Van in tune with a Goon
QUESTION Was the famously shy singer Van Morrison once interviewed by Spike Milligan?
IT MAY seem unlikely, but this interview did take place.
Van Morrison is an enigma: the gnomic presence, sunglasses and spiky, standoffish persona conceal a soaring talent belting out transcendental songs.
He is known for his dislike of interviews and interviewers: ‘It’s very hard for me to relate to people asking questions that are not only boring, but don’t have anything to do with my life...
‘It’s a waste of time on my part as it drains me from doing what I really want to do, which is play music.’
In 1989, Van released his album Avalon Sunset featuring the hit Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You). To promote it, he was booked to play at Ronnie Scott’s, the famous jazz club in London’s Soho, with a nine-piece backing group including Georgie Fame. Perversely, Van didn’t play a single song from his new album.
He was equally reluctant to be interviewed to promote the album, but said he’d talk with a fellow artist and that he admired Spike Milligan: ‘The Goons were huge in Ireland; kids I grew up with talked like that all the time.’
A meeting was arranged at Spike’s home in East Sussex. The comic broke the ice by wearing a very rude false nose and a photographer caught the normally surly singer in hysterics.
Spike was able to expose Van’s inner workings. Van told him: ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music and writing songs. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it. You’re more interesting to me than I am talking about my music.’
Spike made some sharp observations, in particular by confronting Van with the statement: ‘You have a strange charisma. I don’t feel quite comfortable in your presence. A sense of menace. There’s a sense of abandonment in your singing.’
This fascinating encounter was recorded by journalist Paul Du Noyer and appeared in Q magazine.
Anthony Kenny, Downham Market, Norfolk.
QUESTION Does shaving cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser?
WHEN a teenage boy shaves, the hair may grow back marginally thicker, but this is only because it may overlap with natural hormonal fluctuations during puberty, not because of hair removal.
A human hair shaft tapers at the end. When a razor cuts away the tip, the base may feel coarser, but that’s only because the bottom portion of the hair shaft is thicker. Shaving does not typically change the regrowth process.
However, repeated waxing, which tears a hair from its root, may eventually reduce growth from certain hair follicles.
Kelly Stenn, London SE13.
QUESTION We know the Vikings visited America centuries before Columbus, but did the Chinese also beat him to it?
GAVIN MENZIES, a retired British Navy submarine commander with an interest in ancient maps, is author of 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, which challenges our western-orientated view of history.
He explores the reason why so many old maps depict areas of the world that had not been reached by European explorers at the time they were drawn.
Indeed, European exploration exploded after the acquisition of maps that showed new territories and their riches that might be claimed by Western countries.
Menzies contends that in those early days, the only nation that had the wealth, ability and impetus to build the number of ocean-going ships that would be required for exploration was China.
While Henry V was celebrating his marriage to French Princess Catherine with a meal of salted cod served on rounds of bread for plates, the Chinese Emperor Zhu Di had been entertaining 26,000 guests, including potentates and envoys from East Africa, Arabia, the Indies, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and Korea, at the inauguration of his newly built Forbidden City Palace in what is now Beijing.
Three gigantic fleets, each consisting of hundreds of ships, were tasked with returning these guests to their home ports. They then assembled at Zanzibar with a new task: to map their route.
Their square-rigged sails and hull shape meant they could only sail with the wind and current. But they sailed south and were swept around the Cape, up the west coast of Africa and finally to the Cape Verde Islands.
From here the fleets split up. One caught a current that took it westward into the Caribbean. It sailed past Florida to Rhode Island, where crew rescued from damaged ships set up a colony at the same latitude as Beijing.
What remained of the fleet went on to circumnavigate Greenland and across the top of Russia to get back to Beijing.
Some Europeans had travelled as guests with the fleet to bring their knowledge to European map makers.
The other two fleets caught a current which took them down the eastern coast of South America and through the Strait of Magellan, where they split.
One swept up the west coast of South America to the Equator, across the Pacific to the Philippines and down to eastern Australia. It then sailed north past Japan and swept up to Alaska and San Francisco Bay, thence to Mexico, across to the Philippines, then home.
The other fleet went south, past Tierra del Fuego to the southern ice sheet, the Falklands, South Shetland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands to the south and west coasts of Australia, then home via India.
All these places appeared on various maps before the Portuguese and Spanish set sail — to places they had seen on the maps. There is a good deal of evidence that the Portuguese were making trips to the Caribbean long before Columbus got there, but told no one.
Gerald R. Kimber, Lymington, Hants.
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