3.30am - all alone in a strange place, just the way I like it.

I had just carried another four bags in to join the previous three.  Everything had changed for the worse, so it took me 8 hours to get to this point.  It should be getting easier each time but it's really really not.

Large deserted buildings make a surprising amount of noise and I knew no one else was in the place.  The ticking sound is water dripping through the ceiling.  Getting there.

Ain't solar power great?  If a bit cruel.

Legacy 10 preparation.  Getting there - I'm hoping all the elements of Legacy will come together by the end of May.

Rheingold, Scene II.  An open space on the mountaintops.

 

Music by Wolfgang Sawallisch and Bavarian State Opera, 1991 on EMI. 
Buy it from the great Harold Moore's Records: hmrecords.co.uk/

So the wonderful Mark Fry and Friends show has been and gone, and what a resounding success it was.  We'd all like to do more shows together, and judging from the reaction of the audience at Village Underground they'd like us to as well.  Watch this space.

From the heady heights of Thursday night it's back to the previous, slightly grubby matter in hand - nice grubby, rather than grubby grubby that is - Legacy preparation continues.  I'm glad it's been raining recently, fills the reservoirs.  Not enough for the farmers, but enough for me.  (See footnote below.)

Film below:  I guess you could call this Pre-Legacy prep.  I don't know the programme, just caught it on late night TV.  A lot of these old buildings are used as charismatic backdrops for TV programmes, which can be quite useful for planning, and it's always a buzz to see 'your' gaff on the telly.  The only reason I can think of recommending the appalling film Sahara is to catch its Pyestock moments - Cell 3 and Cell 4 both dolled up for Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz... I must say I pity the poor bastard assigned the job of getting the pigeon shit off everything before filming started.  

Why at least some of these remarkable places can't be preserved in some historically relevant way, rather than just knocking them down for lorry distribution centres or turning them into inappropriate flats is beyond me.  Go around the Ruhr valley and you'll see disused industrial works turned into art and public spaces that respect the history of the place.  A couple of years ago I live mixed John Cale's Dark Days installation in the old coal works in Essen, now partially art spaces and a kind of a park.  Families walking around, cafeterias, good buzz, while all the time the original coal machinery looms over you, reminds you how the place once was.  I might be being a bit naive - when I naughtily popped over a locked gate to see the coal works close up I wound up in the junkie's den, not quite the family atmosphere I'm describing - but at least they're trying something, respecting where it all came from, appreciating how it defines the area and the people in it.

Not so here in the UK.  Flatten it, move on.  I would say Rant Over but I haven't even started yet.

Footnote:  Someone told me recently I was being a right tease with the obtuse way I'm presenting what I'm doing at the moment, and to a certain extent I am, but there is a proper reason for that too:  I'm not even half way through setting up this installation - by far the most complicated thing I've taken on -  and if I made too much of a song and dance of it I'd probably have to abandon the whole thing.  I've been planning this for months, with tricky-to-research purchases from China, Athens and Argos, so abandoning it is not an option, especially as I'm way beyond the 14 day return period for Argos.

I've written a piece for ClashMusic about Mark Fry and the show we're doing next Thursday 19th at Village Underground in London.  This week we've been rehearsing together as a band for the first time and it's been fantastic.

Slightly Amazing Moment Number One:  Once we'd played through Mandolin Man for the first time in the rehearsal room, Mark said that was the very first time the song had been played since he recorded it in 1971.  Woah.

Slightly Less Amazing Moment Number Two:  Billy Bragg lost his jacket in the cafe next to the rehearsal rooms.  I hope he found it again.  Everyone seemed pretty confident it would turn out right in the end.  Phew.

This is going to be an exciting show, and I'm really looking forward to it.  Any trepidation I felt about what it would actually sound like went in the first ten minutes in the rehearsal room - we make a cracking band.  Grasshopper out of Mercury Rev doesn't fly in until early next week, but even without him the rest of us - Mark and me out of Lemon Jelly, Guto out of Super Furry Animals, Martin out of Tunng and Nick out of The A.Lords made such a glorious noise.  It's going to be out of this world.  Like I say at the end of the ClashMusic piece, Bring It On....

Come along and say both Hi and Wow - probably not at the same time, that doesn't really work.  I've just seen some special offer tickets here - not sure how long they'll be up there for.  See you in a gently spaced out Shoreditch.

Preparation for my next project.

Carrying a 70 litre bag of J Arthur Bower's Multipurpose Compost up to a high floor of an abandoned building. This is the final stage of a complicated 3 hour journey carrying 3 bags.