Only 24 Hours From Tulsa...

A few things I forgot to mention recently (“Come on Dave”, I hear you cry, “your infinitesimal detail of every rubbish thing you do can surely have left no stone unturned”)…

Well no actually...

Whilst labouring recently under my hopefully soon to be gone cold, I did the inevitable surfing on e-bay and have ended up buying two DVDs…

The first is of a concert in Holland a couple of years back featuring ex King Crimson drummer, Bill Bruford and a dutch chap called Michiel Borstlap on piano – jazz improv…

The second is of David Gilmour of the Pink Floyd in Concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in June 2001 and January 2002…

They are coming from China so it could be a while before they arrive…

What did arrive today though, was a CD by current King Crimson drummer Pat Mastellotto and Markus Reuter of the band Centozoon, a master of Chapman Stick, Warr Guitar and erm, tapping….

It’s weird one but quite excellently put together by these two superb musicians – a cross between Drum’n’Bass and modern prog rock. It also features many samples of Maestro Robert Fripp…

Tasty…

At 8pm we watch Brian Eno on The Culture Show. What a dreadful programme – but the Eno interview was OK – it was to publicise his new artwork “77 Million Paintings”, which is a piece of software you run to give a “painting” which is always changing but very, very slowly. This is not a million miles away from his “Thursday Afternoon” video of 1985...

I am alerted to the Eno piece by old chum and collaborator Peri Urban. The other thing I forgot to mention was that he called me the other day out of the blue and we had a good old chat. He had mentioned he might come along to OOTB tonight but in his Eno related call, he advises he won’t be along – he is a bit of a recluse though. You can read his blog here : http://www.brainpilot.blogspot.com

And so, after Eno, I phone Jamie to suggest a visit to OOTB tonight, just to watch though – as my arm-pains are still stopping me from using a guitar – and Jamie’s had a bad cold for the last 10 days and so his voice is a bit shot...

I ask Anne if she wants to come along too and, much to my surprise, she says “Yes”. The smoking ban is having an agreeable effect...

So we head round to Jamie’s to pick him up, whilst taking back his mic and stand borrowed for the OOTB sessions....

We have a chat with Jamie and wife Suzy and their precocious young son, Conrad, before heading to OOTB...

On arrival we find it to be very sparsely populated (it won’t be next week though, which is the last night ever at The Waverley before the club moves down the Royal Mile a bit to The Cannon’s Gait – a pub Anne, Jamie and I used to frequent back around 1979/80 when Jamie and I shared a flat in St Mary’s St) and, by the end of the first of, supposedly, three sessions, they’ve run out of acts...

Tonight’s organisers, Big Jim, Scott Renton, John Barclay and David O’Hara go round what there is of the audience and plead for people to take up the remaining slots for the evening....

Jamie explains his voice is a little shot and I advise I can’t play a guitar at present. However, Jamie puts his name down and so do I, then try and play something on one of the house guitars but it’s no use – I can’t raise my left arm high enough to have my fingers on the frets where they need to be – coupled with the fact that I can’t actually remember any of my songs anyway!

But it’s Jamie to the rescue. He says he knows the chords for “A Nice Job in a Small Town” and “Skylines Full of Cranes” and so I agree to do at least two songs...

Jamie goes on and does a sterling three song set – “On The Inside”, about his daughter, Madison, “Welcome to this World” about his son, Conrad and, I must say, best song of the evening by a country mile, “24 Hours From Tulsa” in honour of the very recently deceased Gene Pitney – of whom Jamie was a big fan and also of whom he remembered buying a CD from Anne and my’s record shop when it was situated right opposite the Waverley bar all those years ago...

Spooky...

Jamie then calls me to the stage and I sing while he plays guitar. Both “A Nice Job in a Small Town” and “Skylines Full of Cranes” go down well and so we have a go at “You Taught Me How to Love You” of which he performed a cover a few weeks ago and reckons he still remembers it – he just about does and I just about remember the lyrics too...

But nothing tonight could beat Jamie’s “24 Hours From Tulsa”...

It was good to have Anne along tonight for once, and we enjoyed a chat with John from Impossible Songs who was over in Germany recording a new album while we were in France...

We take Jamie home and get back at around 12:45...

Very enjoyable...

Highlight of the Day : Performing Without Having to Play Guitar