writing makes references to lots of things. ( I always remember him quoting “I belong to Glasgow” in his notes for Pennie Smith’s book of Clash photographs - I think it was in there.) I think that, rather than curating and preserving traditional songs in aspic and protecting them from any outside infection or change (although this is also vital, of course), the truly valuable, and living, “folk tradition” is the mongrel tradition, taking stuff from everywhere and customising pre-existing songs into something else (taking old tunes and putting new words to them, etc, exactly the way jazz, blues and hip-hop have always done) and I think his music has a lot of that spirit in it.

Did you get any sense of the man himself when you were across there?
DL: A bit, I think, but not so much from being there on Raasay specifically, as from listening to Paul talk about him. I was there specifically to ask him about Joe, of course. And he wouldn’t have been there making that trip without Joe. And I guess the particular atmosphere of the place – the silence and space, the feeling of being far away from everything, and the lack of distractions – focussed his thoughts in a different way than if we’d been doing it anywhere else. Paul spoke of Joe very much as an elder brother, someone who had helped teach him ways of thinking and looking and being. When I asked him to sum up Joe, he said “passion really” – meaning passion just for being alive, taking it all in, whatever it was, whether it was sharing a bottle and talking or travelling to play a gig. Simonon summed up the philosophy he’d learned from Strummer to me along the lines of: “Either you're Robin Hood or you’re Stalin, and the choice is really quite clear.”

How did the trip with Simonon come about? Did Jones and Topper not fancy the trek? Did you know Simonon previously?
DL: The trip was originally the notion of a commissioning editor at the Sunday Herald newspaper – but the original idea was a little different. I think they’d heard about the Future Forests/ Rebel’s Wood project on Skye, and then came up with the idea of asking Paul to go there – to Skye - to paint the forest site. You have to remember that Paul had really very much stopped doing music all together at this point (years later, he started playing again as a core member of The Good The Bad And The Queen, and it was brilliant to see him onstage with the bass again). He was concentrating solely on his painting, so this was a great little idea, and all really built around his work as an artist. Ao the idea of contacting Mick or Topper for the trip didn’t come up – it was all about asking Paul to paint Rebel’s Wood. The paper asked me to go along and document the project and do the story because I wrote for them regularly, and because they knew I was a Clash fan. I had never had any contact with Paul before that. But he’s an incredibly friendly guy, I found, and it was very quickly like talking to someone you had known for ages. (I interviewed Mick once, and had tried to get Joe to talk a couple of times during the 1990s - what they call “wilderness years” – when he wasn’t making much new music, but he didn’t want to do an interview at that point.)
Bu then - it was Paul himself who came up with the idea of going to Raasay to find the ruins of the cottage, an idea inspired by his meeting with Joe’s cousin, and memories of Joe roughly talking about the Scottish side and wanting to make a trip there. And that idea of Paul’s changed the entire nature of the trip and the project, and made it far more meaningful, I think. He was making the trip “for” Joe, and both his absence and his presence were kind of floating around in the quite places.

I know that Simonon must have been in Inverness when they played the Ice Rink in 1985, and I read from your article that he had been on a camping trip to Skye with his dad before, but do you think that prepared him for the northern wastes of Raasay, or was it a shock to the system?
DL: The rain was pretty crazy at some points, but I don’t think it was anything he wasn’t prepared for. He’d travelled far and wide, and he had spent a lot of his time doing landscape paintings outside in all kinds of places and weathers. I got the impression that he just took it as it came, and acted accordingly.

What else did you chat about whilst braving the weather?
DL: Well…the weather! Aside from talking about the project and him and Joe, just general chit chat – he was asking about Glasgow, because he had memories of it from The Clash days. During the walk out to the cottage, a lot of the talk was about trying to remember where it was. I was asking him about himself a lot for the piece that I was going to write, and he had some pretty funny stories about playing a session with Bob Dylan. But, yeah, off the meter, we were just chatting. I remember he had some good things to say about the food at Raasay House, as well.

Did any of you go back across to Umachan or Raasay after that?
DL: I have never been back on Raasay since, though I would like to go. I don’t know about Mr Simonon.

I really love Simonon’s bass work on Sandinista. Did he mention how much input he had into the writing of these songs?
DL: I really love that album, too, but I don’t recall that we really talked about it during that trip. The Clash had members of The Blockheads working with them on many of those Sandinista sessions, too, so it’s sometimes hard to keep track of who played what on what.

Cut'n'Paste Style
25th March 2020 - 0 comments

This is a blog to exorcise my ghosts of being a journalist. It may cover music, football, photography, walking. Either all...or none.
The first post is an interview with my friend from Portree High who started up Skye's first music fanzine with his brother in the 1980s. It may or not form part of a future book about music in the islands.....

The Battle of the Braes (in cut’n’paste style)…….An interview with Andy Goddard, TV & Film Director…………………………07/02/2020

What first inspired you (and Simon) to start a fanzine in the back of beyond?

As I recall, you rolled the first pebble and suggested we start a fanzine called ‘Meat Cleaver’. I think we ran with that title for 15 minutes until I rejected it on the grounds of being too Goth. Some time after that the impetus ran out of steam. But you’d sown the first seed and the idea of making a fanzine wouldn’t quite go away. When I pitched it to Simon it became a recurring topic of conversation. We’d caught the bug and it was a chance to dig deeper into our love of music and music journalism. From then the ‘zine idea took shape again and ‘Jingles the Creep’ was born.

Was being in Skye a help or hindrance to that process?

We were only limited by our imagination and in that dept there was an unbridled belief - almost arrogance - that the whole world was poised to read our purple prose. Had we grown up in Hammersmith I doubt we would’ve had quite the same drive. The comparative isolation of Skye gave us an extra charge: a kind of desperate yearning to connect with the wider popular culture and, by extension, escape.

So no different from a million teenagers growing up, but a rural landscape reminds you of how distanced you are from the things that inspire you. That disconnect lights a fire under your passions - an almost angry kind of energy - and makes you push harder to reach those goals. In that respect, Skye was a help. We may have been less galvanized - more lazy - had we grown up in the city with easier access to record shops and gig venues.

Then again, living on a northerly island was also a hindrance in the unbearable time it took for mail to reach us from London or further afield. This was pre internet and the Royal Mail was the lifeline that linked us to the exciting world of music culture and all things cool. I remember the expectation of seeing the postie van appear over the hill in Braes and the sinking disappointment when no fanzine mail was delivered.

Was there a deliberate push against the ceilidh band mentality of the Highlands?

I think you inevitably push against tradition as a teenager. Ceilidh music stood at a polar outpost of the music spectrum I never wanted to visit. Jimmy Shand was hardly Joe Strummer. But I don’t recall hating it, I suppose it was never threatening to me in the same way biscuit-factory pop or poodle-perm arena rock - SAW, Bon Jovi etc - dominated the mainstream and subsumed the indie culture. At least, that’s how I viewed the state of play through my teen blinkers back in the Eighties. Hilarious in hindsight; a militant indignation that Tiffany had blanket radio approval and Einsturzende Neubauten didn’t! But I didn’t hate ceilidh culture, I’ve always found that Brigadoon schtick vaguely comforting. A sort of guilty pleasure.

There’s a rich history within the indie sphere of artists leaning into the trad and couthie and playing with those juxtapositions - think of Postcard Records or Jessie Rae - and I feel that may have a lot do with its weird appeal. There was always something unavoidably tartan and bagpipey about Big Country. Dunfermline Athletic walk onto the pitch at East End Park to ‘Into the Valley’ by Skids and the crowd ebb away post match to Jimmy Shand’s ‘Bluebell Polka’. The fact these apparently twee aspects of the culture you’re trying to escape are braided into the culture you want to embrace is an endless source of fascination. When you’re young you think life is black-and-white and moves in a straight line. You learn over time it’s more circular and grey - always shapeshifting - and even the most polarized opposites are somehow connected. I think the truly great artists explore these counterpoints - think of Brian Eno or Damon Albarn - and those that don’t are entertainers rather than artists - trading on repetition in a monoculture - like Liam Gallagher.

The last word on ceilidh? I’m now the proud owner of a button accordion - never played - and Jimmy Shand’s relentless tour diary would have broken the hardest of metal bands. Never judge a book by its cover.

Were people surprised Camustianavaig was a font of indie knowledge of the ‘80s?

I think most people have never heard of Camustianavaig. John Peel was quite enchanted that a punky indie zine was being produced on the Isle of Skye. I think that was our USP. We just weren’t smart enough to monopolize on that. We wanted to be the NME.

Did you sell many/any in Skye itself?

Not many, it was mostly mail order relying on small ads in the music press and DJ shout-outs on the radio. We expected an endorsement from Peel would boost sales. How wrong we were; kudos far outweighed commerce. Here was another example of Skye being a hindrance, the local avenues of stocking and selling the fanzine were limited - no record shops - salesmanship was never our strong point.

Any media coverage?

Muriel Gray was tickled by the title of one of our compilation cassettes, ‘Dougie
Donnelly’s Robot Pants’ and gave us a nod in the papers: Glasgow Herald or Daily Record, I can’t remember. Would anyone south of the border even know who Dougie Donnelly is - then or now? - and god knows what kind of fever dream threw up that title? Maybe we were playing around with Costello style wordplay or Bowie-ish cut-up techniques? I was incredibly pretentious as a Skye teenager. Peter Easton of Beat Patrol on BBC Radio Scotland was always good to us and would often big-up ‘Jingles’ and its accompanying tapes on the Scottish airwaves. He even played our Close Lobsters track. The highlight was John Peel. He marveled at the Skye connection and called us ‘very enterprising’.

I think it was ‘85/’86 that you did this – how was the technology then?

This was pre internet so no email or social media. No cellphones. Royal Mail was our sine qua non. Sometimes we would use our mum and dad’s land-line telephone. I remember phoning Portsmouth punks Red Letter Day and trying to coax them up north to play the Skye Gathering Hall based on little more than thinking it might be a good idea. No money or booking agent or venue liaison. We were just kids buying into the mythology promised by the NME and all our favorite records.

I’m sure if there are teens out there today growing up on Skye, Benbecula or Shetland - with the same insatiable ambition to connect with the world outside - they’ll just be a few clicks away from sharing Tweets with someone in Wisconsin or producing a website or digi-zine. Compared to these dot com whizz kids we were troglodytes armed with sellotape and Sharpie pens. Very analogue. We even used a typewriter to bang out our state-of-the-nation polemic. No PCs or laptops. The smell of Tipp-Ex corrective fluid is a presiding memory from those days.

You did a couple of compilation cassettes, how did they come about?

We expanded our enterprise... haha! We always loved flexi discs and musical giveaways in the music press and the tapes were our crude way of grabbing a piece of this pie. The cassettes became Simon’s labour of love. I was always opinionated about the covers and layout and we’d spend long summer days over Fanta and bacon crisps debating the track listing. But the mechanics of making the damn things very much became his pet project.

I think we began ‘by ‘dubbing’ them ourselves or keeping a master copy and doing a tape-to-tape as/when demand came in. We eventually sourced cheap blank cassettes in bulk and would knock up copies and labour over stickers and typeface - again, Simon’s patience outranked mine - it became quite monotonous and labor intensive ‘mass producing’ these compilations even though we hardly broke into the hundreds. Alan Sugar would fire us in a heartbeat. Peelie may have called us ‘enterprising’ but we never made a dime. Just kids.

The sound quality on the first tape was poor but we improved - thanks to Simon - with further issues of ‘Jingles’. We even gave away a vinyl seven-inch on one occasion. A band called The Sun who sounded like a kind of Cure-Lite circa ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ kindly have us a joblot of sevens to shift. Looking back, maybe they’d split up? But we were thrilled and felt we now had the chops to take on ZigZag and Melody Maker!

Did you sell many?

I could sell you a line and create a myth but, honestly, I doubt we sold more than 40-50 over all three editions. I’m probably being generous too. We sent batches of up to a half-dozen to a Glasgow record store to stock. I can’t vouch for the success of sales there but I don’t recall retail cheques appearing through our letterbox. The tapes sold better, hardly surprising since we were presenting something tangible - music - rather than adolescent ramblings and lists of our favourite things.

When you were doing the ‘zines, did you entertain ambitions of rock’n’roll debauchery yourself?

I naively (arrogantly) thought it would set me up for a life as a London rock ‘n’ roll scribe hanging out with the punk literati. I probably thought I was Skye’s answer to Lester Bangs and that ‘Jingles’ would be my entree to a life in the fast lane. I’d soon be propping up a bar in Fitzrovia drinking absinthe with Nick Kent swapping war stories about touring with The Damned. I think perhaps secretly I felt fanzine culture would be some kind of stepping stone towards the Holy Grail of actually joining a band - regardless of my abject laziness and lack of talent in the presence of musical instruments. C’est la vie.

Tell me the highlight of that period, and was there anybody or band you really wanted to interview, but didn’t manage to?

John Peel’s patronage was definitely the highlight. The Peel show on BBC radio was a mecca for the punk/indie music we loved. Like God giving us a lofty thumbs-up it was the apex of that time. That aside, and with the advantage of age, I can see now the real highlight was the process of actually doing it: the journey. It was a teenage passion that became a hobby-horse and an obsession and, perhaps towards the end, a bit of a chore. It was really just a way of orbiting the things you loved - all that great music - and finding ways to connect to it when you’re at that impressionable age. I’m kind of proud we at least did something creative with our time and didn’t waste those Skye summers in telly-watching inertia.

The ones that got away? The ace in the holes we never interviewed? I guess any member of The Clash. Significantly Joe Strummer who was revered as a demigod back then. Strange to think a memorial forest in his name now stands on Raasay within view of Camustianavaig. Again, those curveball connections you don’t expect. Who else? Adam Ant would’ve been a coup for me - I was always a closet pirate! - and John Lydon was and is always good interview value for shits and giggles.

It was the age of a real outpouring of Scottish Indie music (Close Lobsters/Primals/Shoppies etc). Did you try and tap into that?

Yes, definitely. Though I nurtured a love-hate thing with the Scottish scene - biting the hand that feeds! - I loved the more abrasive sound of the Shop Assistants but the early Scream we’re lost on me and I loathed the twee-ness of Strawberry Switchblade, Tallulah Gosh et al. But the buzz about Scotland and Scottish bands at that time definitely gave us a push and a sense of entitlement to crank a fanzine out into the world. We gave column inches to The Big Gun from Irvine whose single ‘Heard About Love’ is one of the great underrated Scottish indie gems of the Eighties. The Tremens from Glasgow also graced our pages with their auld Scots lunatic asylum punk. We were thrilled to get Close Lobsters on our tape compilations and I even see they’ve reformed. Again, the circle of life. The past catches up with you in ways you don’t expect.

Finally – who was better, Suspect Device or Leapfrog the Dog!? (as a refresher, I’ll end with a quote from a certain R. MacKenzie esq. ref Suspect Device ‘We were kind of jealous you had a band going. But the music was shite’. Critically harsh methinks, but ultimately fair….

Back in the day I’d have a forthright opinion on this but now I guess I look back and acknowledge we were all kids carving out our identities by being creative. I can’t even remember what Leapfrog the Dog sounded like - just that they’re named after an Adam Ant lyric - I think the demo tape designs came before the music. Very Malcolm McLaren. I think I always harbored a secret desire to play maracas at the back for Suspect Device. Anything to be a part of the scene and stay connected to music. I guess in lieu of that - or throwing shapes like Bez - the fanzine was how I found my voice and made my own ‘sound’.

Blog
15th September 2019 - 0 comments

13th November 2017
What to do once the grey, wet Scottish Winter kicks in? A new photography project that's what. I've been racking my small brain for ideas, and this one is still only half formed. I've very tentatively named it 'Returned To Nature'

Lost in Nostalgia
02nd August 2017
Howard Devoto, lead man of the Buzzcocks declared in Feb 1977 that ‘punk is old hat’ and jumped ship. In 1978, his remaining band members sang about ’nostalgia for an age yet to come’ . This phrase was first coined by the Portugese poet, Fernando Pessoa, who scribbled it down in the early days of the 20th Century. In it, he describes a longing to escape to an absolute elsewhere, of a desire that can’t be defined – not feeling at home in the here and now.
In recent decades, nostalgia for the future has gradually lost its vagueness and become tied to a specific fixed idea. It has become a retro-futuristic emotion: those sensations of wistfulness, mixed with irony and amazement, offset by amusement which are induced by the likes of old science fiction films from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Retro-futurism has been current in pop culture since the early ‘80’s. The first decade of the new millennium saw a new boom in both retro-futurism (an ‘80’s synth pop revival) and retro-modernism. With the latter, the focus was not just on the severity of modernism, but on the movement’s ideas and political idealism, particularly the post WW2 resurgence of abstraction and minimalism in art and architecture.
Far more than anything in the art world however, it was the everyday visibility of the brutalist buildings of the ‘60’s and 70’s that provoked the backlash against modernism. By the early 2000’s though, you were starting to get photo-blogs with names like ‘I adore eyesores’, operated by roving ‘collectors’ documenting their favourite tower blocks, housing estates and shopping centres. There was a spate of books about motorways and service stations, most famously Martin Parr’s 1999 pictorial anthology, ‘Boring Postcards’, which became a cult success. Also, ‘Leadville’, Edward Platt’s ‘biography’ of the A40, Pieter Boogaart’s ‘A272 – An ode to a road’, and David Lawrence’s history of motorway service stations, ‘Always a Welcome’.
The onset of digital photography, mobile phone cameras and a massive increase in online photo-sharing has led to a push against progression, and a rise in the use of old technology and techniques in photography. Step forward the bearded hipster hurtling along Brighton seafront on his penny-farthing, with a retro-lumo camera dangling round his neck, taking saturated motion-blur images of ice cream gobbling day trippers. There are uncomfortable resemblances between retro-modernism and heritage culture. You have the venerated tradition that must be safeguarded from developers by custodians; you have the monuments to abandoned ideals ( Le Corbusier & Bauhaus inspired housing replacing mansions and castles). To an unsympathetic eye this could seem a lot like left wing fogeyism. In defence of this, some of the most interesting recent developments in photography parallel the most interesting developments in music. The use of new technology such as Instagram to share old film-style images, or the ability to produce digital negatives from film, to enable digital manipulation. But are these developments really pushing barriers and boundaries forward, or just mixing old and new?
I am guilty of this myself by refusing to shoot in colour, and although I use digital technology, I stack filters and print on rough rag paper to give the impression of film. I suppose we admire the pioneers of emerging technology, partly because of the spirit of the age permeates their work with a palpable momentousness. Partly also the Herculean effort of the original pioneers to make the images and the struggle against technical limitations seems heroic. So where to now??
Brian Griffin - Echo & The Bunnymen photographer
13th June 2017
I was always an admirer of the artwork on Echo & the Bunnymen's record sleeves as a kid, even though I had no idea about the designer or the photographer.

Last year, I took a notion that I would create a series of images on the imaginary premise that The Bunnymen had been conducting a photoshoot in Skye, and specifically, their 1981 single, a promise had loads of alternative covers taken there.

With that in mind, I set about tracking down the photographer responsible for the Bunnymen album and single covers. I was surprised and delighted to find that Brian Griffin had shot covers for Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Brian Eno, The Clash, Devo and on and on.............

Shows how little I know really! So, I contacted him about the project to ask if I could use his image of 'The Promise' as part of the proposed exhibition, and he agreed - no problem. I also asked him a few questions to go along with an exhibition statement, and I have finally got round to reproducing them here. Needless to say, I never got further with journalism than some home-grown fanzines, and I wouldn't say his answers are massively insightful either! Here they are anyway. The project remains inside my head.......

The Bunnymen’s music was seen by some at the time as ‘gloomy raincoat’ music, but I always thought that there was a euphoric build in their songs? Did you build that thought process into your images?
Not really. I just tried to make the images relevant and strong within the concept.

On the cover of the 7” of ‘A promise’, there appears to be a sense of movement - forward momentum of the seabirds rushing towards the light. I’m guessing that was intentional, but were you aware of the songs that they were working at the time in shaping your own creative processes?
It was not an easy photograph to get, never is with birds or animals. So the songs were the last thing on my mind.

The images are colour, but quite muted. How deliberate was that?
It was not deliberate.

The cover of the 12” is quite different in style and content, but it looks like movement was still on your mind. What were you trying to convey with this image?
It was not purposeful at all, we were just playing with letting off maritime flares.

Why South Wales as a location?
It was near Rockfield where they were recording.

Why were Korova so difficult about the album cover (and I’m guessing also the single sleeves?). Did they oppose your creative ideas?
They were happy with the creative idea but unhappy about the band being so small and in silhouette.

My concept for my installation is alternative covers for ‘A Promise’, if they had been taken on the Isle of Skye. I think there is something inherently ‘Bunnymen-ish’ about the place plus I grew up there! Have you ever shot there?
I have indeed worked on the Isle Of Skye.

The Postcard Collective #3 - An Online Gallery
29th May 2017
As promised in a previous blog, here is collage of the entries I have received to date. There may be a couple more still to come in, but I now have the vast majority. I am now going to recycle them as CD covers.

Cavan Campbell Scottish Soundscapes
12th May 2017
Cavan Campbell has put up a link to the CAIM collective's FB page on his blog -

http://www.cavancampbell.com/scottishsoundscapeblog/
The Postcard Collective #2
01st May 2017
Well, as promised here is my submission. It turned out to be a bit more of a statement than I originally meant it to be, but I was pleased with the organic process it took.I have had a few postcards in from the USA alraedy, and I intend to create an online gallery over the Summer once all the art cards have been shared

The Postcard Collective
19th April 2017
The Postcard Collective is/are based in the USA. It's mission is to re-introduce physicality in a world gone cyber. I like it because it reminds me of my youth and making up compilation tapes for me and my pals. Making covers using the cut'n'paste techniques of sellotape and scissors. This of course, without us realising it, harked back to the late '70's and the DIY world pf post-punk indie labels and fanzines.
http://www.postcardcollective.org/
The idea, if you are selected, is to design a postcard and mail it out to those others on the list (USA, Canada, Finland, China) and they correspondingly do the same - art in motion. I'm sure the Fluxus group in San Fransisco did the same kind of mail art.

Anyway, I'm sure you can tell which way my postcard is going to go! More to follow........
CAIM Collective - draft work
09th March 2017
Some of our work in progress -

New Collaborative Work
08th March 2017
I'm pleased to announce that I will be working with three very talented artists on a new collaborative project. We will be working under the title of the CAIM Collective.
Artists statement of intent below -
The CAIM Collective aim to create a coherent whole through the media of Photography, Sound Recordings, Poetry & Printmaking.
We have come together as four distinct and separate artists, in our shared interest in the Scotland’s wild coastal places and a desire to capture a sense of space and wonder. Many things are not able to be seen properly. They may be unclear, or hazy or gauzy. Landscapes may be misty or seen from an odd angle, or just unfamiliar to the viewer. They may be viewed in bad weather, or poor visibility. These artists are attempting to define the Orkney land/seascapes relationship with the vagaries of the elements. Structure and absence are reoccurring elements in their work, as are juxtaposition and the unexpected. This project will bring together the disciplines of photography, poetry, printmaking and sound recording as an immersive whole which the viewer will be able to interact with.

Ingrid Budge works with digital, but mainly analogue photography, as well as pinhole and camera-less photography. This work with old-fashioned cameras and darkroom techniques lead to many of her images of her native Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland displaying a timeless ethereality, but also an indiscernible quality. Alastair Jackson also hails from an island on the edge of Scotland, albeit on the west coast, and this remote upbringing gives his work a similar sense of space and distance. Although mainly a photographer, he also uses the haiku form to bridge the gap between images, sound and writing, Moira Buchanan ‘s current work explores her personal interaction with the Scottish coastline. She focuses on natural found objects such as shells, seaweed and algae. She often refers this process to metamorphism; reconstructing the state of an object into her own. As a music teacher, acoustic ecologist, violinist, violist, composer and sound artist Cavan Campbell has specialist skills working with sound and music within a broad range of contexts. Cavan works with immersive ambisonic surround sound technologies to record, archive and exhibit natural soundscapes from across Scotland that are being lost to the ever increasing effects of man-made noise pollution.
Hold Me Dear Project
17th February 2017
The Hold Me Dear Project is a curated gallery of images of places curated by Jenny Humberstone.

I have contributed to the latest gallery with a short piece about Skinidin, Skye

https://www.holdmedear.co.uk/collections

It's a chance to do something slightly different, and the first online project which I have contributed to
More Haiku
19th December 2016
Pleased to have had 3 haiku included as part of Moira Buchanan's 'All Washed Up' Exhibition at the HAC in Irvine.These are included in the hand-made art book which I think fits the mood of the words nicely

Aros Exhibition Opening Night
07th November 2016
A great evening was has by all in the Aros Centre, Portree on 29th October. This was the opening night of the Sorley MacLean inspired 'An Roghainn/The Choice' exhibition.

Things started well with a free dram, courtesy of R&B Distillers, who are setting up currently on Raasay.

The evening was MC-ed by Sorley's nephew, Cailean MacLean, and up first was Gaelic singer, Arthur Cormack, who gave an inspired rendition of some traditional songs. The crowd, including Sorley's 91 year old sister were singing along! Kenneth Steven then read from his Radio 3 broadcast about the Isle of Raasay, accompanied by visuals from yours truly, and then Skye fiddle player.

Ronan Martin got toes tapping with his 'Raasay Suite of tunes, again with some visuals from myself, and Kenneth rounded the evening off with his featured poetry and my images up on the screen - which are in the gallery space until the end of the year.

If you are in Skye, pop in to the Aros Centre in Portree and have a look -

http://www.aros.co.uk/whats-on
Haiku
03rd October 2016
I've talked a bit on this about haiku with regards to the exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre, and having some haiku published. However, I realise that I've never actually published any examples. So here goes. This one was featured as part of the 'On Returning' exhibition -

Clouds wrap themselves in grey
Dawn creeps in
With ceramic opacity
Exhibition on Wall
30th August 2016
I am pleased to announce that my Images and accompanying Haiku are now on the wall in Gallery 1 at the HAC in Irvine.

Many thanks to Alison Riggans, Visual Arts Officer for making this possible and Brian Craig, artist & photographer for all the assistance in setting up -

Photography, Art & Trains
13th August 2016
It's sometimes strange how things work out. This time last year I was wondering how you went about getting your work into a gallery, and all of a sudden you get two exhibitions, audio-visual work, and an upcoming feature in an arts and culture magazine.

I've just finished reading a copy of 'Playing to the Gallery' by Grayson Perry, quite a funny and insightful little book, which asks, amongst other questions -what is art? One of his problematic boundary markers is that of photography. How can you tell, he muses, the photographs which are art, as opposed to those which are merely snaps' He asked the photographer Martin Parr, whose almost serious answer was, 'Well, if it's bigger than two metres, and it's priced higher that 5 figures!'

Well, my work most definitely doesn't meet those criteria, but today I have spotted this on the Scotrail website

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=22&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiw9cPY077OAhUsKcAKHQlwC3E4ChAWCFEwCw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scotrail.co.uk%2Fscotland-by-rail%2Fevents%2Falastair-jackson-returning-exploration-distance&usg=AFQjCNGlcfx1zNh1g7CyLaEifHrpsBF1Lw&bvm=bv.129422649,d.d24

I'm not sure how it's made its way onto a train company's website, but if it brings in traffic, then I'm all for it!
Institute of Photography in Scotland - Exhibition Details
28th July 2016
Details of my September Exhibition are now up on the Institute of Photography in Scotland website.

http://www.institutephotographyscotland.org/2016/alastair-jackson.html
Scotland's Artists
11th May 2016
Now featured on this site

https://www.scotlandsartists.com/artists/artists_profile.php?recordID=391

Not sure if I'm worthy of some of the company here!
CCA Event
05th May 2016
Excellent event at the CCA, Glasgow, headlined by renowned Gaelic singer, Kathleen MacInnes, where I was asked to provide backdrops for the students of Sabhal Mor Ostaig Gaelic College

Events for 2016
07th April 2016
2016 is turning out to be an interesting year so far!

Out of the blue, I've been asked to provide a visual backdrop at the CCA in Glasgow for An Cùrsa Ciùil, students from the BA Gaelic and Traditional Music Degree at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (Skye Gaelic College)take the stage to perform a selection of Gaelic songs and traditional airs. Should be interesting!

I've got my first solo exhibition in the Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine in September, and a joint exhibition with poet Kenneth Steven in the Aros Centre, Portree on our reinterpretation of the work of Gaelic Bard, Sorley MacLean.

Let's see what happens next....
Sorley MacLean Project
08th February 2016
I'm pleased to announce that I will be working with acclaimed Perthshire writer, Kenneth Steven on a project provisionally entitled 'Places' which is based around those locations mentioned in the great Gaelic Bard's poems. I also hope to be working with a talented singer/musician/artist called Jess Ipkendanz on this project. More details to follow.

Jess' Website

Kenneth's Website

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New Project
13th November 2017 - 0 comments

What to do once the grey, wet Scottish Winter kicks in? A new photography project that's what. I've been racking my small brain for ideas, and this one is still only half formed. I've very tentatively named it 'Returned To Nature'

Lost in Nostalgia
02nd August 2017 - 0 comments

Howard Devoto, lead man of the Buzzcocks declared in Feb 1977 that ‘punk is old hat’ and jumped ship. In 1978, his remaining band members sang about ’nostalgia for an age yet to come’ . This phrase was first coined by the Portugese poet, Fernando Pessoa, who scribbled it down in the early days of the 20th Century. In it, he describes a longing to escape to an absolute elsewhere, of a desire that can’t be defined – not feeling at home in the here and now.
In recent decades, nostalgia for the future has gradually lost its vagueness and become tied to a specific fixed idea. It has become a retro-futuristic emotion: those sensations of wistfulness, mixed with irony and amazement, offset by amusement which are induced by the likes of old science fiction films from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Retro-futurism has been current in pop culture since the early ‘80’s. The first decade of the new millennium saw a new boom in both retro-futurism (an ‘80’s synth pop revival) and retro-modernism. With the latter, the focus was not just on the severity of modernism, but on the movement’s ideas and political idealism, particularly the post WW2 resurgence of abstraction and minimalism in art and architecture.
Far more than anything in the art world however, it was the everyday visibility of the brutalist buildings of the ‘60’s and 70’s that provoked the backlash against modernism. By the early 2000’s though, you were starting to get photo-blogs with names like ‘I adore eyesores’, operated by roving ‘collectors’ documenting their favourite tower blocks, housing estates and shopping centres. There was a spate of books about motorways and service stations, most famously Martin Parr’s 1999 pictorial anthology, ‘Boring Postcards’, which became a cult success. Also, ‘Leadville’, Edward Platt’s ‘biography’ of the A40, Pieter Boogaart’s ‘A272 – An ode to a road’, and David Lawrence’s history of motorway service stations, ‘Always a Welcome’.
The onset of digital photography, mobile phone cameras and a massive increase in online photo-sharing has led to a push against progression, and a rise in the use of old technology and techniques in photography. Step forward the bearded hipster hurtling along Brighton seafront on his penny-farthing, with a retro-lumo camera dangling round his neck, taking saturated motion-blur images of ice cream gobbling day trippers. There are uncomfortable resemblances between retro-modernism and heritage culture. You have the venerated tradition that must be safeguarded from developers by custodians; you have the monuments to abandoned ideals ( Le Corbusier & Bauhaus inspired housing replacing mansions and castles). To an unsympathetic eye this could seem a lot like left wing fogeyism. In defence of this, some of the most interesting recent developments in photography parallel the most interesting developments in music. The use of new technology such as Instagram to share old film-style images, or the ability to produce digital negatives from film, to enable digital manipulation. But are these developments really pushing barriers and boundaries forward, or just mixing old and new?
I am guilty of this myself by refusing to shoot in colour, and although I use digital technology, I stack filters and print on rough rag paper to give the impression of film. I suppose we admire the pioneers of emerging technology, partly because of the spirit of the age permeates their work with a palpable momentousness. Partly also the Herculean effort of the original pioneers to make the images and the struggle against technical limitations seems heroic. So where to now??

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