Jim Lawson

Born back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth…well, the year that Sir Edmund Hilary climbed Mt Everest, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and when Watson and Crick unravelled the structure of DNA, The Ancient One truly lives up to his name. After spending 33 years in teaching, the last 25 as Head of Biology, I successfully applied for early retirement (2008) and moved lock and stock (I didn’t possess any barrels at the time) to the beautiful Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland, to join my partner, The Landlady. (now known as Mrs Ancient One) As a retired person, I looked around the various voluntary openings that existed and one led me to the local radio station, Cuillin FM. I thought I might be able to help out sorting cds or something. Within a couple of weeks I was asked if I wanted to present a program and trained up as soon as I said “Yes”. Launched onto the airwaves was the show “Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal” and I was able to foist some of my shedload of music onto an unsuspecting public. From mainstream rock/folkrock the contents slowly evolved to full blown progressive rock with leanings towards the symphonic melodic areas. The title of the show also changed to “Strangely Strange and The Ancient One”, which initially confused listeners as they expected 2 presenters, and thus the show title was shortened to simply “The Ancient One”. The show has appeared onCuillin FM,North Highland Radio, Pipeline Radio International and. More Music Radio The Ancient One show on Progzilla Radio is a 3hr show going out fortnightly, (every Tuesday night at 21:00 UK) highlighting the best in progressive music, so expect lots of modern progressive music, but with the odd excursion back in time to the classic works of the late 60’s/early 70’s, all showing a more symphonic nature. Every 2nd Saturday at midday UK, there is the chance to hear an Ancient One Archive Show from 7 years ago, and every 5th Sunday between the hours of midnight and 02:00 UK, The Ancient One presents 101 Dimensions a show featuring ambient, electronica, krautrock and more with no mic work.

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“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 188

June 4, 2022

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 188 is now online. This is one of the Short Story series and features 46 varied tracks which are all under 4 minutes in length. Playlist 1 La Torre Delle’Alchimista – Risveglio (excerpt used as Intro) 2 Wynder K Frog – […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 187”

May 18, 2022

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 187 is now available. This is a show carrying the title ” 2 from 6 ” and picks an album from the back catalogues of 6 bands and then chooses 2 tracks from that album. Here stunning tracks from 3 Swedish […]

“The Ancient One – Edition 186”

May 5, 2022

The Ancient One is very happy to say that the podcast for Show No 186 is now available. This is one of the “Featuring” series of shows and No 186 is all about ” Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music” from 1971 to 1983. Playlist. 1 La Torre D’Alchimista – Resviglio (exc used as Intro) […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One _ Edition 185”

April 20, 2022

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 185, broadcast on 19th April at 21:00 UK, is now available. This was one of the shows in the “Featuring” series and highlighted the music of 3 Canadian bands. They are Spaceport Union, Monarch Trail and Jelly Fiche. Playlist 1 La […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 175”

March 7, 2022

The Ancient One is delighted to say that the podcast for Show No 175 is now available. This is a show in the “Mixed Bag” series and is Volume 17. Playlist 1 La Torre D’Alchimista – Risveglio (excerpt used as the Intro) 2 Fall Of Epistome – Invisible Crusader 3 Ian Hill – Arik’s Journey […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 176”

March 6, 2022

I’m delighted to say that the podcast for Show No 176 by The Ancient One is now available. This show features the band, Unitopia, who have a new album for imminent release, so we trace the evolution of the band through the 4 studio albums available. The four albums are More Than a Dream, The […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 174”

November 21, 2021

TAO is delighted to say that Show No 174 is now available as a podcast. This is the first show to have been recorded in Eyrie Studio In The Neuk. This is a “Mixed Bag” show where TAO “catches up with some music” that has been issued while the studio was in transit as we […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 165”

July 16, 2021

The Ancient One is delighted to say that the podcast for Show No 165, “4 Bands From Germany”, is now available as a podcast. This show highlights, briefly, the back catalogues of the bands, Poor Genetic Material, RPWL, Sylvan and Traumhaus. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit of the Dance (Excerpt from the Recollections CD, used […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 164”

July 16, 2021

The Ancient One is delighted to say that the podcast for Show No 164, ” Featuring 4 Glasgow Bands” is now available. This show features music fro Abel Ganz, Comedy Of Errors, Grand Tour and Long Earth. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (Excerpt from the Recollections CD used as an Intro) 2 […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 163”

June 20, 2021

The Ancient One is delighted to state that the podcast is now available for Show No 163, “Tall Tales Vol 12”. This is one of the series of shows that feature long prog tracks. Playlist. 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt taken from the Recollections cd and used as the intro) 2 Trettrioariga […]