“SONG FOR EWE” is the feature where artists & music people beloved by VELVET SHEEP choose an obscure song they’ve been listening to that day. Today’s guest is a musician, actor, artiste, writer, curator, enfant terrible, idiot savant, bon viveur, rock survivor, best man at the wedding of The Damned’s Dave Vanian, whose powerfully prescient band Doctors of Madness in their proto punk pomp (the band were active between 75-78) were supported by The Sex Pistols, The Jam, Warsaw (Joy Division) and Simple Minds. John Peel loved him, Vic Reeves raves about him, which is more than good enough for me. Now back with a brand new album, the appropriately named and flavoured “Dark Times”, produced by his friend and top notch producer John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses et al) and featuring some great guests including our old mucker Terry Edwards, I was reminded of the great man when my mate Johny Brown of the Band of Holy Joy had him on the bill at his Pop Not Hate event in London recently, and so I was thrilled when he agreed to choose a “song for ewe”. He’s always very busy, but now more than ever, not only with the new Doctors album which has been a long time coming (all new material, pertinent and still punk, Johny Brown called it thus “currency”), a recent cameo on the ace Anni Hogan record but also with a full and purportedly last ever Doctors tour on the horizon and a must-see solo tour playing the songs of Lou Reed, so it’s an honour that he’s made time for us on VS, welcome to the living legend, that is Richard “Kid” Strange…! Check out the deets of that remarkable Lou Reed tour, with a stellar band in tow… Richard Strange has a CV as long as your arm, that is if your arms belong to Mr. Tickle. It must be hard for even he to keep up with his own exploits. As well as the baritone baracking of the Doctors of Madness, it wasn’t long ago he completed a retrospective tour of his 1978-80 solo performance opus “The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange”, a one man multimedia political fable that still rings true. He has recently sang in a number of concerts organised by the celebrated American Producer/Arranger Hal Wilner, most notably “Stay Awake!” a programme of Walt Disney songs, which was performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall as part of Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown Festival, and also in New York. The shows featured Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Steve Buscemi, Pete Docherty, Shane McGowan, Jarvis Cocker and Beth Orton. Richard also sang at Wilner’s “Rogues Gallery”, an evening of Sea Shanties at London’s Barbican Theatre, in July, alongside Tim Robbins, Shane McGowan, Martha Wainwright, and Suzanne Vega. He reopened his signature Cabaret Futura (Soho’s first ever multimedia cabaret night) after a 30 year hiatus which has recently featured performances by Gary Kemp, Sarah Jane Morris, Michael Nyman, Richard Wilson, Rupert Thomson, Stella Duffy, John Lenahan and Ed Harcourt He performed the children’s fantasy book “Anna and The Witch’s Bottle at the Barbican’s Surreal House exhibition”, and curated the New Territories International Festival Of Live Art in Glasgow. He presented and co-wrote “This is Not Magritte”, a programme commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to coincide with a retrospective of the work of the Belgian surrealist and hosts a monthly live chat show, A MIGHTY BIG IF. His recent guests have included Mike Figgis, Gavin Turk, Simon Day, Robert Elms, Cornelia Parker and Michael Nyman. He’s also curated a special one-off evening for the Tate Gallery, called “Cabaret Apocalyptica”, inspired by 18th/19th Century artist John...