Windmill gig, 16 Feb 2009

feb 2009 setup (flash) Originally uploaded by simonm1965

I did a solo gig the other night and it was good. Victor (ex-homocrime collective) asked me to play at a night he was organising at the Windmill in Brixton. I was kind of viewing it as a test to see if I wanted to do this again, and I enjoyed it. There was no time for a soundcheck and I was stressed, but the whole thing came off pretty well. I had 4 sound sources going more or less continuously - a Raagini electronic tanpura (white box on floor) as a background drone, Duotone oscillator box (aka Ben's Simple 40106 Tone Generator), Thumpa Thumpa Box (a primitive rhythm box, 1970 Simonton design) into Digitech delay, Monatron > vol pedal > Jen Fuzz + Sustain > Boss DD6 delay. I tuned these all to C at first and then slowly adjusted each one in turn to make simple chords and dischords, then bringing them approximately back to unison, but the the Raagini staying on C the whole time.... the other bands, Maria and the Mirrors and Headfall were good too, but the headliners - Jer Reid's Isshi taiko drummers (billed as Tcki Tkcy taiko drummers) were astounding! The tracks on his myspace page give an idea of the sound, but live it was incredible! check their myspace page and play loud.

Den outing (no 2) - The Stratford Hoard

Eight of my guitars and nearly my entire output of diy pedals are in an exhibition at Stratford Underground station (near the entrance to the DLR platforms) for the next couple of months, curated by Alan Kane. The exhibition showcases the collections of local people, and this is the third phase - my stuff and a ton of Beatles memorabilia. The previous phase had wind-up toys, black baby dolls, lots of different kinds of adhesive tape and packets of sugar, and 8 copies of Michael Jackson's 'Bad' LP. Here I am on the day they were installed, along with a couple more pics I took at the weekend. I'll probably upload some more photos to the set on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/30379212@N03/sets/72157613275768898/ also: Transport For London blurb, not up-to-date http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/artmusicdesign/pfa/artists/alan-kane.asp