Brighton Pride

keep on rolling

Rough Trade East!!!

so the new Rough Trade shop in Dray Walk (Trumans Brewery, just off Brick Lane, next to the Big Chill bar) is now open. So far it's still pretty empty and quiet, and there's signs that more stock is still coming in all the time. It doesn't quite have the Rough Trade magick (or overcrammedness, see picture) yet, it's quite big but nowhere near as big as, say, the Fopp shop on Tottenham Court Road (RIP). You can now buy, um, Rough Trade (as opposed to Fairtrade I guess) coffee, and there are some "nooks and crannys" to hang out in. They had a Robert Pollard album, FaCE, and I nearly bought the very interesting looking Von Sudenfed album (Mark E. Smith with Mouse on Mars!), all reasonably prized, and I expect there will be lots of goodies in there from now on to tempt me as I walk past. It seems to be open from early morning til 10 pm on weekdays and since it's literally on my way to work that could potentially be kinda dangerous for me, haha... so that's first impressions, check it out over the weekend maybe?

X-Mal Deutschland: Morning

Someone in ?South America? made a very beautiful video of images to this late X-Mal song that I loved so much in the mid to late eighties. Lyrics are by Emily Dickinson...
I think this was one of the last truly great X mal songs, the album it was taken from, "Viva", was already a bit of a mixed bag but had a few standouts like this.

Camping Trip

The only photo taken during our slightly mad, and definitely very wet camping trip, near Robertsbridge, and very near Bodiam Castle, in the beautiful Rother valley. This was just before we drove back, to civilisation, eventually. the Park Farm
campsite is just a couple of large fields on a farm, very basic and the atmosphere is almost like Glastonbury but without the full on entertainment options, meaning many campfires and little parties going right into the night, "rough and ready" as one reviewer noted, haha. but it mostly suited us... On Saturday it rained more or less all day so after a long wander around the ruins of Bodiam Castle, where I spent a really long and somewhat mystical time in some gorgeous bare sheltered medieval rooms in the North West tower looking out into moat and surrounding valley (medieval state of the art security!), it was a long, long day in the pub, including some Italian card games, dinner in the smoke free restaurant, and the occasional stroll out into the mist and the rain. Fancy being stuck in a pub on the very last day smoking was still allowed! It was a nice place though and the window was open, so not toooo bad. We walked back during a dryer spell and partied into the night. Right next to us was the party from hell, teenagers, fires, lots of tents, and most of them arrived late and were gone in the morning. Some maniacs kept driving around in a car, in mad circles, clearly drunk out of their mind, so a bit scary too. We outpartied them though, haha, while it was still raining hard, and we were just about sheltered in a gazebo, with Kentish cider (from the National Trust "off licence"), wodka, Chris playing guitar (impromptu Plus "gig"), etc.

the next day was Sunday July 1st, finally the day of the smoking ban had arrived, and we went back to the pub for lunch. I was very curious how it would turn out, since the night before quite a lot of people were puffing away at the bar. But everything had changed, no ashtrays, "no smoking" sign as you come in, and, yeah!, noone smoked. A much better atmosphere, but then I am biased. In the (great) Ostrich pub right next to Robertsbridge station there were several nicotine addicts sucking on a strange white device, and i think at least one customer walked out, some teenagers were sitting in the garden to smoke, and i don't know how busy it is in there usually, but I'm confident people will get used to it. It's a lovely large and comfortable old pub with lots of atmosphere and a great garden at the back with many tropical plants (which was definitely a bit unusual), also serving Harveys, our favourite Real Ale from Lewes, but I wouldn't have spent as long as we did in there if it was smoking, and that's a simple fact! We let the hourly train go and had another pint! I have been putting my money where my mouth was and have been out quite a bit since then, going to the pub (which i usually avoided), seeing a great Isis/Boris gig at the formerly nice-venue-but-oh-too-smokey Koko on Monday and generally really loving it so far. It's been smoother than expected, though you hear people grumbling, and i really think it is such a positive change, it opens up the city for me, and clears out the air. I knew it was coming for quite some time now, but it's still unusual to me. So that was my last weekend. How was yours?

Jesus and Mary Chain @ Meltdown

the video for the Mary Chains "You Trip Me Up", a gorgeous slice of guitar noise with the sweetest song buried underneath it. I bought it when it came out, in 1984 or so, and I did manage to see one of their early shows in Berlin's Loft club. It was packed, they were about an hour late, played for 22 minutes exactly, there was some problem with the mic stand after which Mr Jim Reid left the stage, the others played the rest of the song and then skulked off as well. No riot. Then I seriously fell in love with their Psychocandy album, just great songs. And I love the cover, and the look. This video, which I hadn't seen before, looks like the Psychocandy cover coming to life. And I used to look at it a lot, haha.

So last Friday I saw them play their first British show in 9 years, at Jarvis' marvellous Meltdown festival (also saw the "Forest of No Return" vintage Disney tribute gig, with among others !!!GAVIN FRIDAY!!!, Grace Jones, David Thomas, etc., and a mad, erm foggy, and very loud and full on sunn o))) show). Somehow it never felt like JAMC were really away, felt more like they had a long break. The good thing about reunions is that you can reassess the past, and play what people really want to hear. So this was as good a Mary Chain show I've ever seen, great setlist, starting with Never Understand, followed by many of their greatest snakeskinned elegant nihilistic noise pop hits, the brothers Reid in good form throughout, Sidewalking, Some Candy Talking, Snakedriver, Cracking Up etc. The (initially seated) audience was on their collective feet from the start and throughout and it just never sagged (even with some false starts, Just Like Honey needed to be started three times until Mr J Reid was apparently happy with it, but so what?) Encore started with "Syd Barrett where are you?" Vegetable Man, followed by a seriously great You Trip Me Up (I could spot a very happy mosh pit in the front) and the final song, Reverence. I was in ecstacy, hey!

Support came from another Scottish indie legend, the mighty Pastels with their woozy, curiously drifting pop mood pieces. They sounded tighter than I thought they would, though the moping eternal teenager vibe was still fairly pronounced, I guess, I'm not an expert but I like them (from a bit of a distance, only own one of their records, Truckload of Trouble). Such a good double bill, and, as Jarvis reminded everyone, the last time you could have seen this double bill would have been in 1985. (!)

Afterwards in the foyer the party continued with the 1990s, who were initially billed as the support act, and music til late, old punk, post punk, and other alternative party music, and in the last half an hour an absolutely brilliant plastic pillow fight to the tune of Teenage Kicks and These Boots Are Made For Walking and other brilliant tunes I can't remember anymore, probably cos I was drunk!

So welcome back Royal Festival Hall, and/or South Bank Centre. I love that place, I love the location by the river, the uncommercial *smoke free* atmosphere, the cool programming, the fact that this space can create these unique crossover events, nostalgia fests, contemporary utopian dreams etc. etc.

All together now: Sometimes I walk sideways...

2 Goerrrrls & a Pryn-taeaaar xxx

a weekly comical occurence in our office, or what passes for comedy. Every Friday. Do you know what's goin' on? And for some reason the photos got distorted too but I kinda like it that way right now...

someone tell me why...

"There is good reason I guess
Having it once gone to far
When you clean out the hive
Does it make you want to cry?
Are you still being followed
By the Teenage FBI?
Someone tell me why"

these lines read like an entry in a book that everyone's asked to sign at a school reunion or something. and still hits home whenever i hear it.

Plus Today

A blast from the past - "Plus Today" - one of our oldest songs - but one we still play, um, today, cos it still works, recorded last year at the Rhythm Factory. Did I mention we're looking for one, two, three gigs at the moment? More on that later, as I find the whole process quite interesting at the moment...

when i'm hairy

I'm happy to announce that the new album by my band Plus is finally finished and ready to drop into your hands, well, there are one hundred copies of it. We ended up taking seven of the eight songs that made up what we then called the "Hairy" album, and seven new ones recorded recently. "Hairy" had a somewhat hairy concept for the cover art, which would have been the hairy chest and back of some beary or similar type guy. Somehow it never got off the ground and was just circulated as a CDR. We never found a willing or convincing specimen to pose for us, surprise, surprise :-). Since they hold together well we decided to keep them in the original order and added three songs at the beginning und four at the end. You might not even notice it though, I don't know.

So here they are:

1 Flower: one of our more adventurous tracks, it features sprawling guitar/noise work courtesy of the maestro Chris B, sofa drumming (!) (it sounds nice'n'heavy!) and lyrics about flowers blooming out of control. While that could be seen as somewhat bucolic it seems instead to emphasize nature's endless greed to multiply. It's very driven...

2 Antique Doll: A more straightforward rocker, and one of my favourites. it's quite short but packs in some great moments. I don't really know what the lyrics mean but they work in the context of the song. Something about masks and perceptions...and golden voices. Hmmmm...

3 Antlers: this has been around the block a bit and came out quite stripped down and washed up sounding in this version. Almost country-ish. Lyrics about antlers, stone circles and other mossy nature mood images...

4 Shades of Green: the original opener for "Hairy", original working title "Yo La Tengo" because it's textured laid back vibe reminded us of them, and still does. It's a very warped and wierd drinking song, but also about alcoholism. Shades of Green is the Irish bar next to Irving Plaza where we spent time every night before and after GBVs last few shows in NYC in Dec 2004, drinking with lots of other fans. Somehow I felt it should be a song, and a song about drinking. altogether now... Dis Arm the Settlers!

5 Pink City: Old school - meaning very ferocious and punky sounding, with violent images galore. Frantic guitars...

6 Winter Commute: Part one of two songs, well, there is a song called Summer Commute that we didn't record, a poppy upbeat one. This one is moody, foggy, recalls wintery highways at night, going nowhere, snow storms. Great little hook courtesy of Mr Bryan

7 Seeing Time: An old song that I rescued that appears very naked and bruised here.

8 Ephedrine Daddy: a warped kinda hit. Lyrics are from a secret source and mine mixed together. one two three four "Parking tickets... eight miles high". Love it!

9 Tired Eyes: a live favourite. a classic old school autumnal goth song if you ask me...dark side up., etc...

10 Teenager: The Monster... Sometimes it works, sometimes it falls apart. This version is very lucid and articulate. Plays like a transcript of a nightmare. Recorded soon after Katrina happened and some of the angsty images came from there, if I remember correctly. It's very special to me!

11 Purple Love Train: um, the title came about like this: each one of us contributed one word. I've meant to change it but didn't get around to it. anyway, after the heavy stuff we felt it should calm down now. I didn't write lyrics for this but i'm whispering something about summer parties in the 70s. I have some hazy memories that I can now associate with this track.

12 A cut: More whispery, stripped down, morose stuff

13 Scabland: ditto, the lyrics invoke some sort of depleted environment, a wasteland full of scabs... I took the title from ...Pynchon's Vineland and then found out that it actually means something specific, there is a scabland in Washington Country, and it looks great too. it's a very downbeat version, but worked for me with repeated listens

14 when i'm pretty: the song that became the title track, and it was Chris' idea to take it as the title for the whole disc! it's another rocker, about someone with maybe multiple personalities or different aspects to themselves. pretty could be something weird in this context. i don't *really* know, it doesn't have a specific meaning. i guess it could be about going out or entering some forbidden zone. maybe it should have been earlier on the album...but it ends it on a more upbeat note after the three low key tracks before it.

So dear friends and random readers, thanks for your usual patience, pls check out our myspace while I still have your interest, be our friend, and watch this space for one or two or so live shows coming up. Anyone who wants a copy of this (for free!) pls get in touch or leave a comment. cheers!

p.s. great cover art by Avis Underwood, as usual...

Hastings to Rye

A seven hour coastal walk. Starting in the old harbour in Hastings you climb East Hill from which you have a stunning view over Hasting's quirky old town. The Hastings Country Park starts right here and offers a protected, mostly woody coastline, past the famous nudist beach at Fairlight, which isn't really safe to access at the moment, all the way to Fire Hills where you exit the country park and come through a vaguely suburban sprawl along the coast before reaching Pett Level where you leave the sea along a canal towards Winchelsea, once a busy port but now left stranded inland as the sea has receded. It's weird walking underneath the old cliffs and coming through the old town gate now standing right in the middle of the fields. Hard to imagine it was once one of Englands most important ports. Then through the flatlands where we came across a herd of swans hanging out, Camber Castle in the distance, to Rye which you can see for miles looming on its hill, and finally Mermaid Street.

Dungeness

these are from around Derek Jarmans house and garden, near the old Dungeness lighthouse and nuclear powerstation. In his last years Jarman famously created a garden around his house with sculptures made from debris he found on the beach. The space around it and the beach nearby are so eerie and so beautiful at the same time. Especially in spring when the few plants and flowers shooting out of the stones seem even more alive. There is a Shakespearean sonnet(?) engraved in one wall of the house. Old boats are moored, little huts stand around randomly. Debris. Rotten old chains. Someone fishing in the distance. A walk down to the sea...a little train going from the lighthouse all the way to Hythe. A nature reserve. The quality of the <<<>> between...

Madcap's Last Laugh: the DEFINITE Syd Barrett Tribute concert

Last year the Mystery Jets staged a Syd Barrett tribute concert at the Union Chapel (read about it here)
and even though it verged on the chaotic I was struck how powerful it was to hear Mr Barretts songs live done by people who love and grew up with the songs. These tributes seem to have sprung up all over the world in the last year. But the Barbican staged the definite one this week:

Put together by Joe Boyd who worked with Pink Floyd in the early days, it started with a recording of an old country singer and a page projected onto the screen mentioning two country singers whose first names were "Pink" and "Floyd", the inspiration for Syd to call the band Pink Floyd. Then a choir performed "Bike", after which the house band came on and Captain Sensible of The Damned did an absolutely beautiful "Flaming" and the original swirling psychedelic light projections from the UFO club started to be projected into most parts of the room. I was sitting right at the back of the balcony and the wave of musical nostalgia invading the room was so spellbinding, it actually made me cry, it was such a powerful moment. And so it went on, old footage and weird little films involving the early Floyd hanging out by village ponds, footage of people dancing and freaking out at the happenings, TV appearances etc interspersed by beautiful renditions of Syd songs by a long list of performers: Kevin Ayers of The Soft Machine, The Bees, Vashti Bunyan (never heard her before, she's got the most amazing high pitched voice), etc. The idea was to bring the songs alive and look beyond all the sad stories around Syds later life. Just to celebrate what is still there in people's heads. And it succeeded beautifully, it was a really big, well put together and thoughtful production.

And there were a couple of genuine surprises. Just before the interval the name "Roger Waters" appeared on the screen. I just couldn't believe it. He came on to huge cheers, asked to sit down on a chair, and said a few words: that doing a small show like this was harder for him to do as you couldn't hide behind the whole production, that he felt nervous, and that Syd before his illness had this fearlessness, never felt nervous like this, and that he owed him a debt (the word debt spoken with real gravity) and that he didn't know what he would have become if he hadn't met him. He didn't play a Syd song (and not Wish You Were Here here) but a long, winding, fragile, low key song of his own called "Flickering Flame", then thanked everybody saying that we had been very kind and left.

After the interval, Damon Albarn first managed to persuade Syds nephew to come on stage to say a few words (which was unplanned!), who just thanked people for coming, but seemed quite moved and a bit puzzled by it all. Mr Albarn performed a song from "Opel" which just featured a long list of random words, and managed to almost turn it into a Blur song, it just invoked a certain Englishness, suburbia, boredom, etc. There was this affinity to what Blur were doing. It was really cool to see him on a stage again actually, haven't seen him or Blur play live for years so it all came back to me what a genuinely spontanous and creative person he can be even though he has this unique ability to rub people up the wrong way to, haha. Well it really worked for me.

Captain Sensible did Astronomy Domine, again, wow. Him and Robyn Hitchcock later seemed to be positively posessed by Syd to a much greater degree than, say, Chrissie Hynde, who did a really good job making some songs from "The Madcap Laughs" her own but still had to read the lyrics from a sheet. Nothing wrong with that, but Robyn Hitchcock just seemed to live and breathe the two songs he did, it was genuinely moving. A highlight for me.

Ok, then Joe Boyd came out and talked about how difficult it was to put together the project, unanswered emails, etc. until Chrissie Hynde came on and really kickstarted it apparently. Then he said they were wondering how to end the evening, what would a fitting finale be... and then: "so it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome David, Rick and Nick to play "Arnold Layne" for us" Well, everyone was on their feet. In the context of the evening it was just such an amazing finale...

after which everyone came on stage, including the choir but not including Roger Waters, to do "Bike" again. Long applause (and some people genuinely believing the whole Floyd would appear again), and a short sequence of Syds figure walking away on the screen.

I think these tributes should happen every year or so. It was a wonderful evening, I'm sure for the performers too. I haven't been into this stuff for so long so maybe it is fresher in my head, but I seem to be getting more and more into it. I love the childlike sense of wonder that Syds songs can transport you to, the weird, sometimes bucolic, sometimes sinister energy in the songs. I hear the English countryside in them, the slightly eccentric vibe overhanging old villages and woods, all the stuff I love when i go walking. And, again, it is amazing to hear them played live...

And the winner is...: Fassbinder's "Querelle"

Some images from "Querelle", the last ever Fassbinder film based on the Genet novel. Brad Davies is the thoughful, cunning and beautiful sailor thrown into the dubious and highly artificial world of the mythical harbour of Brest, complete with phallic sea towers, claustrophobic back allies and a louche brothel where his brother resides and the fab, though slightly tragic madame Jeanne Moreau overlooks the scene. Franco Nero is his superior on ship and secretly in love with him. I could go on. I've seen this film at least 30 times. It's exerted such a strong and curious fascination over me in my younger years I simply had to see it everytime it was shown in a cinema. Fassbinder himself stated that it was made purely for the cinema where the beautiful, almost psychedelic orange and blue lighting, the heavy camp music and the overwhelmimg stench of sexuality overhanging every scene becomes much more powerful. When I lived in Berlin in the mid 80s "Querelle" was one of those films that kept sticking around, and was always shown from time to time in the run down art cinemas around there. I saw it in Paris once. I own it on DVD now and I still watch it from time to time. I know it by heart. Though I still don't really "understand" it. It's one of those things that could not work and maybe doesn't work for everyone anyway but the combination of Fassbinders special tone, the beautiful claustrophobia of the studio transformed into a highly stylised harbour, and Genets mythical tale involving two doomed brothers is such a heady mix I fall for it everytime. It is such a beautiful ...accident. The late Andy Warhol visited the set and apparently said he felt hot for the whole day afterwards and Fassbinder wanted that quote printed on adverts for the film.


My old mate Simon has tagged me to list my favourite ten movies so here they are:

1 "Querelle" Fassbinder: see above

2 "The Big Lebowski" Cohen Brothers: What a weird plot, and what a dubious list of characters. Yet everytime we watch it we notice something different. Absolutely wonderful writing, so funny and so philosophical at the same time. No wonder there is a whole festival devoted to the film now. Fxxx it, let's go bowling. Well, the dude has become somewhat of a role model to me, despite all the good warnings written into the plot, haha...

3 "Blow Up" Antonioni: I saw this film countless times on German TV when I grew up and from an early age, i.e. when i couldn't possibly have understood everything. There's something in the half light of that park that becomes the murder scene that's become a blueprint for trying to see more in any given situation, a special quality of light that makes you suspect there's more... out there. All the swinging London stuff is so cool too. Sometimes when I walk through London I can still feel a bit of that lingering around, and the film helped made it visible and meorable.

4 "Rosemary's Baby" Polanski. Same as "Blow Up", a staple on German TV when I grew up. I love Polanski, see also "The Tenant", "Fearless Vampire Killers", "Frantic", "Bitter Moon", love them all. One thing I found out after repeated viewing is, uh, I was born on the very same day that the baby is due in the film. Now that is purely a coincidence, ok? but it's true...

5 "Polyester" John Waters: That's my favourite Waters movie, the perfect balance between his more shocking in yer face grossout earlier movies and his slightly more streamlined later black comedies. It's just very powerful and explosive and funny throughout. I remember seeing it with the infamous scratch cards at a Waters movie night in a cinema in Berlin in the early 80s. Then we got it in the sales on VHS about ten years ago and it quickly became one of my favourite videos. Love it!

6 "Spirited Away" Miyazaki: This started my occasional interest in Japanese animation though I haven't seen anything yet that comes quite close to it. Well, ok, maybe "Grave of the Fireflies". The whole look of the film, the story, the atmosphere of it was such an eye opener when i first saw it. Just goes to show what you can still do with animation.

7 "Lost Highway" David Lynch: I can see what people criticize about films like these. To me it was never that unclear. Or indulgent. It's elegant, stylish, hypnotic and utterly entrancing stuff, down to the more-goth-than-usual soundtrack. I used to watch it all the time. It never gets boring somehow. I think Lynch made a statement with this film though they are all statements on each other, constantly refer to each other. Of his post Twin Peaks film I really liked "Inland Empire", and "Mulholland Drive" too of course, but LH has a special appeal to me.

8 "The Garden" Derek Jarman: We were in Derek Jarmans garden on the shingle beach in barren, eerie and fascinating Dungeness for the second time recently, I think I'm going to post some photos soon. This film is an ode to it, among other things, it's abstract and pretty apocalyptic, if not chaotic, but to me there is hope and an aura of light too. Just like the place. I need to see it again actually.

9 "Prosperos Books" Peter Greenaway: To my mind the most extreme and absorbing of all Greenaways films, at least visually. Weird how noone talks about him anymore, for a while in the 80s he really ruled.

10 "Hustler White" Bruce LaBruce: What a trip! Bruce goes to LA to check out the hustler scene and eventually falls for a pretty hustler himself. Ironic, shocking, and swinging from one sexually adventurous scene to another, it's a heady ride...

The Breeders - "Shocker in Gloomtown" video

this is soooo sweet (and vaguely related to my post below about Jim Greers book). The Breeders play GBVs "Shocker in Gloomtwon" while Bob & co peek in through the window. This is from the time when they would still all hang out together in Dayton, I think. Last year I saw the Breeders play a tremendous retrospective set as part of 4ADs 25th birthday celebrations in the lovely Blackheath Halls and they finally played this song (which previously was a staple of their live set) again. A minute and a half long and most of the audience didn't know it, I guess, and it was over before you say "what?" as Kim Deal sings it a bit faster as well, but i thought it was the sweetest thing... 90s nostalgia!

"Artificial Light" - James Greer

I'm just over two thirds through James Greer's first novel "Artificial Light", a selection of Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series. James, or Jim Greer was a member of Guided By Voices for a while around 1995 and lived in Dayton around that time, hanging out in the small but influential music scene there that also included the Breeders and Brainiac. He's published a book on GBV and this novel, which I believe was actually written before his GBV book, stands next to it and seems to turn his experience into a multistranded fictional narrative set in the "mythological land of Dayton, Ohio". I've heard so much about Dayton since becoming a GBV fan, it truly is a mythological place in my head, so it definitely makes sense to me to speak of the place in these terms. My brother in law actually spent some time there as a student and owns a book with old local photos which I looked at a while ago thinking "well yes, but there's something underneath the surface in this place (as in any place) and you can see Dayton in these photos but you need to be guided by voices to really "see" it. Or something like that" The way the place is ingrained and reflected in Bob Pollards songs and lyrics is the stuff of legend after all, just watch that scene in the "Watch Me Jumpstart" doc where Bob drives through his neighbourhood and getting inspiration from roadsigns and old movie theatres or whatever. So to describe the mythic Dayton it makes sense to have a level of overwriting, of multistranded perspective. All these things come together in "Artificial Light" in often intriguing bursts of narrative, though I find some of it borderline pretentious, overwordy and he does lose me occasionally and that was true too for many readers of "Hunting Accidents", his GBV book. "Artificial Light" actually works better in that respect, since it's a spiralling fiction that touches on many barely disguised real bands and people but isn't meant to be a biography. There is a Kurt C, of a world famous band whose name starts with the letter N, who moves into a giant mansion in Dayton that once belonged to Orville Wright, the inventor of aviation. Dayton is a very mundane place but the aviation thing is something outstanding and special that makes it internationally famous and it is something that appears in GBVs work throughout. I'm not sure I entirely understand the threading together of the late Kurt Cobains with the Dayton scene of the early mid nineties, but i guess they happened in the same time frame and were part of a similar rupture within popular American music, something grainier got some exposure, and it seems to propose a connection that hasn't really been made before but could make sense (I remember someone saying "what if Kurt would have gone to Dayton and hung out with Guided By Voices for a while... instead"). Mostly the book centres on a group of friends and acquaintances who are mostly into music and/or books and always meet in the same bars. These bar scenes are interpersed with other narratives, older stories, diary entries by Orville Wright, overlaying each other and forming a dense picture of a place both real and richly remembered/imagined. I guess it makes sense to know a few things about GBV and how certain records are rooted in this environment in so many subtle ways(see also Mark Woodwords excellent "Bee Thousand" book in the 33 1/3 series) to fully appreciate the rich palimpsest of scenes and voices, erasures and references presented here but my guess is that it works anyway. From a fan perspective however there is a sense of trying to find a different way of writing about these experiences and the moments of ecstasy and revelation, and also of longing, memory, loss and ghostliness written into the music and the myth of GBV. All that is mostly fascinating though it doesn't necessarily convince all the time.

One "notebook entry" (the whole book is a collection of notebooks found after the fact) is a lenghty recollection of the first German date in Muenster of the thinly disguised GBV, written I guess from Jim Greers own point of view at the time. GBV are called "Whiskey Ships" (also a song title from Bob Pollard's solo album "Waved Out") and Bob is called Henry Radio but it's very recognizable, the alcohol consumption, the nerves, the songs. It's a fascinating snapshot from inside a tour that continues to fascinate me, see also here ... "Henry" is described as borderline xenophobic and insecure about the new surroundings, obsessed with money, gossiping about other band members in the morning , comparing the stronger German beers to the the light beers they're used to at home etc. They were touring Germany with Tocotronic who become "Kokotek" in the book. The narrator says they speak little English and describes their insistence to sing in German as "determined nationalism" which is something I believe is totally inaccurate since the Tocos repeatedly refused to accept accolades emphasizing their German-ness and even went so far as to record a song in English that repeats the line "If you have a racist friend/ now is the time/ for your friendship/ to end" and rerecorded some of their material in English, they are definitely not nationalistic in any way as far as i can see but this misunderstanding is still interesting. I've always wondered whether there are any recollections out there about this odd pairing on this tour since both bands are firm favourites of mine for very different reasons, and I guess this chapter hidden in an arty novel is the closest i will get. Jim Greer is a music journalist after all anyway. Well, I guess the Tocos were okay with the fact that GBV sneaked into their room to raid their beers occasionally. But there seems to have been little interaction, and, at least at that point in time, little in common and it is questioned why they were paired on this tour by the promoter. Well, ok, whatever. Interesting...or not. The chapter is worth reading just as snapshot back from the heady days...

What does come through very strong are the images of the Dayton bars, that is really fascinating, the sense of being stuck in a small place in the middle of nowhere, in some sort of perpetual decay, but making something special out if it, or at least trying, even if noone is listening...

language is boring

in my head it's a constant argument. Listen. I'm sorry. You said. I want this to be clear. You can't do this. Why did you say this to him. Why didn't you tell me. Is this the right thing to do. What if we do this. I can't see how this is possible. Bang your head while you're dreaming. It's going round and round in a circle. Where is this going. I want this to be done that way. can we have a meeting. can we talk about this. is this the right thing to do. i'm looking forward to this. let's be positive about this. i think this will improve things. stop me stop me stop me if you think you heard this one before. Listen to me. It's not going to happen. Slowing down the market. My image is stronger than yours. i will sell it before you do. mismatched colours. mismatched possessions. replacements of replacements of replacements of old television versus new television of nightmare lifestyles of voodoo shit cut prize possession supermarket lightbulb machinery manipulation control what would you do take the puzzle a step higher dream now so you can escape this train won't go now. etc. this is your train driver speaking. i'm sorry about the delay to your journey this morning, this is due to. this is an automated message. did you try to say something. do something real. yeah, but is it worth it. a home is not a money bag. i will try to heal the rift. between language and its prized possessions. how can you describe it. listen. i'm telling you. this is between you and me. language is boring....

Thames Walk for charity

some photos from our walk for the breast cancer charity ABC. We were part of the latecomers and "only" did the henley to marlow shorter option, but it being a hot day, that was quite enough, thank you. fortunately there was a nice shady pub garden on the way, the Flower Pot, a lovely pub set back from the river with a huge garden... the latecomers arrived in marlow about 45 minutes after the hardcore who had walked from the start in reading, so we were definitely the low achievers hanging back and just enjoying ourselves really. the whole route looked gorgeous, every week the trees get greener. walking isn't about speed and numbers in my book, it's more about contemplation, etc. plus it was soooo hot. My favourite place was in Hurley where the Thames divides in several strands and you can sit on some meadows that seem to be part of a camping area. it's a good walk and i'd do it again!

Duesseldorf >Cologne