Oh damn, still in this dream.

I accumulated many memories; but one of the more important aspects of being in the biz was insider status. And the point of insider status was information; gossip, if you will, but also the access to the mythological hinterland of Rock 'n' Roll. I can't remember the first time, for example, that I heard The Troggs Tapes, but they were as funny to studio hacks as Derek and Clive (also staples in the post-studio wind-down). Nor can I remember exactly when I first saw the Rolling Stone's Cocksucker Blues, but a VHS was brought into the studio by a (nameless) musician who had a copy sometime or other and of course we watched it avidly. So I searched it out on YouTube after reading an article in the Graun about best Rock 'n' Roll movies. And it is there, in all its boring glory; available to one and all - though the picture quality is somewhat less good than I remembered. I find it is taking me a lot of effort to sit through it all for a second time; though the milieu itself is very familiar. I too have woken and reached for a spliff, and/or a bottle of Whisky or a glass of champagne, and/or my bed-partner(s), or a guitar and thought it commonplace.

What personal recall edits is, of course, the colossal boredom of it all. Cocksucker Blues is a boring movie. But it isn't as boring as your average reality television programme because at least the characters it focuses on are among the most brilliant and influential musicians of their time. Still, it drags; as does much of the music and temporal art of that period. Who now could actually listen to a fifteen minute drum solo? Even if performed by John Bonham or Ian Paice or Buddy Rich. Not me. Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused", apart from the borrowing from Jake Holmes, is a boring, sprawling mess. Most bands couldn't really extemporise for any length of time, and even Miles during that period made difficult music which required a bit more of a musical education to appreciate. And let's be candid, from Bitches Brew onwards Miles explored difficult territory.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. Zep's studio cannon is overlong but nevertheless magisterial. A good producer doing some editing on most of their songs wouldn't have gone amiss. Floyd managed twenty-plus minute pieces of music that still work, both inside and outside cultural context. "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" is still perfect and will last into the century after this, or longer. (If we manage to survive that long as a species and civilisation, that is.) I reckon the Beatles music will last alongside Bach and Mozart and poor, great, deaf Ludwig. Jimi will always be incendiary in any human culture. Stevie Wonder, Bowie, Prince, and Brian Wilson will last. I guess Elvis and Chuck Berry and the folk in at the birth of it will be more than footnotes - but let's face it when it comes to examining the body we have only one conclusion; "It's dead, Jim". Now we archive it and dissect the bones as Rock 'n' Roll has moved from the vanguard to being an historical example of our cultural heritage. It is suitable for academic study, and we can listen to the musical peaks it achieved in the same way that we can listen to Beethoven and Bach; as pure music, culturally decontextualised and presented merely as notes of beauty and meaning intrinsic unto itself; and removed from all other considerations. Sometimes the Stones get there too. But today, in my world... today is a day for Jean Sibelius and George Gershwin, and maybe some Weather Report.

Old people do listen to decontextualised music rather more than young people. Musicians do likewise. Even I am prepared to allow Wagner or Percy Grainger to be decontextualised, though I must admit I agree with Berlioz about Wagner; moments of sublime beauty interspersed with quarters-of-an-hour of turgidity. Grainger is more difficult to pardon, but his opinions don't change his notes. (Or do they? It is a bit of a debate.)

However, speaking of unspeakable musicians, the bastards in the Function Band have put Michael Jackson's "Beat it" back into the set; so I have to dust off the Eddie van solo for public consumption again. And bring yet another guitar to the gig, but this time for one song. It's not like we are making enough money for roadies.

I don't have a pension; ergo, I guess I'll never retire, just potter on for as long as I can; but there ain't a lot of musical work out there for an old bloke, no matter how good. Maybe I'll go back into teaching, but I have to find pupils of the right standard. No more teaching beginners.

Gigged near Southampton on Saturday night. Dance band in a nightclub; two forty-five minute sets ending around eleven. I've started including back-up kit on my travels, just in case. My Helix (serial number 00003) has worked beautifully since I first got it, but it is getting nearly four years old. As an aside, I'm still waiting for Line6 to update the firmware to Helix 2.8 - I'd prefer to be able to do this between gigs to give me time for testing, etc.

Anyway, folk danced. Grooves were laid down for folk to get down (and boogie) and so they did. We all played rather well but the arrangements were much more open than previously, which means we all had to listen more to each other. (This is muso-speak for slightly chaotic beginnings and endings.)

I need either: a new neck on my Strat, or a complete refret. I'm inclined to the latter as it will only be around £500 if I opt for stainless steel frets, and a complete neck fettle (dead spots etc).

There's a nice luthier's place near me: Feline Guitars. The chap who owns it worked with Neil in Denmark Street for a few years around the millennium, and remembered folk, though he and I were unknown to each other. We spoke of luthiers we remembered from the past: Ashley Pangbourne, Bernie Goodfellow, Hugh Manson et al.

More importantly, I looked at the work. The attention to detail and finishes on Feline guitars are really second-to-none. I don't play LP types, being a Strat player, but if I did, I'd prefer Feline's single-cuts to any other boutique manufacturer's version I've played up to now. I think I want him to either build me a new neck, or refret my present one. A new neck may be around a grand, or maybe a little more. In the old days I would have had a new neck made, and then after fitting it got the old one refretted and fettled anyway. I no longer have those resources, alas. Such is.

Anyway, I'm not assuming that a single swallow makes a summer; but I'm feeling good about my playing. After a decade of dormancy, I feel I'm getting back there in terms of enthusiasm; and that means I'm practising more. Technique is beginning to return. My hands are getting fitter for more practice and more playing. Now to see if anyone wants a miserable old bastard who can really play. :)

I never once thought I'd hear this played live:





And certainly not quite this well done. It seems that Master Fripp (for he is a master) finally has the right chamber orchestra to perform the collective compositions he led as prime mover in King Crimson. I'd love to hear the Ravel-influenced opening to "Exiles" done live. I may get a chance on Thursday as I'm due to see King Crimson at the Albert Hall.

The battery of drums in the 13/8 second movement slightly de-emphasises the original "solo leading instrument" aspect of the original, but is effective nonetheless. All-in-all it is a definitive performance; captured on camera as well as audio. Small quibbles: Fripp's guitar is just a little proud of the track at the beginning; and slightly lacking the beautiful reverb of the original. Fripp is running a Kemper for his live rig, if my sources are correct, so a small adjustment shouldn't be too difficult. But by the gods, this iteration of Crimson is really good. Really really good. And this version of Crimson, it appears, can do the compositions justice in a way never before achieved. At the crossover point where Hendrix meets Sibelius and Bartok there is a bespectacled chap, sitting on a bar stool, with a Les Paul; and his is one of a handful of the greatest musical imaginations ever to have picked up a guitar. 

And since I have gotten it, I've been doing an awful lot of playing. :)

I can get my Marshall JCM800 50wt single-channel-no-reverb head and my c.1968 model 1968 4x12" cab sound to about 99% of the real thing, even through my stupid powered monitors. Through the Dickinson 2 x 12" combo, well, it sounds pretty damn amazing.

So it looks like we're going the full whack bidding on this house we want, some two roads away from us here in leafy East Dulwich. I say leafy because the streets are full of the blighters; Autumnal and golden; sodden in the rain and adhering to cars, pavements, walls, and shoe-soles. Our golden October has extended somewhat: and this part of London has only today turned chill, with small but noticeable bite in the air. Keats' season, or Eliot's season, it is its own thing, but yet also harbinger of winter. And mayhap we move to a bigger house in the New Year.

Plans for Christmas. Somehow to include the Mother.
Seeing the New Year in at Hackness with Fra and Cressy et al.

In the meantime, I had a gig with the 'Wedding Band' on Friday.
Orchardleigh House in Somerset.

I took my new Line 6 Pod X3 Live out for its first live airing. I knew that this was going to be an interesting test because:

1) The nature of the venue (pretty small room) and
2) The set-up requirements (set up between meals) and
3) Costs (cheapo gig, bid because we weren't getting much work when it was booked)

Ergo, we went minus a PA and engineer. Jane had bought an interesting bit of kit: one Bose L1 Model II PA for the vocals and sax. The band had to rely on their backline apart from Martin, the drummer and our leader, who played acoustically, and could still have overwhelmed the backline and PA at any point he chose. Dexterity and taste from the recognised beast in the band (it's in the job description: drummer - ride motorcycle through hotel bedroom window into swimming pool - ask anyone who's ever been in a band) is not expected, but with Martin....well, he's just too damn good to let a cliche overwhelm him, however much fun it may be to do so.  I'm going to start calling him 'The Colonel' though in fact he's much more like a perfect Adjutant: his organisational and motivational skills have kept the Wedding Band in work and getting to and from venues for almost twenty years. It wouldn't work without him, and this stripped-down-system experiment was his call.

Got to say it was a bit good, actually.

Jane's piece of kit worked really well in the small space. We all turned down: I could get decent sounds at listenable volumes with the POD, though without some of the more interesting programming I had done for the GNX3. Such is. Good and usable sounds nevertheless.

My ongoing wrestling with EVH's 'Beat it' solo continued with mixed results.

We sight-read, first time played without rehearsal, 'I've got you under my skin'. Which I should have known; but most published versions are in Fm; Frank S did it in Ebmin, and I'm too occasional a player and arranger these day to transpose easily in my head. As an aside I used to have a guitar in my hands for four-to-six hours a day every day, and kept musical arrangements in my head like I had previously (in another life in a decade or more before) kept bridge hands. These last four or five years have left me rusty beyond embarrassment. And it's not going to change. And I'm not certain how bothered about it all I am anyway.

So some small wins then.

Today we went to the Whisky Exchange and I bought a brace of Ardbeg's Airigh Nam Beist and a single cask they decanted from the barrel into a 40cl bottle for me called 'Ord Mor' ABV 62.5%. I've had this one before last month, and so it must be coming to the end of the barrel. I almost bought a brace of them too, but the three bottles were already hitting my wallet to the tune of £170-(mumble)-odd. I can only drink one of the Beists as the other one is to keep for twenty-one-odd years, give or take however many months.

So, another small win there too.

Scored the tiniest amount of weed for high-days and holidays, but actually feel no need to smoke it regularly.

Blimey, it's wins all round: of expensive kinds, admittedly.

Now comes the biggest test of all: the scan. Fingers crossed. Let's hope our luck is holding....

Amazingly I got a message from the Glam Ex today. She asked if I was still keeping her musical stuff (which I am) as she has new desires to make a lot of noise. I'll have to find some day to meet up and return her bass guitar and associated bits and bobs. Not that I play bass too often, but when you can't find a bassist you have to do it yourself.

She seems to be well, and her Ma is still a stalwart on that London based soap opera.

Kudos to them.

Last week I leant my 17 year old godson my unused Les Paul on a semi-permanent basis. For some reason or other I just can't seem to get on with LP's. 335's, 175's, L5's, yes: LP's no. Go figure, as the saying is. I guess I'll always be a 'Strat' sort of guy. Which is, I suppose, why I have four of them.

Go well and do good things, and if tempted to do bad things remember: it'll always turn out worse than you think.

Look at Tony Bliar....a man unable to admit he got it criminally wrong about invading Iraq, and who now desperately tries to massage this message by trying to come across as sensible on every other matter. Oleaginous creepy man who somehow or other has made millions upon millions of pounds or dollars.

Honore de Balzac said behind every great fortune there lies a crime. I may just except Paul McCartney and his musical/entertainment ilk from this sweeping generalisation, but I fear T. Bliar esquire doesn't make the cut.

The function band have a gig on the 17th of July. When I will be in Portugal. Apparently the gig has been on the FB's books since March, though I didn't receive the notification, or if I did, it completely passed me by for some reason. I'll have to find a dep, but it doesn't look too good at present.

Doghouse here I come.

Returned from Milady's place. She's staying with me on Friday. The slow evolution to tidiness is going to need a right kick up the backside and possibly some kind of turbo-charger. We're both off to Nick's on Saturday where she will get a chance to meet some of my older friends. Nick and I have been chums since the Imperial College days, some twenty seven years ago.
Gods, I'm old. Milady keeps complimenting me on how well-preserved I seem, but blames it on my idle and frivolous lifestyle: she may well have a point as I've hardly worn myself out with heavy use.
It also seems she is a smit as I am.
Obviously we both have some sort of brain fever, which explains soppiness etc.



The only other excuse for me posting this, apart from the fact that I really rate it as a song, is that I was in a duo/band which opened for Joan on her tour in 2000. I asked her about the chords to 'Love and Affection' and she said 'All guitarists ask me that question', and didn't answer further. So....I watched her from the side of the stage right through the tour. Evidently she knew folk were checking, and so for all of that small tour she played different inversions of the opening chords every night. The other weird thing is a friend from an older generation, Peter Noble, once owned a record company, and turned a young and unsigned Joan down: he never got over it really.
 

Got the probate forms through (at long last). Little point in filling them out until after Christmas, but I shall, no doubt.

Last minute Christmas shopping for the Ma, back by 2.30.
I was on LJ at 3pm when I got a call from Motion Studios for a 'can I drop everything and come immediately' session. Acoustic widdling a la Al Di Meola. Eight bars extemporising, following a keyboard melody in C minor.
Six quick takes and two five minute comps later Alan had me sounding like a god, which I'm not. Was paid, packed and back in the car in less than an hour-and-a-half from original phone call. Oh, if only life could always be like this.