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 152”

February 14, 2021

The Ancient One is pleased to say that Show No 152 is now available as a podcast. This is “The Long And The Short Of 2020 Vol 1” which is TAO’s choice of the best shorter tracks of albums in 2020. All the track times are less than 10 minutes. Hear music from Norway, Germany, […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 150”

February 14, 2021

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 150 is now available. This is one of the shows in the series of “Concept Albums”. Hear sections of superb music from Finland, Norway, Australia, UK and one band classed as multinational. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (Excerpt […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 151”

February 14, 2021

The Ancient One is delighted to say that Show No 151 is now available as a podcast. This is one of the shows that comes round only once a year. This is the podcast of the ” 2 Days Before Hogmanay” show which featured 5 Scottish artists and a selection of tracks from each, which […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 149”

December 6, 2020

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that Show No 149 is now available as a podcast. This is a show in the Featuring series and this time all the track titles feature a colour. Hear music from Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, USA, Germany, Poland, Finland and the UK. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 148”

November 23, 2020

The Ancient One is pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 148 is now available. This is one of the series of shows classed a s “Mixed Bag” which means anything goes, and this is Volume 14 which features music from the years 1970-1975. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 147”

November 8, 2020

The Ancient One is delighted to say that Show No 147, “Tall Tales Vol 10” is now available as a podcast. This is one of the series of shows that highlights epic length prog tracks. Hear new music, all 2020, from Ukraine, Italy, Norway, Finland and the UK. Playlist 1 Greeenslade – Spirit of the […]

” Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 146″

October 25, 2020

The Ancient One is very pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 146, “8 Influential Albums” is now available. This is a show featuring some albums from 1968 – 1974 that “hit the spot” on my musical journey, which is still ongoing of course. The music comes from 1968 (Family, Deep Purple), 1969 […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 145”

October 11, 2020

The Ancient One is pleased to say that the podcast for Show No 145, “Featuring Jordsjo, Tusmorke and White Willow” is now available online. This show visits the back catalogues of the 3 Norwegian bands to give a brief chronological history of their music. Playlist. 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt used as […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 144”

October 3, 2020

The Ancient One is delighted to tell everyone that the podcast for Show No 144, “The Concept Album Show Vol 9”, is now online. This features large chunks from concept albums, old and new, and the bands are, Hibernal (Australia), IQ (UK), Gandalf’s Fist (UK), Kayak (Netherlands) and Spocks Beard (USA). As there was a […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 143”

September 17, 2020

The Ancient One is pleased to say that Show No 143, “Mixed Bag Vol 13” is now available as a podcast. This is an “anything goes” type of show and features Rick Wakeman, Minor Giant, Logos, Pink Floyd, Rick Miller, Genesis, Abel Ganz, Poor Genetic Material, Apogee, Jon Anderson, Agusa, Moron Police, Finisterre, Pattern Seeking […]