The Mohamed Project Update

Most of you will know some thing of the story of M ( his name is not Mohamed) and some of you have contributed to his "escape" and security. He is safe and accomodated and has his own personal key worker to assist him on his way through the labyrinth of procedures towards finding a permanent home. Mean while he is in good spirits although he has , understandably been through some tough days. His benefits are now arranged and so yesterday I gave him the last of the money you gave and he gave me the written note below. First Supperists be proud.

Words can not really express how thankful I am to each and every one of you.
Firstly I would like to say thank you very much for your help. I hope I get the chance one day, hopefully, to thank you face to face.
Secondly I was very surprised that theres so many good people out there that are ready to help even tho you don’t really know me, you still help me and I am very thankful.
Thirdly I just really want to say may God give love peace and sympathy on all of us.

M

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Competition ends on Monday 6th August at midnight.

With the over hanging tiredness of last weekends epic expedition to Germany beginning to fade and the good memories overcoming, the above image is very fitting. Photo by Lincolnshire Tony of "Nick and Vanessa posing!” The creative spelling kind of fits with the weekend.
I have begun working with some of the young people I will be working with in my new post. We spent an afternoon picking fruit and veg in the rain ( Yes! I know ) on a farm just outside London. I had forgotten how loud it can be in a minibus full of 14 – 16 year olds.. It was great to see their enthusiasm and see the way they interact with each other. Next day was spent cooking Caribbean food with some of the veg and fruit. They made jerk chicken, rice and sweet corn, plantain and lamb. Delicious! I made a few new friends and had a little disagreement with a lad about wearing his seat belt so we’ll have to see how that proceeds. I am surprised at the diversity of the work I will cover in my new position and there is lot’s of scope for new ideas and projects. Mean while it’s all about the summer, such as it is, so we are mostly out and about taking part in a wide range of fun things. I’m looking forward to the boating next week.
I just watched Brown and Bush speaking about the “ special relationship” in respect of the “ the war against terrorism”. If ever a man sounded like his brain was starved of oxygen it is Bush. He made our Gordon sound like a supreme communicator. Brown also had the better suit in my opinion so there! Bush is a dangerous fool and this piece of television proves it. It must be his single worst attempt at addressing the world. He bumbled and fumbled for some thing cogent to say and never managed it for more than a second or so. I suspect the “special relationship” will change quite considerably over coming months. Brown hinted at a desire to step back and take more of a supervisory role. Four more Brit soldiers died in the past week so it cannot go on like this surely? During the first world war it was suggested that a good way to end things would be to stage a Queensbury rules boxing match between the leaders of both sides. This was alluded to in the Frankie Goes to Hollywood epic Two Tribes. Today we could send our leaders to the desert for a survival type reality show. We could vote for who is going to get out alive. The participants would have to learn to live with failing equipment, unsuitable supplies and dodgy compasses.
I managed to get out on the bike on Saturday for a quick tour of the east end of London and docklands. I rode about 30 miles so it was quite useful. I have decided that it is far better to get out and ride the bike rather than sit glued to TV coverage of the infamous Tour De France. I will say that it is now that the “old doping guard" of the TDF should move on and away and leave things in the hands of the great, young and clean riders coming through. I think a life ban should be the penalty for all sport cheats at this level. I am still gutted by what took place this year. Bradley Wiggins Brit bike hero said “ I had a dream as a kid to ride in the Tour De France. Some riders in the peloton (all the riders) have pissed on that dream”. Nuff said.
The EBB is making plans for recording and for the autumn gigs. We are currently looking for a new place to rehearse and record. We had been rehearsing at my last place of work and we are going to miss it. If any one knows of suitable premises in the London area please let me know. There will be a few overdue changes on the site soon and we have changed the contact address to one that works.

Competition

The EBB album Inside Out had “one of the most innovative sleeves of it’s time”. SOUNDS

For those who have never seen it the sleeve was a card board creation that folded and turned in on itself in a way that is difficult to describe unless you have the thing in your hand. The title described both the sleeve and the view point of some of the songs. For me personally the time spent during the rehearsing and recording was a little inside out. I was a bit confused and probably a little lost, if I am honest. Any way – there is a copy of the re – mastered CD Inside Out for the best suggested title for the next and NEW EBB album. I am not saying we will use it but you never know. Same rules as usual. Make as many entries as you like in the comments section of this post under different names. If you win you can email me your postal details and it’s yours. The competition will be judged by Dave Cox.



Copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007

3 days on the road.

You have probably heard the announcement that tells you YOUR UNATTENDED LUGGAGE WILL BE TAKEN AWAY AND DESTROYED. The picture above was taken at Heathrow airport on our arrival back from our Germany trip at the weekend.
I think the chronology of events leading up to and after our appearance at the Burg Herzberg Festival might be of some interest.
Monday we get a call from our road manager to say he cannot come to Germany because his partner’s father has passed away. We call another guy we know and think we have solved that problem but later we learn we cannot transfer the airline ticket etc, etc.
Friday 11.30 set off to arrive at Heathrow Airport in the middle of torrential rain to catch a 3.30 flight. On the way the water in the road was as high or higher than curb of the pavements. The passing of traffic washed this water into gardens and even doorways as the down pour let rip. On the Cromwell road we saw tarmac lifted by the pressure of running rainwater. There were no pedestrians anywhere.
Get to the airport to find the tunnel flooded. Two fire engines were pumping it out. After twenty minutes we were able to drive in to the airport. Flights were being cancelled every few minutes. Apparently eleven planes were struck by lightening during the thunderstorm. We met up with two of our mates from Man who had been into the departure lounge twice only to have to check in for a new flight due to cancellations.
Chris Farlowe who had been there since nine had got himself on a 4.45 flight. That was cancelled. In the end he and his guys set off to catch the Euro Star Train from Waterloo.
Bob and George from Man have to drive back to Swansea because they are supposed to be on stage at 1am and won’t be able to get there. The promoter can’t re schedule so that’s the end of their gig. Josh from Man has already driven their gear from Swansea to Frankfurt and he is already there with Martin his dad, the bass player.
All flights to Frankfurt are cancelled.
We all drive back to London.
5.45 get up to get back to airport for 11.30 flight to Dusseldorf.
Arrive at airport to find chaos. We “experience” an accident with a luggage trolley.
On this I will make no further comment. A stroppy policeman interviews two of the guys.
We get on our plane and set off for Dusseldorf where we arrive on time. The drive from there to the festival is roughly equivalent to London to Manchester. A guy called Dietmar who turns out to be a diamond meets us.
Some time down the road Dietmar gets a call from the promoter telling him we have to go straight to the festival. The message back is “ we are going to the hotel first”. The promoter eventually speaks with Steve who explains what has happened and that we will be available by 5.30 may be 6. We were originally scheduled for 5pm. Promoter says, “we’ll have to shorten set list”. We say, “Can’t be done”. The rain still pours down. We are depressed. We decide having come this far we’ll go straight to festival site. Promoter says, “If we are not there by 4.15 he’ll pull our show. We are fuming now.
Rain is bad and looks like getting worse. The drive is horrendous.We eventually arrive at the festival at 4.45pm. Decide to give it our best. It is agreed we will go on stage at 6.45. The skies look ominous and brooding.
Meet up with Barry who is our onstage road manger for the day. He gets stuck in. Between us we manage to get things working and just have time to get stage clothes on and get tuned up before we start. One of my hired Marshall amps refuses to co-operate. I switch it off. The crowd is warm and friendly. Their greeting is up lifting.
We start with Evening over rooftops. The sun nods then disappears. The sunset green and black was the light to play some songs by. A steady drizzle comes again. We play on. The on stage mixer is almost engulfed in a sheet of water running off the plastic sheets protecting the onstage mixing guy. He exchanges a relieved look with Steve. We play on. The on stage sound is awful and Steve can’t hear much at all. I listen for the bass drum as we drive through the set. We all make odd little mistakes which don’t spoil things much though the break between Moth and Why can’t somebody love me is bizarre jazz but we get through. The rain pours heavily. The crowd stands and we try to deliver. Our German tour manager finally signals to Steve – One more song. We thrash through Out Demons Out and say goodbye to the lovely people. Tony from Lincolnshire has stood through it all in the rain in the front row. We don’t get to see him after which was a shame.
We hang out after the show meeting old friends and making new ones. Chris Farlowe goes on with the John Hiseman’s guys in the driving rain and thunder. We all begin to feel for Uriah Heep who are on last.
The storm worsens. I manage to get out into the field to buy some bits and pieces from a lovely Hippy mom and her little boy. The mud deepens. Sonny, Steve and Moni’s lad, is loving every bit of it. He wants to see it all. That is probably because he is getting to be a decent guitarist and drummer AND the EBB is the best band in the world.
After a long time socialising and talking business it is decided by all it is time to go to the hotel which we do. When I finally drag my guitars and bag to room 201 I find the room is as the last occupant left it. I go back down stairs to get new keys and I change rooms. Later the guys sitting around a table in the deserted dining room look shell shocked. We have some teas, brandy and coffee then we retire.
In the morning we all set off at 11 to get to Frankfurt airport.
On the motorway Dietmar notices a scrape down the side of the hired vehicle. We have no recollection of this so we assume it happened when we were not around.
We arrive at the airport. We stop where we can to unload but have our front wheels over a line so we get a parking ticket.
At the British Airways check in there is only one person dealing with every one. People are jumping the line we are in. It takes forever.
Eventually we check in. There are two ways our luggage is going to the plane. The fragile equipment goes on a trolley and the luggage down a chute. To Luke’s and my horror the woman sends our two rack mounted samplers down the chute. There is a loud bang. Luke protests and she says, “ It doesn’t matter”. We are incredulous. She doesn’t even know what is in it. We haven’t worked up courage to check the samplers yet.
We go through a security check. That is long but o.k.
We walk a half-mile to our plane and – go through an identical security check.
Moni drops a lighter, which explodes making the entire security team flinch.
After ages of waiting around on a hot bus listening to Farlowe’s (nice man) very amusing stories about his old mom, we finally get on our plane followed by the Farlowe guys and the Heep (nice to see you guys after all these years).
When we arrive back at Heathrow the backlog of passengers has it’s own area out side and the baggage is piled, unattended everywhere.
We go through UK control. Dave almost starts an alert by pointing his camera at the guy checking passports. He’s often got a camera in his hand and it looked like he was taking a photo of the security guy. Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have to pay an extra chunk of cash to get our vehicles back because we left the long stay car park to come back again the following day (Saturday).
We all say our fond farewells and split up. The family picks up Art. Moni, Steve and Sonny head off home in the car. Luke is met by his girl friend and Dave and I head back to the place where we store our gear.
We arrive after being stuck in traffic to find the place has had water flood in. It’s wet T-shirt time. Dave and I get the gear stowed and go home.
During the weekend a relatives flat was flooded, a colleague has had her flat destroyed when lightening hit the block she lives in.
Our flat had a leak in the roof.
I sit up late catching up with the very enthralling 2007 Tour De France. Wonderful!
This morning I go, under darkening skies, to meet my new line manager in the centre where I will be working with young people. During my induction she shows me the building, gives me keys etc and starts to show me the alarm system. She lowers the security shutters. They won’t go back up – we are locked out in the pouring rain and ………

Is it all worth it? OF COURSE IT IS !



Copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007

photo by JeanLuc

The photo above is a Jean Luc special from our gig at THE Spirit of 66 in Belgium earlier in the year.

Today was the last rehearsal day before the German Herzberg Festival show on Saturday. We are ready though rehearsing in the very hot and muggy weather we have been having in London was tough. We like the second day of a Saturday / Sunday schedule because we don’t have to set up. We arrive, have a cup of tea, chat for a while and then start work. The drawback of the second day is the packing down and today we had to organise what we take to Germany on Friday. In the same spirit that some women say a domesticated man “might make somebody a good wife”, the EBB would make some body a good road crew but we ‘aint looking for the gig. Apache Drop Out has been rehearsed and we’ll try it out on Saturday. It should be fun and though it doesn’t sound like Hank it does sound like the Captain. Let’s hope the weather is good and to those who are going – come and say hello.

I am still receiving offers of help for M. He is currently in a safe place and appropriate steps are being taken to secure his future. It is gratifying to know people still care enough to help in a practical way with contributions and or declarations of support and good wishes. All of this means a lot to M and has made his difficult time more comfortable. It has also allowed others time to begin to find solutions to the range of problems his circumstances present.

As the recent floods subside this strange summer rolls by and we wait to see what will happen next. Meanwhile Government seems slow to respond to people badly affected. The weather is STRANGE and the experts seem to beginning to reach a consensus which indicates there are some new global warming driven manifestations which appear to be uniquely detrimental. August might be very warm or very cool. Who knows? I expect September and October might be exceptionally mild but we will have to wait to see. It seems the UK weather will remain high on the list of folks talk topics.

I am starting work in a new place from the beginning of next week. The project I manage is being closed as part of a review in the local borough services. I wait with bated breath to see what will develop for me over the next few weeks. I hope it all exceeds my expectations (LOL)

I have been watching the Tour De France with more interest than I have for some time it is an open race so far and I hope it produces a worthy warrior in Paris wearing the winners yellow jersey in a clean race with out a doping scandal.

I wish I could say that I have been out on my bike but I am ashamed to say I haven’t done a proper ride for weeks and I must do some thing about that. I seem to have been quite distracted by other things and other people’s stuff for some time now and I think it will be some time before that changes. Speaking of changes it is time to turn over the EBB set list of songs and make way for the new. I am looking forward to working on the new show for September. We plan to do two or three shows in November, possibly some thing in December and one show in Norway early in the new year. After that we will be concentrating on recording new material. We plan to play some of the new material in the September shows.

I bought an old copy of melody maker on eBay the other day that has a picture of yours truly in a Father Christmas outfit. Those were the days! It makes me wonder what other EBB memorabilia is around.

copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007

window on the bloom

IN THE BLOOM

All the shadows in our live's
are always from the right
in the centre of despair
you will always find them there
as they go about their business in the gloom
where nothings grows and nothing shines
where nothing flows through open minds
in the gloom

In a corner of my heart
we will never be apart
and in a moment of despair
I will always keep us there
as we go about our business in the bloom
where lovers fly in open skies
where life is born in baby's cries
in the bloom

where lovers fly in open skies
where life is born in baby's cries
where lovers fly in open skies
where life is born in baby's cries
where lovers fly in open skies
where life is born in baby's cries
in the bloom

*

edgar and luke broughton 2 0 0 7

Bawdsey Suffolk

This is where my heart is now beside the sea, beside the water at sun up or down. I feel bouyant and almost stress free. My young friend M is safe in a place where he can stay for a while. It is certain that he has avoided the thing he did not want to do. The weather has been changable and the fishing is still poor but this is of little or no consequence as the previously mentioned mission accomplshed flag has gone up in my mind and though M will continue to need support for a while the first major hurdle has been passed.

I was slightly impressed by some of G Brown's stuff the other day though cautious is an understatement regarding any rush to pronounce our new hero has come. I thought Shoreham Steve's comments re the last post were very on the ball. You should make a regular thing of it mate. You have the gift. Actually I was thinking at the time of reading Steve's comments that many First Supperists are very articulate and amusing at the same time. In fact there are a few good comedians out there. I've always enjoyed a good laugh and this blog certainly attracts some very dry and amusing writings. I thank you all for that.

I managed to catch some of the Tour De France prologue Time Trial on TV. It was great to see those top guys racing through the streets of London, my home town. I hope that this year will see a drug scandal free tour. It would be a welcome change.

It's back to rehearsing with the EBB next weekend so I am going to sign off now and enjoy another wonderful sun set in Suffolk skies and chill for the last hours of my weekend in the countryside.

Copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007

The photo is by Dave Randell at a rehearsal at the weekend. Dave also designed and made the ONE T-shirt I am wearing. It is a one off and a morph of Luke and me. I think we were rehearsing Apache Drop Out at the time this photo was taken. When we recorded Apache Drop Out our engineer Pete Mew arranged for Hank Marvin, also an EMI artist, to drop by. I was delighted to meet Hank and terrified he would hate it. I'll always remember his face when the " Beefheart " part came in. He cracked up. He said that he would have lent me his tape echo machine for it if he'd known. My hero. Later Jerry Lordan, who penned Apache insisted that the single be called Apache Drop Out as opposed to Drop out Apache as we first intended. I think he probably hated it. Any way we like it and so does MOJO ( see last month's cover CD ). We will be including it in the new shows in September. Full details of the shows will soon be available but I can tell you one of the gigs is in Twickenham and there will be no admission charge.
The weekends rehearsals were primarily about the scheduled show at Burg Hertzburg Festival towards the end of this month and they went like clock work. Our previous couple of rehearsals were all about new songs and they went very well. It was fun for Luke and I to try out songs with the band that we have been living with for some time. In the case of some songs it has been years. It feels as though we have written some potentially special material with which to make a new album. It has been a long time coming but it will be worth the wait.

Thank you to all of the people who have offered to help with the Mohammed project. We have received offers of transport, accomodation and enough cash to keep M afloat for a while which is wonderful. Thanks to all for your support. We may be a very small ( active) community but perhaps we can begin to make a small but vital and positive difference that flies in the face of apathy and statutory incompetence.

The weather has conspired to prevent me from doing much fishing and there has been little or no time at the weekends as this is when the EBB rehearse and develop ideas. As much as I like being by water I do feel so very sorry for the people flooded out in the past days. I have estimated that during the worst global warming made London flooding my home should be just about left high and dry. A quality flat bottomed aluminium boat will be just the job for local travel as the water laps half way up the hill I live on in Battersea. This scenario will become actual if the Thames Barrier breaks down during a high flood tide. Experts think this is quite likely to happen at some point in the not too distant future.

It was clear from the expression on Gordon Browns face after the recent London and Glasgow bomb incidents that he is has faced a baptism of fire from day one. It is early days but it will be interesting to see just where he is really going with some of his thinking around the big issues.

Brian Ferry and Will Young unlikely high lights of Princess Di Wembley bash ? What a strange mix that was. I couldn't bare to watch it all. Doesn't Sir Elton go on a bit? You could read an entire First Supper post and make a comment in the comments section during one of his refrains. I drift off after a couple of songs.

Fags in public? No more smoking in public places is a good thing in my opinion and the opinion of most people I know but is it possible we are contriving more laws that can be enforced? I cite driving and drinking, cycling on the pavement, driving while using a mobile phone as extremely dangerous practices which are still epedemic. People will not comply with laws they don't support if they cannot be adequately enforced.


copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007