scabland

oh. the lines inside the face were running deeper. to a river, running deeper.

oh. the downwards facing settlements, memories of fear, noone takes a brighter spark. erupts. and helps you walk into the garden. just as everything went black.

oh. and noones left inside the garden. noones dancing caring living, but the memories run deep.

oh. when the site is cleared it's all you see it's all you feel and all is healed.

oh. take a turn and scatter movements so the shadows know you inside out and follow you and take good care of you.

oh. was the world too dirty for a drunken sailor. dirty vast scablands cover the green meadows where you stood.

burn the cake and eat it
a faster round
did it spin to fire
were you hurt

scabland feel me
i'm alive
burning pictures
scatter down
is the face a dim light
or on fire
did it clean the next round
feed you light

oh. do you come into a desert town and stare and noone feels you coming closer and it's ending and it's fine but did you notice it still spins though all you did was say the word and all you said was be on fire....

antlers

bow into swirling ground
never stand up
like antlers from a frozen head

silent in the ground
gorgeous foggy street signs
point into another direction

as the soundman approaches and takes it away
bow down and spit into a smiling mouth
and pierce the face
like antlers facing outward
struggle
and inward calm
like stones standing in a circle
to protect
the light that fades away

for nothing prepares you for the sight
of silent antlers facing westward
while you sleep
and waste the dream

antique doll

brush stroke
the wind
it blast a little fortune into you
make it go and tear the mask away
little antique doll
your face betrays a wisdom
i don't see
in twisted fairground whispers
as you see
this ending is too close

little butterfly
is this still your wish
has it come true
or is it denied
knives out and a different scene
unfolds into a lenghty silent background
on your head
on your head

and i'm looking for a closing line
days and days to shine on through
fierce fighting
stolen glances
and a golden wish to guide me

and i'm looking for an eye to share
is this what makes it all so red
so green
so melted
so real
so turned on
so forgiven
so automatic
so strange
so magic

that i can't swim away
from your face
and freeze when you smile

and i'm looking for a doll to see
to show me the way
into this other room

and i'm looking for a closing line
to wrap the shades around
and falter

Disclaimer: We're recording some of these, sung more like a smudge than real words, probably, tomorrow. I'm trying to get some words to sing written down, it's not easy / too easy. i don't know. The songs are strong though... imagine these words heavily distorted, low in the mix, theatrical. might work!

when i'm pretty

when i'm sad,
when the stars reach out
and feel i'm bad,
when a light touch sinks
my troubles rise.
funny lanterns
ride on high
a wave that you regret
and realize
is that all you see
in your green night
when it's over
when it's bad
will you still steer clear
or push me behind
is the last word here
or in the ground
is this all you see
and all you found
when i'm happy
when i'm torn
when the night wind says
that i am born
when i'm trying to be
so late again
will the clockwork sink me
or take me to bed?

when i see it right in front of me


all the right gasps go
"pretty no!"
is there all one meaning
a flowerhead
for the greatest reason
to stay out of bed
will the last one turn
and stay ahead

when i'm pretty
when i'm bad
whne i'm sunken
when i'm spared
when i'm tortured
when i'm stared @
when the last word circles

WHEN IT'S LATE

is there all one world
or noone there
in the end?
will i find a finish
torn away
and my private island
...

flower

watch out tiny one
believe the rage is yours
to steam and rise
through dusty tunnels
run away with dripping time
crawl up the balcony
bang on the door
hold on to fading skin
thrown on the floor
make it a contact piece
a comment a picture
a summery item
ride for colour
and slide a little flower
through your head dress
a blue staircase
and unfolding lights
stare ahead
give it to slaughter
feel it stride
do you want to control it
is it not your own wish
will it bloom forever
will it grow into an empty space
when will you realize
the trail is broken
where you abandoned the scent
make my machine forever yours
spray pollen
lick the seeds in the dust
find a reason
to make it flower again
2

fog on the road, playing out til sunrise: 1991

messy hair unproductive<>fault at heart<>laughing teenagers<>win a blue line running to the moon<>it's ok to id the sunset<>the younger john peel<>relax with a fan<>stomping feet to forget the rising time<>a whitewash?<>it was always a flat field<>a flag for perversion<>a younger smile<>i was so young in the hazy street<>we are all more equal now<>i distort voices with my memory lines<>speed interviews<>lying on a fake temporary plastic couch<>checking sunglasses<>creeping a hat over your festival experience<>vomit<>planes<>cities<>a face floating in a blur<>shades<>agreeable mouth<>a suit in an airport<>a young pupil doing better than the statistic<>following a suitcase with a butcher's head printed in a funny pattern<>moshpits escalate into swirling noise<>intuitive drunken bus ride<>dark lipped tiles<>i was a bright spark in a sunny afternoon<>release tension<>brighter shades in the background<>blend in<>young gods reflect on stonehenge<>leafy country lanes<>naughty boy smile<>repetition<>it's a release<>pissing with sharpness<>a finger takes the taste into your mouth<> circles of light<>riding a pop wave noone wants<>inside the time machine<>everything leads to a plastic crash<>i lived in a hole at the time<>now everything sounds bigger and heavier<>foggier<>orange lights drive into the movement<>houses appear with a rhythm<>all this was as you see<>but you can't touch it anymore<>the connections are getting blurry<>i was so happy to see you in the swirling lights....

Alien Sex Fiend's 25th anniversary show

It's 1984. We're in a car driving to my parents house. In the car is my best friend Frank, a female friend of his who is driving and G. We've been staring each other out for a while at the local punk parties. I don't know whether G. is straight or gay but he told me I look good. I've got black hair for the first and only time in my life. We sneak into my room, it's late and my room is right next to my parents bedroom. We have to be quiet. G. sits himself down on the floor in the corner just beyond the door and takes a cassette out of his black leather jacket. He says he likes it cos it's so "kaputt", so totally screwed up. It's Alien Sex Fiend's "Acid Bath", we play a few tracks and my mom pops in. She tells us to keep it down but she impressed G. by being reasonably friendly. I just want to do whatever he wants to do. I'm so fascinated. Later in the car he starts making vaguely insulting comments about Franks female friend in a sort of jokey way, noone's sure whether he actually means it. We are playing the tape again.

Another party, this time at Franks house. The punk scene in our small city is there but also the Goths, everyone knows each other vaguely. We play The Cure's "The Top" nonstop, singing along. A lot of people seem to have suddenly got really into the Cure at that point. Some of the punks get pissed off. Later we go to the local cemetery. We drive up there in cars, climb over the gates and wander around. People start nicking the candles, and I walk with G. holding a candle underneath his face. He looks really spooky like that. His parents are Italian and he has a handsome, Mediterranean face, like an Italian new wave James Dean. His black hair is short at the back but long in front and always slicked up into a kind of horn sticking out in front of his face. We walk and bond like that and i will always remember his face, looking like a ghost. Holding a candle underneath someone's face in the dark creates an eerie effect, I found out that night. When we came back to Franks house, one of the punks had broken "The Top" in two and had left the pieces of broken vinyl in front of the house, a dramatic gesture, haha. I still think about these times a lot.

Last Saturday Alien Sex Fiend played their 25th anniversay show in London. I'd never seen them so I went with my friend Steve. It wasn't very good but there was a sense of occasion about the event. The audience looked fabulous. The original Batcave look is still very much a force, this slightly cartoon-ish, campy vibe, there were quite a few gay people in the audience too. The DJs played the Virgin Prunes' "Baby Turns Blue" and a lot of people danced and sang along. I think that was my favourite moment of the evening. The stage was draped in spiders webs, there were inflatable bones everywhere that later would get thrown into the crowd, and some trash cans. Nik Fiend still looks like the undead back in 1984, his distinctive zombie face painted white, prancing about wearing a huge hat with cards tacked into the brim. But he was drunk, didn't care and it was pretty shambolic. The beats courtesy of Ms Fiend were alright and kept it together, just about. I read a Poppy Z. Brite novel in which two vampires are playing a gig in a club except it was more their presence that entertained, rather than musical merits. It kinda was like that. Still "kaputt", but vaguely fascinating. Shame about their rendition of "E.S.T. (Trip to the moon)", the one song I really remember from the 1984 days. It lacked something, but hey, I saw it. Above is some really fun footage from the original Batcave. I remember in those days we used to dream about London, and I once said to Frank, sitting on his windowledge as we used to, discussing his next hairstyle, I said: "Hey, we are in London" and in a way I still can't argue with that.

"Better Days Will Haunt You": Chavez

Some screenshots from the goofy little tour film "Boys Making Music - Music Making Men" following the NYC band Chavez and the mighty Guided by Voices on their first (and in Chavez' case only) European tour in 1995. It's edited for the oddball moments, so that it's fun to watch and won't get boring for the casual viewer, though i suspect there's lots more vintage footage, especially of GBV in their first prime, and I could definitely watch this for hours. I saw that tour when it came to Brighton, The Amps (Kim Deals short lived low key Dayton band that featured future GBV players Nate Farley and Jim Mc Pherson) were supporting GBV and i guess were the main draw of the evening. And one thing i didn't realize was that that was the evening I saw Chavez too. I'm always going on about that evening i saw Guided By Voices without really knowing them and in their more or less original lineup. I need a Time Machine. 90s nostalgia, it's happening... So I remember i saw Chavez too at the Concorde at some point around that time but i didn't realize it was the very same night, they opened it up, it's the last piece of the puzzle so to speak. I remember liking them, thinking that there probably was some sort of low key little cult around them in New York. I couldn't put my finger on it, but they were good. Well, they released two albums on Matador and then more or less vanished but they were being talked about in their absence and briefly reformed to support GBV on their final tour in NYC (we missed most of their set as we got talking to good Blowfish people in the lobby, i need another time machine to revisit these glorious gigs). So Matador has always been amazing with their box sets and reissues, documenting the past in their own low key, resolutely indie and definitely generous ways. The GBV box set, 'Hardcore UFOs', is seriously great, i can't think of another label who could have done such a good job. then there's Pavement, the 2 disc DVD set, which I've watched so many times, the 'Slanted and Enchanted' and 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain' reissues. So much material, and so nicely packaged too. Nerdy, but so what. It's a labour of love. All of these at a reasonable prize too. So now there's the Chavez Box set (!) with the two albums and a third DVD disc. I already pointed out the GBV connections, especially on the tour film, but i like the music too, it's crunchy, rocking, pretty fierce but with sweet hooks in there, definitely a grower too. In the liner notes Cosloy and Lombardi say these albums were Matadors top seller of the 90s and the best they ever put out. Maybe hyperbole? I can think of a few other albums. Anyway, it's a nice box set and it's recommended.

Some of the screenshots are from Berlin where they played at The Insel, in former East Berlin right by the river, on the little meadow in front of the venue. Behind the stage is a wall that has "Guided By Voices", "Chavez" and "Tocotronic" graffitied all over it. The Tocos were playing on the German leg of this tour (Time Machine, please :-) A German GBV fan I know was at that show. He didn't know GBV at that point either but remembered he really liked the music, it reminded him of the Beatles, however soon after GBV had started their set, a friend lead him away to, uh, smoke something, that took a while (ho hum) and when he came back they'd finished and he had missed most of the set.

The tour manager, Kris Lee, on this tour who is in some shots getting smoke blown into his face by the very stoned men of Chavez was also the tour manger on GBVs 2002 tour, i remember him driving the rock van on that fantastic tour.

In the end you see Everett True on stage at the Kings College gig in London, singing along to "Lethargy". He was at that Brighton show too, gently wigging out right next to me. A lot of people had left by the time GBV came on. Some people danced. They didn't play that long. I stayed til the end. Well, to say any more I'd need to go back. A couple of songs recorded at the show were released as "Brighton Rocks" on a promo single. The old Concorde has long been demolished and is now in a new location further down the seafront. Brighton rocks. Chavez rocks too. Better Days will haunt you, indeed.

2006 - Best ofs

Well, it's fun, isn't it. Though this year I purchased even less new albums than last year. One big thing this year was delving deeper into music from Germany, both past and present, mainly Tocotronic, but also reading the great "Verschwende Deine Jugend" docu-novel about the early punk/new wave days in Germany and listening again to Fehlfarben and co.

Anyway here's a few I liked this year:

Sonic Youth: "Rather Ripped" - I don't always get their new records but I love SY. I think this was the last one I got since, uh, which one? Can't remember even...agggh "A Thousand Leaves". That's quite a long while ago. I'll go see them live anytime though. It was on my birthday wishlist, and it was bought for me, and it was a while before I gave it a few closer listens. It's poppy in places and quite typical sounding but after a while the trademark noise rock textures and the slightly faded washed up vibe they do so well becomes, ermm, clearer. I love "Rats", and quite a few others. They hold up well. I really like this album.

Tool: "10.000 Days" I tried not to like them or find them embarrasing. I just can't. Their live show is incredible, it's so switched into the way i subconsciously feel about a lot of things it's uncanny. Tunnels. Double worlds. Cyberpunk. Paranoia. Disintegrating images. Strangely constructed music. Guitarists who play music as if it's some weird science. And a great, slightly detached frontman, posing in front of the giant screens with their trippy slowly morphing images. Where do they come from? How do they do this? It's so assured. Anyway, I think this album is strong and enjoyable, I played it a lot this year. It's quite good at work too, a bit of background trance :-)

Isis: "In The Absence of Truth". More ambient heaviosity. I love the way they build up a tension, eventually switching into full on screamo metal mode, then retreat back into dark abstract Mogwai-style territories. Great live! I love the DVD "Clearing The Eye" too, was that released this year? it features a full live show...

The Melvins: "A Senile Animal". Yesterday I walked through boggy fields in the Chilterns on my New Years Day walk with the highly recommended old Melvins album "Bullhead" on the headphones. I love that sludgy, doomy, kinda underdeveloped sound. It could almost be "Faith" by the Cure in its stark minimalist stance but it's more formless and weirder. And this new record still has that essential sound, now with two drummers and backing vocals.

TV on the Radio: "Return to Cookie Mountain" I'm still digesting this but it's tremendous. Isn't it amazing that, 24 years after "Treasure" and 17 years after "Doolittle", 4AD can still release albums that gracefully piss over anything that calls itself "indie"? But don't let that put you off :-)

And two more from these awesome art rock veterans, so glad they're still around/around again:

Mission of Burma: "The Obliterati"

The Flaming Lips: "At War with the Mystics". Don't know why but this is my favourite Flaming Lips release by now. Really worked for me.

Robert Pollard: "Normal Happiness" For some reason, "From a Compound Eye" was last years record in my head, even though it was released this year too. Okay both of them, amazing, still! NH is shorter, but there's no shortage of wonderful little pop moments that will hook themselves into your head. I fear this record is not getting the response it deserves, it seems to sell more like a Fading captain-style side project, maybe two major albums a year IS too much (not for me though). He's giving up touring apparently too. It's a shame the solo career seems even less lucrative than GBV. And that he's seemingly given up on his overseas fans. But he still knows what he wants and he's still doing it. And the songs are still there. And for that I am grateful. Looking forward to the Circus Devils 2-disc set and the Best of Fading Captain next year.

Oh, and "The May Releases" on Bob's long running side projects label Fading Captain(the 50th release comes this year and will close the series!): The Keene Brothers, Psycho and The Birds, and The Takeovers. I like them all, it took me a while, but I think now I appreciate Psycho and the Birds and The Takeovers too for their assured smudginess, they're like strange low-key sketches, but it mainly works. The Fading Captain series really has come into its own, there's a lot of charm and confidence in what he puts out there, maybe too much for some, but I'm still interested. Keene Brothers, Bobs collaboration with current touring partner Tommy Keene, is great old school power pop and lovely mid tempo wistfulness and was an immediate hit in my house, right from the under-a-minute opener "Evil Vs. Evil".

Okay, my most important music purchase this year however probably was "The Best of Tocotronic", released 2005 I think. German Indie Gods not very well known outside German speaking countries. I knew them before, but not that well, and listening to this made me slowly but surely fall in luv. I've got pretty much everything by them now. It really started the ball rolling and I spent some time listening to German music again this year and reconnected with stuff I had halfway forgotten. That felt good and it will continue.

Greatest Gigs in 2006:

The Cure: Royal Albert Hall. I've seen them quite a few times since, uh, 1984 but this may be the Cure show I always wanted to see. Absolutely mindblowing.

Teenage Fanclub, The Bevis Frond: The Forum

Pere Ubu: The Mean Fiddler

The Silver Jews: Green Man Festival, Wales. I was in a shitty mood, it rained, we stood in the extra muddy bit and it couldn't have been more morose. Pavement's Steve West filled in on drums. Strangely perfect.

The Books: Queen Elizabeth Hall. A long time ago I walked through Marseilles and had this idea to record street noises and make music over it later. I thought that was a really original idea at the time. It's cool to see that people are making such great music with found images and sounds, though it's quite a slick, highly edited show.

The Wedding Present: The Forum (signs from the WP asking people not too smoke. Yay!)

Yo La Tengo: Bush Hall. (Smoke Free, double yay!)

Depeche Mode, Gang of Four: Hyde Park. A day after my birthday.

Deerhoof: The Scala. Just before their (second?) guitarist quit and reaching the same dizzy heights as about a year before at the ICA. When they're on, they're ON!

Of Arrowe Hill & The Lilys: The Luminaire. Great double bill, ATP warmup.

Patti Smith & Kevin Shields: Queen Elizabeth Hall. "The Coral Sea". Patti Smith was reciting a long poem about her old friend Robert Mapplethorpe, while Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) was sitting on a sofa on stage playing these long, abstract guitar noise motives, gradually reaching a dazzling intensity. Was recorded and will be released eventually.

That's probably enough for now. Happy new year!

"Not So Jolly": Walthamstow Dog Races

On Boxing Day we went to the Walthamstow Dog Races and met up with the rest of Simons family, friends and relatives. We got there late but we must have been on the lucky bus as both me and Simons cousin David won good money. The place has a real East London vibe about it, especially on Boxing Day, it was packed, and the races had an enthusiastic reception on the terraces. It famously inspired the cover for Blurs Parklife, the cover of which is based on the programmes. And then there's the names of the dogs. I lurve them. Kinda like GBV or Smiths/Morrissey song titles. Can you find an even weirder name? How do they come up with them? They resonate... something. Anyway, Simon asked me which dog I wanted to bet on and I went purely for the name, "Not So Jolly" and it, uh, won against the odds and I won 26 quid! That was cool and I didn't even want to bet much more after that. David however went one further and bet on the right winning sequence in another race, winning about £ 160...

so here's some of my favourite dog names from the programme, sounds like a pretty good setlist, huh? Someone should write the songs...:-) :

Small Bites (could have bet on that one too, almost as good as Not So Jolly)
Noirs Heart
Special Trip
Evening Flight
Eye OnThe Jewel
Mystical Sloth
Four Minutes
Confident Foe
Ebony Ocean
Droopys Best Man
Never Can Tell
Rough Region
Risk Related
Legal Major
Vatican Skye
Olynanoli
Star of Dromin
Saywhatyousee
Snazzy Time
Hammer It Ahead
Muddys Friend
Astute Gift
Retribution
Hee Haws Mandela
Essential Test

Big D's notes for the x-mas meal at our house

Simons oldest brother cooked a big and very traditional x-mas roast with vegetables in our flat on x-mas day. The parsnips got burned unfortunately, but the rest was really good, maybe a bit too traditional for me, but nice and filling. He really made an effort, as you can see some planning went into it, cooking started late at about 11 o'clock and it wasn't finished til about five in the afternoon. We've still got lots of stuff in the fridge, people brought too much along, though I've managed to cook some interesting meals in the last few days, using vegetables i don't usually cook with. There's still some x-mas pudding which is nice too. The turkey was enough for 11 and we were only 6 (!) and none of us had huge portions of it. I've bagged the remains today, they were sitting in the oven for a few days. Kinda disgusting. I find the smell a bit disturbing and upsetting for some reason. Not again, at least not for another year. And i used to be vegetarian!

Stansted Airport yesterday

i feel there's been a tremendous buildup to...nothing much. christmas. calculating how many billion pounds peoople will spend in an hour. you must do this, you must do that. it's nice to go home. everyone comes together for this one off thing. and then the fog descended... sitting in the stansted express with too many other people and their luggage looking out of the window into this sinister thick fog grinning back at me, i thought, i don't actually want to fly, i don't want to be here. i'm only flying because, why? it's convenient. i wouldn't go home probably if i couldn't fly. it's what everyone else is doing. anyway, my flight got cancelled. lots of peoples flights got cancelled, lots of flights to Germany. Stansted was total chaos, people trying to book other flights into Germany. there were no more flights before x-mas, everything was full already. Denied. Fog. Security. Sitting on the bus back to Golders Green with about four other people, a lot of space around me, looking into the fog again, going back to London i felt relaxed for the first time all day. I actually like that fog, reminds me of certain corners of my head, haha. I took some little videos of the chaos though. Nothing major or dramatic, just the general sense of confusion. reminds me of that Tati film we love, Playtime, the absurdity of the modern world, of travelling, of that whole airport scene gone slightly out of control. Morrissey said something recently about not liking flying because you can't be yourself anymore, you give up any sense of personal freedom or space when you enter an airport, it's do this, do that, queue here, etc. and yeah, even though i would have loved to go home i was okay not flying yesterday. i'll go in january when all this has calmed down. my parents want to take me to the mountains instead, so that's all cool, hopefully. merry x-mas!

A Poem

Easy Evy!

mirror mirror on the wall
whos the baddest of them all?
E to the V to the Y
all the fellows looking fly
But "No, No" says she
"Cos I'm a real, a real Ladieee"
So all you chavs with all your bling
watch out cos Evy is the real Gold thing
Twinkle Twinkle little Star
Wonder Where my Evy R
Evy Had a Lamb Kebab
Even though it was really crap
but smile wins out and she don't mind
and she keeps shaking her Behind!
When she's chewing caramel
everything is going well
When she chews a peppercorn
all she thinks about is home
where the Santa of her world
comes on down - it doesn't hurt!

merry christmas

me, obviously (not) dressed up to the nines at the christmas party i didn't want to attend. x-mas has been fun so far, but also a bit too much! will it ever end?

For Mary, Simon & Gustavo: Photos from the Mawddach Trail in Snowdonia

so I hear Mary, who I know from my old Sussex uni days, has won, what was it, something in her local paper, a five day or so stay in a holiday flat in the little town near her house. Mac-hyn-lleth. I never know how to pronounce them. Everyone calls it "Mac" and it's supposed to be very alternative (though, to be fair, I didn't see much evidence of this). Mary lives in a little house in the next village, Pen-eee-goise (that's how it's pronounced) and we stayed there for a couple of nights at the end of our week in Wales in August (most of it spent in the Brecon Beacons). It's just south of Snowdonia, a famous national park, and we just had one day left for walking so we chose to do the first part of the Mawddach trail along the dramatic Mawddach estuary. Starting from Barmouth, a small seaside town with an old chruch, a huge carpark and a definitely ok sandy beach and already great views we walked over a very long railway bridge, and then walked inland along the estuary, overall very easy walking and cycling. Even Marys little dog Ghengis had no problems. The day started overcast but soon it cleared up and opened dramatic vistas into the surrounding scenery, the green of the fields after a bit of rain is so bright and electric in Wales. Very beautiful, and highly recommended. So I'd like to return to Wales, maybe sometimes in the spring and go out there again with my friend Simon (from the Sussex uni days too) and Gustavo, but we need to convince them first. Maybe these photos will persuade them there's more than "mind the sheepshit" around there (though there's a lot of that). cos if you look up you see some great mountains and all that too! :-)

For some reason the photos post in a weird order, I'm giving up now, well, ok, there are also some other photos, one of gavin and Simon at the Green Man Festival, one of sheep that I'm quite fond of, and one of Mary ready to hit the town ("Aber", or Aberysthwyth) for a show. Also Simon is wearing our latest Deerhoof T-shirt obviously.

Plus on myspace!

A relatively rare group photo from the "Robert Smith Party". Chris is wearing a wig, I don't really need one and John thinks he's in Hawaii.

Well, I wasn't going to do it, but we finally have a little myspace page for my long running band Plus. It's just such an easy way to put your music out there! Nothing else worked right now... I'm not going to spam strangers about it and I'm happy with 5 and a half or so friends (think about it, it's not so bad in the real world, so why should it be different on myspace? just for the numbers?), but pls check it out anyway and of course add as a friend if you want! Hopefully we'll play live again soon, though I'd prefer to play a non smoking venue. And that's difficult to find in London...but it will happen sooner or later, at least in eight months time!

Some Pere Ubu videos!

From the recent tour in Utrecht, the song is 'Caroleen' from their last album. Mad theremin playing. Even madder singing. It's short but sweet. Somehow the amazing energy in the room at the show I was at is hard to capture on video and there's shockingly little on da youtube. Nevermind...this one has decent sound at least...



The Modern Dance at the recent San Fran show. Apparently there was trouble at that show..i love the sudden graceful little hand movement midsong...though he looks a bit pissed off.



and a video from the 90s: "Sleepwalk" Hmmmm...

Pope Gregs annual Euro visit: Pere Ubu

that's me and Pope Greg in the upstairs bar of the Dog and Duck in Frith Street. He looks a bit subdued. Maybe it's because he's jetlagged. Or maybe because he can't smoke in there, haha. Apparently it was the smallest postal blowfish meeting he's been to in a while. And it was also a smoke free, thanks to me. He comes over from Milwaukee about once a year and spends his Euro vacation in London, Amsterdam and then there's annual variations, this year it was Edinburgh. Three years ago we did GBV in Amsterdam together, a bit of a weird gig actually, drunk and messy, and a bit unfocussed, not as good as the first time we saw GBV at the Paradiso, but still, some good memories... hanging in Gregs hotel room afterwards watching MTV with Martin from Switzerland and his glamorous Russian wife, Simon, Gavin, Vanessa, drinking the bottle of vodka given to me by Sammy Powers (of Superdrag, temporary Euro tour only replacement for Tim Tobias) just before our favourite band drove off in their shitty little rock van. Who would have known it was the last set of dates Bob would ever do over here (unless something happens, maaan, ughhhh)? Last year we had a picknick for Greg on Hampstead Heath with a GBV bootleg theme, only GBV bootlegs got played on my boombox, oh, and Human League and Kate Bush in the later stages because there were a couple of people who weren't fans and they had music wishes too. But mainly GBV bootlegs. It was relatively successful and ended with appropriate drunkenness and later in the evening a pretty good Lou Barlow solo show that was really quiet compared to the next time I saw Lou with the reformed Dino Jr. Greg is, in his own words, "the second biggest GBV fan in Wisconsin", which is still pretty good considering the honourable Rich T. (GBV webmaster and Bob's ascended current tour manager)is from Wisconsin too. Anyway, it's always nice to see him again and he always sugests seeing shows when he's here so this time he asked around whether anyone wanted to join him to see Pere Ubu. He didn't need to ask twice with me...

A couple of people separately compared my long running "weird rock" band Plus to Pere Ubu, i guess the slightly unhinged semi-improvised singing style, and the weird abrasive new wave sensibilities, or whatever, i think there might be some parallels but they stop somewhere too. I finally got around to check out some records and like it a lot. You can see David Thomas perform fairly regularly in the UK as he lives in Hove. Friends of mine say they see him sometimes in an old pub near Hove seafront, where these old beardy guys hang out with their dogs and where they occasionally host little jazz and country gigs. It's a nice pub actually, I've never seen Mr Thomas there though. The only other time I've seen him on stage was with the reformed MC5 at the Royal Festival Hall, doing a spacey full on song with them at the end, don't know which. He was impressively weird then. So at the frankly rubbish Mean Fiddler (apparently it's not going to close for another year, i wouldn't mind it if they'd refurbish it and ban smoking in there, but right now it's unbearable in there when it's sold out)there were a very "Mojo" crowd gathered, and thankfully it wasn't not too packed either. Stan Ridgeway, formerly of Wall of Voodoo, warmed up with a nice sitting- round - the - fire - in - the - desert kinda set, playing some of the favourites too, Mexican Radio, etc.... Me and Greg were sitting on these weird barstools that were too high and didn't have lower ledges to rest your feet so Greg especially seemed to keep sliding off. Apart from that we were sitting comfortable near the stage. As soon as Pere Ubu started though i couldn't stop but going closer and dancing almost from the first beat, and almost all through the set. it was a revelation! It was like ... entering a new sonic space. I was knocked off sideways by it. Hard to explain, but a revelation. Occasionally at gigs I can go fairly mental, lose myself in the experience, and rarely have i experienced a band that encouraged this excessive weirdness, to forget where you are and explore, breathe in and out with the music, in such a controlled, genuine way. They are / were true originators, though Mr Thomas is still in charge and still doing new things. He's fascinating to watch, a bit of a bear, a bit grumpy, but when he starts singing you've got abrasiveness, alienation, and occasionally this beautiful wistful longing feeling too. A theremin, and a very capable, full on rock band supported him. Wonderful material, most of it new I guess. That said the couple of old classics tacked on, spontaneously it seemed, at the end, Sonic Reducer and New Alignment Pact sounded fantastic and euphoric. The new album is very good too though. And I want to explore more.

Halloween: Robert Smith Party (first of two picture posts)

party like it's 1982: