I’ve been really slogging away with “Dead Rock Star”. I’m close to 50,000 words in and have most of the story covered. I’ve worked it out that the novel ends in three chapters and by this time I should have hit a 60,000 word target, allowing me to add, polish and buff on the second draft. There’s a lot I can add the second time around because I deliberately left space in the text as I just wanted to bang the story out in the first draft, get the framework there and then go back and improve on sections if I felt the need to. Again, this is a bit different for me as usually I aim to get the first draft near enough spot-on and use the second draft just to clear up any mistakes and errors. I’m really looking forward to the ending, which is the big pay-off. I am so looking forward to writing that final section, you just can’t imagine it. In fact, it is the thought of the ending which is driving me on. It’s a bit like a good punchline to a joke – it’s that kind of feeling.
Of course, that’s not to say that there isn’t any doubt. There’s loads. I’m feeling very doubtful at the moment and keep questioning myself in all manner of ways. Why am I doing this? Is this story any good? What’s the point? Am I really a writer? What if I really am that lazy good for nothing bum and this is all a ruse? Should I give up with my music as I am just wasting my time on it? What’s the point of this website when no one visits? Etc. In fact, this self-doubt goes on ad infinitum until it gets boring. Gee, I’ve even bored myself there. But the thing about writing, or any creative task, is that you have to have a level of conceit or arrogance to continue. You have to will yourself on and have self-belief even if sometimes it is a little misplaced. Otherwise you’d stop doing anything and just quit at the first obstacle. And so I am even more determined to finish this story.
On my travels, I found this interesting link which gives some tips to those of us intent on writing a novel. Of course, I never make any of those mistakes (except that time when I wrote a novel and changed a character’s name halfway through and completely forgot about it. Thank god for ‘search and replace’.)
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This album has been a long time coming, but Kate Bush has delivered a double CD that really is a game of two halves. The first CD called “A Sea of Honey” opens with the current single “King of the Mountain” which sounds very much like a Kate Bush track of old. From then on, the album takes a very different, more personal turn with Bush dumping the overblown production she’s used on previous albums and using a more intimate approach. “Pi” is a song of numbers which lays down some music themes that reappear on side two, “Bertie” is a song that only a mother could write for a son and the lyrically-ambigious “Mrs Bartloizzi” makes you wonder if this is a murder scene or someone just in the throes of domestic bliss? The next two songs “How to be Invisible” and “Joanni” aren’t as strong and didn’t have any real effect on me. The last track on the first CD “A Coral Room” concerns Bush’s mother’s death and I found it particularly moving when she started to mention the little brown jug. (My own late grandmother had a little brown just that was passed down and used to mention that same song too).
The second CD “A Sky of Honey” is a completely different beast and I found it a much more enjoyable journey. It is a concept piece dealing with the passage of time on a mid-summer’s afternoon as day turns to dusk to night and back to dawn again. Combine this with characters such as the Painter (played and sung by Rolf Harris – it was nice to hear him on this project) and a panoply of bird chorus and you have a sound painting of a time and space. Hearing Kate attempt to mimick the bird songs is a highlight and stand out track “Somewhere in Between” should be the next single. This CD is a full of warmth and humanity and was written by someone who obviously had the time to study a summer afternoon with depth. I love it.
The two CDs are very different, but I don’t think they would have worked without each other. They are two sides of the same coin and, for example, I don’t think that “A Sky of Honey” would have worked so well if it had been released on its own. I think this is a truly great record, full of soul and warmth, and is well worth falling in love with.
Saturday was Guy Fawkes Night and the birthday of the Missus. We had a quiet day indoors. I tried to capture some fireworks with my camera, but it didn’t quite work out. Instead, I caught a flash of yellow light. I’m not sure if it is a firework or the streetlights in the distance. Looks cool and very arty though:
We’ve got a new game at Chez Lock. It goes something like this: the Missus chooses a recipe from a book or newspaper, buys the ingredients and I cook it. Yesterday, it was Jamie Oliver’s “Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Hotpot”.
Don’t worry – it tasted very nice. The secret ingredient was plenty of cider to give it some kick. Oh yes!
Look at this. This picture is a picture of the dirt and dust from under our marital bed. God we live like heathen slobs. Great, ain’t it?!!?!?!
And finally, the obligatory “aaah, ain’t he cute shot” of Alex the Wonderdog. He seems to get all the comments these days, so here’s the little blighter doing what he does so well…sleeping. Trust me, this is what he does 98% of the time when he ain’t grumbling for food or taking a constitutional in the garden.
Today, I left the house early to walk to the local Woolworths to purchase the new Kate Bush album “Aerial”. I am currently listening to it as I type. It’s very good and I am enjoying it a lot. Her best album since “The Hounds of Love”.
Also, tackling chapter 14 of “Dead Rock Star” and I have decided is what the occult really needs is a children’s pop-up book of total evil and damnation.
This is an interesting double DVD set because it contains a concert that never happened. How so? Well Peter Gabriel last year performed a number of concerts that left behind all the theatrics of his previous tour and he’s assembled the footage here. So we have performances from a number of different venues edited together to create psuedo-concert. The first disc contains this performance and features songs such as “Digging in the Dirt”, “Red Rain” and the obligatory “Sledgehammer”. It’s interesting to see PG perform without bouncing around the stage in his Zorb or his other theatrical devices and it does make for some fascinating viewing. However, if you’ve bought either of Gabriel’s other live DVDs there are a number of tracks that are constantly repeated. But of course, packages like this are aimed at the superfan, so no complaints.
The picture quality is excellent and the 5.1 DTS sound absolutely superb, putting you right in the middle of the audience. Despite the material being gathered from different concerts, you don’t really notice the join. Bonuses on this disc includes another chance to see “In Your Eyes” being performed and “No Self Control” from the POV video (which was released in the 1990s and has been long out of print) with an excellent 5.1 Dolby soundtrack. This bodes well for the future and maybe POV will soon be getting a proper DVD release?
The second disc is an odd affair as it features the same setlist from the first disc (though I think the performances are different) and is intercut with Peter Gabriel and his touring musicians ruminating over the clips about subjects such as touring, their dreams and other stuff. I found this disc absolutely infuriating as it didn’t seem to know if it was a documentary or a concert film, with both types of footage vying for the viewer’s attention. I’d have liked to have seen a straight documentary in the style of Anna Gabriel’s “Growing Up on Tour” DVD (which is great, but a little short BTW). The best thing about this disc is the extras as you get three tracks taken from a studio performance of UP tracks performed for journalists at the Real World Studio back in 2002 and two tracks from the Jools Holland TV show.
Overall, it is a great package if you don’t own any PG DVDs, but some might find the repitition of tracks a little too much and the lack of the theatrical set-pieces a little dull. I enjoyed it though. Mind you, I am a big PG fan.
(You can get this disc from CD WOW for £12.99 – some shops have been charging £19.99 for it – so you have been warned)
Today, on the eve of the birthday of The Missus, we spent the day out shopping. The Missus didn’t see much she like (she had an ‘off’ shopping day) while I satisfied myself with a copy of the XTC “Apple Box” CD compilation. Lots of traffic, but the music was good.
For some reason, I am feeling tired. The Missus said it was because I’d had too much excitement for one day. Possibly true.
If you play Phil Manzanera’s previous album “6PM”, then this one follows approximately “50 Minutes Later”. Yes, I thought it was clever too. I really enjoyed last year’s “6PM” a lot. In fact, it was my favourite album of 2004 and is still in rotation at Chez Lock. When I heard that there was going to be a follow-up, I was both overjoyed and apprehensive. How would Mr M follow-up such a strong release?
Well I had needn’t worry because “50 Minutes Later” is almost a direction continuation of the “6PM” vibe. Opening track “Revolution” echoes “Green Spiky Cactus” (and the bassline also apes the INXS hit “Need You Tonight”) and “Technicolour UFO” has a hook that sticks – it also name checks all those characters from the 24-hour Technicolour Dream hippy extravaganza. Mind you, PM had me hooked with the lyric “There’s Kevin Ayers sitting in the corner, singing from the bottom of a well”. Oh yeah. The first two tracks are great, plenty of crunchy guitars and are upbeat rocking numbers.
The rest of the album then takes a more mellow vibe. “That’s All I Know” is a reflective acoustic-driven song, the vocal work on “Desaparacido” immediately reminded me of Steve Hackett and the song itself has a great chorus. “One Step” again is a reflective piece, full of doubt and questions, and “Swimming” sums it all up with the line “Let’s not waste this precious life, as time keeps slipping away”. It’s an album of reflection, of adulthood, of regret and of new resolutions. It’s a very positive record. The album then gets darker (naturally) with “Bible Black” which is heavy and brooding and magnificent at the end. “Till the End of the Line” resolves the various themes of the album. The two instrumental tracks “50 Minutos Mas Tarde”, which features Robert Wyatt and sounds very jazzy and experimental for PM, and “Dusza” break up the vocal songs and are quite different from Manzanera’s usual instrumenal pieces, with no burning electric guitar solos.
As an album, it’s very good and a very different journey from “6PM”. Whereas that album has a confident swagger and plenty of guitar for us boys, this follow-up is far more mature affair and sees Manzanera writing some of his best lyrics of his career. My only criticism is the utterly pointless Eno remix of “Bible Black”, which is, in my honest opinion, a big steaming crock of shit. It spoils a good album.
(And keep your ears out for the hidden track that comes after “Till the End of the Line”)
Recommended listening.
The weather has been appalling. Meanwhile, Alex the Wonderdog is walking with a pronounced limp. In fact, he has started to hop around the house like a smelly kangeroo. There’s something not right with his rear left leg. I had the vet look at it the last time we were there but he couldn’t spot anything. I guess we’ll have to be a bit more persistant the next time we go.
In the post: a birthday present for The Missus, concert tickets for Greg Lake and the new Peter Gabriel “Still Growing Up – LIve and Unwrapped” DVD.