Sax and a skip

The Shed's intrepid arts explorer, Simon Thackray, gave a disbelieving world the Yorkshire Pudding Boat Race, the Elvis wig pattern, bingo with drumming, and Hat, a night of knitting live on stage. His latest idea is rubbish. He has invited jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill, of the London Improvisers Orchestra and Dedication Orchestra, to play in a skip in Ryedale's market places. What's up, skip?, asks Charles Hutchinson, as he ducks the jumble and motley mattresses

Firstly, Lol, how did you meet Shed inventor Simon Thackray, and were you aware of The Shed and Simon's propensity for being nuttier than a Topic bar?

"Simon phoned me. I'd heard of The Shed and knew that Simon was putting on some good events. Mrs Boyes' Bingo with a drummer sounded nicely strange."

How did he put the suggestion to you of performing in a skip?

"As attendances for improvised music gigs in The Shed are not usually high, Simon thought that a little tour with performances in a skip would be strange enough to draw in more people to listen to my playing."

How did you react to his proposal?

"A builder's skip as a venue is certainly more acceptable than a household refuse container and if it's odd enough to pull in an audience, that's OK by me."

What made you pick the saxophone as your instrument of choice?

"I bought my first saxophone when I was 15, I think. I liked Charlie Parker and wanted to play be-bop. I changed later but still like the music."

You have busked under Hungerford Bridge, you have played in swimming pools and an abattoir, but what is the strangest gig you ever played?

"I've played on plenty of strange gigs, but on one particularly odd occasion, during a performance arts festival, I had to play solo accompaniment to the overnight slow melting of a ten foot ice sculpture in a field from 10pm until dawn. The audience dwindled away rapidly during the later hours."

You have performed with comic legend Tommy Cooper and Seventies' punk iconoclasts The Damned. How did the experiences contrast?

"I think that I only played once on a Tommy Cooper gig. I just accompanied him on and off the stage with a couple of little intrusions.

"Playing with The Damned was good. I played a few riffs on some of the tunes, but mostly I improvised freely. They liked the intrusions.

"I still work as much as possible as an improvising duo with one of the band, Lu Edmonds."

What saxophone music is suitable for playing in a skip?

"Something interesting."

What would be unsuitable?

"As far as I'm concerned, something uninteresting."

Will you be composing new pieces specially for the event?

"Yes. All of the music will be freely improvised, in other words instant composition. What I like most is when I'm not thinking about it at all, it's like really of the moment. And I usually find when it is like that, that that's when I play the best I think - if I'm in that kind of mind, not thinking about where I am, just channeled into the music itself."

Apart from Lonnie Donegan's 1960 chart topper, My Old Man's A Dustman, are you aware of any compositions written specifically on the themes of skips or rubbish?

"How about Any Old Iron?"

What are the challenges of playing outdoors as opposed to indoors?

"Situations vary, like the weather."

What will happen when the millionth Ryedale joker shouts "Rubbish" and laughs hysterically at their dazzlingly original wit?

"If you mean on the skip gig, I don't think I'll pull in a million people."

Is yellow the best colour for a skip? If not, what would be?

"I find yellow skips quite enchanting. When I grow up I want to be one."

Speaking purely hypothetically, how would you react if you came across a man playing a saxophone in a skip in a Yorkshire market square?

"Good luck, mate. Rather you than me."

Lol Coxhill's Skipping Timetable in Ryedale is: Brawby village, 10.30am; Malton market place, noon; Pickering market place, 2pm; Kirkbymoorside market place, 3.30pm; Helmsley market place, 4.30pm. This free event, supported by Pi Internet and Arts & Business New Partners, will be recycled in London on the art radio station Resonance 104.4FM and to the world on resonancefm.com. For more details, skip to www.skipping.org.uk

Updated: 16:05 Thursday, October 28, 2004