Spiral Castle
The original line-up of Spiral Castle consisted of four friends; Dave Smith a.k.a Damh the Bard, Chris Tinniswood, Rob Hall, and Carl Sutterby. The band was formed when Damh was asked to perform at an evening celebrating ten years of OBOD. We went on to record six of Damh's songs, one traditional folk song, and one of my songs, 'Wendel's Mount'.
This was the first song I wrote for guitar, and was the result of a fascination with a Sussex hill figure called The Long Man of Wilmington. The name Wendel was given to the Long Man by author Neil Gaiman in an issue of his 'Sandman' comic book series, entitled 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
The Long Man also inspired me to create a series of cartoons which were published in 'Touchstone' magazine, the OBOD journal. These were entitled 'Tales from the Long Man', a play on the book 'Tales from a Long Room' by Peter Tinniswood (no relation).
Wendel's Mount
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On Wendel's Mount I stopped to gaze, at the sun's sweet setting rays
And through the breeze I thought I heard, an echo from a magic word
And looking up upon the hill, I saw the giant standing still
Holding what I thought were spears, with which he had been armed for years
Who's the man upon the downs? Is he a king without a crown?
Is he Wendel or Sucellos? Is he a god whose name is lost?
The songs of old rang through my head, melodies I thought long dead
And as the sun began to sink, I found myself upon the brink
Between two realms; the one I knew, the other' I would journey to
For as I stood the Long Man woke, and with my inner voice he spoke...
'In the Iron Age' he said, 'I was a guardian of the dead'
And even now within the hill, the Celts of yesteryear lie still
I was an Anglo-Saxon god, tis said that Wayland this way trod
And every year with merry-make, they scour me with scythe and rake'
So now I stood beneath his feet and watched as he performed a feat
As marvellous as e'er I'd seen, he opened now the door between
Our realm and the faerie lands, as he pulled with mighty hands
Not spears but doorways open wide, and with a smile I stepped inside...