22nd September

TB WebmasterDiary

Listening through to the master of the vinyl version of No-Man’s ‘Together We’re Stranger’, I become suddenly paranoid that I may never be able to do something quite so emotionally and musically complete again. In many ways this was an album that came effortlessly to us, but only as a result of a series of inexpressibly hard and unique personal … Read More

12th October

TB WebmasterDiary

It’s Sunday night in Gütersloh and it’s freezing. The only refuge from the harsh elements is that high water mark of German culture, Köchlöffel. Two coffees later, served by a visibly shocked waitress who obviously equates my faltering Deutsche-English with incomprehensible alien, I’m on ‘stage’ with Centrozoon performing at the Martin Luther Church. Refraining from defiling the pulpit and the … Read More

12th September

TB WebmasterDiary

Seems like old times (parts 1 to 5): The long, long journey into London, the crush and rush of the sweat-drenched underground and the familiar business discussed with familiar faces in all too familiar spaces. Not to mention the expectedly obscene bulge in our bags as myself and Mr Wilson left for home with approximately twice our body weight in … Read More

5th September

TB WebmasterDiary

“Fantastic idea! Let’s sort it out over lunch next week. Can you pass the sugar, please?” Meetings, meetings and more meetings. This week has witnessed lots of talk about intriguing future possibilities over coffee and doughnuts, but little solid-gold easy action. Making the effort to get external commitment and support to actualise plans can be time-consuming, emotionally draining and very, … Read More

1st September

TB WebmasterDiary

Stephen Bennett’s video for No-Man’s ‘Things I Want To Tell You’ is, in accord with the mood of the track, haunting, evocative and lovingly lingering and slow. Given our mixed and frequently embarrassing history with film, it’s possibly the best video the band has ever had. Bizarrely, it’s also perilously close to the dividing line between art and soft-core porn. … Read More

29th August

TB WebmasterDiary

My first day back in the land of the lager louts started appropriately enough with a highly competitive indoor soccer game at the UEA. Despite the potentially lethal combination of having had no exercise for three weeks and being subject to the Reuter Diet (like the Atkins Diet in reverse), my concentration was good and my team won. Cue delirious … Read More

24th August

TB WebmasterDiary

“So, you’re a singer?” “Yes, I sing.” “What do you do?” “I sing.” “You play for me on Saturday?” “I’ll be back in England by then.” “England? No, you play for me on Saturday!” Being propositioned by a drunken German Princess can be hard work. After my singing one line of ‘Ten Versions Of America’ into her regal ear, The … Read More

22nd August

TB WebmasterDiary

From station to station to Dusseldorf City, but unlike Kraftwerk, instead of meeting up with Iggy Pop and David Bowie, I was confronted by the imposing forms of enigmatic Man-Machine, Markus Reuter, and the walking Kilimanjaro, Bernhard Wöestheinrich. A day after arriving in Deutschland and one two hour rehearsal later, Centrozoon are playing at a packed wine bar/restaurant as part … Read More

5th August

TB WebmasterDiary

A month and a half of diary silence. Probably a good thing, of course. July found me in Milan recording a couple of croon-centric duets with well-known Italian singer Alice. With temperatures in the nineties, we were well advised to stay in the glorious and gloriously air-conditioned studio. A city of dynamic aesthetic contrasts, Milan was simultaneously ostentatiously beautiful and … Read More

22nd June

TB WebmasterDiary

My being mercilessly attacked by a four foot cubed lesbian and the Lord causing a liquid sensation in my favourite curry house aside, it’s been a month and a half of preparations for indefinite somethings as opposed to actually concluding that much. The lack of diary entries has consequently been a tense combination of long time, no write, and long … Read More