Derek Bailey interview - 1974

[neatomic]

Well, that wasn't weirdo plinking :-)

are you kidding?..now, that was weirder than anything he ever did with hans bennik!!! haha

cheers


ps- i find it goofy, yet heartening... that this thread- derek bailey!!- got more views than terry smith/louis stewart/allan holdsworth pdfs, posted by our good man grahambop, combined...there is hope! hah

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Well, that wasn't weirdo plinking :-)

On a separate track he created the seagull sounds by scraping his guitar strings with an over-rosinned bow.

[christianm77]

Blimey! Really? I can't say that was my experience in about 40 years there. I'm sure that side existed but the only time I rubbed shoulders with it was during the Festival, and I don't mean the Fringe.

I mean, there are three uni's, including the art college, all the pub venues, the dive clubs like the Fez bar, the street stuff, Gay Pride, dedicated jazz venues, and god knows what else. Even some of the churches put on surrealist performance art, and I don't mean the usual services (just my little joke).

I can't honestly say I bumped into a lot of parochial conservatism myself, I would have run a mile:

All of that is true, and great,and yet the city still has the feeling of being a small place really, very white middle class (although there are some areas of massive deprivation like whitehawk).

Really felt that coming back from London.... perhaps it’s changing a little.

I think in terms of the music scene and what gets appreciated in Brighton - some stuff would just get short shrift for being too ‘out there’ when not actually being that unusual.

I’m not the only person that I’ve spoken to who thinks that....

[ragman1]

On a separate track he created the seagull sounds by scraping his guitar strings with an over-rosinned bow.

AAAHHH! Can't keep a good man down!

At least, I think that's what I mean :-)

[ragman1]

All of that is true, and great,and yet the city still has the feeling of being a small place really, very white middle class (although there are some areas of massive deprivation like whitehawk).

Really felt that coming back from London.... perhaps it’s changing a little.

I think in terms of the music scene and what gets appreciated in Brighton - some stuff would just get short shrift for being too ‘out there’ when not actually being that unusual.

I’m not the only person that I’ve spoken to who thinks that....

Well, I've been away for about four and a half years now so you might be right.

I used to live in London and found it exciting. Then I left and went back. In three years or so I thought it had lost its excitement and just become a big, noisy place... so you could well be right about Brighton too. Shame if it's true though.

[christianm77]

Well, I've been away for about four and a half years now so you might be right.

I used to live in London and found it exciting. Then I left and went back. In three years or so I thought it had lost its excitement and just become a big, noisy place... so you could well be right about Brighton too. Shame if it's true though.

I've been living in London for 20 years, grew up in Brighton... So I'm talking about Brighton as it was...

It sounds like I'm being negative, but it's just one of those quirks. I'd be up for moving back if it were a possibility.

[ragman1]

I've been living in London for 20 years, grew up in Brighton... So I'm talking about Brighton as it was...

It sounds like I'm being negative, but it's just one of those quirks. I'd be up for moving back if it were a possibility.

But you said 'the city still has the feeling of being a small place really' so presumably you've been back since you left 20 years ago. So you must have been back while I was still there! Mind you, after getting used to London maybe Brighton just seemed more provincial in comparison.

I remember I came back once (from London) and thought the whole place was pretty dirty and tacky. But I stayed and that feeling only lasted a day or so and I was back in the swing of it. It was fine then!

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

^^^ I had a friend who was doing a post-doc at the University of Brighton. He lived nearby in Hove and he told me that people did the correction "Hove, not Brighton" so often that Hove created an ad campaign around the slogan ... "Hove, actually".


So British!

[ragman1]

Yup, we used that a lot. Any old chance to say 'Hove, actually', usually with a silly accent. Even me, because I (actually) lived in Hove for a few months before we moved. It could have become a rather boring cliche but somehow never did.

[Litterick]

Would it be fair to say he played the wrong notes but not necessarily in the wrong order? ;-)

Mr Andrew Preview is dead; although he was a noted composer and acclaimed conductor, the Daily Mirror's Headline describes André Previn as a Morecambe and Wise star.

[christianm77]

^^^ I had a friend who was doing a post-doc at the University of Brighton. He lived nearby in Hove and he told me that people did the correction "Hove, not Brighton" so often that Hove created an ad campaign around the slogan ... "Hove, actually".


So British!

Ha, yes indeed.

Brighton's a very nice place, I might sound down on it. There are also some excellent musicians down there, but I gather not so many gigs...

[Pycroft]

I grew up in Brighton as well , I pretty much learned to play in the old Casablanca club , back when Johnny the bubble owned it and allowed people to skin up in there and the police turned a blind eye because there was never any trouble . A simpler and a better world back then .

These days the town is the spiritual home of wannabe creative hipsters who spend more time talking about themselves in pubs than actually doing any creative work . Sad ! Some excellent musos tho , but no work .

There are good jam sessions at the Bees Mouth on a Monday night and the Brunswick on a Tuesday night if anyone is passing through .

As far as Derek Bailey is concerned , he was a musician of unshakeable integrity . He figured out what really interested him and pursued it relentlessly . There has to be a lesson in that somewhere for all of us .

[grahambop]

There’s a jazz club called the Verdict, I haven’t been there yet but they seem quite active. I saw Remi Harris at the Brunswick a couple of years ago.

[ccroft]

So Johnny the Bubble actually let folks skin up in the Casablanca? Amazing. Times have changed indeed!

(I have no idea what any of that means, but it sounds interesting...)

[Litterick]

All Derek Bailey threads lead to Brighton.

[ragman1]

There’s a jazz club called the Verdict, I haven’t been there yet but they seem quite active.

Absolutely, they opened just before I left. They had some very good players in, guitarists included.

https://verdictjazz.co.uk/

I thought I'd check it out on Google Street View and got this. But I think it's still going :-)

[ragman1]

Yes, here we are, down the road a bit... well, that's a relief.