Diary: 20th August-24th September 2001
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Monday 20th August
Blimey, it's been a hard few weeks. The "part-time" day-job I do (the details of which I shan't bore you with) has recently expanded into an "all-the-hours-god-sends" type affair, temporarily I must stress. And stress indeed I do, stressed I am, do I stress? Yes, and emphatically yes.
See, even my sentence constructions are getting hysterical. But it is soon to end, which is a relief as I haven't had a life to speak of of late - even things like cooking and shopping are having to be squeezed in, which is frankly ridiculous. Needless to say, things like recording have been pushed so far over the metaphorical back burner that they've fallen off the cooker and had to be put in the fridge. Bummer!
How do people do a full-time job all the time? How do you get to have a life as well? I can't understand it. I mean, what with things like washing and cooking and shopping and eating and sleeping ... that's about all you can squeeze into your week! And in the evening you're too tired to do anything except drink! That's what I've been finding anyway ... to be frank it's been go to work, come back from work, call in for a bottle of wine on the way home, open the wine "to breathe" while starting to cook, drinking the wine, eating the food and then just collapsing! I've managed to watch the odd movie round the guy upstairs', but I haven't managed to go to the cinema - which I normally make a priority, as it has an enormously beneficial effect upon my general health and well-being - except last Friday in the evening after work! This Will Not Do!!!
Hmm, the conspiracy theorist in me says that in fact having a society that is based around a model where people as the norm live this lifestyle surely means that most people will spend their "spare time" either running around doing everything else they need to sort outside work, or drinking or watching TV, the latter two of which we know to be generally soporific and certainly not encouraging anything but passivity and docility in the general population. Sit down! Watch TV! Drink beer! Only see what we show you, absorb what we present to you as being the real world, what we choose to show you to keep you quiet. Here, have Crimewatch and The People Who Got Horribly Murdered Show, to keep you scared so we can pass lots of laws to give the police and state more power For Your Safety; have our version of "the" news, the news we choose to show you, one edited version of what's actually happening in the world as we think you should see it presented as The Truth; have soaps full of people being really shitty to each other so you can get some cheap sense of drama and emotion rather than actually making the effort to seek honest and meaningful interaction with people and fulfillment in your own lives; be presented with lots of half-truths and cheap exploitation rather than seeking out real truth and understanding ... be bombarded with images of the way you ought to be, to fit in, to belong, find fulfillment through the products we're advertising, if only you had this deluxe TV washing machine toaster foot spa, then that's what would make you feel complete! Don't bother looking inside yourself or around you for deeper truths, for a meaning in your life, rush out and buy this, then you'll be happy, and you'll actually be able to justify spending 80% of your waking life doing something that brings you neither inspiration or fulfillment, 'cos then at last you can have this shiny car! And as we all know, the shiny car brings contentment/freedom/foxy chicks/individual expression/whatever else we think'll motivate you to carry on doing your shitty boring pointless worthless job and having no life to speak of .. f you don't buy our deodorant/hair product/makeup then no-one will want to be your friend/be attracted to you, because you'll be ugly/smelly/disgusting/a freak, you won't fit in, you won't belong, you'll be out of the in crowd, out in the cold .... Above all, keep watching TV, don't stop distracting yourself from actually being yourself, if you stop watching TV you might accidentally give yourself a chance to notice what your feeling, to notice what you really want, and start to challenge everything you've been led to believe all your life, to have independent thoughts, to be dissatisfied with the way things are ... to want to change things! And that would be very, very bad, wouldn't it? Did we mention, keep drinking beer?! Keep numbing your mind and feelings from that nasty discontentment! Keep on keeping yourself doped and docile! Think less! Drink more! Shut up! Shut up!!
Still, there's movies. Movies are good. (Okay, some movies).
Oh, and comedy.
Anyway, when I've finished hating everything, I'll be doing some recording.
Monday 10th September
Well, feeling refreshed after finishing work and going on holiday, so that's good!
Other main thing of note is that I've got a gig at the Radio One "One Live In Birmingham" festival thing - you know, that thing they do each year in a different city. Last year it was Cardiff, I think, and they've done Leeds and Newcastle, and this year it's the turn of Birmingham. Well, no shortage of local talent, so there should be plenty of quality stuff to see.
Apparently they're putting on relatively-famous bands at the Academy, in Birmingham town centre (good job that exists now, 'cos otherwise there'd be no suitable size venue for it!), and then there's a "fringe festival" on at the other main Birmingham venues, the Old Railway, the Jug Of Ale, the Flapper and Firkin, etc. So I'm playing at the Old Railway on the opening night, which is very exciting! Apparently there's a host of reviewers from both Radio One and the NME wandering round the venues, so hopefully it'll be a good opportunity to get some exposure.
And the recordings progress apace, interrupted only by various collaborators (and me, come to think of it) going on holiday . But with summer pretty much down for the count, that'll be the end of that for a while!
Monday 24th September
Well, have confirmed who's going to be playing with me on October 26th: as ever it's a joy to have Roberto Dell'era on the guitar. Unfortunately Mr Valdarama is unavailable for bass duties (he's playing guitar in his "dirty" funk septet, how can I compete with that?) so we welcome multi-instrumentalist David Picking, who I had had pencilled in for percussion, on the electric bass guitar. And I'm delighted to have the line-up completed by equally multi-talented-mentalist Neil Spragg (Mocca tub-thumper extraordinaire) upon the drums.
So, truly it will rock. Having been originally booked as solo acoustic act, it now looks increasingly like much electric-guitar distortion heaviness will once more be extant! I will play some acoustic numbers, though, or at least numbers with the acoustic guitar. But I can feel a mutation of style under way, a definite leaning towards making a noise that I cannot ignore.
So increasingly appropriate then that I continue with my current, all-acoustic recordings. And I can now reveal that the track list looks like Over You Soon, Demons, and For Wot (which I'm working on for a tape to send out to people), which will be joined shortly after by Closer To You, to form a 4-track EP, hopefully available in time for .... I dunno, Christmas? No, I should get at least two done in time for the One Live gig (so as I can give John Peel a tape, obviously), and then it shouldn't take too long to spruce up the fourth track, and assemble it into a little CD type thing that you can make your very own! 'Cos let's face it, excellent though MP3s are, they don't sound quite as crispy as a CD, now, do they? And plus I tend to post audio in mono on the website (because it sounds twice as good as stereo for the same size file).
Right! A month of rehearsing and recording awaits! Not much sunshine to sit in, and little in the way of other distractions either. Jolly good.
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