Was out sick with a cold last week, so I took a break from writing to recover.
Anyway, first I have an exciting piece of news to share. Next summer, I will finally be attending the Three of a Perfect Pair music camp, hosted by Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, and Pat Mastelotto. From what I’ve heard and the videos I’ve seen on YouTube, it looks like it’s going to operate much like Steve Rothery’s masterclass camp, but on a much larger scale. There’s going to be a lot more attendees and participants this time around. It’s held at a place called the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY. It looks like a beautiful place to hold an event like this. I tried to register for the camp this year, but was met with the “Sold out” notice for all of the lodging options. It will definitely mean turning up the difficulty dial on learning musical concepts and techniques, since King Crimson music is considerably more technical than bands like Marillion. Still, I’m up for the challenge and can’t wait to meet new people and make more special memories!
On the 6th, last Friday, I went down to The Admiral, a small, recently renovated theater to go to a spoken word show hosted by Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police. It’s easy to think that spoken word shows must be boring, but I’m here to tell you that they can be a ton of fun if they’re well thought out. I’m thinking specifically of the show Robert Fripp and David Singleton toured a few years back. It was around 3 hours, break included, and it was wildly entertaining start to finish. Geddy Lee’s spoken word show in support of his book My Effing Life was also a great time. I’m admittedly not a huge fan of The Police. I don’t have anything against them, really, they’re just not a band I’ve gravitated towards. Still, I love learning about the history of different bands, especially if I can learn it from the band members themselves. Unlike the other two shows mentioned above, Stewart had the stage all to himself, a situation that I can hardly fathom as an introvert with social anxiety. But he nailed it. He had my full attention the second he walked on that stage and took on the persona of an enthusiastic college professor. I’m not saying that as as joke, either, as I think he’d nail a role as a professor. This was my introduction to the man, as I knew virtually nothing going in, so it came as a huge surprise to learn how much of a Renaissance fan Copeland is! The show was split into two parts, spaced out by a 20-minute intermission. In that time, I learned that Copeland was, not just a drummer, but also a filmmaker, film score composer, grew up in Cairo and Beirut, road manager and drummer for the prog band Curved Air, and has composed for opera and ballet. Well, shit!
There were quite a few people representing Rush at the show, I suspect due to Stewart’s appearance in the recent documentary, Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple,which I still need to watch in full! But other than that, I was left wondering how big the demographic of prog listeners was among Police fans, since mentions of bands like Gong, Renaissance, Caravan received very little reaction from the crowd. To be fair, though, those bands are more obscured and aren’t known for having a huge following here in the states. I was one of the people who clapped for all 3 bands, I’m happy to say. At the end of the show, Stewart picked a handful of written questions fans had submitted before the show, a part that I wish had been a bit longer, as he only answered about 4 or 5 questions. Overall, it was a very fun evening. I checked the merch stand to see if an autobiography was available, but I didn’t see one. I just now checked his Wikipedia page and learned that he did publish a memoir back in 2009, so I’ll have to scope out a copy of that, as well as do a deep dive into Copeland’s extensive back catalogue!
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