I was happy to leave the suburban hush today for the noise of Porto. It’s just too quiet for me, Everyday Is Like Sunday, and you might have read in a previous blog that Sundays drive me nuts. I found myself standing by the orange tree watching the oranges intently, just waiting to hear an orange fall, so I could experience the ‘thump’ as it hit the ground. A butterfly flew into the orchard and it was the loudest sound in the suburb as it flapped its wings, even the dogs weren’t barking like they’d given up starting some action.
Jorge picked us up at 3 PM and we were soon on the freeway heading towards Porto on a three-hour drive. Pylons on either side, many with stork nests from the middle to the top and through the moon roof storks flying above us. When I think ‘Stork’, I think of margarine, I guess you had to live in England in the seventies, but there were ads for it all the time. Have you taken the taste test? Yes, yuck. The ads were fronted by popular celebrities of the time, Bruce Forsyth and Leslie Crowther (whose daughter married Phil Lynott).
Now the clocks have gone back, the darkness seems to envelop the light at a greater speed. Shouldn’t it be the same? It’s just an hour earlier. But yesterday I walked into the psychedelic psupermarket in the light and came out in the dark. The curtain falls almost before the performance has ended, the last note of light struck and it has gone before the stage has been vacated, shadows across the faces of the actors.
Jorge found a park close to The Archive so we could unload the equipment. We were greeted by the locals, Luís and Joaquim at the café opposite and Narciso and Jo in the pizzeria where we would be ordering a takeaway. We were meeting Jan and Kit who were in the café across the road nursing a beer. They’d been at the gig in Lisbon and were spending a night in Porto to come and see The Archive and do some quick touristing. Kit lives in Cascais, but Jan is flying back to Stockholm tomorrow, Jan is an old friend, he took the photos on the RSD release of Hanging Out In Heaven (2000/2019) and the MOAT – Poison Stream cover (2021).
Music today has been Godspeed You! Black Emperor – No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (2024) which we played in the room with the world’s comfiest couch. It’s weird, surprise surprise, and it makes me want to go back to their other records to see how they got here (I have them). This is the band I saw in Sydney some years ago, they came on stage, the main man sat on a kitchen chair on one side of the space with his back to the audience, sat there all night, never said a word or even looked at the audience. I suppose they’re not showbiz. They were great.