Robert Fripp's Diary

Nottingham Concert Hall I drove

Nottingham Concert Hall.

I drove T back to Bredonborough from Bournemouth, arriving around 02.00.

A drive from Bredonborough to Nottingham after a morning of ongoing hustle. The Happy Gigster's Guide offers this advice: when on tour, don't go home (a footnote mentions making an exception to have lunch with Tour Buddies). If you do go home, a mass of mundane trivia, sucking & distraction will walk up and seize you & begin to feed.

The sucking began with a close friend of ours hustling for an additional ticket to the Royal Albert Hall. They have already contacted T several times on this and, one day before the RAH, they should know better.

Then over to World HQ where builders are putting in shelves & drawers in the Music Room. When I left for Amsterdam, HQ was closed down & tidy in preparation for the builders, including the Inner Sanctum. The Sanctum houses computing, scanning, printer, online & reading functions, and is also my room for sitting. That is, the Sanctum represents what is most personal & deepest & sacred for me in HQ right now. I arrived to find it blind-up and wide open - the fitters had decided it was easier to bring all the materials through the window of the Sanctum than carry stuff up the stairs. And then they left it wide open, violate.

While the (excellent) fitters were outside smoking, the back door open and smoke blowing back into the house, I was about to escape from my (former) safe haven & get off to Nottingham - but while I was there, why not seize the associational moment & ask me questions about the details of their work?

RF: Will this help me concentrate on my touring?
Builder: What are you going to put on the shelves?

RF: Ask me the same question in two years.
Builder: What distance between the shelves? 10 inches?

We settled on 8 inches.

Back to our home & an organic life form has died somewhere under the floorboards of the changing room next to our bedroom. The aroma of advancing decomposition is spreading into the kitchen below, landing & bedroom. T was just off for her own work, and I inherited the job of dealing with the ripe game. In practice, this means I pass the job of dealing with rotting remains to others, but takes my little remaining attention from the tour.

Finally, a sitting-quietly by the back door, gathering myself before setting off to Nottingham and poster-signing. Joe's dressing-room floor & the corridor outside were covered - twice - with posters suitable for signing.

More Suitable Work For The Professional Player --

The view from the guitar stool --