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The bits
of stuff that fall in the cracks between Life, Music and outrageous
fortune. |
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| January |
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Close
this window to return to Mike Rudd & Bill Putt's Stop Press |
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1) There's
always somebody.. 2) Flinders Station in mid-arvo |
The
week that still is..
25.1.07 - There's so little happening by way of gigs
lately that I wonder if it's really worth inventing things for
myself to do, but I get up each morning and gamely make up a
list anyway. On Tuesday I'd organised a meeting with Ted Lethborg
at Aztec to see how things were proceeding with the re-issues,
and we had a nice chat over coffee. The nett result of that
was that I delivered the safety copies of Spectrum Part
One and I'll Be Gone to him today for Gil (Matthews)
to bake in his oven, a unique procedure that ensures at least
one pass of the tape at its level best before it expires. (Tape
has a limited lifespan and, more often than not, tapes that
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have been kept in less than optimum
conditions for any length of time virtually disintegrate before
your eyes when you attempt to play them - we are yet to discover
the long term prospects for CDs, of course).
Robbo (and Bill) came over to AMS on Tuesday arvo to put a drum
track on Don't Hurt No More, a twice-lost song that
I wrote for Ariel, but which never got recorded, apart from
a reel-to-reel tape that I re-discovered a couple of years ago
of (maybe) Ariel's first ever performance at the Camberwell
Civic Centre back in 1973. The song is a bitter assessment of
a failed relationship, (probably about the break-up of Spectrum
in reality), so it suits my mood right now. I hope it makes
it onto the album - I'm putting George Martin on tonight and
fiddling with some Hammond lines.
Yesterday I took the tram into town to do lunch with Dick, as
well as popping into ACMI to see if they had a copy of Dalmas,
(the Bert Deling movie we did the music for in 1972), and hoping
to make an effects recording of a lift in the Nicholas Building
for the Star Crazy track on the album (it's complicated).
I had a lovely lunch at the Nostril with Dick (the oysters were
excellent) and ended up hiring a VHS tape of Dalmas OK after
becoming a 'trial' member of ACMI, but the lift didn't have
the sound I was looking (or listening) for, so I took the train
home slightly dissatisfied, not to mention slightly the worse
for wear.
To conclude on an optimistic note, I tootled over to Ian McCausland's
place in Glenroy today and checked out his progress on the Breathing
Space cover art. Children, I can tell you it looks wonderful,
and it's still only in the early stages - I can see it on the
new range of Spectrum T-shirts already! |
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The light
is good at Choclatté.. |
The
year so far..
21.1.07 - With
the return of the Gusto girls last Thursday, I thought the year
had finally and officially begun, but, it seems, nothing is
irreplaceable. While the girls innocently tarried on their Christmas
break, I began using the recently opened Choclatté as
my Camberwell base, and although I was thrilled to see them
back hard at work in their fetching new chocolate brown uniforms,
the Gusto ambience suffered by comparison with Choclatté's
sunnier disposition, and I found myself being drawn there against
my natural and rather touching Gusto brand loyalty.
I guess I shall split my time between them based on mood, and
I shan't get too bothered about it, but it causes me to wonder
if this a portent of another dithering year. I certainly hope
not - and as if to counteract any such misgivings I've got an
appointment with Aztec's Ted Lethborg on Tuesday to discuss
the much mentioned (here, at least) imminent Spectrum CD re-ssues,
and my Outlook is fairly bristling with busy-sounding appointments
and phone calls etc. Hooray! |
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John
Baker's book on the Pretties' tour does coffee
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Amazon
post-Chrissie bonus arrives
5.1.07 - With all the talk about The Pretty
Things lately, I wasn't all that surprised to find that my copy
of Don't Bring Me Down..Under, the story of the Pretties'
seminal tour of NZ in '65, had arrived in my Post Office Box
today. Good reading too, although it's more of a glorified magazine
than a book. |
Monitor
failure causes disruption
7.1.07 - I had James the PC Doctor over
for his first visit for the New Year on Thursday. My monitor
was playing up, which he was able to fix temporarily, but it's
now given up the ghost entirely. I hope this isn't an augury
for the New Year.. |
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1)
Queuing to leave 2006 2) Dave Orams regains his composure |
Dave's
not here, man..
3.1.07 - Well, he was here - Dave
Orams that is. For the young and/or uninitiated, Dave was the
bassist with Kiwi band Bari & The Breakaways, who inevitably
broke away from Bari and became simply The Breakaways. He popped
over today and after checking out the magnificent facilities
at AMS, joined me in a couple of coffees down at Choclatté,
which is substituting for Gusto over the hol's. We chatted about
the old days of course, and he remembered the time he and the
band saw The Pretty Things (see Mike's P&W). He looks composed
enough now, (pic 2) but if you mouse over the pic you'll
see his reaction to being shot.. |
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