Who Is The Vicar?

[JKL2000]

I read the first Vicar mystery on the DGM website. It was good till it fell apart near the end. But was the author ever revealed? I guessed the character was modelled on Fripp. But The Vicar is credited on Anthony Phillips' Wise After the Event.

So who is The Vicar?

[syncopatico]

"The Vicar" credited on Wise After The Event is Phillips himself (a sly, shy, self-deprecating joke), but i don't think the DGM Vicar is him. (??)

[Dave (in MA)]

http://www.anthonyphillips.co.uk/faq.htm#fourteen

Who is Vic Stench / The Vicar?

Both of them are Ant himself. The Vicar who maintains a diary at Robert Fripp's DGM site is not Ant.

[Haruspex Carnage]

i always thought it was David Singleton Fripp's DGM business partner?

[calyx]

To me, there's absolutely no doubt that it is David Singleton.

[polmico]

I'd always assumed so as well. He put out an album a long while back under the name Camilla's Little Secret that features Fripp ("Bobby Wilcox") and drummer Paul Beavis (remember him from Sunday All Over the World?). So the guy has some musical background, and the songs available through DGM bear a resemblance. I guess I should pull the CD out and check. This is about the time I would embed a YT video but that ain't happening for Camilla's Little Secret.

[NogbadTheBad]

Love the Bobby Wilcox pseudonym for Fripp. Not too difficult to work out but fun.

[JKL2000]

So the character "The Vicar" in the mystery story is supposed to be David Singleton? Or is he the person who wrote it (or both)?

[Spiral]

So the character "The Vicar" in the mystery story is supposed to be David Singleton? Or is he the person who wrote it (or both)?

Singleton's assistant is a character called Punk Sanderson. He's the one who wrote (or co-wrote) the book/comic and appears in the videos.

[Mister Triscuits]

So the character "The Vicar" in the mystery story is supposed to be David Singleton? Or is he the person who wrote it (or both)?

While the "real" Vicar is apparently Singleton, I've always believed that the fictional Vicar is a composite. Although I don't remember the specifics, there were some incidents and quotes in the stories that I was sure belonged to Fripp.

[JKL2000]

Singleton's assistant is a character called Punk Sanderson. He's the one who wrote (or co-wrote) the book/comic and appears in the videos.

Wait, I'm confused because I read the story a number of years ago at this point - thanks for reminding me of the name Punk Sanderson, I'd forgotten that. But does anyone know who it actually was who wrote the story? Is that common knowledge now? And what videos are you referring to?

[Spiral]

Wait, I'm confused because I read the story a number of years ago at this point - thanks for reminding me of the name Punk Sanderson, I'd forgotten that. But does anyone know who it actually was who wrote the story? Is that common knowledge now?

Unsurprisingly they're not very clear. The idea seems to be that Punk is the author and the stories are his account of his experiences working with the Vicar, although Robert in his diary mentioned David Singleton as co-author at one point. Actually I've always been half-convinced Punk is a fictitious character too.

And what videos are you referring to?

Promos to go along with the release of the books and album, I think--haven't watched any myself.

http://www.thevicar.com/videos.html
(and there's something on the front of DGM Live)

[GuitarGeek]

I thought there was a theory going around a few years back that The Vicar was Eno. I thought I had read somewhere that it was suggested that The Vicar had left a very successful band to forge a lower profile career, which I think is where the thought came from that it was The Sovereign's sidekick during the Berlin years.

[Haruspex Carnage]

Punk Sanderson is a real guy; he's in Fripp's recent Fart For Y/Our Freedom things against the music industry videos.

[polmico]

Pretty sure this confirms David Singleton, right?

http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?a...member=&entry=

"Here are the last two tracks from The Vicar Songbook #1.

David Singleton takes to the mic on these songs, tackling them in the only way he knows how, with genuine feel and commitment. (After all he did write them!)"

There you go.

[JKL2000]

Thanks. My main question in my original post, was really about who wrote the stories, but I might not have been clear about that (certainly wasn't in the subject line). I'm sure the character The Vicar was based on a composite of people. Has anyone else read the stories? I only read the first one, and enjoyed it a lot up until the end. I felt it wrapped up far to quickly and unsatisfyingly. Alas, a lot of mysteries are like that.

[interbellum]

While searching on discogs for albums on which Andy Yorke (Unbelievable Truth) can be heard, I found out he's on The Vicar's Songbook #1.
After listening to some samples I decided this is quite an interesting album: chamber pop with minimal music-ideas or something like that.
The 5.1 surround mix is one of the most effective I've heard.

[Nijinsky Hind]

While searching on discogs for albums on which Andy Yorke (Unbelievable Truth) can be heard, I found out he's on The Vicar's Songbook #1.
After listening to some samples I decided this is quite an interesting album: chamber pop with minimal music-ideas or something like that.
The 5.1 surround mix is one of the most effective I've heard.

I purchased this when it first came around and found it to be very cool after a few listens. Even wrote a review...
http://shop.schizoidshop.com/the-vic...owReviews=True

[Spiral]

After listening to some samples I decided this is quite an interesting album: chamber pop with minimal music-ideas or something like that.

After listening to some samples I decided the same. It's just the kind of "quite interesting" that's really not my thing.