Wishbone Ash

Twin Rivers highlights two issues. I am not a Calvinist - I do not believe in excessive suffering for art, although I’m not averse of course to making someone else suffer for the sake of art, you... read more understand in this case the poor models who were swimming in the freezing waters of a Berkshire river in November, The river was actually spring-fed and therefore colder than a normal one. Not to mention the photographer, the redoubtable Tony May, who hung his bottom and his camera out of a helicopter at 350 feet on the same cold day. I always thought the result was worth it but I don’t know if I can speak for them...haven’t seen them in a while. The other issue raised is the thorny problem of a client accepting the rough but rejecting the finished piece. This sometimes happens and is very problematic, specially in this instance when the finished thing looked very much like the rough only much better. We heard that it was the guitarist’s wife, who was the agent of rejection, but we can’t imagine why. Wishbone Ash were a dual guitar band and I imagined a bifurcating river (river of creativity) in which the boys played, or this case swam. Two guitars, two rivers and two meanings apparently, according to Mrs Guitarist. To us however a real river, in real countryside with real swimmers who nearly froze to death seemed like a perfect illustration of the title, and hence of a major characteristic of the band - more than suitable for a retrospective. But not to be, and there’s the rub. But we have the picture. Or rather, you have it.