There are no more gigs this year. Flipping through my box of cuttings, all mention of the band is limited to Thom’s various appearances and utterances on the subject of Climate Change – he’s “cashing in the chips of celebrity” with lobbying and protest, working for Friends Of The Earth’s Big Ask campaign.
Missives from the studio (mostly about songs that will never see the light of day) appear on Dead Air Space. For once Thom is posting them, so they are typically oblique and then there is this:
“What do you think I should do?”
It occurs to me that I have the means to share my answer to that question with Thom. So I email him.
I think it’s a really bad idea to start glad handling the government, even with the best of intentions… I’ve been reading the articles, went to see George Monbiot at the book festival, I just don’t want him to “do a Bono”… I fire off an email and go back to work. At the end of the working day on Friday 30 September, I check in with the messageboard, Max K has made a rare appearance hailing me to check my email. Before I’ve even logged in the message has changed to “check DAS”, it seems Thom decided to share his response to my message with everyone…
I emailed him back saying I “felt rather notorious now” (our South Californian friend had managed to out me and use my full name on one of the other message boards, and I wasn’t comfortable with what that might lead to). The next time I check DAS the post has gone.
A storm in a teacup maybe but after a long time with no communication it was exciting to hear from him (even if it was only a private message for a short time).
In October, Caffy arranged a screening of Naz’s Follow Me Around film in Greenwich, as part of a festival she’s staging. I go down for the show and sit at the back with Clarabele, doubtless annoying everyone else by laughing loudly during all the bits we remember…