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 162”

June 7, 2021

The Ancient One is pleased to let everyone know that Show No 162, “Mixed Bag Vol 16” is now available as a podcast. This features music from Germany, USA, Greece, Poland, Finland, Norway, Italy, Netherlands and the UK. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit of the Dance (excerpt from the cd Recollections used as the Intro) […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 161

May 25, 2021

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that Show No 161, “A Brief History of Cosmograf” is now available as a podcast. This show traces the evolution of Robin Armstrong’s creative vehicle through the 8 studio albums Cosmograf have released. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance ( excerpt used as the Intro, […]

“Podcast:The Ancient One – Edition 160”

May 19, 2021

The Ancient One is pleased to say that Show No 160 is now available as a podcast. I apologise for the delay, but we were on a holiday break. Show No 160 is one of the series called “Short Stories” and this is Vol 10, where all tracks are between 3:30 min and 7:30 min. […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition No 159”

April 25, 2021

THe Ancient One is pleased to be able to say that Show No 159 is now available as a podcast. This is a show from the series “Concept Album Shows” and features Edison’s Children, Mandalaband, Karfagen, Sonus Umbra, Phideaux and Jon Anderson. Each “track” will feature a section from the concept album. Settle back and […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 158”

April 11, 2021

The Ancient One is pleased to be able to say that Show No 158 is now available as a podcast. This is one of the series of shows called “Featuring” and this one highlights music from the back catalogues of four French bands. The bands in question are Spleen Arcana (2 albums), Esthesis (1 EP […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 157”

April 1, 2021

Greetings, The Ancient One has a new show available as a podcast. This is Show No 157 which is one of the Tall Tales series of shows. Music comes from Germany, Norway, Ukraine, Spain and the UK. Artists featured are Ape Amplitude, Caligonaut, Lifesigns, Antony Kalugin, The Emerald Dawn, The Flying Caravan, Tusmorke, Jordsjo and […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 156”

March 18, 2021

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 156 is now available online. This is a special show to celebrate 6 years of TAO on Progzilla Radio. The music is culled from the back catelogues of Can, Irmin Schmidt (the Can keyboard player) and Holger Czukay ( the Can […]

” Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 155″

February 28, 2021

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 155 is now available. This is one of the series of Mixed Bag shows where TAO gets a chance to catch up on some newer materials that don’t fit into the other themed shows. Hear music from Sweden, Norway, Germany. The […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 154”

February 15, 2021

The Ancient One is delighted to say that the podcast for Show No 154 is now available. This is one of the “Featuring” series of shows and is ” The Sound Of Iceland”. Hear 6 superb Icelandic bands, Eldberg, Lucy In Blue, Trubrot, Thursaflokkir, For A Minor Reflection and Svanfridur. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 153”

February 14, 2021

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that Show No 153 is now available as a podcast. This is “The Long and The Short of 2020 Vol 2” which features my choice of the best of 2020, but this time the long tracks, where they all exceed 10 minutes in length. Playlist 1 Greenslade […]