12.44
Bredonborough.
A long day ahead & a busy day already.
School Aid has attracted some national & local coverage, with headlines that are what one expects from headlines, and particularly local headlines: somewhat brash & only illustrative of the truth in a wide, sweeping & discursive fashion; that is, inaccurate. National headlines are rarely accurate, although with a sense that a modicum of intelligence must be somewhere at work, even if this is not an intelligence directed towards impartially serving the truth; and local headlines lack that intelligence.
John & Alex are wandering the streets of Bredonborough, coming here at 13.00 for a cup of tea before we leave to Manchester.
17.55 Manchester UNI Smoking Department.
Is There a Problem?…
Dressing Room…
It Will Seem More Appealing Later…
John & Alex arrived at lunchtime bearing tasty cream cakes from the Bredonborough Patisserie, and chose to drink coffee. Driving here: listening to last night at Shepherds Bush & last Saturday in Newlyn. The final 20 minutes of Newlyn (prior to the Shallal performance) is remarkable.
A two-hour journey to Manchester, a one hour drive around Manchester city centre, revisiting the same series of landmarks in a demonstration of the Principle of Gradual Approximation, and then arrival. Waiting: an earnest male forthysomething radical fetisher with vinyl cover. He was not privy to a closely held secret, known only to the Heartless Rager’s very closest & intimate circle: Heartless does not sign stuff (despite his Sister’s advocacy of such).
Through the entrance doors to an atmosphere loaded with smoke, inescapable choking sickening smoke. Everywhere. How might a non-smoking student handle this? Down the road to a café-bar for a cappuccino and, once again, the same smoke-drenched air as at the UNI.
Meanwhile, Devil Bug is in retreat. Although temporarily winning the battle, Mr. Bug is no match for a Dorset Immune System, which is king.
20.56 The character of much of this evening’s music: yearning.
On the surface, this is an unlikely performance place for Soundscapes. An open room with standing-only & no distractions for the audience, such as a bar. The hall was full, with little movement. In the front row on the crash barrier, stage right, two teenage girls who talked loudly throughout: an unlikely asset for the performer. And yet they provided a background, sometimes foreground, noise; noise through-&-past which music had to travel. That, one or two wrinkles in the SV I.2 & witless procedures of the SV operator, made playing interesting.
And I loved playing this evening: there was a waiting space in the middle of it all, an open, available moment of extended time: welcoming, accepting, supporting.
Now, off to modest accommodations near Carlisle.
"We pay our own tab."
