We were being hosted by Imperial College in their halls of residence in Prince's Gardens - if you were studying at Imperial this would be perfect as a location as it's just a few minutes away from the campus, and in amongst lots of excitement in London - I guess it would also be quite expensive to stay there.
I was fortunate to have a double room on its own and a fan too.... cooled down a little, then met up with the other delegates and walked down past the Natural History Museum to a hotel in South Kensington which had air conditioning - which was very welcome.
I had glass or two of fizz and had the chance to chat with the before-dinner speaker: J Willgoose Esq from one of my favourite bands: Public Service Broadcasting. I was also sat next to him at the meal, which was a great opportunity to find out more, and drink some nice red wine.
He was a great speaker and good company.
We heard about:
- the support that he had from the BFI to use their footage
- the process of turning footage from the 1953 Everest expedition into a song called 'Everest'
- the changing nature of the band's work over the years - although they
- the focus on the local and the 'human' and dare I say it the everyday in their work - for example on the 'Every Valley' album they didn't mention Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill, but told stories of families, women and others...
- the joy of working with James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers
- the importance of connecting with place and people
- the fact that he got some of his guitars from Ely
- that he studied 'A' level Geography
He didn't mention two EPs that I really like on contrasting themes: the building and launch of the Titanic, and a Dutch ice-skating race...
PS: Since then, J Willgoose Esq has posted this interesting piece on Patreon describing the creative process with respect to the use of SUNO... an AI tool I have mentioned before... He also describes the creation of 'Spitfire'.
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