hello. i'm back from london (and the moon). i had a good time and the gig went very well and i was really pleased that i played my very new song in public for the first time. it's called 'dislocation'. i think that's been the quickest turnover of a song in terms of writing then airing it to people live, around a week's time since conception. i'm so surprised i didn't forget it too. i took a little camcorder and got some friends to film the gig so maybe i can put a song up or something, though it's maybe not the best sound quality but what the hell.
the edinburgh festival starts soon so i'm looking forward to that and i'm also looking forward to a gig i'm doing in bar brel in glasgow that (hopefully) i'll be doing two sets at, one made up of entirely unplayed songs. i'll get more details on that soon i hope.
good morning. look where i am :)
go on, give me a wave.
king tuts was a good gig though that big, hot red light that shines on stage makes me dizzy. i saw eugene kelly play there last week and he asked the sound engineer to turn it off. i now know why. i was like a basted turkey up there but loved playing.
i had an idea for a business on saturday morning when i awoke from my post-gig haze. basically u target people who are afraid of flying long distance and what happens is that you book for someone from the company to come to your house, inject you (the way you're injected before an operation) so that you're knocked out cold, then you're carried into a van, driven to an airport, put on the plane (maybe in an overhead locker style bunk) and then you're carried out at the exotic destination that you arrive at, taken to a hotel and then you're injected with some other chemical that makes u regain consciousness. or you wake up naturally maybe. typed out like this, the idea looks a bit crazy, but it made perfect sense when i woke up! i would use it i think, if i had to get to australia or malaysia or peru. think i'll find financial backers to help me start this company? maybe not huh.
gig in london on friday. really looking forward to being in a huge city again. i'm very, very restless. i wanna take a whole bunch of my songs on the road very badly.
i think i have insomnia. it's a total nightmare. well not literally anyway. i wish i could have a nightmare, then at least i'd not feel really tired in the morning. the most vivid nightmare i've ever had in my life was when i was extremely young, maybe 5 or 6 i guess. i can still remember the moment i woke up, screaming and hysterical. i'd been amongst dinosaurs and this teradactyl (the only dinosaur i could ever remember, probably coz it was quite unique as it had wings) came swooping towards me, opened its mouth wide to reveal these scarily sharp teeth then bang! i bolted upright, terrified. i can still see it in my head, how bizarre is that?
maybe i should buy one of these tapes and listen to the noise of the amazonian rainforest; the gentle and theraputic sound of the rain dropping softly off the giant arched leaves might soothe me to a deep sleep. but knowing my luck it wouldn't start raining and there would be a horrific forest fire or a violent row would break out amongst the indiginous people just at the critical moment when i'm about to drift off. maybe the sound of the sea caressing the sand of the beach would be the answer, though that might subconsciously make me want to get up and go to the toilet during the night.
or maybe some night nurse and some jack daniels might be the answer. or meditation. i did try that once. i must try that again actually.
i took my guitar to bed last night. is that weird? sometimes i go through these phases where i constantly have the need to play guitar, other times i never pick it up for weeks on end. i must have played it for hours on sunday, with a drum machine i borrowed from guitarist chris for some of the time too. it gives me an idea of how it might sound with the full band you see. i've written about three songs recently (two slower, picky ones and one more upbeat number) and i've just been enjoying playing them over and over to myself, which is always a good sign. so i was watching t in the park on the tv as i was lying on my bed and i thought i'd play my songs at times when my interest in the bands they were showing waned. if there's one festival i fancy attending then it's benacassim in spain. (http://fiberfib.com/). they have interesting bands, plus it would be warm. i'd definitely not watch that from my bed, i'd want to be there breathing in the hot, sticky air. i miss that.
oh, i should plug the gig this friday at king tuts. it'll be a full band affair and i'm really looking forward to playing.
here are a couple of professional photos expertly taken by mark connelly at the sleazies gig a couple of saturdays ago. you can view more photos of the acts that night and also some other bands (including belle and sebastian, camera obscura, rococo rot and blonde redhead) at
http://photo.conn75.com/
mr mitchell (pictured below) pointed out that he's not actually giving me the finger in that photo. i'm not so sure though!
