Saturday 17 November 2012

Chapter 42. Which deals with much of what has gone before and details a most pleasant reunion.

It is always a source of some frustration when the world in general sees fit to play at leapfrog with ones plans and projections and urges its sappers forward to collapse the walls of certainty which one has diligently constructed with all the confidence of an Alexander or a Napoleon ( I always forget that last o). It is in the light of these imperious circumstances that I find myself once again apologising for the lateness of Far and Forgot and begging your, dear reader, indulgence for just a brief time more. 
Anyway........
Last Wednesday I spent a very pleasant indeed couple of hours in the company of my old compadre (if that is how it is spelled) Mr Martin Russell. Martin has given the great benefit of his considerable studio experience and valuable time to the polishing and burnishing the finished product that is Far and Forgot. I am really most grateful. So we met at a half past eleven beneath the clock at Waterloo station and from there repaired to the tea rooms at the Royal Festival Hall for Earl Grey and conversation. Seeing as how we had neither seen nor heard nothing of one another for over thirty years, this meeting was remarkable for its lack of self-consciousness or awkwardness. 
Inevitably the talk turned to reminiscences of the old days in The Enid, both of us sharing the same mix of pride and horror over what had occurred way back then. There was a lot of fun and a lot of trauma, but our conversation has left something of a need in me to say to anyone who bought the Birmingham Town Hall DVD and watched the interview with Robert Godfrey and heard his fabrication of how I came to leave The Enid, that that version was simply untrue, a lie in fact. Still, never mind, if you choose to believe that stuff, who am I to nay say your cherishment?
Over tea, Martin made what I think is a very good suggestion. Why not do a HD surround sound version of Far and Forgot with video footage of yours truly narrating the story, for Far and Forgot has a story, and of the various esteemed musicians playing their parts in the making of the album. What do you, dear listener, think of this notion? Is it something that you feel you might enjoy? I so hope you do.
Might I make a plea to everyone who has so graciously bought Far and Forgot? You see, it is a gestalt, a whole and thing of itself and whilst music has the mystical property of existing only in the present,( you cannot listen to a piece of music all at once and yet you have to have a conception of the whole in order to appreciate and understand the parts) could I ask that if at all possible you listen to the all of Far and Forgot in one go? Of course this may be neither possible nor desirable and I fully understand if you choose otherwise, but it is written as a sort of a journey; a story even if the threads and plots and characters of the story may not be immediately apparent or obvious. They are there, somewhere beneath the surface. Also please play it as loud as you possibly can without risking the displeasure of your immediates and proximals. Far be it from me to drag your patently sober reputations into the mire of local opprobrium. 
Great to see you again Martin, lets do tea again real soon, as they say in the colonies.
Lots of Love to all.
Francis xxx

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