News

I felt out of sorts today, hazy, half a headache, not even a full one. I needed the sea and the only other cure, coke. I can’t believe what it does when you feel a bit ill, I always feel better. But I’m not fooled, I try very hard to avoid it. On tour, especially in Germany where you can drink Fritz Kola, I break the rule of avoiding it because although my remaining teeth get really angry, my body gets a cheap boost, making up for lack of sleep and well, Fritz Kola is the best. My worst addiction is sugar, but I’m able to stop, honestly, really I am. Not right now (ha ha), but the next trip I’ll be back in control. I find it hard to be disciplined unless I’m already swimming three times a week. A bad situation encourages you to be worse and you need to break bad habits. With the swimming pool closed I’m grateful for those walks down to the sea, but I can tell you, there’s no way I’m going into those icy waters. With learning, with addiction, with exercise, you need to see progress, but it takes a two-pronged attack to boost your willpower, internally from your self-discipline and externally from friendly encouragement.

I started in the studio today after a mega listening session to Space Summit track number 8, trying to decide on the level of Nicklas’ Mellotron, I decided on high, because it’s such an otherworldly sound, it needs to be heard. Nicklas and I were recently talking about Mike Pinder from The Moody Blues, who worked with Streetly Electronics in Birmingham where The Moody Blues and the original Mellotron manufacturers are from. He was friends with John Lennon and it was him that introduced the Mellotron to The Beatles. No Moody Blues, no Strawberry Fields. Pinder played on two tracks of Imagine but not the Mellotron, only tambourine, because Lennon’s Mellotron was apparently “spaghetti”. We moved on to recording the guitars and bass on the ninth track on the album and I went into the cold cave (the live room) and played some concentrated acoustic 12 string. It was then that I realized I had to get out, get some fresh air, see the sea.

It was pre coke and outside it was strange weather, somehow warm with a chill, cloudy but with the sun lurking close by. When Olivia and I got down to the promenade it was that blurry coastal mist that you never get inland. I probably should have just enjoyed the walk and the nature, but as Jerome Froese had just sent me music, I took this studio break opportunity to call him to discuss our project and the fact that our Berlin show in July has been cancelled – and that was the time when we were next going to get together. It’s not that I always get on the phone when we are walking down to the sea, today I did. At almost exactly the same place in the street as last time, the abusive woman with the two King Charles Spaniels dogs was coming towards us on the pavement. Unbelievable, because the last time I was on the phone on the way down to the sea was that very day. As she approached I looked behind me so I could step out onto the road to avoid her, but she had gone by by the time I looked back. She must have known it was us, same couple, guy on the phone. She must think it’s always that way, like I think she is always likely to be abusive – although she wasn’t today.

Back in the studio with the coke, I added electric guitars – my Rick 12, my Nash Telecaster and my Fender Jazzmaster, finishing up with the Rick bass and then we left it till tomorrow. Budding songwriters, guitarists and bass players should know that despite the idiom “A bad workman blames his tools” I would suggest that there’s probably a lot of what would have been great musicians out there, making records if they hadn’t been given a terrible instrument as a beginner. Sure some make it through, but learning an instrument can be tricky and I don’t really subscribe to the view that the trouble improves you. Not everyone is a soldier, for some people ideas delicately fall from their fingers or their lips and they don’t develop under hardship. Some artists need to be nurtured. Mollycoddled for their ideas. Innocence, naivety, fey poets might have something secretive, something intriguing to offer that the strong hadn’t considered.

Today’s music began with me breaking my own archive rule, that is: You must listen to something whilst you are looking for something to listen to! Otherwise with such a large collection you could be overwhelmed and find an hour has gone by before you decide. So today I thought what do I want to hear? Nothing came to mind. I’d been watching the engaging drama series ‘Fauda’ that deals with the Palestine/Israel conflict and consequently I was gravitating towards something with Arabic tones. In that section in the archive I found an African album that I’d inherited when I bought my mate Paul Thomas’ record collection and so I ended up playing Side 1 of an album of Modern Moroccan music (seventies), but I just wasn’t feeling it so I went for a silent wander in the aisles. I stumbled across Tortoise, the Thrill Jockey label’s Post Rock instrumentalists. I’d bought the first two albums from Music Nostalgia in Truro a while back. These original albums are quite hard to find at a reasonable price and I hadn’t played them for ages. Good choice, inventive, challenging, explorative, definitely Krautrock influenced and with an experimental side that keeps you guessing. I played the second album first, Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996), and then the first self-titled album released in 1994 – which led me to my next choice, those of you who know this album and the next one that I played tonight will know why.

I hadn’t played The Who’s Sell Out for ages either. A classic sixties masterpiece released in 1967 and the first of Townshend’s concept albums. The first track, Armenia City In The Sky, was written by Speedy Keen who Pete Townshend produced as a member of Thunderclap Newman. I’m sure you will know the song Something In The Air which Speedy wrote, sang and played drums on. The song was Nr.1 for three weeks in 1969 despite being banned by the BBC as the IRA allegedly took it up as their song of revolution. The album also included the single I Can See For Miles with Keith Moon’s unbelievable drumming. The excellent B-side, Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand was one of four different versions of the song. The Who were amazing in their day, unique musicians, breaking out, not following the rules mixed with talent, ideas and a rebellious attitude. I remember seeing Tommy at the cinema when I still lived near Liverpool. (I think it was with my mate Spanter who I’m still in touch with.) I saw it again in recent years, it was riotous to say the least, Ann Margaret and the baked beans, oh my!

Next, what could be next except Who’s Next? The album cover was a piss take of 2001 – A Space Odyssey (geddit?). Although it was only Townshend that did the deed and the sky is photoshopped in (or whatever they did in those days). Classic tracks, Baba O’Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, I Won’t Get Fooled Again and those are just songs I picked out to remind people of songs they might know. It’s a great album and apart from the songwriting, just listening to Entwistle play bass is a thrill in itself. I don’t really need to mention Moony but you might not realize how much Townshend actually sings on this album, sharing lead vocals on three songs with Daltrey and keeping one to himself. Classic, go buy it NOW!

Today’s Song Of The Day is The Church’s Tantalized for its Townshend inspired thrashing guitars – it’s represented by the video. I was living in Stockholm at the time and the rest of the band were in Sydney. This was the important second Warner Brothers release in America. It was really the first because the Persia and Remote Luxury EPs had been put together for the first album named after the latter EP. So, after having spent Christmas and New Year in Stockholm, I flew to Sydney to make the video on January 1st – for one day, and then flew back to Stockholm on January 3rd. Those were the days.

 

(Kilbey/Koppes/Ploog/Willson-Piper)

Today celebrates 100 consecutive days of writings which might mean I’ve written a book or two since January. There’s parties being held, firework displays, ticker tape parades, commemorative coins and a world holiday. In fact all worlds in the known galaxy are celebrating. The Martian equivalent of The Red Arrows will do a fly by, interestingly, they are also called The Red Arrows. But most importantly every citizen of the universe will be doing something creative. On Cygnus 7 they are electrifying their chemical atmosphere with a special gas that makes the clouds play music. In Birmingham they are decorating the roads with paintings of cars. Here in Penzance the seagulls have donated their shrieks to the script of a new horror movie. Other people have grown extra eyes and fingers, whilst some have practiced conscious floating. Mrs Robinson from Nr. 37 has built a castle made from uncut diamonds and soot and in South Africa they have connected a beautiful hollow golden cord to Australian deserts so they can send them mountain water.

We might all need to reflect on the surrealistic concepts as the apparent leader of the free world suggests injected disinfectant to save you. You don’t hear much about prayers anymore, that also doesn’t seem to work. I think one of the main issues here is the disillusionment of the intelligent. The smartest people are the ones who need to stay positive, but how can they? If only bright people had louder voices. At some point somebody is going to work out that different opinions are necessary to debate the right outcome, not to descend into stubbornness and esoteric beliefs or parroting what your parents told you when you were six!

Which brings me to my next point and remember really all I would like to do in this world is make music, write, buy records (and stamps and books), love, have nice friends and see the amazing world. I can’t really contribute to the political side of things or the medical side of things except by being fair and healthy. Tolerance goes a long way, too. I’ve also come up with another new plan along with my make travel compulsory idea. They used to send you to the army, but this idea is far less warlike and strict. When you get to 21 you have to go to a camp, like a youth retreat, where the main topic on the agenda is to review what your parents told you. Have a real think about it and challenge whether or not it was right. Compare notes with others and debate the possibilities of God versus no God, football versus cricket, marijuana versus alcohol, you get the picture. The whole point would be to question what you were taught instead of accepting early influence. Ok, it’s a terrible idea, I’ll stick to the music.

I was graced with the first hearing of serious progress with my collaboration with Jerome Froese today. It was 20 minutes of amazing instrumental bliss and two vocal works in progress. Dare and Olivia and I sat on the famous red couch and listened and were blown away. I can’t believe I’m even involved in such a great project. I really don’t know what to do about all these inspiring projects I’m involved with as they move towards completion, MOAT (finished, waiting) and today Space Summit mix 8. Where is the light for art and music in a world that seems to be collapsing in on itself. How can I be thinking about the guitar sound in all this mess? We are supposed to be leaving the solutions to people who are smarter than us, what happened there? I only hope my contribution to the world as small as it is, that music, words, guidance in an area that I can share from experience, contributes something positive.

One of the best things that ever happened to me was discovering Gentle Giant all these years ago. I’ve had all their albums since the seventies, I have the DVDs too, but sadly I never got to see them play live. I can’t quite figure out how I missed them. I guess I was younger and poorer and not paying attention. They came through Liverpool at a time when I was going to see lots of bands, but somehow I missed them. They were formed out of Simon Dupree And The Big Sound and had a hit in 1967 with the song Kites reaching No.9 in the British charts. They’d always seen themselves as a Soul band and saw this track as really quite unrepresentative of who they were (rather like Traffic with Hole In My Shoe). Psychedelia was all the craze and if you didn’t join in, well you know what happens. I remember Grunge.

They broke up in 1969 as the label wanted no Soul, more Pop and they somehow metamorphosized into Gentle Giant as the times and fashion changed again. It was an unlikely transition considering their early love for Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. Shulman Brothers, Derek, Ray and Phil teamed up with Kerry Minnear on keys, Gary Green on guitars and Martin Smith on drums. They were all extremely talented musicians, between them playing guitars, bass, drums, keys, trumpet, violin, cello, flutes and whatever else was there to be blown, plucked or hit – they could also all sing. Consequently they left their Soul dreams behind and concentrated on something far more adventurous.

They have just released remastered vinyl of their first four albums and that is tonight’s musical feast. Their first self-titled album produced by Tony Visconti was released in 1970 and is a taste of what they were to become, a fascinating melodic complexity. Ingenious creations by a band that included multi-instrumentalists exploring, inspired, talented in the execution of music that straddled genres. Their second album Acquiring The Taste also produced by Visconti was released in 1971 and set them on their way to exquisitely executed adventures in harmony, sound and structure, almost modern fairy tales. By the release of Three Friends in 1972 they had replaced original drummer Martin Smith with Malcolm Mortimore. It was a concept album in the time when concept albums ruled the world, the album found its way to the bottom of the US charts. It was to be the only album with Malcolm Mortimore, replaced by John Weathers for the first album I loved by them, Octopus, released in 1973. I played this album to death. They were making a harder sound with their new drummer only hinted at on Three Friends. It was to be the last album for brother Phil who left to spend more time with family. These remasters sound absolutely fantastic and if you want to get into this amazing band then I suggest you get the albums while you can, I’m sure they’ll be limited.

Song Of The Day is Head On featuring Olivia from Noctorum’s The Afterlife, just a little something with a Progressive edge.

 

Head On

(Him)
Six thirty seven
The sun’s going down
The engine is purring
The rain’s coming ’round

I stare through the windscreen
As twilight falls
I’ll be there by midnight
You missed my call

(Her)
I’ve had an idea
I’ll meet you halfway
Don’t even argue
And don’t be late

See you at nine-ish
Where we first met
Me in my Sunbeam
You in your Corvette

(Both)
We are crushed by our own love
Tears have fallen from above
Head on you and I entwine
I am yours and you are mine

(Him)
Is that wreck gonna make it
Are you gonna break down
I know you’re attached, but
That car is a clown

(Her)
I’ve already left, dear
I’m on my way
See you at the diner
Love you, by the way

(Both)
We are speeding to our end
I will kiss you on the bend
Head on colliding anxious hearts
This way, we’ll never be apart

(Willson-Piper / Mason)
Noctorum – The Afterlife (2019)

I got up at 3PM today but I went to bed at 7AM, so that’s my eight hours. Olivia usually needs a little more than that, but it’s so ingrained in us that if we sleep late in the day, that we’re breaking some kind of code of acceptable behaviour, that we both got up. We like to be awake at night, we WORK all night, we sleep all day. It’s the best time to work, it’s the time of no distractions, Europe is asleep, no one in the rest of the world expects you to be awake. It’s perfect for writing, it’s bad for sunlight. Still, summer is on the way so the sun is still up and on our trip down to the sea today we managed to get some rays. The sun was high enough, that sky was cloudless, the sea was a constant grey blue with no patches, reflecting the sky. There was a chill in the air and as we looked out we could see two tankers docked in the bay, one smaller like a miniature, but the other large and daunting. Below the promenade wall there were people getting into the cold sea, shuddering as they did so. I have a very strange physical reaction to seeing this, it’s hard to explain but my skin reacts, something inside envelops me. It’s like physical empathy. It’s extremely uncomfortable, it’s almost how I imagine the cold chill of fear. When people say it made my skin crawl, I wonder do they mean literally? Because I understand, it’s like my flesh is reacting to the horror of the strangers’ pain. I don’t think I’d be good under torture, it would be unbearable. It’s as if my skin has an outer layer or is it that the protective layer has gone and left the skin exposed. My legs go weak, I have to hold on to something. This is just from seeing someone enter the cold water, just seeing them do it.

I suppose that as we are all unique we will experience things differently, hear music differently, react differently. There’s upbringing, there’s exposure and then there’s the fascinating unique self. That which makes you you. You can’t get away from it. You can try and improve it, educate the ignorant side of yourself, learn from your mistakes, simply, change if you need to, if you have to, if you want to. Realize your potential, work to achieve your aspirations. It’s difficult in this polarized world to find common ground. I’ve never felt so disconnected from the human race as I do today. It really feels like, look, you go and live on that side of the universe and we’ll live on this side of the universe and let’s agree not to bother each other. You can have your politics, your beliefs and society the way you want it. It used to be that this was how the West saw the rest, but now the battle is internal, it’s the best of the West versus the rest of the West and no one can agree on who are the best and who are the rest. This is where the common enemy theory comes in, we need an alien force from the other side of the Milky Way to attack us, then we can all band together as Earthlings, show that we’re all in the same boat, beat them off and start a new world of mutual respect and understanding. Pipe dream. Can you really imagine hating someone because of the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation, where they were born or even the team they support? Sad, sad, sad. Can you imagine intimidating medical staff in a pandemic? How it’s dealt with is another issue, what’s true is another issue, leave these people alone, not that anybody reading this needs to be told.

I was in the studio today for the shortest session in the history of the recording studio. I plugged in my Rickenbacker bass and played an F note. That was it. Dare was mixing the latest Space Summit track and I had a particular vision of the ending that needed to be sorted out and we were one bass note short of completion. I played it perfectly, my finger hovered above the first fret until the moment came and bang, there it was. It shook, it lingered, it faded and it was all over. It was exhausting. Afterwards I rolled up my guitar lead into a perfect circle and hung it off the nail on the wall. I replaced the bass on the guitar stand and left the control room with a feeling of absolute satisfaction. I needed to relax after the studio experience and did so with that great Star Trek episode, Arena, where the peaceful higher beings placed Captain Kirk and the reptilian captain of the alien ship on an asteroid to fight out their conflict to the death as individuals instead of as battleship crews. Entertaining stuff over last night’s leftovers.

The music today has been soooo now! I started with Lux Prima which is last year’s collaboration between Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and producer Danger Mouse. It was way less angular than I expected it. Karen O wasn’t scary at all and Danger Mouse wasn’t sonically dangerous. It was actually pretty mellow, like a less retro Air album with a French girl singer except she wasn’t French.

Next was my favourite, FKA Twigs and her unique vision. It’s like Judas Priest, you’re either there or you’re not. I love the idea of placing Judas Priest in the same paragraph as FKA Twigs simply because liking one, or should I say liking one passionately doesn’t mean that you have to actively despise the other, you don’t even need to despise it quietly. If it’s off your radar that’s enough. You can’t possibly understand everyone in the world’s reasons for their tastes so live and let live. If it’s ‘the dumbness’ that you don’t like, feel sorry for them, if it’s shallow don’t take it seriously and if it stimulates you love it to death. Twigs is stimulating, Cellophane is one of her many cool videos, the song closes her latest album, Magdalene (2019). Judas Priest ROCKKKKK!!! Ha ha.

Which brings me to another great album in a style that won’t have the Syd Barrett fans queuing up at the record store. Solange is Beyonce’s sister and to me her albums are masterpieces of challenging and contemporary R&B. I wish I knew how they did it. Her latest album, When I Get Home, was released in 2019. It’s inscrutable, the strange chords, odd timing, peculiar rhythms, weird arrangements, amazing production, often thoughtful lyrical ideas based on real life and real life issues. I can listen to this stuff all day, because I can never quite understand it.

Then there’s Flying Lotus. He pieces together sounds and makes songs, sometimes it’s weird and experimental, other times it’s Hip Hop, but what it always is, is complex. He’s like Zappa meets Prince in the modern world. It’s interesting how contemporary black music has become so mainstream, because it isn’t easy music. It gives the Progressive bands a run for the money. Its appeal though is always in the groove. The Flying Lotus albums are dense, there’s a lot to explore, I have the latest one, Flamagra (2019), on the turntable tonight. Take note David Lynch fans.

Today’s Song Of The Day is New Scientist from Noctorum’s Honey Mink Forever, an odd Jazzy hybrid with saxophone and unlikely Rickenbacker guitar soloing and riffs. Kinda suits tonight’s music somehow.

 

(Willson-Piper / Mason / Bowie / Hadley)

So the website went down today due to “exceeding bandwidth”. Seems like the site wasn’t able to keep up with a daily blog with pics and occasional vids, which means, we have to pay more. Hosting sites like In Deep, my site, the Marty & Olivia site, Noctorum and the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance site is taking some financial planning (my favourite thing, ha ha). On this subject thanks to the people that have donated to the blog, because as you see, it even costs to write. You’d think that to write would be free. It is, but you need a channel, a server and a website to get it to the people. What a different world it is for everybody since the digital revolution. The mobile phone and the computer have made access to entertainment infinite. Photography has completely been turned on its head, Kodak went bust! What?

When the internet came along it opened up a lot of possibilities for the consumer and the artist. In the old system you were either signed and promoted or just playing live, it was hard to afford to make and sell records without record company support. The internet opened up the world to the unknown artist and it levelled the playing field. Remember Napster? Remember Metallica fighting them to stop some company giving their music away for free. For the bigger bands it wasn’t just about earnings and royalties, it was about affording to record in proper studios. The expense of making music has remained the same for many artists, but there’s also been a massive drop in income. Bon Jovi or AC/DC or Foo Fighters or Black Mountain can’t really make a record at home. My ex band’s most successful records would have sounded very different if we hadn’t been able to record them in a proper studio. (Apart from GAF with the crappy drum machine.) Some musical styles need a proper studio and a proper engineer, it sounds different than it does at home or in the basement. Different types of music have different needs, but as soon as you could reach the world from your bedroom without a record label using your own recording set up, everything changed. Any band with a drummer needs a place to set the drums up and make a noise which is probably not your bedroom. I wouldn’t like to hear Led Zep recorded at Mum and Dad’s. Equally there’s a lot of bedroom musicians that can make music that is easily made at home, look at Finneas and Billie Eilish (recorded at Mum and Dad’s) and look at their success. (Great album by the way).

As far as the cost of making records and touring – If we can’t sell records and we can’t play live as musicians, we really are in trouble. We struggle to sell physical records, we make nothing from Spotify and now we can’t tour because of the virus. The backlog of tours is now probably taking us into late next year before we can get out there. The merch is so important to us, t-shirts mainly, but get this, t-shirt profits are way higher than the physical album sales, because of the manufacturing costs. Luckily the internet hasn’t found a way to dress us in digital clothes – so far. Musicians have discovered that a lot of people are willing to spend $20 plus on a t-shirt but not $5 to $10 on a CD. When you think of the cost of making the CD, the recording of the album, the artwork, the months of preparation versus the copying of the artwork from the CD cover onto cloth, well it’s simply because you can hear it for next to nothing online. The vinyl buyers are few and the costs so high to manufacture that profits are small. Yet we all know that downloads are not so exciting as you can’t feel them, they have no texture, they have no smell and it’s hard to value them, hold them next to your heart, admire the details in the artwork. But the bottom line, the main thing for most people is that you can hear them if you stream it, that’s all that matters. The quality of their listening experience doesn’t even matter to a lot of people, the quality of the wallet does matter though and you can’t argue with the lucky public accessibility to millions of albums for so small a financial commitment. Music is so available and there’s so much choice that it’s pretty hard to get a mass of people to buy something physical. Then there’s the space in your home issue, I need space for records, I can’t see the advantage of NOT needing to have space for books and records. What is more lovely than your own personal library? A clean white wall? A dust free zone? I love that dust. The aesthetics of the digital domain are difficult to grasp for my generation. I suppose horse riders felt the same about the introduction of the motor car. You can imagine the rider saying “But what about the relationship with the beast that is your transportation? You can’t talk to a machine.” – But you know all this.

So the alternatives for the musician that is not as successful as Bono or as young as Billie Eilish are few and far between. Writing for magazines was always something of a closed shop and badly paid. For me, the blog and the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance sessions weren’t ever really thought of as another income stream, it was more a service that I had to charge for, that’s why it’s not mind-numbingly expensive. When I left the ex band I went and worked in record shops in Stockholm for a couple of years. A nice break, I enjoyed it immensely, but it ultimately led me back to musicianland as that’s where I met Nicklas from Anekdoten – and you know what happened next. Suddenly I was in Japan playing a sold out show with a Swedish Progressive Rock band. All this led into all the other projects, MOAT was also based in Stockholm. Anekdoten led me to a festival in Germany that led me to meeting and marrying Olivia and to us forming our duo. A duo with a German violinist I was married to, who knew? This led to spending more time in Germany which led to working with Jerome Froese from Tangerine Dream and Loom with a project on the way. Of course the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance sessions led to Jed and the Space Summit album that we are currently working on. So along with the Noctorum project with Dare, a constant work in progress, I find myself very busy.

I don’t have engineering skills, I don’t drive and computers to me are posh typewriters with pictures. I need help to make records, I need help to tour. I finally have an American agent, all was planned for the autumn, of course it’s all cancelled. Before having an agent, I’d do some super low key things in America because I was there. My friend Melani would find some shows and I’d play together with her husband Ed and some mutual friends. So now I have a proper agent who was booking a proper tour that would take us all over the country with Salim playing with me here and there. But upscaling your situation means upscaling your costs. To get an American work visa for Olivia and I to tour, it costs over $3,500, that’s up front before you earn a cent. Then there’s the air tickets and the accom. Luckily I have good friends. But start up costs for a small operation are crippling. Plus now we also have to see the damage caused by the virus on studios, record shops, record labels, these places were already struggling. Now it’s the venues that are under threat, too.

The great thing about a daily blog is that one day it’s this kind of thing and another day it’s about the stripy fish that swim in shoals in the pacific ocean or Japanese Psychedelic Rock. Or possibly even this next tangent. Classical music, who buys it? I remember going into HMV or was it the ex Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street in London and there was a whole massive department dedicated to just classical music. It was always empty when I was in there, a nod to its relevance but impractical in terms of sales. The internet must have destroyed the income for classical music almost completely. I could always find second hand copies of beautifully recorded and mastered Deutsche Grammophon records with amazing orchestras conducted by Leonard Bernstein or Herbert von Karajan. There would be Mozart, Beethoven, all the famous composers of history and mostly in perfect condition and often for just 50p each. So how could shops afford to have a stock of new Classical records? Perhaps there was once a market for them between the sixties and the early eighties, but surely not anymore. And by the way, you might need a real studio to record a classical orchestra, it’s a little cramped in the bedroom and quite dangerous with all those stray bow thrusts.

Which takes me to today’s music. New York Rock And Roll ensemble are surely forgotten, even though you know at least two members of the band. Michael Kamen worked with everyone from Guns N’ Roses to Kate Bush as an arranger. He sadly died in 1993 at the age of 55 from a heart attack after being diagnosed six years earlier with Multiple Sclerosis.

Martin Fulterman you also know but as Mark Snow. You’ve seen him on many TV theme credits including The X-Files. The band were all attendees at New York’s famous Juilliard Music School and had the idea to combine their Classical skills with an interest in Rock music. They released their first self-titled album in 1968, their second, Faithful Friends, in 1969 and more records into the seventies. The first was produced by John Linde and the legendary Shadow Morton. (The Shangri-Las, Vanilla Fudge, Janis Ian, New York Dolls producer.) Is it your thing? Who knows, it’s of its time and I find throughout albums like these that there’s oddly insignificant and equally great stand out tracks.

On the subject of the influence of ‘serious music’ in the Rock world, Gryphon were certainly made up of talented thinking musicians exploring new realms. Progressive, Classical, Rock, Folk, Contemporary, they are famous for being played on all four BBC radio stations in the same week despite them all catering to different audiences. Today Olivia picked a couple of records randomly from the selection. Their last album Treason (1977) and their 1974 album Red Queen To Gryphon Three.

Song Of The Day is How Come They Don’t Touch The Ground, recorded in my front room in my flat in Bondi Beach sometime in the middle of the eighties. This was the album where I used the Sydney Morning Herald as a snare drum and a Gizmotron invented by ex 10cc men Kevin Godley and Lol Creme for cello sounds. This was a true bedroom album recorded on a Teac 4-track tape machine. Ah, those were the days.

 

How Come They Don’t Touch The Ground

Even yesterday has gone away
Has tomorrow ever come
Will next week last forever
How come it’s funny but it’s not fun

Have the fingers slipped, has time been cut
Has the face misled the eye
Break the glass let me out of here
Why doesn’t six come after five

Turning, turning round and round
My feet are burning
How come they don’t touch the ground

I play a game on the paving stones
The cracks seem so small to me
I suddenly shrink and meet some insect friends
And need binoculars to see across what now is wide to me

They close the doors on another train
The windows dirty as the floor
You can play games with your reflections
But I don’t do that anymore

Turning, turning round and round
My feet are burning
How come they don’t touch the ground
How come they don’t touch the ground

I got up to leave
But something I couldn’t see stopped me, stopped me

Turning, turning round and round
My feet are burning
How come they don’t touch the ground

(Willson-Piper)
In Reflection (1987)

Walking past the pub today there was a message written by the publican in pink writing on the blackboard outside. Usually it would say free pool, or something about football. Today it said “We are closed and refurbishing, so stop calling the police and wasting their valuable time.”. It was a nice touch that it was in pink. People don’t walk past you anymore, they circle around you like a lion, except they won’t be doing any pouncing. I wonder if muggers are keeping their distance? This is the fifth week of lockdown and the cabin fever has begun to hit. Even I feel it and my life hasn’t changed that much from studio, sessions, writing, but for me it’s not the now as much as the unknown future that is causing the anxiety, not having an approximation of what’s happening eight weeks from now, the uncertainty is hard to deal with for everyone.

I would have been due to leave Penzance soon to go to Stockholm to rehearse with Anekdoten before we flew to Canada for the festival shows in Quebec. I probably would have spent my birthday in London (May 7th, hint) with Olivia flying to Germany the next day, with us meeting in Canada a couple of days later, where we would also do some duo shows. Can we re-book shows? Well, it seems everyone that had their shows cancelled now is booking for next year which means that those of us that were supposed to tour at the end of this year can’t just move it forwards a few months because there is so much traffic. It might be autumn 2021 before we can tour in America.

The finished or almost finished records are starting to catch up with each other. But the delay is also creating uncertainty. Salim Nourallah still has to mix in Texas, Paul Simpson still has to sing and mix on the new Wild Swans album in Liverpool, Jerome Froese is working on our collaboration in Berlin. Just the talk of all these locations is reminding me of life before the lockdown. Space Summit, which has been made in Minneapolis, Penzance, Borneo and Bristol, plus all the places Jed and I worked together on the songs before we even got to the studio, it makes you realize how small the world – was. At this stage we are three mixes from being done with perhaps an added acoustic song should we come up with one. Nightjar is hoping that the postponed Record Store Day date is going to really happen on June 20th. But will people be able to queue by then? Last but not least and perhaps most frustratingly, MOAT’s new album Poison Stream is done, but because of the uncertainty we can’t commit to a release date and therefore can’t get a crowdfunding campaign started for all those back bills for making it and all those future bills for manufacturing it.

In the news there’s lots of talk of easing lockdowns as they talk of needing one in Stockholm. How is it that there are so many opinions about the cause, the solution and the truth about all this? Wouldn’t something like this clearly be based on fact? But then there’s the “alternative facts” (ha ha, the best phrase from the legacy of the Trumpers). Can’t we ever just have the complete truth, a truth that everyone sees to be the truth without doubt, suspicion or blame. A truth where people own up to their mistakes instead of hiding them, a truth where provocation or taking advantage of the situation isn’t even considered. Are we doomed to disagree about the colour of the sky or the scent of a rose? Does our right to opinion defy our right to the truth? It’s complicated and yet it seems like it should be very simple.

Music today has been all about Japanese late sixties and early seventies CDs that live in the archive. In the sixties and seventies the Japanese were seriously influenced by Western sixties Pop and seventies Rock and out of that came some fascinating albums. (They often covered songs by their influences.) One of the better known legends is guitarist Shinki Chen who recorded with Powerhouse, Food Brain and Speed, Glue & Shinki. There are two albums by the latter, but Eve (1971) is the only one made when they were still together as a band. The second is mainly an album by Joey Smith, their crazy Filipino drummer and singer that he put together using Shinki’s guitar bits long after he left the band. Shinki left due to Smith’s antics – drug related of course. Their name comes from Smith’s love of speed, bass player Masayoshi Kabe’s penchant for sniffing glue and simply Shinki’s name – was it ever going to last? Smith went on to be a legend in his own right in the Philippines with the Juan de la Cruz band. Before all this Shinki was in lots of bands (Powerhouse and Food Brain also included Kabe) and also made a self-titled solo album (1971). He (like everybody) was influenced by Jimi Hendrix and the sound coming out of Western amps and guitars, his playing reminds me of the first Blue Cheer guitarist Leigh Stephens. If you would like to read all about it you could buy Julian Cope’s book Japrocksampler where you’ll find all the important details.

There was Yuya Uchida And The Flowers’ Challenge (1969) and Carmen Maki, whose second album Adam And Eve released as the sixties became the seventies has influences of both eras. Born to a Japanese mother and an American father she is some kind of Japanese sixties Psyche chanteuse. She went on to make the influential album Carmen Maki & Blues Creation (1971) with important Japanese guitar player Kazuo Takeda. There is so much to discover about Japanese guitar music, but I’ll have to leave it for now with an introduction to Flower Travellin’ Band, Far Out, and the Far East Family Band for a Japanese vinyl sesh sometime in the future via Yonin Bayashi, whose album Ishoku-Sokuhatsu signals an era of more restraint. Final mention for Yuya Uchida and Joey Smith, who both died in 2019. I can’t find anything out about Shinki Chen except that he tired of making records and just became a live player. Arigatou.

Tora Tora Tora from Noctorum’s third album Honey Mink Forever (2011) is probably as far away as you can possibly get from the Japanese music that features here today as it invokes the famous war film. But the song is more about simple entertainment and relaxing on a Sunday afternoon with the tele on in the innocent seventies more than anything else, so forgive me if this song choice feels inappropriate.

 

Tora, Tora, Tora

It’s noon, no rush
No bus, no boss
No shower, no suit
No shoes, no queues

I’m going to ring you up
And have you come on down
And lie here next to me
We’re not going to need the sattelite
‘Cause we’ve got ITV

Tora Tora Tora
Women In Love
Tora Tora Tora
On this Sunday afternoon

It’s three, it’s free
The Great Escape
Planet Of The Apes

If you press the eject
Then we can both reflect
On what the best scenes did for you
We’ll be Glenda Jackson & Oliver Reed
In this epic bedsit room

Tora Tora Tora
Women In Love
Tora Tora Tora
On this Sunday afternoon

[TV Announcer]
It’s just coming up to 3 o’clock here on ITV. Time for your afternoon movie.

[Movie dialog]
Tarry no longer.
This is no drill.
[…Japanese dialog…] Tora! Tora! Tora! Huh!

Brush away the crumbs from the bottom sheet
Waiting for the break
And you can hit the kitchen at lightning speed
For another piece of cake

And while you’re there put the kettle on
And try to get back in time
‘Cause this is the part that you knew from the start
And it has your favourite line

(Willson-Piper / Mason)
Noctorum – Honey Mink Forever (2011)