That
Darkness that Roars Without a Sound
Hello again. Happy autumn, or whatever your particular choice of false
idol may be – we know lots of you are adherents of Lucifer and suchlike,
so please pay our respects. It will soon be that time of the year when
schools dust off We Three Kings and the tea towels get roped into the
rehearsals for the nativity play. While Emma already has one Mary under
her belt, and looks destined for glory, we are anxious to see what they
can do with Hugo, who seems to have inherited something of his father’s
ability to sulk when invited to compromise his dignity in public. Money
has always overcome the problem where Mr. Porter is concerned, but Hugo
has yet to understand the value of hard coin. Maybe a friction-powered
‘Scoop’ from Bob the Builder might overcome his stony-faced
fury when invited to dress as a shepherd, or some such frivolity? Certainly
no power on earth would induce him to dress as a bat for Halloween, so
we simply gave him a seaside spade and told bemused householders that
he was trick-or-treating as a gravedigger. That’s my boy…
As for the caption competition, if you haven’t yet bought the Null
& Void compilation CD referred to on the News section of the website,
you wouldn’t have stood a chance. If you have, then barring some
iffy drumming in places, you will no doubt recognise the last mailout’s
captions as coming from a truly great recording. Good luck with this one
though, it’s a merry montage of masterful melancholy specially selected
for its festive frivolity. We’ll give you a clue – it’s
not The Darkness.
This Darkness of Life Without You
So, the first piece of news to share is the fact that Blyth Power are
going to be playing in Kettering, at Sawyers Venue on Friday 20th November.
Support is Dave Boy Fish & The Wheel. We hope to get a good sized
set in, and look forward to seeing you all there. Remember Christmas is
coming and we like cake. Should be a pleasant night. If you don’t
make it don’t complain that we never play anywhere.
Further events include a beer festival at the Ropetackle Arts Centre in
Brighton in February, organised by our old friend Attila. This is a weekend-long
event and we are playing on the Friday night with Barnstormer and Mr PhilIP
Jeays, or so we believe. Rumours of Annie moonlighting on keyboards with
one of the other artistes cannot be discounted.
Later in May we play the Bearded Theory Festival, of which more details
in the fullness of time, while the line up for our own Ashes Festival
is now confirmed, and the bill is absolutely wedged full. No slots left
now, so if anyone who has booked themselves in is having second thoughts
about their availability, please let us know as there is a waiting list
for vacancies as and when they crop up. Remember, it’s at the Goat
Inn in Norfolk this year, on the weekend of August 13th-15th. Full details
are up on our website, and we are looking forward to a more relaxed atmosphere
than was present this year at the ‘market-driven’ Lumb Farm.
By the way, Mr. Porter is looking to get out and do some solo shows in
the new year, as part of his epic schedule of book promotion, so anyone
interested in seeing how big his tummy has grown in the face of two children’s
leftovers are invited to get in touch and book the fool for an acoustic
show now.
Darkness Cuts Corners Like Ether in the Brain
Ah yes, about that book. Here is the current situation. Firstly apologies
for the ongoing delay – especially to those with advance orders,
but there has been a minor hiccup. The final revisions are made, and a
proof has been checked. There is just one last hurdle to overcome before
we go into print:
What happened then was that initially we paid up front for production
to an Oxford based company called Trafford, who would do a ‘print
on demand’ deal, enabling us to sell the book for around £15.00
or so, and not lose our shirts. We paid up front as doing so got us a
discount. Months passed, while the Old Fool rewrote the thing, re-checked
the rewrites and commissioned cover art etc. etc. By the time we were
ready to roll Trafford had been bought out by an American company, Author
Solutions, and was now part of their organisation. We now had to converse
with an office in the USA, and due to exchange rate malarkey they in effect
doubled the unit cost. A number of tiresome correspondences ensued, the
details of which we will spare you, but as the original contract guaranteed
our money back ‘if unsatisfied’, and as we were far from satisfied,
we demanded a full refund. Weeks later this arrived, but they had made
the cheque out in dollars instead of sterling, so actually paid us barely
half of what we are owed. In the meantime, while awaiting the cheque,
we have gone ahead with Matador, who are simply waiting for us to pay
up the production costs to get the thing made. We, in turn, are still
awaiting satisfaction from Trafford. In the meantime matters have dragged
on to a point where we have to wait until 2010 to actually make the book
now, as Matador’s promotional services are only available for a
book produced in the current year – if we print in November/December
2009, we lose the benefit of this, which would be a considerable setback.
So, sorry for the ongoing mess. We will get it printed as early as possible.
Mr. Porter is hopping with fury at the delay, as he still dotes on the
thing.
All
My World was Lost in Darkest Despair
On the plus side, there is a new CD hovering on the periphery of our vision.
Basically, we had such fun doing the last one that the Old Fool has decided
he wants to do another trilogy. Not quite sure what the concept will be
yet, but we have a track-listing and a title, although things are almost
certain to change, as it is unlikely to be recorded before Spring 2011
– unless someone has the odd £4500 lying around. Actually,
it will not harm to be left that long, as it will give us a chance to
work on the material. Initially, Mr. Porter posted a track-listing including
a bunch of revisions of acoustic recordings, and five as yet unrecorded
pieces. All of these were only really half-written, but as four of them
are now completely revised, with 90% new lyrics, instrumentals, middle-eights,
and intricate variations on A.D, and E, and another completely new song
is half-written, it may well turn out to have a much higher content of
totally original material than hitherto planned.
New titles so far finished – lyrics to which are currently on the
website - are Going Down With Alice, in which a 40-something Alice, yellow-toothed
and haggard, tries to get back through the looking glass to her magical
youth, Night Watch Story, concerning dangerous liaisons in a block of
flats in West London, Fallacy, in which we embrace the fundamentals of
an interesting new faith, and Going Outside, in which we examine Mr. Porter’s
decision to give up a wild reckless life of rock and roll to become a
housewife, a task he embraces with as little acumen and attention to detail
as anything else he turns his hand to. Currently under construction is
Catesby, which will be a dirge concerning the final confession of Thomas
Wintour, and with Another Country carried over from the last batch and
awaiting re-arranging, we can guarantee at least six completely new tracks.
Shortlisted for reworking are In the Wilderness, Death and the Lady, Emmanuel,
Canards Grace, Rubenstein and Caligula, although if more new stuff pops
out of the tarmac on the daily bike ride to school, some of these may
be dropped. Rest assured, any which do get redone will bear as little
relation to the originals as Fleurs Du Mal and House of War on the last
one.
This may not seem a big deal to those of you who write incessantly, but
as the last song Mr. Porter can remember finishing was Broadlands, which
was recorded by Red Wedding, and as he has since been writing novels and
editorials, the current avalanche of new material may be regarded as a
considerable event in the ongoing annals of Blyth Power. He may not stop…
Anyhow, all these songs are being fed into the mincer to be turned into
the next CD Women and Horses, Power and War, which is about as close as
you can get to a summary of all the Blyth Power songs ever. This sensitively
chosen title is a continuation of a quote we pinched years ago, and will
no doubt steer the artwork back in the general direction of the Trojan
War. Hopefully it will be totally misunderstood by all the conchies too,
and annoy some people, which is always an added bonus.
Let
the Darkness Reign
Not got the captions yet? Oh go on – you know! OK, here are a couple
of news items concerning colleagues of ours. Firstly, we are very pleased
to be able to pass on an invitation to the launch of a new Pressgang CD.
The band are back with a classic line up including George, Damien, Cliff,
and Tony, and a new recording, Outlandish, will be launched at the After
Dark Club in Reading on November 28th. Anyone turning up with a previous
Pressgang CD or T-shirt can get the new one for a fiver. We were listening
to Fire on the way back from the studio back in the Summer. It rocked
utterly. Nice to have you back chaps, and have a good one.
For the many of you who enjoyed Tres Y El Ingles at Lumb Farm this year,
and have been asking for further information, we can now advise that the
band now have a My Space page, with preview mixes of the band’s
new recording. This can be found at www.myspace.com/tresyelingles and
they will be back at the Ashes next year, so keep watching Dora the Explorer,
and you might be able to tell them yourselves how much you enjoyed them
this time.
The
Darkness was Light
Finally, an update on our own mysterious digital realms. Bear in mind
that Mr. Porter is an old-fashioned soul, who still lives back in an age
when having a massive website, and two fingers to type ‘Blyth Power’
into Google was enough to enable anyone to find the band’s current
whereabouts. Clearly the old fogey needs to embrace the new age. Blyth
Power now has a My Space page, which is seldom checked as the old duffer
can never remember the password, but there is also a brand new Facebook
page, on which messages are more likely to come to our attention as there
are others in the band that regularly browse in this realm. Drop us a
line and please, please, please, will you be our friend?
Altogether now: ‘NO!’