from Inside A Prune

Hello again, and welcome to issue 18. I hope you enjoy our wide and varied selection of contents. As ever, our eternal gratitude to our contributors.

Things have been as busy as ever in Dylan World, touring continues apace. However, the show that has impressed me most is one now on DVD that I have never been that keen on when listening to audio only. I am referring to the partial release of the 1969 Isle of Wight show, which is not only of historical import but also gives a whole other slant to the event. Dylan is so involved, in control and confrontational. Another DVD you must get is Changing Tracks from Rock Milestones series on classic albums, in this case the peerless Blood on the Tracks. This is because your beloved editor features strongly in it, as do Mick Gold and Clinton Heylin, both famed for earlier appearances in Judas!

All these things going on – and, naturally, over and above all, the expectant wait for Modern Times. Soon, however, you are going to have to enjoy it all without Judas! beside you. Yes, it is my sad duty to tell you that we are building up to saying ‘fare-thee-well’ (or ‘goodbye’, if Bob is correct in thinking it a better word). We have come to a point where both of us have virtually no spare time left to keep the ship afloat at the quality standard we said we would maintain. You may have noticed that our proof-reading was skimped on recently as we suffered under time pressure and had to wing it without our previous expert help. We tried hard to keep errors to a minimum but they’ve been proliferating. It goes deeper than that, too. One of the great pleasures of being an editor is encouraging an idea from its first steps through to the finished article. When time becomes so scarce that this sours from being a pleasure and starts to feel a burden, it is time to stop. Simply put, our respective various employments have left us no time to do the job properly.
However, this is not the final issue; two more are due, in October and January. It is, however, impossible for us to continue into the next calendar year, so what we are proposing is a double issue in December.

The final, double, issue will be in two parts. Issue 19 will be on Modern Times and issue 20 on everything else. Mick Gold, Clinton Heylin, Mike Marqusee and Larry Sloman are already in line to appear. In addition we already have Razor Edge II’s 2002 chapter and a fascinating interview revolving around the Cardiff 1966 show.

Please send in anything you have been meaning to write for us in the next few months, as this will be your last chance to appear (or re-appear) in the pages of Judas! If you do not want to write an article, then send in a letter telling us what your favourite articles have been over the years. Finally I should mention that it was good to meet with long term friends and to make some new ones at Bournemouth and, as I can still say it: ‘best wishes until next time to all of you’.

Andrew Muir