1 POET, songwriter, cartoonist, teacher and comedian Ivor Cutler was loved by the Beatles – he even appeared in one of their movies – and legendary Radio One DJ John Peel was a fan. Born in Ibrox in 1923, and raised in Shawlands and Whitecraigs, he was known for his distinctive voice and surreal humour and went on to create 12 albums, 33 books, dozens of BBC radio broadcasts and 15 radio plays.
2 Ivor trained as a navigator in the RAF in 1941 when he was in his late teens, before moving to London and becoming a teacher. From 1961 to 1970, he taught music, African drumming, movement, drama and poetry to seven to 11-year-olds.
3 His obituary in our sister newspaper The Herald revealed he once said: “I was seen as a twit by all and sundry in my family when I was in Glasgow. I didn’t know my talents and I didn’t know what I wanted to do but, whatever I did, I was told I was daft. It was only in London, when I met all these runaway kindred spirits who had similarly been told they were daft, that I felt happy.”
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4 George Melly’s review of A Spaniard In The Works, John Lennon’s first book, cited Cutler as one of the Beatle’s prime literary influences. As a result, Paul McCartney phoned Ivor up, eventually casting him as hangdog bus conductor Buster Bloodvessel in the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour TV movie.
5 Ivor submitted cartoons to Private Eye and was championed by John Peel on Radio 1, leading to an unusual collaboration with dance act Orbital in 1994. Ivor died, aged 83, in 2006.
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