At the beginning of the week, I started to listen to this year's student songs. At this point, I feel like the luckiest person alive. I would make a uselesss A&R person, because the best thing is always the imagination, the ideas. Add musicians who elevate those ideas with spirituality and emotion, and you have magic.
At times, I was moved to tears. It's all knitted in with the idea of clumps of people across the UK who seem to be determined to demonise young people, and trash their futures. The students I am lucky enough to encounter are from many different cultures. Yes, they clash, but not because of that: they clash because ideas make people fizz with energy, and that can happen in many different ways. It can make some people competitive, others anxious, some destructive, until they find their route and their role.
But that energy also creates beauty, emotional honesty, and a sense of communication that far overrides any other form.
The treasure they uncover is not always fully formed, but it always sparkles.
I can't tell you just how crap some parts of my life have been, but this bit of it is amazing.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
Three Cheers....
.... for Andy Holdcroft, complete champion of all things musical in Leamington Spa and Coventry. Thank you for an excellent weekend, Andy: for suggesting The Tin, for arranging the screening in Leamington and for these great reviews of both events, which have been appreciated by one and all!
http://hotmusiclive.co.uk
http://hotmusiclive.co.uk
Mad Bicycle Song
Filmed by June Whitfield at Andy Richardson's house concert in Hull on Saturday, where Graham Beck and Doodlebugnuggets also were also on the bill. Lovely night!
Doris Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRPnNO2D3_g
I was always fascinated by her. And what a voice she had.
I was always fascinated by her. And what a voice she had.
Friday, May 10, 2019
A Weekend of Gigs and Film
This week I marked more than 100, 000 words.
Next, 30-40 songs to give feedback on....
However, tonight it's the gig at The Tin in Coventry with the fabulous Sunbathers and Peter Hall; prepare for a night of songsmithery!
At 2 p.m. on Saturday I'll be at Temperance, Leamington Spa, showing the film Stories from the She-Punks and doing a Q and A; then in the evening I'll be in Hull with the hilarious Graham Beck and DJ Doodlebugnuggets.
Will I be tired on Sunday? You bet.
Oh yes-and Gina will be in Nottingham showing the film and singing some songs on Friday evening!
By, we're working this film!
Next, 30-40 songs to give feedback on....
However, tonight it's the gig at The Tin in Coventry with the fabulous Sunbathers and Peter Hall; prepare for a night of songsmithery!
At 2 p.m. on Saturday I'll be at Temperance, Leamington Spa, showing the film Stories from the She-Punks and doing a Q and A; then in the evening I'll be in Hull with the hilarious Graham Beck and DJ Doodlebugnuggets.
Will I be tired on Sunday? You bet.
Oh yes-and Gina will be in Nottingham showing the film and singing some songs on Friday evening!
By, we're working this film!
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
External Procrastination
Is there such a thing as external procrastination?
I was so tired yesterday after work (which was hilarious, by the way: watching formerly dignified students crash, yell and cheat their way through a game of Racing Demon was one of the best moments of the year), but had a lovely conversation on the doorstep with a neighbour on the way home, who it transpires is also a musician.
I put my keys in my pocket instead of my bag, though, and went out this morning to pay the deposit for Friday's venue wearing a different coat.
Locked out.
It costs 90 quid to get a locksmith out, and a bent coat-hanger was no good, so I took the tube to Soho and met Offsprog Two to collect her key.
Thankfully, I am the world's greatest over-producer of endorphins.
The trip into town was handy because I needed to buy a hard drive for Saturday's screening in Leamington, and to get to the Apple shop I had to walk through the cinnamon bun shop.
You see what I mean?
I'm about three hours behind with the marking now.
Still though, I'm not concentrating.
I started writing a song about swallows, swifts and dodos last night and I can't resist playing it to see if I can finish it by next week.
And I'm trying to decide whether to go to see the Roberts Forster and Rotifer at the Union Chapel next week, but I think probably not because the state of my bank balance is rather woeful after buying a car a couple of weeks ago.
But (endorphins again!) that meant I could go to visit Ruth and do a bit of work on the video for A Good Life with a Bad Apple which was fun: ever sprayed fake graffiti on a railway arch, and then found the powder spray doesn't wash off like it's suppose to do?
Oh, I'm so sodding urban it hurts!
Or perhaps sub-urban (which probably has something in common with subhuman).
I'm walking and in hand with poltergeists at the moment who phone my friends from my bag, which probably means that I'm not as calm as I think I am.
The stress-dyslexia is flying full throttle so I guess I'll go out for a walk in the rain, and leave the next lot of marking until I can actually write.
I was so tired yesterday after work (which was hilarious, by the way: watching formerly dignified students crash, yell and cheat their way through a game of Racing Demon was one of the best moments of the year), but had a lovely conversation on the doorstep with a neighbour on the way home, who it transpires is also a musician.
I put my keys in my pocket instead of my bag, though, and went out this morning to pay the deposit for Friday's venue wearing a different coat.
Locked out.
It costs 90 quid to get a locksmith out, and a bent coat-hanger was no good, so I took the tube to Soho and met Offsprog Two to collect her key.
Thankfully, I am the world's greatest over-producer of endorphins.
The trip into town was handy because I needed to buy a hard drive for Saturday's screening in Leamington, and to get to the Apple shop I had to walk through the cinnamon bun shop.
You see what I mean?
I'm about three hours behind with the marking now.
Still though, I'm not concentrating.
I started writing a song about swallows, swifts and dodos last night and I can't resist playing it to see if I can finish it by next week.
And I'm trying to decide whether to go to see the Roberts Forster and Rotifer at the Union Chapel next week, but I think probably not because the state of my bank balance is rather woeful after buying a car a couple of weeks ago.
But (endorphins again!) that meant I could go to visit Ruth and do a bit of work on the video for A Good Life with a Bad Apple which was fun: ever sprayed fake graffiti on a railway arch, and then found the powder spray doesn't wash off like it's suppose to do?
Oh, I'm so sodding urban it hurts!
Or perhaps sub-urban (which probably has something in common with subhuman).
I'm walking and in hand with poltergeists at the moment who phone my friends from my bag, which probably means that I'm not as calm as I think I am.
The stress-dyslexia is flying full throttle so I guess I'll go out for a walk in the rain, and leave the next lot of marking until I can actually write.
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Monday, May 06, 2019
Break Time
After hours of marking, I have taken a break. Gravitas has engendered silliness.
I've just written a song called Jazzywazzypazzy.
I've just written a song called Jazzywazzypazzy.
Sunday, May 05, 2019
Marking
If you wake at seven on a Sunday worrying about the amount of marking you have to do- then you just have to get up and make a start.
I've got 40 essays, and will have 30 songs, to give feedback on over the next two weeks.
Life is not all sparkly shoes and glittery costumes, alas. If I want to carry on making recordings, the money has to come from somewhere, and I have to have a job. Or jobs.
At one point I had three jobs at three different universities, and that was just to pay the mortgage: very London.
A student was asking about time management; you have to plan every day to mix in the difficult and challenging things with the easy and pleasurable ones.
I know if I spend today and tomorrow working flat out, then next weekend's gigs will be more relaxed and more fun. At the moment, the computer is charging before the marathon marking session.
I'm listening to Electro Swing (Wax Tailor) because it's the exact opposite of being scholarly!
I've got 40 essays, and will have 30 songs, to give feedback on over the next two weeks.
Life is not all sparkly shoes and glittery costumes, alas. If I want to carry on making recordings, the money has to come from somewhere, and I have to have a job. Or jobs.
At one point I had three jobs at three different universities, and that was just to pay the mortgage: very London.
A student was asking about time management; you have to plan every day to mix in the difficult and challenging things with the easy and pleasurable ones.
I know if I spend today and tomorrow working flat out, then next weekend's gigs will be more relaxed and more fun. At the moment, the computer is charging before the marathon marking session.
I'm listening to Electro Swing (Wax Tailor) because it's the exact opposite of being scholarly!
Friday, May 03, 2019
Wednesday, May 01, 2019
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