Camden Stables was alive that night, three rooms, bands on and a buzz that you would feel should you have known anyone that was there. He was on at 7.30, the promoter had urged him to push the night as much as he could and dutifully he had done so. The Facebook event he put out had 10 interested, 3 going and 1 maybe.
Maj.7th chord was a go to but he had relied too much on it in the past. He wanted to explore other tonalities. The song was good, he knew that, it just need something more. Youtube could tell him what Nile Rodgers would do and, admittedly, he was getting much better at playing in that style but the evening palled. The nights were still drawing in.
The gig. The people that don’t turn up. The others that won’t hear the song. Moreover, the bumping in to other musicians with the same plights and gripes, even the good one’s who’ve been on Radio 6 say much the same thing.
He turned it over in his mind and decided to set up a label.
The Gloomy Day will be an exploration into the everyday practices of the struggling musician. It will include performances, specially composed music, visual art and text as a means to navigate the interminable endeavours, both communal and in isolation, that are shared by those at the very bottom of the music industry.
The Gloomy Day, takes its name from the Pieter Brueghel the Elder painting, made in 1565 to illustrate the period between winter and spring when all appears without hope.
14
Saturday 12 May 2018
5-6pm
The Gloomy Day:
LJA Brown & Tom Loffill
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