The Next Big Thing

Well needs must and all that and for my sins I was at work by 6am this morning.

Not a lot of time to gather the thoughts with regard to the previous two days. Same time tomorrow also and don’t give me that clocks going back bollocks. Although it does ostensibly extend this weekend by 1 hour, I’ve blown it by having to bloody work. So anyways let me try to work this out and while I’m doing that, I’m listening to Miriam Linna’s appearance on the Dave The Spazz extrav from the other night. My broadband connection went south during the actual real time show so I might get distracted here and there.

Until recently, if you'd said TM to me then I might have figured you were talking about trade marks. Or maybe Tom Morton even. However, it's also the abbreviation used for transcendental meditation. Something that I never figured would come up on my radar. But then this tour with David Lynch and Donovan manifested itself. Very strange combination, the transcendental meditation thing seems a bit like spiritual timeshare to me but Lynch is a very charismatic figure. So that lends the premise some weight.

Though my memory works a bit like the lighting in Lynch’s films these days, I guess it was 1978 that a troupe of us went into Glasgow to see Eraserhead. Minds were collectively blown and that started a lifelong fascination with the work of David Lynch. I even watched Dune and that has bloody S**** in it. A triple whammy of Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks sealed the deal. It became a mild obsession which even led to a schlep out to Snoqualmie.

So to actually get the chance to see him up close made a bunch of us unfeasibly excited. First part of the show was a Q&A where the situation was that DL would answer any question that was posed to him. Straight out of the traps in Glasgow, a guy up the back rails at him for taking a recent trip to Israel and we’re off. All human life and beyond is noised up during the course of the session. He’s a great performer and completely the character that we wanted to see. Like Elvis or something. It’s difficult to pinpoint just exactly what is so otherworldly about David Lynch and I guess that’s the conundrum right there. It was great and I even got to ask him about Ronnie Rocket, he seemed to be pleased about that. Mr Cruickshank has pictures in the pipeline which I'll share in due course. We don't brandish these camera phones or any digital technology so those might be a while.

Donovan did a potted set of hits and the sound in GFT was amazing. Better than in many a local alleged music venue. What this place is doing in terms of programming lately is nothing short of amazing. Having been born in nearby Maryhill, the wee troubadour went down very well. No disrespect but we’d just seen Gordon Cole's alter ego.

So the place was veritably crackling with electricity of excitement. A bit like Warsaw in Brooklyn will be next Friday night. Or the Dirty Water in London the same night. I never figured for a minute that I’d get to meet him but it all worked out. Never in a million years but I did just that on the way out. He signed a couple of things and seemed like a genuinely nice bloke despite having a zillion inserts and cd booklets thrust in front of him. I’m thinking, wow, I’ve shaken hands with both Roky Erickson and David Lynch this year. “Good deal”.

Edinburgh was pretty much the same but The Queens Hall is a very different venue to the Glasgow Film Theatre. During the Donovan set where he talks about the extra verse of "Hurdy Gurdy Man" that George Harrison wrote which he never recorded, it went all Twin Peaks. This Donovan disappeared and I got a vision of "The Donovan of Trash" appearing in his place to deliver the punchline. So that's about it, two days and two encounters with a guy who has inspired a ton of us. I left him with my Sharpie so if you got anything signed after I hit the road then it was my pen that did the business. Hey, it’s not everyday you get to lend a real live legend a pen.

Just had a look for clips on YouTube but there don't appear to be any yet. Strange considering the amount of "filming" that was going on. If anything turns up of note then I'll post it at a later date. At this point I'm plum tuckered. All going to plan, I'll be back in front of this sucker when I beat a path back from the stalag tomorrow.