Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-11-03 - 7:41 a.m.

The central heating problem seems to be more serious than I had anticipared � real expertise is needed.

However � the WATCH gig went about as well as we could have hoped for � I wonder how Gilbert�s simultaneous free improv gig went? At WATCH the riskiest tune was the Cubes especially as this version was in 5:4 but it worked out OK slightly minimal and quite varied. The other canon had really taken off in rehearsal but was less dynamic in the big space. I thought the band was pretty tight � good integration between the keyboards and the guitar and the horns � almost too smooth for the circumstances. I really enjoyed playing Fender on Fender. The A string was so solid - made me wonder how the U2 would have sounded.

An amazing sermon from a senior cleric at the Cathedral � gloriously out � and courageously so in the current circs. And there was champagne afterwards � I always appreciate a couple of glasses after/during a blow.

Tunisia sounds like it was fun � high 70s F � roman ruins, camels in the Sahara, a steam train into the Atlas mountains and a few days beach. James said he liked the Arabic culture more than he was expecting.

To add to the international postings � Ciaran says that Moscow is reassuringly safe on the streets. He was raised in Derry. It turns out that he was trained as a recording engineer and he has agreed to master the DAT that Peter Chatterton is making of Cleveland�s recital. Ciaran is keen to blow a lot more too. If I can get him and Peter Chatterton together on clarinet.

Nikki was very keen to have music during the social phase of the WATCH event and I spent a lot of the day putting backing tracks together and dredging up unaccompanied flute � Debussy Britten and really quite a lot of Bach � none of which was needed at the time - even the 2nd movement of the Poulenc Flute Sonata. I started with a long heavy dub version of Moonheart on the sax (off Plundafonix)� about 10 minutes and also a six minute version of One Point Two (which I think was technically a premiere - there still has to be a first for the GilberI-IC reading). 1.2 was good in that resonant space.

I have a jazz practice CD with Miles� bassist, Ron Carter, pushing it like crazy -so I did �Its You or No One� off that � I can remember being in Bob Brearly�s quartet and doing a driving version of that in a pub in Islington, a band I wanted to do more with - London hard bop. Slightly more up and on the beat than the Steve Pheasant Quintet.

And then I raided my stock of MIDI floppies � 3 Bacharach tunes � Walk on By, What the World Needs Now and the Look of Love. Its not very often you get a chance to play anything that cheesey in a mid 18th century church � actually I think all those pieces are more than first class and they all blow easily, I suppose you would call this smooth jazz these days. And finally a couple of things from the Blues Brothers � Think and Everybody Needs Somebody to Love � both done as flute pieces which takes a lot of energy. I wondered whether this was a bridge too far � but WATCH thinks of itself as a radical bunch of bunnies.

I had a proposition at one stage when I wasnt sure if I could get a job - somewhere between DJ, cocktail and postmusicschool small group - me and the gear, a variety of instuments and styles tailored to the a number of social circumstances. I suppose this was a prototype run at it. Now for a day of healthy shivering.

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