Diary

Read Tim's diary entries here


August 17, 2021

T-Bo Solo Album #7 returns to centre stage…

Diary

After work on the hugely enjoyable Plenty lockdown project Enough ended in April, T-Bo Solo Album #7 returned to centre stage and four months later it’s getting close to completion. Once more, my creative co-pilot is the ever-prolific Bo...

April 13, 2021

’Too much life gets in the way’

Diary

As an early no-man lyric once stated, sometimes, ’Too much life gets in the way.’ Well, that’s my lame excuse for months of non-blogging and I’m sticking to it! As it’s been such a long wait, here’s a long update. ———— ...

August 14, 2020

Late Night Laments – Album Notes

Diary

Sometimes music appears so quickly and seems so right that talking about it seems pointless; cheap even. It is what it is, and what it is is an instinctive force of nature. Conversely, when music comes unnaturally, there’s often a desi...

June 3, 2020

Lockdown Listening 3

Diary

The final instalment! The podcast with Mr Wilson, The Album Years, has been dominating my listening choices of late, so I thought I’d draw this extremely short series to a conclusion. I’m pleased to say that the random Covid-19 givea...

April 25, 2020

Lockdown Listening 2

Diary

Lockdown Listening 2 This rather brief edition of Lockdown Listening is truly a C-19 special. Every day during these ‘unusual times’, various neighbours have been leaving boxes of CDs, DVDs and books out on walls and benches througho...

April 11, 2020

Lockdown Listening

Diary

This may be the start of an occasional series or it may just be an end in itself. I thought it might be interesting to offer an honest, unedited lockdown listening list along with comments explaining some of my thoughts about the music. ...

March 31, 2020

Tuesday 31 March 2020

Diary

One problem with very occasional blog writing, as I’ve just found out, is that the world can be in a very different place at the end of the process compared with where it was at the beginning. I started this in January/February in the ...

September 8, 2019

8th September 2019

Diary

The seven month gap between diary entries has been taken up with the release of solo album #5, a mini-tour, recording for no-man’s forthcoming studio release, and – most recently – the start of what may very well be solo album #6. Yipp...

February 13, 2019

13 Feb 2019

Diary

Solo album #5 is now ready and about to make its way into the wider world. As mentioned in several interviews, Flowers At The Scene feels like something of a necessary refreshing of the palette. At the very least, it’s a decisive move ...

August 27, 2018

August 26, 2018

Diary, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A gap and then some! This constitutes the second blog entry this year and only the third over an eighteen month period. Below, find some reasons for my protracted ‘slow blog’ absence. ———— Work is now complete on T-Bo solo al...

August 11, 2017

11 August 2017

Diary

Two blogs in a month. Clearly a sign of bad things to come or a serious mental decline! This diary entry is partly prompted by Jakub Kurek and Piotr Zdunek, two very enthusiastic and knowledgeable no-man fans from Poland. Not only did th...

August 2, 2017

2nd August 2017

Diary

Another belated blog and a belated thank you. Lost In The Ghost Light was released in February to the best reviews and best sales of any of my work outside of no-man. Given the fact that the album was a time-consuming labour of love that...

January 31, 2017

Jan 30 2017

Diary

If you’re reading this, like me, you’ve survived 2016. Congratulations! ———— As mentioned in the Lost In The Ghost Light Album Notes blog, ‘2016 has been a bruising year in terms of societal divisions being exposed in the Wes...

September 24, 2016

September 2016

Diary

Seven months on from the last diary entry and it’s still a case of multiple works in progress. 2016 may be the first year in some time in which I haven’t released anything, but 2017 looks likely to unleash a torrent of sonic abuse. As ...

April 20, 2016

April 19 2016

Diary

The last few months have been a strange combination of me being creatively busy and occasionally ground to a standstill (one bad Winter cold left me unable to sing for two months which felt like forever), so it’s very much been a time...

May 6, 2014

6th May

Diary

To honour its recent completion, I’ve written a 4000 word ‘album notes’ account of the making of my new album Abandoned Dancehall Dreams and its individual songs (to be given away free with pre-orders of the album). The notes chronicle a...

September 25, 2013

25th September

Diary

Thanks for all the supportive emails about my last online diary post. To clarify some things, I didn’t mean to say that no-man is over. The band has had protracted periods of silence in the past and I genuinely believe that at some point...

September 22, 2013

22nd September

Diary

2013 has simultaneously been an inspiring and frustrating year. Creatively it’s arguably been the best since 2006, with a lot of (what I consider to be) strong new material being written and a personal sense of anticipation and excitemen...

August 26, 2012

no-man 2012 Tour Diary

Diary

26/8/12, Krakow – Klub Studio The Krakow experience was even better than I was expecting. As it was the first time I’ve played in Poland, I was hoping for something wonderful and I got it. The music came together well and the band had th...

April 16, 2012

16th April

Diary

Along with the release of No-Man’s Love And Endings, April 2012 marks 30 years since I started singing in bands. My Album Notes blog has two new and pretty comprehensive entries on both subjects, but as always, there’s a wealth of inform...

October 22, 2011

22nd October

Diary

The October 14th No-Man live performance at the Leamington Spa Assembly has been an inspiring highlight of 2011 so far. As confident and hard-hitting as any show I’ve ever been a part of, from the first rehearsal onwards it was clear tha...

December 9, 2010

9th December

Diary

  Thus ends another year with no major releases and only a handful of gigs to my name (more of which later). Rumours of a descent into chronic alcoholism, daytime TV addiction, and a forthcoming Bowness/Chilvers Justin Bieber tribute act...

January 15, 2010

15th January

Diary

2009, the year of no blog, turned out to be a mixed experience. The completion of the No-Man DVD and the release of the Judy Dyble album, despite delays, went as well as I’d have hoped, while the ongoing gestation of several other projec...

December 22, 2008

22nd December

Diary

As Christmas shoppers fall over one another in the hope of finding that elusive bargain or a limited edition ‘Hannah Montana sings Magma’ doll, I guess now is as good a time as any to provide an update on my various nefarious activities:...

October 2, 2008

2nd October

Diary

It’s 2am and it’s a Friday morning in Düsseldorf. With the last performance of the No-Man mini mini-tour of 2008 over, the members of the band that are still awake go in search of life and strong coffee. Explorers all, excitement is hig...

July 28, 2008

28th July

Diary

Having had more interviews and reviews for Schoolyard Ghosts than for any No-Man album since Flowermouth, it’s been interesting to see how the resulting articles reflect the changes that have taken place in the publishing industry over t...

July 1, 2008

1st July

Diary

Schoolyard Ghosts was finally released in May and the response so far has been almost as good as I could have hoped for. More interviews and more positive reviews than for anything the band has done since the Indie Top 20 (hey)days of Lo...

March 18, 2007

18th March

Diary

A busy few months has seen trips to San Francisco (which rapidly ascended to favourite city status for me), Baron Bennett’s lovely Swedish hideaway, and Borg Central, London. Add to that heady brew, convulsive syncopes on planes, earthqu...

September 11, 2006

11th September

Diary

Crack open the egg creme and dish out the Hershey Kisses! Against all odds, I’ve managed to survive the inhuman intensity of a Summer in New York with some semblance of my pasty-faced Brit heritage intact. An achievement so rare, a lette...

August 8, 2006

8th August

Diary

It’s 115 degrees in the shade and my once (very) cool English exterior is dissolving in the afternoon Coney Island heat. Sadly, the fact that I’m paler than the new improved Dulux ‘Brilliant White’ has failed to reflect the devil sun and...

March 17, 2006

17th March

Diary

Laid low with a persistent cold and a badly broken rib, I’ve finally decided to add to the ongoing chronicles of despair and rampant debauchery that are ‘the Bowness diaries’. So here goes: The year has definitely been a productive and p...

December 13, 2005

13th December

Diary

Up The Junction: Omnipresent cigarette smoke, constant idle banter and the presence of a few  pissed-up punters who clearly mistook The Junction for The Dog And Scrote.  Welcome to the heart of the British gigging circuit. Subtle, atmo...

May 13, 2005

13th May

Diary

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been acting the tourist and have taken trips to Turin, Wales, Manchester and that notorious beauty spot, Warrington (second only to Hemel Hempstead in terms of cosmopolitan grandeur and international ...

March 4, 2005

March 4th

Diary

When even the Victor Meldrew of Ambient Glam declares it ‘a triumph’, clearly something’s gone right. ——- Tuesday’s Bush Hall gig fulfilled most of our more positive wishes for it, with the shabbily elegant venue bearing witness to four ...

December 12, 2004

12th December

Diary

Back in a dour, rain splattered, Blighty and I’m going through one of my regular phases of constantly questioning why it is I do what I do. Preferring reading, watching films and eating copious amounts of Polish chocolates to the idea of...

December 9, 2004

9th December

Diary

Against all the odds, The Spitz gig turned out to be something of a success. Predictably, my four day flu hit its peak on the morning of the gig and by the time we reached London, I could barely speak. A first! I overdosed on a heady com...

October 17, 2004

17th October

Diary

2005 has so far been a year of weighing up options and re-assessing the past (the recent No-Man re-issues), so sadly, other than Lord Chilvers transformation from the Nutty Professor of contemporary Electronica to the man-shaped nano iPo...

October 3, 2004

3rd October

Diary

The ongoing adventures of Centrozoon provided a wonderful early September diversion. The 5 days spent at the ARS Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria were relaxing, enjoyable and an ideal way to contextualise recent emotional upheavals ...

August 16, 2004

16th August

Diary

Rehearsing for retirement? Although the lack of diary entries may have suggested that I’d taken a permanent vacation to Lowestoft or Florida, behind the scenes there’s been a lot of recording and writing that’s yet to find a suitable hom...

August 13, 2004

13th August

Diary

Weeks of anticipation, e-flurries and raw slices of life have seen me go through a period of intensely questioning most aspects of what I do. With my moods following the incredible fluctuations in the British weather this Summer (driftin...

July 11, 2004

11th July

Diary

‘My Hotel Year’ done and dusted, it’s that time of year when ‘post-album depression’ sets in and I find myself craving for a very long holiday away from myself. A common feature of PAD means that I have a constant urge to throw everythin...

June 4, 2004

4th June

Diary

The madness of Lord Chilvers shows no sign of receding. Not content to forget chords in performance, the suave swan swallower’s taken his amnesia to a new level of sophistication and gone and forgotten an entire gig. Booked as a duo to p...

May 17, 2004

17th May

Diary

Several days of constant writing interrupted by occasional bouts of physical exertion (just to prove to myself that I’m actually capable of moving!) and copious phone calls (including several of a Shed-related nature from the Rory McGrat...

May 9, 2004

9th May

Diary

A consistent, quality performance unfortunately doesn’t materialise. Roger Eno and John Goddard’s short and sweet set is beset by unnecessary feedback problems, while mine and Peter’s performance is attacked from every angle imaginable. ...

May 6, 2004

6th May

Diary

Replete with title (‘My Hotel Year’), 11 songs and new deals with One Little Indian and Mute Song, the solo album is now very near completion and awaiting an Autumn release. As creatively complete and intense as the last two No-Man album...

April 27, 2004

27th April

Diary

It’s 4pm and I find myself wandering around somebody’s back garden somewhere on the Dutch/German border. I’ve seen the landmark local windmill and water tower, so this seems like as good a place as any to be. A face stares at me from the...

April 1, 2004

1st April

Diary

I’m back in England reflecting on the fact that the strangeness of the entire Duomo event and the accompanying experiences meant that I felt like I was experiencing some kind of pleasant breakdown throughout my time in Milan. My excessiv...

March 25, 2004

25th March

Diary

It’s 2am and just after the after show meal at the Hyatt. An Italian ‘society’ photographer, who obviously thinks I must be someone if I can walk around here without being arrested, asks if he can take a photograph of me. Looking worse t...

March 24, 2004

24th March

Diary

It’s 3am in the hotel bar and Steve Jansen, pleasantly drunk and pleasantly intense, keeps on asking, “But are you balanced?” to anyone who’ll listen. Guru Jansen’s lessons in life and love abound in this faintly surreal post-rehearsal g...

March 20, 2004

20th March

Diary

On Thursday I’ll be performing my first ever gig in Italy. I’ll be joining Alice (and Steve Jansen) in the fantastic Milano Duomo, as part of an ambitious event which the organiser tells us ‘sets out to combine poetry, film and music in ...

February 27, 2004

27th February

Diary

With three more songs and four ‘musical miniatures’ completed over the last week, it’s been a fairly productive time as regards the development of the prospective solo album, which now seems to be developing a strong and emotive identity...

February 1, 2004

1st February

Diary

Saturday saw Centrozoon performing as a part of a festival of electronic music which also included UK band, Radio Massacre International (genuinely nice people making a fine noise in the style of the early-mid 1970s work of Tangerine Dre...

January 30, 2004

30th January

Diary

It’s 2am Helsinki time and despite being up since 5am, The Man Mountain, Die Mensch-Maschine and myself are led semi-willingly into a late-night disco by Tanya and her ten words of English. After enduring a half hour walk in sub-zero tem...

January 29, 2004

29th January

Diary

Escaping a snowbound, gridlocked country to fly to another snowbound, gridlocked country, doesn’t make too much sense, but to compound the agony, I’m off to frosty Finland for four days on Friday (depending on whether there are still any...

January 9, 2004

9th January

Diary

Nine days into the year and, bizarrely, No-Man have already had four tentative approaches regarding making a career-overview compilation album. As, like Highlander, in the end there can only be one, we await the results of the subsequent...

January 4, 2004

4th January

Diary

Booked to play at an event in Helsinki on the 31st of this month, so far 2004 holds the enchanting possibility of Centrozoon being collectively frozen to death in the wintry wastes of Finland (probably mid-song!). As the closing images o...

January 1, 2004

2003 in review

Diary

For me, No-Man’s ‘Together We’re Stranger’ still represents the best work I’ve done, or at the very least the work that’s closest to my idea of what I want to do with music. Simultaneously, expansive and intimate, electronic and organic,...

December 13, 2003

December 13th

Diary

With my plans for a British currywurst franchise temporarily on hold, I’ve been doing some mixing and project assessment with The Butler and Stephen Bennett. ——- The ‘voiceloops’ album is probably complete, but now comes the difficult pa...

December 3, 2003

3rd December

Diary

This is the first posting that finds me on the wrong side of 40. Pass the suicide pills, kids! ——- Despite me suffering from a debilitating migraine and a grotesque facial rash that re-cast me as pop’s most eligible Elephant Man lookalik...

November 26, 2003

26th November

Diary

In between bouts at the studio with Mixmeister Modo and Markus, I’ve been wandering around the streets of central Hanover. Everything’s Christmas light pretty and incredibly relaxed. The old town, City Hall and mainline station are ornat...

November 24, 2003

24th November

Diary

Along with Markus (in his furious Frank from ‘Blue Velvet’ mode), I arrive in Hanover for four days of mixing and recording for the new Centrozoon album. We’ve agreed loosely on what’s staying and what’s going and at this point, have eno...

November 23, 2003

23rd November

Diary

A joint Centrozoon performance with Einslive DJ , Klaus Fiehe, was probably the worst trio gig in memory. Playing to a crowd more interested in talking, dancing, smoking and drinking than listening to music is always difficult. We didn’t...

November 20, 2003

20th November

Diary

A pleasant and uneventful flight to the ‘fake’ Dusseldorf, Niederrhein. A much more interesting time on the train to Stansted, however, where my former dealings with the elderly mentally and physically infirm came in very handy. A confus...

October 21, 2003

21st October

Diary

Amidst interminable bouts of singing ‘Angel Of Berlin’ and playing intensely competitive games of bar football (England 10 Germany 3, in case you’re wondering), Centrozoon actually managed to perform as part of the ‘Nine Teeth’ art exhib...

October 16, 2003

16th October

Diary

Wednesday’s Centrozoon performance was polished and confident, but the emphasis on the more beat-orientated aspects of our work, made it a less charming and satisfying experience than usual for me. Sunday’s church setting provided an ide...

October 14, 2003

14th October

Diary

Designed as a means of linking the disparate sites containing information about the various musical projects I’m involved with, another addition to the senseless clutter along the information highway comes in the form of the brand new ww...

September 29, 2003

29th September

Diary

Typically ironically, in the week in which I was going to discontinue the diaries and erase all my past entries, I wrote more than I usually do. Whether in terms of art or material comfort, for me, periods of accumulation are always foll...

September 25, 2003

25th September

Diary

Cold steel, concrete and stink. Ah, London! Courtesy of the nice Mr Jansen and Ms Zornes, I go to the Royal Festival Hall to see David Sylvian and Steve Jansen perform. Before the gig, myself and the Lord chat merrily over tea and cakes ...

September 24, 2003

24th September

Diary

With the potential legal problems now out of the way, we’ve received confirmation that No-Man’s early albums will be reissued by One Little Indian in the Spring of 2004. The last fortnight’s strongly worded emails and threatening phone c...

September 22, 2003

22nd September

Diary

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 a...

September 12, 2003

12th October

Diary

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 falterin...

September 12, 2003

12th September

Diary

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 expected...

September 5, 2003

5th September

Diary

“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 lit...

September 1, 2003

1st September

Diary

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 ...

August 29, 2003

29th August

Diary

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...

August 24, 2003

24th August

Diary

“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 ...

August 22, 2003

22nd August

Diary

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 ...

August 5, 2003

5th August

Diary

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...

June 22, 2003

22nd June

Diary

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 concludin...

May 7, 2003

7th May

Diary

Something’s different. A light drizzle, a discarded Walkers crisp packet and an aroma of Saturday night from a fresh puddle of piss and vomit by the Ladbrokes doorway. My neck bristles with tension and my fists are at the ready. ‘Welcome...

April 28, 2003

28th April

Diary

“Hello, I’m Karen and I’ll be your cartwheeling waitress for the evening.” Two cartwheels and one coffee later, I’m inclined to believe her. “You’re welcome,” she utters for no particular reason. Myself and Lord Peter are in an empty bar...

April 23, 2003

23rd April

Diary

Three days in and the word rehearsing has become alien to the Lord and myself. The words ‘food’ and ‘CDs’, however, find us in a frenzy. Peter takes to the staggering variety of restaurants on offer like a duck to water, or Homer Simpson...

April 22, 2003

22nd April

Diary

After a relaxed, romantic break in the surprisingly beautiful city of Brussels, it’s a hectic afternoon at home followed by a gruelling 16 hours of travelling and waiting which eventually finds myself and Lord Peter in SARS Central, Toro...

March 8, 2003

8th March

Diary

Valentine’s week appropriately saw myself and SW finally complete the new No-Man opus, ‘Together We’re Stranger’. A week of passing sound files back and forth from London to Norwich (the true capital of the nation) resulted in the last m...

January 5, 2003

5th January

Diary

After two weeks of shuffling around like Dickens’ Scrooge as re-written by a mightily anxious Samuel Beckett, it’s good to emerge blinking into the daylight of reality. December proved interesting with the Burning Shed mini-festival bein...

November 5, 2002

5th November

Diary

Probably the most enjoyable musical experience of the last month was the near completion of No-Man’s forthcoming album, ‘All The Blue Changes’. Roger Eno recorded some righteous harmonium for the album while the heavens roared (torrentia...

September 26, 2002

26th September

Diary

Consider me chastised! An email from a fan suggested that there was little point in me having a diary page without me actually having written a diary on it. A reasonable point, I suppose. The last month has been quite frantic – 8 days in...

August 23, 2002

23rd August

Diary

How much of the unreleased material I mentioned in my 12th August entry will ever see release is debatable, but the existence of Burning Shed and the economics of CD production certainly makes it all very possible. I continually vacillat...

August 12, 2002

12th August

Diary

Liase with Pete and Peter regarding the eight (!) forthcoming Shed releases. Receive a package from Lee Fletcher which includes some interesting and rare Bowie material as well as a great mix of the new Centrozoon song ‘Make Me Forget Yo...

August 5, 2002

5th August

Diary

Get a few positive emails regarding the Fool performance (including one from the organiser who wants us back for next year’s festival). After a week of reading Frank Skinner and Douglas Coupland and mainly listening to old favourites (Bj...

August 4, 2002

August 4th

Diary

2.00pm: After in car listening provided by Arvo Part and David Toop’s excellent ‘Crooning On Venus’ compilation and food by Esso Shop, myself and Peter arrive one hour late for the soundcheck (we’re delayed by crashes on the motorway). T...

August 3, 2002

3rd August

Diary

The final Henry Fool rehearsal before tomorrow’s gig at Whitchurch. Finally, it all comes together. From having no material, we end up with an hour and twenty minutes worth. The sound is no longer Foolish, but, by necessity, Samuel Smile...

August 2, 2002

2nd August

Diary

Innerviews writer Anil Prasad arrives in Norwich for the patented ‘Bowness Tour Of The Fine City’. Anil is tall and friendly, and with the right backing band and sensual production, his rich Canadian voice could transform him into the 21...

August 1, 2002

1st August

Diary

A day of emailing and receiving emails. I hear from Stefano Panunzi from Italian band, The Fjieri Group. I’ve sung on two tracks for their forthcoming debut album which is getting remixed by Richard Barbieri in the next couple of weeks. ...

July 24, 2002

24th July

Diary

As part of Norwich City Council’s City Of Culture bid, I’m invited to a ‘literary lunch’. What I assume will be a grand banquet turns out to be ten people being professionally nice to each other while two respected writers (poet George S...

July 22, 2002

22nd July

Diary

To write or not to write, that is the question. Having never had the patience to keep a conventional diary, or been particularly prone to publicly spreading the tedious details of my day to day existence, when I was approached by Krimson...