So, as Monty Python once said “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition”, which is the lead into the first of a series of stories which effortlessly connects Bob Dylan, a Welsh cottage and a remarkable host called Marcus.
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| One of the ponds, 2023 |
We had left the city for a short break in Wales meeting up with our Josh and Polly and had chosen the holiday cottage, Llwyn Glass in Cwm-Cewydd in the heart of Snowdonia.
The place is remote, accessed by one of those twisty private roads, which seem to offer a surprise around each bend. Surprises there were but they were nice ones, including heaps of quails wandering across the road, a ford, and stunning views as we progressed towards Marcus and the cottage.
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| Bob Dylan in Wales, 2023 |
For now it is a poster of Bob Dylan advertising his famous 1966 performance in Manchester when he broke with his earlier work and went “electric”.
The poster was a present to Marcus from one his daughters, and as we shared favourite tracks the conversation turned to the moment in the concert shortly after Dylan began his electric stuff when a man in the audience shouted out “Judas”.
It would be eight years later that I came across the man who shouted it out, and as stories go it turns out I was working next to him.
I have to confess I only half believed him, until I came across a newspaper story by Andy Kershaw years later which confirmed the account. ***
Mr. Kershaw had gone looking for him and sure enough it was my ex-colleague.
All of which allowed Marcus to smile and mutter, “I know a man who knew the man who called Bob Dylan “Judas”.
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| Bob Dylan in Manchester, 1966 |
And I guess for ever after when ever he passes that poster a little bit of Manchester in 1966 will pop into his head, along with of course, “I know a man who knew the man who called Bob Dylan “Judas”.
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| Chickens at Llwyn Glass, 2023 |
Marcus owns Llwyn Glass which is set in a remote spot surrounded by woodland, and which was reclaimed from a ruin thirty odd years ago by a scrap merchant from my bit of south east London which offers up more links and more stories.
The story of that renovation is for another day, and with it will come Gwilym the farmer next door, a search for the history of the cottage and a little bit of Marcus’s plans which he maintains are about acting as a custodian for the property and the surrounding land.
And yes, there are chickens, lots of trees and the cottage can be booked through Booking.com.*
Location; Cwm-Cewydd
Pictures, Llwyn Glass, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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