2.33am. I Think Of Demons…

Three and a half months? Yeah, it looks that way. So what? Apologies? Does anybody ever read these pages anyway? Y'know, it's been so long... I guess some things have changed, in and out. Reading back, browsing over those dates... I don't know if... I don't know.

See, I've made half-arsed attempts to get round to completing a diary page several times but, with the planet in the hands of madmen, Hell-bent on their point and seemingly oblivious to consequence... Do you know what I'm trying to say? Whatever my intentions at sharing information were got inevitably sabotaged halfway through by outside forces and crippled, unable to make it. Infact...

Syd Barrett passing away seems to have had a big impact on my psyche. D. Brainstorm and I were making a pointless trip to the city in an attempt to find a Mobster who could possibly give us a location of a T-shirt printing business. We'd only been driving for about ten minutes when my phone rang and I was told the news. Syd had died. A lump came up into my throat and I thought that I may vomit into my own lap. I asked for any details but, I think the story had not long broke and said caller only caught a snippet from a radio bulletin. Within the next hour or so I must have had at least a dozen phone calls or texts with the same news, each one with a little more info.

It's hard to describe exactly how it made me feel then or even how I feel about it now. I guess I just feel like... sad. Terribly sad. Y'know, I don't expect all of you to understand why I've reacted in such a way but, forgetting the fact that Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is such an undeniable masterpiece and very probably my favourite album of all time, and ignoring all of the regurgitated 'madcap' tales of Acid breakdowns, on-stage freak-outs and all of the romantic, journalistic bullshit that inevitably comes with any rock casualty, screaming tortured genius, the star that fell, pity and adulation all in one paragraph. To me, Syd Barrett was like a friend, someone that seemed to understand the things that no-one else even noticed and a star that was always shining in my sky. And I had such a respect for him too, turning his back and walking away like he did, closing the chapter titled 'Syd' and leaving it that way until the very end. No Brian Wilson or Peter bloody Green (no disrespect to either of those two). Nothing. Yes, I admired that.

I don't suppose I meant to talk about the whole Syd Barrett thing, I'd briefly talked about it already on the forum but... It was one of the things that happened, I guess.

And there was The Skull Club, the preparations, the build up and on Friday 21st July, the actual event. There's a lot of effort and more than a few sleepless nights (for me at least) that goes into putting a Skull Club together and, although I'd like to give you guys a documented build up, a step by step insight into the mechanics of the beast, the stress and big ideas either cluttered up my brain so much that I couldn't even begin to tell anybody where I was at, or I'd worry that things wouldn't go to plan and feared the embarrassment of false promises. So there was nothing... No real 'official' build up on this site (other than you Skull Heads anticipating yourselves daft on the forum), there was no hype and there was... nothing until now.

Anyway, the sixth Skull Club happened, almost everything went exactly to plan and, as far as we're concerned, it was a great success. I do intend to get round to posting a review, either here or on the forum, so I won't blither on about The Skull Club too much. What I will say to the people that showed up and to the bands that played (Copter & Luna Vegas) is... Thank you.

2.26... Levitation

The 13th Floor Elevators
A shot of Tequila
A cigarette
So where was I? Yes, my... indifference. Well, I guess it don’t really seem that important now. There were other things too: The Download Festival, The Tamworth Herald's Music Box, the discovery of Myspace, my birthday and all that comes with the realisation that another year has passed, The Brian Jonestown Massacre gig at The Academy, Birmingham, the horror that is the daily news and, last but not least, the Tamworth Battle Of The Bands competition that has been running since the beginning of June. All of them lost to the powers of the outside influence. Nevermind, eh.

Ok, I can't take it no more but, before I forget, this episode's credits read: Miss Fatale, D. Brainstorm, Dr. Atomic, Rachel Downing, The Combat Rocker, Andy Codling, Peter Hill, the cats from Abraxus, Chris Lynch and Andy Quick from Lost In Vegas, Tars Tengerson and everybody that helped us along the way with The Skull Club. Thank you.

And remember folks, whoever you think you are, there’s a little 'Syd' in all of us.

Kid Lightning
A Likeable Kind Of Fellow