Top of the Pops

So, in the end TOTP bowed out with a whimper rather than a bang. Where was all the stuff I remember, Shakin' Stevens falling over drunk, Status Quo, er, falling over drunk? The Jesus and Mary Chain causing chaos?

Well, at least they had that bit of Nirvana with Kurt Cobain singing about 3 octaves lower than the record. And nice of Tony Blackburn and DLT to remind us just why it was a blessed relief when the Beeb gave them the boot.

It's a sad day for those of us who grew up during that time when the charts still mattered, but I suppose the kids of today were too busy stalking people on MySpace or playing Grand Theft Auto to notice.

My god... I'm watching the documentary about it now... they just showed Legs & Co. dancing to "Pretty Vacant". Words fail me.

Activate!

Been a busy week...

First off, I've finally gotten around to sorting out a website. It's fairly basic at the moment, but it'll develop over the coming months, I hope.

On Monday I met up with Rachel, who works at the publisher where I used to work (funnily, when we got in touch it was a while before we remembered this) and who makes excellent music both under her own name and as ninki v. She plays the theremin, which makes her both a source of admiration and envy for me. Anyway, have a look/listen, 'cos it's good stuff.

Tuesday I went with my friend Seaton to an spnm gig at Cargo, which was great and made us determined to go to more of that kind of stuff. Wednesday it was off to Koko to see Low perform their excellent record "things we lost in the fire", certainly the second best Mormon rock record ever made. It did feel strange though, hearing music which seems so perfectly designed for solitary listening in the company of many strangers in a sweaty hall.

Support came from Bat for Lashes, a female trio who came over like Bjork's little sisters. We thought their material didn't quite stretch to the time they played, but we were won over by their charm anyway and will be watching out for their debut album, which I believe is out soon.

Laurence Page R.I.P.

Laurence was an ordinary person. He worked in the BBC gramophone library, some of my colleagues had known him for 17 years. I didn't know him before the cancer got into him, but you never felt this made any difference. Through all the pain, the operations and the long, slow, painful decline, he always seemed to maintain himself despite everything. The cancer ate away at his flesh, but it never touched his soul, and he was inspiring because of it, because if he could maintain his dignity and humour going through all that, what excuse do any of us have to do otherwise through our infinitely lesser woes? It's a relief for him that he's not suffering anymore, and a terrible loss to the rest of us that he's no longer here.

The paucity of promming

So, the Proms have started, and what a disappointing programme stretches out over the next couple of months like a sonic desert. Only 6 commissions? Just about the most ordinary, box-ticking first night imaginable? High time there was a change of guard, methinks, the current lot have clearly run out of ideas.

patterns diverging

RIP Syd Barrett

Always had a soft spot for Syd, that English delivery so different from all the transatlantic drawls that surrounded him. I once lived in Terrapin Road in Tooting, where Syd's sister once lived, and the inspiration for his song "Terrapin". So here's a little thing based on a musical approximation of that word. Hope you're at peace, Syd.

one year on...

It seems hardly real now... looking outside at the sun, traveling into town earlier today everything seemed as it always did. A heavier than usual police presence, a few headlines declaring that Londoners are "defying bombers" by traveling around as usual - as if we really had any choice in the matter. Of course, thinking about it, the visible presence of police on the underground as routine is something that's very different to a year ago, part of the general slide into a quasi-police state that this government has seemed so keen to push headlong towards since the bombs went off, if not before. The degree to which they have been able to insinuate unaccountable powers for themselves over our everyday existence worries me greatly, as does the ease with which they seem to be doing it. One day we'll wake up to find that typing a sentence like that is enough to get us arrested - if that's not already the case.

Anyway, as it's now a year since the idea for this came to me, I thought I'd re-post the piece I wrote last July that started it, along with an echo of it a year later. Also a couple of other recent entries.

After a year, I still seem no closer to figuring out exactly what the purpose of this blog is, so I guess all I can do is keep on keeping on.

notes on a summer day

A glorious day, good to get some time to relax after a hectic time. And catch up on a few of these:

Time slipping through fingers like sand

How things slip by, is it really so long since I put anything up here? It's a combination of preoccupation, periods of dryness/depression, I guess. I haven't abandoned this idea though, there are a lot of things I've scribbled down that haven't made it onto here, some because I just didn't get round to it, others because they seem to belong to other projects, whether because they're songs (I seem to have an itch to write songs at the moment, maybe I'm feeling the lack of writing I've done for the human voice) or because they were written for a specific impulse - I've started thinking in terms of small, easy piano pieces where each hand spans only a fifth on the keyboard, an idea I've taken from Nielsen's "piano pieces for young and old".

Anyway, here is a selection of pieces that have been written as diary entries over the past few days, days of reflection amongst the general madness that seems to envelop life at the moment.

Evil!

You Are 62% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care. Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

How Evil Are You?

I am apparently this evil. I didn't think I was that bad. On the plus side, I'm very imaginative and empathetic, according to this site:

Generous Inventor

Been a bit lazy with the diary pieces lately... here's a couple of recentish ones, one from March 24, the second I foolishly forgot to date, so let's say April 1st.

Chant

I've been reading a book about Buddhism recently. It's very interesting, although I'm unsure how far I can accept it - I'm naturally inclined to scepticism, I guess. I have been experimenting with chanting though, which does help restore calm in moments of stress, I'm finding.

Fred The Clown

Not a bit of music, but I felt like sharing this page of original art that I bought off the insanely talented and hideously undervalued Roger Langridge. I thoroughly recommend that you buy Fred The Clown, because it's brilliant.

Tail chasing

A line which starts out trying to stretch out but ends up going round in circles, which pretty much reflects what kind of day I've had.


My friend Indy has seen a preview screening of V For Vendetta, the latest attempt by Hollywood to film the work of comics genius Alan Moore. Unfortunately, it looks like they've once again completely missed the point of what the bearded wonder is on about. Still, Indy did concede that although it's terrible, it's not as bad as the excrable film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, so that's some scant comfort.

I've been practising for KSO's upcoming performance of Mahler 5, and what a bugger to play it is. I console myself with the knowledge that it's all worth it. I've been lucky to meet and speak with some wonderful musicians and composers over the years, but there's no substitute for actually playing music to make you understand how it works. I think a lot of composers suffer because they don't get enough experience like this, not simply because it's the best way to understand how (in this case) an orchestra works, but because music making is a social experience, and if you don't have first hand knowledge of that, I don't think you can ever really hope to write anything worthwhile.

Been a while... due to several factors. Laziness, of course, plus the fact that most of my compositional thoughts are currently directed towards a large piano piece, which means that I'm tending to sketch ideas towards that rather than this. Also, I've been getting the website together for my comics, which you can see here. I've also finally got a recording of the piece I wrote for Kensington Symphony Orchestra's 50th season, "The complete consort dancing together", which you can hear by clicking on the title.

Distracted, again

Although it has been due to other projects: I've finally got a site together for my comic "Big Dog".

The new piano piece I've been working off and on rumbles on, slowly but steadily taking shape in my mind.

This is a quiet, reflective little piece I've done today, with sombre thoughts in mind.

Here's another piece with the same idea as yesterday's, presenting two unequal lines which repeat. I suppose there's a correlation with Lutoslawski's "Chain" idea, on a very basic level. I might try inputting some of these into Sibelius to see how they turn out.

Idle

So, after the post-performance comedown, and the bloated christmas season, here I am trying to kick myself into gear again. The idea of this one is that the two lines are played together, and repeated, and as they're different lengths it takes a while before there's any exact repetition. Then you carry on as long as you like.

Endings and beginnings...

So, the premiere of "The complete consort dancing together" took place last night, and very fine it was too. I'd been nervous for the past few weeks about it, especially as we didn't get as much rehearsal as I would have liked, but in the end the orchestra rose to the occasion, and as far as I could tell from the middle of it all it sounded very exciting, and also very solid and confident.

I had lots of compliments paid to me afterwards, someone said it was the best piece in the concert, which was clearly untrue but a lovely thing to say all the same.

There's a review of the concert here, although they barely mention me... pah! Still, good to see KSO continuing to draw good notices.

So now I'm at that slightly empty stage where that piece is over and done with, and I must now try and motivate myself to begin work in earnest on the next one...

Remember, remember...

I went to a fireworks display on Friday, the first time I've been to a bonfire night do for a very long time. The fireworks were fun (although you're not allowed anywhere near the actual fire these days) but what was
funny was the portentious commentary telling the story of the Battle of Trafalgar accompanying them.

Endings and Beginnings

Well, after a hectic few weeks getting it all together, my new orchestral piece is finished, the parts are made up and the rehearsals have begun, and so far it's all sounding quite promising, so here's hoping the performance on 22 November is a success.

I've spent the past few days doing a bit of housekeeping, producing typeset copies of some old pieces, which I'll be sending to the British Music Information Centre for their collection, as well as updating my biography and all that kind of stuff, a process I find highly tedious and embarrassing to do, but these things are expected, I suppose.

So now I'm trying to get back into sketching mode as I try to get going again on the large scale piano piece I was working on before I had to put it aside to write the orchestral piece.