Meat on the bones and Bass under the floorboards

Alex Blackmore's small scale sculptures of pop culture tribes are accumulating detail and character. There is meat on the bones and more than a hint of demeanour. I'm seeing the austere anti-glamour of

the Eighties, taking a step back from of the social-realist wing of punk and into the bookish, mushroomy activism of post-punk. 

Meanwhile, here is Jon Donohoe in Sheffield adding bass to my soundtrack for Jim Alexander's attic animation. 

  

 

Phil and Fiona: John Peel Ears

This is  Fiona Ogilvie (front, in black) and Phil Musker (beard)  in Ulverston with the popular singing group Meat Raffle.

Fiona and Phil have the open ears and curiosity that they had as kids. 

They find things by going to look for them. They travel, they go to sampler shows and  all-dayers, in search of something they don't know about. One discovery leads to the next. Their internet is a source of information rather than music. They find shape shifting and amorphous scenes inhabited by pools of do-ers and activists,  villages of musicians, designers, t shirt people, putting on festivals without name bands or even headliners. There are echoes of counterculture; of Co-ops and communal living, ways of doing things that have risen out of both necessity and nous, a determination to be in control of the vehicle; an insistence on fleshy, real time relations within overlapping scenes; a pleasure in operations on a human scale, with a core audience that is big enough to maintain you and small enough to get to know.

They never miss a support act.

They still have what Phil called  their John Peel ears.

NOW...Reverb writer and pal Geoff Cox and me met up with them for a few beers with a view to collaboration of some sorts . After , Geoff said this, and sent this diagram /score...

Hi John,

I’ve been thinking about what I’d be interested in chasing via the Reverb project, stuff we’d be able to include other folk in and discover some interesting ideas. I’ve been doodling a first pass at what that content might be - the diagram atttached is a big-picture take. If you think this is where we should be going I’d be happy to refine some questions for each of the 7 areas, though I’m not sure we’d need much more to get folk talking?

Anyone out there fancy getting involved?  artspacebarrow@gmail.com

Wind-up.

 A few years ago a call from Cecil Sharp House sent me across town  to collect a collection of folkdance and tune 78s from a house clearance.   Our pal Bob Spencer in Barrow has just done some sterling work work on greasing and springing the REVERB wind-up gram, and I'm now digitising them for Gordon Jones at Furness Tradition and digging into the history of the sessions with the Help of the Vaughan Williams library.

Deathcleaning. Where is thy Sting album?

 

So, Carl Flint emails me saying here was a guy selling old fanzines on his stall on Chesterfield Flea Market...(see photo). Mostly British but a few international ones as well. I didn't buy any, he says. as I'm trying to cut back on those sort of purchases in the interest of death-cleaning

He's fine by the way, and so am I..

I only heard that Death Cleaning is a thing quite recently. Might have been from Carl. It's a Swedish thing, a rational and civilised preparation for the inevitable that takes the onus off family and probably makes you feel a bit more in charge of things. It'd also be a good way to ensure that anything embarrassing gets deffed before you do, like that Sting Live lp with the blobby painting on the cover  or the tubes of panic -purchase Pile Cream. 

(We've all been there. It's nothing to be ashamed of.) (Pile Cream, not Sting.) 

It's in the air.  I've  had quite a few  discussions regarding souvenirs etc, about what you keep and what you don't and why. A few people had made a conscious decision to dump drawers full of stuff, but I don't think anyone referred to Death Cleaning though, they just let the  conversation trail off....

Turns out there's a tv show about it too...

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/06/the-gentle-art-of-swedish-death-cleaning-a-rare-tv-show-that-will-change-your-life-for-the-better

I have been doing it myself. The drawing portfolio regularly gets the treatment, drawings get screwed up and dumped, leaving clouds of charcoal dust hanging. The reasoning is that someone, one day, will have to go through this stuff. And not through familial obligation either.  Its going to either be someone who volunteers, or a Professional.  I'm trying to get a head start on it, getting rid of the rubbish, anything I don't rate. I suppose it would be easier on the poor sod who gets the job if I got rid of the good stuff, so there was only obvious rubbish there. I'm not really sure how he's supposed to know the difference.

Anyway obviously I desperately want these fanzines, but I'm not going to be around Chesterfield on any thursday coming up. Luckily my friend Androo Wobble is, and is good enough to wander down and grab me a selected bundle. Androo has excellent judgement on these matters so it'll be a good selection, and something to mystify whoever has to one day drag out whatever is under my bed.  Many thanks youth.