Donovan

December 2010

What is the first thing you do when you wake up?

Meditate.

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Given final approval on the poster for my Royal Albert Hall concert June 3 2011, where I will perform my classic 1966 album Sunshine Superman with full orchestra. This album opened so many doors for songwriters to experiment. The lyrics announced my generation’s need for free speech and the re-discovery of meditation for the West. I will sing some of these songs in Skegness.

What have you done lately that you're ashamed of?

Only I know and you can’t.

What's your guiltiest pleasure?

Plum tomatoes, cooked for my delicious pasta sauce that I occasionally make. I really should not eat them.

What's your earliest memory?

The poetry my father read me and the man in the street singing songs outside my Glasgow window.

Whose career do you envy?

No-one’s. I have enough of a career for three lifetimes.

If you had to be stuck in a lift with someone, who would it be?

Houdini.

What is your biggest fear?

That the ‘Meanies' will win and all the brainwashed people on the planet let them.

Do you have any superstitions?

By superstition you mean perhaps 'saying a magic word' or crossing one’s fingers. Well I do say what one might call a magic word, its called a Mantra. It is used to lead the mind deep inside when we meditate. It is not spoken aloud but inside you. It is a meaningless sound, and allows one to watch one's thoughts, to view them passing and the use of the ‘word’ allows us to experience a deep level within us all, a level which teaches us to deal with fear, anger, frustration and doubt - all the ills that beset the world .

All this is in many of my lyrics and also The Beatles’ songs, as we five journeyed to India back in 1968 to discover this for ourselves.

When was the last time you cried and why?

On a small town street, back in January, when I felt helpless. I had to be cruel to be kind, and the tears came tumbling down .

Who is the most famous name in your mobile

phonebook?

My cell phone has the famous and the infamous and each for different reasons. The one I will choose is famous for excellence in music, Nigel Kennedy.

What item could you not live without?

It has always been a well-made acoustic guitar but now it seems like it’s a laptop.

 The Great British Folk Festival at Butlin’s, Skegness runs until Sunday. For details call 0845 070 4730 or visit www.bigweekends.com/folk