![]() ![]() He was no stranger to jeely pieces either.ĭonnie Leitch was Protestant, his wife Wynn a Catholic. “I was brought up on a diet of Celtic mysticism, poetry and socialism,” says Donovan. The family was poor but Donnie was an autodidact, a great reader who could be counted upon to stand up at parties and recite the works of Robert Burns and Robert Service he was also a staunch trade unionist. His father, Donnie, had helped build Spitfire engines, and after the war continued to work as a tool setter. The Glasgow of his childhood was a post-war city of bombed buildings he hunted for shell casings in the rubble. Born Donovan Philips Leitch in Glasgow in 1946, he grew up in a (now demolished) tenement “a stone’s throw” from the hotel in which we are sitting. It’s all very well-timed his music has more currency now than at any time since the 1960s, Devendra Banhart and the new American folk movement he spearheads having cited Donovan as a key influence.ĭonovan became a pop star aged 19, packed it in at 24, and is now 59. His auto biography, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, is being published to coincide with the anniversary. Donovan is celebrating 40 years since his first chart success – his debut single Catch The Wind went to number four in 1965, the first of 10 hits in that decade. We walk downstairs to the brasserie to talk. He has just come from performing a short acoustic set in a bookshop when he started playing, one woman burst into tears, presumably from pleasure. ![]() He’s wearing the standard issue beatnik black polo-neck and his greying hair is as long and curly as in his hippy heyday. He is standing in the reception area of Glasgow’s Malmaison hotel, talking to a blonde woman holding a yellow flower. ![]() ALTHOUGH he considers himself a visionary, I see Donovan before he sees me. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |