
Listening notes: Listen to Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, from Bob Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde (1966) Think about being stuck in the middle of anything. And day dream about shaggy dog stories.


Listening notes: Listen to Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, from Bob Dylan’s album Blonde on Blonde (1966) Think about being stuck in the middle of anything. And day dream about shaggy dog stories.

Listening notes from Ali Finks: I searched for a suitable track for this post and came across Parallax by Sun Electric. It took me back to 1991. I was studying in Edinburgh at that time. During breaks from the library I would head down to the plethora of record shops in the centre of the city. As a KLF completist I was delighted to find a copy of Sun Electrics O’Locco on 12″ in Fopp. I spotted that there were remixes by The Orb and Jimmy Cauty. Or perhaps I had read that there were and went out to snare a copy. I can’t remember the details. I think it might have been on clear vinyl. I used to listen to all the tracks in one sitting while studying at night. It was hypnotic and addictive, predicting the snippets of samples peppered throughout the different versions.

Listening notes: think about songs revived and repurposed. Play any version of The Bells of St Mary’s (written 1917 by A. Emmett Adams and Douglas Furber). This was resurrected by Bing Crosby in 1945 (in a film with the same title) and many artists since. It had acquired an association with Christmas, snow falling on snow, ever since. There isn’t a yuletide meaning in the lyrics themselves.
Here Gillian Finks gives it rather a sinister twist as she imagines a threatened shipwreck just off Douglas, capital of the Isle of Man.

Listening notes: Hunt down A Camp LP (2001) by A Camp. Listen all the way through, while remembering lessons in algebra. Paint in the outline of a sketch of Manannan, his arms and hands mere tendrils of mist, enveloping an unsuspecting ferry, approaching Douglas, capital of the Isle of Man. Think about white horses in the Irish Sea, carrying St Patrick to Peel. Read about Nina Persson, Niclas Frisk and Nathan Larsson. And remember the late Mark Linkous, AKA Sparklehorse.

Listening notes: Fellow Travellers by Web Web and Max Herre (2023)

GANTOB’s 25 Paintings
A 350 page magnum opus, hardback, A4, exploring the origins of The KLF, obsessive collecting, and the route to recovery through creativity
Completed 28 October 2025*
42 copies printed 29 October
Delivered to The Benefaktor on 30 October
5 copies gathered as evidence by the police on an island in the Atlantic Archipelago 31 October
4 copies returned to the deputy manager of GANTOB on 19 December, the remaining copy retained by the police until impending court case
1 copy will be sent to the British Library under our commitments as publisher. The remaining copies will be retained (and 2 further copies printed) for commitments to the 5 remaining copyright libraries across the British Isles
The full story will be revealed in unexpected ways January 2026
* After a period of proofreading by 5 volunteers. These paperback A4 proof volumes may still be in existence, depending on the actions of the proofreaders

Listening notes: sit under an apple tree on a golf course looking out to sea, on a non-playing day
Count the rooks and think of other sedentary (i.e. non migratory) bird species.
Then count the apples on the tree.
Sing the opening bars of XTC’s song Rook (1991), but adapted to work as a round. The rooks might caw the chorus.
This is diversionary activity rather than anything more meaningful. It is a way to pass the time while waiting for the next ferry.

Listening notes: check out clarsach players The Willow Trio: Oystercatcher. Take some time to sketch out an autumnal tree with a 4B pencil, ready to paint when you have time.

Listening notes: Put on Hilbre Island by Don Woods (2021) and check the tide timetable to plan your own visit.

Listening notes: Listen to Lou Reed’s 1982 LP The Blue Mask. Think about blue ocean and a cloudless sky, or mist hanging gently on a calm lake. Drift awhile in an influenza fuelled fever. During the song Waves of Fear imagine Little Grapefruit on a grey-green stormy sea, with no escape.
Apologies for the intermittent posts. Blame university deadlines and a trip to Edinburgh to try to work out the origins of the different types of teabag envelopes my mum used for her writing (with no conclusion, as the shops she frequented during visits to the capital change supplier with price fluctuations). Flu, contracted I suspect on the bus, has led to a battle for an extension to my assessments.
FIONA FINKS 15 December 2025
