A new release

A bit more of a press release than a journal entry to mark the start of the year, but I’d better get the information out there as quickly as possible….

Over the last decades it’s been my feeling that there should always be a CD release availabe which gives a picture of what’s been the main drive in live performance in the preceding period. Successively, we’ve had “Room Temperature”, “Typical” and “Veracious”. Currently occupying the slot – and likely to do so for the foreseeable future – is, of course,”Pno, Gtr, Vox”, released last September.

As you’ll know, this represents a version of the guitar only, piano only shows with which I began my residence in Tokyo in 2010, with performances taken from the Japanese shows and also from the UK shows in the same year.

A double CD is, I think, a decent artefact to leave out there as a (semi-) permanent exemplar of Performance. But while compiling the discs from all the available material it came to me that a specific, bigger, thing could also come out of the various shows.

Hence, as the first Fie! release of 2012, we have “Pno, Gtr, Vox Box”: a seven cd box set of live songs from the same sources.

This project began with the assembly of the remaining two shows from the Tokyo stint: the “VdGG” show and the “What if I knew this was the last ever?”.
As it turned out, the first of these was taken entirely from the evening at the Pit Inn…I simply didn’t play enough VdGG songs elsewhere for it to make sense to mix and match.

Originally my intention had been to create a limited edition simulacrum of just the four shows. After listening through the various performances, though, I realised that the remit had to be wider. For a start there were a number of songs crucial to the current repertoire that I hadn’t performed at all in Japan. Cue Disc 5. And in order to get the timings down to approximately 70 minutes I’d had to drop certain songs from the original listings. Ecco, disc 6. Finally, there were various alternate performances which for one reason or another had simply not fitted into the flow of the first choice CDs. A final disc of alternate takes, then.

There are over eight hours of performances in this box. Far too much to take in at one session. And, as before, it’s not definitive; it is, though, highly indicative of where I’ve been in my latest spate of live performance.

There’s also, clearly, some kind of Retrospective Collection aspect here as well: the songs are stripped down to the bare essentials and cumulatively tell the tale of a career’s worth of writing, recording and performing.

The package as a whole, designed, as ever, by Paul Ridout, really is a classy piece of work. Each CD is held an individual wallet, featuring shots from my ongoing series of backstage photographs. A booklet with liner notes and full setlists and indications of which song from which show features on which CD completes the deal.

OK, even though it’s a box set (all the rage, it seems, these days) there are no signed artist’s plectra or sunglasses, no fourteenth mix of the fifteenth outtake, no surround sound revisitation.

What there is is The Stuff. And this one’s going to be strictly limited in edition. Although the Boxes are not individually numbered, I’ve taken the decision that the run will be restricted to the 2,000 which have been manufactured.

Of course, something like this sells at a premium. But it’s been kept lower than some might expect and this particularly reflects the fact that, of course, the two CDs of the Pno, Gtr, Vox set – which many will already have purchased – are  included in the set.

Release date is set for February 13th. But of course we’re now taking advance orders here: http://bit.ly/zaoHBN.

I hope that those of you who go for this will agree with me that this really is a quality addition to the catalogue….

Roll up, roll up!

Gail leaves the building

Gail has left the Building.

Just before Christmas Gail cleared her desk, shut up shop, handed back the keys and walked out into the future. I’m here to toast her on her way.

I’ve known Gail Colson – a name with which those who bother to read liner notes will be well familiar – for the whole time I’ve been involved in the Music Game. In fact, I knew her before I could really claim to be a professional musician at all.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that it was always Gail who got things to work from the earliest days. At first, as Tony Stratton Smith’s assistant, she had to make sense of whatever latest wild scheme or rash promise TSS had come up with. (Such as, for instance, signing up a not-quite-group called VdGG when, really, his attention would have been better served by paying attention to his other two acts, the Bonzos and the Nice. That one worked out, of course!)

Later, hers was the hand on the tiller of Charisma in its Golden Age.

Then, management.

Gail’s been my manager for the last thirty odd years, bar the odd break here and there. As of now, I am – as is, indeed, the ongoing VdGG – managerless and intend to remain so. Put simply, there is no-one else who could possibly replace Gail in the role.

Happily, it’s voluntary retirement that’s come calling. Time to get out: pretty well everything’s been done, everything’s been seen. That’s not to say that – still – she won’t come up with something that enthuses her or pisses her off. But she, we, have seen most things by now.

As far as I know her first Music Biz work (maybe first work at all) was as PA for Shel Talmy. Not a name on the tip of your tongue? He was only the producer of both “You Really Got Me” and “My Generation” among many other (mono) Hits. The start of the modern world, in other words.

(I digress, but…keen students of stuff VdGG will know that Shel also did a (mono!!) remix of The Least We Can Do, which , er, didn’t quite work out. I still remember playing Gail the *stereo* version in Trident Studios, when she, I think, first really understood where we were coming from…as opposed to “got” us.)

Then she became Strat’s PA. Which was mainly for the Nice, who were then, deservedly, one of the hottest bands in England. And so in time came Charisma, in all its variegated forms. Gail was there throughout and ended up MD.

But, if my memory serves me well, she was never *quite* given the credit she deserved. And so, in the late seventies, she left and immediately went into the business of management: her first clients were PG and myself. Self-sufficient types, yes, but not much given to being told what to do. Except when we really needed to be told.

This, of course, is where Gail comes in to her own. You don’t need to be an Industry insider to know that the following is, frankly, for Music Biz, pretty astounding. In all the years I’ve known Gail she has never stated less than her full, frank, honest opinion; never sweetened the bullet; never “loved what you’re trying to do”. This has meant, at times, in my case, saying to me that she had no idea what I was on about and so actually couldn’t work an a given project. But because the sentiment was expressed it meant that the other, more normal (sic!0 stuff could continue.

PG was always the more likely, more destined, more driven one out of the two of us to head for genuine Star status and of course eventually this did come along. Shortly thereafter…actually, not so shortly, there were quite a few bumps along the way…Gail and PG parted company.

A succession of “difficult” – but interesting – artists came under Gail’s wing over the years. I’m not going to do a roll call here, but I do rather hope that, eventually, Gail herself will sit down and write about it/them all. Or on reflection, maybe not!

I’m not, I like to think, a complete oaf, but I’m pretty sure that without Gail’s calm presence and advice – and our lunches bitching about the State of Music – I wouldn’t have been able to make it through to whatever stage of career I’m at.

I can definitely say that, in my opinion, if Gail hadn’t taken the slightly poisoned chalice of managing the reformed VdGG then we wouldn’t have made it past the first show or so, let alone into the continuing, if unlikely, story which continues to unfold.

Here’s the final thing: Gail and I never had a contract. Everything has been on the basis of trust, with the understanding that if things fall apart it’s only the lawyers who’d win in any court case.

You see, Gail and I come from that far-off planet, the Sixties. That place where, actually, music was both its own reward and its own justification.

I like to think that, retired or not (and GC will still be taking an overseeing & guiding/advising, if not overriding, role in the affairs of both myself and VdGG in the future, I hope) we’ll stick with those principles.

We, who came in then, were not lawyers, accountants, bootleggers, pirates, corporates or investors. We didn’t want to cross-collateralise or merge the brand with other luggage. We just found Music and the making of it the most exciting thing in the world. I don’t mean to over-romanticise, because obviously music is a business and if you don’t – eventually – make the numbers add up then you’’ll go under.

But back when the UK Music Biz was located in just a couple of streets in Soho piling up the cash was emphatically not the overriding motivation.

The links to that world are going fast now but some of us remember it still.

Thanks for everything Gail. Here’s a public raising of the glass to you!

xxx

This album has a future….

Well, I’ve been working on it for a while now and it’s definitely heading forward. The lyrics, of course, are all completed (after complete rewrites in a couple of cases) and so are the (Lead) Vocals. More contradictory, supportive or argumentative vox stuff in the BV and/or Choir range may still need to be added at a later stage, though some’s already on there.

But I’ve moved back to instrumental work, pasting stuff on, scraping stuff away. Immersing myself deeply in the songs one at a time, so that the last one is semi-forgotten the minute I’m onto the next. All the fun of album recording. I still love doing it and it’s still the main drive of my work, allowing that live performance is a wilder, different thing.

I still couldn’t say exactly what (if anything) this set of recordings is “about” but a couple of linked subjects seem to have emerged. That’s part of the function of working intensely over a comparatively short period: the things which are of interest to me, musically, lyrically, soundwise will poke themselves up like rocks through earth and define the tone of the collected work. I don’t, consciously, aim for “concepts” but I do want to have some sense of a rounded whole from a project.

So I intend to carry on working this way as long as I still find things to do.

I worry, though, that the album as a form is under threat as never before.

The other day I watched a documentary about the making of “Bridge over Troubled Water”. The sense of search and discovery, particularly from Roy Halee , the producer/engineer, was astonishing. And these people were striving for, making, Hits, not Art Rock. (By the by, “Bookends”, by the same team, was actually my preferred S & G album….) Is there the slightest chance that such work could be done under the aegis of, ahem, a “major label” today or at any near-incoming time?

Indeed, would anyone with any measure of sanity make the investment of time, money, enthusiasm required for such a  project at this time?

I really don’t mean to whinge about the olden, golden days. I remain lucky enough (last time I checked, or so I like to think) to have something of an audience who have an interest in owning physical product, be it CD or vinyl. That gives me something of a living, though the man-hours of work involved probably put me a tad below minimum wage for each project if truth be told.

But I know for a fact that people coming in now – with quite a degree of success – don’t have a chance of earning such a living from sales and must rely on either live earnings (always a gamble on the profit/loss front, believe me!) or, of course, merchandise.

So we’re now at the point where effectively the spin-off stuff is the make-money part of the equation. That’s simply not one that’s going to produce the restless, go-forward thing that was at the heart of album-making back in the day.

No blame. The day has, perhaps, gone.

Instant download – or stream, or file-share – of individual tracks is evidently the main game now. And of course there’s nothing wrong with that. But even that’s not quite the same as the old days of, effectively, vote for the single you think is on the Good Side by buying it, to get it up the charts.

Anyway, as for me, well, I’m still making the album.

p.s. I appreciate the various comments which appear. But I’d very much appreciate it if no-one posted as “Anonymous”. At worst it’s not hard to make up a fictitious name and that would give at least a (spurious?) sense of personal connection and responsibility for one’s own opinions. But if not, then not, I suppose.

The Writing

The clocks have gone back and only a couple of months remain until the end of the year; at long last I’ve just about assembled the songs for my next solo record.

This is most unusual. For as long as I can remember I’ve gone into solo recording projects with only a handful of songs actually completed as pieces of work. As the recordings have gone along the other tunes have gradually emerged until the final make up of the work becomes clear, often at a very late stage indeed.

Even after a (working) lifetime hammering away at the coal face of song, the actual mechanics of how those things arrive and make themselves manifest still remain somewhat mysterious to me. There’s never an exact science to it, never a “normal” process. It’s important to allow the song to make itself known rather than force it. To a large extent that involves tricking myself into a state of readiness-to-receive.

It’s comparatively simple to find that state while – nominally – concentrating on the recording process. An immersion in sound world means that the hidden lines of vocal/lyrical sense can make themselves available in a surreptitious manner. I’ve often drawn the analogy between sculpting and songwriting and as one hacks away at the sonic material – by editing or manipulation – the inner meaning of the thing shows up in some x-ray form. At this point it’s possible to know (approximately) what it’s “about” and then get those lyrics and that top line done.

I honestly mean to say that the songs reveal themselves to me. I don’t drive them along, I don’t start out with a specific agenda or intention, musical or lyrical. Whether I’m working with a chord sequence, a slab of noise or a riff I go forward, trusting that eventually the form will unlock the song within. Naturally, this kind of approach leads to a certain dangerous frisson when the recording process is reaching an end. I’ve enjoyed that sense of finally wrapping things up at the last moment.

Still, when I began working on the current project (as yet still untitled and without any specific direction, of course) I gradually came round to the idea that it was time to take a different approach. (Naturally I always try to have some different angle to each succeeding disc in any case.) I was starting virtually from scratch, since whatever backlog of potential material I’d accumulated in the past had been for the most part directed into “Thin Air” and then “A Grounding in Numbers”.

(An aside – I always have some musical material knocking around which has engaged me enough to start working on it, but not enough for it to come through to full form.)

As ever, I began with improvisatory playing on piano and guitar – this much is a given when building stuff from the ground up. Some improvisations were recorded, some noted down and repeated. I ended up with frameworks for seven or eight pieces. At this point I made the decision that before advancing into any further recording work I should actually write top lines and, crucially, lyrics for all of them. That I should make songs, in other words, before making recordings.

This has meant that I’ve been going at an unaccustomed slow pace for the last couple of months. With pieces this bare there’s been a great deal of staring out of the window, of carrying the tunes round in my head while walking the dogs, that kind of thing. Basically immersing myself in each piece in my imagination until the right words and tune came along to make (some kind of) sense.

Some ideas have been entirely new. In  a couple of cases I’ve discovered that themes or phrases which have been bubbling away in the waiting folder for years have muscled their way to the front. (Oh, yes, I do have a stock of lyrical ideas and phrases noted down in various books, on various scraps of paper, some of them from decades ago….)

I’m now up to ten completed songs. That’s probably one or two more than the number required for the album.

It’s now my intention to build the recordings around definitive lead vocals; these will be the next things I approach. The original piano and/or guitar parts may remain, or may be replaced by other stuff.

It’ll be the first time I’ve attempted this over an entire project; it should be interesting, I think.

Needless to say now that I’ve reached this stage I may well find myself going off into other directions, other pieces once I’m in full swing. But the plan, at present, is as outlined above.

In due course, I’ll post some notes on further progress….

Live Solo

A couple of days ago I got back from another stay in Japan, where I did one show in Osaka (the first time I’d been there for many years) and another four day stint in Tokyo, this time in two different places. During these sets I played a total of 64 different songs, covering the whole span of my career.

The audience in Japan is incredibly attentive and the nature of shows done in small (often jazz) clubs presents special challenges, if you care to accept them. I’ve found my visits over the last few years particularly stimulating, both in themselves and in terms of the wider perspective of my ongoing touring.

For my visit there in 2007, with the VdGG story continuing to unfold in surprising but always emphatically electric fashion, I’d made the specific request that the shows take place only in places with grand pianos. I didn’t even take a guitar with me.  It was the first time I’d done a solo set for some time and I thought that if I concentrated only on keyboard songs I’d inevitably ramp up the number of songs in the live catalogue considerably. Although I’m more than happy to play electric pianos in the band and, indeed, in solo concerts I also felt that the use of (the favourite) acoustic instruments would also push me into more interesting, possibly extreme, performances.

Since then I’ve tried to add more and more material to my setlists with each succeeding solo tour with the result that I can now call on over ninety tunes, although in many cases I *will* need to have lyrics and notes in front of me in order to stay on track, or to get back on track as and when I fall off!  In any event, stable performances are not really the desired result – I’m actually more interested in versions which skitter a little bit out of control rather than in “correct” ones. Naturally, there’s no such thing as a definitive version; or at least, I’ve no desire for one. I’d rather face up to each song as it comes up on the – constantly changing – setlists and treat it as feels right on the night.

When I went back to Tokyo in 2010, once again to do a run of four shows, it seemed an interesting idea to announce themes for each night in advance.  The first was “What if there were no piano?” and, obviously, I played only guitar songs. (Actually, on a couple of occasions in the past pianos have been so far out of tune or mechanically wrecked that I’ve had to go down this route.) In the second – “What if I forgot my guitar?” – I played only piano songs . (Since I’ve sometimes broken a string on the very first guitar number in a set I’ve had some accidental experience of this, naturally, as well as the run of 2007 shows previously mentioned.)

All of which brings me to say that the next release on Fie! is now about to come out (on October 10th, in fact). A double, live, it’s called “Pno, Gtr, Vox” and is a representation of these two sets. The performances are taken from shows in the UK in 2010 as well as the Japanese ones and follow the original running order, though some songs have been taken out in order to bring the timing down to just over 70 minutes on each CD.

It is, then, something of a summation of this period of live solo work (running in parallel with the ongoing VdGG stuff). As such it will also stand as an ongoing representation of the kind of thing I do, the kind of thing I aim for, onstage. As I’ve said, no version is or can be definitive…but these are certainly authentic.

Final, shameless, plug. Now available on pre-order (and will be available after the release date, of course) from www.sofasound.com. But you knew that, didn’t you?

A complex web

I first came upon Classic Rock Productions in 2003. They had acquired the rights to the famous VdGG appearance on Belgian TV(1972), on which we played “Lighthouse-Keepers” in its entirety. Classic Rock put this out as a DVD. They had  not contacted us to get artists clearance for this release. After I got in touch with them we reached an agreement that they would pay an advance and artist royalties and a contract was signed on May 27rd 2003 with Stratford Copyright Ltd.

(As an aside, my attitude to this was that there would be a genuine interest in the material and that it was therefore beneficial for all concerned that it be out there in the marketplace.)

A few months after the signing of the contract I discovered that a new DVD was coming out in which the Belgian footage was combined with a performance of “Godbluff” from Charleroi in 1975.

Though surprised that I had not been contacted about this release I once again took the view that this was material of general interest. A new contract was agreed and signed on 3rd October 2003.

By this time  I had become concerned that a series of repackages might be forthcoming if, as and when other material was unearthed; and that the public might be persuaded to buy, again and again, the same material in order to get a new nugget. This would not fit well with VdGG’s approach to its audience. So a clause was inserted into the contract to the effect that the Godbluff material could not be coupled with any other audio-visual material without our consent.

I believe that Classic Rock were happy to have the product fully authorised, VdGG were happy for the DVDs to be on sale, I was happy for them to be available on the Sofa Sound website and many people were glad to have the opportunity to own these historic recordings.

In February 2005 (before an announcement of the VdGG reunion had been made) we were contacted by a Classic Rock representative hoping that we would contribute interviews to a proposed documentary DVD in their “A critical review” series. We (the four then-current members of VdGG) quickly decided not to participate in the project, though it later transpired that, unbeknownst to us, David Jackson had done so. We were aware that Judge Smith and Nic Potter, ex-members of the group, would be doing interviews.

In April 2005 Classsic Rock announced the scheduled release of “Inside VdGG”. Since the announcement flagged  the release as containing live footage I emailed the company  to point out that we had not given consent for the use of any previously unseen footage and that the footage from the “Godbluff” DVD could not be used with any other audio-visual material.

In July 2005 “Inside VdGG” was released as a 2 DVD set. Disc One consisted of various interviews and short extracts of performances. (It is my understanding that since this was an “educational” project the brevity of these extracts meant that they were not subject to normal copyright terms.) Oddly, for a “comprehensive review” no mention was made of any albums released later than “Godbluff”. Disc Two contained the Belgian and Charleroi footage as previously released, coupled with two other pieces recorded for the German programme “Beat Club”.

The covering letter which accompanied the copy I was sent stated “As you can see the performance tracks have not been compiled with any other material. For completeness sake it would have been to include the two beat clubs tracks on the disc of performances….” (sic)

I was grateful to be sent a copy but not impressed by the documentary element of the product. I wrote to point out that contrary to the contract terms the “Godbluff” material had been coupled with other audio-visual stuff. I suggested that the “critical review” DVD could be put out as a stand-alone product, in which, of course, we would have no royalty interest. However, since the original material had been used in the current DVD I suggested that royalties would be due on this product.

At the time I also advised the public not to buy the product unless they were fully aware of its nature and especially not if they had already purchased the original music DVD. (And in a newsletter later in the year I reiterated “to be avoided by all but the most avid completists, I would say….”) I was particularly concerned that, in the light of the VdGG reunion and attendant wave of publicity, this release was not taken to be specifically endorsed by, or part of the promotional effort of, the modern (2005) group.

The first letter I received in response from Classic Rock stated “Disc 2…has not been altered in any way or coupled with any new material.” An offer was made for me to contribute an interview (at a much increased fee) for a subsequent edition of the DVD.

In response I declined this offer and pointed out that in addition to coupling of the new “Beat Club” tracks on Disc two that  since the two DVDs were sold as a single unit the audio-visual material on Disc one was, in fact, coupled with the “Godbluff” material. I again stressed that royalties would be due for the use of the original material

I received a reply which finally acknowledged that the “Beat Club” tracks had been included, explaining that this had been as a result of a misunderstanding with the production and replication plant in Germany. It was also agreed that royalties would be paid at the contractual rate, but on 50% of the dealer price – reflecting the 2 DVD nature of the product.

In my answer (October 11, 2005) I once again stressed that it would be best if any second edition of “Inside VdGG”  consisted of a single DVD, the “critical review” one, reiterating the fact that we would expect no royalties from such a release. I believe that such a version was indeed released later in 2005.

I also wrote: “I am sure that it was always your intention to pay us royalties on this release and that it’s been a simple oversight that sales up to June 30th have not yet been accounted for. Naturally, I expect that you will put this right as a matter of some urgency.” Silly me: since the release date was in July there obviously wouldn’t have been any sales before June; I trust that the tone of the general sentiment, though, comes through.

I have never received another letter from Classic Rock Direct Ltd. or any other associated company and no royalties have been paid since then for any release. The last period for which any accounting was sent was the six month period ending 30th June 2005.

At different times since then members of the public have alerted me to the appearance of various products which use the material, on a variety of labels which seem to  be offshoots of or associated with the web of Classic Rock companies: “The Live Broadcasts” (Classic Rock Legends 2006) is a single DVD coupling the “Beat Club” tracks with the original footage; “Transmissions” (Storming Music 2007) is an audio only CD taken from the video footage and “A Plague of Lighthouse-keepers (Stormbird 2009) appears to be a repackaging of (the original, 2DVD) “Inside VdGG”. (Incidentally, this last also seems to have been described in promotional blurb as containing “previously unreleased rare archive footage”.)

With an increasing sense of exasperation I have from time to time attempted to alert the public and in some cases retailers to the nature of these releases. My feeling was and is that the constant repackaging and retitling may well have served to draw in unwary completists and is not calculated to enhance the reputation of VdGG among its followers. Often at the urging of those followers I have therefore advised against the purchase of these products.

I’m honour bound to point out that Classic Rock, in whatever company guise, are contractually fully entitled to do such repackaging and, indeed, to assign rights from one company to another as they see fit. There is no element of illegality in their actions.

Of course, the fact that royalties have not been paid on no less than four different releases, by four different labels does, in my mind,  raise a question about whether the terms of the contract have been met.

However, I should state that I have not specifically chased up Classic Rock for royalties since 2005. I am now attempting to do so.

We come to the present.

Under the title “Performance” the same material as ever has now been released on the Eastworld label. I’m now given to understand (and somewhat astonished to discover) that this release is the subject of a dispute. It may be the case that when this dispute is resolved it will become clear who, if anyone, is responsible for the payment of any royalties due. For the moment, though, I remain an observer rather than an interested party in this matter.

Should any of you feel moved to make an entry in the comments section, I should point out that the opinions expressed there will be your own and not mine and that you should be careful to moderate your language especially in terms of anything which might  be taken to be defamatory. In particular, beware of making libellous statements.  I have done my best here simply to set out events factually as they occurred with only enough colouration of my personal views as is needed to provide context for those events and making clear that these views are derived from the facts as set out here and as I understand them.

Finally, I should like to voluntarily make clear that if at times in the past my language – fuelled by my exasperation – has been somewhat immoderate in describing the succession of releases outlined above I did not and do not wish to imply any actual dishonesty on the part of the companies and individuals involved.

P.S. By way of clarification the “Classic Rock” referred to here is not the one associated with the recent Metropolis concert DVD, nor the magazine of that name, nor the Classic Rock Society.

Guest Appearances

I don’t do that much of it but it’s always a pleasure to put in a guest appearance on other’s work. Since one of these contributions has recently been released this seems a good moment to write a few words on the subject.

I’ve spent so much of my recording life being responsible, either individually or as part of a collective, for how the project is proceeding that it’s a great liberation not to be It. In fact, even while being Main Artist I spend a lot of time trying to trick myself into being off the cuff rather than calculating in my approach. So that, for instance, I won’t really bother to look at the keyboard chords involved when doing the first passes at guitar overdubs. (Some might be justified in saying that it wouldn’t make any difference even if I did, of course…) Equally, I won’t usually go in with a specific plan for those moments when massed B Vox are called for, but just start with one harmony and then layer the others on and adjust as I go. The great But, though, is that once I’ve made these impromptu efforts I’ll then spend hours honing, adjusting, deciding.

As a guest, though, you simply present what you think is appropriate and see if it works for the other artist. And if the first idea doesn’t work, try something else. And if *nothing* works well, that’s too – bad but it’s not something to get unduly exercised about. The responsibility lies with the person/persons whose recording it is. (As the late great Randy California said to me when I asked which of his two solos on ‘Red Shift’ he preferred: “It’s your album, man!”)

What I do look for when taking on a guest appearance, though, is to get somewhere outside my normal sphere of reference. Obviously, I’m a man of – ahem – idiosyncratic delivery both vocally and instrumentally and anyone who’d asked me to contribute something to their work will be aware of that. The hope, though, is that an element of surprise will be involved for all concerned: that something new will emerge from one style/modus operandum rubbing up against another.

So here are the most recent things I’ve done in this area. My contributions were all made some time ago – that’s another aspect of this kind of stuff, you do something and it can be months or years before it sees the light of day. Or sometimes, it never gets seen at all….

The work which has just been released which I flagged up at the head of this piece is “Warm Winter”, by Memories of Machines, a collaboration between Tim Bowness and Giancarlo Erra. I got to bother my electric guitar on one of the songs thereon, “At the Centre of it All”. This was definitely in the modern style of guest stuff: Tim sent me files on which to overdub, with a completely free remit. (All boxes ticked, then!) And in turn I sent off files of recorded stuff from which to select, without prejudice, anything which seemed interesting. Happily the main line which I pursued on the track got the thumbs up and is clear on the final mix…though not as interminably repeated as in my original version, thankfully!

Rather more traditional in terms of “doing a session” was the morning I spent doing B Vox for the David Rhodes album “Bittersweet”. I’d done stuff for David before and of course we had the Random Hold history behind us so we both had a pretty clear grasp of mutual studio work ethic. So we biffed our working way through four or five or more songs, with DR very clear about what style and stacking of vox he wanted from me. I was very pleased to oblige…the sometime supportive, sometime contrary role of B Vox remains something close to my heart. And as a guest contributor it can be *great* to be directed as precisely as this.

The “Bittersweet” album had a download-only release at first but is now out as a CD as well, if you do a bit of a search.

Of recent years there’s one other project on which I guested, although in a more major, lead vocal, role, which has still not seen the light of day. Indeed, I now fear it’s unlikely to do so at any time in the near future. Worth mentioning though, I think.

Jo Bogaert, known in a previous lifetime as Technotronic, asked if I’d be interested in contributing to an ongoing project of his with Yannic Fonderie. I gave my usual (if my interest’s been tweaked) response of  “send something and if I think there’s something I can contribute I’ll send something back”. So stuff was sent and, as it happens, I found vox & lyrics stuff that seemed to make sense both for myself and for the stuff in hand.

Eventually I sang on four or five banging tracks. But as I write they still haven’t found a happy label home and so remain secret treasures….

As the visiting guest artiste in this scenario you just have to shrug and say that you hope that eventually something will emerge….

These have been the recent three. I learned and gained something from all of them and in a way that’s the most beneficial thing of doing such instant outside work. Maybe , later, I’ll reflect on other work like this from the past.

Meanwhile, thanks for the comments on the last entry. I haven’t – yet – got involved in responding to comments and I’m not even sure that I should. But the option is there for you to put your penny’s worth in….

On to High summer, then….

Rant Incoming

Here’s a bit of a rant.

Watching the coverage of the Glastonbury festival last week I became more and more exercised by the interviews which artists were obliged to undertake moments after leaving the stage. In the case of the Kaiser Chiefs an interviewer was actually waiting at the foot of the stage steps as they came off.

For years I’ve hated the way sports people have been grabbed as they exit the pitch to deliver instant responses to their efforts, usually along the “gutted” or “over the moon” variety. Now this has spilled over into music reportage.

I don’t see how anything really useful can come out of these encounters in either sphere. The questions are usually inane or fawning -or both – and the answers self-evidently cannot be considered. All in all the process only seems to be there to big up the access the broadcaster is entitled to, in a very public way. An exhibition of power and ownership of the event.

To my mind this does a disservice to audience and performer alike. Some of you at least will know that I’m a big sports fan. What continues to fascinate me is the unfolding of the unscripted drama, with actors at the very limits of their capacities, physically and mentally. If the event in question is one of those which only come around every four years or so then it’ll be a pinnacle moment in the sports person’s personal and professional life. For us in the audience if there’s one of the great dramatic encounters then we, too, need some time (shuffling out of the ground or away from the sofa as the case may be) to take in the life-enhancing aspects of what we’ve just witnessed. To be treated to the usual “How does it feel to have won/lost?” in the immediacy of the event is to cut away its magic in a stroke.

Doubtless the performers (athletes) know well enough that they’re not really entitled to any “me” time until they reach the safety of the changing room – the sponsors must be satisfied at all costs. And I honestly have no idea of the interior mental life of a word class athlete. But I’d like to hope that “normal” humanity is still there alongside the monumental focus and determination which performance   at that level requires. This interior human being within the Giant of Sport should be respected.

In similar vein, a main stage Glastonbury performance must be, you’d imagine, fairly high up on any artist’s list of achievements. So to have that moment rubbed in the mud (sic) by the obligatory (non-) chat show stuff moments later must be, er, irksome at least.

In both cases, as the watching punter, I personally get nothing (apart from my rant mode being activated) from these exchanges.

But then I suppose I’m much too old school. I like to take a private second after (and, indeed, before) any show just to think on, just to gather in the taste of the moment. And if analysis of how it was/how it went *is* to come then it’s usually in an informal debrief in the bus or the hotel, hours later. Probably over a glass of red.

But right after the show? No thanks.

Rant over. But doubtless more to come.

The onward drift…

Somehow another month seems to have drifted on by. I’ve been fully back into my solo-artist mode, of course; while at home I’ve continued to go through various live recordings with the intent of releasing some kind of disc/discs in the very near future. It’s a daunting and at times confusing task: there’s a wide variety of material and, happily, equally wide variations in individual performances. Whatever finally emerges will not, of course, be (or be intended to ba taken as) any kind of definitive set of versions. After all I do intend to continue playing many of these songs and therefore need to have a continuing relationship with them. However, on the evidence so far assembled I think I can say that both the selection and the performances will be fairly representative of the current approach to solo shows. In which, as it happens, I’m still feeling particularly keen and strong.

Of course I’ve had a couple of opportunites to test that keenness this month in my two Iberian adventures. My visit to the Gouveia festival was the third time I’ve been there (once with VdGG) and as always was a thoroughly civilised experience. Bilbao, the second port of call, has long been one of my favourite cities. In terms of my personal history it’s also the only place (so far) where a hotel-recorded guitar has become an album backing track, on “Stumbled”.

(I usually carry with me enough of a basic hardware/software rig to have the capacity to record while on tour but rarely actually get down to it unless there’s some serious downtime. Likewise, I *could* in principle have been working through auditioning the solo live recordings while out on the road with VdGG. But somehow I find, more and more, that i) energy needs to be conserved in anticipation of the inevitably upcoming show and ii) that one of the abiding joys of touring is allowing the mind to slip into free rein, the eyes into neutral, slow observation. Long ago I described this as “slow time” and it’s something I still appreciate; as a result I tend not to get a lot done while on tour in tangible terms. Except for the shows of course, quite enough for me…. )

Part of the tradition at Gouveia is that there should be a panel discussion at lunchtime on the last day and this year it addressed the question of how can it be possible for any musician to actually make a living these days. Obviously I’m in the incredibly privileged position of having spent a lifetime working in music and supporting myself and my family while doing so. This is a long way from most musicians’ experience, either historically or, significantly, in the present. For instance, none of my fellow-panellists are currently able to live entirely on their musical work and have to subsidise it with other employment.

Needless to say, wide ranging debate in front of and in reaction to and with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience failed to come up with any sure way forward for musicians of the future, let alone the present. People expect Free Music as a right. The industry expects mega profits from a few Major Brands and is no longer remotely interested in innovation. Everything’s going to work out in some strange Cloud Future. But the Radiohead model of working can only exist for a group who are already million-sellers as a direct result of previous major label releases. Meanwhile musicians – as they must – keep a brave face on things. For heaven’s sake don’t whinge!

In fact all in all it was a fairly sombre discussion; but these are, indeed, Interesting Times. Personally, I was grateful to be able to articulate certain ideas which have been bubbling away below the surface for some time. The mere speaking of them made some clarity for me. Happily the opportunity to actually play, rather than debate the impossiblity of continuing to play, awaited a few of us in the evening.

In any event, onward the playing goes and, indeed, the recordings of the playing. May finally saw the release of the VdGG Metropolis DVD. My, that seems a long time ago now! It has to be said that this is a pretty unique document and that the event was absolutely a one-off. As I write I still haven’t got round to viewing it all the way through (at times I’m significantly less self-obsessed than I might seem) but perhaps I’ll be able to give some perspective on it next month. You can order it at www.sofasound.com of course.

Another new release is “Warm Winter” by Memories of Machines, one of Tim Bowness’s projects. On this I contribute guitar on one track. There’s an interesting cast of other contributors and you can find out about it at http://www.burningshed.com/store/artrock/multiproduct/119/2185/

Ah, contributions, collaborations, there’s another topic ready for debate!

…maybe next time.

I could see the bus…

…from my hotel room as I wrote the last journal entry. Shortly thereafter I stood on my balcony in Utrecht and waved goodbye to Gunnar, our wonderful driver, as he and the rest of the crew pulled out for, er, somewhere else to park up in order to offload the gear into a smaller van for the journey to Tivoli, which is absolutely inaccessible to big vehicles. Guy, Hugh and I had another couple of hours of hotel living – and a decent lunch to take together – before getting a cab to the gig and the onrush.

And so we were into the heart of the tour. Serious overnight distances and a series of moments of reacquaintance with cities of weighty resonance with us in terms of mutual history. The anticipated and the unexpected came at us in slide show form, as ever. But what a great – if by now somewhat blurry – experience this tour was!

We ended up with fairly stable sets, which was, I suppose, inevitable since we were intent on bedding in the new material: we’d finish with either “Man-erg” or “Childlike” and the rest of the choices swung around those. Of the new material, “Mathematics” only got a couple of airings; even though it’s got some of the most exquisite chords of the repertoire it had to give way to other candidates in order to keep onward momentum in the sets…. Anyway, the other “new guys” more than held their own, I think.

(Incidentally, many thanks are owed to the crew for goading/guiding us towards performing “Gog” at least once along the way!)

All good, life-enhancing stuff on an artistic and human scale. As I’ve often said before, it’s a privilege and a joy to do this work.

It’s now nearly three weeks since we got back. My gear was returned to me about a week later but I only got round to beginning the Great Unpack yesterday. It seems it takes longer and longer to get back into the swing of normal life after tours such as this.

I’d intended to start work immediately on the next solo recordings but depressurisation from the tour and all the stuff that needs to be dealt with at the end of a financial year mean that I haven’t yet done so. What I have been doing is looking at the collection of recorded solo live performances which have mounted up in the past period. I think it most likely that these will be destined for some kind of release in the near future. It’s quite a task, though, sorting through them!

And now (tomorrow in fact) I’m about to go back on the boards as a solo artist, in Gouveia. I’m packed and rehearsed and ready…it’ll be a very different experience from that of the last month of course.
Finally, on a strictly commercial Sofa Sound note, the remaining stock of the merchandise which we were selling on tour has now returned to us and we’re selling it at www.sofasound.com where you’ll find all the info. Lithographs of the “A Grounding” cover and a couple of different T shirt designs are on offer. Advance orders for the Metropolis DVD, due out at the end of May, are also now being taken. One word of caution: it seems this is being released as a Europe only product. We hope this can be changed, mind….

OK, let’s go: onward!