Everything Was Boredom

I imagine
is that enough?
some shack
in the desert
the word ‘turnstile’
is the life of the man
all in one place
except for his twenties
getting longer and longer
the rhythm like food portions
of your endless teenage years
I digress, its hot, and I’ve seen these piles of junk
every morning since we were ten.
Before that, maybe everything was new.

Pause (The Perfectionist)

Because, and just in case
I’ve held on till too late
The promise of the dark
where tape machines would listen -
Listen to my heart.

I stopped what I was doing
naught-point-milliseconds on the clock
Endless dreams unfinished -
Because no trivial completion
Should perfect form diminish

Somewhere between the idea
And the product real
I’ll sit and pause a while
Some grey patch between the journey’s start
And a self-congratulatory smile

“I went to see Fyfe Dangerfield at the Glee Club in Birmingham. Minus the technical difficulties – he’s getting used to playing live with his new loop and effects pedals at the start of his tour – it was great.

He played mostly on his own with a little help from a cellist and violinist part way through and at the end. It was the Glee Club so everyone was silent while he played. It was a fascinating and magical experience – fascinating in the sense that there wasn’t any moment of boredom, and magical in the sense that, like the pied piper, Fyfe’s strange and complicated chord contortions seem as natural as children’s awe of music. I felt like I was a child again discovering very intelligent pop music for the first time. Fyfe’s songs are subtly uplifting and generously catchy without being tacky. And its a thousand miles away from cliche, which I think is one of the most joyful and satisfying things about Fyfe and indeed the Guillemots.

After the obvious self-indulgence of the support act, Fyfe’s solo performance could have very easily been tainted with the same brush, but clearly Fyfe knows better than that of writing, and of performance – and when put next to the warm up act (of whom I can’t even remember the name, but I could possibly call him Conor Oberst Jnr or some such wannabe) seemed entirely altruistic in comparison. The sound system in the Glee is excellent so you really hear every tiny move that is performed on stage. There were some technical difficulties, faulty leads that Fyfe admitted were found lying around at home and he thought they would be useful to bring in. It was a funny moment at first, but then got slightly tiresome after a few minutes of changing leads around and it still not working. But for the most part, when everything was working every nuance of Fyfe’s playing was delicious and beautiful.”