Sometimes you have a dawning realisation, something that should have been obvious to you, but you have misread it. When I walk around Brighton, stories of my previous life there swirl around my head, my late teens and early twenties hiding around corners and peeping out at me; I walk around Newcastle thinking about my Dad working in the Toon and my job in the X-ray department as a technician; I walk around Camberwell thinking about the perils of trying to raise two children there on a tiny income. Last week, we went to the village where I was brought up. I can remember where everybody lived, what the shops used to be, and where I hid from the lightning during a massive thunderstorm. Once I went on holiday with someone, and realised I had gone on holiday with their memories of other times they had been there with someone else.
All of those things are rolled into this song: the past has demons as well as angels, and both characters are likely to make an appearance unbidden when you tread old ground. I am very grateful for the present and the future.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Smart Phones
Not so smart, are they? They can't make a cup of tea and bring it to you in bed on a Sunday morning.
Or maybe they are smart- they have kidded us into believing that their version of smart is smart.
Essays on my desk, Friday morning 9 a.m. please.
Or maybe they are smart- they have kidded us into believing that their version of smart is smart.
Essays on my desk, Friday morning 9 a.m. please.
Friday, August 28, 2020
BBC 6 Gideon Coe Play Last Night!
Many thanks to Gideon Coe for playing The Mad Bicycle Song last night!
Listen again here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lyxb
Listen again here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lyxb
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Whitley Bay
Naturally, after months with the narrow horizon of High Barnet and the occasional trip to the deep south, once we got out of London it was going to rain, wasn't it?
The Toon was OK yesterday for wandering round, but today the water cascaded down in buckets. A trip to the coast was in order and so was a trip to the fish'n'chip shop.
We ate outside in the rain.
A passing woman laughed so much she crashed into a bin: ha ha, woman, ha ha!
My fish finger sandwich was so gigantic that I gave half of the fish to Carol's dog. Almost a whole fish hand, in fact.
This is me and Carol, on the wet bench table.
It was still great to see the sea, even though the beach laughed too.
The Toon was OK yesterday for wandering round, but today the water cascaded down in buckets. A trip to the coast was in order and so was a trip to the fish'n'chip shop.
We ate outside in the rain.
A passing woman laughed so much she crashed into a bin: ha ha, woman, ha ha!
My fish finger sandwich was so gigantic that I gave half of the fish to Carol's dog. Almost a whole fish hand, in fact.
It was still great to see the sea, even though the beach laughed too.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Friday, August 21, 2020
Housework
Unfortunately, some days you just can't avoid it any longer.
When procrastination becomes writing the academic article that you've been procrastinating about, you know you're sunk.
I put on a CD of French music and pretended that I was in Paris, scrubbing away like Cinderella.
I didn't even notice it was on repeat for about 3 songs into the rewind.
Something about today is half-hearted.
I tried spraying my parka with waterproofing spray, because it's more like a sponge than a parka, and you don't want that from wet weather wear. Alas, the can of spray ran out halfway through, so I'll have one waterproof shoulder and one absorbent one.
C'est la vie! (see what I did there?)
I thought I'd cleaned the cooker and then I put my specs on and realised that I hadn't.
My normal specs are broken: they did that to themselves yesterday with no help from me, but I can't go out to get them fixed because I'm waiting in for the postie.
Nor can I do the hoovering (same reason), so the dustballs get a reprieve for a few hours at least.
I have discovered that Doritos, though very tasty, so not constitute lunch, but believe me if you saw those bananas over there in the bowl you would find it very easy to resist them. They may become more appealing to the gaze later this afternoon, if I have to wait in much longer.
Days like this, I look for minor things to celebrate.
I found the phone charger charging lead!!! Wahey!
The ugly enormous vintage blouse that I bought in Armstrong's in Edinburgh about five years ago doesn't look too bad when you're bored with your other clothes.
I have written an Americana song from the viewpoint of a protesting eighty-year-old.
There are 8 small boxes of wild blackberries in the freezer.
I'm going to Newcastle next week.
I am a mother (that's a big thing!)
It's quite nice not being able to do the hoovering.
I put the huge bubble wrap mountain away in the loft.
There are hardly any moths (actually, there could be hundreds of them, hiding. Scrub that one).
I had a blister on my heel, and it's almost healed.
I like it when it's windy because it's exciting.
That's enough.
When procrastination becomes writing the academic article that you've been procrastinating about, you know you're sunk.
I put on a CD of French music and pretended that I was in Paris, scrubbing away like Cinderella.
I didn't even notice it was on repeat for about 3 songs into the rewind.
Something about today is half-hearted.
I tried spraying my parka with waterproofing spray, because it's more like a sponge than a parka, and you don't want that from wet weather wear. Alas, the can of spray ran out halfway through, so I'll have one waterproof shoulder and one absorbent one.
C'est la vie! (see what I did there?)
I thought I'd cleaned the cooker and then I put my specs on and realised that I hadn't.
My normal specs are broken: they did that to themselves yesterday with no help from me, but I can't go out to get them fixed because I'm waiting in for the postie.
Nor can I do the hoovering (same reason), so the dustballs get a reprieve for a few hours at least.
I have discovered that Doritos, though very tasty, so not constitute lunch, but believe me if you saw those bananas over there in the bowl you would find it very easy to resist them. They may become more appealing to the gaze later this afternoon, if I have to wait in much longer.
Days like this, I look for minor things to celebrate.
I found the phone charger charging lead!!! Wahey!
The ugly enormous vintage blouse that I bought in Armstrong's in Edinburgh about five years ago doesn't look too bad when you're bored with your other clothes.
I have written an Americana song from the viewpoint of a protesting eighty-year-old.
There are 8 small boxes of wild blackberries in the freezer.
I'm going to Newcastle next week.
I am a mother (that's a big thing!)
It's quite nice not being able to do the hoovering.
I put the huge bubble wrap mountain away in the loft.
There are hardly any moths (actually, there could be hundreds of them, hiding. Scrub that one).
I had a blister on my heel, and it's almost healed.
I like it when it's windy because it's exciting.
That's enough.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Oh Bondage! Up Yours: Working On A Chapter
Today I am cutting down a chapter that I've written for a book called One Track Minds. My contribution is on this track by X-ray Spex, and I have to 'lose' a thousand words by dusk.
For any cowgirl this is difficult, but I do know that what is being chopped out is probably extraneous stuff. It's just that I was so appalled to see how hostile and cruel the press had been to Poly when I went to Liverpool to look at Falcon Stuart's archive. They treated her as an object of ridicule.
The misogyny and racism disgusted me. Patronising, belittling: and some of these journalists are still writing today, having reinvented themselves as jolly middle-aged raconteurs.
It's hard to detach emotionally from it the reviews of the day but I'm mainly focusing on descriptive content, including the stings-in-the-tail of each article, in the hope that the build-up of insulting crap will tell its own story.
The record itself. How brave of a young dual heritage woman to come out with that in the 1970s!
I will always be really grateful to her for documenting the contemporary female experience of punk, which just like in academia, is still in the hands of white male historians.
They 'don't even know they're doing it'. Ahem.
For any cowgirl this is difficult, but I do know that what is being chopped out is probably extraneous stuff. It's just that I was so appalled to see how hostile and cruel the press had been to Poly when I went to Liverpool to look at Falcon Stuart's archive. They treated her as an object of ridicule.
The misogyny and racism disgusted me. Patronising, belittling: and some of these journalists are still writing today, having reinvented themselves as jolly middle-aged raconteurs.
It's hard to detach emotionally from it the reviews of the day but I'm mainly focusing on descriptive content, including the stings-in-the-tail of each article, in the hope that the build-up of insulting crap will tell its own story.
The record itself. How brave of a young dual heritage woman to come out with that in the 1970s!
I will always be really grateful to her for documenting the contemporary female experience of punk, which just like in academia, is still in the hands of white male historians.
They 'don't even know they're doing it'. Ahem.
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
The Porter Rose At Dawn
Subscribe to Gina Arnold's website for a whole series of Chandler-inspired stories, poems and songs, as they roll hot off the press. Maybe contribute yourself, too!
http://ginaarnold.substack.com
Wrecking A Generation
I was driven to tears this morning by the plight of these poor children whose 'A' level results have been manipulated, and those who are still waiting for GCSE and BTec results.
What a terrible level of extra stress they have been handed on a plate, completely underserved, on top of all the rest of the life-changing disasters that they have had to put up with.
You know: not just lockdown, but fears for their relatives, no holidays.... what a burden they are already carrying.
On the BBC news, a young girl read out part of a story she had written months ago that predicted the whole shebang. She was a star pupil (at least she had that), but her story concerned the sorting of children according to their social class by an algorithm.
She has had to campaign to get the results reconsidered, to get a letter from the head of her school to the University she hadn't managed to get in to in order to ask for her place, and was still waiting for UCAS to update with the new information. She was calm, articulate and just so much more grown up than any of the sorry clowns that are pretending to be in charge of our lives at the current time.
That's the sort of experience whole generation are going through.
It is time we had a new government, before they destroy anything else.
What a terrible level of extra stress they have been handed on a plate, completely underserved, on top of all the rest of the life-changing disasters that they have had to put up with.
You know: not just lockdown, but fears for their relatives, no holidays.... what a burden they are already carrying.
On the BBC news, a young girl read out part of a story she had written months ago that predicted the whole shebang. She was a star pupil (at least she had that), but her story concerned the sorting of children according to their social class by an algorithm.
She has had to campaign to get the results reconsidered, to get a letter from the head of her school to the University she hadn't managed to get in to in order to ask for her place, and was still waiting for UCAS to update with the new information. She was calm, articulate and just so much more grown up than any of the sorry clowns that are pretending to be in charge of our lives at the current time.
That's the sort of experience whole generation are going through.
It is time we had a new government, before they destroy anything else.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Equal Parts
Yesterday was very busy. Robert completed the artwork for our 10" vinyl e.p. and I completed the lettering. We have six brand new co-written songs, mixes almost complete, artwork under way.
I think you can hear the fun we had recording them in the songs themselves; there was lots of energy and spontaneity in the studio.
'Shall I do this?'... 'Yes! That's a great idea!'.
You can hear lots of different influences in there: a bit of Aztec Camera, a bit of Northern Soul, a bit of Orange Juice, a country lick here and there; Jacques Brel, Francois Hardy, even The Doors. But it has it's own sound too, made from the contrasting and complementing sounds of Robert's steel-strung Martin and the Green Goddess, or Pea Souper as he calls it. We also have distinctive voices.
Speaking of voices I've also been working with Kenji, who has one of the most gorgeous voices of anyone on Planet Earth, and this files turned up yesterday in my mailbox. That's another exciting collaboration.
Meanwhile a blast from the past. Cherry Red's release Make More Noise features The Chefs' song Food, and is being played by Colin Spencer today on his show:
https://twitter.com/ColinsCuts/status/1295454448857350145/photo/1
Ahem: where's my copy, Cherry Red?
I think you can hear the fun we had recording them in the songs themselves; there was lots of energy and spontaneity in the studio.
'Shall I do this?'... 'Yes! That's a great idea!'.
You can hear lots of different influences in there: a bit of Aztec Camera, a bit of Northern Soul, a bit of Orange Juice, a country lick here and there; Jacques Brel, Francois Hardy, even The Doors. But it has it's own sound too, made from the contrasting and complementing sounds of Robert's steel-strung Martin and the Green Goddess, or Pea Souper as he calls it. We also have distinctive voices.
Speaking of voices I've also been working with Kenji, who has one of the most gorgeous voices of anyone on Planet Earth, and this files turned up yesterday in my mailbox. That's another exciting collaboration.
Meanwhile a blast from the past. Cherry Red's release Make More Noise features The Chefs' song Food, and is being played by Colin Spencer today on his show:
https://twitter.com/ColinsCuts/status/1295454448857350145/photo/1
Ahem: where's my copy, Cherry Red?
Rose Hips
I posted this on social media and discovered that my friends all over the north east of England also used to do this, sometimes organised by the Women's Institute, rather than schools.
Delrosa was based in Wallsend which was fairly close by, and all of us used to drink the syrupy beverage, encouraged by the fact that it was allegedly very high in vitamin C, which of course would have been boiled out of the berries in the manufacturing process. I think you could even get it at the clinic in the village. It was absolutely delicious despite its dubious nutritional value (also by general agreement). What an odd thing to have done: it's exploitative child labour, isn't it? It was fun, but always ultimately a disappointment when what you thought was a gigantic haul was weighed and you took home a mere few coins in payment.
The north east was such an odd place to be brought up. They tested all sorts of things on us- the original GCSE qualifications based on coursework (called 'Certificate of Extended Education': I've got one in General Studies), which we did in the 6th form alongside our 'A' Levels; weird crisp flavours like mint sauce and tomato ketchup years before they cropped up anywhere else; floating breakfast cereals that had been developed for astronauts. I think it was regarded as an odd enclave that people never entered or left, a bit like Mars on Earth. But some of us escaped, and I was one of them, and now I've told you!
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Starts Soon: At The Edge Of The Sofa
https://www.facebook.com/TheWeddingPresentOfficial/videos/320739185946846/
SATURDAY 15 AUGUST
Segment 3 [from 5-30PM]
MILES HUNT [Wonder Stuff], THE CATENARY WIRES [featuring Amelia Fletcher], SUCH SMALL HANDS [featuring Melanie Howard], UMUT ADAN [from Turkey], WITCHING WAVES, and CINERAMA [acoustic and live].
--------------------
Segment 4 [from 7-15PM]
THE UKRAINIANS [featuring former Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka], VINNY PECULIAR, HELEN MCCOOKERYBOOK [The Chefs], DARREN HAYMAN [Hefner], and MELYS.
--------------------
Segment 5 [from 8-30PM]
BADLY DRAWN BOY, SYNDROMET [from Sweden], CHORUSGIRL [from Germany], JETSTREAM PONY [featuring former Wedding Present drummer Shaun Charman], and, of course, DAVID’S LEGENDARY MEMORABILIA RAFFLE DRAW.
--------------------
RAFFLE AT THE EDGE OF THE SOFA
In order to raise the funds to produce At The Edge Of The Sofa as well as pay some of the artists and technical staff who have found themselves in need of financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic, David has plundered his personal memorabilia collection and come up with a fantastic selection of bits and pieces to raffle.
The items have been grouped into six bundles and, accordingly, six prize-winners will be randomly drawn during ‘At The Edge Of The Sofa’ on Saturday 15 August. The winners will then be contacted and asked to list their three favourite bundles in order. The idea is that we can match the bundle to the person who most desires its contents. In the case of people wanting the same bundle, that bundle will be randomly allocated. Simple! Right?
To enter the raffle, please make a payment to us via PayPal using this link: paypal.me/TheWeddingPresent (If it says Cinerama, you're in the right place!)
You will be allocated one raffle ticket for every £1 you send.
For those of you in the UK, please use the 'sending to a friend or family' option (since it saves us money in Paypal fees)!
We have looked at other payment options, but PayPal seems to be the best option for us at the moment.
The raffle will close at 12 Midnight BST on the 14th of August.
Good luck!
For information on what the prize bundles are in full detail, please click here: https://bit.ly/WeddingPresentNewsATEOTSofa
SATURDAY 15 AUGUST
Segment 3 [from 5-30PM]
MILES HUNT [Wonder Stuff], THE CATENARY WIRES [featuring Amelia Fletcher], SUCH SMALL HANDS [featuring Melanie Howard], UMUT ADAN [from Turkey], WITCHING WAVES, and CINERAMA [acoustic and live].
--------------------
Segment 4 [from 7-15PM]
THE UKRAINIANS [featuring former Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka], VINNY PECULIAR, HELEN MCCOOKERYBOOK [The Chefs], DARREN HAYMAN [Hefner], and MELYS.
--------------------
Segment 5 [from 8-30PM]
BADLY DRAWN BOY, SYNDROMET [from Sweden], CHORUSGIRL [from Germany], JETSTREAM PONY [featuring former Wedding Present drummer Shaun Charman], and, of course, DAVID’S LEGENDARY MEMORABILIA RAFFLE DRAW.
--------------------
RAFFLE AT THE EDGE OF THE SOFA
In order to raise the funds to produce At The Edge Of The Sofa as well as pay some of the artists and technical staff who have found themselves in need of financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic, David has plundered his personal memorabilia collection and come up with a fantastic selection of bits and pieces to raffle.
The items have been grouped into six bundles and, accordingly, six prize-winners will be randomly drawn during ‘At The Edge Of The Sofa’ on Saturday 15 August. The winners will then be contacted and asked to list their three favourite bundles in order. The idea is that we can match the bundle to the person who most desires its contents. In the case of people wanting the same bundle, that bundle will be randomly allocated. Simple! Right?
To enter the raffle, please make a payment to us via PayPal using this link: paypal.me/TheWeddingPresent (If it says Cinerama, you're in the right place!)
You will be allocated one raffle ticket for every £1 you send.
For those of you in the UK, please use the 'sending to a friend or family' option (since it saves us money in Paypal fees)!
We have looked at other payment options, but PayPal seems to be the best option for us at the moment.
The raffle will close at 12 Midnight BST on the 14th of August.
Good luck!
For information on what the prize bundles are in full detail, please click here: https://bit.ly/WeddingPresentNewsATEOTSofa
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