FOURTH(?) WEEK OF WRITING

tuesday sept7 1999
there seemed to be a lot of breaks today, which often means that we're worrying about something. recording worries over whether the 'canned applause' mobile setup will be ready. management swing by to answer fraught questions and generally alleviate anxieties. oh yes, music is what we're about (easily forgotten sometimes) and 'everything in its right place' sounds good.

wednesday sept8 1999
a good and long rehearsal. pick up where we left off on 'everything' and move swiftly on to 'optimistic' - it's blinding - definitely the most formed of the songs to put to tape - it comes from the swamp. the music is interrupted by the new bulletin board on our all-new singing and dancing website. v. exciting. and of course most of the messages posted are concerned with the atrocities in east timor. what's the betting that international forces fail to enter east timor before mass genocide is once again committed. if this sounds flippant - it's not meant to - sorry. back to the music - return to 'up on the ladder' -thom has a new arrangement - start stripping the song apart - already sounding better.

thursday sept9 1999
'knives out' sounding quite 'smiths-esque'. especially phil who has got that mike joyce thing down to a tee. on to 'optimistic' -must record that soon before we lose it (remember 'lift'?). 'up on the ladder' sounds pretty grim. 'say the word' (or c-minor song); great drum, bass and vocals - personally getting a bit anxious over it, as i can't find anything that works with it, or rather i have an idea but can't get the sound right. makes me a bit neurotic. finish on what i used to call the 'jonny scott walker song' - very short and sweet.
last diary piece for a couple of weeks. how was it for you? i'm finding it a little difficult to set the right tone, but as i'm not a journo i guess that's fair enough. hopefully this is going to be an ongoing thing throughout recording and maybe even touring, so it will get better.

THIRD (?) WEEK OF WRITING

tuesday august31 1999
kick off with 'cuttooth', the song with little structure and the only certainty is a bass riff. it makes you wonder how 'neu' did their thing - it always sounds spontaneous on those 12 minute epics, but did they have to rehearse intensely? did it require a degree of editing? then move on to the 'c minor song' - jonny thinks that maybe it's getting a little too tasteful and nice and he's right. it sounds too slick. finish with 'optimistic'.

wednesday sept1 1999
i read a rumour from the internet [never believe a single nuance - sd] that we are supposed to be collaborating with 'godspeed you black emperor' on 'how to disappear' - this person cited a number of chance occurences, including such impossible coincidences as 'they came to see us at a gig'. if that were sufficient corroborating evidence then, judging on the bands i've seen recently, you can hear us with 'the divine comedy' and the mighty 'asian dub foundation'.
twice around 'follow me around' - mmm. not great, but salvaged by 'you and whose army' - jonny thinks that voice and guitar are all that's needed until the end part; and it sounds right; or at least it's definitely a place to start. run through 'optimistic', cuttooth', and 'up on the ladder' for nige, who's down for the day to do some wiring and 'studio arranging'.

thursday sept2 1999
i have, up until now, never written a diary about what we've been doing; largely due to lethargy, but also because there are times when you have no desire whatsoever to document a particular occasion. and anyway i've always been suspicious of those who, like bill wyman, record such daily details. great bass player, though. but what has been interesting about this is that for me this is first time i am aware of the cyclical nature of our behaviour; patterns emerge. today was much like a day four weeks ago. things came to a head. and although you wish that there weren't days like this, it actually probably aids the creative process. so maybe the next few rehearsals will be great. time to swig back a bottle of wine and contemplate the frail nature of it all.

friday sept3 1999
after only 2 months rehearsal and 3 months recording, it's been concluded that what we should be doing now is trying to get basic arrangements. we're like fucking lasers, us. we spend almost the entire rehearsal working on 'cuttooth' (the song with no arrangements up until now) and surprise, surprise, it already sounds a lot better. when you have a song that does not have the usual distinction between verse/chorus/middle eight, there need to be other markers that define the way the song progresses. and we're getting there.

SECOND WEEK OF WRITING

tuesday august3 1999
start by working on 'lost at sea'. thom thinks weve already recorded the definitive version whilst in paris. not sure about that, mind you he admits that thats because of the way hes singing it (which hes only done with a tape alone whilst driving). i really like this new version, as much as anything for its relentlessness and energy. anyhow move onto a new song 'cuttooth' - its got a 'neu' thing about it - long and hypnotic.... finish with attempting to rescue 'you and whose army'...

wednesday august4 1999
first time since starting this that i have had absolutely no desire to write anything about today. 24 hours and a good rehearsal (thursday) later things are a little clearer. yesterday or rather today (the 4th) there was very little played but a lot of talk. the problem we have found is that we are essentially in limbo - for the first time in our time we have nothing to get ready for, except 'an album', but weve been working on that since january and nothing substantial has come of it, except maybe a few harsh lessons in how not to do things*. its like how do we start this - when we made our last three albums, there were time restrictions - we no longer have these. are we going down 'stone roses' territory? the result of this somewhat frank discussion is that we need a plan and something to aim for...
*not quite true in hindsight - we have recorded some good stuff (not much, though).

thursday august5 1999
much better today... the sun shines in and out of our rehearsal room and we get a lot done... start with 'optimistic' (still sounding great - jonny tries some cool ondes martenot on it - the high stuff is good, not however when he follows the main riff). move on to 'up the ladder' - sounds better with more space. segway into 'follow me around' and a reworking of the 'cminor song' (in a stax stylee). jonny meanwhile is attempting to put the vocal mic through his analogue filters - which looks like a remake of an old telephone exchange. "hello vicar, yes ill put you through to mr kipling"... so the last two songs are punctuated by sudden bursts of unearthly noises, both extremely good and extremely bad.

friday august6 1999
last day of the week and last rehearsal for a couple of weeks as the eclipse takes place next wednesday. so we run through most of the songs. i think that these rehearsals will be viewed in hindsight as where we turned a corner (or hope so). obviously working on the songs and playing again has helped, but just as importantly we have been forced to confront certain things - like what the fuck are we doing exactly - how do we set up the next bit of recording so that we dont start 20-odd songs and not finish one of them. its taken us seven years to get this sort of freedom, and its what we always wanted, but it could be so easy to fuck it all up.

FIRST WEEK OF WRITING

thursday july22 1999
thom arrives & plays a new song on the acoustic. sounds great but has no name, so now on referred to as the song with no name. we move on to "lost at sea/in limbo" after only nine months work its starting to sound like its getting somewhere. good in fact. The others sound ok too.( everything, everyone/the national anthem). highlight of the day is attempting 3 part harmonies on "neil young *9"- not the harmonies themselves, but phil cracking up because he feels a bit like that drummer from the eagles. a fucking brilliant rehearsal. its great to be in our band.

friday july23 1999
start by working on 'optimistic'. i really love the words, especially the line "this one just crawled out the swamp" reminds me a bit of PJ Harvey's blues stuff. cool. a couple of interesting jams. one of them is jonny's who bemoans the fact that his stuff never turns into proper songs. its good but he doesnt realise it, as hes already bored of it by the time he plays it to us. finished by playing 'neil young *9' or as cozzie calls it the 'phil is don henley' song. It sounds even better today. don't go on too long as its warm and unusually summery today so drive home and get caught in the inevitable friday traffic jams.

tuesday july27 1999
a pretty frustrating day, but now we've been doing this for so long, you realise it can't all be like last week. it starts well with a different version of 'how to dissapear' and 'everything in its right place'. we then get sidetracked by a couple of loose ideas for songs (one is very like the Fall). However we have definitely lost our way with ' you and whose army'- it was sounding great last week, so what happened today? time to go home.

wednesday july28 1999
it may well be that because we are working on completely new material it seems that we have not moved much today, like yesterday. but we discussed ' follow me around' and how we would like to approach it, rather than just start playing and thereby fall into old habits. plank says he likes the 'remain in light' style jam we had which is good because we were pretty nonchalant about it. 'de la soul'esque jam at end.

thursday july29 1999
warts and all, warts and all......... the last two days were brewing up to this.....working on 'up the ladder'. 30 seconds into it & it sounds utter shite. thom stops it. lack of energy. phil gets pissed off. we talk a bit. start up again with a dose of the 'fuck you's. sounds better almost immediately. funny that. oh and the new song from 22nd is called 'move along' for the moment. also played the cminor. lovely sunny day.

friday july 30 1999
spend the first 3hrs on 'up the ladder'. things are happening; jonny brings in the 'missy eliot' chord??!! thom starts singing lyrics from another song, cozzie comes with a catchy riff for the chorus and phil is ..funking. with that going on its very easy for me. working through something is such a cliche but if youre in the right frame of mind its so true. finish by playing "lost at sea/in limbo" , "optimistic", "c-minor song". it would be great to have another look at "you and whose army?" next week, and rescue it for the 'lets leave it for a while' pile. plank's not here today as he's in Lobo, Norway with Mike Scott- they have no nights in summer.