Wednesday rd November Royal Albert
Wednesday 23rd. November, 2005;
Royal Albert Hall, London.
Blondie rules! The floor area was without seating, an excellent move,
and both standing & seated Blondie fans were treated to a
superlative show. I went to have a good time (very un-English, that)
and had a great time. The house looked to be capacity, and completely
behind the band. Debbie was stunning, Chris’ guitar playing the best
it’s ever been, Clem’s stick-twirling astonishing, the band ideal. The
‘bus to the Blondie party leaves at 23.00 for Camden Town but the floor
of DGM HQ is calling.
11.03
DGM HQ.
Tuneless whistling of the Village Shop kind wafted through the office
wall at 08.55: our landlord’s whistling even carries a Broad Chalke
accent. The DGM boiler failed to ignite and, with current temperatures
in the UK of the un-warm kind, our landlord kindly came in & threw
the secret & hidden switch that enables our central heating to
function.
Hugh was asleep upstairs when I arrived around
01.15, a box of archive materials by the office door with several Chris
Stein original photos of RF with Debbie Harry at the screen test for
Alphaville. Synchronicity or what?
At DGM, the stats have come in for the first (unannounced) day of
www.dgmlive.com
- 1,500 visitors visited 95,000 pages & spent $1,000 on downloads.
On the second day, 3,500 visitors spent $1,500. Current hit is
KC Live in Asbury Park…
We are dealing with the many fine-tunings involved, and considering
various arising comments, questions & enquiries. Essentially,
David’s vision for BootlegTV (1999-2000) has been translated into
dgmlive. Our new site has been created independently, with no VC in
sight or sound (our experience of 1999-2000 suggests VC = Major Record
Label cubed), and the work of committed individuals whose passion
exceeds their interest in market-share (obviously with the sole
exception of the RHVL); primarily Eric Anderson on the technical side,
the Sidney Smith & Hugh O’Donnell on data-entry, Alex Mundy archive
recordings for download, David Singleton for brain-power & vision.
Dgmlive is primarily the site for archive & ongoing King Crimson
projects & material; with secondary responsibility for RF &
Vicar activities (more on both of those very soon).
About to go onsite very soon is School Aid. This has been focusing much
of DGM’s energies (and the Vicar & David Singleton & Alex &
150 voices of local schoolchildren & various local musicians &
a guitarist who used to live in the village) during the past few months
and, as with the new DGM site, until the power is switched on none of
this is visible and/or audible. So, if anyone might have thought that
DGM was quiescent, semi-retired, in terminal decline, about-to-be
having-been-gone; or that its Heartless Leader’s brutal quest to open
the wage-packets of innocent audients diminished; well, clearly not.
19.03
This afternoon: a drive to Ben Crowe’s Crimson Guitars guitar workshop
at Tincleton near Dorchester, some 3 miles from Thomas Hardy’s cottage.
Ben is working on several guitars for me at the moment, including this
Tokai Les Paul copy…
Tokai, the Japanese guitar manufacturer, were best known for their
Strat copies. The UK-importer gave me this beast in 1984 and Ben is
Buzz Feitineising & re-fretting it for the upcoming Soundscapes UK
tour (opening for Porcupine Tree once again).
Ben & I are also working on a design for a line of official Happy
Gigster Guitar Cases & Ben is building an initial test run of 3
HPGCs for Les Pauls models, 2 for Strats, and perhaps a model for the
new line of Guitar Craft acoustics. The aim: a hard-working case that
is light, sturdy & easily transportable. My current flight cases
are hard-working, sturdy, heavy, very expensive to fly & a pain to
carry.
Then to the Dorchester warehouse to find a lock jemmied off, and the
door slightly ajar. No further intrusion beyond the threshold: there
are unpleasant surprises waiting there for anyone in this line of work.
Returning to DGM, on the Blandford>Salisbury road & shortly
before the Broad Chalke turn-off (on the edge of Cranborne Chase) a
deer leapt out of cover by the side of the road & under my left
front wheel. El Crumpo! So sudden, I didn’t even see the poor creature
coming.
In DGM SoundWorld I the Vicar was mixing the School Aid track, with
Broad Chalke school choir, and invited my comments. Which were given,
with some hands-on tweaking.
Now, home.
Bredonborough.
A second conversation of the evening with Bill Rieflin, back from gigs
in Spain, jet-lagged & recovering from having family Thanksgiving
at Chez Rieflin. Bill will be making available some Slow Music: Live At
The Crocodile Club for DGM download, most likely before Christmas.
