July 22nd

Major backtracking

Bloggitis? possibly. Blogger’s block? mmm.
Heres the thing. I haven't written anything for public consumption for a month or more. Whilst there is obviously an element of a lack of discipline and a schoolboy like resentment involved, the truth is a bit more complicated.

The fog that has been descending slowly following the death of 3 close friends obviously hasn't helped. The calls with my pal Jim Cronin's lovely wife Alison following his sudden death, provide the kind of perspective you can do without. As indeed has the whole business surrounding Ian's death that I have written about at length in the previous 2 entries. Added to this the continual hunt for a new house and the early mornings and late nights that come with two young children and a job with deadlines.
Back in the last week in April, however, I thought the following:

If hell does indeed exist, and if it reflects a personal horror for each of us, then the London guitar show comes closer than a painting by Breugel, quite frankly. At a quarter to the hour, every hour, the organizers, in their wisdom, have decreed that this is when every stand in the cavernous space of the excel centre in London's dock-lands is permitted to unleash the full volume of their main display or demo. The noise is unbelievable. The sound of a thousand idiots (myself included) going widdly, widdly at high volume for 20 minutes. This is not conducive to anything remotely musical. I played loud, fast and frequently wrong. I could barely hear what I was playing, let alone the tracks I'm playing over. The poly harmonic information filling the space, often at great noise, turns into grey audio mush. When I stop, the roar continues. Like playing a gig on the busiest runway at Heathrow. Ben Crowe seems pleased enough, having attracted sufficient interest in his splendid guitars to justify the exercise. On the plus side I get to meet and chat with some people that I haven't seen in some time. Not least of which my old pal Ed Poole. He is one of the most naturally gifted musicians I have ever worked with and a lovely geezer to boot. It's been too long.

The month of May actually started rather well.
It was a stunning cloud free day as I drove up the M40 and headed off cross country at Oxford. I had been invited to lunch by Robert Fripp at his home in Bredenborough. The food was tasty, the company very entertaining and enlightening. Life, as I live it these days, seldom contains the luxury of just enjoying the moment, the company and surroundings. This was a rare and splendid afternoon. Robert showed me round his fantastic house and gardens and made me want to move from London all the more. Pictures of the day can be seen at Robert's diary here.



Sadly, for some readers, I have to tell you that he did not pass on any tips on how to be a successful raging venal band leader. Indeed, at the risk of destroying his entire reputation, he was charming and very funny.
There have times during my involvement in a previous band, when long chats with Robert were the only life line to sanity. We are now able to share this experience.

I left Robert's house around 5 and drove further north to Wolverhamption. Here I went to the studios of WCR where I was interviewed by Chris Evans (no, not the ginger haired millionaire) about my new album. Chris and I have similar tastes and memories. He had been introduced to my album by mutual pal, novelist Jonathan Coe. Indeed the previous week Jonathan had written and lovely letter telling me how the Glee Club had been a constant i-pod companion on his recent trip to Oz. After a very pleasant, if at times technically fraught, couple of hours I bade Chris farewell and headed home for London.

In the following month we 'lost' 3 houses and have been under offer for over 4 months, with our buyers understandably concerned. Some of the practices of estate agents have shocked even a cynic like me. Particularly upsetting was the house just round the corner from Danny Thompson. A large Georgian property on 3 floors, with a nice garden, big garage for the studio, a stream with a bridge leading you to a further 1/2 an acre. It rather reminded me of Robert’s house with it's town and country division.
I won't bore you with the details but the estate agents 'conflict of interest' was infuriating and I'm sure we were played for a patsy.

Glee Club reviews arrive from over the world, which is flattering and validating. In the UK , however, I have employed a PR company to attempt to achieve some visibility. I can't even get slagged off, however. Some publications have expressed interest and followed this with a query about my intentions to advertise in their publications.
Meanwhile 3 magazines and 2 national papers in Italy have run both positive reviews and features/interviews. No PR company involved. Indeed I'm pretty sure I didn't even send out review copies. Ultimately I made this record for me and not for praise from music publications or anyone else. The dream, however, that some attention may result in sufficient sales to repeat the exercise or generate enough income for this to be my main working concern, remains.

Talking of Music publications I am thrilled to hear that my good pal Gavin Harrison has been recognized in the 'Modern Drummer' poll results. Coming first in a best Prog category. I've known Gavin and worked with him for over 20 years. Whilst I realize that polls are a popularity contest and not necessarily indicative of talent, I have to say that this is an exception. Gavin is, quite frankly, the most extraordinary musician that It has been my pleasure to work with in my professional life. And I've known a few.

Meanwhile my great pal and sometimes manager PC had a life saving kidney transplant. This has been on the cards and planned for some time. The tissue matching has been very detailed. A former neighbour had donated one of hers. What and extraordinary gift.
The operation was on a Wednesday. By Sunday he was watching Arsenal at the Emirates stadium. Unbelievable, I saw him the following week and he looked brilliant. It's hard to imagine that he had major surgery just a week before.

A few weeks later I hear that Tim Hook, who not only worked as tour manager for Level 42 in '94 but also for King Crimson for many years, had crashed whilst para-gliding. Indeed we discussed this dangerous pastime at Christmas at PC's festive lunch. Tim hit the ground with such ferocity that he has shattered his pelvis.
According to PC he can't wait to get better and go back up. His wife's isn't so keen.

The house buying saga also came to a crashing climax after we viewed a property that we had been avoiding. On sale for at least a year we had tracked it through 4 estate agents. We hadn't bothered seeing it as the house looked kind of ugly. Indeed it had become a running joke between Amanda and myself. Trouble is we had seen everything else so we went and saw it anyway. Set in a lovely spot the 2 acre plot itself was stunning. We could change the house, but not it's location. We went away feeling very up. We even popped into the local school which was very impressive. There was one place left. When we arrived home we offered the asking price. At last, we thought, nearly 6 months later we had found our home.
Except we hadn't. When we eventually spoke to the estate agent he told us that they had spoken to the vendor with such force that they were expecting a serious complaint from head office. Apparently, after a year and 4 estate agents and no interest, the afternoon of our viewing a 'friend of a neighbour' had popped round and offered £40,000 more than we had! As a courtesy to us, would we like to match that figure. This struck us, and the agent, as rather unlikely. We were back to square one. Worse - our buyers had withdrawn. Who can blame them, they'd hung on for so long.

There have been a number of comments, queries and e-mails about the future of the Schizoid band. To answer those, here’s my take on it all.

Firstly I guess, never say never.

I wrote a letter of resignation from the band sometime before Ian’s illness, but it was decided not to go public with it. Just in case something came up to make it seem possible again.
Following Ian's death however, I'm not sure I can see a way that I would want to do it again. Ian's enthusiasm and the drive that he brought to the band are audibly evident on the 'Live In New York' CD. The group sound confident, inventive and full of fun. Whilst it would no doubt be possible to employ another drummer it just wouldn't be, or feel, the same. Also recruiting a new drummer would dilute the concept further. It's bad enough that I was in the band. As a former member so kindly (though no doubt accurately) informed me, late one evening in a Japanese hotel room "NO ONE is paying good money to come and watch YOU play".

Another non Crimson member would therefore, on a purely practical level, make it a less saleable proposition. No one seems sure where Andy McCulloch is, let alone if he is still playing or interested. Though I haven't mentioned it when we have spoken, I can't imagine Bill Bruford having any interest in it either. The only time that we nearly did play with another drummer was back in 2004. Ian had taken a job in LA playing in the pit for Pat Leonards musical and we had already committed to headlining a festival in Florence. We found out late and tried desperately to find a replacement as the band were very keen to play this show. In the end Guy Evans, from Van Der Graff, agreed to do it. I'll never forget what he said to me at his flat near Primrose Hill. 'Yeah, I'd love to do it. I've never played Prog rock before'

Anyway by the time we had confirmed the replacement, the promoters had cancelled our appearance.
There have also been comments regarding a posting of Ian's on his diary about the US tour and how this had been the final straw. It would appear that some people find this hard to believe. Well, at the risk of boring you, here's the reality.
Initially a few agents were keen to represent us in the US. They felt that promoters would jump at the idea. Steve Ozark, the hard working agent that took us on, found that the reality was that promoters were not convinced that there was the same degree of interest that we had found in Japan, Russia, Italy etc. In the end all Steve could do was obtain a week or so of shows. The guarantee's were low (the amount of money paid regardless of turnout) but we figured that we would pack venues and break percentage and impress other promoters and book more shows for later in the year. We managed to play a large show in Mexico City which really helped finance the rest of the US shows and made them possible.
The costs and the poor value of the dollar made this a real 'skin of the teeth' venture.
Here's a cost that I'm sure most people would be unaware of. In order to play in the US, you have to have a work visa. These cost £1000 per member. So with 3 UK based band members and 2 crew, things mount up pretty damn quickly. The process is also dull and lengthy. You have to book an appointment with the US embassy in London. This can take months and often it gets perilously close to the leaving date. No visa and it's all off. This can be speeded up for an extra £200. You have to be there and line up from 7:00 am and wait. Car parks are very costly indeed for this part of town and the congestion charge is £8 each. So before we have even arrive in the US, what with flights, transport and work days pay for the crew, were heading towards costs of £10,000. That’s before we've secured accommodation for all once we're out there, rehearsal facilities, equipment hire, van hire and internal flights for everyone.
Once there we didn't break the percentage. Mexico was fantastic. We had great enthusiastic crowds in the US, but apart from one or two venues, we didn't come close to selling out. At the show in Boston we were watched by about 20 people. The promoters had proved their point. To the many kind and well meaning Americans who have implored us to play in the US, this is why it hasn't happened since. It cost me a few grand to play those shows. Whilst I don't regret this and the experience of playing this wonderful music with players that created it in the first place, it's a costly hobby that I just cannot afford to repeat too often.
Incidentally a close pal’s band who tour the world regularly take an American player with them. He, apparently, just has to turn up at a local consul, fill in a form and pay $70 to work in the UK and Europe. It's that old special relationship of ours.

In the end The Schizzies is not my band. It belongs to it's members as long as they are part of it. If the others decide to continue, that’s great. It's not my place to dictate one way or the other. I guess my main role always was as facilitator. To organize stuff, to make it happen and fund the thing. Maybe without that, it makes it unlikely. That appears to be the case so far.

About a month ago I was contacted by Andy Tillison, who has a band called 'The Tangent'. He had approached me with view to being involved with the band back in the winter of 2004. Indeed I met him in the West End on December 20th that year. It's not a day I will forget. Amanda was very pregnant with Amber and 5 weeks away from the due date. Indeed when I went home she wasn't feeling any better. She began to feel faint at around 5 o'clock and lay down. When she tried to get up she fell down again. I spoke to the hospital who suggested bringing her in. She collapsed and started bleeding. An ambulance was called and young Django, who should have been in bed, joined me driving in the wake of the ambulances speed to Queen Charlotte’s Hospital. Danny Thompson, who called to make sure I didn't miss the Keith Jarret documentary, told me to get off the phone when he realized what had happened and he drove straight round to look after Django. It's a moments like this that you know who your friends are, being without support or family to help out. By the time I took the boy home to be put to bed by uncle Danny and aunty Sylvia, the hospital had left a message on my mobile asking me to get to back as soon as possible. When I arrived Amanda had been taken into surgery and Amber was delivered some 5 weeks early. We found out afterwards that both mother and child were in danger as Amanda had a placental abruption. Which can leave the mother with dangerously low blood supply and pressure and the baby with no life support system.
Not sure Andy is pleased with this memory being so closely associated with him.

Anyway he wanted to know if I would be interested in playing guitar and possibly singing a couple of tunes on the new Tangent album.
I said that we should give it a go on a tune or 2 and see how we felt about it. I have just finished 2 tunes and am about to embark on the rest. I'm enjoying it and putting on more guitar than I probably would on my own records.

Left a message for the great Nick Harper as I have just seen a fantastic review of his new record in the current edition of MOJO. It made me smile that Nick just might be getting some much deserved recognition. If you see him playing near you, you have to go, he's amazing. Nick called back for a chat and asked if I'd be interested in joining him on stage for a few numbers when he plays a show at the Half Moon in Putney come the Autumn. I'd be both honoured and flattered to do so.

I have also been up to my eyes in TV commercials. Which is a mixed blessing believe me. I have had a number of mails asking me if any of the adverts might be things that are recognizable. Well yes, if you live in the UK or Ireland. Maybe you've been to the Motorola museum thing in Chicago? You'll have heard some of my music.
For the rest here's something that I did. It has a certain notoriety, this ad, and has appeared on numerous TV shows like 'Tarrant on TV' for obvious reasons. And no it's not because it's one of the only adverts in the past 30 years to feature a Mellotron in it's sound track.




Thank you for reading.

More soon

No really.