Not long now until the final Further of the year on Nov 18th at the Portico Gallery, West Norwood, London – here’s a trailer and some little excerpts from shorts we’ve made for Simon James‘ Buchla performance.
Come down from 7.30-midnight for food, drink, a record stall and lots of leftfield music and visuals – Tickets here
You should definitely check out Sculpture‘s amazing site too as it’s full of stuff like this
and this
The next Further at The Portico Gallery is on Sat Nov 18th. Pete Williams and I are very excited to be joined by Sculpture for one of their incredible live AV sets and Simon James (Simonsound / Black Channels /Akiha Den Den) will be performing a live set from his Buchla easel system. Early bird tickets on sale now
We’ll also have the Book & Record Bar stall with releases from both acts and a hand-picked selection to compliment plus delicious food and plenty of seating. See below for what to expect on the night.
Sculpture
Simon James
The last Further at the Portico Gallery
Back in 1999 I went to Colourscape on Clapham Common and took a ton of photos, some of which ended up on the cover of the ‘Kaleidoscope’ album. 18 years later, with my two children in tow, I revisited it and was as wowed as I was nearly two decades before. If you get the chance, it’s a beautiful environment to wander around in for an hour, there’s contemporary classical music in the centre chamber and these photos don’t do it justice because it’s impossible to photograph and sends camera phones into convulsions. For more info where Colourscape is going to be next ,check them out on Facebook.
I was sent a copy of this fantastic book a few months ago and now i’ve seen it appearing in a few of the better books shops over here (Magma has them I believe).
Designed in collaboration with students of the HfK Bremen it’s a 368 page B&W and colour publication from Leipzig, edited by Jan-Frederik Bandel, Annette Gilbert, Tania Prill and Prill Vieceli Cremers
Packed full of underground press magazines, fanzines and comics from West Germany, showing them in the context from which they emerged. A collection like this is priceless, you would never track down some of these publications even if you knew they existed.
Editor Tania Prill will talk about the project at Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair this Saturday, September 23rd at 12:00 am, at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
With great pride and a lot of effort Pete Williams and I played one of our Further sets last Sunday evening at Spiritland, complete with multiple projections. Thanks to everyone who came by despite the bad weather. We had a great time and are in talks to bring it back there. You can hear our 4 hour set below and sample some of the projections we discreetly added to the sumptuous surroundings.
The next Further excursion is in 9 days at the SYNthesis festival in South Norwood, we’ll be playing either side of The Heliocentrics at Stanley Halls preceded by an afternoon of street art painting, food stalls and a talk by designer, Swifty at 6pm.
Tickets here
(Video nicked from Spiritland’s Instagram, photos © Martin LeSanto-Smith)
I was stunned to learn of the sudden death of Virgil Howe today, a lovely, funny, mega-talented man who I had the pleasure to know for a few years. As a drummer he could straddle the funk, rock and psychedelic genres with ease and was also a mean keyboardist and producer in his own right. Anyone who followed him on Facebook was regaled weekly with anecdotes of his DJing adventures and battles with punters who didn’t want their envelopes pushed in the direction that ‘The Verge’ wanted to go.
His Sunday Hidden Level radio show on Soho Radio was always a smogasbord of funk, soul, rock, psych and everything in between and I’m very proud to have been a guest way back when. I only knew him for a while and can’t say I knew him well but we had loads in common the few times we did meet and I send my condolences out to his family for this awful loss. I feel so gutted for the members of Little Barrie too, on the cusp of a tour, a new album out and finally making it after all these years – I hope they find a way to get over this and carry on but Virgil’s drum stool won’t be an easy one to fill.
From his solo work (the Drums Series on Breakin’ Bread featuring other drummers like Malcolm Catto and Shawn Lee) to his material with The Killer Meters, The Amorphous Androgynous, The Dirty Feel to Little Barrie he was a versatile powerhouse of a drummer. He played drums on one of the greatest remixes ever, ‘The Amorphous Androgynous Exploding Psychedelic Bubble Mix’ of Oasis’ ‘Falling Down’ and recorded a ton of drums for me to use on my next record, which I still have – waiting to be chopped up and sampled – something that will take on a different meaning when I finally use them.
He was also a total dude, not in a corny way either, he just oozed warmth and cool. RIP Virgil Howe
It’s that time of year again, time for the 5th Beyond Fest line up announcement and obligatory La Boca poster to accompany it. It runs from Sept 29th-Oct 10th in Los Angeles – check their site for venues, films, dates and some amazing guests.
Myself and Pete Williams have two Further gigs this month – firstly at Spiritland to celebrate their first birthday this week. On Sunday 10th we’ll be taking over in the evening – it’s a very limited ticketed affair but will be a perfect setting for what we want to do.
On Thursday Sept 28th we head to Stanley Halls in Norwood Junction to be a part of the Synthesis festival, a three-day happening of music, street art and food. We’ll be sharing the bill with the Heliocentrics so it should be a suitably lysergic evening.
The festival is run by Rob Swain, head guy at the Gamma Proforma label and just look at the line up. DJ Krush, Beak>, Delta, Mode2, Swifty, sheOne, O.Two, Will Barras, Mr Jago, Augustine Kofie, Howie B, Andrea Parker, Heliocentrics, Juice Aleem, DJ Food, Ofeliadorme and more TBA!
Friday – the day of The Great Pull North, the Day of MuMufication, the Graduation Ball and many other things. At 2pm I was to be at The Florrie, a community centre / flourishing arts lab in the heart of Toxteth to complete my task as ‘Skull Painter’. Trying to second guess what I’d be doing all week I’d run through several scenarios: they had built a huge skull effigy that needed to be decorated? Badger Kull needed a backdrop painting? The JAMs had 400 Toxteth Day of the Dead masks that we would wear that needed customising? I was almost correct with the last one, not masks though, faces – I and 22 others had to face paint skulls onto the 400 and we set to work transforming many friend’s and stranger’s faces alike.
The Ice Kream Van was parked up outside, now with looped rope attached to the front and graffiti’d Dalek on wheels* behind – so that’s what we were going to pull North then, but what fate lay at the other end? (*Update: see comments below for Dalek origin)
At 5pm we were ushered upstairs to a church-like auditorium with seating arranged either side, three vertical video screens framed by an arch above the stage at the far end. A ‘hymn book’ was on each seat which contained the words to ‘Justified & Ancient’ inside but on a quick scan some of the words had been changed. “They called me up in Sheffield town, they said ‘Jarvis, stand by The JAMs'” – surely not? Was Jarvis Cocker going to join the JAMs? The room fell silent and all phones were ordered to be turned off (hence no photos for this part), this didn’t deter some people as you may well have seen by now on the web but it did mean that one of the highlights of the week was captured at least in part.
We were treated to the 23 minute version of the film ‘2023’, a triptych of dark, menacing imagery and iconography that was beautiful, disturbing, baffling, unnerving and loaded with symbolism, the soundtrack mostly ambient industrial sounds and radio noise finishing with Nilsson‘s ‘Everybody’s Talking ‘Bout Me’ over the end credits.
I’ve yet to read the book so most of the imagery has little context at the moment but I noticed revolving grapefruit and Yoko Ono as the Starbucks logo (already seen on some of the merch and the free paper cups when you bought drinks at the Dead Perch). These are both surely a reference to Yoko’s book ‘Grapefruit’ and could allude to the ‘Grapefruit Are Not The Only Bombs’ book we all contributed to the day before, itself an allusion to Jeanette Winterson‘s ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ maybe? The Shard blazed, black pyramids turned above seas and rolling corn fields, stormy skies filled with black clouds, a fox padded the London streets and four bullets from North, South, East and West collided in slow motion in the final scene.
What followed was a long presentation / sales pitch by ‘green undertakers’ Claire and Rupert Callender – a very dark, depressing, occasionally humorous but deadly serious meditation of death that served to bring the mood down to rock bottom. The assertion was not to be afraid but that we were already dead, that The JAMs were now in business with them as undertakers to the underworld and we were all invited to take part in ‘MuMufication’. In a nutshell this meant that they had engineered their own house bricks (stamped with the words ‘Mu Mu’) which each participant could have part of their ashes poured into when they died. These bricks would be collected annually on November 23rd which was now designated ‘Toxteth Day of the Dead’ and a ‘People’s Pyramid’ would be built, year on year, until it was 23 feet high. The pyramid will be situated in Toxteth (site yet to be determined) and it will take 34,592 bricks to build it. Participants who sign up pay £99 and get a brick plus Certificate of MuMufication – this is all real, anyone can do it, check out www.mumufication.com for more info. 
The ‘MuMufication’ sticker I’d snapped a few days earlier on the side of the Ice Kream Van suddenly made sense, and the 99 Mu Mu Bricks, the signs had been there all along. This was the one point where the internet jokes that we’d all be committing some Jim Jones-style suicide pact by the end of things started to gain some credence and I started to wonder if there was anything in the face paint we’d just all applied. I pity anyone in the crowd who had recently lost a loved one or was preparing for a funeral. It was wrist-slashingly sombre.
But Lo! Suddenly a procession sweeps into the room, standard-bearers holding a Toxteth Day of the Dead banner, monks in Mu Mu gowns, coffin-bearers carrying two no-frills bare wood coffins, gravediggers, I also remember traffic cones worn on heads, a choir, there were more but it’s all a but of a blur. Also a blue robed, hooded figure in their midst, face concealed, who mounted the stage behind the congregation and started to speak; ‘They’re Justified, and they’re Ancient, and they drive an ice cream van’ in a soft northern brogue that could only belong to Jarvis Cocker. As the choir mournfully intoned the lyrics the cloak was pulled back to reveal the man himself, brilliantly hamming it up for all his worth in a slow, understated gospel version of their 1991 hit. The videos on the web don’t do it justice without the proceeding events described above, the song lifting the mood higher and higher as the incredulous crowd joined in with the end chant of ‘All Bound For Mu Mu Land’ before exiting the hall in a procession that followed Jarvis, the choir and all performers from the stage and out into the street.
Outside the crowd spilled onto the road and a small gaggle of locals had gathered to watch, Gimpo quickly got the first team to man the ropes of the ice cream van and we were underway on the three mile pull North to The Invisible Wind Factory. Heading the procession were a bagpipe and drummer duo, standard bearers, the pullers, the van with Drummond & Cauty inside, the choir, assorted Mu in robes and sacks and then the rest of us spilling out on both sides and behind. Ragwort was thrown from shopping carts at the front and then collected by more carts at the back and run up to the front again.
The police turned up within half an hour to escort us along the busy riverside road and contain traffic, at one point trying to stop the procession but failing – did they have a permit to march? FUUK knows.
Halfway along the route a car parked up and helpers proceeded to throw yellow kagools out to the marchers, emblazoned with the pyramid blaster and JAMs logos and the legend ‘Delivering Sustainable Death’. The sea of yellow with black and white skull masks moved forward at a brisk pace…
Finally we reached a waste ground, opposite the Invisible Wind Factory, the sunset earlier was a blazing orange sky which would have framed the occasion all the better had we arrived an hour before. A wooden pyramid / pyre was erected in the centre of a circle and the wooden coffins in the back of the Ice Kream Van (I did mention those didn’t I?) were ceremoniously loaded into it. Bill and Jimmy, Mu Mu horns now on their heads, wasted no time, lit long torches and quickly set fire to the structure, it catching almost immediately, going up in a yellow blaze against the night sky as the robed 400 watched and cheered. I’m not going to lie, I was hoping they’d pile the Dalek, the T-Speaker and the van onto the pyre too, cleanse their past in one fell swoop and put the lid on it once and for all but it wasn’t to be.
Some said the plan was to drive the van into the Mersey but I don’t think that happened. After this events got confused, Daisy Campbell, megaphone in hand, struggled to make herself heard to the widely assembled crowd, some of who wanted to eat and drink after the fun and games and some who made for the toilets nearby. The undertakers were in the Ice Kream Van signing up people for ‘MuMufication’, bricks on display, but now wasn’t the time for this on a dark patch of wasteland with the light gone and the temperature dropping. A huge queue formed but with only a small window to explain the process from they were fighting a losing battle.
I retired to the club opposite to set up the decks for my set later on and grab some food backstage. Pete Wylie was there in the dressing room, having schooled Badger Kull half the week and we could see the gathering outside winding down from our high vantage point on the top floor. Punters started arriving at 10pm, a mixture of the 400 and paying public who could also buy tickets, you could tell who was who from the face paint. Greg Wilson was on stage whipping the crowd up with pumped up versions of electronic classics like Gary Numan‘s ‘Cars’, The Human League‘s ‘Being Boiled’ and ‘The Message’ and Kermit from Black Grape was dancing around in bunny ears.
The T-speaker was behind the merch table, selling Badger Kull T-shirts to the faithful and the bemused and it was all about their impending one and only performance at 23 seconds past midnight, a fitting end to the proceedings. The mood was electric as they took to the stage, four guys, all on bass guitar, in face masks and robes with yellow and black warning tape decorations, playing their one note riff over and over to strobes, chanting ‘Toxteth Day of the Dead’ repeatedly, leaving the stage three minutes later to a squall of bass feedback. It was never going to win any prizes for subtlety but it was all the crowd needed.
Lastly it was my turn, pretty daunting to step up to the decks after that performance to a club packed to the rafters with JAMs fans on a total high after what they’d just witnessed I can tell you (I took the photo above as I stepped up). When Jimmy asked me to play at the Ball my first question was, ‘Should I play any JAMs / KLF?’ and the answer was an unequivocal ‘no’, which was fine. Bill wanted ‘no revisiting of one’s acid house days’ and gave me a superb brief to play dangerously, wide and lateral. They also provided me with a glimpse at a page from ‘2023′ where it lists the line up for a fictitious Xmas day episode of Top of The Pops.
(photo by George Stewart-Lockheart)
I took that list fairly literally and decided to source as many original samples that The JAMs, Timelords and KLF had used as possible, I wouldn’t be playing their records, just the records they’d played with. I opened with the MC5’s ‘Kick Out the Jams’ (of course) and proceeded through Abba, The Monkees, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, various TOTPs themes, Tommy Vance spoken word, The Sweet, the Dr Who theme, The Human League‘s version of ‘Rock n Roll’, themes from Jesus Christ Superstar, Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown and more before dropping a ton of club classics and a full final hour of downtempo tunes including ‘Wichita Lineman’ and ‘War Is Over If You Want It’, ending with ‘In The Ghetto’ at just shy of 3am.
(photo by George Stewart-Lockheart)
As gigs go, it was a milestone in my career that I’ll never forget. As an event it was a success on so many levels I doubt the participants will ever fully get their heads around it. As a comeback it was unparalleled, everything and more that a fan of this duo could have wanted but never dreamed up. As an exercise in the closing of one chapter and the opening of another, with the fans helping to write that chapter from the building blocks the JAMs had put in place, it was genius. That they closed the event with the opportunity to eventually place part of those fans and others inside the blocks and build a People’s Pyramid to commemorate the event on the very ground it took place in was another nice touch. Best graduation party ever…
UPDATE: After thinking the audio for my set was lost when only an 11 minute file appeared on my laptop after saving the recording I’d made, it turned out that I found the rest of the set as an untitled file a few months later. Here is the set, re-instated to its full length.
Saturday, the aftermath:
Some graduated early that night and received their certificates at the club, for most though it was one final trip to the Dead Perch Lounge on Saturday morning to be met by an unexpected series of posters that had been plastered up outside overnight. Someone had expressed their displeasure at the events in a very JAMs-esque way, enough to make most question if these weren’t an elaborate double-bluff by Drummond & Cauty themselves.
Inside, The JAMs were handing out signed Certificates Of Graduation with stern handshakes and little banter and we stayed for a drink and an explanation on how exactly The People’s Pyramid was going to be constructed by the architect who had drawn up the plans, now displayed in the gallery. Finally we were ushered into a previously hidden back room where a tower of TV sets showed video loops whilst the choir’s A cappella from Friday’s ‘Justified & Ancient’ quietly played in the background.
Whether Bill and Jimmy ever do another event, make another record or create any more art together ever again (and there were rumours that this could happen elsewhere in the future) doesn’t matter. They and the team around them pulled off an incredible experience that could have crashed and burned (pun intended) so many times and in the process must have inspired many of the participants to go forth and continue this kind of work and thinking in their daily lives from this point on. There were rules, there always is with Drummond, but these were also guidelines to break out of conventional thinking and you have to know the rules before you can break them – always accept the contradictions with The JAMs. Worth the £100 ticket price? Many times over. The experience was priceless and SO much more thought-provoking, entertaining and genuinely life-changing than most of what’s happening in current music, literature and art at the moment.
Travelling back home, to ‘real life’, was surreal, what had happen constantly churning around in my head, the NEED to get this all down and make some kind of sense of it for my own selfish reasons of paramount importance. The desire to talk to people about it burns bright, to those that were there and friends who witnessed it secondhand via the web. The urge to look further into The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, the Green Funeral Company and, of course, read ‘2023’ – things that were completely alien to myself and many others a week ago – is strong and will no doubt point to other people and places as The JAMs begin a new chapter…
Wednesday morning we were called to a venue called Constellations where we are given our tasks for the week by MC for the week Oliver Senton who played Robert Anton Wilson in the ‘Cosmic Trigger’ theatre production by Daisy Campbell, Ken Campbell‘s daughter. They seemed to be very much in charge for the whole week, under the direction of the JAMs most likely, but they made the events happen.
The buckets with numbers were on stage and names were withdrawn at random, the jobs were many and most were baffling. There’s already a webpage collecting all the different cards handed out to the 400 that day plus a few bogus ones that were created in response to events later in the week, I was given the job of ‘Skull Painter’ which I was overjoyed about.
This was the point at which the band Badger Kull were chosen and formed, the four members’ only requirement being that they could play the bass, who were then whisked away by Pete Wylie (of Wah! fame) to be indoctrinated into the ways of the rock world, rehearsed and readied for their performance that Friday. A choir was also formed, under the orders of Nick Coler, long time KLF studio associate (look on the back of the records) as well as ragwort collectors, Badger Kull street-teamers and grave diggers amongst many more. David Hopkinson from the Cube Cinema in Bristol was one of the 400 and hawking the last copies of my Million Mu notes for those that wanted them, the proceeds going to fund repairs to the building. He would come into his own later on in the week as a Badger Kull fan and the man he’s selling to here came along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law!
At 7pm we gathered at The Black-E, a huge venue near the Dead Perch, to be greeted by the T-speaker again in the foyer and made our way into the upstairs space to bear witness to ‘A Hearing’ on why the K Foundation burned a million quid. *A screen in the main room showed a brick with the letters ‘HG’ and ‘M’ on it and then simply, ‘Why?’ What was this brick motif for? It seemed to have nothing to do with the burning episode. *UPDATE / correction courtesy of David Hopkinson – see comments below – in fact it was made from the ashes of the burnt one million pounds, fascinating that they made a brick back in 1997 and 20 years later continued the theme, as we will find out.
Five different experts from different fields gave their angles on it and five independent witness were called to give evidence. Jeremy Deller gave an excellent presentation, complete with slides, at one point illustrating the decline and commercialisation of dance music with a gurning Norman Cook to much applause.
Annebella Pollen made a fascinating comparison with the K Foundation/KLF/JAMs imagery and activities alongside the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift group from earlier in the 20th century and Ann Pettifor gave a perspective from the financial sector, surmising that they were destroying the promise to pay that money gave, reliving the banks of some of their financial debit.
Tom Hodgkinson, founder of The Idler and Clive Martin, a journalist from Vice magazine also gave their takes before Gimpo and Jim Reid were called, both present at the Jura boathouse when the pair burned the money. Ex-publicist William Houghton and tour manager Craig McLean gave often hilarious accounts of the disastrous Glaswegian leg of the original ‘Why did the K Foundation burn a million quid?’ film showing tour as well as the Cape Wrath car episode, most revealingly telling the audience that Bill and Jimmy were both in the midst of having nervous breakdowns at the end of the KLF era.
I’ve often wondered if that was the case, in 1991 alone they released three KLF singles and an album, a JAMs single and must have been recording the beginnings of ‘The Black Room’ and ‘America: What Time Is Love’ plus making videos to go with four of the above and coming to terms with sudden massive success. Who wouldn’t crack up and pull off a performance like The Brits the next year under such pressure? Chris Brook who authored the book ‘K Foundation Burn A Million Quid’ in 1998 rambled on for far too long and members of the audience at the original film showing in Liverpool gave their accounts of the hostile reception they witnessed. Finally, with the event running an hour over time, author John Higgs all too briefly summed up his take with the assertion that it really didn’t matter why.
We were then called on to vote for who we thought gave the most compelling reason out of the original five on the panel and chaos descended again for 15 minutes as 400 people tried to place a one pound coin they’d been given on entry into a bucket with the name of their chosen candidate on it. Annebella’s presentation was the most interesting and original but I felt the summation of what she said (“the act was part of a ceremonial magick tradition of releasing material goods via ritual (& general weirdness!)) didn’t really convey the message well and sounded contrived. Nevertheless she romped home with a clear majority and the JAMs were brought in to hear the verdict to which they simply responded, “whatever”, Drummond looking particularly unimpressed. Had John Higgs been on the panel instead of a witness I would have voted for him by a mile.
Ok, I’ll attempt to get this down while it’s still reasonably fresh, there will be gaps, there will be questions raised that are never answered, there will be confusion, joy, hilarity and sadness plus everything in between. The reasons why are pointless to debate and the amount of pre-planning, effort, co-ordination and just plain luck that went into the events I just took part in may never be known. The truth is also irrelevant as everyone will have their own version and perspective on it, you’ll have to take my word for it and if you were there you may understand it better than those who weren’t. That’s not meant to sound elitist but you’re ultimately reading an account and looking at highlights of what went down from one perspective out of 400. I’m betting that if all the participants told their stories, each would differ quite radically in places, such were the multitude of experiences, tasks, responses and reactions to what unfolded over the last five days in Liverpool.
I’m going to have to post this in parts as there’s just too much to tell and here’s a quick recap for those who don’t have a clue what this is all about. The JAMs – Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty – aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The KLF, The Timelords, The K Foundation, K2 Plant Hire and more have reached the end of their self-imposed 23 year hiatus following the burning of £1 million of their own money back in 1994. To mark the occasion they are staging a series of events in Liverpool where 400 tickets have been sold at £100 a head and each ticket holder is a volunteer who will take part in the events that unfold over the days 23rd-25th August 2017. I was one of the 400 but I was also taking part in the event at the request of the JAMs, but more of that later. Just one more thing before we begin, even though I was asked to perform, I had no idea what was going to happen at all, I probably had two or three scraps of info that others didn’t but had no idea how these fitted into the jigsaw puzzle that was constructed over the following days.
Tuesday 22nd: I departed for Liverpool, arriving to my hotel close to the Static Gallery, now rechristened The Dead Perch Lounge – the base of operations for the week. On my way up the street I passed a fly poster for the Graduation Ball, happening that Friday night, featuring myself and Greg Wilson on the decks and the unknown band Badger Kull performing their one and only gig. Inside was a bar and a wristband collection point where we signed in and gave names and telephone numbers, receiving a menu for the week with times, places and info on what would lie ahead. Each person was presented with a list of eight different tasks that they had to pick one of whereby their names were written next to the number and then put into a bucket for later. These tasks ranged from ‘Are you a strong swimmer?’ to ‘Can you tell people “no”?’ to ‘Are you strong and exactly 5’5″?’. I chose number seven, ‘Can you draw?’.
By the bar was the merchandise area – run by the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop: T-shirts, mugs, posters and more – all priced at £20.23 each regardless of their size – with a couple of mystery items to be revealed at the end of the week on the price list. Most of these items are now available from L-13 at these prices – just go here.
At 23 seconds past midnight (technically Wednesday) the JAMs were to drive their Ice Kream Van down Bold St to the News From Nowhere bookshop to stamp hardback copies of their new book, ‘2023′. In the window was the infamous ‘T-speaker’ from ‘The White Room’ LP cover – now with the addition of a small TV with single roving eyeball video on top, giving it a more religious, crucifix-like shape – and a list of rules for the event that forbade the signing or memorabilia, the taking of selfies or jovial conversation with the band.
The queue had formed hours before and by midnight half the street was full with the 400, onlookers, press and organisers with the odd taxi struggling to get through the mass. Super-fan Phil Blake was one of the 400, arriving in his customised Ford Timelord police car, complete with siren. At the appointed time the JAMs arrived in their van, blaring out the ‘Just One Cornetto’ theme alternated with their own ‘What Time Is Love’ in classic ice cream van distorted bell form. The media scrum around the van was unlike anything I’d ever seen, fans and paparazzi alike rushed the van as it made its way down the street and chaos reigned for 10 minutes while they tried not to run anyone down and were quickly ushered into the bookshop.
Each book was stamped with a variety of different insignia ranging from ‘Built By The JAMs’ to the pyramid blaster to the new ‘Toxteth Day of the Dead’ skull that I’d spotted earlier stuck to the back of the speaker and was now plastered over the van outside with another mysterious 99 Mu Mu brick sticker. Channel 4 News were doing pieces inside and outside of the shop and you can just see me above getting my book stamped with the Moody Boyz‘ Tony Thorpe to the right. People hung out until 2am at least, catching up with friends, new arrivals and speculating what we would be in for during the week. Rumour was rife, faces were spotted and names bandied about, this very much seemed to be a coming together of the original crew again save for the few who had since passed on like Ricardo da Force and plugger Scott Piering. It was an exciting start to the three days we would be taking part in, the JAMs were back, there were more questions than answers but we’d soon be finding out what the FUUK was going on… part 2 here
My Instagram page at the moment – follow me there for images from Liverpool later this week, I will put some sort of report together once I’m back but I won’t be posting properly until next week once I’m in Liverpool. I’ve been posting KLF-related bits that I’ve done in the past all week and here’s a selected recap of The Sound of Mu(sic) mix and poster series jape that I made with Mr Trick back in 2003. For the full story download the pdf here
Dates for the diary London 28/29/30 Sep 2017.
Go follow @synthesisfestival on Instagram #gammaproforma + more…
It’s taken me an age to get round to posting this because – basically – school holidays. That preventer of progress, that eater of time, time you actually get to spend with your kids before they grow up and only want to be with their mates. The snatches of work, social media catch-up and the day to day running of a household don’t leave too long to write extended blogs about how one night was one of the most memorable of the year so far.
Back in the Autumn of 2015 Alan Gubby of the Buried Treasure label put on a night based around a narrative he’d written with David Yates (aka Dolly Dolly, seen with Alan below). It told the story of a woman and a man who work for The Corporation making electronic music and their journey through the middle of the 20th century in sound, sex psychedelics, occult and sound phenomena. The narrative held together a compilation called The Delaware Road, which just so happened to be the site of the original Radiophonic Workshop, and the groups and sounds on the album helped sonically place the story in time, starting with tape loops, jazz and spoken word, progressing to analogue synths and later, digital.
I went to the event as a punter and it was fantastic, mostly for the herculean effort that everyone put into it and how Alan and Dolly’s narrative pulled it together to make sense with eight (I think) bands on the bill plus film interludes. So when an offer to play at a second version staged inside a Nuclear Bunker in the Essex countryside came up I didn’t have to think twice. The Kelvedon Hatch ‘Secret’ Nuclear Bunker descends four storeys underground with entry gained via a bungaow-like frontage nestled in a wood a 20 minute drive from Brentwood station. See photos here from a reccy I did a few months back to get an idea. With twelve acts on the bill spread over four floors this time the whole ante was upped considerably, not least by just getting to the venue in question.
Ticket holders who had bought early got to travel in a green double-decker bus from Brentwood, were given packs containing maps of the bunker, flyer and ‘Delatab’ radiation pills and arrived in style to be greeted by costumed players looking like Morris Dancers from the dark side in the shape of the Mummers & The Pappers. Soundtracking this were Glitch, Saunders & Hill who had set up outside on the entrance balcony and regaled them as they entered the long, concrete tunnel that led down into the bunker proper. From there it was up to the audience to explore the rooms and levels and find acts nestled in strange habitats for the duration of the night.
I kicked the night off in the top room, which I shared with Dolly and Ian Helliwell, Dolly at his table with anglepoise and notes and Ian later working his way through a table of self-made gadgets and boxes with names like ‘Hellitron Modulator’. Earlier we’d found a chrome mannequin in pieces whilst setting up projectors and lights and added her to the ensemble decorating the room. I’d brought oil wheels and video projectors plus mixer with effects and we were lucky enough to be by the cafe next door and have a room full of seats so people stayed with us.
Having finished my first set I was free to explore and further down in the levels below there were more delights to encounter, Radionics in the sick bay, decked out in white labs coats – nice touch. Nearby were Jez and Polly aka the 12 Hour Foundation who also bought oil wheels and a full live kit to play their John Baker-inspired tunes. Hidden away in his own little office area was Simon James, playing a 3 hour improvised Buchla set to a small but rapt audience, politely seated in rows in front of him.
Deeper down in the communications and map room were Loose Capacitor who I could get no decent photos of so you’ll have to do with the glowing, neon map. They had bought TV sets complete with old BBC idents and in the engine room Concretism played a fab set whilst films played over the industrial piping behind him. Nearby, Robin The Fog, representing Howlround, nestled in the broadcast studio complex, used some handy mannequins as tape loop holders. At the very bottom of the bunker, in some sort of generator or power room, were Teleplasmiste with their modular synths where we noticed a certain Steve Davis – ex snooker champion and current electronic DJ – enjoying the sounds. Davis, apparently local to Kelvedon Hatch, was present from beginning to end, keeping a low profile but checking out all the acts.
Back upstairs, Dolly’s last performance was coming to the end and I took to the decks again to close the evening with a mixture of psychedelia, lounge and radiophonics, finishing the night with a track from Alan Gubby’s Revbjelde album. Punters were filing out be now to catch the first of two buses back to Brentwood station whilst we were in the bunker until midnight, packing up before heading to Theydon Bois to catch the central line back into London where I got in just before 3am, exhausted but happy to have been a part of it.
It was unique, it was an amazing venue and I doubt Alan and crew will be in a hurry to repeat the performance but there was plenty of filming going on during the night. The main niggle was that there was so much good music going on concurrently that no one could catch enough of it without missing some of the twelve other acts. If you want a rough idea of what you missed though you can check out the original Delaware Road compilation album containing at least half the assembled players on this date.
And finally, for those who couldn’t make it but want a souvenir of the occasion – the Delaware Road Bunker Pack is now available, including the flyer, the map (designed by Nick Taylor and Luke Insect), badges, a pack of Delatab anti-radiation pills and the download of the full Delaware Road compilation. All for only £5 and limited to 45 sets (only 7 left when I just checked) – get one here.
The cat’s out of the bag – I’ll be playing at the Graduation Ball on August 25th after the three day event The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu are holding in Liverpool commencing August 23rd. Greg Wilson will also be playing and, topping the bill (for 3 minutes) will be the mysterious Badger Kull. This is free for the existing 400 ticket holders for the Welcome To The Dark Ages events but additional tickets just for this gig can be bought here. Be there for the birth of FUUK.
The day after, I’m playing at Emotion Wave, a night not a million miles away from my own Further nights in concept. I did a quick Q&A with organiser Neil Grant, aka Lo Five with a recent release on the Patterned Air label. All on the bill is Mark from Loka with a DJ set, Melodien and Neil himself.
Stand by your JAMMs (or your browsers) this Sunday https://www.bidolito.co.uk/jams/
I’ll be talking about and showing some of my 360 degree dome show at approx 4pm this Saturday at the GaiaNova 360 Theatre launch event in London’s docklands. This was made to accompany my album, The Search Engine, in 2012 and was only shown in London three times on January 19th at the launch event at London’s Planetarium in Greenwich. It’s played in Birmingham’s planetarium, the Leicester Space Centre and a few festivals as well as multiple showings at the SAT centre in Montreal but it rarely gets an outing these days.
The event is free and features all sorts of other dome content and demos, it’s at Cody Dock Cafe 11c South Crescent, London, E16 4TL this Saturday between 11am and 8pm, it’s free but you have to RSVP here
Here’s some screen grabs, imagine this wrapped around a dome and animated…
Seeing as it’s half term this week I thought I’d get my two out of the house and the city so, naturally, I opted to visit a secret nuclear bunker out in the countryside near Brentwood. The Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker is a spooky place and also soon to play host a second version of Alan Gubby’s play / album / gig, The Delaware Road (for more info on exactly what that is – please go here).
For those lucky enough to see the first incarnation at the Reading Arts Club some 18 months ago I can assure you it won’t be a repeat performance but something else entirely. The line up has swollen to twelve artists, the venue will have several spaces operating simultaneously with performers on rotation on different levels and the audience will very much be entering into something to be explored and experienced rather than the narrative-led musical presentation of old. Think of a Cold War setting channeling the Radiophonics and music concrete of the sixties with added pagan and occult references, it’s going to be like some sort of underground (literally) happening where the DJs use tape instead of turntables.
The story will still be a part of the night with Dolly Dolly‘s turn as ‘Director General of The Corporation, a state controlled media organisation‘ happening in one of the spaces, one he’ll be sharing with Ian Helliwell and myself throughout the night. There will be no headlining act, no support or warm up, every artist will contribute to the whole with the star of the night most likely being the venue itself. It’s spooky enough in the day, heaven knows what it’ll be like at night.
Tickets are selling steadily and are almost gone with at least one of the two double decker buses put on to ferry people up from London directly to the site having long sold out. Get yours here
Pete Williams and I opened and closed our first Further at the Portico Gallery on Saturday. We’d spent the past six months or more preparing for this, creating over 350 hand painted slides, video loops, chaining projectors together to automate them remotely and working out the best way to transform the gallery into a canvas for our work. During my set I looked around and finally relaxed, feeling dwarfed by the encompassing visuals, most of which I’d been painting under a microscope only a few weeks earlier. This is just the beginning, we have plenty more to show and do…
I’ve been posting photos of each of the acts every day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get a peek at all the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there. Martin LeSanto-Smith took the photos and without him we wouldn’t have been able to physically set the thing up. John Price from the Portico Gallery let us make it happen and was supportive all the way – massive thanks to both of them and also for Hannah Saunders from Big Fish Little Fish who gave advice, loaned projectors, helped on the door and bar and was generally a hero on the night.
Local tape loop heroes Howlround aka Robin The Fog and Chris Weaver performed the score to Steven McInerney’s film, ‘A Creak in Time’ for the first time at Further on May 6th. Tapes were tangled, tweaked and stretched with an audience member even acting as a loop holder at one point. I’ll be posting photos of each of the acts each day here and we’ve set up a new Facebook page for the venture where you can get an early peek at the photos right now, please ‘like’ our page if you do that sort of thing whilst you’re there.
Martin LeSanto-Smith took the photos.
