04/01/20
Back at Pine Walk preparing for a tea party. There are plenty of chairs and seats, but many are merely wooden frames. A surgeon operates on B. Liddle in the kitchen. He is crouched over BL, who is sat like a rag doll on the floor. The doctor cuts away at the back of BL’s head with a breadknife. “Will he be alright?” I ask. It seems a ridiculous question. The blade cuts through to his jaw and he slumps forward. There is no blood.
Zac W and Tom K are knocking at a frosted door. Caroline P lets them in. I struggle with the furniture, trying to make it appear more comfortable than it clearly is
05/01/20
JJ Burnel, bass player with The Stranglers, has brought out his own range of guitar accessories. I am particularly interested in the guitar cable: ’10m coiled onto a square frame of black plastic.’ He has developed a ‘sphere’ connector as opposed to the traditional jack.
06/01/20
Inside a busy marquee of blue and white stripes: spotlights, speakers, straw on the floor, hay bales for seating. It is an event by an American indie artist similar to Bright Eyes – something very Wichita or K Records anyway. The performance is a mixture of theatre and a live show. I find that I am somehow involved as a roadie. There is no stage and the show is happening throughout the tent – here, it is rather like an art piece (complete with a simulated Apollo moon landing, set to music): here, it is a lecture: here, it is an acoustic gig, etc. Jess C is part of hospitality. She walks among the crew handing out sandwiches. Everyone says that the sandwiches are delicious! I look across the crowd and there is Joanne and Judith L. Joanne is sat, eyes closed, listening to the music. Judith is watching the show and the whole spectacle around her. I am about to go across and say hello, but I notice that Jayne L has arrived and is standing next to them. She looks beautiful in a white shirt, neck scarf, hand sewn fitted dark blue denim dungarees. Her hair is freshly hennaed and stacked into a Victory roll. I want to say hello, but I know that my appearance will annoy her and only make her leave. I want her to see the show, so I melt back into the work crew area, find Jess C and get a sandwich instead. It is delicious!
*
10 Foot Jon is part of the crew. I am pleased to see him. During the interval he wants his haircut, so we lift up the side of the marquee’s canvas and slip out into the open. It is Victory Park in Kreuzberg. The sun shines. His hair is much shorter than he used to wear it. I buzz away at his sideburns with a pair of clippers, but the battery is in danger of running flat. Scottish Willy appears from the marquee with a pair of scissors and hands them to me. It is good to speak to T-F Jon after all this time. He is some integral part of the road crew and lets on that he insisted I be part of it, too. He worries that the haircut is taking too long and that he will miss his cue. If only he wouldn’t be so afraid of the scissors it wouldn’t take half as long!
nickreeves 