Dave's Gig Guide
Newcastle University "Music and Machines Symposium", 14th December 2007.
Oh shit. Gig number 13. Good job I'm not superstitious.
The original invitation for this gig arrived only 3 weeks before the event and stipulated one hour of improvised music. Frankly, I blew a gasket. There's no way I could come up with 1 hour of improvised music in just 3 weeks. I could just about do a gig with a full band in 3 weeks but not a solo thing.
I called Dave Gurr and Norman Fay and they agreed to help out but, mercifully, the brief was quickly reduced to just 30 minutes and then 20 minutes as the organisers managed to recruit other bands into the programme.
The gig was pretty unrehearsed. I kicked off with a reworked version of Farscape from Ion's "Future Forever", adding Mellotron choirs and ghostly voice pads to fill it out a bit. Nerves were a major problem and I forgot half of what I was supposed to be doing within seconds of going on stage. The sound guys were excellent, bringing the levels up naturally as I got into my stride.
I brought in a couple of new pieces, Sancho Panzer and Garden Party, which sounded good and then faded into Eclipse, a gentle intro to another piece entirely as I got ready to bring up the surprise piece.
About two hours before I was due to strip the rig down, I decided that I'd had enough of improvised music. I felt then and still do now that it's a dead end, musically. Some can do it, I can't. I have to accept that. Instead, I dropped in "Waving At Mono", the ultimate in structured, pre-programmed music, essentially because I love the piece and always enjoy performing it. I wanted to end the gig on a high and I loved the irony.
It worked and the applause from the 70 or so souls in the audience was loud and positive but, once I'd stripped my stuff down and the main acts took to the stage, I was left feeling very, very empty indeed, like there was unfinished business here. I went outside and sat quietly on my own for around 15 minutes. The feeling didn't change one iota.
The gig finished late and we had trouble getting everything back in the car. I still felt uneasy about the whole thing. It was an ambition come true - to talk and play at the University - and that made me happy. Better still, for once, we weren't the weirdest thing on the bill this time.
However, I decided that this would be my last ever solo gig. I need the comfort and support of the band. It makes for a better, more interesting, more energetic performance, which is what the audience is after really.
It took me a couple of weeks to listen to the mixing desk recording. It sounded pretty dire at first but, as I got used to it, I started to like it a bit more and eventually released it as a download to a couple of friends. They thought it was okay too and so I made it available as a free track on the MusicZeit service.