In the past few weeks I have been travelling a lot with Mr Fripp. Our first port of call was Seattle to see Bill Reiflin and make plans for 2017.
Following a sabbatical, Bill is back to work with King Crimson and once there is a break from that band he is back with THE HUMANS.
King Crimson record their version of the HUMANS “GET IN YOUR CAR” in June this year, in Seattle, Bill is producing which means it’s going to be SUPER COOL. This is for a single release either autumn 2017 or into 2018.
America was very tense. We arrived three days before Trump’s inauguration.
I have never known the atmosphere to be quite so apparent, every one twitching. Seattle is not Trump territory and the city was gearing up to support the WOMEN’S MARCH on the 21st Jan.
The day before the march many, many undercover police where on the streets…. Not being so undercover….they were so obvious they outnumbered the good citizens of Washington state. It all remained friendly, but it was a different America.
The Women’s March was special. Hundreds of thousands travelled to be on the march. All our Seattle chums, Bill, Frankie, Kirsten, Karen (THE HUMANS official photographer) and many more marched all day. Robert and I supporting, observing and catching up with them through out the day. Did we actually march? No, we had to be careful, we both rely heavily on access to the USA for our creative work and as it was I was pulled over at passport control and asked why I travel there so much and ….”is your name Mexican?” Really? My name is after a Texan town called TOYAH!!!!!!
We were there for a week and the talk never really detoured from “you know who”…….the elephant on the planet.
We are trying to persuade our USA friends to move to the UK and they are sooooo close to saying yes because for the first time in my memory……they are frightened.
We only made it back to the UK for a few days. Myself to play Warrington….what a fabulous show. And thank you Daily Mail…..your extensive photos of my accidental see through top may have done more for my career than gleaning a 5 star review for AAAAAAAAH! in the Daily Telegraph…. the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Hopefully a mere coincidence.
On the Sunday night after the Warrington show I was reading the online news papers and as usual feeling thankful I wasn’t in any of them, because these days newspaper coverage is usually accusatory and then I saw it….. me in the Daily Mail and I thought “oh shit, what have I done!” and when I saw the photos, which I think are quite bloody fabulous I fell on the floor laughing and sent the article to the band headed WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME MY NIPS WHERE VISIBLE….to which Mr. Doble replied ……YOU LOOKED GREAT!
That said I am making sure my costumes are NOT see through for the 80s INVASION TOUR….. I am too old for this kind of exhibitionism.
After Warrington I made it over to France. I needed to find out how Brexit is going to effect the Brits out there and as usual no one knows.
My home is in Menton, a place I am not ready to leave. It is magical, beautiful and inspiring. I suppose I have three years to wait to see how the French will treat us Brits….. as interlopers or not.
The HARE is near completion. I have loved doing this project. Obsessing over what and how to paint a 3D statue.
The subject matter came to me after many many other ideas passed through my mind, a lot of test drawings were made and suddenly I had a totally different idea and followed it. I want it to remind the viewer of the eternal child in us all. That love transcends the physical and I want it to remind all my friends with cancer that they are never out of mind.
I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to this year. Everything in the calendar is welcome. The 80’S INVASION will be a scream and over way too soon.
I love working with other artists. Seeing how they work and learning about them. We are going to towns and cities that I love…..one of the best things about touring like this is you see a lot in a relatively short amount of time. This is going to be fun!
HELLO THERE!
