two solo gigs (compilations of the best bits taken from a lot of gigs)

horsemouth is back from a visit to howard's out in sunny east ham. they listened through to the live recording (aka. the confiscated bootleg) to see what they thought of it. horsemouth thinks that with a lot of work and studio trickery it should be possible to make it sound barely decent. as howard pointed out when he'd put out live things before (in his electronica and improv period) they were compilations of the best bits taken from a lot of gigs.

this is not. it is a recording of one gig. and a gig for which they had not rehearsed together (largely because horsemouth believed they would be doing two solo gigs). 

the crowd noise is good. it sounds like people are enjoying themselves (it sounds like a badly played gig in front of an appreciative audience). there are bits of MC patter. something is dropped (loudly) at some point. someone is taping along (not always in time). hell horsemouth's foot is completely out of time all the way through the first song. there are howard's new songs. people sing along. 

howard is tired. you can hear it in his voice and see it in the solitary photo. horsemouth is in rude good health (but his voice is about as tuneful as it has ever been). 

the questions then are what can be saved? what can be faked? musicians of bremen take as their guide john fahey's live in tasmania - old songs are replayed (but given new titles), lacking a song to finish the gig off with an instrumental from a previous album is retitled (and has crowd noise added). anyway more on this when fahey week starts on the 22nd. 

so anyway. the plan is, sort the tracks out into separate tracks over half-term, then dive into fixing them up over easter. 

they had a discussion at what level of sales it might be not too soul destroying to put out vinyl. 

if horsemouth had taken a guitar case he would have been able to bring back the hohner 6 string (the one with the om on it). howard has just bought a 12 string hohner in the same range (fine beast that it is). horsemouth had a quick play (expect to hear it on a musicians of bremen  recording soon). 

once they had a plan horsemouth and howard went up the pub with the pizza (but it was shut until four and so was their second favourite haunt the empty pub on the corner). they were driven into the wetherspoons (boo hiss) - where they were forced to drink cheap but acceptable beer and eat cheap but acceptable food. 

on the way back to the tube horsemouth attempted entry into the new london via a billboard sign for a new housing development (he thought it might make a convenient shortcut home). for a brief few seconds he smelled the carefully planted summer flowers of the pseudo-public spaces. 

in terms of swag horsemouth returned with a ragga twins t-shirt and a copy of ghostland by edward parnell (a kind of reading autobiography  in the style of francis spufford's the child that books built) but based round hauntological/ folk horror tropes. it's a pleasurable read (all the usual suspects), if thin, and unlike his other reading it goes quickly. 

today looks like it will be  a good day. the sun may even be shining in the living room now. horsemouth has some child minding in the evening. there may be a little more coffee to be had.