Week, uh, whatever.
Not an auspicious start to the weekend. Got up too late, or rather lay too long in bed not asleep but with head full of ideas or more specifically, things I need to do with the weekend. As a result of this I was late getting out of the house and late arriving at the barbers and therefore found a huge queue waiting. So I figured, what the hell, another week might not make too much of a difference and anyway, its meant to get cold next week so perhaps having even less hair on my head would be a bad idea. And you know I don’t do hats. So then headed up through town to the Boston, where I am now, and although it’s fairly quiet, none of the sofas are free so I’m forced onto one of the wooden chairs and tapping away on a table rather than cosily on my knee. Oh well. I suppose I ought not to complain too much as it’s at least not raining. Also, C got email this morning announcing the imminent arrival of the Freaks and Geeks DVD collection. Yay! It looks like being a huge 8 DVD set, so it ain’t gonna be cheap. They seem to be taking advance orders for the ltd edition box set on the website, but this morning it appeared to be down, perhaps crashed under the strain of all the interested freaks and geeks desperate to pre-order. And unfortunately too it’s not scheduled for release until near the end of April. That means, like, a three month wait. A quarter of the year! Still, something to look forward to I guess.
More positives: I am so happy at the number of people who are keen to be involved in my geeky record label project. The Legend!, Clientele, July Skies, Lovejoy, Snowdrops, Playwrights, Jasmine Minks, Soft Set, Shade Tree, Anagram, and this morning an email from Roy Thirlwall from The Windmills saying he’d be more than happy to donate a track. This is so gratifying. I wish I had the money to do releases for all of them and more, but hey, at least I don’t need to worry about what I can put out for a long time. Speaking of which, I really do need to start getting the first one together. Time is not standing still. Oh, how time is not standing still…
Had a couple of emails from Mark Radcliffe yesterday. Not sure if its that Mark Radcliffe (as in the radio DJ and chum of ex-Creeper, Fall and Nightingale, Marc Reilly, aka ‘Lard’), and not that it matters, but hey… he was hoping to discover more about Paul Quinn, so if anyone can give us an update on Paul’s whereabouts etc these days, please get in touch and let us all know. Quinn of course is up there as one of the forgotten geniuses, and Mark reminded me about the ‘Phantoms and Archetypes’ album that I had forgotten existed, and which I would love to hear. So if anyone has a copy they can tape or burn for me that would be hugely appreciated. Mark’s email also reminded me of the time I wrote to Alan Horne. This was back in the start of the ‘90s, when Postcard was in its second phase. I was being cheeky and asked if he could spare some sleeves or posters to help in my record sleeve design project in school. His response was more than generous, with a heap of CDs, records, posters, flyers and those great fold out poster-brochures. I don’t know if the kids in school appreciated it, but I certainly did. Heavenly records were equally cool at that as well, as I recall, sending some massive St Etienne posters and the super-great Etienne fanclub CD. I think they also sent that little Heavenly bird badge that I found again last week whilst sorting through things in the geek lair.
And speaking of Postcard, was there ever actually a ‘Punk Rock Hotel’ movie? Or was that another of those mythic projects? And was there ever a visual record of that Quinn / Independent Group ‘Cheap Flights’ performance at the GFT in ’94? Ten years ago nearly! Sheesh. Or what about those Postcard Fin De Siecle nights? Or the ‘Suitcase’ or ‘Rapt Like A Brick in 16mm’ films? Were they even made? Or were they more imaginative ingredients in the always immensely creative Postcard catalogue? We need to know. We demand to know.
Anyway, I copied some of those old Postcard things for my fanzine ‘I wish I was unpopular’, which will go on public sale next weekend at the fanzine convention down the Cavern. I hate the fanzine already because its so out of date already and because it uses mostly things off Tangents and this blog. The thought of writing exclusive content for it seemed kind of weird, but maybe in hindsight I should have done just that. It does look quite nice though, with it’s photo of Lupe on the cover (thanks Gail!) and the Shade Tree CD EP slipped in the bag with it… I printed 20 copies and I doubt I’ll print more, unless there is demand, which I kind of doubt. It also felt strange, putting together this thing and it not being instantly available. I wonder if instant publishing through the web and new technologies has spoilt us? Do we value the physical artefact as much as we used to, and is this a good or a bad thing? How does it affect our perception of the value of art, in particular the written word? If we are becoming used to consuming the written word for free, does this mean we value writers and their art less?
So many questions, so little time to think of the answers. It’s ten thirty, my large decaff is finished. Time to head home.
hey alistair, i want a heavenly badge, your so lucky! oxx
Posted by: izzywizzy | January 26, 2004 at 00:42
Paul Quinn? Forgotten genius! I span the Quinn + Collins "Pale Blue Eyes" cover at The Blue Aeroplanes ( Remember them? ) Shrewsbury gig last week. Sounded so good..Oh, and I played"It's Kinda Funny" too.
Postcard=Expresso/Etienne=Mocha?
Posted by: John Kertland | January 30, 2004 at 09:58