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 134”

May 10, 2020

The Ancient One is delighted to be able to say that the podcast for Show No 134 is now available online. This is a show in the series of Concept Albums ( Vol 8) and has sections from Kayak, Gandalf’s Fist, The Moody Blues, Hostsonaten, Looking Glass lantern, Rick Wakeman and The Samurai Of Prog. […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 133”

April 25, 2020

The Ancient One is pleased to let listeners know that TAO Show No 133, “Short Stories Vol 5” is now available as a podcast on the Progzilla radio webpage. This is a show in the series of short tracks with all 31 tracks on offer, clocking in under 6 minutes. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 132”

April 12, 2020

The Ancient One is delighted to pass on the information that Show No 132, “Mixed Bag Vol 11” is now available as a podcast on the website. This has 13 mixed tracks from Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and UK. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt used as Intro from Recollections CD) […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 131”

March 29, 2020

Show No 131, “Tall Tales Vol 8”, from The Ancient One is now available as a podcast. This is one of the series of long track specials. Hear music from UK, Czech Republic, USA, Belarus and multi national. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt from The Recollection CD) 2 Ontofield – Sleeping […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 90min B/day”

March 18, 2020

The Ancient One is delighted to be able to say that the special show recorded for the station’s 5th Birthday is now available as a podcast. This was a special 90 min show where the presenters were asked to choose 5 pieces of music that got them “into” prog in the beginning and then some […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 129”

March 11, 2020

Yet another podcast is now available from TAO. This is Show No 129, “The Concept Album Show Vol 7”. Hear six segments from concept albums from Ukraine, Sweden, Australia, UK and Multinational. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt from Recollections CD) 2 Robert Reed – Sanctuary III Part 1 (Sanctuary III 2018) […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 128”

March 11, 2020

Show No 128 from TAO is now available online. This is one of the Country Series, and is “The Italian Show Vol 2”, where all the featured bands are based in Italy. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt from the Recollections CD) 2 La Torre Dell’Alchimista – Cerbero (Neo 2007) 3 PFM […]

” Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 127″

March 11, 2020

Hot on the heels of the “late” posting of Show 126, comes the next show in the sequence, Show 127 “The Best Of 2019 The Shorter Ones”. Again TAO apologises for the delay. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (Excerpt from the Recollections CD) 2 Adventure – Eirene (New Horizon) 3 Swifan Eohl […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One – Edition 126”

March 11, 2020

TAO is again very apologetic that it has taken such a long time to post some shows, but Show No 126 “The Best of 2019 The Longer Ones” is now available online. Playlist 1 Greenslade – Spirit Of The Dance (excerpt from Recollections CD) 2 Big Big Train – Roman Stone (Grand Tour 2019) 2 […]

“Podcast: The Ancient One Show No 125”

January 5, 2020

Show No 125, “The Hogmanay Special” is now available as a podcast. This show initially went out on Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) and was made up of 3 distinct sections. Part 1 featured Scottish Progressive music with tracks from Beggars Opera, Long Earth, Grand Tour, Comedy Of Errors and Abel Ganz. Part 2 Featured Scottish […]