Been out and about in a very atypical fashion. Played Out of the Bedroom last night: quite a mixed night, the only standout for me being a woman who accompanied herself on plucked blues violin. As part of my current roll of creative output I determined to play Sword of Love live within the week of its birth. I have played new songs before, usually at the end of a much longer gestation, and known instantly they wouldn’t last. A song doesn’t reveal itself until it gets in front of an audience, not even to the writer. This one found itself less melancholy than the recording, helped along by a hammy chorus provided by Karen Austin and Tom McEwan among others, and seemed to declare itself as a to-be-popular little song. Good, ’cause I like it.
Today, socialising. Lunch with Alan Edwards, gentleman, designer of Fiction 2, blogger, writer, photographer and someone with whom I’ve corresponded for a while but never really met. Very enjoyable it was, with lots of points of contact discovered, not the least being admiration for Jonathan Richman. In the evening to Tricia’s to meet up with Gravy Spiders, to chat and listen to the last couple of rehearsal recordings. Hungry Ghosts has grown another new arrangement, the most different yet, and an improv recorded in October has the makings of a powerful song. We had fun torturing Sean with my Nico CD, which everyone else liked but him.
Madame is in Barcelona with her father, sister and aunt. Plague, Pest and I are in the house, which is, shall we say, looking more informal. Plague and I tried once more to cure my ailing PC, to no avail. On any given session I can choose between sound and network, so goodbye YouTube. Between times this week I’ve found time to start a new blog, outlining my Big Bewilderment and Small Scattered Insights into the world of e-learning which pays my mortgage. I won’t link to it from here but I’m sure anyone interested enough will find it. It has no bearing on Norman Lamont, international music megastar.