Lmst

Happy Captain Picard Day, everyone.
Canon Powershot SX40 HS

Chris in his living room, dressed in a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" era command uniform with four pips on the collar, because of course he is.

A Lemmy - Sid Vicious interaction you might not know about, from John Lydon's autobiography.
iPhone 5S

A photograph of a Kindle showing an excerpt from John Lydon's autobiography regarding Sid Vicious's lack of musicality:

"Of all people, it was Lemmy from Motorhead, amongst others, who tried to teach Sid to play bass. Lemmy was really funny about it; he said, 'Sid has no aptitude at all, no sense of rhythm, and he's tone deaf.' Sid always fancied himself as a drummer. I think that was the Can 'Tago Mago' influence because that was Sid's favourite record of all time. He'd always be making psssh-shut-pfft-pfft-pfft noises, and pretending he was doing a drum roll. That would be his frequent behaviour, which not many people understood. They thought he might just be a bit backwards.

Forty-plus years of travelling, thousands of miles, countless memories...
Pixel 7 Pro

An old tour briefcase made by Anvil Cases of Rosemead, California. It's covered in stickers advertising everything from synthesizers to theme parks, from ski resorts to surf wear, and record labels to effects pedals. You can just about make out that it was originally blue. It's sitting on the floor of Chris's living room.

The Devin Townsend Project at the Bristol Academy, March 2015
iPhone 5S

A photograph taken from the side of the O2 Academy in Bristol, UK showing the Devin Townsend Project in the middle of a performance. The stage is primarily lit by six downward-pointing orange spotlights. A half-dozen fans of pale blue light play upwards and downwards, illuminating sections of the lighting truss at the top of the shot. In the audience, a single mobile phone screen is visible as someone records the song.

Dev is front and centre, of course, holding a guitar and singing. The rest of the band (Dave on guitar, Ryan on drums and Brian on bass) have their heads down, thundering through a particularly heavy section.

Bird table cast-off; blue flax (Linum perenne)
Pixel 7 Pro

A blue flax plant growing in an English back garden photographed against an out of focus wall of greenery. The centre of the frame is taken up by a single, five-petalled flower. It's a striking shade of blue. Below it, three more buds in various stages of development can be seen.

#vroomScrolling, surely?

Greetings from Planet Portishead.
(Photo by Katie May)
Pixel 7 Pro

Portishead's Adrian Utley and yours truly standing in front of the main mixing console in The Big Room at Real World Studios, near Bath, England.

At this time of year, the hogs are out in daylight.
Canon Powershot SX40 HS

Colour photograph of a mature hedgehog foraging for food in my back garden. It's standing on a lawn dotted with buttercups and daisies. Not mowing the grass encourages invertebrates like beetles and earwigs, which are its main source of food. But it's also quite happy taking any food like suet pellets or mealworms which have fallen off the bird table it's standing in front of.

Fuel
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

A macro photograph of very dark roasted coffee beans in a bowl.

Keep climbing, little dude.
Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum)
Canon Powershot SX40 HS

A garden snail / common snail (Cornu aspersum) climbing upwards on a glass window. A few raindrops speckle the glass. The photo is taken with a narrow depth of field and the background, seen through the glass, is a solid wall of green.

It's good, but I think I prefer their previous album.
Canon EOS 50D, EF-S 18-200 mm

Photograph of a large, rectangular yellow sign clipped to a wire fence. There are four lines of black text on it, with one word per line, reading "Deep Excavation Keep out"

And yes, the lack of a capital letter on the last line is bugging me as much as it is you.

Village fete in full swing, regardless of the thunderstorm warning.
Pixel 7 Pro

A wide angle view of a village fete in progress complete with climbing wall, bouncy castles, DJ booth, ice cream van and food stalls. Above, a very dynamic and threatening sky is beginning to clear.

It's Tony's birthday today, incidentally. One of the coolest musicians I have ever met and a really nice guy.

The Crimson ProjeKCt wows the audience at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2014.
iPhone 5S

The rock bands "Stick Men" and "The Adrian Belew Power Trio" combined forces back in 2014 to go on tour as "The Crimson ProjeKCt" to play a selection of their own work interspersed - with Robert Fripp's blessing - with famous pieces from King Crimson's prodigious repertoire. The photo shows them viewed over the heads of a full house of appreciative audients. The stage is lit in a blue wash of light and five triangular pieces of fluorescent green fabric are draped across the back of the stage. The exact centre of the stage is occupied by an Apple Macbook.

From left to right, the band are Markus Reuter, Touchguitar; Pat Mastelotto, drums; Tony Levin, Chapman Stick; Adrian Belew, guitar; Tobias Ralph, drums; and Julie Slick, bass.

Salthouse, Norfolk 2014
Canon EOS 50D, EF-S 18-200 mm

A colour photograph looking out over the shingle bank at Salthouse on the North Norfolk coast on a stormy September afternoon. The image consists of a number of horizontal layers. At the bottom, the foreground is in sunshine, but out of focus showing a sea of yellow buttercups bordered by a line of brown weeds which are the point of focus. Above that is the shingle bank, dotted with pale green clumps of samphire. Above that, the middle third of the image shows the turquoise surf of the North Sea, with plenty of whitecaps. In the distance the sea is in shadow and becomes a dark greenish-grey. The sky takes up the top third of the picture. It is slate grey, with threatening, scudding clouds.

Moonshot.
(I need more coffee...)
Pixel 7 Pro

A macro photograph looking straight down into a large, bowl-sized cup of coffee. Swirls of brown crema have mixed with the white milk, and some bubbles which had formed in the latté have burst, leaving a surface looking like the craters on the Moon.

Big Blue Ball
Real World Studios, 2025
Pixel 7 Pro

A photograph of a large blue Reebok exercise ball sitting on the floor of the White Room at Peter Gabriel's recording studios near Bath in the UK. It is taken from low level so that the ball takes up much of the frame. An open doorway and a set of orange curtains are visible at the far left. Behind the ball you can see a rack of acoustic guitars and behind that, an upright piano, a hat stand that is being used for storing cables, an Akai keyboard, and a rack of outboard processing gear. To the right, a battered acoustic guitar has been placed precariously on an office chair.

A last look at the Big Room - for a month or so, at least.
Pixel 7 Pro

A wide angle shot of the main building at Real World Studios on a sunny day with scattered clouds. The left half of the building is an old mill; the right half is high tech lead-covered concrete and glass. In the foreground is a flower bed with a low brick wall and a paved area.

When you end up with John Baggott (Robert Plant), Adrian Utley (Portishead), Jim Barr (Get the Blessing), and Dan Neale (Massive Attack) as your own personal band you know the day's been an unusual one...

Recording shenanigans under way in The Wood Room at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath.

The band are seated in a large recording studio with a mezzanine floor, with Dan behind a drum kit on the left and John behind a Bosendorfer grand piano on the right. Jim is seated in the foreground with his back to the camera and Adrian (with Fender Jazz master guitar) is at the back.

Working in my favourite place today: the Big Room at Real World Studios.
Pixel 7 Pro

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