A most unusual start to the day – slept from midnight to 10:45am. Completely disorientated, and spun out breakfast to 90m with a book I’d got from Gil.
Went to see Nick Cave at the Playhouse. It was billed as a solo tour,
giving to me the impression it would be the gentler, more pensive side
of his repetoire, but he had bass, drums and a manic violinist with a
full rack of distortion pedals, and from the first note it was wild and
visceral. It was a full house, and I was sat at the back of the
balcony, behind a tall man, so I could see very little, but it was a
good performance.
Being at a live show always brings me uncomfortable waves of feelings, many years of frustrated musical ambitions and the desire to be up there in front of an audience that something in me perceives to be rightfully mine. Being alone at the show intensified it, but it’s just something I have to live with. I find it hard to stay to the end of any performance I go to. The correct approach is to observe oneself with compassion, as if watching a friend, just watching the patterns repeat themselves until they tire and attention returns to the show.
Not unconnected is the fact that the Innocents first get-together since the Edinburgh Festival is now arranged.
A very polite and non-pushy email the other day invited me to put CDs up for sale at Musicghost.,
a new UK-based online shop. one of these seems to open every week,
but this one said it was advertising in Mojo and the NME. I had a look
and found some of the descriptions of albums rather, well, off-putting:
‘A heartfelt folk rock album full of songs that will stick in your mind whether you like it or not’
‘Truely an album to be heard’
‘an amazing collection of brilliant songs that shows just how easy it is to dabble with many genres’
‘A great piece of acoustic folk rock that sucks you and forces you to listen.’
‘An album with a social conscious.’
‘An album of original compositions played by **** himself, on
an organ, which can turn an unsettled room into a tranquil environment.’
I wish them well, but my recommendation would be to get a native
English-speaker for copywriting; but if I ever want to be sucked and
forced to listen…