SACC, Glasgow.
We arrived outside Hotel Acceptable at 02.00 this morning. Before bed, there was laundry to be taken down to the reception desk, washing socks & knickers in the bathroom sink before getting into bed at 03.30.
Rising in dribbly condition to another Room With A View --
In lobby for Soundcheck call at 15.00. After confusions with the runner, arriving nearly half an hour late.
My dressing room, in the bowels of the SECC, was too far away from G3 Central to get Airport reception; so I set up in the production office to get e-mail. Greeting me, after two gruelling & offline days on the bus: a full e-mailbox of distraction, sucking & feeding.
One of the fundamental reasons I no longer tour England (and, by extension, the UK) is the volume & intensity of demand for free tickets, backstage access, would you get me Steve Vai's autograph and can I meet him too? requests & similar distractions.
However much I ask not to be involved with the guest list, which can be dealt with by the office and/or tour managers, here I am being distracted & sucked on yet again; at precisely the most vulnerable moment when distraction & sucking will draw upon my limited supply of performance-attention.
Also arriving in the e-post: a character who wrote to me recently with Burning Personal Issues. He has been reading this diary, so knows I am touring. Yet because I have not yet replied to his Burning Issues, surely he must have the wrong e-address for me? And has re-sent his letter of Burning Issues. Actually, my reply to him went out just before his re-send came in. This is a small example of egotism: why doesn't my Burning Issue take precedence over your own personal & professional life, and why haven't you given ME the time & attention that I require already, even though you are pressured, busy, tired - and I'm unaware of any of this!
To see this clearly is part of a necessary adult education; the difficult part is to see this clearly & not react emotionally. This is part of an effective adult education.
Also: Doug FOH has been having difficulties recording the Soundscapes: there are drop-outs and non-records. This is a disappointment.
Just off from the Soundscapes set. No booing that I heard, and a rather half-hearted slow-handclap that petered out.
Then onto the telephone to deal with a ticket & backstage-pass request. Enough, please, of this damage to my performance life. Enough, please, to spoiling the quality of my touring life. As I type this in, I know that were I to go out again next year in the UK, the same people would turn up yet again, apologise for making the same demands and then make the same demands again.
I see this clearly. I wonder, do they? And, would seeing this change their behaviour?
23.55 A strong, good-hearted Glaswegian audience, very positive and up for Steve & Joe, and an ongoing photo session throughout the evening. I enjoyed the G3 jam. Each day at Soundcheck I refine programmes on the Lunar to better fit within the Team.
"Listening is a craft.
Hearing is an art."
