Paris#1 – A Study of the Eiffel Tower

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When I was working on my debut album, All Monsters and Dust, I took a break from the grind and ventured to Africa.  I took a lot of photographs (one of which became the cover of the album), and drew a huge amount of inspiration.  That album was, all in all, a hard slog… many years in the making.  It’s funny how the African adventure set off a new energy in me.  A new vigor.   The sights, the sounds, the smells.  I enjoy photography.  I feel sight and sound are intrinsically linked.  Africa set me on course for the completion of All Monsters and Dust, and the creation of the Eleventh Hour Initiative project with Bill Ryan.  From a decade of procrastination to a year of frenzied writing and recording.  I am proud of the resulting albums.

Then I had a rest and wrote the second COTWS album, the Galton Detail.  An introspective, quiet piece.

Now… I am ready for business again.  I have travelled to Paris to get some fresh scope and zest… and it is indeed an inspiring city.  In the build up to my latest song I would like to post a series of impressions of Paris.  Believe me, it will all make sense when you hear the song!  So… to kick things off, I present my photographs of the Eiffel Tower.

I’ve got to say… the tower is still a striking feature on the landscape.  Decades of over-saturation have not diminished its presence and even though it is one of the most famous ‘sights’ in the world it still manages to surprise and impress.  For a glorified piece of scaffold it ain’t half beautiful!

Have You Ever Noticed?

Posted on Posted in review, television, theatreTagged , , , , 1 Comment

I love comedy.  I’ve never hidden the fact that comedy is extremely important to me.  I believe a laugh is good for the soul.  And I’ve also made it quite clear that I believe comedy and music are intrinsically linked.  Rhythms and repetition.  Whether it be Hancock or The Office, good comedy is timed to perfection and is difficult to make look easy.  In fact I’d go so far as to say that great comedy is an art, and should be considered just as worthy of praise as Sgt Pepper or OK Computer.  A comedy series I hold aloft as one of the greats is Seinfeld.  Bar the final episode, I often use Seinfeld as an example of a near perfect comedy.  You’ll hear ‘experts’ telling you that it didn’t really warm up until season 4.  Well, I’ll have none of it.  Some of the finest episodes were very early on, and in my opinion, they were necessary to enable the show to progress.  For the show to be labelled the ‘show about nothing’ it at least had to have once been the ‘show about nothing’.  Parking in a multi-story car park.  Waiting for a seat at a restaurant. Classic episodes.  I could watch Seinfeld on a never ending loop – indeed at times I feel like I have!  It’s that good.  Yet… very few people in the UK have even heard of it.  Such a shame.

So… it was with great delight that I went to see Jerry Seinfeld’s stand up show at Manchester Arena.  To see the legend himself in action – excited was an understatement.  He has stated that this gig will be his last ‘arena gig’.  Hmmm… maybe… maybe not.  Seinfeld certainly doesn’t need the money.  He’s one of, if not the, richest comedian in the world.  He’s got to be up there… with Larry David.  Seinfeld and David… one of the greatest comedy writing teams ever!  It’s weird… when I watch Seinfeld (the TV show) I usually ascribe the best jokes to Larry David.  I assume he must have written them.  Perhaps it’s because ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm‘ has continued in the same vein without Jerry Seinfeld’s participation.  Whatever… it’s easy to dismiss Jerry Seinfeld in his own show.  When you’ve got characters of the calibre of George and Kramer and a writer like Larry David along for the ride it’s possible to wonder what Jerry Seinfeld himself actually did?  It was with all these thoughts that I settled down to watch Seinfeld in action.   No bass slapping music for the entrance…

Seinfeld is a class act.  The majority of the material seemed fresh – at least, it’s not on any DVDs that I own.  Seinfeld is now doing this for fun and he says he’s riffing on topics that he really wants to talk about.  So marriage gets a fair bash.  Lots of genuinely funny moments.  Relationships in general get a good outing.  Seinfeld is obviously at ease with this whole thing.  He’s been a stand up since the beginning of time.  He comes across as a little more hectic than the Seinfeld from the TV show… but he still seems like a friend, (or as he says to the crowd “I’m your little, strange TV friend”).  Funnily enough, the TV show does not get a single mention.  Not one word.  Nor does Larry David or any of his previous colleagues.  This is just a straight stand up show.  Very similar to the skits at the beginning of most of the Seinfeld episodes… but a little quicker, and a little more ‘shouty’.  Some good punch lines and some moments that receive applause.  But all in all I think people were just happy to be watching their idol. I can only guess at everyone else’s motivation for being there… but I would hope the Seinfeld show was higher up the list of reasons than, say, Bee Movie.

Jerry Seinfeld could have been in the Rat Pack.  He has that ‘ease’ about him.  Like he’s swinging through the moves… riffing on comedy like Sinatra would riff on a melody.  And no swearing.  This was basically a PG gig.  Smooth. Yes I think smooth is the word.  The typical subjects get an outing… mobile phones, energy drinks, things that suck and yet are also great.  But, as I said before, he seems to get a kick out of the ‘relationship issue’ gags.  One thing that dawned on me during the night was how much Seinfeld likely contributed to that great sitcom.  A lot of  ‘issues’ that I would have assigned to Larry are, on the evidence of tonight, likely to have originated from Jerry.  This just makes me hold him in even higher regard.

A few negatives…  He can occasionally come across as an old hand going through the motions.  There’s no real sense of danger.  There’s a slightly jaded sheen to the guy.  Perhaps this is ‘Jerry in the UK’.  ‘Jerry get on a plane to another country and switch on the joke-telling-auto-pilot-system’.  And a shame he had to end on a ‘toilet gag’ already referenced in old episodes of Seinfeld and Curb. Most damning of all though… he was only on for about an hour.  That is pretty inexcusable given the price of the tickets.  But… hey… I think we can probably make allowances for one of the all time kings of comedy.  Well… I certainly can.  I’ve seen one of my heroes!!!  And my face hurt from laughing!

Here’s a song written in the midst of my Seinfeld marathons! It’s called ’50s Teen Flick.

More raw meat please waiter.

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I’ve fallen over at the front of my house and bashed my shin in.  Highly embarrassing… therefore I will hide indoors until the neighbours forget who I am!  Hmmm… topic for discussion?  Well… I think I’ve only ever had one true out of body experience.  It was an eternity ago but I thought I’d reminisce.

I was playing a gig at a local pub.  This was back when we had bars in my city that had stages and actually allowed live music – a definite dying art in these days of gastro pubs.  I was in a band that had built a kind of local following… although we were also a band that had literally played to one man and his dog.  (That was a peculiar gig… in hindsight it might have been more productive to have simply chucked a raw steak onto the dancefloor and have been done with it.  Oh… the exuberance of youth!).

We had played a series of gigs and were feeling a little cocksure of ourselves.  So much so that we hired a lighting rig for this particular night.  So, here we were, professional sound, professional lights, …(incompetent musicians)… and we played… to a handful of people.  And this was when I had my out of body experience.  I remember it to this day.  We were playing the songs… and I started to hear them as if I wasn’t in the band.  As if I was in the audience.  I didn’t have to think of the words.  I didn’t have to play the guitar or sing.  I didn’t have to do anything.  I just stood back and listened.  I could hear the band as I’d never heard them before.  And we sounded awesome.  The whole experience was genuinely like listening to a CD.  The audio was crystal clear…. the lighting was like a dream.  I could finally hear my own band like I had never before imagined.  The sound enveloped me and became a singular nerve impulse in my brain.  My ears were filled with my own sound.  Crystal clear.  Totally in tune.  Pure sparkling song.  This whole episode only lasted a moment… and then I was snapped back into my body.  That’s the only time it has ever happened.  I’d pay to recapture that moment… but it’s gone… like tears in rain.

I’ve had plenty of the opposite experience.  The moment you realise you’re standing on stage singing in a band.  The awakening of awareness that you’re playing in real time in the here and now.  That the words people are hearing are coming from your mouth… now.  Not in the past or in the future… but now.  And that if you were to forget the words it would be a disaster.  Oh yes… I’ve had that experience.  Interestingly, never in the ‘exuberance of youth’ – era.  Oh no, this kind of situation only arises when you’re past all that.  When you’re feeling like an old hand.  An invincible beast!  You’re playing a song you’ve written.  You’re playing a song you’ve sung a thousand times.  You’re playing a song which you couldn’t possibly forget the… the… er… words?  Hmmm.  You sing… and you start to think about what the next line is before you’ve sung the current line.  You’re a line ahead of the audience in your mind and the here and now is becoming a blur.  Ha ha!  And these moments only happen in packed clubs!

So, I had my experience of hearing my band as an audience member.  No effort on my part.  My hands floating over the guitar fretboard and the person on stage who looks like me singing the words without me having to flex any muscle memory.  A beautiful moment.  A moment I never again recaptured.  I don’t think I told anyone about it at the time. I don’t even know if this is a common experience among musicians?

We lost money that night.  The lighting rig cost a hundred times the ticket sales.  Still… there wasn’t a canine in attendance so there’s always a positive.

Open Vs Closed

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Beautiful weather today.  Strange how I live in a country where April is declared the wettest on record and yet we are in a drought.  Hmmmm.  Something not right there.

I have been working on my websites… giving them a bit of a tidy up.  If you take a glance at the top menu you’ll see TEHI.  Just a reminder that this is a link to the Eleventh Hour Initiative (TEHI) site.  TEHI is a band I formed with Bill Ryan from the US of A.  In my re-jigging of that site I had cause to listen to our album, Escapism, with fresh ears.  My verdict is that it is an immense album.  We created an intelligent, yet populist album full of potential hits.    I am proud all over again with the project.

I enjoy the duality of Confession of the Whole School (COTWS) and the Eleventh Hour Initiative (TEHI).  I feel like I can create the hits and yet still have an outlet for my more esoteric product.  This site, and indeed COTWS itself, was created as a kind of protest to the typical website, and often, the typical band.  I want to share my thoughts… be completely open.  There is no place to hide here!  When it comes to TEHI I have pulled back slightly.  TEHI is a solid band project.  There is not the same need for being so straight with you.  TEHI is the result of a hive mind – in a way impenetrable.  And perhaps necessarily so…

Anyway, as we’re discussing openness, I would like to remind you of a recent COTWS song…  Sweetheart it’s me.  Quote:

 “I haven’t heard a total loss of self respect like this since Jacques Brel’s ‘ne me quitte pas’. ” – John Hollingum.

Having listened to the song in question… all I can say is that this short review may be the greatest musical compliment I have yet received.

 

Don’t stay in the water for too long!

Posted on Posted in Dorian Gray, song discussionLeave a comment

Good evening my friends.  Long time no type.  I have been beavering away on a new song… a song that is currently sounding fantastic even though it is far from finished.  This is a kind of polar opposite to the previous song – Rust – in that this one is taking some time.  Or rather I’m taking time on it.  Short doses… here and there… periods of time that when combined will probably add up to no more than a standard song.  But I’m dipping in and out… in a similar manner to the way in which I wrote an old track called Dorian Gray.  That particular song took many years of toes in the water to complete.  This one will be much (much!) quicker to get the hell out of that bath tub… but it has definite echoes of Mr Gray.  I’m hoping the painting hidden in my house will still give me the Devil’s luck as that original song, Dorian Gray, has turned out to be my most popular song.  Unexpectedly so.  But I do enjoy a tale of the unexpected.