11.49
Hotel Acceptable, Area Nowhere, Somewhere, Willow Grove, PA.
Wherever we are, it’s a grey morning…
What’s out there within walking distance?...
Nothing. So down to the hotel Feeding Trough, a packed breakfasting room with lotsa pumping down, many people & noisy. The widescreen tv was set to Power Rangers & the in-house NPU to Rock-a-pop Hits of the 60s. Quite a combination. I wonder why a hotel would have its NPU & tv broadcasting simultaneously, accompanying the shouting of the morning meal.
E-flurrying & dealing while dribbling from a late arrival & long day yesterday.
In Italy, today, there is a wedding in the GC family. This is joyful news.
15.34 A drive with Ade in the ProjeKctmobile to discover what’s in the neighbourhood: nothing walkable is the answer. To the venue for an inspection & then Barnes & Noble in a mall on the return journey. Two books of interest - Andy Summers’ memoir of life up to the end of The Police and The Fellowship but too large & heavy to carry with new baggage restrictions, so they will be acquired in England.
Life on the road: an enjoyable hour in a bookshop, with coffee shop in-house, makes a day bearable.
Death on the road…
Too many miles: this Happy Gigster Neck Pillow finally deflated on our drive to NYC. Probably, it over-inflated with changing air-pressure inside the flight to Boston from Nashville. It is inflatable no longer, to be filed under Memorabilia Of The Road.
23.33 This evening’s venue: the Keswick Theater is within the greater area of Philadelphia…
Zombeatle Biff at the controls…
ProjeKctionist Ade at the drummer controls…
John assembling the Solar Voyager…
Half of P6…
Backstage…
Schedule…
Where’s the Dressing Room?...
An enjoyable performance. Probably, we played well, but I have no idea. Two words were mentioned to me before the P6 performance that should not have been mentioned. They made me twitch & begin to abandon hope.
Visitors: Hellboy Tom with Mrs. Hellboy & one Hellgirl. Also Adrian’s Slick new rhythm section with their Parents, bearing Brownies of wonderment, terror & delight.
We stayed for most of Porcupine Tree’s set. Their new material, being road-tested & refined, is considerable. The next PT album, to be recorded in the Spring, could be a tipping point or, conventionally expressed, the break-out album.
While watching from the audience, I realized there is no way I could presently tour & play a 1’45”–2 hour major set every evening. It is not possible for me to undertake front-line touring responsibility with the amount of e-mail, arising issues in various departments, and people who call on me with various demands. The recent promotional discussions were so upsetting, any tour would have been undermined for me; particularly since requests for promotion should never have been made.
Conversation at the end of the evening with Artist Advocate Andy Leff re: future professional arisings.
At the back door, awaiting our departure, an old friend who has been off the radar for a long while, and has reconnected. A joy to see him again.
Dribble.
