October 16, 2006
Hooty Hoot!
There is an autumnal nip in the air and it’s astonishing to
discover that it’s ROCKtober already! Where does the time go? Do you
have your Trick or Treat costume at the ready? Have you carved the
pumpkin and baked the
snickerdoodles? Let’s hope so. Here’s the
latest:
In September, GT:OFTR was part of a fancy music, comedy and film
festival called the
Wild River Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota.
St. Paul is one of the coldest cities in the US but luckily, it was lovely and
sunny almost the entire time I spent there. Wild River flew me in
(making me feel very special indeed) and my good friends Bryan and
Kate allowed me to crash in their home studio/guestroom. Bryan has
invented a fantastic acoustic panel called the
modtrap (myspace
link) and I’m helping him with some PR, so all you podcasters, musicians, voiceover artists, and home studio buffs need to
buy one of these gems. They’re affordable, they rock and after using
the modtrap for my
podcast, I’ll never go back to a modtrap free
world! It made my dining room sound like a recording studio! And, he’s
rocking it indie style so you’re not supporting ‘the man’ when you buy
a modtrap… you’re supporting A man. But, I digress. The Wild River
Festival had two screenings of GT:OFTR both poorly attended. However,
the less than stellar attendance had more to do with a festival in its
first year with a small advertising budget than the actual quality of
my film… clearly! One person attended the first screening and his name
was Johnny Pineapple. I kid you not. He loved the film, bless him. And,
the second screening held on Saturday afternoon was attended by - I
think six people. A big shout out to Heather who traveled all the way
from Fargo, ND to see the film in all its glory on the big screen!
The festival highlight for me was the screening of the Jimi Hendrix
film “Live at Woodstock”. After the incredible film, Billy Cox, Jimi’s
bass player in the Band of Gypsies, Bob Hendrix (Jimi’s cousin), and
the legendary producer Eddie Kramer did a Q and A. I took a photo of
this sesh and you’ll find
my pics on JimiHendrix.com
(click on the links in the article for
the pictures to display)! After the Q and
A, we ran into Eddie at a downtown hotel and offered to buy him a
drink and we spent a few hours grilling him over what it’s like to
work with a few little known artists such as Led Zeppelin, The
Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and a billion others. Eddie was a delight and
didn’t mind me grilling him endlessly on what it was like to mix the
sound at Woodstock, to produce Hendrix, to hang with Led Zeppelin, and,
of course, if Paul McCartney ever mentioned me. Eddie is an amazing
photographer (www.kramerarchives.com) as well and it was just
THRILLING to get to hang with him. I gave him a copy of my film in the
hopes that he’ll enjoy Glenn rocking “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
acoustically. The next day, I went to the festival’s outdoor concert
to see the Band of Gypsies perform and though the weather turned
positively English (freezing cold rain and oppressive gray skies), it
couldn’t keep the crowd from loving every minute of it.
Our fourth podcast of
Gratuitous T&A is up on
www.tandapodcast.com
and ready for some listenin’. Tony (The T in T&A) and I have so much
fun recording the podcasts - mostly over our technical ineptitude but we
collapse in hysterics nearly every time we meet up for podcast fun.
I’m trying to pitch T&A to radio stations in the UK and the US since
our ultimate goal is to be paid for our podcast shenanigans. Have a
listen and drop us an
email and let us know your thoughts!
The editor of GT:OFTR,
Jeff Rubin, very kindly gave me two free
tickets to go see….
ASIA when they played LA. He couldn’t go at the
last minute and so my roommate and I decided “Why the hell not?”
Expecting cheesiness, we both were amazed and stunned at how hard the
concert rocked! I consider myself an old rock and roll veteran and I
witnessed two things I never thought I’d see in my rock lifetime: a
six minute drum solo that was progrocklicious and during the last song
“Heat of the Moment”, the keyboardist stepped to the front of the
stage and rocked the
KEYTAR!!!! Yeah, I said it. The keytar.
(History
of the Keytar)
I talk about this ASIA lovefest in
podcast number four so I encourage
all of you to tune in and download.
I wanted to share with you a wee glimpse of my new business cards.
They are made by a company called
PikCARD. Yep, my last name with a
twist. They are amazing and fantastic and I get such a kick out of
passing them out! I encourage any of you to get these lovely PikCARDs
for your business cards or fun promotional items!
How hard do
these PikCARDs rock?
I’m still trying to sell GT:OFTR to UK TV and there are some fun
screenings planned in the future so stay tuned for more info soon. I’m
desperately trying to convince the
Glastonbury Festival to screen my
film in their cinema tent. I think it would be a perfect fit since
Glenn plays Glastonbury almost every year and since Glenn has such a
history there. But, the officials seem to be less than thrilled with my
suggestion. I intend to ‘keep on stalkin’ so keep your fingers crossed
that it can happen.
Glenn fans in the US will get to see our Glenny host his very own
show on VH1Classic called “BBC Crown Jewels”.
Check the local listings
for repeats and let’s hope that this kicks up exposure for Glenn a
notch or two! Of course, I like to think that the reason he got the
VH1Classic gig was due to my movie showcasing his charisma and
onscreen charm in full force, but then maybe that’s just me!
Glenn fans will have heard of
Chris Braide, a longtime collaborator
of GT’s and in fact, GT discovered Chris as a teen! I remember talking
to Glenn back in 1991 and him telling me that he discovered this
amazing teenager back in London with a brilliant voice and neverending
talent! Well, Chris co-wrote “Untouchable” and “Parallel World” with
Glenn and CB will be playing
London’s Barfly in Camden on November
28th with a very special group of people. Ex-Squeeze drummer Ash Soan,
pop producer Trevor Horn, Stephen Lipson, and the legendary Lol Creme.
They call themselves The Producers and it should be a very special
night indeed. I only wish I was over in London to be able to see it!
But go to www.myspace.com/chrisbraide to get more information.
A few other fave raves while you’re on myspace:
www.myspace.com/mitchellfroom.
His CD “A Thousand Days” would make an outstanding Christmas gift.
It’s the most gorgeous piano music you’ll ever hear and is the perfect
album to chill out to. Whether it’s reading the Sunday paper, cooking
dinner on a winter’s evening, or playing it in the background during a
dinner party, it’s simply lush and enjoyable. You can listen to a
sample on his
myspace page.
And, I’ve mentioned them before, but go give
Everybody Else a
listen. Carrick, the lead singer is Glenn’s vocal doppelganger in my
opinion. Go to
www.myspace.com/everybodyelse and listen for
yourselves. They are very reminiscent of Squeeze and I love them. I
have met Carrick several times on the LA scene and he’s a huge
Squeeze/Glenn fan and says that he gets the Glenn comparison a lot.
Everybody Else is pure pop for Squeeze people!
There is also a fantastic Scottish singer/songwriter by the name of
Geoff Martyn. Listen to him on
www.myspace.com/geoffmartyn. He has
collaborated with Chris Difford and is a huge Squeeze fan. Add him as
a friend and enjoy his tunes! If you’re lucky, he’ll call you his ‘wee
treasure’.
I’m also recommending former Police guitarist
Andy Summers’
autobiography “One Train Later”. I went to
his book signing/reading here in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and not
only was it riotously entertaining, it was fantastic to get my book
signed by the legendary guitarist. I met and interviewed Andy Summers
a few years back when I worked on a VH1 show and he was amazing and
signed all my Police stuff. (since I’m a Police freak, there was a
lot!) Of course, he didn’t remember me (I was clever enough not to
ask!) and I gave him a copy of my film since he was one of the
musicians I dedicated the flick to. I said to him, “I’d like you to
have the DVD of the film I made about Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze.”
And he just sort of looked at me strangely, looked down at the DVD and
then said, ‘Glenn Tilbrook. From Squeeze?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. I know
you guys were on the same sort of scene back in the day.’ And he
looked at me strangely and said, ‘We started out together.’ Okay, so I
know I wasn’t stuttering, but I was confused as to why he was
repeating everything I just said. ‘Yeah, I KNOW. Do you have any
stories I could blackmail him with?’, I said hoping to joke and kid
around. He sort of gazed at the cover of the DVD and said almost to
himself, ‘Glenn is a very talented, talented man. He’s a great
guitarist.’ I told him that I dedicated the film to him and a few
other musicians and that I was grateful for all his music and thanks
and he just signed my book, snapped out of his weird trance and smiled
and said, ‘Thanks Amy!’ It was only when I got in my car that I
realized that Andy wasn’t on drugs and I didn’t smell. The more likely
answer was that he was deaf as a post from rocking and rolling for 40
years of his life and didn’t hear a word I said since he was looking
at the DVD and not at my lips as I was talking. This realization made
me laugh because I think Glenn is well on his way to complete deafness
and I’ve met many an aging rocker who has major hearing damage due to
a lifetime of rock! I have no actual proof that Mr. S is hard of
hearing, this is only my guess.
But, I have to say, as a rock autobiography expert, Andy’s book is
unbelievably entertaining. There’s not much dirt or ‘gossip’, but the
guy can actually write beautifully. I enjoyed Andy’s book even more
than Sting’s ‘Broken Music’. Andy has a wicked sense of humor and
there were many laugh out loud moments in the book. I had no idea that
Andy was witness to many ‘movements’ in rock and roll history and he
has a lovely turn of phrase it would make a perfect Xmas gift.
Speaking of Xmas, hop on over to
www.myspace.com/aimeemann for a
sample of her upcoming Xmas album “One More Drifter in the Snow”.
Aimee really isn’t known for her cheeriness and she certainly has
picked the most melancholic Xmas tunes to cover plus a few different
ones thrown in, but if you’re one for snuggling up on a cold December
day and wondering where it all went wrong, then I can heartily
recommend Aimee’s new Xmas album!
And, my last recommendation is the outstanding documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” by
Sydney Pollack. I’m not an architecture buff in any
way and I will readily admit that I was expecting to be bored to
tears, but I was pleasantly surprised and found the documentary to be
riveting and very insightful into the creative process. Whether you’re
an artist, an architect, a songwriter, a filmmaker, a writer - there is
a kernel of sameness to all creation. We are all inspired to make
something from nothing and go through torture and self-doubt
throughout the whole process. We agonize over how it’s going to be
perceived but ultimate stay true to ourselves and stand by what we
create. And, then we go through a period of post-partum depression and
‘letting go’ of what had consumed us for so long. One great point that
was made in the film was that there are certain people where trouble
doesn’t seep out to another part of the brain where it can be
transformed to something else. But almost all talent is some form of
liquefied trouble. All of it is frustration with something as it
exists that you’re trying to improve on. And, Gehry agreed to this and
said that unfortunately, the commercial world exists and you make
peace with finding a tiny space in that where you can make a
difference.
I think all indie artists feel the same way - though we’re not
millionaires like Gehry! But, I thought the doc was fascinating. I was
very moved by one bit in the film when Gehry described seeing a
beautiful Greek sculpture and he wept when he discovered that it said
“Artist Unknown”. He wept because the consensus of that democracy at
that time meant that this artist wasn’t important enough to give
credit to. And, that really resonated with me because I know of so many
artists who are worthy of time and attention and don’t get it because
we live in a democracy that finds Paris Hilton to be the pinnacle of
success and achievement. There is always an idea of ascending to great
new heights and moving up to the big time, but it seems no credit is
given for those who simply stay where they are, create what they
create and are truly happy. I think that’s what my film is about and I
think that’s why Pollack’s documentary moved me so much. One guy named
Johnny Pineapple attended my screening in Minnesota but he loved it
and said that he was really inspired by it. He shared that he had no
idea who Glenn was and he never heard of Squeeze and I asked him why
on earth he came to the film! He said, ‘Well, I’m in a Hawaiian rock
trio and we’re all just artists out there doing our thing.’ And, I
think his attitude is proof that whatever you do can change the world
one person… or pineapple at a time.
Take care and keep rockin’!
Amy x
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