Published: Wednesday, 1st July, 2009 12:00pm

Donovan Days at County Museum

Taking place in Cavan County Museum and the Ramor Theatre next weekend (July 9-12), Donovan Days is a celebration of the art, music, poetry and life of this legend, and is sure to be one of the highlights of the cultural season in Ireland this summer.

An artist with a back catalogue of 30 albums and thousands of songs, Donovan is firmly of the view that there was a lot more to the swinging sixties than free love, drugs and hippydom.

'The sixties was a revolt against two wars and a depression and a nuclear war hovering above,' he states. 'We knew that the world was being poisoned; that there had to be more communication; that understanding, peace and love needed to be understood to be essential to save the planet.'

The artist who brought us smash hits including Mellow Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Colours and Catch the Wind defines the bohemian manifesto as being 'to convince as many governments as possible, as soon as possible, that we must start looking at what we"re doing in ruining not only our own health but the health of the planet, and try to understand the differences between cultures and religions and show them that the common bond of humanity is that we"re one tribe on one planet.'

Donovan points out that the principles and goals of the sixties movement are every bit as important now in the noughties: 'It"s all relevant really. When Obama stands up and says we must find the answer now and change, it"s really a sixties message which is finally coming home... My views remain the same, from that very, very first record, I was part of the folk music generation that was singing of peace and brotherhood, social injustice, civil rights, women"s rights, ecology and a spiritual path.'

In 1966, Donovan was the first high-profile British pop star to be arrested for possession of marijuana. He believes he, and other famous musicians were 'targetted'.

'The targets were the singer/songwriters who were appealing to millions of people around the world. We weren"t trying to sell drugs or push to get high, but it was the songs we were singing about social change. No government likes it.'

He did some 'light stuff', he readily admits, but drugs were 'part of it'. He points to an arguable hypocrisy.

'It was trying to understand how to get inside the human psyche and smoke was a lot easier on the health than alcohol. There were many casualties of course, but not as many as cigarettes and alcohol. It"s an enormous problem when a government condones tobacco and alcohol and yet they point fingers at a generation who were smoking a joint.'

No regrets

So, is he Edith Piaf like in terms of regrets? Doesn"t he have any?

'No. I mean, everything was wonderful then and it"s wonderful now,' he says happily, even quoting a string of songs whose messages hold better now than ever - with the "current economic climate" such as it is.

'It"s just taken so long for the world to wake up. The world should regret that it didn"t wake up 35 years ago when all the songs were trying to tell them that the times they are a-changing, the hard rain"s going to fall, give peace a chance, all you need is love and the universal soldier. The songs were actually pouring out the words. The poets are in the vanguard always.'

Fast-forwarding about four decades to a time when people are more receptive to what the sixties movement was about, it"s all the more exciting to have this sixties legend in Cavan for the forthcoming festival, Donovan Days - a three-day celebration of his art, music, poetry and life. Donovan Days also celebrates the Celtic tradition from which he emerged. Organised in association with Govinda Gallery in Washington DC, Donovan Days is quite a coup for the county.

Featured events from Donovan Days include the first European exhibition of his extraordinary Sapphographs, a tribute concert celebrating Donovan"s music with him as headliner, and the Irish premier of the documentary feature film, Sunshine Superman: The Journey of Donovan.

'It"s most unusual,' says Donovan of the forthcoming tribute event to him. 'I"ve been to many festivals, but to have a festival all to one"s self is really fun and I"m very honoured, of course.'

There are many strands to the festival, which is a mutual tribute. 'Linda and I feel we wish to honour Ireland with this festival as well, by way of speaking to you and others about how Ireland has always been a welcoming home to us. We"ve been living in Ireland longer than we"ve been living anywhere else,' says Donovan.

He adds that it"s also a way of honouring Linda, his beloved wife, and that the Scottish and Irish Celtic influence in music and the arts is also an important theme.

'I"m hoping that Donovan Days resounds around the world, not only to my own benefit and my own praise, but to the praise of where I come from, which is Irish in Glasgow,' says Donovan, who has Irish roots and now lives near Mallow in Co. Cork with his wife and muse, Linda.

Premieres

At Donovan Days, Cavan County Museum has the honour of presenting the first European exhibition of Donovan"s Sapphographs. With a creativity evident in his singing and songwriting, visual expression also comes naturally to Donovan.

'Most of my generation of songwriters went to art school or we paint or take photographs,' he says, giving examples of Ringo Starr, Bill Wyman, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.

Donovan"s father, who brought him up on classic children"s stories, was a photographer and showed him some techniques - an interest he later re-ignited. 'I started taking pictures about ten years ago to remember that I used to paint and draw. Music became so obessive that I forgot I did other things.'

His Sapphographs are an apt and wonderful meeting of the written word and visual art. The theme is poetry and the poet is Sappho, explains Donovan, who is an enthusiastic fan of the famous ancient Greek poet. 'She is so influential still,' he says. 'I love poetry, so poetry and art came together.'

Donovan"s Sapphographs evoke the aesthetic sensuality of nature and the power of its rituals to inspire artistic creation. 'Donovan"s Sapphographs are perhaps the finest contemporary homage to the greatest lyric poet of Ancient Greece,' as curator, Chris Murray, writes in the exhibition catalogue.

As well as this European visual art premiere, Cavan will host the Irish premiere of director Hannes Rossacher"s documentary feature film on the life and work of Donovan, with a discussion afterwards with Donovan and Linda, moderated by Chris Murray.

Sunshine Superman: The Journey of Donovan depicts his extraordinary life and is full of rare anecdotes about colleagues, musical collaborators and friends.

The award-winning film also features appearances by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Mickie Most, Rick Rubin, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, film directors Franco Zeffirelli and David Lynch, and many more.

Donovan tells how the film came about:

'I"d been writing a book of anecdotes and stories to tell the bohemian manifesto story of how I began, the people I knew and how it really is important that the world continues to become aware of itself and all those wonderful things,' he says. The book, The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man, was released in 2005.

A friend of Donovan"s in Austria introduced him to a film-maker Hannes Rossacher. 'He"s a very hip documentary maker,' says Donovan. 'He had just finished and got a Grammy nomination for Freddie Mercury - The Untold Story, and he"d done tonnes of stuff on others like Marianne Faithful and Tom Waits.'

The result was the three-hour documentary (available on amazon.com).

It won"t be Donovan"s first visit to Cavan, as he was in Lavey to play at the wedding of his friend, Chris Murray, and Carlotta Hester in 2005.

'I"m very pleased to say I loved my trip,' he says, adding that the presentation of Carlotta"s art exhibition in the County Museum at the same time was 'lovely'.

'That"s why I"m very pleased to have my own work presented there,' says the legend, who is gracious in expressing his enthusiasm about the forthcoming tribute.