Tweakin'

Hi there. Well, today I've been busy tweaking my draft of the book, just altering the odd word or sentence construction here and there. Despite starting this process yesterday afternoon I'm already a third of the way through the whole document. Working at that rate I think there is a good chance that I will finish the book next weekend, which is very exciting indeed after all of this time. A friend of mine, who is involved with publishing suggested that when I have finished the draft I should leave it for a period of six weeks, go back to it and see if it still cuts the mustard, so taking his advice on board this is precisely what I'm going to do. Reading through what I've written today I'm fairly happy with it. Will I still feel happy with it in a short while? Hopefully, but we shall see....

Yesterday I also booked my flight to Berlin to see what will undoubtedly be a fantastic live Ashra show in June. Very much looking forward to that and also to returning to the UFA Fabrik where the band originally rehearsed for the Correlations album in 1978. I last stayed at the UFA in February of 2010 and met both Manuel and drummer Harald Grosskopf there. That occasion marked Harald's first return visit to the location since the late '70s, so that was a great experience (and you can read all about it in my blog post from February 2010, titled Ich bin eine Berliner).

There is a story behind both of the photographs in this post. The picture above was taken just off Brick Lane in London a couple of weeks ago by my good friend Mr. Stephen Iliffe. This was the weekend when we were lined up to see Agitation Free at the Jazz Cafe. Unfortunately the concert was postponed until November but we made the most of the weekend, paying a visit to the Rough Trade record shop on Brick Lane, then heading through the Docklands area and on to Greenwich to have a look at the space observatory, something I've wanted to do for years. A great time was had by all.

The second photograph appears courtesy of Sid Smith and was taken at Mr. Drayton's Record Player, which takes place at Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema every Thursday night. Each week Mr. Drayton, a radio producer, stand-up comedian and music enthusiast plays a classic album on vinyl and the audience listen, whilst relaxing and watching a related slide show. It's a truly great night and big thanks goes out to Mr. Drayton for reawakening my interest in vinyl after buying CDs for many years. The photo above was taken a couple of weeks ago when I won the quiz, receiving a book and the princely sum of five english pounds as a prize. After listening to two classic albums I'd call that an unbeatable night.

Now, does anybody know where I can buy some MG albums on good quality vinyl? My collection is on CD. The hunt begins....

Cheers! Back very soon.

Museum Piece V

Special thanks goes to Harald Grosskopf, the man behind the camera for allowing me to post this photograph of Manuel and Lutz Ulbrich with Michel Huygen of the band Neuronium. The snap was taken in Spain (probably in March of 1981) when Ashra recorded a TV concert for the Barcelona channel RTVE.

MG - Live in Madrid

This is just a quick message wishing MG the best of luck with his live performance of E2-E4 at Madrid's Festival Electronica en Abril tomorrow night (12th April). See more here. Unfortunately I can't make this show, as I'm currently trying to squirrel away some money for Ashra's Berlin concert in June.

A message for any readers too - if you do go along I hope you have a great time! If you have any reviews or photos please get in touch afterwards and I will credit them to you right here on the blog.

A busy weekend of writing is coming up. More soon.....

Greetings from sunny Tynemouth

Hello there. Your rambling writer offers greetings from Tynemouth. Actually, this is just around the coast from Whitley Bay, so I haven't really been travelling to some far-flung location again. At the moment I'm in the middle of a 10 day stretch of time off work and I was rather hoping that we might see a repeat of last year's Easter weather, the best of 2011 in these parts. This allowed me to sit in the backyard, writing for a week. Alas, it wasn't/isn't to be. The weather has been extremely iffy this time, with clouds, rain and cold wind. It even snowed a little last night.

No matter, though. I've been too preoccupied with writing the book to really notice. Things are now officially getting very exciting indeed here. I'm 117 pages into the fifth draft, working through a 147 page document and it is starting to look like a real book - I mean the kind of book that someone might want to read! When I think back to what I started with four years ago this is amazing to me...I am truly nearly there. I also have tomorrow to work on things before I travel to London on Good Friday to catch up with an old friend over the weekend. Part of the original plan was to see Agitation Free play live at the Jazz Cafe but this show is now sadly postponed until November. Not to to worry.

By the time I return to the blog I expect to have finished the fifth draft. When I've done this I'll need to take a short break so that I'm not too close to my work-in-progress, come back to it and then ask myself whether it is a finished product yet.

I'll be back soon. In the meantime have a Happy Easter!

Second half

Hi all. Apologies for my absence from the blog. Last weekend I was with family up in Northumberland, so unfortunately wasn't able to move forward with the book. Whilst up there we paid a visit to Cragside, the first house ever to be lit by hydroelectric power. This was the country home of the enterprising industrialist Lord Armstrong and later on in 1977 it became a National Trust property. The grounds of the property are spread over a spectacular 1.54 square miles of beautiful land. I've put a few photos, both old and new from the estate in this post.

The first image (above) is an impressive set of stained glass panels from the house and these are by artist William Morris. They represent the four seasons. From left to right: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

And so on to my progress with the book. I spent much of yesterday transcribing Manuel Gotsching's recent Redbull Academy Radio Show Fireside Chat. This was simply too good not to include, even if typing up the quotes from the one hour programme sentence by sentence was a bit of a painstaking process. Anyway, I'm there with it now and am incorporating the information in to the book before picking up where I left off: about halfway through the fifth draft (circa 1980, post Belle Alliance).

At the end of next week I have a 10 day stretch off work, so plenty of time to get stuck in and move forward with things. The only interruption, if you want to call it that, comes in the form of a visit to see Agitation Free at the Jazz Cafe in London, which should be great. I'll also be meeting up with a good old writer friend for a catch-up, something I'm very much looking forward to.

By the way: you've got to love the flyer for the Ashra show in Berlin in June (see top of the post). It certainly gave me a smile when I saw it! Is anybody going to see Manuel play E2-E4 in Madrid? Unfortunately I can't make it but if you go along and you get any pictures please feel free to send them on and I'll post them right here on the blog, along with an acknowledgment, if you'd like.

Ok: more work to do. Back soon....

Half-time oranges

Well, as the hours of another weekend slip away, like sand through my fingers, I find myself at almost precisely the halfway mark of the fifth draft of the book. In some sports, including football, they have oranges at half-time. Perhaps I should too?

Yesterday I was writing about the New Age of Earth album and today I've been finishing off with Correlations, a couple of years later. That doesn't sound like much but including archival releases that's seven records. I'm quite pleased with my progress but it pains me to tear myself away from the project once more, as another week at work beckons.

Today I had a bit of e-mail correspondence with Ashra/Cosmic Jokers drummer Harald Grosskopf, as I wanted to confirm that what I'd written about the Ashra rehearsal sessions of 1978 at Berlin's UFA studios was accurate. As friendly and helpful as ever, Harald was back in touch in no time at all to provide a few fresh quotes on top of what I already had. Great stuff! Cheers, Harald. Top man!

It frustrates me to walk away again but I'll be back soon. It just takes a little patience and I'm getting there, for sure.

A kosmische evening in Whitley Bay

Last night my wife, Vicky and I decided to have a walk down to the beach in Whitley Bay to look at a laser projection called Global Rainbow, which is here for four nights as part of the celebrations for the 2012 London Olympics.

My pictures hardly do justice to this impressive visual spectacle, which stretches from the headland near St. Mary's Lighthouse (see my blog post on New Year's Day) across the sky and over to the horizon, as far as the eye can see.

On the way back I was pointing out the planets to my wife when we both saw a large object in the sky that looked as if it was on fire. At first I was deeply concerned that we were witnessing an aircraft in trouble, as a long plume of yellow and purple flame seemed to trail from behind whatever it was. As a result of the lasers there were lots of people around and we could hear them collectively expressing shock as they too witnessed what we were seeing. Unfortunately by the time I'd focused my camera on the object it was well on its way towards the edges of visibility, as it shot overhead. I captured the photograph below, which was rather disappointing but I'll certainly never forget what I saw.

This morning the object, a meteor, has made the national news in Britain, with an amateur film shot in Whitley Bay shown on the BBC. It is possible to read about it and watch a clip here. A worker at a space observatory in Kielder, Northumberland has tweeted: "Of 30 years observing the sky - fireball best thing I have ever seen period." I would certainly be surprised if I ever see anything as spectacular again.

From cosmic skies to cosmic writings today has seen me take the fifth draft of the book as far as a section about the New Age of Earth album. No massive changes to what I had already written. I'm just carefully checking facts and spellings etc. and making a series of minor adjustments as I go along. Getting there, as ever. These, it seems, are cosmic times.....