Ready, Steady, Go!

Note to self:

Tom, stop letting your Piscean mind leap off into so many directions at one time. If you have a good idea, deploy it in a manageable way. Let the shades and streams of your grand plans follow. Find the source and follow the river to the channel, don't attempt to jump into the ocean and then swim upstream. Be focussed, but not blinded. Learn how to finish things. Do what you do best, and then let the rest flourish. Dreams remain dreams until you've developed the machinery to transform them into a tangeable form.

And aside from this, I am ready for recording this weekend. Looking forward to it. Am off the booze at the moment - out of financial obligation rather than moral preservation - so, my mind will be clear. Can't smoke in my room, as its about to be let out to someone new...so the air will be clear. The tea will still flow though.

There is so much to play for, isn't there. If it all comes to nought, then so effectively do I. The thought of remaining in this contemptable life that I lead at the moment, gives me the fear, and I made a pact with myself that once I'd done what I came here to do that I'd shuffle off this mortal coil without so much as whisper.

After the explosion, there really should be silence, unless you have any worthwhile bullets left to shoot that could bring some good into enough people's lives to make a difference. If I fail to explode at all, to contribute anything, to ever give something that can make a change for the better...then it would seem -conversely- that I have blown it in a very different way.

Its a tricky game of marbles to play, I fear. Anyway, here we go...once again...starter's pistol ready...Ready, Steady, Go!
Peace and Love,
Tom.

Up/Down Time

Spent yesterday hanging out with Welsh firemen and going around fire stations, part of some training for my day job.

My hours have changed...so I have more time this morning. But two days ago, I came home from work, was all set to get recording but lay on my bed and fell asleep. Next thing I knew, it was 10:30 and too late to play - as it would piss off the neighbours - so I lost the chance to up my down time.

This morning I picked up my guitar and ran through the Flasher opera, haven't played it since finishing recording it, but it felt and sounded good. Its going to be great live. I hope that Danny and Llee will help me hone it and enhance it for the band to perform it too. It works. Thank God.

And I'm already letting my mind spin onto the next project. Crazy, I know. I really should learn to walk before I can run. I have some time at the end of this month to relax and get myself together, which will be good.

Am super psyched.

Tom.

Dates...

We have rehearsals now confirmed with the three of us for July 8/9.

I am working on getting some dates together for August. Am super psyched and feeling very upbeat and confident.

I have a couple more demos to finish work on for the band, so that the others can get to grips with their parts for it. I'm hoping that they'll send any demos that they think might suit my way too. I've sketched out a few set lists of varying length. Definitely want to have the Flasher opera as a centre piece for the show.

I am considerably skinnier - though not skinny - and sober than in recent times. I feel really good. I have some time at the end of this month lined up to take off work and potter around London, and some good company to do it with.

Then I'll be into early July and really kicking things off with The Change.

Peace and Love,

Tom.

Another Day In Paradise...

Or close enough.

Weather here is gorgeous. Had a hair cut today...and am quite smug about the results. The hippy factor remains.


Watched 'Jack & Sarah' last night with Richard E. Grant and Imogen Stubbs (who makes me feel weak)...what a great movie but very much Englishness by middle class numbers (I don't know anyone who plays bridge). Which ironically I followed with The Dogs Of War with Christopher Walken. Rather different tact. But some ultra violent moments.

Worked on writing a new song last night called, 'The Return', about a painting I saw at the Tate Modern recently of the same name. Its a proper rocker. The lyrics have a real sharp edge to them. Don't know quite where to sit it within my range though...but I recorded a very rough guide track on Audacity to help me figure out a structure.

Am off to have a coffee in Kentish Town and write some poetry. Will hammer out some more of the new tune later when I get home. Would love to see the band play it.


Peace and Love,


Tom

5 AM

Woke up this morning -Saturday- at 5AM, the light was flooding in through my rather shitty blinds (it takes the blind to let the light in), and my body did its usual trick of switching my brain on totally. This always seems to happen, particularly when I want to have a lie in and sleep. So, I've been pottering around my house. Fired up my PC at about 6, and worked a little on my journal. I then did some more notes for the art work for the mini opera. A little stuck for ideas at the end, because the story around this short string of songs (it runs to about 13 minutes) comes from several songs and songs about particular characters with which I've been dealing with for a long time.

Am feeling quite chipper. My head is filled with crazy aspirations about making music at the moment. I feel really charged up and obsessive about it all. I'm going to be sending off some demos to the others in the band soon. We've scheduled rehearsals in Rugby for the 8/9 of July, and then will add some more ASAP...we'll have to do two really full on days.

Strange how the prospect of getting on stage with a band does this to me. All the small things that I worried about seem to pale into insignificance. I'm switched on to something much better. The day to day stuff, the nerves associated with it, are all out of the window. I know that this is what is important.

Haven't been eating much recently. I have a youghurt for breakfast, and a pot of houmus when I get back from work with some crackers...I don't have time to cook at the moment and food gets in the way. Now that I don't have to waste time eating at lunch time, I tend to wander around Shoreditch and trying to think about things. I've not drunk much in the last week, but had a bit over the last couple of days...its a permissive culture...and people permit me to often.
Am off home in a minute, to set up the studio and get to work. Guitar overdubs today. I've had some really sweet words said about the new track on my page...its the middle of the opera...thanks for your support.

There will be a lot more to come.

Tom.



Guess which two hippies are getting back together to kick your musical ass! Prepare for war!

The Change...return!

The Change will return to the stage in August this year. I'll give you more details when I have them. The line-up will be myself, Danny Hewis returning on drums, and Llee Hambridge on bass.

And we are going to be very fucking good!

Tom.

The Return

Had a great day out in the Tate Modern yesterday, which has just been re-hung. I haven't been there in a while, and strangely enough...Tate Britain was far more useful to me when I was meeting with and researching on Gustav Metzger for my thesis. I went there with my friend Ems, who I never get to see enough. The day ended with boozy fun at the Couch and then Soho.

I saw a painting that really smacked me between the eyes called 'The Return' by the artist Philip Guston. It was an abstract expressionist work. And I loved the power that was in it. I loved the title too, and will write a song about it. Its a tremendously strong potential hook line. It lit a real fire in me.

The weather is gorgeous. I am writing to you now...when I should be in my little room turned studio, finishing off overdubs for a song called Remember Me. I think that I will have today off...which is a pity in someways because it means that I won't get much done until next weekend, because I work long hours in a shit job for shit money to keep my head above water. I think that I'm going to try to change this. I need a small but dynamic media company, who will let me do a bit of everything for them...or whatever they want. Nothing corporate. Somewhere where I can get stuck in, and feel that if I'm working really long hours that its because I want to and not because I'm being exploited.

Will begin the hunt for this once more.

Its been a while since I posted any pictures here...so I'm going to put a few up for you now! The Return, of my photo posting...you could say.

Its a lazy day. I am a little hungover. I plan to go home in a minute and roast some beef. I also want to work on the storyboards for my EP's art work. Hopefully, these will be the basis for the film that we're going to make around it. Spoke with my old bassist Tom today...he was very encouraging. I've had a lot of positive vibes sent my way musically recently. I feel a lot less isolated. Real action can happen.

Above my bedroom door...there is a photocopy of Gustav Metzger's acid on Nylon experiments, strangely enough, I can see faces and people in them. In the centre, there is a Hein Heckroth like charicature and off to the side a face in profile. Ofcourse, this is my imaginaton...it has nothing to do with Gustav's intentions...believe me, I know...but I like the visual textures generated by his work and my bad photocopying. I'm feeling drawn back into my love of art, and the excitement, the adrenalin that it gives me. It could generate something new and dynamic within me. Give me the stage and I will demonstrate.

Hope that you're all well,

Tom.




This is my friend Charlotte and I, near my house after we came back from seeing the fab Casbah Club, and Southend's finest Mikey Cuthbert...I want to steal her car.
Irish Jack doing the business for charity backstage at the Who Convention...I was auctioning off the flag...and getting Jack and Simon Townshend to sign it too helped us get another £50 on the price. Believe me...there was nothing glamorous about the green room of the Bush Hall.

Fresh Air...and living in the 60s

Its an amazing day out today. Sky is blue. Sun is burning down. I'm listening to a band called The Nines, who are on myspace. Really good! They sent me a message. Asking me to check out their new tracks...and I'm pleased that I did. I find it very very very hard to get into new bands...I'm such a cynic. But today their stuff is just the ticket. They're at http://www.myspace.com/ninespop .

I'm getting lots of fresh air in me today. Am off to see the new hanging at the Tate Modern with my friend Emma, who's been good enough not to do a runner on me - many have - since we met in the first couple of weeks of University. Normally, friends...particularly of the female variety tend to do a runner within 3-6 weeks. Emma has stuck with me. She has a great boyfriend called Stuart who's an artist...he helped bail me out when I was working at Art Review magazine last year and I didn't have anywhere to stay. And we've - Ems and I - have stuck it out whilst other friends have dropped by the wayside.

I have my camera with me...I'm hoping to post some snaps from outside the gallery on my next blog entry.

On a completely different subject...I'm obviously a bit of a sixties junky...I studied revolutionary art from the 1960s and the growth of counterculture...and the music is pretty evident in mine, I guess.

And I when I got out of bed today, something that one of my friends has on her myspace page about wanting to live in the 60s ran through my head...and I could smell the leather of a pair of Chelsea boots - maybe even Gohills which is near where I live - and I thought in a flash of Jimi Hendrix standing in front of the mirror and seeing Handel's ghost. It was strange because it was very very very vivid...a bit like deja vu. Something of the uncanny at work.



My beloved Roundhouse re-opened last week. I WANT TO PLAY THE ROUNDHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO MAKE FILMS ABOUT AND IN THE ROUNDHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO STAGE MY PLAY AT THE ROUNDHOUSE!!!!!!! I WANT TO EAT SUGAR CUBES AT THE ROUNDHOUSE!!!!!!!

And one day...I'm going to.


Peace and Love to you,


Tom.