Okay, so I have this Big Bear to make, see? A Really Big Bear. As big as I am. And I am not short.
Trouble is, my studio is designed for making smallish things. Not enough surfaces, darling. Which left me with something of a problem.
Enter Miss Pen, aka the Queen of Durstonia, who waves her magic wand, and LO! in my hands are a set of KEYS.
Keys to the most wonderful, most funnest studio, like, ever. Like a kid let loose in a lolly shop, under stern instructions to eat everything they see. I haven't enjoyed myself this much since The Fairies defrocked and we left our beloved studio in the Nicholas Building (signalling the end of an era that I have never entirely recovered from). In fact, the resemblance between the two studios is extraordinary. The indirect light, the heart-of-groovy location. The smell is the same - that irresistable mixture of maturing fabric and machine oil that never fails to rev me up - and the neighbours, amazingly, are the same ones we used to have. Only the music has changed, the Fairies dancing in my (notoriously unreliable) memory to an eternal soundtrack of Goldfrapp and Pet Shop Boys. In Durstonia, one is more likely to experience an acid flashback in the form of a Jethro Tull CD.
You heard right, dudes. The Tull. Pen is so my New Best Friend.
Of course, she may yet live to regret her decision to let me in, and she has been Formally Warned. I may be Very Hard to Get Rid Of.
So, in tribute to Pene's astonishing generosity, in celebration of the glorious outrage that was 1970s folk rock, and in the absence of any other interesting images, I bring you the 10 minute live version of The Tull's performance at Madison Square Gardens from 1978, missing only a 2 ' papier mache Stonehenge and a couple of dancing dwarves to make it an Ultimate Folk Rock Experience (though not the only one).
Because it's my blog and you can't stop me.
And because I never could resist a man in tights. It's no accident that I became a yogi. That Ian Anderson, I've wanted to blow his flute since I was too young to understand what that even meant.
Enjoy.
