10.03
DGM HQ.
A sunny day in the DGM Tractor Park…
The DGM Park is flowering…
Mayhem on a sunny day: that nasty, dirty little man, Punk Sanderson, is in the tape store filming his viddy-blog.
The capacity of the 17” Powerbook, to view GooTube clips, has collapsed since Almeira, so I am only able to visit viddy-clips on the ancilliary 12” i-Book.
Dual processing: RF & The LCG at Braga is vibrating the air on the Sonic Vibrator.
An enquiry to DGM Live Enquiry Department…
Dear Sir/People: Do the recordings the of the three concerts performed on Mr. Fripp’s ’Frippertronics’ tour from august 1979 @ Robson Square Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada still exist (sections of which were used on 2 tracks on ’Let the Power Fall’) and if so, are they in the archives and available for download / purchase? I had the great fortune to attend one evening, but would greatly appreciate being able to acquire complete recordings of all three shows.
Yes, the tapes exist. Not only that, they are housed in the tape store where Punk is ranting his viddy-blog. As to release: not sure. There are 4 months of original 1979 Frippertronics’ performances, 2 months in Europe & 2 in North America, and I have listened to only a proportion of them. These are the original ¼” 2-track masters; ie they do not have solos, nor Q&A, that were part of those performances. However, in the download pipeline is a bootleg of one of the presentations (perhaps in Boston).
Also on the morning agenda: music & the income stream. Within the DGM Live circle of advisors, Sean Fitzpatrick has sent his thoughts & a couple of links.
The quick overview of current practice is this: music is free & for the people! The call of the Maoists who came to a KC show in Milan 1973 (by smashing a glass wall & walking in) is the default position of music in the digital age. Even where there is nominal acceptance / declaration that artists are to be paid for their work, perhaps even that artists have rights, this is mostly cant & hypocrisy. In the mainstream, there is little serious provision for equity in the distribution of online income. In the (legitimate) model of i-Tunes, it breaks down to something like:
i-Tunes store: 99c
major record company: 66c
artist: 2.5-6c.
The 5c artist-rate paid to a pal of mine, at one of the four majors, received 2.5c – a 50% deduction on the standard new technology clause.
In the digital radio model, the proportion allocated to artists is derisory, if anything at all. In the spurious Russian – we have legal rights! - download model, an album is c. $1.50 & none of it reaches the artists (if KC is the example to go by). In the file-sharing model, all music is free.
One model currently being developed: recorded music is free, or mostly free, and serves as publicity for live performance; eg the band Crimea…
Album giveaway could ignite Music Revolution...
· Indie band breaks new ground on internet
· Experiment to be watched closely by record labels
Another model is music "for free" - with added advertising – as per Peter Gabriel’s new company...
Sean Fitzpatrick fulminates…
More & more of these ideas are emerging as pressure builds for the misconceived notion that music can somehow be delivered "free.."
There’s rarely a breakdown of how the artists are going to be paid under
any of these schemes as the artists is always 15th in line behind the ISP, the advertiser, the clever man who thought giving the stuff away is "good for the kids..." etc.
Asked by a disdainful fan after a performance of standards - "why don’t you do a tour just playing the sort of Free-Jazz we all know you’re capable of....?" - a famous player allegedly responded along the lines.. "sure I’ll play all the Free-Jazz you want... so long as you pay for the food for my wife & kids..."
Woodstock, famously, became a "free festival..", last I heard about it, there’s still arguments going on as to who & how the income stream from the album / film / soundtrack / logo licensing is split...
13.23 A morning computer-frenzy, on 3 Macs. Shortly, off to Bournemouth to visit Don Hardyman; then tea with Johnny W, recently returned from touring with Asia.
19.23 The drive to Bournemouth: top of the hill from the Chalke Valley, looks over Cranborne Chase…
Through Martin, Cranborne & into Edmonsham I…
II…
The earliest my Father was able to take the Fripp genealogy was to 1590, in this village. The Gilbert family researched a Fripp girl who married into the Gilberts in 1588, but I don’t have that family tree to hand.
Onto Bournemouth I…
II…
Leaving Don’s, on the way to JW’s home in a leafy suburb of Bournemouth…
… where JW provides the coffee & I provide the cakes…
Mucho conversation on past & present. John & I have been pals for 40 years, since both attending Bournemouth College (1965/66), both playing in local groups. Next tea date: when I return from Argentina with The LCG & JW from the next batch of Asia dates.
Returning to DGM HQ, through Edmonsham…
… into Cranborne I…
II...
The Red Lion House at the top left…
Into the Magic Wood, where The Lady In White was a discussion topic among the Crafties I…
II...
III...
… and out again, towards Tidpit…
Ahead: an evening at the computer.
"If a quality is present, it is clearly recognisable and may be named."
