BROKEN PIPES EXPOSED 2 [1980]
Taken from a recorded conversation with Robert Lawrence asking the questions and Paul Shorthouse is the person replying, which was edited, typed up and sent out with some Quick Stab Music Product cassette mailings.
"Do you think we should talk about our interior vision?
There's an opinion around to the effect that concerts [put on by The Bristol Musician's Co-operative] aren't very well attended because of, there's not enough... there's too much made of BMC music.
I like improvising but there's a certain type of improvising.The music where you are really composing as you perform, that sort of concept, like when you listen and receive and play all at the same instant, when you're really aware of whatever. If it's taut and then, in an instant, replying, I don't think there's any time for declination into flabbiness, just the structure you are composing.
What were we trying to achieve through Broken Pipes [Exposed 1]? Why did we make it an hour long, with four pieces each a quarter of an hour long? Why did we perform it in the dark? Why did we avoid this in [The Lambs concert] we've just done?
What I wanted with The Lambs was the opposite of darkness. I wanted a surgical light, so again there would be no dark corners and no romantic artist in the middle of some perfumed lighting arrangement.
"Do you think we should talk about our interior vision?
There's an opinion around to the effect that concerts [put on by The Bristol Musician's Co-operative] aren't very well attended because of, there's not enough... there's too much made of BMC music.
I like improvising but there's a certain type of improvising.The music where you are really composing as you perform, that sort of concept, like when you listen and receive and play all at the same instant, when you're really aware of whatever. If it's taut and then, in an instant, replying, I don't think there's any time for declination into flabbiness, just the structure you are composing.
What were we trying to achieve through Broken Pipes [Exposed 1]? Why did we make it an hour long, with four pieces each a quarter of an hour long? Why did we perform it in the dark? Why did we avoid this in [The Lambs concert] we've just done?
What I wanted with The Lambs was the opposite of darkness. I wanted a surgical light, so again there would be no dark corners and no romantic artist in the middle of some perfumed lighting arrangement.
It would be just surgical. Trouble was we didn't play surgical music, because some of it was quite soft and reflective and human.
Why did we seemingly take a backwards step by performing songs this time around, with The Lambs? Couldn't we do something different, come up with another hour of music? Maybe we're afraid of going beyond the emptiness.
The thing about entertainment, which is what art is, is that you have to give yourself up to it. It wants you to forget about your kidney problems and husband problems. In the end people were entertained by it [BPE 1].
[In future] we must play sharper points and repeat them.
The shattered window of a Travel Agents is a static broken image and our music is a continual revelation of breaking of images.
I think there'll always be an audience for something."
Broken Pipes Exposed 1 was the concert performance of a piece exactly an hour in length, divided into sections, each about a quarter of an hour long, comprising different aspects of an industrial landscape. The piece was performed throughout in total darkness. The title was taken from the book The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. A copy of the recording, released as Quick Stab Music Product No. 1, was sent to Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P Orridge commented favourably on it. In total 25 cassette copies were made.
Why did we seemingly take a backwards step by performing songs this time around, with The Lambs? Couldn't we do something different, come up with another hour of music? Maybe we're afraid of going beyond the emptiness.
The thing about entertainment, which is what art is, is that you have to give yourself up to it. It wants you to forget about your kidney problems and husband problems. In the end people were entertained by it [BPE 1].
[In future] we must play sharper points and repeat them.
The shattered window of a Travel Agents is a static broken image and our music is a continual revelation of breaking of images.
I think there'll always be an audience for something."
Broken Pipes Exposed 1 was the concert performance of a piece exactly an hour in length, divided into sections, each about a quarter of an hour long, comprising different aspects of an industrial landscape. The piece was performed throughout in total darkness. The title was taken from the book The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. A copy of the recording, released as Quick Stab Music Product No. 1, was sent to Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P Orridge commented favourably on it. In total 25 cassette copies were made.