5th: Videohead, a big feature in Select with pictures from the band’s extensive collection of camcorder footage.
12th: Val sends tape of the MIL tracks – There is something that reminds me of the Cure about some of the songs, they sound dark and beautiful.
13th: Hear My Iron Lung on Radio 1 and it sounds great.
14th: The Evening Session beams in a live session performance of Bones and a very nervous Thom speaks – Reading wasn’t as good as Glasto, there were “too many egos”, fuelling my suspicion that something strange had happened. He’s miffed, as no one seems to know about the forthcoming tour. I write him a letter full of questions that I doubt he’ll get.
17th: I phone Val, they’re playing on Friday in Abingdon for a Rwanda charity. She says that the reaction to Reading was predictable, the press aren’t going to do a U turn after 2 years of slagging them off. She has a fax from Thom with handwritten MIL lyrics. But not the muffled distorted line that’s been driving me mad.
23rd: I am angry at myself. If I could drive I probably would have gone to Oxford today.
26th: My Iron Lung released. Go to Nottingham and straight to HMV to buy both CDs, Selectadisc (much lamented Nottingham record emporium) aren’t fast enough to put their stock out so I get the 12” in Virgin, it’s not a gatefold but it’s numbered. Inside, the CD is covered in what look like Elastoplasts… something Thom said comes back to me, how he covered everything in plasters when he read some bad reviews.
27th: Today is the Glasgow gig but I’m not there. I phone Val and she’s not even sure if she’ll come to the other shows. She’s not keen on the extra tracks on the CDs. She’s fed up, she didn’t like what I wrote for her other ‘zine, I feel a bit dumped on.
28th: The interview with Thom in NME is almost a tearjerker. They imply that things got so bad that he nearly finished it all. Melody Maker’s piece isn’t quite so bad, and there are cool photos of Jonny giving Thom a haircut.
I phone Caffy. She’s very busy but she takes my address and says she’ll send me an extra Sheffield ticket.