Subject : the day I lost my teeth (and the day we missed the train)
Date : Fri, 08 Oct 1999 12:00:47 PDT
Hi All
regarding the Paddington train 'disaster' (if the sleazy tabloids are to
be believed - I still don't trust them especially after the 'Diana'
incident) I passed by the station via the tube line at 11am and didn't
notice any hullabaloo though the tube was slightly faster on that day.
The internet company thing is competitive here, as you may know in the UK
here people pay for every phonecall as opposed to a flat monthly rate, so a
lot of free to join internet companies have started up who make their money
via advertisements on the webpage and from a cut on the phoneline charge.
I've joined up to a few of them, they are of varying quality, e.g. too busy,
too popular. One company www.lineone.net has started giving away freebies,
at the moment you get a free cdrom (a cooking one, 3D graphics, and an
educational game) plus a 10 UKP voucher with www.amazon.co.uk the online
bookstore. I mention all this because this book company sell all bestsellers
for halfprice so I've just used my gift voucher to buy 'Hannibal' on
hardback for $2.40 NZ !
Anyway this email is to tell you about the operation in detail. At the
moment I am still resisting temptation to put my tongue into the empty hole,
earlier in the day I showed my tooth to everyone here.
On Wednesday the appointment was for 8:30am. The night before I didn't get
much sleep, I was pretty optimistic, not worried, but something was keeping
me up. My greatest was not so much pain but because I gag quite easily so
can't keep my mouth open for long plus I'm not very good at swallowing pills
!
I got up at 6:30am and had a shower. Gelled up the hair spikely, packed my
bag with my current reading material : "In The Name Of The Rose", some
videos : Jackie Chan's "Mr Nice Guy", "Marathon Man" and "Jason And The
Argonauts". When I was there one week earlier the nurses said to being in
videos as they ones they have there they have seem umpteen times already and
are sick of them !
The ones they have are : A Bugs Life, Antz, Batman And Robin, The Jackal,
Conspiracy Theory, A Life Less Ordinary, Shawshank Redemption, Best Friends
Wedding, Men In Black, Heat...
I mention to the nurse I do have Marathon Man and then she cackles, the
others don't know it so I decide against bringing it outas Sky is looking
pale.
I got on the tube and got off at Chancery Lane and took the bus up Greys
Inn Road halfway to Kings Cross and got off at the Eastmen Dental
Instutitute. When I got into the surgery there was an guy from Napier there
Tim, an english girl Sky and an irish guy Paul (who looks like Marc Almond
and Alan Cummings [Bernard and the Genie] - he didn't appreciate the
comparison).
Me and Tim were pretty relaxed about it, though Sky was a bit fretful. At
9am the dentist who was still wearing his mask called me
in in is european/german(!) accent !
The dental nurse was nice and friendly and both tried to calm me. I was
determined to were a brave optimsitic face on all this !
My bottom left wisdom tooth was growing horizontally so they have to
remove it by cutting it out (which is normal for that one) and remove its
upper partner.
I lay back in the chair and rinse my mouth - darnit and to think I had a
wad of mints before I came just for their benedit ! He gave me five local
anaesthetic injections, they were very slight, a needle or pin would've
caused more sensation ! I didn't realise it at first until he told me. he
put two on the bottom jaw, two on the top, then one on the roof of my mouth.
We waited for a while then he stuck a rubber bit into the rightside to keep
my mouth open of course. Then they started...
The nurse put a paper bib on me and plastic goggles and told me to rest my
arms down my front. The nurse put in that thin suction hose to suck up the
blood and saliva The dentist started work on the bottom tooth first. He has
that "scalpelly" thingie and dug and scraped away at the base of the tooth,
slicing the gum and flesh from around the tooth, I couldn't feel any pain
but judging from the textual resistance it felt like running a knife through
thick porridge.
After a minute or so of this he gets out his drill and starts drilling the
tooth into bits and pieces, now I know why I have the goggles as bits of
white calcium hit the top of my mouth and/or fly out of my mouth. No chance
of keeping it sigh. I look at the hose coming out of my mouth and thick
syrupy blood dragging its way through it.
At this point the nurse says something that I'll never forgot - "Relax".
At this point I actually realised that my body was tense so I relaxed - and
all felt better, no more anxiety about gagging or choking ! Over the course
of the next ten minutes I kept reminding myself to relax and this helped
immensely !
Eventually he had drilled the tooth away and naturally a bit of my jaw.
Then the worst part, getting stitches ! I didn't realise what he was doing
until I could feel the tug and the thread against my the left side of my
open mouth. I think I got about 2-3 stitches. I then had a brief respite and
then he started work on the top tooth.
He stuck in a metallic sort of wedge which he put between the top wisdom
tooth and the one next to it. And tried to prise it out but despite a bit of
tugging - no luck. So he asked the nurse for the forceps, the nurse stopped
tending the hose and while I thought I'd start coughing, choking up blood
wishing she'd get back asap, she went looking through the cupboards. She
found it and the dentist reminded her to change her gloves. At this point I
was a bit anxious but it was all ok.
Last night I scared myself as I looked in the mirror and saw how far back
my lips could no and I was worried whether my lip/mouth would tear to
accomodate any large instruments. But somehow he managed to get it in and
like the whole operation he told me what to expect and what he was doing (to
which I would reply with a lilt of the eyes or dragging up a syllable or two
from my throat) and in this instance he warned me that I would feel the
pressure, then he started tugging, lots of tugging, tugging tugging tugging,
(yes a lot of fuckin' tuggin') it wasn't pain I felt, well perhaps acute
pain as I could feel the downward pressure.
He kept pulling then started twisting then finally I heard the crack as it
came lose. In came the hose for a little suck and clean and it was over.
With grateful relief I closed my mouth. I couldn't believe I'd kept my mouth
wide open for ten minutes ! Well it wasn't quite over, I had to open my
mouth and then bite down while he put a gauze over the wound which I'd have
to hold for 30 minutes.
I got off the chair and made it clear I would want my teeth back.
I then went into the lounge of the clinic, waved to the nurses and Sky who
was still looking quite pale, also there is an aussie girl Carmen there. I
sit down still chewing on my gauze watching the blood soak into it and edge
itself into my vision (if I straing my eyes to look down low enough), I sit
on the lazyboy and in my dinner jacket pretend I'm Sherlock Holmes.
This is when the testing begins, I need to wait until the anaesthetics
wear off then tell them when I get pain. there are four ratings :
NO PAIN - i.e. no pain
MILD PAIN - pain I am aware of but would not doing anything about
MODERATE PAIN - pain that I causing me to lose concentration while reading
or watching television and what I would normally do somthing about.
SEVERE PAIN - pain that causes me to change my behaviour
While I sat Paul came in then twenty minutes later Tim came in, then we
got down to the business of watching some videos ! Tim wants to watch
Marathon Man but all us guys (as you know girls aren't into videos) decide
to watch movies we ain't seen so we see Bugs Life !
WOW what a great movie, had me laughing so much I almost popped my
stitches,so funny ! I especially loved the outtakes at the end, I really
lost control and the pool of saliva and blood at the bottom of mouth started
dribbling out the sides of my mouth !
This excess liquid I kept swallowing but started feeling queasy so had to
spit it out into the rubbish.
Afterwards we watched the Jackal which was so-so as I'd seen it before,
great soundtrack though. It was three hours after the operation and right on
the bit when the first Lady is about to get shot at that I realised I was in
moderate pain. the closest thing I can drive comparison with is a an
insufferable itch that you feel scratching it will fix it but it won't. It
wasn't pulsing or going boom-boom-boom but I decided I'd better go up.
With the nurse she read out the idea of the study which was to study the
efficiency of some new painkillers. Now was the hard part, I had to swallow
2 pills, a normal one and a capsule, they could be placebos so may have no
effect. I fought my fear and managed to swallow them right then and there !
Then every 10-15 minutes they would ask me up and ask me to gauge whether
the pain had gone up or down. PLus I had a stopwatch for me to stop when I
THINK or KNOW the pain is depleting. The returning feeling was good as there
is a slight chance that when removing the lower wisdom tooth they may severe
or damage a nerve which would've meant no more feeling ever in my lower jaw,
left side of my tongue etc. But I was fine, but had to remind myself to
touch my front teeth with my tongue as I explained to the nurse that my
tongue sometimes wanders...
It was pretty much bang on an hour (unfortunately during the first action
scene in HEAT) that I realised that I wasn't getting that naggling niggling
feeling and the pain had gone !
Anyway the movie was awesome, if you want character development you got it
While watching it I kept saying to myself how good it was ! Michael Mann the
director also did Manhunter (the precursor to Silence of the Lambs) and I
could see similarities in the movie. Also had some William Orbit in the
soundtrack !
Three hours after the first test I was allowed to eat so we could help
ourselves to bread, yoghurt, spaghetti, soup etc and other soft foods. Tim
and I ate like kings so much so that the nurses were getting a bit peeved,
don't they realise we're both backpackers on a meagre nourishment balance !
Plus we also had TV and VIDEO !
Anyway we had to stay for six hours after the initial pill-swallowing so
they could monitor us every hour, so eventually one by one all our fellow
patients would leave. Paul stayed on long enough though to force us to watch
Emmerdale. And we all watched in silence the BBC news bulletins for the day.
At six o'clock I phoned home to tell Emma I'd be late and she told me we
had won tickets for Netaid this coming Saturday! That made my day !! I
always enter myself and her into all these competitions and it was nice it
paid off. The tickets are worth 35 UKP or $105 NZ each.
Eventually my time was up and I was painless. So headed off into the night
farewelling everyone with a stash of soup packets in my jacket ;-)
Got home and caught up with John and Andrew playing music so we jumped
around like kids to acid house in his room. Andrew and I compared wisdom
teeth, his was much bigger than mine. I felt sorry for Paul as his teeth
like mine had to be broken into bits to remove so he had no souvenir.
I fell asleep while on a strange high. I downed one more painkiller just
to see me through the night just in case.
heh heh heh the next day I was fine though had a slight bruise on my cheek,
but nevertheless called in sick at work and spent the day shopping. Bought
several bits of cool music including a cd I got for $3 which is currently
valued at round $150 so I hope I can sell it for that much !
That night I caught up with Emma at the Barbican for the australasian film
festival so saw Amy which is a great movie, so many emotions it wrenched up
in me, though this is a problem the critics picked up on saying that the
movie 'does not know what it wants to be'.
Today I came to work and looking my most pathetic tried to get out of
work, I log on and receive an email from an old old dear friend.
Next Wednesday I head back to get the stitches out and get my cheque for
$210.
yeah life is good.
p.s. tell me if you want the uncensored version ;-)
Subject : NETAID !! (and more teeth-scapades [sic]) 9th October 1999
Date : Tue, 12 Oct 1999 11:41:06 PDT
Hi all
thanks for your feedback about the "teeth" episode, this Wednesday I'll go
back in to get the stitches out. Looking into the mirror the bruise on my
left jaw is yellowing now. I get a bit of throbbing pain now and then which
is bearable, my fault for trying to eat food that requires me to open my
mouth more than one inch.
One thing I forgot to mention after the operation was the fun I had
sticking my finger into my ear. The anaesthetic of course had taken over my
whole left side and very slightly affected my left eye, and how I tested
when anaesthetic was wearing off was sticking my little finger in my ear and
getting a funny sensation. My finger had feeling but not my ear. I got Sky
to do it and she went 'eeeewww' especially after she pulled out the contents
of her ear. Pretty soon everyone else was joining in with the gusto you
would pick your bellybutton lint with.
Anyway resuming the past few days' events, on Friday I worked late and
wanting to get an early night found a party in full swing so I sat down and
had a little to drink and eat. Got to bed quite late so wasn't looking
forward to the concert as I knew I'd be tired.
Got up early at 7am and helped open up the hostel, strangely enough I felt
pretty good, I had a stash of current cds I'm listening to :
Black - The Accused
Kate Jacobs - Hydrangea
Dove - Don't Dream It's Over
Groove Armada - At The River
Abba Teens cd
Gay Dad - Joy!
...
Today there was an all day acoustic festival at Spitalfields which amongst
a multitude of other artists Black and Kate would be performing, hoe
annoying ! Also I knew I would miss Donna Summer as well. She was in town
to promote her new single as well as appearing at the MOBO (Music Of Black
Origin) Awards which was actually bringing in a lot of r'n'b artists into
town.
At 11am I took off to have a shower, popped a painkiller just in case,
went to Portobello Markets to get a present for someone, I cutit fine, and
the item wasn't there, rushed to the staion and met up with Emma and her
friends Simone and Jess. It was at 1:30pm that we got to Wembley Stadium and
met up the girls other friends Maxine and a south-african girl who I'll
refer to as Sag.
Doors opened at 3pm so we headed down Olympic Way with 1000s of othesr, I
pointed out my workplace to the side. The sky was light grey but I wasn't
too worried if it was going to rain for some reason, must be the painkiller
or something. Oh yes I also drank plenty and ate a lot before coming as I
knew that if all worked out well I'd be in the middle of a big crowd and not
able to leave my place to satisfy my thirst, bladder or my stomach without
difficulty.
At the stadium which has a capacity of 72,000 there are about 10
entrances. The girls went to turnstile D and Emma and I got to B. We waited
in line sitting on the conrete with about 300 people ahead of us, in this
time I went to go to the loo and passed 2 banks of portaloos which were
inundated with women. At the end I found one that the women were using as
well but all the guys were just walking in anyway so it was all fine - I
thought it was good for the women to see how bad male toilets are as well !
(Though with men it is normally self-inflicted).
Eventually we all got in ok, piped music kept everyone's hopes up and
recurrent announces of the acts produced squeals from the crowd for George
Michael and Robbie Williams (of course).
We got in real quickly at 3pm but then had to wait for the others girls to
get through their door so we wait twenty anxious minutes while 1000s of
people came through the doors. I couldn't resist. our door was at the back
of the stadium so when we got in I walked onto the pitch and looked the
whole length and breath of the stadium and it was an amazing site. Though
I'd always imagined it had a bigger field but in fact it is just a soccer
field with a large dirt border around it with a width of perhaps ten metres.
Naturally there is an amazing amount of seating, starting low and reaching
high into the heavens.
When the girls catch up with us, the three aussie girls seem to be bushed
so sit down in the back left corner of the stadium, a bit far from stage cos
they could've got closer, but oh well ! Luckily Maxine wants to get way up
front as well so we talk Sag which is short up with us.
When I first go in I could look down and see the front stage barrier so
could've got right up front. Now it was impossible but we managed to find a
great place almost right in front. If you see the concert, we are twenty
metres in front of the left big picture screen. With my height I was able to
see the whole concert comfortably barring the odd drunk englishman walking
by.
It was still an hour to go so we sat down and had a chat about what we
were doing here and lots of talk about music. Maxine really liked 80s music,
she is from Trinidad so I had her stereotyped as being into r'n'b - shame on
me ! Everyone now and then people would step over, stand on our fingers,
brush my hair as they walked by, we leered at the typical english blokes
grinning like baboons with bottles of beer under their arms knowing that
they would have to go 'pee pee' sooner of later. On stage Paul Oakenfold was
playing tunes which were typical feelgood crowd fare: Primal Scream -
Loaded, some perfecto label stuff, Marc Almond - Jacky, Bassomatic -
Fascinating Rhythm, Massiva Attack, Dancing Queen, which all got the crowd
into a good singalong mood, you know what I mean...
On the screens there were netaid, amnesty etc ads, some were quite
shocking and graphic so you'd never see then on television. One ad was about
gun violence whose theme song was "he Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" which got
the crowd singalong ok. As we looked around the seating still looked a bit
sparse which made me think it hadn't been soldout. Besides who would be
extravagant enough to shell out for a $105 ticket !!
Finally we all rose to our feet in "antici-pation" and then Iman and David
Ginola came on to introduce :
The Eurythmics
They came out in combat gear and full band and started off with their new
single 'I Saved The World Today'. Nice crisp guitar by Dave Stewart and
Annie was in great voice. Now we were all wondering which of their many
hits they would play, I was hoping they would not play 'Sisters Are Doing It
For Themselves' which to me is musically boring an I don't like 'message'
songs too much. Luckily enough Annie sung the first few words of "Missionary
Man" and we all went wild ! They've pretty much dropped their synth sound so
everything had a rock and heavy guitar edge to it. Annie was in f**king fine
voice !!! It was as if she never went away and left the music scene (which
she did for a few years). The sound was crystal clear, her voice was as
recognisable and strong as it ever was !!
Next they did "There Must Be An Angel" then "Sweet Dreams". Both were
great live. I've been getting sick of the latter as it's overplayed plus
perhaps a bit too sequenced for me, but these versions really rocked, excuse
the pun.
This marked something that I would notice through the whole night -EVERY
knew the bands and every knew the words; the teenage girls half my size to
the chainsmoking 40ish ladies to the left of me.
After a 15 minute break to setup up the next band was Catatonia. I was
looking forward to this basically to hear "Road Rage". There are some big
music sales at the moment so I picked up the album so knew the lyrics pretty
well now. Cerys the lead singer came out dressed like a flower power child
with a red/pink fishnet top as well as a big heart on her belt and a smaller
one upon her heart. They would keep it safe so "The Ballad of Mulder and
Scully". Like the other concert there were plenty of alien balloons in the
audience as well as a smattering of welsh flags - a very proud people !
Then "Dead From The Waist Down", which Maxine and not many people like cos
it's a very insipid limp song with weak sentiments but I couldn't help being
carried away by the joke of it all and sang heartedly along. "Road Rage" was
stunning, a great...no wonderful absolutely amazing song with an awesome
chorus which everyone was singing loudly to. I was glad I could do so as
well as I knew the lyrics this time round ;-) Looking around me I could see
everyone was totally focused. I would've liked them to do "Londonium"
('London never sleeps, it just sucks.....the life out of me...') but perhaps
because of its reference to Paddington Station so they did the ballad
"Strange Glue".
By now it was getting dark and I was worried about my photos which would
either be too dark or the stage lights would get in the way.
Next up were The Corrs who were disappointing. They were announced by Gail
Porter an irish tv persenter, the crowd reception was a bit cold for her,
possibly because twice she's said she'll never 'get her kit off' for another
mens/lads magazine but did it again anyway so lost a bit of respect. I don't
like The Corrs' second album, too poppy. "Only When I Sleep" came first
which prompted a big singalong as they are firm favourites. Next was cool,
it was an instrumental jig whose name I can't recall off the first cohesive
album, it was great ! Everyone was jumping up and down and dancing and
smiling ! Then "What Can I Do" then "Everybody Hurts" (cover of REM song)
which is an irritating song but everyone enjoys it. At this point I took
time to admire Andrew Corr, everyone loves her and as you can see on their
live performances on videos she always acts seductive and sexy but with her
makeup tonight she looked almost skeletal. I woflwhistled anyway...couldn't
help it, got caught up in the moment. They finished with another singalong
"So Young" which I don't like.
There was a bit of spit now and it was a big wait maybe 20-25 minutes. To
entertain ourselves a lady next to us felt faint so had to be carried off,
he friend who was in front of me whom I was leaning against and kept rubbing
against...ermm...because her backpack was against my chest went off with
her.
Eventually the got back just in time for I think Ronan Keating to
introduce George Michael...
Without a doubt this was the most loudest collective female shriek I have
ever heard !! M ears were bleeding. No matter what he's done or got up to in
toilets and tabloids they still love him, the bag lady in front of me was
all giddy and held her palms to her cheeks basically the whole way through
his set.
After the announcement we chanted for 5 minutes, why was it taking so long
?!?!?! Eventually there was movement and we saw a lot of people crowd onto
the stage, I guessed correctly that they were the London Community Gospel
Choir. They were all dressed up in african and colourful clothes, the beat
started and the eight or so dancers started dancing and they started singing
"Outside". This went on for a while while the dancers made their way to the
right of the stage in front of us and kept dancing under the large screen.
The choir move away from the centre of the stage and took their places on
the steps at the back, as they moved we could see behind them a black
leather chair with its back to us. Of course it turned around and I screamed
along with everyone (I am sure Freud, that screaming therapy guy [forgot the
name] and various other psychologists would say something about it) !
The song segued into "Fast Love". George and black fly glasses on like
Bono's, tight black leather pants and a black sheer shirt. His last album
did so-so in New Zealand, I somehow gather it did better over here. Next he
did "Brother can You Lend A Dime" which was a great black song. He did a
wonderful rendition of "Father Figure" !! Totally faultless, once again I
look around and everyone is swaying and singing along, especially vocal on
the chorus. Sounded much more dynamic than on record.
For the last song he asked us all to help singalong as the beginning beats
of "Freedom 90" started. During his set George was very dynamic running
across the stage and getting up to dance on a podium much to the delight of
the crowd. He was the one everyone was waiting for ! Unfortunately I have
heard that his performance won't be broadcast as he wasn't happy with it.
As the roadies cleared away his stuff I recognised a hunched maori figure
cross the stage, it was Allan my ex-roomie who'd just got back from New
Zealand last week.
After another fifteen minutes there was a scream of
"WEEMMMBBBUUUUURRRRRRRLLLLEEEEEEEEE!!" as Goldie screeched along the stage
to announce Bush. you could feel a collective ho-hum across the crowd but it
was all very polite as we applauded and clapped to them, a vast contrast in
volume compared to previously. They are ok and I like 1-2 of their songs
but it sort of broke the type of artists we'd already had on.
The lightshow was faultless, Gavin the lead singer came down front and got
a bouncer to carry him as he played above the crowd, normally this would
cause people to make a grab for him but when you see this on tv you'll see a
girl right next to him vigorously covering her ears !!
They did "Machinehead" (?), "Swallowed",[another song], "Comedown" and new
song "40 Miles from The Sun".
The end couldn't come soon enough for most people, though there were a few
moshing teens in our crowd.
While waiting for the next act I saw a blonde girl pass me by with a
concerned look on her face. She returned five minutes later with a bouncer
pointing back the way she came. Pretty soon a medic was called. And we had
to move aside for a stretcher. Not sure it was either a guy was drunk and
being obnoxious or having an epiletic fit and being obnoxious or just a
typical english white guy being an typical english guy - I couldn't tell
just a lot of lolling around and flailing limbs !
Now this came to a crucial moment in any concert : with the passing of
the stretcher there was suddenly a vacuum in the crowd and in a fraction of
a second we all quickly moved to fill it and in the process making new crowd
mates.
After two minutes of rustling we managed to settle ourselves comfortably
when four metres in front of me I saw a girl go down probably due to
exhaustion, everyone around got the bouncer's attention and pretty soon we
had to make way again as they hauled her out.
Once again another vacuum and this time after a minute we heard a shout of
"move out of the way!!" and everyone instinctively moved apart as within a
fraction of a second three more bouncers hauled out a drunk guy with limbs
lolling about.
Eventually after all this excitment Anjelica Huston came on (to no
applause cos no one knew who she was) and introduced David Bowie.
He came on to deserved applause with just a keyboardist in the back as he
sung "Life On Mars". Very nice and slightly different intonation on some
words. The rest of the band came on and to everyone's chagrin he plugged his
new album and sung a new song "Survive", "China Girl" with a harder edge
then old glam tracks "The Pretty Things are going to Hell", "Saturday
Night". Ending with a driving "Rebel Rebel" which made up for the unknown
songs, only just, though we could tell everyone was slightly peeved -
something the media made note off.
The then brought out a whole bank of white speakers and then Bryan Adams
came on with his drummer and guitarist all in white and started the most
blistering rock set - straight into "Summer of '69" then without pausing for
breath going into "When You're Gone" (no Mel C joining him unfortunately)
and "Cloud Nine" then finishing with "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me
is You". I hate the last song...well all of them...but the energy of
performance was enough to put a smile on my face. On the big screen I
noticed he had bags under his eyes, I originally put this down to tiredness
but later I read that just hours earlier one of his roadies his committed
suicide.
During the next setup we got a simulcast from the Geneva concert and
caught a bit of Bryan Ferry's set. When he did "Let's Stick Together" we all
sangalong !! Man it would be good to see him live.
The bank of speakers left the stage and next up was the Stereophonics.
Around me I saw lots of people with their tshirts and young girls screaming
because I have to admit, the lead singer is very goodlooking in a rugged
sort of way !-)
They started with a new song I didn't know, then "The Bartender and The
Thief" which reminds me of Deus in that the song just drives drives drives
along and is great ! The last three songs were the singles :"Pick A Part
That's New","I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio","I'm Just Looking".
It was definitely a great set and as they left the stage a few people left
as well. We then had a simulcast with New York which was just starting up to
join in to the Wyclef Jean and Bono song which is quite catchy.
Finally it was the headliner act that people wanted to see Robbie Williams
! As is normal they started with "Let Me Entertain You" which musically I
hate. He is definitely a clown performer and had us all going and following
his commands to jump on and down and bounce etc. Everyone went wild ! Emma
sitting at the back said it was a sight to behold seeing thousands of people
jumping in unison. Next he asked us to singalong with "Strong" which Emma I
had heard on the radio a lot so knew it well. Instinctively during the
chorus we all pointed to him (if ya know the song you'll understand).
Next was "No Regrets", "Old Before I Die" then "Millennium", which I never
liked too much as it jumped around a bit too much (!?) but seeing it live it
really hit me right here. If you see it on tv you will see that during the
chorus he got us all to wave our hands which certainly looked cool so I took
a few photos.
Finally it all ended at 10:30pm, we'd been on our feet and jostled for 5
1/2 hours. Sag took off earlier as she had to get a train, so Maxine and I
went against the flow of people and found the other girls who were content
having been close to the snackbar and toilets and we took the long 1 1/2
hour journey home.
The concert was well worth it - I liked the cross section of age groups
and the fact that all the youngums around me knew every band and sung their
songs. If you see it on tv you will see a sign that says "WE MISS YOU
FREDDIE" we were about 3 metres to the left of it, also a sing that says "WE
LOVE YOU ROBBIE" we were 4 metres behind it so you may see me very slightly
;-)
check out some other reviews :
http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19991011101022.html
http://www.dotmusic.com/reviews/live/October1999/reviews11691.asp
On Sunday slept in and while Emma went to a bookstore I went to Brick Lane
and got some cheap batteries, bubble bags for cds, toothpaste. ALso checked
out the new art gallery and shops and some indian sweets. Met up with Emma
and took a shortcut through Carnaby street. On Oxford street I saw my very
first skinheads and also some at Carnaby Street - though these ones had hair
but had Skrewdriver tshirts on (I think I will risk life and limb one day
and get one of those tshirts). I nervously walked us towards bustling Regent
Street and headed to Wong Kei's as we hadn't been there for a long time.
We chowed down, my mouth was hurting as I couldn't open my it very wide so
I ate chinese porridge and won ton soup. There are music sales on so I went
to HMV and got some videos.
It was ABBA weekend on channel 5 so we rushed back in time to watch the
ABBA movie which is based around their tour of Australia and a funny
documentary of Bjorn Again.
It was pure relief as I lay my head to rest that night...
Subject :a grand day out at Windsor Sunday 19th June 1999
Date : Wed, 13 Oct 1999 06:31:33 PDT
[this is a belated email]
...as luck would happenstance, Emma's boss' mum lives in Windsor so they got
special privilege on the tickets so they ended up 4 spare tickets which they
gave to us.
Emma asked along her friend from Hobart Fiona and after a few posers we
grab Justin who has lived at the hostel with us for months.
On this day I think there was a rugby game on at Twickenham so this
morning at Victoria Train Station there was a Guinness booth set up giving
away small glasses of the stuff, I down one then grab out tickets. It was
round 10am as we bundled onto the westbound train.
Emma had bought a new piece of clothing - what, I can't recall, I was
formally dressed in my standard black trousers and sparkling white shirt.
Like the other two we had a bag of food, snack, cameras,books etc
On the train trip we get talking to some americans who are off to
Chessington fun Theme park. At the station the clouds are out and it's a bit
grey but no rain yet.
My memory is a bit flakey but as I recall the ceremony starts at 3pm. As
we walk up the main hill Emma buys a plastic Union Jack flag. At the top
there is a line of about 100 oldies with their deck chairs. We don't worry
as it shouldn't be that busy as we have our tickets.
We go into a 'quaint' little cafe and get some breakfast. Lots of eggs and
bacon !! Then we go for a walk around Windsor village. It's a nice quaint
place with cobblestoned roads, old shop fronts, crooked houses and narrow
streets, which are always spoiled by lots of tourists and even more so today
!
We walk around and get a few snaps, lots of opp and salvation army style
shops here but I've no time to look for some rare musical bits and pieces.
It is still slightly overcast.
At one point Justin and I need to take a leak so we follow some signs from
the main strip and lead us past a graveyard with tv vans and satellites set
up next to them.
Some photos we take are of a famous crooked cafe/building and a town hall
whose balcony which was held up by 8 columns, but the authorities suggested
1-2 more columns so the architect (Christopher Wren ?) put up 2 more columns
in the middle but don't actually support the balcony !
At about 1:30pm we decide to line up we see the line and start walking
down it...down...down...down...down...down...down...going down to the bottom
of the hill, PAST the train station...then past the bridge...
There are supposedly 5000+ tickets and it feels as though we just walked
passed everyone with them !
We got to the end and quickly made mental estimates as to how long it
would take up to get back past the train station, up the hill, to the front
gates. It looked promising.
From our position we saw literally hundred more people (mainly oldies in
their Sunday best) walk past us dragging their small chairs and picnic
baskets. At one point the queue turned back on itself and it was amusing
seeing the people who had just walked out of the station and drop their
jaws! And we thought we were all unique !
In half an hour we moved about 20 metres, it didn't bode well, a further
quick calculation revealed it would be very tight, typical for me anyway so
I took it in my stride, though the others weren't so blithly unaware. At
least we weren't in the same boat. What would they do ? Optimistically I
hoped they would hold up the ceremony as there would still be thousands of
disgruntled people left outside.
With an hour to go all of a sudden the queue moved, and when I say moved I
mean it moved. Everyone ahead started running ahead and so did we as we
quickly stuffed the remainder of our half-eaten sandwichs into our mouths
and grabbed our bags from the pavement and followed. And then it stopped
after 50 metres. Yay, getting closer we thought, the family (well the female
members of some family) that were behind us before were now several metres
behind. We chewed our food more slowly and safely now wiped the sweat from
our brows while other people fanned there grandparents.
We were now past the train station and nearing the bend in the road
uphill. Looking up we could see a parade of colour and of course plenty of
Union Jacks. Sky was gloomy and it did spit a bit.
Then once again without warning the queue started moving again, real fast,
again. While I was giving my legs a good workout I was worried about all the
oldies around us until a short greyhaired woman was coming up by my side !
(This is no joke, she was actually keeping up with me !!) The latest jaunt
brought us closer to the side of the castle now and we could see all the
crowds and other commoners filling out the streets and pavement and I felt
blessed.
We found out the reason for the mad queue rush was that there were seven
queues but of course with the large influx of people all queues had blended
into one several metres down the line so the guards and stewards started
sorting everyone out.
So with 30 minutes to go we all managed to reach the front of the gate. As
I recall they didn't bother checking out stuff but we had to walk through a
metal detector.
There are seven areas for the public, six of them were inside the castle
and we had tickets for the seventh which is right outside one of the main
exit gates of the castle. It is a bit of a hill so we walk up a bit
surprised by how little people there were actually. The girls stop early on
and plonk themselves down but Justin and I continue up the hill right up to
the gate and find a good place there so quickly call the girls up with us.
At this position we are on the thin strip of green near the gate. Everyone
else here is settled with picnic hampers and blankets, some with mini tvs.
We settle down to eat some snacks and then I'm off like all the other kids
here, rolling down the hill and getting grass stains and knee burns, and
like other noseyparkers I am looking through the servants quarters windows.
The castle walls are studded with rocks and are warm to lean back and lie on
to combat the chilly breeze.
I love crowds and getting lost in them, much to the chagrin of everyone
else I know so from the hill I look down the slope towards the main road and
soak up the sounds and colour and movement and excitment. We all have a good
laugh as an italian stallion type guy is standing on his chair to get a good
height but then breaks straight through it ! ho ho ho !
Eventually the main cars go by, the bride goes by in a Rolls with a very
large windows on the back. When the ceremony starts the speakers all around
us fail so we're left in the dark. The people with tvs and radios are okay
though.
I spend this time walking around and peering over someone's shoulders and
more rolling in the grass while the other three loll around.
At one point a choir breaks out in the church and so outside some people
break into song ! In preparation we see a coach drawn by horses and a nice
complement of footmen. (Cue cameras !)
Eventually it all finished to great whoops of anglosaxon joy so we
prepared ourselves. I sat atop Justin shoulders with him and my camera, my
idea was to take a photo when they exited the gate then try to take a photo
as they approached and when they were right in front of us.
Well I got a photo when they left - why did they drive so fast ? Anyway
when I got my camera out I realised it had turned itself off after being
idle for too long, I quickly got Justin's camera again but the flash was
still charging..........
Suffice to say the photos didn't turn out well at all. When I watched CNN
on the net later if you look closely you will be able to see me when the car
leaves the gate to leave the castle, I am the person in white on the
rightside of the road, you can't miss me cos I tower above everyone !
We took a few more photos as everyone started to depart, we took some
photos of some drunk castle staff talking to us through a top window.
Naturally there are some festivities happening but Justin and Fiona head
back to London. Emma and I decide to walk down and cross the bridge over to
Eton. It is a quaint place when we reach the school outside we bump into
Claire Van Copenphagen who used to live at the hostel and a friend of hers.
We had actually been in a Cat shop earlier and I sort of fleetingly
recognised her from behind but wasn't sure.
We join them for a walk and head to a pub and get some dinner. I tentatively
order a burger but they have no buns left only bread so I go for it, which
is one of my worst decisions ever.
It was getting cold so we all jump on the train back home, still plenty of
people about, ribbons and streamers still line the roads and in the station.
enough of that place.
Subject : catching up with Kate !
Date : Fri, 15 Oct 1999 11:02:26 PDT
Hi All
here's a few highlights of the week.
On Wednesday I returned to the dental institute to get my stitches out. I
got there early as it would've been close as I had to rush to work right
afterwards.
I got to the clinic at 10:10am. Waited to 10:40am and then
one minute later (!) I was out of there. I enquired as to a copy of my teeth
xray but it would prove to be too expensive.
My mouth is feeling better, I can't quite open my left mouthside very wide
without a cramping feeling but I can eat okay now. Though with my tongue I
feel where my teeth used to be and basically feel two deep pits, yucky !
Plus food gets stuck in them, but when I suck it out it feels a bit like
pus or some yucky tasting syrupy solution.
From there I walked five minutes to King Cross and marvelled at St Pancras
building and station. It looked maginificant at this time of day.
On Thursday I got the day off by doing a swap with a workmate. During the
morning I did the laundry and pottered around the room and listened to
Kate's new album about three times. When I first heard it I liked some hooks
but I really believed I wouldn't be able to get into it.
But by the end of hearing it this morning inca tidy room with sun
streaming through the curtain I was singing along to every lyric (no matter
how kooky they were). It's been a while since I've had the time and joy of
listening to a whole new album (as opposed to a single) and having it 'grow
on me' like the old days.
in the afternoon I check out some music stores and caught up with Nina after
her Great Britain trip, she was feeling poorly due to food poisoning and was
looking more pale and withdrawn than normal (;-). Nevertheless we braved the
chill and walked across nearby Kensington Park to possibly the worst
exhibition (houses of parliament) at the Serpentine Gallery across Hyde Park
and along Piccadilly road to Waterstones. A new five storey bookstore near
the circus. It was shite.
Nice and big but no video or music section (even though most sections in
bookstores don't do that well anyway) plus just lifts and no escalators so
most people would have to walk up all the flights of stairs !
We were here to go to the Marc Almond book signing. He has just released
his autobiography which I had preordered via www.amazon.co.uk using one of
those gift vouchers ;-) Snarf snarf
[ahem, in fact I just joined on about 10 more times so now I have 100 UKP
worth of book vouchers, I've just ordered about five just now as well,
mainly graphic novels. If there are some rare or UK-only books you want then
ask me]
I left Nina at 5pm to meet up with someone and then I returned at 6pm
after walking around town. It's certainly getting darker earlier now. hard
to believe in a few weeks time I'll be totally wrapping myself up in the old
black jacket and have mismatched gloves on.
When we caught up again there were a few new enlightenments :
- Marc's signing would be on the sixth floor
- it is actually a reading/interview session
- you needed a 4 pound ticket to get in
- last tickets have just gone
We were pretty (and) dejected but decided to hang around.
Over the next hour more and more Almond freaks would arrive. Okay not
really freaks, just some of them, some people looked totally normal.
Matt who Nina arranged to meet turned up late. The line went down three
flights of stairs. A pool of ticket-less people were gathering as well. To
cut a long story short, there were spare tickets and these went to the
people waiting the longest. Many people weren't aware of the limited
availability of tickets, one woman was in tears. The organiser said that she
would be able to get the remaining people in to see Marc. I gavce my book to
Nina and...well...
NINA WHERE ARE YOU ?!?!?
WHERE'S MY BOOK ?!!!
COME IN NUMBER FIFTEEN !!!
Me and Emma left to go have dinner, but not before the security guard that
was looking after the event yelled out to her, he was a jamaican guy who
worked at Elizabeth Ardern with her !
We had dinner at Wong Kei's then eventually as planned got to the
http://www.12barclub.com/ at 9:30pm.
There were four acts. I thought Kate was on third but actually she was
second, for some reason I read the acts from bottom up instead of top to
down, why......
I was freaking out about what to say to her etc. When we walked in I
spotted a shirt american girl with long hair and knew it was her. She was
talking to someone else so didn't want to interrupt ;-)
I got a drink and tried to find a moment but it didn't come. The first act
came off, it was Annabel Lamb (Riders On The Storm) and Dave Dix (used to be
with Black but they split). Then Kate got ready to go on ! Inside there
were seats and we managed to get some, unlike Paul Kelly where everyone had
to stand.
I like this place, it looks homely, no one looks means. It's a bar DEDICATED
to music and nothing else.
Kate came on to warm applause, it was her third concert in London in the
past seven days, I missed the first cos I had the tooth out and then Netaid
on Saturday so it was with a sense of pride and achievement that I was here
tonight.
She played about fourteen songs, all except three were from her new album
and I found myself toetapping along and singing silently along. It was
heartwarming to see the crowd that had came to see her and the reaction.
Heating her speak before she had a typical US accent but onstage her normal
squeaky childish voice was there.
At the end she came to do an encore and I wanted to shout out "The Calm
Comes After" but didn't ;-) Instead she did a new song off the album.
Afterwards I went to the toilet as I was bursting and she got corralled by
several people. Eventually I managed to catch her and introduced myself.
She didn't recognise at first until I said I was the one that emailed her,
and then she remembered straight away the song she was going to play for me
but no matter. I felt my head expand a bit when she introduced me to various
record company types as a guy from New Zealand who has been corresponding
with her via email for the past 2-3 years !
Despite my fears earlier I found myself blabbing on and on about the music
business and stuff that perhaps weren't such obvious conversation topics !
Such as why I didn't have a cd single of hers, but she said it was okay cos
it wasn't too good ! What else did we talk about ? I can't remember, all i
remember is laughing a lot and feeling a kind of kinship.
Eventually she had to go so I got a photo with her and got her to sign a
promo copy of her cd I'd got for a pound some weeks ago (don't tell her).
There is a big promotional drive for her with reviews in the mags and papers
so a lot of them have competitions to win her cd which I have entered.
It was late so we left as well - wishing her all the best. On the way
home I was on quite a high, but when I was about to sleep I felt a type of
emptiness...
Anyway I'm probably better now.
I'm writing this on Friday, tonight I'm gonna catch up with Chris Maslin,
old university buddy from Mt Maunganui.
[for those that want to know how I got to know Kate read on]
Long time ago in 1993 I did a swap with a guy in North Carolina for some cds
via the internet for the purposes of listening to new music. One of the cds
he sent me was a double cd alternative compilation of acts. There were two
songs by Kate on there and what struck me about her country-ish tinged songs
was her lyrics, a melody anyone could pick up on and a girlish squeaky
voice.
Soon after I acquired a cd compilation of acts from Hoboken New Jersey,
she wasn't on it but it opened my eyes to what else was out there. To this
day I still mention to people that I need to go there.
One day in 1994 I came across her first album in the bargain bin. I picked
it up and loved it straight away, for anyone who I did a tape for during
that period I always started it with "The Calm Comes After" as it starts
with bird noises. From our conversation I actually found out that cd was her
first private cd pressing, as the album was rereleased properly with colour
photos and lyrics and extra tracks etc later.
Some years later round 1996 while browsing the net I came across a
database of american towns and cities and decided to look up Hoboken. There
was a music list and there was her email address so I emailed her and since
then we emailed intermittantly.
Her second album which had since come out was imported by Real Groovy
Records and sure enough it went on sale which I managed to get.
Unfortunately I never got a good chance to listen to it before I came.
She signed the cd with "Dear Darryl, it's finally good to meet you..."
for more on her check out :
http://members.aol.com/JacobsKate/index.html
Subject : an inquiry into morals Friday 17th July 1998--->
Date : Sat, 16 Oct 1999 04:17:57 PDT
Hi everyone this is a piece I had scribbled down as notes all the way from
last year. I've started knuckling down to get all these written up now as I
have more time but but getting less of it each day.
This file is big so I've broken it up into 2 parts to aid with downloads
and to keep your interest levels up.
Briefly it details : meeting some great people who have become good friends,
the brixton street festival, a concert or two, a little bit of work which
ended in a little accident, meeting up with the guy from Hamilton who is the
main reason I came over here, meeting up with another guy from Hamilton,
hanging with some beautiful french people, stopping a thief (albeit drunk),
getting lost...
here goes :
-------------------------------------------------------
written Tuesday 28th July 1998 in room 8 (my place of residence for one
month now, and I love it!)
This is written at 7pm right after Married Without Children and Simpsons !
I need a quiet reflective moment to recount recent events and tell all about
the people I've spent time with (I'll do a big list one day about everyone I
know here with a little description and character assasination etc).
Vis (vietnamese guy from Wellington) lent me his discman for an
indeterminable period and I am listening to The Adventures "Sea Of Love" cd.
One of my top 5-10 albums ever. A very uplifting optimistic singalong.
I'm a bit sad at the moment, a few hours ago I saw Thaedra off to the
airport. She's a 20 year old greek-aussie on a 3 month holiday. The flight
to Greece is 6 hours or so. Today I went to bed at 7am and awoke at 9am. She
came into my room at 11am to wak me as planned. I am expecting her arrival
but still she catches me off guard and I yell out, much to the bemusement of
my 2 male french roommates with whom we spend much of our time grinning
knowingly at each other (about what........I don't know.....)
I cleaned myself up and we hop on the tube. The plan is to catch up with
Irene. Thaedra stayed at the hostel for 1 1/2 weeks. We first met on Friday
17th briefly, she was in the reception office chatting with the people that
look after the place John and Linki (who let me stay here for free and won't
accept any rent until I find a GOOD job). They are from Melbourne and
Johannesburg respectively. They are cool, when I first stayed here in my
first week I was a bit lost and shy so left the comfort and solitude of my
room (which is what it's there for and they called me over to their table
and offered me wine and food.
On that Friday me and Vis were actually rushing off to the Fridge Bar in
Brixton for final drinks with Allee as she heads home the next day. SO I had
just popped my head into reception to check for any messages, said HI and
took the tequila concoction offered to me. Me and Vis headed off but
according to sources we missed Allee by 10 minutes. With spare time we head
to town and I show Vis around Chinatown and Soho. We decide to go into the
"Rocky Horror parti-cipation" screening every Friday. Check out
www.rockhorror.com for what sort of show it is. Basically it is a live show
as well as a movie at the same time. Long time ago some people in the US got
the idea of shouting back snappy replies to lines in the concert, most a
quite rude so I can't repeat them here. And during scenes such as a rain
shower we get sprayed by water pistols etc, and if you did not buy a a
C.U.M. bag (containing a newspaper) you would've got soaked. Near the end
we're damn tired so finally get back at 2am.
Saturday 18th : I head out North East to Walthamstow (location known as
East 17 - geddit ?) A great market is here and I find some great bargains.
I pick up a vomity-splattered shirt for 1 UKP and an italian suit top for 2
UKP which fits like a glove ! Spend hours here and return home latish.
Sunday 19th : Vis, Nicki (aussie girl) and I head off to speakers corner
in Hyde Park. It is a place of free thought and discussion where anyone can
stand on a soapbox, nowadays it is a milk tray and speak about anything.
Annoyingly it is all religious stuff. We traverse Kensignton and Hyde Parks
to reach the conrer. Along the way I drag 'em into the Mariko Mori
exhibition. If you are lucky you would've got a postcard from me with her
image on it. (if you're into kooky creative japanese women).
At the corner I grab a few cool photos. There is a Nation of Islam
contingent here who are becoming more noticeable now and they are a chilling
sight that I don't dare whip out my camera as the speaker is flanked by his
men. Most weird speakers have been here for a long time. A jamaician
condemns the white race for spreading filth and disease. He keeps going on
and on over the same things. ho hum....
An irish girl touches his beads which he shakes every now and then "to shake
off the disease and to drive out the whiteman".
"do not touch your master"
then :
"Mother Theresa was a prostitute"
which draws an angry retort from an indian lady who calms down as she
realises she fell into the trap of taking anything you hear here as a truth.
OTHER SPEAKERS :
a white man talking about sex sex and a little bit more about you-know-what;
black man who is proud to be white;
a christian athiest
"For those who know their faith is a human creation but still love and
practise it".
There are professional hecklers here who provide a little relief.
Back to Irene, she is a german girl who is doing live-in pub work. On
Tuesday she moved in Thaedra's room so I offer to show them round. Nicki was
in the room as well and she finds a flat and we meet at the Walkabout pub
that night. We all head down and have a few drinks. US 3 hit the dancefloor.
I leave for 20 mins as I was supposed to go clubbing with some french people
but once again they're not in the mood.
So I head back to the pub and dance around. I grab a photo of us on the
dancefloor. I regret not taking more photos of people I've met. We head back
and chat for a couple of hours.
Wednesday - this is an actionpacked day, read carefully.....
I offer to take them on a tour of London. We head to the British Museum and
I show them my fave room - the Egypt part and the mummies, Rosetta Stone and
the daughters of Neptune (Nemoids) room - I LOVE IT !! Take a shot here,
along the way we take various rude shots. At one point we make our
prospective ways to the toilet......
Irene has to look for work so after lunch of baked potatoes we walk her to
the agency in the Soho End of Wardour Street. While waiting me and Thaedra
head onto the fire escape and take some shots of the grotty side of Oxford
Street. Expecting to see someone float by holding an umbrella. Irene has a
lead so we decide to head to Harrods and Abbey Road. To get to the nearest
tube BOND STREET we take a route through the Soho Street Market, she does
not follow my suggestion of walking past the cockney fruitsellers to get
harrassed. She wants to see nearby Carnaby Street so after a bit of blissful
walking about with no particular direction (which is something I do and am
overjoyed to find someone with the same carefree abandon).
We find the Street and it is boring and I remember though she relishes in
70s style clothes. We check into BOY LONDON and buy matching finger watches
which some of workmates back home in New Zealand would have possibly seen
now. I prompt the attendent for a plastic rather than plain paper bag to get
a souvenir. We check out the Natural Body Store and sniff the various
face/skin packs of strange combinations like sand yoghurt and banana and it
looks good enough to eat !
We continue on our way to the tube. HHmmm....we find New Bond Street and
my mission now is to take a photo outside Issey Miyake's store. Along the
way as we stroll along this quiet street away from the tourist bustle of the
adjoining Oxford Street we pass all the other big fashion names : Klein,
tiffanys, prada, gucci, YSL etc All are pretty dead quiet except DKNY in
which a lot of japanese are in the cheap (!) cafe out the front of the shop.
We stroll on in in our summer garb replete with jandals and take the
escalators up the three floors and the lift down. Along the way the sales
assistants ignore us totally. We pop into Southebys auctionhouse for a
recent musical catalogue but no go, but we do find piles old old cheap art
auction catalogues which are collectable themselves and absolutely lovely !
We reach the end of the street but no luck with Miyake...Next time
then.....
We stroll through Berkeley Square (I was last here some weeks ago after an
allniter at a niteclub).
[I am currently writing this up on Wed 29th July in the laundrette. 3 weeks
ago I met Myra Shillingford here and she has just walked in right now. She
is about early30s and is from Trinidad and Tobago. Ten Years ago she had a
skiing accident and some years later the damage became apparent. Somehow she
can only take a few steps before her feet move erratically. Looking at her
full of smiles and optimism she is still beautiful despite the illness
taking the toll on her body]
We get on at Green Park Tube and take the Jubilee Line up North to St
JOhns Wood and Abbey Road. Like last time there are a few foreigners holding
up the traffic - naturally. We get a couple of photos, it is round 5pm
rushhour. Last time it was darn near impossible to get a photo exactly in
position like the album cover as it is a busy road. But despite the time we
manage to very spontaneously run into the middle of the road and get perfect
snaps of each other. I need to do the net so head back into town and log on
for an hour but let her do her email first. For fun I do a search on her
(Greek Mythological inspired) name but can only find a Thaedra who is on a
foot fetish homepage !
We need sustenance of the food kind, so she being vegan we come across
the Hare Krishna Restaurant. All you can eat buffet is 4.99 UKP and we are
served a few dollops of veges etc. Well they must add somthing to it cos I
had trouble finishing the first helping let alone getting another one !
Exhausted we head back to the hostel !
I arrive back and am told that Andrew is looking for me ! DOH ! Tonight
Richard H. Kirk (of musical group Cabaret Voltaire fame) is releasing a new
cd, so I quickly freshen up and head to the Garage club in Angel Islington !
The first act is pure deliberate feedback and many people can only take so
much of the loud caterwaul. I've heard it all before but after 30 minutes it
got annoying and samey. RH Kirk came on and basically did the 46 minute set
which is already captured on the free cd we got on entry. It is nice
electronic dancey stuff but still I'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE so me Andrew and
old NZ mate Chris are a bit disappointed as we were expecting something
groundbreaking.
Thursday I potter around and don my working clothes and approach some
agencies and pick up some pointers from them for more desirable CV. Irene
manages to secure a great live-in pub job in Stoke Newington in North East
London so she leaves. I head off to the Almeida Theatra again in Angel
Islington to see Marc Almond. Stacks of people there, lots of gays, goths
and weirdly dressed germans. NO tickets are available and there is a long
line of people waiting for returns! AARRGGHH ! All seven nights all sold
out ! I get a bit teary but console myself by getting a programme.
On Friday night everyone is in drinking so I don my new italian suit which
I got for 2 UKP from Walthemstow (east London) and head downtown with RH
Kirk on the discman. I stroll around town for a couple of hours to soak up
the atmosphere.
On Saturday we decide to go solo again so I head to Portobello Markets for
my normal weekend stroll. I bump into Serveline who like most french people
is conned into working hard graft selling pizza near Buckingham Palace. She
has an interesting blood red splotchy birthmark on her face which I can't
stop looking at. She used to live at the hostel but is now flatting with
other frenchpeople. We walk together to brush up on our english and french
respectively.
We see a deal on tshirts. She has a black boyfriend back home so I suggest
she get the LOVE SEE NO COLOUR tshirt which I would've liked for myself for
was XL. It is a remainder of a big anti-racism campaign in 1995. I get a
"Nanette et Boni" tshirt which since this moment I've watched very often and
taken it all over the place and it always gets amused looks. It has a photo
of a rabbit nestled between someone's fluffy pink slippers. In Portobello
there are a lot of tshirt sellers who sell deleted/old promotional tshirts
from theatre and movie etc, so I frequent these stalls a lot.
We bump into my roommates Yannick and Herve a lot who I bump into alot.
Remy a young french bratish-type person is here too. Serveline hasn't been
to Camden Markets yet so I offer to show her round. We spend a few hours
there and watch the canal boats slip through the lock. At the end of the day
we grab some cheap cream doughnuts 4 for a pound. We part ways and I head
back to the hostel.
John has grabbed some pizza so we all dig in. TIme is 10pm so we head to
the pub before 11pm closing time. All 7 of us head down but we lose 3 along
the way. I get back at 11:30pm.
Tonight me and the frenchies are going to Ministry Of Sound as we have
queue-jumping tickets. So me, Amelie, Claire, Audrey and Nicholas head on
the tube southbound to Elephant and Castle.
At 12:30 there is a queue of 200 but we get up front okay but Nicholas'
tshirt is too casual so no go. After much discussion Amelie and Claire
decide to stay so we leave with Danny Rampling's set as our soundtrack. Jon
Marsh of The Beloved is djing as well. Actually while talking to the
bouncers Nicholas is pretty drunk so accidently drops a note on the ground
which a heavy bouncer steps onto it - I decide not to say anything.
We decide to make the most of the night so after waiting ages for a night
bus we head to the centre of nightlife - Leicester Square. Whilst conversing
with some friends and spanish people I spot an english guy very close behind
Audrey. I step back and see her handbag is okay - still zipped up. I step
behind him and watch as he drunkenly reaches for Nicholas' back wallet. He
has a stubbie in one hand.
I'm not sure he would react but I dig my nails into his neck (actually
I've always wanted to do that) and whisper "go" into his ear and he dashes
off. As it was he was pretty junk and an opportunist so my fears of him
glassing me with the stubbie are alleyed. [in my diary entry I have
written: "Hi Vicki and Jase" ;-]
Afterwards I realised I should have taken a photo of him instead ! Anyway
Nicholas goes off with the spaniards - leaving me with the pretty young girl
!-) (very unfrenchlike!) Me and Audrey check into an outdoor cafe. It's all
new to me ! so I grab a valued table outside and she orders some food from
inside. The waitress takes my order of just a cafe late and gives me a funny
look "is that all ?"
It is 2am now. The bill comes to 4.50 UKP and 'begs' for a 10% service
charge so as usual I round up to 7UKP [so that makes it $21 NZ for 2 coffees
and a chocolate cake - a blimin' bargain]. I get rid of my loose change and
it's well worth it seeing the big smile appear on the harrassed waitress'
face. It probably explains why we're able to sit and talk for one hour
without getting booted out or any hints to move on. At the hostel there are
lots of french people who do hospitality work so I appreciate that the pay
is lousy, 2.50-5.00 UKP)
We're joined by a french guy for a while then we decide to head back. Me
and Audrey get back at 4am, on the way she is about to grab some doughnuts
from the 24 hour bagel store 30 seconds from the hostel. But I say "no
worries" as I still had those doughnuts from Camden !
We head downstairs and switch on the telly to catch the VH1 special on
Meatloaf. To my surprise and delight (at being able to write something
interesting for you all back home!) I can only eat one (what a struggle),
but she scoffs the other three and says she loves sweet stuff. I should
mention she is a slim 19 year old french girl who eats like a horse (without
the noise).
Later on Nicholas comes home inebriated. Outside the sun is coming up so I
leave them to it and hit the sack at 5am.
Sunday 26th July
Brixton Street Party !!!
Did mention at some moment in time that in Brixton I saw the bravest man ? A
white south african wearing a springbok jersey !
Yes today was the Brixton Street party/festival. I told Thaedra and others
about it earlier. She had disappeared from the day before. Me and Roland
headed first into town as there was a big islamic meeting in Trafalgar
Square and I thought it would be a sight to see.
It wasn't, just a lot of wide-eyed ranting. We took a photo anyway and
headed into Soho and got a photo trying to replicate Oasis' "What's the
Story Morning Glory" album cover. I dragged him into Brixton with me,
clouds were getting overcast.
We deal readers, this is all from memory and scribbled notes so here goes
: we got to Brixton round 2pm and walked right out of the station to end up
near the car park (not closed) and the community centre. There were stalls
and music playing but not many people at all. I could walk in a straight
line and not have to confront anyone. There was what you would expect from
this neighbourhood, steel drums, black kids with cute makeup on (actually I
wanted to take a photo of them all singing to Spice Girls songs, but their
mothers looked damn mean ! Okay I admit I wanted a shot of their mothers,
young black girls who've taken great care of their appearance and hair)
At one part there is a dj playing a mixture of reggae and plays a song from
long time ago : Sugar Minott's "Good Thing Going", it's a classic I've not
heard in a while and it seems everyone else here agrees as all goes mental
and everyone dances. In the middle of the crowd I spot a really old white
guy maybe in his 70s slightly hunched over with a straw hat on and typical
summery clothes dancing away. I take a photo of him. (Fast forward one year
in August and at the Stoke Newington Festival I see him there leading a
conga line - I have photos)
By 4pm it is getting a bit wet so Roland leaves bored. As I am walking him
part of a way I see some people from Hamilton. There are a few people back
in New Zealand who can be creditted with my decision to come over here. Nusi
and Mike Mitcalfe who regaled me with tales of their exploits on this side
of the world.
But there was one guy who was a morning dj for contact radio in Hamilton
who I bumped into in early January 1998 in Real Groovy Records. It was
Shane. I don't know him that well but we always seemed to find ourselves at
gigs and had mutual friends. We had a discussion over the sale cd racks
about our respective futures. He said he was getting old and would be
turning 28 this year so would be going to London. It was at this point that
it suddenly hit me - I was gonna be 28 this year as well. There was a brief
vision of my life going on without having done what I wanted to do, so I
decided then and there that I would have to strike out in the world on my
own as well.
So there you have it, the first seed of an idea which would bring me here
across the oceans and seas (and continents etc).
Anyway Shane was with his korean girlfriend who I'd met before in other
circles as well as two other girls from Hamilton. We exchanged numbers but
we've not been in touch since but I caught him at the Supergrass and Suede
gigs in May 1999.
By early evening the place was really packed. A band played ska and kept
the crowd pumping. Naturally there was a rap band as well, some people
trying to copy Snoop Dogg, as well as some Bob Marley tracks who got the
crowd more vocal. Looking around it was just a seas of black hands in the
air and I felt safe.
Walking around I recognised someone else from Hamilton. It was Brent Soper
whom I have never talked to before but his reputation precedes him. To those
in Hamilton in the early 90s do you recall when NEXUS magazine was radical
and controversial - a good read ? HE was the guy that wrote those articles
about genital piercing and tantric sex (?). He had (typically) dreadlocks
and a south american/mexican shawl on. I introduced myself and we had a good
old reminisce about things. An old rastafarian comes up and asks for a
light, he's a bit of a jack the lad and tries to sell some marajuana to us.
We don't need it. Across from us I a rastafarian with headgear to holds his
dreads smiles at us. I recognise him from somewhere...no joke, I think he is
in a music video, possibly Bob Marley's "One Love". The rasta with us says
don't deal with him as he is trouble.
He tells me of life in London, living in squats with italian punks and
antifascists who are here also, begging, casual relationships, politics,
what places to go to and what to avoid. He's done well for himself, he's
working for a survey research company now doing accounting or something
highpowered as I vaguely recall. We traded details but naturally we're both
sloppy and ain't contacted each other.
Another moment was when I was moving through the crowd and ended up behind
the dj booth, he turned back at me and said "do you like soca?" I've never
heard of it before (I would soon at the Notting Hill Gate Festival) so said
"no". He smiled and said that I would love it and put some on for me. I
didn't like it.
Eventually as dusk was falling I had the brilliant idea of getting the bus
home. To cut a long story short I took the wrong bus or maybe it had the
wrong destination on the front, I ended up in a dirty backstreet, all shops
were barred up and closed. Here was in a white tshirt, shorts and jandals. I
chose and direction and walked along it, eventually I found a dishevelled
looking street fellow and asked him the nearest tube and he pointed me down
the road.
After ten minutes there were more people about and I felt a bit safer. I
kept on the lookout for a tube sign and then finally I saw it. Liverpool
Station for the first time in all it's glassy glory loomed up ahead of me !
It was great to be able to see it at last and the light reflecting off it
was warming and inviting. So I got home okay, Thaedra did turn up to Brixton
when it was quiet so left, so I told Roland and her that they should've
stayed for a great time. Actually I enjoyed my time by myself, most people
seem to have different interests than me, mine seem to alter all the time.
Sometimes I can spend 10 minutes at a useless stall or run right by it
another time.
[to be continued]
Subject : an inquiry into morals : part 2 Monday 27July 1998--->
Date : Sat, 16 Oct 1999 07:18:03 PDT
The last part was from Friday 17th July to Sunday 26th July.
This entry details Monday 27th to Tuesday 28th.
(yeah yeah It wasn't quite properly cut in the middle, but I midjudged the
set of notes I had written)
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday rolls round and me and Thaedra decide to visit Irene. Thaedra
herself is leaving for Greece to trace her roots on Tuesday evening, so
tonight she isplanning on cooking us all some pasta.
She needs a haricut so books in at the Vidal Sassoon school for a seven
pound haircut by a student. She takes off early and I stay a little behind
at the hostel for lunch and we plan to catch up later. Just when I almost
out the door the warehouse agency calls with a job. It starts at 5pm that
afternoon to 5am at a milk factory.
It's probably one of my hardest decisions to make but I tell myself that
tonight we'll only just drink and eat anyway. But I am also worried as I
hadn't slept or eaten much that day, so how would I last a twelve hour hard
slog ? Being one for pushing myself (I like to think I have great stamina)
I take the job - also to endear myself to the agency.
The school is off Regent Street near the Embassy-ridden Half Moon Street
and near Berkeley Square which I've walked by before. I get to the school
which I thought would be a bit flashy and snooty but it wasn't. The very
cheery and friendly receptionist tells me to walk on through past the
students and effiminate teachers. It must be a common occurence for friends
or acquaintances of models here to visit. I explain the situation to Thaedra
and we console ourselves with our "special rings" ("WHEEEE!" - this bit is
based on a Simpsons' skit, only my brother would get this one).
At the factory just off White City Station I meet up with Mike from
Melbourne and an indian guy who got roped into the job even though he he had
got himself kitted out and went to the agency for an advertising job. So he
leaves disgruntled after 45 minutes. Not before imparting the address if
Freddie Mercury who he used to live next door to.
I am given a variety of tasks such as stacking, pulling, cleaning out the
machines while I am groaning that I don't think I could do this for twelve
hours straight. My fellow workmates are all cheerful carribean. My final job
in the coolstore is to pull hundreds of trollies of milk that would be made
for all the supermarkets in London. The bottles would get filled with milk
then some machines lid them then stack them into the trolleys which guys on
the other side of a plastic curtain would push them out to me and depending
on the supermarket and bottles sizes I would put them into rows. I relish it
as it'll get me fit. Though three times I injure myself.
The trollies are heavy (say about 200 litres) so to get them moving one has
to build up a momentum. What I did was drag it quickly so that it starts
rolling and if all goes well it would start slowing down before it reached
its proper place in the rows I was creating so I could easily coerce it into
its proper place. What happened was I swung one around and I must have been
really tired because in slow motion I watched as this trolley spun towards
me and as it heads towards my hand which is flush against another trolley I
absentmindedly wonder what sort of impact it will have.
Well now I have a noticeable scar on the top of right hand to show for my
inquisitiveness. When it struck it was (gosh darn) painful, it had hit a big
vein so the back of my hand so it was a mass of blood and a lot of mutilated
skin (strange) mingled with cotton from the glove. what a mess ! It looks
like a firecracker had gone off ther ! shit ! I had a big black bruise
there and ten days later it was still a bit pusey. The other injury came
when I pulled a trolley again and then absentmindedly walked in front of it
while it roared across the floor, sure enough the metal bottom of it struck
the top sensitive part of my heel which of course impeded my walking
immediately and for ten days afterwards I was still limping about in a
fashion. The final negative result of the night was that with all this
pulling and pushing it aggravated my wrists and RSI/OOS ;-) ouch ! Not a
day goes by when I don't look at the scar on my hand and think there must be
some lesson in it somewhere.
The work for the first half was fun and fast moving. Mike has had hardly
any sleep [tidbit : for Christmas he got thrown out at the Bjorn Again
concert of stripping on stage] and he is an epileptic so is quite worried
about pushing himself. We both look a wreck at 3am. I need to intermittantly
go to the toilet to rid myself of something disagreable. Mike really feel he
needs to go, so I say it's OK.
So from 3:30am-6am I am the only one pulling the trollies. And still they
keep coming. It piles up pretty badly and the guys on the other side are
getting annoyed until they come out and see it is only me there doing a
three men job. After thirteen hours inside a giant coolstore I'm finished.
The rough jackets they gave us have left my skin feeling sensitive. I walk
out into the morning sun pleased with the nights work.
As I pass the station a dairy or caterer has thrown out yesterday hard
bread so there are thirty pigeons helping themselves. It makes a funny
sight. As you know they normally peck the bread or lift it into the air for
it to break up, so try to imagine thirty pigeons doing just that ! The place
is just flying with pieces of breads and crumbs are getting caught up by the
breeze and going everywhere. Plus imagine the clacker of beaks on the
pavement.
I get back to the hostel and meet up with the morning workers heading out
for the day. I read a bit and hit the sack at 7am.
At 10am as planned, Thaedra wakes me up and we head North East to Stoke
Newington. As you can guess we make a great travelling couple as we
blissfully end up walking for one hour quoting and quizzing each other from
the Young Ones and BlackAdder. With a generous dollop of the call-response
of "rah rah rah we're going to smash the oinks!" and "you dancing?" "you
asking ?" etc etc (If you don't get that you never will ;-)
Speaking of classic british comedy, last week I missed out the Dad's Army
reunion, only three remain, if you know your stuff you'll know who they are.
It is my favourite british comedy, even above Fawlty, Black Adder, Reginald
Perrin etc
As we reach the Rose And Crown pub Irene is overjoyed to see us. Her South
African workmate is Jacko and it's funny to hear her say his name in a cute
german accent - "yacko". We sink some pints and food and then head back home
not before getting some snaps.
Me and Thaedra tearily [I wrote this way back then but don't recall it
being so] hug and part ways. This brings me to 7pm Tuesday 28th July when I
started writing this entry. Today it is Monday 10th August. Two days ago I
think summer commenced with a sweltering heat and humidity. I am sitting on
the steps of the hostel out back looking into the private carpark used by
the shops and supermarket next door. A man is rummaging thru the rubbish
like I do and fishes out a ministereo system and cd holder. Doh ! I couldn't
done with that. Me and John were talking to getting a holder just today.
Being outside it is quite safe today. Sometimes the next door council flat
inhabitants throw bottles and cans down. And I've heard once there were
syringes. One day an old lady who is on the bottom flat of the block came to
ask us to help sign a petition to get some nastier residents evicted.
The hostel has two storeys, and the flats are twelve high and normally
cast a dark shadow on us. But right now as I look up, the skin on my face
and arms welcomes the sun.
I smile inanely.
Life is looking peachy keen again.......
Subject :Within You Without You 8th August 1998
Date : Sat, 16 Oct 1999 09:26:42 PDT
Since writing the last entry detailing end of July 1998 here is the next
entry detailing early August activities.
Since writing the last entry, most of the french people had returned home
to continue their studies. The 'compulsory' annual trip to England to brush
up on their english safely under their belts and garters. Right now we are
getting an influx of spaniards and italians whom I would get to know well...
Saturday 8th August 1998
On Friday I got talking to a blonde-haired chinese canadian called Arnold
(he reminds me of a rentboy or toyboy so rib him plenty about this). He is
here with his ex-girlfriend and now close friend Nicki.
We chat about music and I surprise myself with my knowledge of shopping
and general navigation skills around London and end up planning their day
for them. I mention the Snowboard and Skateboard event happening on Saturday
so they're keen to come. It's free !
Despite our heights we are all the same age and despite us talking about
drum'n'bass initially we find we have quite a lot in common.
Saturday rolls around and I roll out of bed at 9am for a little breakfast
and get the guys to wake me up at 11am. We grab some lunch to be eaten
later. The casualness of Vis has influenced me as I grab a baguette,
camembert cheese and ham slices which actually fills me up for the day. We
head out to Docklands which on the map looks larger than City of London. On
the docklands light rail there are two tracks, we took the wrong one and
ended up at Canary Wharf.
I learn a bit more about it as Arnold is studying architecture in
Barcelona and we walk around the wharf and admire the modern buildings.
There is a pedestrian suspension bridge which is closed due to some fault
and Arnold takes a photo of it with the sign. We marvel at the tube station
roof as well !
The sun is beating down so we sit down beside the water and eat lunch.
We get back onto the rail line and head past the London Airport, the
Millenium Dome and arrive at Victoria Dock. What is happening here is a snow
and skatie event with demonstrations, and musical performers on a floating
stage so there is a bit of a distance of water from the bands to us on dry
land. Therein lies the problem.
The event is populated by young guys and girls dressed in skatey ska/punk
clothes but the performers with the exception of one or two are distinctly
r'n'b. New Zealand's Ma-V-Elle (which was the main reason I was coming), Mos
Def, Queen Pen, Lutricia McNeal etc.
Nevertheless there were some of the crowd getting into the bands. The
venue is basically a dust covered dock. There are carnival rides etc. We
grab some beers and survey the situation. In places there are some
skateboard ramps and a minicar circuit. On the water there is a large ski
ramp and from here we see skiers come down and try to perform twists and
turns in the air before hitting the water. At one point some parachutists
come down while in the background we could see construction on the Millenium
Dome.
This would all be well and good except that it is @#!£$%^&* hot !
Shelter is a precious commodity. I'll check to check the photos which I
haven't developed yet to see whether I joined Arnold and went bare-chested
damning all modesty ;-) We only stay to see Ma-V-Elle perform, they do a
half hour set, can't remember songs they sung but I'd heard them all before.
We stayed for Mos Def to try to see them get the crowd excited, but not
really, they are too far away off the dock to inspire any reaction from the
crowd.
Nicki is approached by an english guy and they walk around. Arnold gets a
little jealous and it seems it is a regular occurence but normally blows
over. (When I caught up with them some weeks/months later then had finally
departed). I should also mention that Nicki has perhaps a scar or something
on her left cheek under her eye, a slight perhaps blanching or
discolorisation of skin. Can't stop looking at it wanting to touch it. I
reckon it would've felt like plastic. Arnold is pretty oblivious to it now
so can't remember or doesn't want to remember how it happened.
At every event/concert/club I go to, asians are very rare, sometimes I'm
the only one. Here I spot three others. Since we're so close and not wanting
to waste the a daily travelcard I suggest we head to Greenwich Village
(whiere 0 degrees latitude is and hence the term Greenwich meantime, the
time everywhere else in the world is calculated against, hope that makes
sense. Also where you can stand on the dividing line between EAST and WEST.)
We go and walk under the Thames river and thru the park. Nicki is beat so
with the sun still up and plenty of people in the park a lie in the grass
was inviting for her. Arnold and I dare each other and sprint up the hill to
the observatory and get our photos taken on that East-West Line. We then
head back down and lie next to Nicki and in a rare moment I don't think
about wasted time and I just close my eyes under a tree on fallen leaves
while squirrels run around looking for nuts.
Eventually we get up and head back home. I try to appeal to his
architectural spirit to go to Liverpool Street but we are tired so head back
home to eat and rest. But not before seeing a poster saying that two members
of 808 State would be djing at a club that night.
After much umming and arring, since Arnold and Nicki would be leaving with
Busabout at 8am so we decide to maximise our time together, so us two guys
took off to the club, while Nicki stayed back enjoying some bears with the
spaniards.
The club was right next to the Astoria on Charing Cross Road. It's been a
...long time...since I've been to a club so soon both of us are on the
dancefloor lost in our own little world. Great sound system and the music
was good too. Lots of loungey lizardy people about. After 2 hours at about
midnight Darren who I recognised from the band came on and straight you knew
it was him as he started playing 808 state tracks or related remixes such as
'Cubik' and 'Papua New Guinea'. At about 3am we decided to call it a night.
And that was it ! Don't know how I survived such a packed day.
Since then I've kept in touch Arnold and he comes back every now and then,
though I think he's back in Canada now.
Subject : Fun at the sea ! Sunday 17th october 1999
Date : Mon, 18 Oct 1999 11:20:04 PDT
Hi all !
first off an article about Shepherds Bush :
http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/hottx/review.html?in_review_id=219858&in_review_text_id=170775
I believe there was a documentary in New Zealand about London some time ago.
This Saturday I had to work so I did, as you can tell it was productive and
I was able to spurt out a few old emails.
On Sunday woke up late about 11am so decided not to go to Cambridge as
planned. Time is getting short here so now when I think of something to do I
need to do it and not put it off.
So with half a day left to us so it was
- Saffron Waldon, a small market village and home to Germaine Greer. Why ?
Because I talked to someone from there.
http://www.uttlesford.gov.uk/saffire/
- or Southend-On-Sea which has a long pier.
http://www.southend.gov.uk/
(unfortunately no photo of the pier here).
Emma and I get to Liverpool Station and with five minutes to go we got
return tickets to Southend-On-Sea. The Victoria Station. We jump on in the
front carriage, not many people here at all, was my idea of the place wrong
? it wasn't an english beach resort ?
It was chilly but sunny and the sun filled up the carriage no problem.
Why did I want to come here ? Well one day I was looking through an arty
black and white photobook of England. One book had a photo of the pet
cemetery in Hyde Park which I've now been to, and a nice evocative windswept
photo of a pier seeming to go off into the water for...well...a long
distance ! A bit more research and I found that this place's claim to
fame is the "longest pleasure pier in the world". It is 1.33 miles long ! I
had to go there.......and not because lots of other places in England didn't
have a single claim to fame...
After a twenty minute train ride we got off at Wickford. Home of wellknown
Adrians who own the worst music website in the world.
http://www.adrians.co.uk/
The second half of the train line was down so we had to take a replacement
bus. No problem for us cos we had time to burn and sitting on the top desk
up front in a doubledecker coach through the countryside would be fun. It
was !
Once we got here we checked the old train station map, very old, but we
could see we needed to go down the "High Street". Now we'd been through many
of these "High Streets" before most of them are a unkempt redbricked
pedestrian-only street with chains stores, plenty of families, ugly white
kids, plenty of solo mothers of all colours pushing prams. Sure enough
Southend did not disappoint.
We hurried through it as best we could. At one point we passed a guy
coming out way who came to rest behind a small brickwall looking at someone
close by, he was using Police slang. We hung around behind him but nothing
much happened.
Pretty soon we could see the coastline and sea looming ahead of us. It's
been a long time. We look down from the top of the road where we are and can
see Peter Pans Neverland amusement park down below.
We head for the pier. It is free to walk back and forth but there is a
slow train which costs 1.50 UKP. We decide to walk. It is very windy and
cold. Good to feel the sea air on the old face. The pier is 1.33 miles (2.15
kilometres) long but does not look it at all and we think the pier is
pitiful and we could walk it in five minutes.
Twenty-five minutes later we're at the end of the pier. There is typically
a rock (candy) shop here, seaside cafe, pub, amusement arcade, tea shop. The
wind is terrible and no one looks happy. We grab a cup of tea and explore
the pier. In 1976 there was a fire here at the end of it, and rather than
rebuild it they rebuilt around it, so we can still see the charred timber
remains.
Enough ! We head back with thoughts of yummy pub food and roast in our
minds. The journey back seems to be faster. Still amazed by the deceptively
long distance and deceptively flat surface which doesn't stop me from
getting buffeted and pushed to the side.
We get back to shore and decide to check out the amusement park. It is
cheap so we go on the log flume ride.
Unlike the rides in US and Australia where you don't get wet, it is the
opposite here. The log ride started out well enough as well go up and down
and through a tunnel. At the top we are warned to hold on tight as we'll be
falling 4 storeys in 3 seconds. This was scarey i it's amteurism ! We hit
the water down below and we are both totally drenched. The salt water
stinging my face which has a big wry smile on it. We get off and we get a
photo,which I hope to scan soon !
We also have a go on the rollercoaster and it's fun as we careen sideways
screaming. We're like big kids again ! ALso go on the witches ride where
you sit in a capsule and it's moves like cogs where you move on and down and
each time you think the person in front will hit you but then you go down
and he goes up etc etc etc
Hard to explain.
We then went and got some fish'n'chips as all the pubs had the West Ham
game on. We ate, got the bus back home and phew tired.
Next week is a record fair in Sunday 24th so I'll be catching up with some
people there. Next Saturday we hope to get to Cambridge and that night Dave
Davies and Aaron will be having a helloween party...
Subject : London Marathon Week 18th April -30th April
Date : Tue, 26 Oct 1999 11:50:19 PDT
[This email was started on Monday 3rd May - May Day]
contains : brixton bomb, london marathon, le show, jack the ripper walk,
brick lane bomb, soho bomb, hampstead heath
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No maypoles for me I was at work.
This weekend has been tiring, more on that later.
This Saturday 17th we were planning on going to Brixton Markets in the
morning, we didn't go and instead spent the time at the Tate Gallery with
Leila, an irish-indian-south african friend. When we got home we heard on
the radio about the Brixton nail bomb. In a few days we would see WANTED
posters everywhere with a xray of the child that had a nail stuck in his
head.
On Sunday, 18 April, the eyes of the world (well running world) were on
26.2 miles of the London's streets to watch around 30,000 people take part
in the 1999 London Marathon.
The path starts at Blackheath then winds down Greenwich then west along New
Cross, then west along the Thames, Rothehithe, Surrey Quays, over Tower
Bridge, east towards Canary Wharf to Isle of Dogs where it loops back west
along the river Thames past Temple, Embankment, Houses Of Parliament (Big
Ben), the up Birdcage Walk passing in front of Buckingham Palace then ending
at Pall Mall.
We want to become sightseers of course so the plan is to arrive in town
and head out to Tower Bridge. Just like the Auckland Round The Bays Fun Run
looks impressive with the runners all on the bridge.
Give Liz a call but she is going to hang with a workmate of hers. We take
the central line to St Pauls Cathedral, duck into the service which is
always topical (re: Serbs at this point in time), from there we walk down
towards the Thames.
Plenty of people lining the road, runners dressed as nuns, nurses,
teletubbies. We follow the route down to Waterloo Bridge then doubleback
and head to Tower Bridge.
Unfortunately by the time we get there all the runners have past the bridge.
I love crowds so take a few snaps. Pass a few NZ runners. Under Blackfriars
bridge there are walkthrough showers, plus plenty of guys using temporary
darkness to take a leak against the wall.
There is someone dressed up as a tree so everyone calls out "run forest
run", similarly a woman with her name emblazoned across her front makes us
shout "come up Eileen!"
Of note we walked by Gareth Hale (or Pace) - one of them.
Later on in the week an italian friend Francesca and her sister have
arrived in town. Unfortunately time is short for me so we don't get a good
chance to chat ;-(
On Thursday we have audience tickets for Le Show, a french-led program
starring Antoine DeCaunes (from that other show with Jean Paul Gaultier).
We don't know who the special guests are so we're nicely surprised when he
throws veiled insults, questions sexuality and leers at
Boy George, that famous wonderbra model ;-) and a performance by Plastic
Bertrand of 'Ce Plane Pour Moi'. A nice rendition of it! Though boring after
5 takes !
We saw the show a few days later and if you ever see it you can see we in
the back corner right behind Antoine in the interviews.
On Friday 23rd we caught up with a new friend Diana, who is a
vietnamese-australian girl Emma knew from work. We go on one of the Jack the
Ripper walks which is enlightening not so much about the murders as I knew a
bit about them already but how close Tower Bridge and the City Of London and
the East End are so close together by walking distance.
The trial starts from Tower Of London past some roman walls through the
smart new financial branches of the City Of London then heading through
Houndsditch onto Petticoat Lane with the guide singing us age-old songs and
walls where blood was split and splattered. Through the grimey lanes and
alleyways of the east end. Ending up at a pub which specialises and is
probably supported financically by these tours.
The night ended with all of us in Spitalfields watching a netball by night
game.
The next day I was sick so spent my time in bed reading and encouraging my
sniffling. So I wasn't well enough to go with Emma and her friend Fiona to
Brick Lane on Sunday. Funnily enough a bomb went off their the night before
so the place was cordoned off and Emma told of how she saw the burnt out
husk of the car which a good citizen had put the bomb into to take to the
police station which is where it exploded. Luckily he warned people so
nearby shops were able to pull down there metal grate security blinds,
though a nail/shrapnel did come through and take someone's finger off
unfortunately.
Friday 30th april
I planned to meet with Emma at Virgin megastore at 6:45pm we met up and
decided to head back through town for dinner. While waiting there I saw a
poster advertising free tickets to see a Mercury Rev instore gig. When we
tried to go through Soho Square where Emma had walked through in her trail
though the back streets of Soho we found that the road had been cordoned off
for some reason. We stood for a moment wondering and were told it was a bomb
alert. We walked on down and kept trying to head through Soho again but at
each road we were thwarted by police who were moving crowds off people back
against us.
Feeling quite rattled we decided to just walk back home. Passing by
Victoria Lodge on Hyde Park. Looking through the iron wrought gates we saw
scores of tiny stone gravestones marking out the pet cemetery.
The next few days Emma is a bit upset. is The good thing to come out of it
is more outrage against white supremisist groups, some who claimed they did
it. The Sun tabloid rooted out a gang member who actually was a groundman at
a royals school and "would even have access to Prince Williams quarters!!!!"
- though it was later found to be one person, perhaps...
The next weekend we caught up with Liz and went to Brent Cross shopping
centre as it was supposed to be a big mall. It was pretty small compared to
others and very samey as usual. We got the bus back and it went through the
jewish quarter of Golders Green and outside we saw lots of policemen in
uniform or plainclothes. We passed the yha hostel where I spent a night out
under the stars. We decided to get off at Hampstead Heath, first time for
all of us. Definitely a very large and even wild clump of forest in North
London.
We traversed it and headed to supposedly one of the best spots in London -
Primrose Hill, where one came look onto the metropolis, but for the trees !
The heath is big and I mean grand big. Uncut fields, lots of trees and
tracks, strangers, dogs, footballs, rolling hills, ponds. We mean to go back
there one day and check the rest of it out. and check We then walked up to
Highbury then a bus from there to town then dinner at Wong Kei's. By the end
of the day we were all knackered.......
Far too much to do in one day ;-)
Next week was the beginning of the second music week I had with concerts by
Mercury Rev, Suede, Catatonia, Supergrass.
(As detailed in an earlier email).
Subject : Cambridge 24th October 1999
Date : Wed, 27 Oct 1999 11:17:51 PDT
HI all
well last Saturday we finally got to Cambridge !
Slept in and dawdled around so we finally got to Cambridge around 2:30pm.
Drats, lost time !
It is a university town so lots of students on on bikes etc. Plus plenty of
tourists like us taking photos of the many red ivy-covered buildings.
http://www.camcnty.gov.uk/sub/visit/hp.htm
Weather was raining heavily on and off today so it certainly wasn't
condusive to sightseeing, but it's gonna be our last weekend free for a
while.
All the guidebooks say one should not miss the chapel in Kings College
with its classic gothic architecture. We made a beeline for here first. But
by the time we got there they were practising for the weekly Choral and
Organ recital. We decided to return later.
We headed out past the backs which is on the left side of the river, took
some photos, wandered through St John College and checked out their copy of
The "Bridge Of Sighs". A nice markety little town, though wet today so a
real shame.
We grabbed some dinner and headed back to the Chapel but found out we had
misread the times so missed the choral so we stayed for the organ recital.
We lined up with scores of other people and entered. The ceiling was
amazing, a wonderful fan-design stone, unlike the normal arches. very
intricate. Up front behind the altar is Rubens "The Adoration Of The Magi".
We sat near the front on the choristers stalls so we could lean back against
the wall and gaze about at us.
It was getting late so the recital was thankfully 40 minutes. There were 5
pieces. As the opening notes of Bach's Fugue in G Minor echoed through the
church I lay my head back and relaxed.
Eventually we got home on time getting the train just in time back for a 1
hour journey back home.
On Sunday I caught up with Nina at a record fair. I spent about 50-60
pounds, mainly stuff to resell but I picked up an item I'd be after for
awhile : Cabaret Voltaire's remix of a Marc Almond track.
Nina regaled me with tales of Marc's booksigning and handed me over my
copy signed 'to Daryl' - !
Today (Wednesday) I developed a further 7 rolls of film from last year.
There are 2 classic photos I keep telling everyone about which everyone
demands proof of : one is of a junkie with scars on her arms, t'other of a
little girl who made a face as she stood in front of the camera on my last
shot of a film.
My workmate who used to be a psychocologist etc says the girl's scars are
self-inflicted and she isn't an addict as she is quite portly. Much to my
chagrin the photo of the girl is missing I can see it on the negative though
so expect these scanned soon.
that's it !
Subject : Beth Orton - London 29th October 1999
Date : Sat, 30 Oct 1999 07:01:53 PDT
Well once again the days are bumper-full of music (sic).
Out of the blue I got audience tickets for an indie music show which are a
set of live concerts 2 hours in length.
The first show is Madness, Long Pigs, Everything but the Girl. The second is
Ian Brown, Lightning Seeds, Apollo 440, Grant Lee Buffalo or Buffalo Tom (I
forgot - I would prefer the former).
We'll be going to these with our posse next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Just today I got my tickets to attend the screening of 'This Is Not Your
Life' which is a pisstake or alternative version of that other show. This
guest is Ozzy Osbourne. I have heard he is quite 'gone' nowadays so it'll be
interesting.
On Friday night we saw Beth Orton at Shepherds Bush Empire. Bought the
tickets 2 months ago cos it would sell out quick.
I went early as Emma had to work so I caught an awesome set but The Doves.
a guitar, drums, keyboard band who despite the distortion I could find
plenty of melodies to dive into with delight.
I was right up front give or take a few metres and turning round I saw all
the floors above us and noted that I had been seated at all four floors.
It's always exciting being in a venue as it slowly fills up.
At 9:15pm Beth came on. The stage walls and ceiling were filled with stars
from a discoball buried in the middle of the stage as was befitting her
first song. The thought that would stay with me throughout the whole concert
was how big her fans were. The loudness and appreciation throughout the
concert indicated that she doesn't get half-committed fans but totally rabid
ones. She was dressed in a tasteful red dress revealing her back. He arms
are big but her body is pretty skinny. Not like the long sleeved brown
jersey and brown hat that was covering her eyes last time I saw her. (See
Ronnie Spector concert review).
Earlier I overheard with interest people discussing how they got into her.
One gay guy said how someone suggested he listen to "I Wish I Never Saw The
Sunshine" and he wept as he first heard it and on how that song would
sustain him through his worst twelve months of his life. Another guy
commented on how he thought the concertgoers would be more polite than
normal and not so much SQUASH as squish. (okay okay you had to be there do
when he did the actions).
Beth has done three albums, the first one is a collaboration with William
Orbit and is hard to get. Apart from this one that's all I had plus a couple
of singles and a 4 track sampler. So during the concert I was thinking "what
am I doing here I don't know any of these songs". She performed twenty songs
and I had only heard four of them before !
She did about 10-12 off the new album which is a more country-folk tinged
album. It were the songs of her earlier album that received the greatest
response and cheer, I found myself boogieing down on the upbeat ones and
feigning interest and trying to make our the lyrics on the slower ones. She
introduced a new song "Thinking About Tomorrow" which was instantly likeable
much like the 'new' songs I had heard tonight.
I felt she was still a bit shy, she was talking pretty well inbetween
songs and introducing the band ("Her Left hand man, Her right hand man, her
backdoor man" ooer) But on guitar solos she would often turn her back to us
and play.
All around us it seemed we were surrounded by real fans who would sing or
dance along. Though there were two girls who would constantly shout out for
'Sugar Boy'. A guy ahead of us said to his partner that if those girls shout
out again he would do something with their asses.
When she did 'She Cries Your Name' there was tall blonde european (?) next
to me who was dancing with deliberate rigid movements I thought she was
gonna collapse on the floor in a fit. For this song it was fully replicated
onstage with a double bass and two violins ! Awesome !
Setlist :
Galaxy of Emptiness
Pass In Time
Best Bit
So Much More
Stolen Car
Stars All Seem To Weep
Love Like Laughter
Sweetest Decline
She Cries Your Name
Devils Song
Thinking About Tomorrow
Whenever
Someones Daughter
Central Reservation
Dolphins
First encore:
Feel To Believe
Blood Red River
Second Encore :
I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine
Third Encore:
Touch Me With Your Love
Request:
Sugar Boy
Terry Callier was supposed to be there to sing their cover of Billy
Bragg's "Dolphins" but he had a bad back. I knew "I Wish I Never Saw The
Sunshine" would be the encore (one of many) as I would say it has become one
of her signature tunes now, even though she didn't write it. The moment the
song started everyone grabbed someone next to them and started singing along
and no doubt some tears were shed.
After the concert I was able to get a copy of the setlist, the roadies
were the nicest ever, and realised that Sugar Boy wasn't actually planned to
be performed - so it looks as though those girls succeeded. I hung by the
stagedoor for a few minutes for an autograph but gave up as I was too tired.
But did get talking to Nick from Watford who was a big fan of hers so we'll
keep in touch. I was hoping William Orbit may have turned up but no luck.
All through the concert I was imaging tucking into a lovely lamb kebab
from around the corner so I went in there and had a chat, they seem to know
me pretty well now.
As I headed back home past the venue there was a girl on the corner who
looked familiar. She was looking at me because I was possibly unconsciously
looking at her more than is permissable. It was Sarah Cracknell from St
Etienne. I waslked by but then decided to double back. We had a quick chat
and she had been to the concert too. I had heard that she lives around the
area but she then asked me where the nearest taxi stand was. I helped her
out and grabbed a photo of us together then ran home happy.
Tonight I'll be going to Dave's helloween party.
;-p
fin