Iain Cameron's Diary
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2005-07-18 - 5:48 p.m.

The bid timetable has kicked in with a fury. First we have to deliver the Motorsport presentation tomorrow - but Steve and I knocked that out in an hour or so this morning. Always easier working in that way.

Vita�s report was massively impressive - straight As - plus the suggestion that she does fine art painting at HE - which she doesn�t really fancy. She has various projects on just now which require further purchases from Amazon - some illustrations by R Briggs, Matisse�s writings and a commentary on Cartier-Bresson. On Saturday evening she and Mrs C went to see David Schwimmer acting on the London stage. She has been a great Friends fan throughout - also H Potter and so she was off to get the new volume on Saturday morning. Friday evening and all day Sunday she was at Guildfest with her mates.

Sunday I cooked Mrs C a birthday lunch - lamb chops pan roasted with mint, new potatoes, mange-tout and a beetroot and tomato salad - with a Grand Cru Chablis - in the garden. Something with mango and raspberry to follow.

Saturday I bought a live CD of Thin Lizzy in 1978 in Sydney behind the Opera House. Its only 40 minutes but they really put on a show - it�s a Irish-US band. NYC drummer and black Irish bass - 2 lead guitars - Moore the Irish blues supreme and Scott Gorham from LA who is more genuinely West Coast in both appearance and style. Often they both use Les Paul but sometime Moore switches to a Gibson Melody Maker. They write great rock songs with a bit extra added - often its some sort of white note inflection - almost like folk rock. The audience is really pushing it back at the band.

A new Suzanne Vega also arrived - Days of Open Hand - earlier than 99.9F and Nine Objects of Desire but after the initial break through albums. I kept on playing it over the weekend and it kept on growing on me. Maybe it�s the most understated so far but it shows how hooked I am that I wanted to just keep on sinking into it.

On Friday the United States of America arrived - I have Henry t thank for reminding me about this - as he knows the lead singer. I bought the vynil when it came out and then over the years lost it. There was a CD reissue in 2004 with some extras and outtakes. I listened to it as I drove down from Birmingham to the Bush and really liked it. The more I read the history of the band the more important it seemed to be. Then I noted that they lived near the Doors on Venice Beach too. The plot thickens.

At the Bush I found the place - not a part of London I know - well I know East Acton and the Bush is just further down the road.. It s a very ethnically diverse part of London. Mark let me in early and Gilbert was doing his sound check. It was really good to see him and have some time to talk - unlike the Lullabies where I was running around all the while.

Davy Graham played a set to end the first half and opened with a tune that Charlie and Lucky Ranku had played at the Lullabies - Blue Bossa. The second set opened with Pamela Wynne-Shannon who was at the Tamworth event last year - she played pretty well but looked different. Then it was Gilbert - he opened with the Lullaby and played the best version I have heard of it - then Parasite and finally a reading of Nuages. It sounded really good to me and complimented DG especially well. Next on was Mark Pavey - I began to realise how his songs work - something that had rather eluded me. They are designed for live performance with acoustic guitar miked through a big PA and come across with great power in those circs. He also played 2 Jackson Frank songs - very well . Davy rounded off the evening and then we all went upstairs for the after hours bar - I stayed as long as I could.

The audience was pretty good. The Guardian article the same day on D Graham must have helped a lot. The article makes out that DG is pretty hard to handle and you can never be sure what he is going to play - and in one sense that s true. But there is another way of looking at it. It seemed to me that I was watching someone who plays �in the moment� more than most musicians - and in that sense he is like Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor - with those guys you never know what you will get either. There is a sense when you watch/listen that you are watching a sage - but that his ideas are quite often a little beyond your reach - of course you cant be sure.

I gave Gilbert a copy of the 10SS AV - he has just mailed to say he likes it - pppphhheeew. We think we might do another 10.

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