The London Years (2)
I saw an ad for a workshop in North London. It was being run by David Cross, who used to play violin with King Crimson, and the idea was that the group that came to the week's event would compose, rehearse perform and record music with people they had probably never met before. I got well on with a drummer who was there, called Dave Fowler,. Through him, I later met and worked with Jon Lloyd, and Gus Garside amongst others in a great free playing big band called The Sound of Brah! One of the tutors on the workshop was a guitarist called Brian Godding. He had played with Mike Westbrook for many years, and was the man who played the opening riff on Citadel /Room 315. That was the first riff I ever learnt on guitar.
At that time, it was possible to make a fair bit of money by busking on the London Underground, so that is what I did. I would go down there, write my name and a time on the lists that were scrawled on posters, or on little scraps of paper pushed in cracks between the tiles in the Tube's corridors. Later, when it was my turn, I would arrive and take over from the person who was already there. Each busker got an hour, and when you turned up, the last one would go off to another pitch, to take their turn there. I saw many interesting and well-known people down under the ground. I used to joke, "I've played to anyone who is anyone, all under the West End !"
On one occasion, a chap came up to me saying that he was studying sound engineering, and needed musicians to practise on. He was from what was then Yugoslavia and his name was Goran. I said yes to him. I had an idea for a group and wanted to record a demo with it, so it was a perfect opportunity. I called the guys but they couldn't make the session. I had to think of something. So at 10.30 pm the night before the session I called Brian Godding and Dave Fowler. "Let's do some improvisation in a studio for a student engineer!" I cried. They said yes to me. And we did Motive Force, which became a gigging band for a couple of years. We did a Radio Three broadcast, and some great concerts, both in Bristol and London. All the same, it didn't draw big crowds. Indeed, I remember one gig where the only member of the audience for the first set was Brian's wife, Angie.
This was a very mixed time for me. I would busk up enough money to go down to Wells in Somerset, where my long term partner Viv was living with her son Matthew (who was at school there). When I'd run out of dosh, I would go back to the Capital, to busk again. When I'd had enough, back I'd go to the West Country. Then one day in May 1988, I noticed that Daevid Allen was doing a concert in London. I went to the gig, and got talking to Daevid afterwards. His first words to me were, "Is that an alto saxophone in that case?" I told him that I spent a lot of time near Glastonbury where he was living, and we should get together. He told me to ring him as soon as I returned.
When I did, he offered me a gig. He hadn't even heard me! I couldn't do the gig because I had to go to Viv's father's funeral. But another one came up in June at Southampton. That was the first gig I did with Daevid. Wandana was playing as well, and I think Space was there on congas! A strange trio, but it worked well. I believe there is a tape of that gig doing the rounds.