Edinburgh Klang Haus Hunt

We are looking for a Klang Haus in Edinburgh. For 8 of us to live there and perform there, twice a day, inviting an audience of 10-15 people in. We need to be able to make noise at certain times of day and to have good access to the building for all sorts of folks. A few rooms, lots of character, thick walls, in The Meadows area of Edinburgh, EH9 would be ideal.

The Road to Edinburgh

These next few weeks will be crucial in making a show in Edinburgh happen. I need to find a house for us to inhabit, in the city centre of Edinburgh. We want to live there and perform there everyday during August as part of the Fringe Festival. I need to ask for help. In order for people to understand what help we need, I will explain the show. The show is called Klang Haus a version of which we performed in our house during Norwich Sound and Vision. What is Klang Haus? Allow me to explain over the next few days. For now I will order my thoughts.

Achtung - Meat, Mash, Veg.

Whilst talking about the tea towel today, the story of it's design, by Leo of BK and Dad, revisited me. The CND symbol was inspired by a dreadful food experience during our Butcher Of Common Sense Residency in Berlin. Inspired by a meal purchased from the Bonjour Garage, adjacent to the Nalepastrasse Funkhaus, in deepest Eastern Berlin. The 'food' sat in a plastic container, divided into three, like a CND symbol, separating, meat, mash and veg. When Jon plopped a little of the meat from one section into the mash section, he coined the phrase, 'Dog shit in sand'.It was too cold in the room to laugh and it wasn't funny because that was the food for the evening. Not really... we laughed til we forgot we were hungry and ate currywurst with the Tacheles rats a few hours later. You can own your very own Achtung tea towel, it specialises in drying crockery and cutlery and doubles up as an emergency liquid spill absorber, can be used on face.

Butcher Resuscitation Miracle

In salute to the Butcher of Common Sense and the journey 9 of us took to Berlin, I am resuscitating images and sound files that lay buried, left out of the Butcher book, left off the album and vinyl, the left-overs... but oh how good they are to revisit... The Butcher's feast continues to feed our hunger.

Feeding the Dutch

When touring with music, theatre, whatever travelling you do, food becomes paramount. We had our brilliant friend Bas Pfaff bring his band to Norwich to play at The Playhouse Bar last night. The gig was great...really loud guitars Queens of The Stoneage-esque growling stuff! Our meals together were the wonderful accompaniment to the show. Sharing food is the best way to connect. I am a poor example when it comes to sharing food, as my favourite habit is walking along the street and eating at the same time...I was reminded this weekend that food holds the key to friendship. Jon made a massive stew and then this morning we treated the Dutch/French to Norwich Porridge...reluctantly they agreed to sample it....they said they would need something to join them on the ferry journey...the storm hit last night and the channel will be choppy! Well...they couldn't get enough of it....sail safe Dutch-Frenchie...keep that boat afloat with yer Norwich porridge ballast!

Klang Haus x 8

I didn't write about Klang Haus, I think I was too in it, to reflect. doing 4 shows back to back and then another 4 shows back to back the next day was all consuming. What a privilege, being looked after but 6 crew/volunteers/friends so we could invite strangers safely into our home, plunge them into darkness, roar load music at them, recite extraordinary text through an Ulsterman and listen together. Looking into the darkness then shape-shifting the room with Sal's exquisite slides and films. Doing 8 shows in quick succession allows you to live in it. This is what folks said in response to coming.... 'It's so strange how the room changed once it began. It felt bigger, huge in the dark - but a sitting room all the time. A room full of hypnotised strangers.' 'There was one moment when Jon was at the piano, that a blue projection lit him up and I felt very moved, very beautiful.' 'I wouldn't say I had expectations, no, but I knew it wouldn't be normal.' 'This should be happening more, but I don't know who else could.' 'At times we had to focus to be sure we weren't missing anything..... the darkness sharpened me up..... the pitch black, yes. I heard my heart beat. I didn't want to miss anything. It was so rich. very rich, yes.' 'Was it loud? I got really caught up in it, I couldn't tell.' 'I jumped at the loud bit. Then couldn't keep my eyes off the red guitarist in case he did it again'. 'It's the loudest thing I have heard in a house.' 'Are they German?' 'That was really beautiful, that intimacy.' 'I have a confession to make, I am a foreign man....but I hear you have had great sound in your house.' 'You had to be here. I'll find this hard to explain now, after tonight. You had to be there, inside.' 'It was my favourite gig this year. Does your home have ghosts? I felt someone walk past me in the complete darkness.'

Scaffolding for a show

I remember when I first realised that when you put on a show there are, 'inevitables'. Things that will happen. You will need a poster, you will need a venue, you will need a PA, you will need someone to man the door, you will need to sort a float...etc, etc.... The fact that they are inevitable brings a certain form of comfort. I am embarking on the inevitables of our KLANG HAUS show. I want to put up the show scaffolding so that we can concentrate on the flesh. The scaffolding may change a few poles as we near the show, but if it is mainly in place we can proceed with a quiet mind. Front door person outside, side door person inside, merch seller, bar tender, all seeing eye ( big person to ward off ne'er-do-wells ). PA, BBQ, Temporary Events Notice for selling booze and having public entertainment, fire officers liason, risk assessment, doorway measurements, flow of traffic, thoughts of visual beauty/innovation/smells standing sounds. Letter to the neighbours, bloody good signs.I have the letters from the old cinema signage...yes you can make some brilliant swear words from Klang Haus....

Thinking Big

We have been asked to be artists in residence at the Norwich Art Centre. Think Big! he said.... so off we went excited as hell and thought big.....elaborate shows in far flung places...then even more elaborate shows in close-by places with 8 show in two days and just you me in a show and face to face and in yer face and in yer ear..... Putting on strange shows is the best, but the biggest thing we can do is to make the most extraordinary music.....and then deliver it in exciting ways...but lets not get over-distracted by the show......the music is king....the music is where the think big should be....no better experience and dare I say transcendence, can happen than with music...you and what you allow into your ears.It goes in deep, it goes somewhere other than rational thought....I was watching the When Björk Met Attenborough doc and it reminded me of how unique music is as a thing, a stuff.

D.I.T not D.I.Y

A gig day is a hyper-real day. It begins calmly with lists, packing equipment and time checks. It's 11am, due to leave at 11.30am, Sal has just received an email cutting her hours of work as a lecturer, she is devastated. Devastation rolls through the house and we begin to cling to schedules as a way of keeping our heads above the turmoil. Sal proceeds through the day in a state of shock, we help her cope....first hurdle of the day, quickly bowled in. We collect equipment,gather shoes, screens, cradles, cables....Jon commented that it was like moving house twice in one day all the stuff we take. Set up was good, then things go into slow motion...somehow? Mark and I shoot off to Future Radio for an interview...crikey I can go on, little miss motor mouth! I think it's because I was once told that dead-air on the radio is the enemy. I did manage to shoe-horn in the .... So, Neutrinos, you like the D.I.Y ethic... no I said, we are more D.I.T, Do It Together. Always plan food on a gig day..even if it doesn't happen, know it. I booked a table at the Last Wine Bar ( work colleagues), who said they could throw some soup and chips our way within moments of us needing it.... we were stressed and late when we arrived and the atmosphere in the LWB was so comforting, the food delicious, we handled the linen napkins like blankets and rubbed our faces in the soft whiteness....breathing in the cleaness....then rushed back to the venue.....on in 30 mins. It felt strange leaving the venue at that point, but it gave us a quick bit of perspective, calm down, talk to the audience,be authentic, be real. Food is incredibly grounding and brings you back into your body. So last bits of manic set-up , helping hands arrive, I felt like a kid who had fallen asleep in the car and was having everything done for them... help is good ....always accept help and don't try and be in control. The show has it's own energy and cannot be driven by one set of hands. The show begins, then I fell down the stairs, not hurt, stamped my broken shoe heel back in place, just got rid of my stored up adrenalin, now time to breathe. I love singing, I love letting the air out slow, I love joining the lines, I love almost speaking, my singing is a conversation....perhaps it was watching musicals on tele when I was small and confused thinking that chat,chat burst into song was normal( I generally hate most musicals and the honky nose-singing pisses me off btw)...I love shouting. Sal and Tim lit us, Mr Bill Vine made us sound like us. We played, literally played within the skillful sound and light. An honour and a great audience to play with! We all drank rum into the night whilst the ciccada on continuous loop played in the bushes! Thanks to all involved especially the host Puppet Theatre, we had a night we will remember, we D.I.T.

The night before

So here I am again wondering what the hell am I doing all this for! The team of 6 of us are working our arses to the bone because we want tomorrows show at the Puppet Theatre to be extraordinary...... lists everywhere...favours pulled in... I was very relaxed earlier on today....now I am running on empty. It's going to be fine... permissions for total blackout still not quite negotiated. Wish I would just go for the goal a little quicker rather than postponing things hoping they will become easier....banking on timing things well, catching people at the right moment....... Lists lists lists...visualising events, room layouts, knowing that the time tomorrow will just disappear.......gone 8 hours in a puff of smoke..... There will be puppets...........Sal is amazing at animating the monkeyboy! There will be shadows, there will be films, moving slides, moving sounds, illuminations, book films, rum, free notebooks............I'm running on empty, I wish us good luck and good sleeping and thank all folks in advance for there generosity in lending their time and effort and equipment and patience.... and I'm gonna thank us for making another world to live in tomorrow night. A bit like the KFC Drive-by we invented today where you shoot yer own chicken to eat....yeeee haaaaa!

'Go Have Fun'

here is our latest track.....lyrics are the speech Bush gave to Obama when he got elected in 2008. Go Have Fun

Neutrinos in Berlin final day

I miss the sounds. The loud chirping sparrows, the turkish music swirling from car-radios waiting at the traffic lights on the junction at Silbersteinstrasse and Hermannstrasse. I miss the screech of car tyres around that same junction in anticipation of a sugar hit from the Burger King Drive-Thru next door to our block of apartments. I miss the sound of our bare feet on laminate floors padding about making coffee, opening doors and windows, amplifying all the sounds from outside. The shower was good..set by a window which you could open the top half of wide, like a door and stare at the sky and the swifts hurling themselves around in thermal loops. I miss the anticipation of who we will met today. Monday, yesterday was our final day,with our first appointment being at the British Embassy, passports, security checks, gates, air locks.. then waiting in the foyer next to a photograph of the Queen. Banners saying, Shopping is Great Britain, Knowledge is Great Britian, Creative is Great Britian..... shopping?? Hmmm Miriam our contact appears and she is German and small and young, she shows us around the public area. The building is very 1990s in it's appearance. We drink water and share our purpose for meeting. Soon the tiny woman is on fire with ideas of how this weighty institution steeped in history and bureaucratic sheets and blankets can assist. Let's see what happens there. Last task was to deliver a Butcher book to Funkhaus, its place of origin. We knew it would be unceremonious as the manager of the building, our point of contact, Susanne Graef was on leave. We buzzed over on the train, had to memorize a page from the book of an impression of Jon at the correct tram stop. In the summer heat the journey was easy and calm, we had only visited in deepest winter and the memory of the journey is shrouded in effort! There it stood, smaller than I remember. We went in, laughed at the familiarity, gave the book to a red faced man and said goodbye. As we walked around the outside of the building to the exit, we saw an open door, couldn't resist but go in, for one last taste...and found the Milch Bar open. In 2008 it was moth-balled. It has a red sparkly ceiling and genuine 1950s decor, nice to see it back in working order.We drank very milky coffee.

I saw a man from the previous night, he had played at Ausland. We bumped into him again at the tram stop and chatted. He was going to London the following day and Sal was invited to his gig at Cafe Oto. It feels easy to meet people here, you see them again and again, there is a community. We leave Berlin. Thinking about other cities of Germany, Berlin feels like the estranged child of the family, who has had a different upbringing to the rest. Other stuff happened to it and so it remains unique in character, Berlin is unlike anywhere else.

Neutrinos gone to Ausland

Went to Ausland....an avant guard music venue. Free jazz was great, Cactus Truck from Holland, they began with an explosion of noise which continued at the same level. I wanted to laugh really loudly and watched the gig with a new look of my face of being on the verge of pissing myself with laughter, it was bloody brilliant. It was such explosive energy and so so funny. I can't say I'm naturally drawn to music that makes me laugh, but this was ace and a had no idea that free jazz was hilarious. Squeeely-bonk -tastic. But alas even the avant guard have complaining neighbours.....grrrr! We walked in the grid of roads called the Schillerketz, found a great burger bar, Schiller burger, onto a bar round the corner And chatted and laughed a lot. They show silent films in the bar and its accompanied by someone on the grand piano. We have established our bearings for this part of the city around Hermannstrasse, Neukölln . On the main drag good cheap Turkish food and sports bars galore, on the roads parallel quirky bars and artsy crowd. We chatted about the twilight zone. We have enjoyed the shape of our time here, intense mid week start, managing to relax for a couple of days and final bit of business tomorrow. A visit to the British Embassy and leaving a book at the Funkhaus.

Cementing friendships

Just spent an hour with Gerhard Steinke. We swapped books about the Funkhaus, He has opinions on so much, very refreshing ..... "Politics have no ears" he said We signed his Butcher book, and to us in his book he wrote... "To my wonderful friends and excellent artists Neutrinos, With warmest thanks, also for their splendid idea to create a book with their impressions of pictures, sounds, atmospheres, politics and friends of Berlin acoustic splendid Funkhaus, cordially friends forever , yours Gerhard Steinke, June 23 2013" Arrived back from an afternoon in the park with our producer friend Natalie, her lighting designer husband Enzo and their tiny daughter Juliette. We shared a BBQ and time with each other. Mark neutrino has a new friend in juliette! Pics to follow. We walked the line of some if the wall, from a satellite photo you can see the difference in street lighting between the former east and west, east is yellow, west white.... The street lamps use different bulbs and the lampposts have not been changed. Tonight we are off to Ausland to check out the space and listen to freeeee jazzzzz, hook up with a drummer and play-write we met last night and our beautiful neuroscience friend Lorelei.

Neutrinos in Berlin day 4

We woke, we spoke, we discovered a way of working. Not hiring a derelict- crumble- chic venue, to lead Berliners around familiar territory, feeding them their own cultural references back. If we want to meet people, make connections with this city, we must invite them over, to talk, to share food, to share stories, to play music. Lets leave behind the crumbling spaces and sit face to face. We are thinking the images in the book could become graffiti. I remember asking Luke Emery the etiquette of graffiti before we came to Berlin to go Butchering in 2008, what is illegal? Dos and don'ts. Went to Motto books sold Alexis the owner a book... We love his shop a lot. Talking of dos and don'ts Sal and I visited a photomat booth, very nice, 2€ for arty black n white pics, installed by two French artists.... Whilst waiting for the pics 4 huge lads in basketball type gear came over, "to chat " boxed us in, as we had a fence either side if us, no good escape. Sal chatted about London, yeah their cousin lived in SE 17, Sal said oh, Wimbledon.... Sniggering at suburbia... I was negotiating our escape... Which in fact was easy just slip past em, but hadn't felt threatened like that before in a long while.... Grrrr Tonight we will meet friends from Norwich and Berlin, introduce them to each other and we will go and watch Luke Abbott and Dan Tombs at a club in Kreuzberg. Yar!

Three books sold!

We sold three books to König bookshop this morning. Not much emotion in the man's face, the transaction was swift, I don't know how to read German! Found a very special music shop , stocked full of records made by visual artists. A collection and shop owned and run by Ursula Block. We met a lovely chap called Dieter, who chatted about the collection and was playing some Henning Christianson. Squeaky-bonk loveliness. We met with Enzo last night, he works here in Berlin as a lighting and sound tech, we chatted about Urban Spree venue.... He said oh, we call it Media Spree, MTV have an office there and it is selling derelict chic back to the youth. The spirit of Berlin is bring bought, sanitised and sold back to the tourists. we talk a lot about authenticity, and why the hell we are here? It is positive... We realise that animating a building and leafing people through an immersive show is old hat here and probably in the uk too. So what is next!!!! Ha ha, that's the exciting bit. If I could post an Image here I would but my wee phone can't handle it!! More thoughts soon from our Neukölln home, very trendy area btw, if you coming to Berlin soon, probably too gentrified in 8 months time!

Neutrinos in Berlin day 2

The washing up liquid smells of peach like an early scratch and sniff book of mine, I am enjoying washing up. I like the smell of the ubahn, burnt/electrical/rubber mmmm. The weather broke last night with splitting cracks and torrential rain, the wind pushed everything horizontal, the Mosquitos that had feasted on us disappeared and the 'super storm' arrived. Danny, who used to work at the playhouse bar in Norwich and now lives in Berlin, said everything is prefixed with 'super' here. He lives with another ex-playhouse bar wonder called Lorelei, she is a Neuroscientist working just north of Berlin. She was telling us how her and her work colleagues were trying to hang out in the MRI scanning room, because that was the coolest place.... all in a days work. So the weather dropped by 13 degrees in a few hours last night and we have our thinking brains again at 20 degrees. Yesterday we went to an exciting venue/gallery called Urban Spree. Whilst Sal and I were talking to the venue owner who was grilling us about romanticising DDR buildings and the Cold War and did we know what we were talking about, Jon and Mark were outside talking about the romanticising of derelict buildings and the currency within creating a venue that looked like an apocalyptic aftermath, to satisfy the wonder of visitors to Berlin. Who was being authentic here. The venue owner said that he used to be a top finance PA in France. Later comparing notes, we wondered about what was real. Sal and I had a definite nod to the possibility of doing a show at Urban Spree, we will go to a gig there tonight and see what it feels like after dark. On the first night just after I emailed, we walked to Kienitzer strasse, to peer through the fence at Tempelhof airport, which has been closed for 5 years. No Entry. When we got close we saw a gate was open, we descended some steps and walked into a dreamlike landscape of an airfield inhabited by people happily picnicking, sitting with folks drinking, allotments , tipies, folks cycling around really fast over the massive expanse that is Tempelhof. It was thrilling to see a site taken over by the people. On the ubahn the homeless sometimes ride all day, they are not bothered by authorities. We watched the casually dressed / undercover ticket inspectors at work, they are looking for those who haven't but can afford to pay. This city is not like a British city, the thrill is witnessing the differences and being amongst folks who think different. Sent from my iPhone

Neutrinos in Berlin day 1

Obama is in Berlin today and as luck would have it, we failed to Upload our latest track before we left Norwich, So, synchronicity settles here....the track is delivered today, to you, straight from Berlin. The lyrics are George Bush's speech/ message to Obama when Obama got elected back in 2008.... It's called 'go have fun' and as you can imagine I squeezed past security, sat on Barak's knee and sang an a cappella version to him, making a lot of the music with slaps and mouth noises. He said thank-you and promptly had me arrested and I'm emailing from from a very neat and beautifully tiled cell. Thank god for wi-fi. Fortunately I had completed my meetings at several bookshop' s today. Our favourite was at a shop called Do You Read Me. When I hear that phrase I'm in a complex song with lots of blips and crackles and screamy vocals sharing a duet with Karen O. It's a great shop and they will stock our Butcher of Common Sense Book when we return with our show in the winter. Next went to meet the top art book dealer in Berlin, and it was a short sharp lesson in punching above ones weight! Barbara Wein is a beautiful, extraordinary and powerful book dealer who listened to our story, looked at our book and said, but I don't know you and nor do my clients..... Fair enough! We pretty much said fair enough, but before we left, she agreed to take one book, as long as we collected it if it didn't sell! Reminds me if what Robert Fripp said .... Look to the rung above you for help, don't aim too high, you have no connection... Yes yes I get it! We are strangers here, we have a lot of work ahead before we can become part of this city's fabric, before we can put on a show. Just have to add, because its British to talk weather, that it is 33 degrees and we have melting brains. More soon, enjoy the track. Karen Neutrino Go Have Fun mix 2 - SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/jonneutrino/go-have-fun-mix-2?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email

Fear

Here it is again. Fear breeds in a good imagination. In my head it likes the morning, the first thoughts, nice and fresh. Creeps in and starts to multiply. I have been painting wild and beautiful head paintings of an empty Puppet Theatre on July 12th and a windy Berlin with shaking heads, no I can't help you. Your book is boring and pointless. So what if the image is a different picture? What if I make a different picture of the Puppet Theatre and Berlin. I watched a Ted Lecture on Fear and this was the premise....a vivid imagination can make fear, so recognise it and change it. I have been practicing making new images in my head of forthcoming events, supplanting the easy to find 'failure images' with relaxed enjoyable engaged in the task images. It feels odd, this is not what I normally do, but it feels great. If one can remove the noise and energy of the failure images then it leaves more head space to have ideas, inspiration and thought connections. If you do the work, then things are more likely to be a success. If you sit imagining the worst having a panic, then , well it's pretty obvious. So rather than paralyse oneself with fear...I'm gonna do the work. Take a deep breath and get on with it.

Berlin Reconnaissance Trip

We are off to Berlin on June 18th -24th in order to make contact with folks on the ground, to set up a support system so we can make a winter show. When we do shows in Norwich we drag stuff across town, beg, borrow, we involve our mates and colleagues, we have a seasoned web of help and expertise. In London this too is the case, with a little extra cost and stress, as London is! In Berlin we are like the new kid at school. Yes we have gigged there, visited on several occasions, have friends there, but rules of social engagement are not so familiar. Ways of borrowing/begging are untested. This will be a challenge. We are researching and understanding what our task ahead is: 1. To find a venue for an extraordinary live show possibly with an art exhibition included. 2. To find a space (gallery) ideally suited to our art exhibition within which we will also perform. 3. To have a book launch in conjunction with a reputable bookstore. 4. To meet future musical collaborators, artists, film makers, producers, re-mixers, media, pop-up shops. 5. To make solid connections with the technical and production support we will require. 6. To make solid connection with some form of marketing/promotion team so that we can reach an appropriate audience. So, plenty more hello's do to before we leave for Berlin.

Turn The Page

So our first book fair....I didn't really think about what it would entail until I was there. Our stand was by the door, nearly behind the door.... I blagged a sofa from Marzarnos... thank-you! I made the nest and then realised I had two days of talking ahead of me. gulp. After day one I hated the book, I met some lovely people, had a great chat about MAs........but I'm good to chat for about three hours and then I get bored of my own voice. I thought of the triviality of my life and why did I think this thing was so important, this book,this stupid book that took four years to make happen, cost a fortune and was just sitting there, mute, whilst I had to dance like a monkey around it, singing it's praises. Day two Sal was in charge, When I met her at 3pm to take over, she was in a similar state to me, thou worse. I had to console her tears whilst we stood in the front window of the Book Fair.whoops. After Sal left, I decided to get through the last three hours by reading the book. It was as if I flicked a switch in my head, I was taken into the book, I loved it, it made sense, I felt inspired, proud, excited.... I looked up to talk to people and happily danced like a monkey explaining our process, our time in Berlin. I had great chats with people, learnt stuff from them, made connections with people, laughed lots. thank-you Turn The Page..... the lesson is in the title!

Still can't live without making noise

9 years on, I think I would say pretty much the same... Happy Passing Daddyo.xx

Visualisation

I'm going to talk about visualisation tomorrow...I realised I do it when I put on events. I do a minds-eye walk through, noting the order of service and what tools and people I might need at certain stages of the event. We all visualise stuff, but it's great to notice how detailed it can be. If you want something you gotta see it first. Here are some shots from our Amsterdam show...I'm visualising some great shows in France in a couple of weeks time!

The Pay Off

At 7.20pm on Thursday 28th March I asked a colleague...what the hell are we doing this for? We had set up secret bar, the slide projector had fallen from the ceiling twice and caused no harm, but shaken us all. The cocktail bar was in busy chaos...leaving good friends to make sense of things. Dashing about trying to make a room light-tight that was refusing. Wondering why we had invited lots of people to pay to come and listen to our album in the dark. Why would people be okay with us telling them what to do.... you do this, you sit here, you listen.... Enter, drink hot rum, Neutrinos appear behind a screen... We kept our nerve. We did our thing....we sent smells into the dark corridors....incense, burning shoe polish, boiling rosemary, charcoal, We played our album in the dark.... struck matches to illuminate the room to see if everyone was okay.... The hot rum sat in their bellies. Then secret bar was open...cocktails and chatter...a bit of acoustic playing.... Next day after a clearing up session... we glowed with satisfaction at having done a thing. Alex Lingford said....and this is why we do it. Steph Potts, thank-you for photos...

Secret Bar

So we are planning an event. I wanted to do an evening where we listened in the dark to music with others. I wanted to do a play-back of the album we have made. Who listens to albums all in one sitting ? I want to smell things.... What is your favourite smell? Put all these ideas together with some booze and people from your city. Secret Bar.

Transcription from handwritten eblog Amsterdam

St. Patricks Day early morning in a sunny Amsterdam apartment. In Amsterdam waiting for a hangover to kick in. I may be allergic to cats. (fast forward..I just have a cold!) Gig was great -we were in control. We went quiet and sang unamplified in the bar. ( I sang out too much - I need to plant the song a little closer to myself ) Downstairs we played loud and brash...lots of space to think. Sound was good attention to detail by Trevor. Before we went onstage our dialogue was "shit , I'm so tired, I can't be bothered to pay attention to detail, but we must, overcome this." it was such a battle...but we did pay attention to detail, especially Sal with her slides. I am awake because I am not good at sleeping in a room full of people. I woke after 4 hours sleep and I'm still awake so I got up and I don't feel tired. We drank lovely cocktails espresso martinis, mint julip, margarita, gin tonic, then tequilla back at Bas and Olga's. one thing that works onstge is obvious inter-band communication. Not in-jokes, but directions, signals and ultimately touching or being in close proximity. Thank-you for the opportunity to thrive. Us in Belgium the night before...

no google

Whilst in the van driving to Belgium, we turned off our phones from data roaming....too expensive and had a new game of 'wonder'. With google, one asks a question and never needs to wonder...you just go to Wikipedia and get an answer. Without this tool, Sal and I came up with our own version of the truth to How do wind turbines work? non google answer - by electricity..just a little bit to keep it going when it's not windy. Did troops get shot when digging the trenches? non google answer - no they were dug whilst being miles apart from the enemy lines. Why didn't the troops go round the trenches rather than towards them? non google answer - I don't know. and so on.

Psychosomatic

Psychosomatic Definition.... 1.(of a physical illness or other condition) caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress: So, the psychosomatic theatre is on the sidelines.....I can feel a slight sore throat and an ache in my neck. The best thing to do is to tell it to go away. I am an advocate of hypnotherapy...it works for me, the brain is a powerful and under-used and little understood piece of glorious meat....I know with a skilled and trusted hypnotherapist I can change my thought patterns and feel different. The classic, before every gig I would get a cold Jon said, Karen, 'before every gig you get a cold'. That's really annoying to hear and so I said clearly for my brain to hear, 'No I don't!' From that day forward I didn't get a cold before a gig. It is as easy as that.....so that's what I have to do today. The cold is real btw, it's not made-up, but it is made by stress/emotions/fear. It is interesting as a sign of underlying fears which for these gigs in Belgium and France I thought I was pretty chilled.

Information is not knowledge

Cowbird symposium.....brilliant brain food.

Thank-you Craig Oldham for reminding us that information is not knowledge.
Thank-you Hamish Muir for making students make things, use paper and scissors.

Favourite quote,
Creativity is not knowing what I am going to make next.

Butcher captures COWBIRD

Today the Butcher Book and Album will nestle itself amongst some of the country's greatest creative visual minds at COWBIRD.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE DISTRIBUTED TEXT; THE BOOK, MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPEr, POSTER, TABLETS, E-READERS, SMART PHONES, AUGMENTED REALITY, SOCIAL MEDIA, DIGITAL DISPLAYS, AND NEW PRACTICES SUCH AS CROWDSOURCING, CODING, DATA SHARING, AND SOCIAL READING?"



Looking forward to hearing about the future of looking.

singing practice going better

Singing practice happens when you just go and do it. Singing practice is brilliant fun. Singing practice is bloody ace. I'm am a total idiot for not doing it more. Not doing the thing you love. A classic case of resistance. The Butcher of Common Sense would be pleased. Note to self, please spend time battling the impossible rather than battling the piss easy.

singing practice is going bad

Okay.....I'm still not singing enough, sigh. Singing and walking I love, for me best done by a very busy road, traffic oncoming from behind. No one can hear you scream. I remember being at the RCA and asking caretakers if there was a room I could scream in. You see, to scream, can cause alarm....kinda why it was invented.... but to scream and make disturbing noises for pleasure takes planning, fore-warning. I grew up on a pig farm in a bungalow, no neighbours...screaming was easy.... now, everyone hears everything. Ooo, I just heard myself say that... that sounds paranoid...like...oo, everyone is listening to me coz I'm so interesting, oooo. So, get over myself and sing. It was forty days 'til Belgium, now it's 24. sing Reilly sing..... My fav shot of us at The Playhouse Bar, March 17th 2007

Letting Go

Let it go. That's what I learnt this week. Not holding on too tightly to an idea, a person, a cherished prize. With Belgium and it's forthcoming gig....we let it go after trying to hold on to keeping it, but the logistics were impossible, so with a heavy heart, we let go. It has come back to us in a much better version. I always forget about 'Letting Go'. Note to self.

This photo was taken by Jonny Cole, our sound producer, in Berlin on our 'Butcher' trip.

singing practice

yes it has begun. one hour of singing..and stretching...you cant sing without a good ole move about. thinking about singing, thinking about making the muscles strong. Voice a little weedy.no surprise. listened to BOCs album with my eyes shut today, planning a show at Stew in the dark with warm booze and smells. It looks great in my head. Smells good too! Got a new lead on shows in Amsterdam today.

41 days to Belgian show

In 41 days we will do a Belgian Show in Kortrijk.
It will be a first full-on unadulterated loud outing for a while.
I'm really looking forward to singing with total abandon....
Here I will trace my progress... you see I'm terrible at practicing.

ordinary extraordinary

Lene Lovich was the singer I saw as a kid on the tv and realised that ladies were allowed to be weird and funny, were allowed to leap about like monsters singing strangely. Last week Lene popped into The Playhouse Bar, we know each other a little, but this time she gave me a brooch, "Give this to anyone you know who might commit suicide, it will keep them safe." Will do Lene. Two days ago I went to a meal in London and was placed in a seating plan next to Robin Millar one of the world’s most successful ever record producers with over 150 gold, silver and platinum discs and 55 million record sales to his credit.We chatted, Robin is blind and hears your truth through how you speak your words. I'm making a point of noticing that I have spent time with these inspiring and quite ordinary extraordinary folks.

we rarely work in isolation

We rarely work in isolation....just thinking about all the folks who have helped make the book, there is a community of Butchers who have laboured. We were starting to put a budget together for our next show and realised that our team was growing from a band of 4 musicians in a small van to a troupe..........the troupe makes a whole new world for folks to live in.....a big cheers to the troupe.

Butcher Xmas