Here at the In Deep Music Archive the preservation of someone’s dreams, someone’s taste, someone’s inspiration as creator or receiver of that creation makes for a worthy cause that continues to fascinate, stimulate and consider the archeological aspects of the most humble of obsessions – collecting and preserving records for now and for posterity.

Below is a TED talk by Alexis Charpentier on the value of this today in our digital age. He makes many points that we adhere to as Olivia and I, with the help of selfless and generous supporters attempt to turn 50 years of enthusiasm into a centre for cultural appreciation of this valuable art. From the messages in the lyrics, to the iconic melodies, the politics, the songs of love and loss, the evolution of sound and the development of production, the advances in studio technology and the power of the artwork, we consider all this an important legacy.

Our goal is to create the In Deep Music Archive culture centre, a place that will be open to the public as a musical dream world, an oasis, a service, a place of education and excitement, a place to discover emotional treasures in the form of words that speak to you and life changing tunes that penetrate your brain or perhaps simply slide down to your feet to make you dance.

We’d like to have a small venue in this place and a teaching facility not just for me to share my experience having made and toured or played on around seventy albums but to let this be a place where others can congregate to learn. At present we exist in Penzance in Cornwall but we feel we need to move to a bigger city and have chosen Berlin as our destination.

Olivia is a native German speaker, plays and teaches the violin and hosts Europe’s largest 3 day Progressive Rock festival in Germany and along with our generous webmaster John Cole is building websites for our musical future including fan funding for new projects, a brand new website for my musical endeavours and new directions in the Guitar And Songwriting Guidance project as well as the continued presentation of eclectic new and vintage sounds through essays and blogging.

If you are interested in helping us realize the success of this project, you can donate here and that means books, cassettes, video’s, DVD’s, CD’s or millions of dollars via the In Deep Music Archive website or write to me on the FB pages for information. It’s not just all about records – it’s all the different tape formats, it’s magazines, it’s memorabilia. Planet Earth 2117, Archive tour – “This is a 100 year old Aldous Harding CD!” And this a 78 by Elvis Presley from 1958, this by a very famous group, forgotten now, called The Beatles – all preserved by the founders.

When I think of Chris Cornell, I wonder could we have an office on the premises where musicians could talk to professional people that understand their dilemmas. After reading Vicky Cornell’s statement she suggested that the side affects of the drugs he was taking for his condition, if not carefully controlled were more damaging than the initial problem he was taking them for – isn’t that what happened to Prince, too?

Staying on the subject of collecting records, at the top of Causeway Head, a shopping street in Penzance, Tim sets up his stall, weather permitting, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I’m always picking up books and CD’s from him – occasionally he has some vinyl. This Tuesday as I thought my shopping was done with a book about the 500 best Post Punk singles, a Groundhogs DBL CD Live in Stockholm in 1973 and a Blodwyn Pig record with Mick Abrahams playing This Was by Jethro Tull Live (he was in the band at that point). Then from under the trestle table, Tim pulled out Triangle. All he knew was that it was a French Prog band. Five quid, I bought it on the spot. Never heard of it but I liked the look of it.

Finding out about the band online, (it’s not terribly rare or anything like that) although Tim gave it to me for a good price, but the point is that I had stumbled across a gem that I’d never heard of despite the size of the collection. I’ve played it six times since Tuesday. It’s what it’s all about, an exciting find, an unusual record, a forgotten piece of musical history that has to be preserved. I wonder how many people in the world have been playing this band over the last few days?

Thanks to friends on the inside (John Cole, Sue Campbell) and outside – all those that read and contribute their valuable thoughts and opinions, all the support for my own music and all the help in keeping the archive alive. We never stop purchasing records and we never stop listening to them. We also wish to never stop sharing them.

Help support the In Deep Music Archive – click here.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_(groupe)

“TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.”

https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization