Pictures of Lily 1999 Beth Orton Interview

Published in The Big Issue Spring 1999 Issue

Hello!

It was a real struggle deciding which version of the three Beth Orton stories I wrote in 1999 at the time of her second album, Central Reservation to share with you as founding members.

As I spoke about in the Beth Orton episode of the Pictures of Lily Podcast, during this particular interview, I ended up going with Beth to a clinic as she was very poorly. At that point, I didn’t have the writing skills to be able share that experience. But more importantly, I felt very protective of Beth and didn’t feel turning her health issues into a hook for my story would be the right thing to do.

The reason I talked about it on the Pictures of Lily Podcast episode, and am writing about it now is because Beth and I spoke about that experience in 2022 and she had no recollection of it. We had such a moment of divergent realization, because I thought we had an unspoken understanding about that clinic experience in that we wouldn’t ever acknowledge it. But it turns out that Beth has a black hole in her memory about it and when I recounted it for her, she was retroactively grateful that I looked after her.

I have a definite soft spot for Beth, which I hope comes through in this piece I wrote for the American version of the UK’s The Big Issue, under one of my pen names, Calvin O’Keefe, taken from one of the characters in my favorite book of all time, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

Please click on the images below to see an enlarged version that’s easy to read, or just zoom in if you’re reading this on the web.