Sunday 18 September 2011

Killing A Bag Of Chips

In the winter of 2003 The Projects were on tour with Broadcast. Trish had heard our 'Entertainment' 7" and taken to it and so they invited us to support them at the University of London Union. I am surprised that they liked this show, I was just listening to a dictaphone recording that I made and the songs are all played extremely fast, so fast that it sounds wrong, They all begin at the right speed with, perhaps, a keyboard intro or the guitar and then the drums come in and everything is 20% faster. Mark, the drummer in those days, did have a tendency to play quickly. but, I think perhaps he was nervous on this occasion. I remember it being unpleasant. On the tape the rest of us are all having difficulty keeping up with the drums. But Broadcast did like it and so they invited us to join them for the UK shows in their world tour that year.

We had a lot of fun, I think we played good shows. I hand block printed lots of sleeves for tour CDs which had a Matt/Simon remix on them. They looked pretty and they sold well. I made some T Shirts with an image of a giant hand reaching down from the sky and picking up a tower block. I thought they were good but they didn't sell quite as well.

This was the first time that my MS really showed, although I believed it to be a trapped nerve at the time. After the opening show in Nottingham I was jogging out to the van with a drum shell and my legs suddenly seemed to not be running as quickly as the rest of me and I fell flat on my face. Broadcast, packed up and waiting for a straggler in their van, were all watching and thought that I was blind drunk.

Martin, from Duophonic, Broadcast's manager was with us the whole time and it was good to get to know him. He's a very nice man. We didn't talk too much to Broadcast although, after the last show, James said that he would miss us and that he wouldn't mind coming to London with us because Birmingham was a bit slow. Lisa and James were to email each other regularly for some time.

There was a very exciting incident en route to Aberdeen but I think that deserves it's own post. As does the van break down. As does the most depressing birthday I ever had. As does Broadcast's unhinged session drummer attacking Mark. Five more posts, that's good. I'd write about these things now and here were I not so lazy.

One moment that does stick in my mind occurred during a sound check one evening, perhaps in the beautiful choral hall in Brighton where we played. Trish was running through scales, she has an exceptional voice, it really was beautiful to hear. She then announced over the microphone (in reply to somebody out of ear shot I suppose) that she 'could kill a bag of chips' in a thick Midlands accent. I know, things like that aren't supposed to stick out but I am allowed to find a Birmingham accent amusing because that's where my dad's from.

I was sitting waiting in Accident and Emergency in Homerton Hospital in January when Dino sent me a text message conveying the sad news of Trish's death.

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