Gap Filler
As August races to a close, there are a couple of things I've missed... so I'd better record them while I remember, to read about in my senile old age when I complain about not having had a life...
First & foremost, I attended my first contemporary 50th birthday party - by which I mean someone from my own age group turning 50, not the ones I was forced to go to as a kid, filled with old, grey-haired strangers - this was for the long-time partner of a former workmate, who seems to have been aging as disgracefully as me. Certainly his demeanour & lack of grey hair would suggest that... It was another opportunity to catch up with people I knew & worked with in the late 80s-early 90s, at a music store which I'm increasingly thinking may have been the best job I ever had. If it wasn't for the bloody awful wages retail workers get, in another life I could still be there...
The night wasn't all reminiscence though. It was great & sometimes surprising to see & hear where everyone is now - by & large in good, stable places with careers & achievements they're proud & pleased with. I may even be a little jealous... I also reconnected with the owners of another music store I worked at in 1999, which I'd thought hadn't ended well, but they certainly seemed pleased to see me &, as the night went on & more alcohol was consumed, they were still pleased to see me, so maybe my memory played me false? The trick now is to try & fit these wonderful elements of my past into a very crowded present & future. Everybody always says at these things that "We should catch up more often" & we all sincerely mean it, I'm sure, but unless you've spent the years between then & now in a friendless, listless vacuum, it takes an effort of will & diary organisation to bring these old, new friends into your fold. I'd certainly like to try... & intend to start by organising a few, small, dinners & drinks with one or two of them at a time. That way, L-SP can meet them properly as well & not feel dumped & drowned by a huge wave of nostalgia that excludes her
Speaking of contemporary nostalgia(??) I've also been doing some new music with the guy I formed my first band with, back in 1984. We released music on cassettes which we'd design covers for, then sell them in inner-city music shops, until the late 80s, when a couple of small music labels came calling. We ended up having albums on cassette, CD & vinyl released in the USA & Europe, but completely failed to set the music world alight, despite the occasional favourable review (not that other reviews were damning, just that we were rarely reviewed at all!!). Anyway, there has been renewed interest in our older output coming from Europe, where our style of ambient/industrial/experimental music has always found a home, so we've been contacted by labels over there who are not only interested in raiding our archive, but also in anything new we might be doing... so we thought we'd better do something! Sessions have gone well & it seems the only thing that's changed since our last activity in 1993 is the technology - though it was somewhat comforting to see the old Korg MS20 still taking pride of place in my cohort's setup - certainly the personal dynamic between us is alive & well. Look out for a new album from Pelican Daughters sometime soon... & I'd say you'll really have to look for it...
First & foremost, I attended my first contemporary 50th birthday party - by which I mean someone from my own age group turning 50, not the ones I was forced to go to as a kid, filled with old, grey-haired strangers - this was for the long-time partner of a former workmate, who seems to have been aging as disgracefully as me. Certainly his demeanour & lack of grey hair would suggest that... It was another opportunity to catch up with people I knew & worked with in the late 80s-early 90s, at a music store which I'm increasingly thinking may have been the best job I ever had. If it wasn't for the bloody awful wages retail workers get, in another life I could still be there...
The night wasn't all reminiscence though. It was great & sometimes surprising to see & hear where everyone is now - by & large in good, stable places with careers & achievements they're proud & pleased with. I may even be a little jealous... I also reconnected with the owners of another music store I worked at in 1999, which I'd thought hadn't ended well, but they certainly seemed pleased to see me &, as the night went on & more alcohol was consumed, they were still pleased to see me, so maybe my memory played me false? The trick now is to try & fit these wonderful elements of my past into a very crowded present & future. Everybody always says at these things that "We should catch up more often" & we all sincerely mean it, I'm sure, but unless you've spent the years between then & now in a friendless, listless vacuum, it takes an effort of will & diary organisation to bring these old, new friends into your fold. I'd certainly like to try... & intend to start by organising a few, small, dinners & drinks with one or two of them at a time. That way, L-SP can meet them properly as well & not feel dumped & drowned by a huge wave of nostalgia that excludes her
Speaking of contemporary nostalgia(??) I've also been doing some new music with the guy I formed my first band with, back in 1984. We released music on cassettes which we'd design covers for, then sell them in inner-city music shops, until the late 80s, when a couple of small music labels came calling. We ended up having albums on cassette, CD & vinyl released in the USA & Europe, but completely failed to set the music world alight, despite the occasional favourable review (not that other reviews were damning, just that we were rarely reviewed at all!!). Anyway, there has been renewed interest in our older output coming from Europe, where our style of ambient/industrial/experimental music has always found a home, so we've been contacted by labels over there who are not only interested in raiding our archive, but also in anything new we might be doing... so we thought we'd better do something! Sessions have gone well & it seems the only thing that's changed since our last activity in 1993 is the technology - though it was somewhat comforting to see the old Korg MS20 still taking pride of place in my cohort's setup - certainly the personal dynamic between us is alive & well. Look out for a new album from Pelican Daughters sometime soon... & I'd say you'll really have to look for it...