TO WHERE I AM NOW

As Olivia posted a lovely message yesterday I thought that if she did get sick of me she could approach the company advertised on the side of the van in the photo. Tangent, the behaviour of birds has had me marvelling at the sparrow. Although we should never take any animal for granted, like the seagulls we see everyday here in Penzance or the pigeons we see in every town, we should spare some extra love for the sparrows. There’s been a drop in their numbers, in the seventies there were approximately 12 million pairs, now there are 6-7 million pairs in the UK. The urban and the rural sparrow has declined more than the suburban sparrow. I guess there’s humans that don’t fancy the city or the country either and feel much more at home in the suburbs.

There’s the house sparrow and the tree sparrow and I’m not sure which one I’ve been seeing, but I’ve noticed some odd behaviour. Twice recently I’ve seen a sparrow flying up against a wall as if it thinks it has a nest there and it’s just got the wrong building? I remember a couple of different occasions where I wasn’t where I thought I was. I’ve even found myself standing outside the door of my hotel room and wondering why my key card doesn’t match up with the old-fashioned key lock door I’m standing outside. What’s more amazing is that I got to the hotel, into the foyer and onto that floor without recognizing that I was in the wrong building. Ha ha. That’s being on the road. But back to sparrows, have you ever passed a sparrow bush? The noise!!!

I’m in a new league with my French lessons, the ‘Gold League’, the competition is getting more serious and the grammar and the vocabulary is getting tougher. It’s all good, it’s just remembering it. All you can do is just keep on banging it into your head. I wonder, can we learn anything? Do we just have to do it and do it and that’s the secret? Giving up might mean you don’t like it or you’re not good at it but if you do like it, you have to stick with it, otherwise you will end up sticking with something that you end up doing instead of what you wanted.

I was talking to some of the locals today starting with Lisa and Doreen at Rowe’s, the bakers, I got there so late the door was locked, but they had saved me a pasty and told me to come in and pay tomorrow, that’s what makes a community, trust. As the shops were open today I thought at last my belt can be fixed, but the roller doors were still down, the damn shop is closed on Mondays! Olivia and I met a whole lot of people in the street today, local strangers. There were the two ladies who were chatting in a doorway, opposite on the roof was a massive chick and a seagull shrieking. The chick was a chimney or two away and seemed unconcerned that Mama seagull was crying for her/him. The lady in the doorway said, sometimes they fall off the roof and the parent seagull swoops in attack if you go and try to help. These chicks grow so quickly, it’s almost science fiction.

Another local’s house we often pass seems to always have a man ‘standing’ in his front garden reading, I guess it’s a cigarette break – and so he must smoke a lot. Today he was reading a Stephen King book, Dream Catcher. I said, “I hope it has a happy ending” and he said, “Yes, another book to read”. Another man was scraping the paint off his front door, “Big job” I said, “Yes, I wish I’d never started” he said. There was a lady sitting on a bench with her dog, the dog looked like it had a hairdo which I mentioned to the lady, she commented that she might get her hair done the same way. Small talk and exchanging the time of day is underrated.

Later it started raining and Olivia and I had to get from Dare’s house to the studio. I put a towel over my head but Olivia just got wet. We went to the post office to pick up a record and on the way to the studio we ran into Jess who lives around the corner from the studio. She was going surfing, she teaches surfing, we’re talking about swapping skills, I’ll teach her some lead guitar and she’ll teach me to surf. After all that time in Australia you’d think I would already know how to surf. Plus it would have been much warmer, I’m not sure learning to surf off the coast of the UK without owning a wetsuit would be much fun. Lead guitar is so much warmer.

Music today has been directed by the arrival of Puzzle by Mandrake Memorial. The album, their third, was released in 1969 and is something of a lost classic. I was turned on to it by Nicklas from Anekdoten, always a reliable source for a mad and interesting record. Hailing from Philadelphia, it’s hard to know where to put this one except to say it’s both experimental sonically, Psychedelic sixties, has melodic singing, jams, orchestras and no fear. You gotta have it. There’s surprisingly a lot of information about them on Wikipedia.

Brian Davison was the drummer in The Nice with Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson and Davy O’List. When The Nice broke up he formed Every Which Way with Graham Bell, the former singer of Skip Bifferty. They made one album released in 1970 on Charisma records (Mercury in the US). The songs are mostly written by Bell and it is a moody, jazzy Progressive gem. It features Geoffrey Peach on reeds and flutes. With John Hedley on guitar and Alan Cartwright on bass. Hedley played with The John Lewis Big Band in the sixties and later with Carol Grimes’ band. Hedley also played with Sting in Last Exit, Sting’s band before The Police. Cartwright played with Procol Harum from 1972 to 1975 starting with the live album with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (1972), Grand Hotel (1973), Exotic Birds And Fruit (1974), and Procol’s Ninth (1975).

After Every Which Way Davison joined Refugee with The Nice bassist/vocalist Lee Jackson who had formed his own band after The Nice, Jackson Heights. Swiss whizz kid keyboard player Patrick Moraz was asked to join but they decided on a new band with Davison as the drummer. Refugee were a classic Progressive keyboard-heavy band that showcased Moraz’ virtuoso playing. (Moraz was apparently born on a plane!). He left Refugee to join Yes and played on Relayer (1974), then Wakeman came back for Going For The One (1977). He joined The Moody Blues for Long Distance Voyager (1981) and stayed for nine albums. There’s also solo albums and albums with Bill Bruford to find, I have some of them in the archive but not all of them – yet, ha ha.

After Every Which Way Graham Bell joined Bell & Arc with his old Skip Bifferty band mates and made one album but soon left to make a solo album. The album features drummer Ian Wallace who played with King Crimson and Bob Dylan, Mel Collin on sax who also played with King Crimson and a million others. Tim Hinkley played keys, another long list of famous appearances including his own band, Jody Grind. Bell moved to the States in the late seventies and played with Long John Baldry. Bell was wiped out by Punk and New Wave. He might have had a little more success if Punk had hit a little later. His bluesy voice and his musical style was no longer the sound of the day and he hadn’t got successful enough to sustain a career as a solo artist. He was good, just bad timing. He later played with Snowy White on return to England. Both Brian Davison and Graham Bell died in 2008.

Song Of The Day is Sanctuary from Hanging Out In Heaven (2000), because that’s what we needed from the rain.

 

Sanctuary

After the party with wine in your hair
There’s a shot in the dark
So you’ll fall in despair
And you’ve chipped your tooth
So you whistle when you speak
And there’s tunes in your head
Till the end of the week

The feast in your hair is up to a swing
But whoever you touch
You don’t feel anything
So you brush off the cobwebs
That seal you up
To get past the part
With the crack in your cup

Farewell Saturday, love tomorrow
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary
For there’s unkept promises
Crimes and jealousies
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary

Then a slice of the silence
Remains on the bed
As the hue of the sun
Whispers heat to the dead
And the glow won’t wash off
When you’re already gone
And you lock all the doors
Where the silence just shone

A sip of green poison that jades your blood
Till the blue of your veins
Turns as brown as the mud
The continental shift in your
Earthquake heart
It isn’t a cure
But at least it’s a start

Farewell Saturday, love tomorrow
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary
For there’s unkept promises
Crimes and jealousies
Always the next day
For to find sanctuary

(Willson-Piper)
Hanging Out In Heaven (2000)