The Missus keeps forcing me to write. Nag, nag, nag…she goes. Finish that novel, she says. Blah, blah, blah… So now I fill the gaps in-between my freelance writing work with…WRITING! GAK!
Stupid bloody novel. I hates it. I hates it, I do… I know what you are going to say. You are going to say, “What’s it about, Darren?” and I say, I don’t know. I am not even sure if it is a novel. At the moment, it is a series of dubiously connected monologues chronicling the angst and despair of 21st Century London. Or it could just be heap of unreadable horse-shit…
Anyway, the BBC website (god bless it, that’s where my £125 a year TV license fee goes, so that any filthy herberts from around the world can access information I PAID FOR…the bastards) informed me that today, 24 November 1991, Freddie Mercury died. I remember that day only too well. Cold and miserable and travelling via the tube to University. Bah…
Also on this day, the band Electric Six release their cover of “Radio Ga Ga”. I saw this video last night on TV and I was in mixed minds about it. Part of me thought it was offensive and part of me thought it was the funniest thing I’d seen in ages. I really love the Electric Six.
I’m gonna take ya to a Gay Bay
Gay Bay
Gay Bay…
Anyway, enough of that, roll the video, Henry!
Windows Media
http://mfile.akamai.com/9139/asf/stream.wmg.com/wmi/uk/electric6/Electricsix_radiogagaWin_hi.asx
Real Player
http://mfile.akamai.com/9139/rm/stream.wmg.com/wmi/uk/electric6/Electricsix_radiogagaReal_hi.ram
Last night, I also watched a TV programme where a couple were instructed by two “experts” on how to have sex properly. Highlight for me was the disappointed look on the guys face when he told us how his partner had told him that she faked an orgasm: “None of my other girlfriends ever did that,” he said. But behind his eyes you could see the fear and doubt growing. Then there were plenty of clips of his white buttocks pumping for dear life…ahhhh, this is the apex of British TV. THIS is what I pay my TV licence fee for. He humped and humped and humped, but was getting nowhere.
“It’s like trying to push a sausage uphill with your nose,” I remarked, before changing channels. I never did find out if the experts got this guy to make his girlfriend cum…not much of a cliff-hanger, was it?
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Saturday was a wasted day, waiting for a plumbers to come, who came late, managed to NOT fix the problem and then return at 6pm when I was having my dinner, so I sent them away with a flea in their ear. Seeing as it was a minor job and the plumbers were called out on our home insurance, I will endeavour to fix the non-emergency drip myself.
Sunday I worked on a new music project. The song is called “Mr Straight” and was recorded by my new band, Gorgeous George & The Hammerheads.
Personnel
“Gorgeous” George Dixon – Vocals
Darren Lock – Bass & drum loop
Freddie “Fast Fingers” Butler – Guitars
John Beard – Piano
Hear this song: https://www.darrenlock.com/media/Mr_Straight.mp3
A painful lump in my left forearm has arisen. It hurts to touch and feels as if someone has pinched me or punched me really hard. There is no bruise or sign of a boil or pimple ready to ooze pus from this area. The dull pain travels up my arm and makes my fingers ache. What is this pain? What is this lump? Will it go away? I noticed this lump on Saturday. Today it feels as if it is easing but it still throbs noticeably. I am hoping it is a blind spot or a ganglion rather than some weird tumour that requires my left arm being amputated from the left elbow. (Jeez, I think I am turning into a hypochondriac).
Recently, I sold a load of old recording software I didn’t need on eBay and with the proceeds purchased a new electric guitar. I am just a shamless, lazy, useless bum who ought to deal with his debts first before squandering his cash on fripperies. But what do I care? I am a lazy bum. A useless, no good lazy bum. And there’s nothing any of you can do to stop me. Mwahahahahhaaahaaa!
The guitar was a boxed new Epiphone Black Beauty (with three pickups) from eBay. It was a real steal and I am really glad I purchased it. I have already fitted an internal GK-2A MIDI pickup and I have a Bigsby tremolo unit being delivered soon.
Anyway, I did some recording yesterday and the pain in my arm/fingers told me to play something S-L-O-W. And so, I kicked on my Boss RC-20XL and decided on a loop of around 4 minutes. The rules were simple:
First pass: play single notes, letting them decay and die
Second pass: play two notes in succession, quickly
Third pass: play three notes in succession at will
Fourth pass: play what you feel
Fifth pass: play single notes
Sixth pass: play two notes
Etc, etc…
So this is me with my Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty played into my mixer with a little bit of reverb without any other effects other than the RC-20XL looper. It has its moments and is a sheer indulgence. You can right-clear the following URL and select “SAVE AS” or you can click it and let it play with Windows Media Player (if you have that installed, of course)
https://www.darrenlock.com/media/gs.mp3
The US Presidential result left me depressed. I was under a cloud for the rest of the day. Why? Because I believe that the American people deserved better. Because it depresses me to see America standing alone on the world stage when it should be taking a more responsible stance on International issues. Because I know that Crony Blair is super-glued to Bush’s coat-tails. Where ever he wants to go, dear old soppy Tony will have to follow. It’s all part of the special relationship, right? (And this is from a life-long, Commie, pinko, left-wing Labour supporter who voted TWICE for dear old Tony).
Don’t get me wrong. I really like America and the Americans when I have visited but your politicians make you look stupid. They are going to drag you down a ideological cul-de-sac dominated by religion, moral crusades and fear. The neo-conservatives are really just like the Taliban, but without the funky facial hair. In the next four years, you will see your personal rights eroded away.
(Of course, if you are a white, god-fearing, middle-class, heterosexual, this will not affect you. But the government will still keep you scared of those tan-skinned terrorists hiding under your bed).
Fear = control.
In the past, politics was dominated by aspirational theologies. The politicians came to you and promised clean water, a job or the right to vote. Now the politics of aspiration don’t work because we’ve all got our widescreen TVs and our DVD players. So how do you inspire the electorate? Fear.
Make ’em scared and they will tick the box. Pathetic, ain’t it?
The worst thing is I am seeing the same rhetoric spouted by Bush being adopted by Blair and he is trying to scare this country into voting for him. It won’t work with us because we ain’t that gullible. We’ve been invaded, had the Empire and bought the T-shirt. We’re jaded and cynical. America is still a young whipper-snapper and has a lot to learn.
Now I am not going to say that you were wrong for voting Bush, because you wasn’t. It was your prerogative and, at least, you took the time to vote. But the one thing I will urge you to do if you did vote Bush is to get yourself a passport and to travel outside the US. Visit Europe. Travel. That’s all I ask of you. This will help you to do two things:
1) You will learn to appreciate other cultures
2) You will love your own country even more
Blah, blah, blah…it means nothing. Why waste my time even typing this? It’s not going to change anything. The only thing that changes anything is the passage of time. And so, we just have to wait and wait and wait until this black period of world history passes us over.
But I’ve got it off my chest. GAK!
Tomorrow is 5 November. This is the anniversary of some Catholic trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament. We celebrate the fact that Guy Fawkes, this 17th century terrorist, was hung, drawn and quartered (very slowly, of course) by burning an effigy of the fellow and lighting fireworks. Hurrah!
Click here for a little bit of history.
It’s also someone’s birthday and because it shares this day, I can never forget it. So another word of advice: marry someone whose birthday is shared with a popular local holiday.
This a collection I have been looking forward to for a while. Owning his CV and making of US laserdisc, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the DVD version so I could retire my old laserdisc player (again).
This disc spans his career and features all the usual suspects including that Sledgehammer video we all know and love (even though it has probably outworn its welcome by now). The interesting thing is that all of the tracks on this DVD have been remixed for 5.1 sound.
Being someone who pooh-poohs 5.1 mixes, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening Sledehammer mix, which seemed to be based on the 12-inch remix that was done. Anyway, PG really opened up the mix on this one and you can pick out all the instruments clearly. The remixing works well for all of the tracks and breathes new life into Shaking the Tree where you can hear Yossour N’dour’s vocals much more clearly.
HOWEVER, I have a few issues with this DVD. You see, our Peter loves nothing better than to fiddle around with his material. While some tracks (Blood of Eden) sound lovely in 5.1, other tracks have been butchered at his hands. For example your honour, I put forward the case of the missing drum parts in Big Time. This punchy little number starts without any drums! Then they appear four bars into the song. Sacrilege.
In Games Without Frontiers the sliding guitar parts (provided by RF, I believe) have been removed and replaced by synths and Kate Bush’s vocals don’t sound like they used to. Also, this video has fallen victim to the politically correct, left-wing, liberal thought police. Gone are the sections of the video with PG hosting a dinner party for the children. Gone are the bizarre images of PG on all fours marching with the dolls. Instead we have more black and white images taken from the 1950s. Shame on you Peter!
Luckily, my two most favourite PG tracks, Shock the Monkey and Digging in the Dirt, come out unscathed and I was very impressed with the picture quality and knocked out by the sound. The menus are well thought-out and match the DVDs cover styling and there are some extras, including a very old video of Peter riding the escalator for the single “Modern Love”. Wow, they really knew how to make videos in those days!
So for your cash you get a load of videos you probably haven’t seen before, a pot-load of mixes you have never heard before and some good trailers for his other DVD releases. This is a must for any PG fan, though I still find it hard to deal with the savage changes to the material. But then I reckon I need to get out more.
Verdict: one for the Xmas stocking!
Setlist
My Room
The Siren Song
A Better Time
Gone Ahead
Vision
The Comet, The Course, The Tail
If I Could
Amnesiac
Shingle Song
Patient
Easy to Slip Away
Bubble
Four Pails
Stranger Still
Traintime
Still Life
In The End
This concert was part of the “Mind Your Head 2004” season of shows on the South Bank. The last time I had seen pH was way back in 1997, but both me and The Missus were sick with the flu and were so dosed up with cold medicines that neither of us remember the show too well.
Anyway, this was a solo performance from Hammill and he came on promptly at 8.00pm to a round of applause and immediately performed “My Room”, one of my favourite VDGG numbers, at the piano. I said to the Missus, “OK, we can leave now!” when he had finished. He received raptuous applause and remarked how happy he was to be here. Of course, for those of you who don’t know, pH suffered a heart attack last winter and has only just started to return to live performance.
He then worked through a number of songs at the piano including a track from his new “Incoherence” album and the song “Vision” from “Pawn Hearts”. It was good to hear so many older songs performed such as “A Better Time”, “The Comet, the Course, the Tail”, “Shingle Song” and “So Easy to Slip Away”. It was real mixed bag.
He then moved onto the guitar and performed a couple of songs. My attention was distracted by a rather drunk fellow, who decided to descend from his seat and plonk himself in the aisle right next to me. He proceeded to lurch and falter from side to side, occasionally grunting approval at the proceedings, but most often staring wildly in space and not really “attending” the concert. Luckily, once pH returned to the piano, this drunken fool returned to his seat. Hurrah!
Other songs such “Patient”, “Stranger Still” were well performed and towards the end of the set he even had time to trot out another VDGG track in the shape of “Still Life”. He promised us one encore, which he delivered and then it was off in to the night air.
Because of pH’s immense back catalogue I have missed some of the that he played out. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan, but I am useless at compiling set-lists. I leave that to the proper pH fan-boys.
And I would love to thank the loudmouth Yank whose shouts of “I love you Peter” and “You are fucking awesome, man” etc, always came during the quiet bits. I hope you had a good time.
Anyway, a great gig and I look forward to catching him again with his full band. Not exactly a fun-filled evening (pH’s work isn’t exactly a laugh-a-minute) but a worthwhile excercise in sitting still and concertrating for 1 hour 45 minutes.
So my copy of the Crimson Chronicle arrived today. To recap, this is a 208-page softback book detailing the band King Crimson from its inception as Discipline to the recording of Three of a Perfect Pair.
So how to do you review a book made up of pictures? Hmmm…well there are lots and lots of pictures and they are of the band and band members so that’s a good thing right? Anyway, some of these pics we’ve seen before in the Frame by Frame booklet or on the KCCC releases that cover this period. But there are an awful lot of new photos that I haven’t seen, which is good.
Like you get to see more of the band during its initial rehearsal phase and if you are an equipment junkie, you get to see all their luvverly guitar equipment. The book follows the band chronologically and so you see them perform as Discipline, record the album and then play as King Crimson. OK – some of the shots are repetitive, because it’s just four guys playing in a rock and roll band night after night, but if you are a fan-boy this will tickle your fancy no end.
The book is divided into sections and there are some captions with the photos but most often the images are presented as is with a separate caption list at the back of the book. This is a niggle because you have to keep turning to the back of the book to see where the photos were taken, but this is just a niggle on my part because I don’t want to crease up my nice new book.
There are clever quotes at the beginning of each section and each band member even gets their own separate chapter. For the completist or those of you who didn’t see the band during the 80s (like me) then this is a great purchase. If you don’t get much from photo books like this then this ain’t gonna float your boat either.
I was going to scan some of the pics but this seems like a defeatist action when I can send you to:
http://www.tonylevin.com/crimchron.htm
Because I was an early buyer Tony Levin even signed my copy, which means when I finally do hit the breadline, I’ll recoup some of my losses on eBay. I jest, of course! Now what would be really nice is if someone would put together a similar photobook of the 1969-74, a bit like the YPG scrapbook but without all the words. That would make a lovely companion piece to this.
Anyway, I’ll catch up with you all in 2024, by which time Tony Levin will have compiled volume two of this particular tome.