Ivor Index

TR: This is the first time that >Ludo has been available since it was first released. It wasn=t a big hit the first time around, was it?

IC: When it was first issued by EMI it was given virtually no publicity. It was one of those things that=s brought out to either sink or swim. It sank. John Peel told me he picked up his copy in Woolworth=s for 50p.

That=s an incredibly naive question to ask me. Business people want to make money. They don=t want to pour money where they=re not going to get a good financial return. And I am not your middle-of-the-road, big, popular AHi everybody!@ kind of person.

The trio had spent six months preparing for the recording. We came up with everything. George Martin was rather annoyed, because there was nothing for him to do. He pressed the necessary buttons, I suppose, at the console. I=m very pleased with the record, though. I=m delighted to hear what it sounded like 30 years ago.

I couldn=t give you any kind of percentage. It would vary between the pieces. A man recognised me in Waitrose last week and said, I had a grandfather just like yours [on Life In A Scotch Sitting Room Vol 2] who dished out grains of sand to all the kids. On that record, I was talking about being brought up in the Twenties when there was dire poverty.

The people [laughs]. I do have Scottish friends. But the Free Church, with God looking down all the time making sure people don=t sin, has a terrible effect on the Scottish. They like to disapprove.

I=m one of these people who ... is bored stiff. I spend my time thinking: what the hell am I going to do today? So I might go to a second-hand bookshop, I might bicycle, go to the zoo or to a gallery. Things to pass the time.