A quick trip to the UK, and a bit of a discovery in the absence of anything to watch on TV.

I was back in London again at the weekend to see the final Armstrong & Miller studio recordings at the BBC. Very funny of course, but I’ve still to regain any feeling in my buttocks which went numb after the first couple of hours. I think the BBC have had the same seats in their studios since the 1930’s when men and their buttocks were made of sterner stuff.

I was going to head back across the channel on Saturday, but postponed when John (Steel) rang to say that he could come over for a couple of days if I could wait until Monday. I’m always grateful for a second pair of ears that I can trust, particularly when mixing so I decided to wait for him.

Having nothing of great urgency that I could do while in London, and failing to find anything on TV of interest on Sunday, I turned to YouTube. I guess I should confess, that although I’m aware of Internet phenomena like YouTube and MySpace, I rarely venture that way. I know I should but there always seem to be other things to do.

So, out of pure boredom I thought I’d check out YouTube for anything on Ann Coulter. As I’m sure you know, she’s is the pin-up girl for the American right wing. She’s well educated, conventionally attractive, media savvy, quick with a sound-bite and one of the nastiest pieces of racist, extreme right propagandists you’ll encounter. She features a little in the song ‘My Little Gangsta’ that John and I wrote for the new album.

So, the very first thing I came across was a piece by Henry Rollins on Ann Coulter (Rollins letter to Ann Coulter). I’m vaguely familiar with Henry Rollins, I think I’ve played on the same bill as him and the Rollins band at a couple of festival gigs in the mid 1990’s, but I’ll admit I never looked or listened hard enough to hear any lyrical content of interest, behind the barrage of sound and intense screaming. Don’t get me wrong, I have always enjoyed the odd intense track by metal bands, but after a few tracks, when the only emotion coming through the music is anger, (occasionally very unfocused) I get bored, simply because I think there are other musical ways to reflect that anger, and other emotions to explore.

Anyway, to return to Henry Rollins; I was dimly aware that he had written poetry, (certainly unusual for a tattooed, muscular man of metal) and that he was renowned for his intensity and his principled work ethic, but the stuff I found on YouTube really opened my eyes.

I confess I’ve spent the last six to seven years nursing what might be called a vaguely anti-American sentiment. When Bush stole that first election I resolved not to go to America until he and his puppet masters were gone. (I bet that decision really upset the authorities)

OK, I know one shouldn’t tarnish a whole nation with the same brush, and we all know the first Bush victory was at best, highly questionable, but it seemed from this side of the globe, that he went on to legitimately win the second election. Which meant that unbelievably, people in America were actually voting for him and his militaristic, homophobic, socially unjust, neo-fascistic policies.

It seemed like an immense step backwards in time, after the tiny, faltering promise of the 1990’s. Had Americans learned nothing from 20th century history? Christ, wouldn’t the majority of voters have lived through it and seen how with Captain Cuckoo holding the steering wheel, that it was about to repeat itself? (Trust me American readers, I realise that to a large extent, the same accusation can be quite fairly made of myself and fellow countrymen) Where was the outraged and angered voice of opposition? Michael Moore and Al Franken were doing their bit, but nobody seemed to be throwing foam-mouthed punches of righteous anger from within the evil empire.

Well as ever, it seems I’ve been wrong. Having enjoyed his Ann Coulter piece, I followed links for the best part of four hours and saw Rollins in numerous interview and performance clips, occasionally performing what I believe he calls ’spoken word’ but I think could equally be called stand-up. Not in the gag-telling, or observational “have you ever noticed” sense. This guy has picked up the Bill Hicks robe and to my astonishment, it fits his strangely Schwarzenegger-like body to a tea. He’s well read, well traveled, well informed, self-deprecating and painfully honest. He’s highly articulate and incredibly funny, and at a time when many who feel like him prefer to slip into the shadows until this all blows over, afraid of what vocal opposition might do to their careers, he’s spitting it out like a machine gun.

I may never fully get his musical output but, my God, it was a big lift and a palpable relief for me to hear the man shooting at his multiple targets with sniper like accuracy, and I spent what remained of Sunday evening, feeling strangely optimistic after a marathon session, watching all I could find of the man’s output.

Of course, you were all totally on top of this years ago. I’m simply telling you what you already knew but damn it, you could have told me.

So here’s the deal; I’m going to try and pursue my new obsession and see what else I find inspirational and challenging, and then I’m going to indulge myself on this digital soap box, and take the liberty of mentioning or recommending it to you from time to time. And you are going to be patient and reserve your “yeah, we knew that already you dozy twat” comments, and perhaps you could occasionally drop me a line and tell me what else I should be checking out. After all, that’s what the Internet at it’s best, is meant for isn’t it? The sharing of information? Sieve through the crap and it seems that the golden nuggets appear.

Willie

So much for the collected thoughts of chairman Wilf on a weekly basis.

You’ll have gathered that I’m a little late with this current, no doubt thrilling installment. No good reason. There just seemed to be other things to do.

I’ve just finished mixing ‘SOOMA’ and am suffering the usual deflated insecurities as to whether it sounds any good or not. If I start tweaking it now, I’ll go round in circles and screw it up completely so I’m determined to let it be….(watch this space)

I was back in the UK last week to see my old chums Armstrong & Miller record material at the BBC for their new series, which should be on BBC1 in the autumn. I wrote music for three of their previous Channel 4 series. However, I guess I’ll miss it since we don’t get British TV over here in France, so if anyone’s near a DVD recorder when it goes on air I’d be grateful for a copy.

I co-wrote one of the songs on the new album with Ben Miller. It’s called ‘Heimlich’s Manoeuvres’ and at this moment in time it’s one of my favourites.

Actually, there are quite a few co-writes on ‘Bipolar Diversions’. There are a couple with John Steel – with a few extra lyrical tidbits thrown in by Kate Stevenson – ‘My Little Gangsta’ and ‘Jesus Wants My Soul Back’, and a song I wrote with Tim Arnold (Honeycrack fans will remember him as the singer/songwriter from Jocasta) called ‘The End Of The Party’.

I saw the album artwork the other week, and it’s looking pretty good, the Jackdaw4 website is currently being updated, so as ever, I’m the one holding things up by taking so long on the mixing front. So many knobs to twiddle and so few fingers.

I’ve had to take long breaks recently due to repetitive wrist/elbow strain. I’m currently strapped up to the gills, with acupuncture needles stuck in to my elbow. It’s been a recurring problem for the last couple of years, and is evidently nothing to do with my nocturnal hobbies, just a creak in the machine caused by the computer mouse. I’ve tried gripping less hard but you get stuck in your ways don’t you find?

On a less ‘Kenneth Williams’ note, we’re discussing doing a gig somewhere in London to officially launch the album sometime in late May/early June. I’d say ‘book now to avoid disappointment’ but since I haven’t got a clue where or when, we’ll have to keep you posted.

Finally, by way of answering a couple of questions that have come up:

Working with Steve Coogan on ‘I Am Not An Animal’ and ‘Dr Terrible’s House Of Horrible’ was very interesting. He’s actually got a very good singing voice and knows his musical onions.

Armstrong & Miller used the song ‘Anyway’ as their title music for the last two of the three series I did with them. We re-recorded it and they sang it. Incidentally, we may put the original SugarPlumFairies version up on the Jackdaw4.com website as a free download over the next couple of months.

I’ve no idea where Tony Hawks lives in France. Since we finished his last album/TV series we’ve only spoken a few times.

If you haven’t seen it yet, download or buy ‘Loose Change – Second Edition’. Essential viewing. We’ll discuss it another time.

So I was back in the UK last week, for the most part to record the last couple of bass parts with Andy (Lewis). He came in to London from Bath or thereabouts, for a couple of days, to do some rehearsing and then to play the ‘Al Murray-Pub Landlord’ TV show, with Mel C, which you might have seen last Friday (If not you can view it on YouTube). He stayed with me in West London, and we finished the bass parts when he was free.

Some of you have spotted Greg (Hatwell) playing guitar and singing with Mel C over the last couple of years, which is largely why he’s been absent at the last few gigs. Greg, Andy and I went out for a drink after they had finished rehearsing last Sunday and I realised I hadn’t seen Greg for over a year.

In response to my recent postings, I have been asked which TV shows I’ve written music for since Honeycrack folded. It would take me a long time to list them all and I still squirm when remembering some of the less imaginative drivel I’ve laboured through. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to refer you to my website (www.williedowling.co.uk) which lists most of the stuff I’ve done. It hasn’t been updated in a little while but you’ll get the idea. Then, if there are any specific questions about particular shows, I guess I could answer one or two.

I have done a lot of TV work with Pete Baikie over the last six or seven years. You might recognise his name from the sketch comedy show ‘Absolutely’. Aside from his various, acting/writing/directing/producing duties, he’s also king of the TV theme tune and I jumped at the chance to work with him in 1999, when he asked me to write music with him for the ITV topical animation show ‘2DTV’. Very quickly he became a good friend, and we subsequently worked together on a number of shows.

Pete and I also co-wrote ‘Violent Streak’, the extra track after ‘Happy? (Dumka)’ on ‘Gramophone Logic’, and it fell to Pete to sequence the running order of that album. We met up last week and I played him rough mixes of the new songs since in all likelihood I will ask him to select the running order of the imminent album, which I can now reveal will be called ‘Bipolar Diversions’. Clinical and yet catchy at the same time, don’t you agree? And about as broad and obvious a clue as I can offer, as to the fourth reason I moved to France (see Episode 4), which should take some of the sting out of it for me when I go in to this in more detail at a later stage.

Incidentally, the video for ‘Me & My Machine’ should be up on ‘YouTube’ by this weekend. You might remember the song from the SugarPlumFairies album, ‘Fruit Karma’. And if you’re wondering why it’s taken so long for us to bring it to you, I refer you to the ludicrous reasons I offered you on the first blog of five weeks ago.

Willie