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Sep 27 2022

TO WHERE I AM NOW

Oh no, I’m in a hotel paying for a room and there’s drilling? I got up, went to the door, looked down the corridor and there was a man on the floor right there, drilling into something or other on the wall behind where we were sleeping. I looked down at him, half-naked (me, not him) and I just said “Non”, he looked up at me with guilty eyes and said “Fini”. I went back to bed for another hour. We left the hotel and headed to our friends’ house, Virginie had taken their son to school, Arno was waiting for us with some nice lunch and a fantastic idea, “Let’s go to Mont St. Michel”.

We left a mild day in Brittany and as we drove the hour and a half to Mont St. Michel we entered a miserable windy, cold rainy day in Normandy and by the time we arrived at the car park where you took the shuttle bus to the island, it was pelting it down. We parked and went to the bus stop where a bus was waiting (luckily) and headed to the world-famous and apparently second most visited French location after the Eiffel Tower. But what is it? Well, it’s an abbey with a town on an island and its history is so deep and long that you really need to go to the link and read up on it. The abbey itself is an incredible edifice and you spend the whole time wondering how on earth they built it, vast columns, massive halls, giant stones, huge fireplaces and built with such precision that one wonders how they got the UFOs to hover with such stability overhead when they were lowering down the columns, hewn on Mars and all part of the ancient intergalactic deal signed in Egyptian times that gave Earth alien aid in return for teaching the aliens about music, what it was, how to create it and how to appreciate it once they had learnt from the dissection of our bodies about how to make ears.

By the time we left, we were awestruck and drenched. But I pondered the awe and belief that the abbey builders must have felt to make something as incredible as this to praise what others have no belief in at all. The rain slammed into us on the causeway when we arrived and alighted (love that word) from the bus and had eased only slightly when we were leaving. We squeezed onto the shuttle bus that took us back to the car park and said goodbye to Arno but in truth, we’ll see him again in two weeks on our return to Portugal.

We had decided that we should drive closer to Calais to have less distance to travel as we headed for the channel crossing, so we left Mont St. Michel and aimed to stay in Amiens. We almost didn’t make it, our route had us drive for four hours on the freeways with no available petrol or food. We could hold out but Ariel was struggling and we had to leave the freeway to find a petrol station in a town off the freeway otherwise she wasn’t going to last, she was Running On Empty. We searched for somewhere to fill up, found somewhere but when we arrived it was closed, we were doomed to an impossible situation, stranded late on a rainy cold French night. Disaster loomed, but by some miracle, there was another self-service station close by, saved. In Amiens, it stopped raining.

Music today was just one album to wake up to counteract the drilling, Genesis and Foxtrot (1972) came to the rescue replacing noise with progressive melody. Inside Ariel it’s too noisy on the freeway and sometimes I give up trying to hear, other times I play an album I know back to front and fill in the audio gaps, we need a subwoofer and bigger speakers. I’m going to ask Ariel what she thinks.

Music Of The Daze

Written by Marty Willson-Piper · Categorized: Blog

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there's any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

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Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #m Rockin' the MOAT t-shirt next to the real deal! #moatband #poisonstream 🤘🏰

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Photo by @oliviaelektra 

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Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower Peter Walsh and I getting down at the Heron Tower disco 🕺🏻 #heyday
Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th Fe Soundchecking at Birmingham Symphony Hall, 10th February, 2001. All About Eve supporting Fairport Convention.

📷 by @derektimbrell
Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into Thanks to The Wernickis for a little glimpse into their new New Mexico listening space 🌵 #nightjar #schoolkidsrecords
Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵 📷 @oliviaelek Redeyed lad of the lowlands 🎵

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#danelectro #danelectrobass #redeyerecords #pleasantrylane #pleasantrylanestudio
You usually don’t spend the day in the studio an You usually don’t spend the day in the studio and the night at a gig but if you put the studio next to the gig then there’s a greater chance. So @salimnourallah did just that, he put the gig and the studio next to each other and made it possible for me to spend the day recording and the evening playing live 🎵

📷 @drewliophoto 

#galacticheadquarters #happinessarecordlabel #pleasantrylanestudio #salimnourallah #oliviawillsonpiper
TO WHERE I AM NOW A visit in the studio today fro TO WHERE I AM NOW

A visit in the studio today from old mate Mark Burgess from The Chameleons who has been hanging in Texas recently. I was thinking about the two of us growing up in the northwest of England and all these years later finding ourselves in such an unlikely spot together. We fixed a few issues in the universe and I carried on recording some guitars until Mark had to leave. Mark had played at the Galactic Headquarters next to the studio this year as Olivia and I had four years ago and this reminded me to remind myself to remind everyone to remind their friends that we will be playing there with Salim on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, for the ultimate in intimate performance. You can get tickets here (follow link below).

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1045

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📷 @salimnourallah 

#markburgess #thechameleons #chameleonsvox #pleasantrylanestudio #happinessarecordlabel #martywillsonpiper #oliviawillsonpiper #moatband
📷 @argirgirl 📷 @argirgirl
TO WHERE I AM NOW Sadness manifested in a buildin TO WHERE I AM NOW

Sadness manifested in a building, today we went to visit Paisley Park. Prince built Paisley Park in Chanhassen, about twenty minutes southwest of Minneapolis. It opened in 1987 and he recorded his later albums there. Apart from Prince, REM also recorded and mixed Out Of Time there, recording Kate Pearson’s vocal on Shiny Happy People vocal. Madonna had Prince play guitar on three songs from Like A Prayer and the two co-wrote Love Song, finishing it remotely due to Madonna not being able to stand the cold weather and the rather desolate location of the studio. Of course, there are things around but it’s not in the city and it’s not in the countryside, it’s in a suburb, no distractions, just what Prince wanted.

CONTINUE READING: https://martywillson-piper.com/2022/12/to-where-i-am-now-1032

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📷 @argirgirl 

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Songwriting & Guitar Guidance with Marty Willson-Piper
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"These are awesome sessions that I highly recommend for guitar players of all levels. Very informative, frank discussions on everything related to guitar and music in general. Definitely a must for anyone pursuing songwriting."
(Stephen G., VA, USA)

"Marty knows how to bypass scales and get to the heart of feel and timing. His musical knowledge spans multiple cultures and genres. Perhaps most importantly, Marty is a cool dude. I highly recommend his guitar guidance." (Jed B., MN, USA)

"Ok, so you’re sitting in your home and Marty is across the world but is actually right here teaching you how to play guitar and write songs. He is a delight to talk to and he is your teacher, meaning he wants to see you get something out of his lessons. You know he’s paying attention and wants to steer you in the right direction. I am so grateful and humbled that he offers his time in this manner. This is an amazing opportunity for anyone who admires anything from his enormous body of work. How often do you get to learn from somebody that inspired you in the first place? Amazing." (Ann S., CA, USA)

Missing

This is my stolen 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string, serial number EB157. If there’s any chance of this guitar coming back to me before I go to meet my maker, then that would be wonderful. Please contact me if you have any information.

11209512_1669022976719710_7288437867089763325_n

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