27 September 2012
Now you might think that this bathroom malarky is all a bit weird but I actually got quite a high off the fact that after all these years I finally have sunlight in what was a dank, damp, dark cave.
It used to be the old amp room in the days of the Funny Farm studios and when I moved in here in 2001 after selling my house next door it was a matter of needs must and even back then I had a few months using the outside toilet in the garden until the basic model came to be.Bog standard is the phrase best describing the original needs must fittings apart from the bath that was put in later as I had an electric shower in my bedroom, the old studio lounge, which resembles an upright coffin for a large dwarf with a water output more akin to a Bedouin encampment.The bath was installed a year after I moved in and is a tub enough to float a Polaris submarine, as you’d expect! A shower head that drops a warm deluge now has a flash glass screen rather than a mangy sad nylon curtain.I can now lie in the bath with an open window and listen to the Peter Pan fountain outside splashing away merrily as I soak.
Baths and listening to the radio while juggling lyrical ideas go together well so this latest recapturing of domestic space from the old heydays does actually have a part to play after the previous post. I still have old habits. 🙂
It’s another reclamation of space in the sequence of converting the studio into a real home and again I had to thunder along with the band arriving on Monday to begin rehearsing the new songs we have written and the older material for the convention in 3 weeks.
Yatta is up this weekend to go through the itinerary for Leamington and to work out the technical aspects of the convention as well as plan the new restructured battle plans for next year. It’s going to be a hectic time again no matter how much I try and filter the stress.
I have to pick up my girlfriend from the airport before Foss and Frank are here for rehearsals tomorrow afternoon. That is after a morning spent getting electric shocks as I am having my nerves tested to evaluate whether I have carpel tunnel syndrome or not. I already know the answer to be honest and the album delay means I can deal with a problem that is causing me sleepless nights due to the discomfort of having dead hands and painful neck and shoulder problems.
Hopefully this will mean the extreme cramps I get when holding a microphone will be a thing of the past and will also point to a remedy for my sciatica! Getting old is shite! 🙂
I hobbled up the stairs to Tara’s new flat in Glasgow last night delivering boxes removed from shelves in the garage that make way for my onions and garlic for the winter.
More than happy to see the handbag collection disappear although the cuddly toys remain in situ. I couldn’t embarrass my daughter with those.
It was great to see Taz’s flat and TBH I was a little jealous as it’s a place I wish I had had at her age.
With a Vietnamese restaurant, The Hanoi Bike Shop that has just opened literally on her doorstep serving fantastic Pho, a classic ice cream shop a few doors away with Indian restaurants, cocktail bars and some really zippy zappy happening places in the locale it’s a dream neighbourhood! The flat is so cool and I was smiling inside that she has now found a place to make a new nest.
A fabulous meal at the Bike shop, including Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk lighting me up for the drive back east, and another catch up with a daughter brimming with ideas and positivism I felt good about being a father and was really proud of her achievements so far and the directions she has chosen to take. She has matured so much in recent weeks and the move West has proven to be a big door into a wider world than she ever knew here on the farm.
The front cover of the wedding magazine she just made reminded me of just how much. Maybe I kept the cuddly toys as a reminder for myself of fleeting time.
Today was polishing the credits for the Fishheads Club DVD which will be available at the convention and for advance order in the next couple of weeks. It seems to have taken an eon to get this together. Details of this and other news will be spread in another post.
More serious phone calls on other outstanding subject matters filled the day as results come in from other areas of the war front. You will not believe what is going on behind the timeline that is seeping energies and head space and for the moment has to remain unspoken.
My letter to the editor of the East Lothian Courier was published today in response to a politely veiled attack made on me last week in the same paper regarding the validity of the benefit gig.
The typical wee town vocal minority got a little too loud and deserved a riposte. It hit the mark and provided us with some sweet publicity leading up to tomorrow night’s gig at the church.
Calum Malcolm is recording the show and this will give me material stretching from the first gig at St Mary’s in 2010 through the North Berwick gig in 2011 to the present day which if all goes according to plan will be released later this year as “The Lamp of Lothian Sessions”.
As always with these gigs we have to compromise due to the venue so we have to take a break between 3.30 and 4 as there is a wedding rehearsal which means we have to keep the dais and aisles clear of equipment for the soon to be betrothed. I love it! 🙂
Interviews at the Tyneside mid afternoon, sound check at 4.30 for on stage at 7.30 it’ll be a gas!
We are filming the gig for the fishheadsclub.com web site to go with the Plovdiv material that Dave Barras took away today after delivering me the 4 tracks from the May electrics. It’s all going up on the dedicated YouTube channel only accessible through the new website which John Reid and I have decided will go live on the convention weekend.
So much happening on all fronts and all interacting in a positive manner. I do admit to feeling relieved at the release from the November schedule and I am glad you understand the reasoning and logic behind it all.
Someone said I should write a lyric about it all!
“She came in through the bathroom window!”
It’s been done I think :-))
Maybe a bath before bed?
“Here comes the flood”