The Change LIVE 2004: DVD

Had a call yesterday from our old bassist Tristan, who told me that he's found the footage from our gig at The Penny Theatre in Canterbury from the summer of '04. The sound quality apparently is ok (though not pro) and he's going to start mastering it. He's also the footage missing from the end of the set on the DV feed, which was captured on an Analogue camera. So, we hopefully will be able to produce a whole show from it! It wasn't a bad gig, some parts were very raw because I'd literally blown my voice apart from previous gigs and relentless rehearsals. But there are some interesting interludes, including drunk and coked up women trying to get onto the stage, being told to "fuck off my fucking stage by me" and then falling off to their near deaths. Quite literally! I enjoyed it. I couldn't sleep for DAYS afterward, the adrenalin had total possession of me.

I can't see us selling it, but I think that we will probably stream segments from it on The Change's main website http://www.thechange.org.uk . I imagine that this will be a few of the songs, but we may possibly offer the whole thing or big chunks of it for a PAID download.

We in The Change can do such things, you see. And it won't cost us anything, so if a few brave souls out there want to part with their cash for it, then ofcourse they are welcome to do so.

If nothing else, I may edit some of the footage into a promotional video for a new track. I'd like to incorporate some Flash animation with this (I've dabbled with this before and got some good results). Who knows?

Peace.

Tom.

Nice!

Good weather today, people!

I like the sun. I've missed him.

Am in a chipper mood. Going to quit the smokes from November 1st, and so I'm in mental training for that at the moment.

I live a strange life, I think. I have some really exciting projects and involvements in the works at the moment. I am truly lucky. Its easy for me to forget that I'm young...but today I am ready to go out and kick many asses! I'm on unstoppable form.

Bring it on mother fuckers!!!!!!!!!!!

Wrote some good poetry yesterday. This makes me extra chipper.

I live in a nice house, with good people. I am chasing after a wonderful woman. I can feel myself flying upward, and it gives me a great sense of release!

Be blogging again soon!

Tom.

Hair Cut II: This Time The Bastards Buzzed Me!

Well,

not quite. Though it is pretty short. Not really what I wanted.

It makes me look fat. But fuck that! I'm quitting smoking on November 1st. Mission. Time to train! Run vast distances, swim like a fish, soar like an eagle, etc, etc.

Texted Rafael today, to meet up for band talks, etc, etc.

We are getting this band on the road A.S.A.P.

I have everything in my new room now. Multi-tracker, guitars, microphones, PC. GREAT!

I can go back to my normal self and write some music.

O.K. Got to go. In a bloody internet cafe!

Today's mood is good, getting better, with bright female fronts on the horizon may turn to storms, it'll certainly be electric.

Encoded, eh!

Tom.

Live At Quigley's

This rather awful picture is of me, just before I played my set on Friday night at Quigley's back in good ol' Rugby Town.

The whole day was a mission. I'd been working in Fulham most of the day, then jumped on a train to get back up north of the Watford Gap for my support slot set for Eight Miles High. I've suffering all week from a nasty chest, in fact when I ran through my set shortly before I arrived at the venue I was sick from coughing up my lungs.

The gig went fine. A typically disinterested pub audience, naturally...but it was good to keep my hand in with the gigging. I played 'Beer Bottle Joe', which I posted here a couple of weeks ago. I think that it was this track where things started to get a lot better, and I was left wishing that I'd kept my nerve and opened with it.

It was one of those gigs where I needed to just keep on pushing through, no matter what and the pay off was that by the time I was playing Popular, which segued into The Brief things felt completely together. Mind, body and soul all in harmony. Perfect rock n roll mentality, I think.

Eight Miles High were good. A tight, effective Mod band with a big setlist. I joined them on stage at the end for an impromptu cover of "Born To Be Wild" by Steppin' Wolf and took on the lead vocals. Amazingly, I remembered the lyrics (I haven't sung it since I was on holiday six years ago). Great fun!!!!!!

Tom.

This is the setlist:

Did You See Where My Money Went?
Simple Silas
The Chevron Action Flasher
Beer Bottle Joe
The Cancer Is Within
Popular
The Brief.

Hollywood Tom

Some friends on the film production course at university used to nickname me "Hollywood Tom" for my love of whiskey, cigarettes and occassionally cigars during the lunch break of our tutorials in Keynes bar. Maybe life is about to imitate this fiction.

Yesterday I had a telephone call with one of the Associate Producers for the new Murray Lerner Who film (My Generation: Who's Still Who) from New York, who was interested in my research on Gustav Metzger (who invented auto-destructive art) and my general ULTIMATE Who knowledge.

I'm going to do a few things for them, I'm delighted to help. Murray Lerner's plan for this film is very, very exciting. It will be very unconventional. I wrote to them originally asking for a job, but am happy to contribute in any way possible.

I've moved into my new house. Its great!

Right slap bang in the original Monty Python country, where the Pythons were based in the 60s.

Will write some more soon.

Peace.

Tom.

Interface (Part Two)

Interface (Part Two)
The music
Is the Interface
An empty, buzzing
Energised space,

More vast than the Universe,

Transcending time,
Transcending place,
Unlimited by form,
A heart chime,
Unchained, divine.

The music,
Is the Interface,
Gifted by
Eternity’s grace.

Encoded in atoms,
Enchanted by fate
Entwined in the trip wire
Of our love and our hate,

The living web,
That traps our heads,
Beyond touch,
Nourishing like bread.

The program of the cosmic flow,
Waiting for us to break the code.

That Uncertain Feeling (still here in my brain)

I'm sitting here. Alone. And I can feel the twist knotting itself in my guts. My head is all over the place today. I am not hung-over. I am not drunk, but my legs ache as though they've been punished by some-kind of exertion. I look in to the future - the immediate future - and I am overwhelmed by a sense of uncertainty. I know that I am walking on the thin edge of a precipice, but the fall - if I should stumble - will be slight, I have fallen much further before and survived. Nonetheless, if I abandon this tight-rope then I will have failed...and I don't know how many more times I can allow myself to do that. The sense of isolation is terrifying but the solutions are within my reach, and no-one else's no matter how much they may try to help.

I remember sitting in the same place a few days a go. Then the silence is broken, the cell phone chirps at me and shakes across the desk with vibration from my left-handside with a number that I don't know anymore. I answer it, the voice is angry and full of vitriol. The caller refuses to listen to me or my explanation. They sound slightly unhinged, as I've heard them on few occassions before. It is in stark contrast to how I knew them before.

How many more people will live and then die within my brief attachment to this shell that I inhabit. This is surely just a brief flash within the giant storm of our collective spiritual growth. The voice thought that I had done something vindictive. One and one is one. We are all joined together, we originate from the same flash of creation. Why would I be vindictive to myself? And if this is true, then why did the voice turn upon me not so long ago?

How is it that we are all composed of the same ingredients, and yet so unique and perfectly individual? Did the creator set this up as a trick, a test, or simply as a joke? I hope that in time I will be able to detach myself enough from this reality and gain a more truthful perspective of what we really are about. For the time being I seem to be incurably integrated into this particular existence - my physical existence - my individual flesh and bone entity.

Tom.

The Interface (Part One)

Here is the first thing that I wrote for my new project shortly after I was struck by the idea.

I hope that you like it. I don't know if it will be a song...it may just be spoken, it may become absorbed by something else. We shall see. I'm not posting it here to give a clearer idea of what the idea is about, this will come in time, but just to give you a taste.

Part Two will follow in the next few days.

Tom.

Interface (Part One)
The hearts collide
Their soul’s entwined
In fuzzed electronic fusion.

The world,
The sky,
A nation.

Melted,
Smelted,
Forged into one
Like a living collage,
Exhaling music
Joined in flesh,
A union.

New stars,
Old stars
Networked to the Sun
An organic constellation
Together in harmony
Energised by electronic blue vibration.

The Interface
Wired to the Sun
A beating prayer
A breathing program.

The Interface,
Fired from a light gun,
A promise
Long begun.

Interesting?

Ha!

Someone told me that I'm not interesting enough to blog a diary!

With so many millions of blogs out there, does it matter if I am or not? There is so much variety, an avalanche of information as with all things on the web. The context of the individual blog within such a vast sea of blogs, makes each one in itself a point of interest, each one a componant of a vast network of communication, expression and thought exchange. I have no doubt that one-day this will be universal, and we will transmit our thoughts to directly to points of information, whether that be electronic billboards in Leicester square or wireless video I-Pods, some of these I-pods may be on Mars, some maybe to a distant point on the other side of the Universe.

Yesterday, I surrendered my blogging integrity and deleted some texts from posts that caused someone to be offended. I won't do this again, I mean, I won't delete any text again, and I will continue to be honest, and I will enjoy my freedom of speech...in the hope that even if 99% of other people in blog land find me incurably boring, then the remaining 1% (which lets face it, is still hundreds of thousands) can relate to me and I, to them.

I went to this chap, John Sullivan's blog the other other (Sully's Music View, its called I think), and it was weird that when he was my age he had the same choices and aspirations which were 1) become a journalist or 2) become a rock musician. He ended up not doing either at first, but now both writes and rocks...some twenty years on. Finding that someone else has shared my experience, is part of the beauty of blogging. So, maybe I don't get the many, many comment responses that Rachel Fuller is currently getting at the moment elsewhere in blogland but that doesn't make my blog any less valid...and ofcourse, I have been introduced to some people who otherwise I wouldn't have known existed.

Peace. Out.
Tom.

The Thin Blog Line

I've had to make some edits to my previous posts. It seems that I upset someone, who I mentioned in them. This wasn't my intention, but it makes me wonder about the role that blogs serve for me (the writer) and for you (the reader). From my experience as the "reader" of other people's blogs, I found them an interesting window into people's lives, their thoughts are sometimes profound and sometimes just throwaway, but I like the fact that I can post a response and interact with someone on the other side of the world. I never think of people writing blogs to be vain, self-important or arrogant purely because they blog. I respect people more when they are honest, even when at times reading about their troubles can be uncomfortable.

But here is the twist, because when I question myself about why I blog I'm caught between two explanations. One of which is suspicious of my own desperate vanity, the fear that I may write something purely to arouse strangers interest in myself, so that they will think that I'm "interesting", "significant" or "different", maybe even in possession of natural talent, divine grace of some-kind. I hope that this isn't true...at times I've questioned myself about this, I trust myself enough to know that I won't allow myself to cross that line.

The other explanation is rather more down to earth. Blogging provides me with a way of externalising my thoughts and experiences, writing here provides me with a multi-dimensional mirror that not only provides a reflection but also a release, whilst beaming out across the world wide web where the potential for reaching out to people is still rapidly expanding. In this sense, it provides more than a traditional diary...because its about sharing through a community...and in truth, I find most bloggers very supportive.

There are dangers with this though...because people, everyday people are entwined in our lives, experiences and emotions. So, if I recount an experience here, with the intention (I hope) of total emotional honesty or indeed maybe with careless informity...it is easy to forget that what we write on these blogs are in fact "out there". They won't maim or kill. But they may hurt, upset and anger.

Part of me, sitting here right now wonders if I've just done the right thing by editing my previous posts. They recollected the particular events from my perspective, and these were unpleasant, upsetting and pretty chilling for me at the time. Does integrity in blogging matter? And if so, have I surrendered my integrity because someone out there didn't like what I'd written and its easier to press "Delete" than it is to live with the thought that whether its down to misinterpretation, overzealousness, resentment, or anger...that someone out there thinks that I've done something vindictive?

Maybe I've had to do this, because the whole thing about personal, journal like blogging is something that you need to be a certified blogger to know the etiquette and what to expect. There was a time a few years ago, when I was pretty much terrorised over the web by some people who for whatever reason wanted to break me down, they sent a lot of nasty emails, anonymously...but I don't believe that this was ever published online. I have been criticised before (but much more often respected) for writing very honestly about my life whether its been through my website or now with this blog. People can sometimes get caught in the cross-fire. But here's the difference. I sign MY name after everything that I write. I publish my email address and urge people to make contact with me. I am answerable for what I publish, I have no problem with discussing it. This is the difference.

A rambling post, I know. I'll probably come back to this subject at somepoint in the future. It tells us a lot about the powerful role the web plays in people's lives emotionally today, I think.

Stayed over in my new house last night. Just sorting out the paperwork at the moment. I'm going to make contact with some promotions companies for upcoming gigs. It's going to be great to have my stuff with me in London, my multitracker, my music, my guitars.

We shall blog on into the future!!

Tom.

Hang On A Minute.......

That bloody post just turned up with the picture of my rock footed friend.

How the hell did that happen???????????????????????????

Apologies for the repeated story.

Tom.

In The Ether & God This Is Annoying!

Hi,

For those of you who haven't heard the new Pete Townshend song, 'In The Ether' which is from his latest project The Boy Who Heard Music...I suggest that you do. Its on Who TV, at his website www.petetownshend.com .

I've been listening to his performance of it at the Royal Albert Hall today. God, this guy is good! The song is about growing old, and then reaching the point when you drop your physical form. Or so I figure it is...that's my interpretation. It took me a couple of listens to get into it, but once I did that, I was hooked.

I'm annoyed. I wrote a big post here yesterday, and then the fucking thing cocked up and I lost it. Bollocks!

Shit.

In brief though, I'm moving to Camden/Kentish Town area next week. This is good.

I still need a proper full time job. This is bad. Back off to London on the morrow, I'm flat-out at the moment. Still awaiting a call for a really great job that I had an interview for. I've got everything crossed that it all works out.

Spoke to Rafael our keyboard player on Friday night when I stayed with him. The new studio is up and running in a few weeks. I bounced my new idea for a musical concept off him (I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago).

The positive here is that Rafael does understand it. He does like the principle behind it, and he does want to help me develop the music for it. This is good news...particularly as he's a top class musician, with more classic training than I've had hot dinners. We've got an idea for staging a big event around it. Rafa is keen to involve visuals with his music, and this is an idea that I've been keen on for a long time. I spent time with some of the pioneers in this area from the arts world such as the Boyle Family and Gustav Metzger when researching my thesis, and so I've got good roots in terms of how this kind of thing developed.

I'll blog more soon.

Take care of yourselves!!!

Tom.

Big Chief Crazy Foot & Camden Ho!!!!!!!!

Hello,

Things are absolutely manic at the moment. The good news is...I've found myself a house in Camden, sharing with some old Uni friends. Its a nice place. I stayed there by accident on Saturday night, after going to see a former bandmate (and future housemate) Tim Neville's gig at the Caernarvon Castle.

Officially, I'm moving in there on the 18th, but I've got the run of it beforehand too, which is cool. My neighbour is Michael Palin. Double cool.

So, activities for The Change are about to go up a gear. I spoke with Rafael, our keyboard maestro on Friday (when I stayed with him at his new place in south east London, I posted here a few weeks ago mentioning that I'd had a eureka! moment, and was working on a new musical concept. Fortunately though Rafa, who is also a classically trained and rather stellar violinist (the man gives Master Classes for Christ's sake!) understood it. He got it! He likes it too, which is good because I need him on board as some of the music for it is simply beyond my scope as a musician.

Exciting times.

The picture is of my buddy Tommy G in Canterbury, who lives with my old mate Funky Si. Stellar chaps both of them. If you want to witness the essence of true rock n roll insanity, I suggest that you look no further than this picture. Tom is one of the few people who know what it is to truly PARTY HARD!

Peace.

Tom.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel?

It's nice to have a day off today. I've got things still to catch up with, but am hoping to write and record a song or two. I've been flat-out this week trying to get things working for me. Its a fucking mission!

Spoke on messenger with an old housemate of mine who's band are doing some great things now, and there is talk of some solo support slots. I've got this Benn Hall gig coming up soon too. It will be quite a different set-list from what I've played before, plenty of new stuff.

The picture is of one of the ventilation shafts for a rail tunnel under my village at our place in Northamptonshire. I've been going through this tunnel every day this week. This is one of the smaller towers, when it was built it was the longest tunnel in the world. I like the way the light is on this. Hope that you enjoy it.

Might blog here with some new music later today.

Tom.

Shattered

Christ!

I'm knackered!

Off to bed soon! Been down to London every day this week trying to get things off the ground, and basically...I'm exhausted.

Will blog some more on the morrow.

First, I need sleep. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Tom.