Of the countless sites visited, Cope has selected over 300 of the very best; photographing their remains and explaining fully their relationships with the landscape. Like Burl, Cope’s observations from the fringe gave him unique insight, and although partly a scholarly work of essays and footnotes, The Modern Antiquarian is not bogged down with dry fact. reading this every day got tedious in some other areas, but don't feel you have to read every word like this megalith stalker. Each site includes field notes, map references, directions, along with more than 600 photographs and drawings. Although when he arrived at the lectern, he wore so much hairspray that it set the fire alarms off and the sold-out audience had to be evacuated.

Julian Cope presents Head Heritage Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

When I visited the site in 2003, the Danes’ tendency to exaggerate the distances between their islands obliged me to leave my cosy hotel on the Isle of Fyn at 3am, only to huddle in a freezing hired hatchback for two full hours, awaiting the 8 o’clock sunrise. Easy for you to say that, I thought to myself, when I could barely afford the bus fare into town that night, never mind a trip to the Isle of Lewis to look at some old stones. I’ve always believed anyone who refers to themselves as a ‘shaman’ is a tosser who is probably doing it to get laid or make themselves sound more interesting than they actually are.

In the essay section he examines our prehistoric beginnings through the evidence of our megalithic remains and their surroundings, helping us to reconcile where we are Right Now. The Iberian Peninsula contains many impressive examples of these structures, and the rock-cut tombs at Delphi in Greece are similar to Cornish dolmens and burial mounds. A tome, while essentially a travel book, also includes essays look at prehistoric sites, remains, and surrounding areas as in the first temples ever built on the British Isles. Prior to its recording, he was depressed, and in his “Paul Weller phase, composing music that I felt nobody was getting”.

Stone circles, standing stones, megalithic sites, prehistoric

His unperfect view of what these sites were used for is open to interpretation, guiding the reader to make up their own minds as to their true intent. It is one of the most interesting reference books I have ever seen and I like to flip through the pages to discover new sites. Eery and unlikely arrangements, precariously balanced and perched stones, odd alignments, sadly broken and toppled remnants, huge barrows -- and all of it ancient and storied.I read the NME and Melody Maker religiously and was always captivated by Cope’s interviews, in which I would stare at pictures of him crouching with a large turtle shell on his back, or lampooning police at the poll tax riots dressed as a papier-mâché alien named ‘Sqwubbsy’ with a giant baby’s head, considering if he should assassinate Margaret Thatcher. He always had a devoted following in Glasgow, for example, where ‘Sunspots’ was the record most stolen from house parties in the 1980s. At the time of its publication, there was rarely any indication from the roadside that these sites existed; the ‘brown signs’ of English Heritage weren’t common, so it was frequently left for the intrepid walker to find the sites of Bronze Age and Neolithic Britain through Ordnance maps or word of mouth.

Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope, First Edition - AbeBooks Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope, First Edition - AbeBooks

In contrast to the formality of ancient history, there is an enduring appeal to Cope’s musical career that stretches beyond conventional audiences.

Next comes an Irish harp discovered in Scotland, the impressive Druidic robes of the late 18th-century Celtic revival, and in a cabinet close to the exit an arrangement of football shirts with green-and-white hoops: Glasgow’s Celtic FC, of course. Part one is a collection of loosely connected essays telling a story about how we were all better off in pagan days when we were one with the circle of life, before Christianity and the Patriarchy ruined it all. In October 2004 Cope published the follow-up volume The Megalithic European [6] on 300 sites scattered across Europe and Scandinavia.