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Donovan''s still mellow after all these years Aug 11 2006
SIXTIES superstar Donovan tells Philip Key about his links with Liverpool and the Beatles
Liverpool Daily Post
DONOVAN was always one of the more laid-back performers on the 1960s music scene and 40 odd years later he has not changed. He speaks in a slow, easy-going style, retains his restrained Glasgow accent and talks of peace and brotherhood.
The Ireland-based singer/ songwriter whose songs like Catch the Wind and Mellow Yellow became anthems of the era is in Britain launching his new CD compilation, The Very Best of Donovan.
But he is also happy to talk about his friendship with The Beatles and his first ever appearance in Liverpool''s Beatles Week this month.
Donovan, now 60, probably got closer to the group than other pop acts of the 1960s, a friendship that continues to this day.
"I ran into Ringo recently and he was soon exchanging these fast, funny phrases. I do miss the Liverpool humour and I think I am going to get a dose of it when I come up."
Donovan is headlining at a special Beatle Week show at the Liverpool Empire on Saturday, August 26.
"I think it''s going to be great," he enthuses. "I have been invited to the event over the years and I kept passing on it but wondering what it really was.
"I thought it was just loads of soundalike groups in mop-top haircuts and I thought maybe I could not add much to that.
"You see, I had a very real personal and spiritual connection with the Beatles and I thought it might not be the right thing for me. Then, over the years, I realised that it was actually a celebration and now it has expanded to a whole week."
Donovan has also since appeared at Beatle conventions in the USA, Chicago and Boston. "I found those experiences very interesting and met a lot of old pals. They were not only celebrating the four lads - as they used to be called - but celebrating their philosophy and the music and that was important.
"I found I had a few anecdotes to tell and I am going to tell a few when I come to Liverpool this time."
Donovan''s first meeting with the Beatles came early in a career which had taken off quite fast.
He had grown up as Donovan Leitch in Glasgow but moved with the family to Hatfield when he was 10.
By the age of 14, he was playing guitar and two years later he had left school and began touring Britain, busking with his long-time pal Gypsy Dave.
Finally settling in London two years later, he recorded a demo tape which included Catch the Wind.That led to an appearance in 1965 on the television pop music show Ready, Steady Go! and a hit single in Catch the Wind.
There were inevitable comparisons with Bob Dylan and later that year the two met.
"I was with Gypsy Dave my road buddy when I first met the Beatles and I was introduced to them by Bob Dylan.
"I immediately got on with them and over the years I wondered why. I came to realise it was because we had a shared interest and a shared background. I came from a tough seaport town called Glasgow and they came from a tough seaport town named Liverpool. There is a strong Irish connection in both these seaports which influenced the music and poetry of the singer/ songwriter.
"And of course, Lennon and McCartney are Irish names. So there was this similarity in backgrounds.
"We also shared an interest in meditation and yoga and lyrics of social conscience, trying to use pop music as a vehicle to sing to a generation of some sanity in a mad, mad, nuclear bomb world.
"We also found each other''s humour quite similar and I buddied up quite closely with George over the years because we both celebrated our philosophies in spiritual songs."
It was a friendship, says Donovan, that extended far beyond the usual mateyness of fellow performers.
"There was so much fame and superfame around in that era that a group of us - the Beatles included - found ourselves in an ivory tower protected from the fans. It stopped the Beatles touring and after a while we socially clanned together - when we went to India we were separated totally from the West and that was an extraordinary experience."
That trip to the ashram of the Maharishi turned out to be a life-changing experience, not only for the Beatles but for Donovan. Also on hand during those extraordinary few weeks were Beach Boy Mike Love, actress
Mia Farrow and Farrow''s sister, Prudence, the inspiration behind Lennon''s song Dear Prudence.
"We went there to learn meditation and we certainly did," says Donovan. "What I did not realise was that we would also be sitting around for six weeks with acoustic guitars writing songs. That was a great bonus. "We were healthy, eating vegetarian food and we weren''t drinking or taking drugs. Ringo called it a holiday but I learned a lot on that trip about myself, meditation and music. We shared a lot."
Donovan was able to teach Lennon and McCartney various guitar playing styles and the music of both The Beatles and Donovan was heavily influenced by the six weeks.
It still influences him, Donovan admits,. "Everything that happens when one is young and exploring new avenues can be an influence. I am still singing songs of peace and brotherhood just as dear John would have been doing if he was still here. His death was a great shock and loss and then we lost George, too. But the music lives on and George would be the first to say, don''t worry abut my body, listen to the music. George was always very clear on that: the music is the message. I will be telling all the fans in Liverpool the things George, Paul and John told me."
The friendship sometimes extended into their individual careers. "Paul came in when I was recording Mellow Yellow and added some claps and yells and I think I may be the only person who added a lyric to a Beatle song. Paul asked me to contribute to Yellow Submarine and I wrote a couple of lines to that. It was great to know them, you know, and have so much fun."
Donovan will be appearing on a bill with John Lennon''s original group The Quarrymen ("That will be a treat," he says) and Tony Sheridan, the Hamburg-based singer who once had the Beatles as a backing band.
"I will be bringing a bass player and it will be mostly Donovan Unplugged, telling stories, singing songs and having a jolly time with the audience, I hope."
Although he is only appearing on stage for one night, he intends to stay over for at least two days. "I will be signing copies of my autobiography Hurdy Gurdy Man which is now in paperback, selling the new CD The Very Best of Donovan ("It''s all the hits with a few bonus tracks") and soaking up the festive spirit."
* DONOVAN appears at the Liverpool Empire on Saturday, August 26-http://net12b.smolhomelan.ru/oea/millennium/news/06_aug/11_icliverpool_17546761.htm.