Ok, so last night was (as far as we are aware!) the first Fluke performance in a long long time! I've heard that there were technical problems with the live web streaming; if this was the case for you then I ofer my sincere condolences - the event was pretty spectacular with a vast array of talent. Of special significance for me were the excellent performances by John Hendicott (a name to watch out for) and Lex Lamb of Ventilator. However, for all Fluke fans there were two centres of attention that require comment. jUSTIN cREDIBLE, whose remix work many of you will be familiar with, had flown all the way from his home in Germany for the event and his flight landed at midday before he headed to my house for an afternoon of geeking about various Fluke records.
Our night began by rolling up at the roundhouse looking somewhat anxious - I mean it feels as if we essentially blagged tickets to this gig, so it was somewhat surreal. Especially so when we were greeted by none other than Musical Director J. Fugler upon arrival!
While chilling in the bar and putting out Twitter updates via mobile phone we caught a glimpse of Mike B. as he wandered through. Our discussion quickly degenerated into conversations about the merits of Special as opposed to General, relativity, but we were quickly rescued from this intellectual slump by the announcement that we should head into Doc Marten's Freedom Studio and our thoughts once more turned to Fluke/2Bit.
Upon receiving the programme for the night's entertainment we were also exceptionally pleased to learn that Mike Tournier had also created a musical accompaniment to a film. The piece, entitled "Joy - in Other Words" was a selection of interviews with the participants in the event giving their definitions of Joy (not Jazz). While these interviews did somewhat drown out Mike T's music, although we agreed with Jon Fugler that Joy could well be described as "being here tonight"! Perhaps more on Mike Tournier's composition in the coming weeks.
The piece quickly sped on through Sander Kleinenberg's excellent piece about about a deluded client of a call girl ("a nice sensitive guy like me") to the highlight of our evening - the performance of Implog's Holland Tunnel Dive by Fluke.
The lights when down and Mike B., Jon F. and two saxophonists (one tenor and one alto) walked onto the stage. Mike B. hit the switch and the whole beast chugged into life with a thumping bassline, cued by a noise that sounds incredible similar to the opening Dr. Who credits at 0:00.
00:01 - The video screen comes on to reveal scenes from the G20 protest marches throughout London recently. Hard hitting scenes of police brutality and placard bearers continue throughout.
00:23 - Jon F. steps up to the mic to discover that the sound guys (who insisted on taking control from Mike Bryant) have decided that the performance would be better with no volume on his microphone. Jon does his best to continue in spite of this, but understandably looks a little thrown.
00:45 - Despite this we catch a vocal snippet that could equally as well have come from Slid: "oh what a ride"
01:00 - A noise that sounds incredibly close to a jet engine taking off fills the room
01:19 - The jet engine subsides to reveal a sweeping synth melody
01:33 - Jon F. steps up and they actually give him some volume as he tells us of the things missing in the world: no love, no respect, no equal rights
02:02 - A pulsating synth line in the upper octave joins over the top of the main bass.
02:30 - "No Cigar"
02:40 - The jet engine returns
03:05 - The jet engine dies down and the saxophones step up to play their tune over the remaining bassline
03:11 - Mike B. casts a sideways smile at Jon F. who does not look best pleased about the earlier mistake with the sound
03:50 - The track abruptly ends as the saxes hit their final note - a great deal of applause and whooping emanates from the audience who make up for their lack of size in terms of noise!
Well, jUSTIN and I are left somewhat speechless. It sounds incredibly sad/geeky, but as ardent followers of Fluke who have never had the chance to see them perform live, it was a true privilege to be present at such an exclusive event. The privilege is about to get even larger, however, as we were also invited to attend the after-show party, held at the exclusive club, The East Room in Shoreditch.
I'd like to add that, even in light of some small problems, we had a fantastic time seeing the show and these minor technical flaws did not in any way detract from my, or jUSTIN's, enjoyment of the event. Furthermore, Mike Wilson, the master-coordinator of the event, was doing this for the first time (DTFTFT) and getting 106 collaborators together with a massive technical web rig and everything going 100% to plan would have been near on impossible. Everyone did a fantastic job.
Anyway, we transferred over to the party venue in the exclusive party bus, jUSTIN almost making us miss it due to cravings for cigarettes (I ran into the shop practically yelling - "the coach is leaving NOW! WE ARE GOING TO MISS IT!" - needless to say the coach then stood still for about 10 minutes and I felt like a total lemon, although I'm not entirely sure I can vouch for intersubjective empathy with citrus fruits).
While we were at the party we met a host of interesting people, but the highlight of the evening was, without a doubt, meeting the entirety of Fluke past and present. Jon Fugler, Mike Bryant, Mike Tournier and even Julian Nugent were there. Ok, Rachael Stewart didn't make an appearance, so perhaps entirety was a tiny understatement, but we are not complaining. We have signed copies of albums, programmes and even photographs posing with the band. We have achieved the pinnacle of Fluke geekdom.
The fruits of this conversation were many. Mike Tournier gave us updates on Syntax, on which there will be more in the next couple of weeks. He also gave us some interesting discography news which means we are able to confirm and deny two rumours respectively that occur in Marcolphus' discography.
Firstly, "Amp" was released as a single, with the tracklisting presented in the discography, but only in Australia. This may account for the difficulty verifying its existence.
Secondly, "Toot" is an utter hoax. No such single. Nobody. Never.
An interesting story from Mike T. also emerged in that when Setback on Oto was the first track where Fluke truly employed a vocalist. However, during the recording session she collapsed, albeit with no lasting problems!
Jon F. briefly hit the decks about 1am and pushed out some new Yuki tracks, again, more on which is to follow.
We eventually retired, two very happy individuals about 2am. Many thanks to all involved in the gig, but especially to Mike Wilson, Jon Fugler, Mike Bryant and Mike Tournier. We had a blast and you did it.
These photographs are © Martin Eve 2009. I hereby grant an irrevocable permanent licence to anyone who wishes to use these images for non-commercial use under condition that 1.) this original copyright is acknowledged and prominently displayed alongside a link to this website (http://www.2bitpie.net) and 2.) these exact licence terms are applied to any derivative works.
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