DGM HQ Local accents of
09.39
DGM HQ.
Local accents of the butcherly kind came through the wall at 08.49
A bright, sunny day.
David…
… and Big Ben…
… and dear old Mr. Stormy…
… begin their office days in the crumbling, dirty kitchen that provides the arena for world-diverting & re-directing discussions that characterise all DGM conversations; serving to drive the venality that is DGM.
Major arisings in DGM life & activity are underway, and are continuing.
In the e-box, from Martin Smith, man of Mellotronics
Streetly Electronics - All Things Mellotronic Good to talk with you after so long and John and I will look into the KC ’trons over the next few weeks and get back to you.
The news that you requested is that M4000 cycling mellotrons, our new instrument have been used to create two major movie soundtracks. The first is Richard Gere’s latest called Brooklyn’s Finest due out in June I think. The score is by Antonio Pinto who ordered an M4000 specifically for the task of creating an atmospheric backdrop. The second movie is the latest from Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame. It’s entitled The Box and is a horror movie with Win Butler of Arcade Fire composing the soundtrack. Win thought a mellotron would be the very thing and so he used AF’s M4000 for the task. The Box is due out in November… We’ll talk soon over some cake!
Martin is continuing to warehouse 5 of my mellotrons, 4 from KC active duty & one that used to belong to
David Byron of Uriah Heep. Of the four KC mellotrons, one is the early double-manual & three are the single-manuals that KC used in the studio & on the road 1972-74. The black-painted single-manual is the mellotron used on Red. This is part of the ongoing organising & ordering of my affairs In the fullness of time, the mellotrons will be sold.
Adventures of the day ahead will begin in Westbourne Arcade.
19.57 Arriving Westbourne c. 12.10, and into the Arcade I…
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… to Don Strike’s…
This is where in 1959-60 St. Edith of the Valleys brought her 13 & 14 year old son for guitar lessons from Don Strike. Around the corner, at Minns’ Music, she bought her son’s first guitar on December 24th. 1957 as his Christmas present.
Today, I am meeting Tony Arnold, founder of Arny’s Shack, for coffee & a catch-up on many years of common adventurising; and collecting a Fender Champ from Bev Strike, Don’s son…
Tony (l) has sold the Champ back to me, the amp I used for the aching guitar solo on Fripp & Eno’s Evening Star (it ached so much the speaker blew).
Behind Bev…
… is the door to the room where Don gave guitar lessons I…
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I have many memories, continuing to resonate, from visiting this room over a period of two years.
A very interesting & informative coffee time with Tony a few doors along the arcade. Tony & Nat now live in France, but Tony visits England from time to time. We agreed to re-coffee on his next returning.
Then, via an unplanned bibliophiliacal tumescence in the Westbourne Bookshop & a reflective vegetarian lunch (The Speaker, The Speech, The Speaking), onto Don Hardyman in Richmond Park. Don was the (superb) pianist in the Majestic Hotel Dance Orchestra, of which I was the guitarist for 3 years (following Andy Summers in the guitar chair). Don continues to play, but his present work is primarily as a homeopath.
Then, a visit to Barbara Licinio, Tino Licinio’s widow, carrying cakes of the tasty kind. We were last together at
Tino’s funeral. A day, then, revisiting many of the events of my life between 1959-1992 and its ongoing reverberations.
At DGM HQ, David is in good form with future-arisings increasingly arriving. Among his work today, David has been dealing with Schizoid Man for the new version of the Guitar Hero game.
20.24 David has left. The street I…
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Computing ahead.
00.55 The floor is beckoning.
