Flowers Revisited From Martin
The Flowers of Romance Revisited
45th Anniversary Celebration
From Martin:
Hello, some notes from the weekend:
It feels like another way of doing things for us – is emerging. Extremities last November celebrating 35 years of that album started the process of celebrating an album, rehearsals at the Museum, small private dress rehearsal, the show over at Reggies, in person nice and sweaty and loud and also a 5 camera livestream online. The addition of Museum tours the day after Flowers this weekend felt completely insane for my 66 year old body, but was terrific for my 66 year old heart. With visitors from Switzerland and Indonesia and Indiana and then a lovely hang with Steven Morello. My lazy ass failed to DJ at electric funeral but you know I’ll be in there sometime soon.
I have to mention here the joy I have to be able to fuck around onstage with humans this massively talented. A gob smacked ‘are you fucking kidding me’ level of talented people. I wouldn’t even have attempted this if Chris hadn’t been available or didn’t want to jump fully into this – and man, did he inhabit this album in a spectacular Lydon-esque way! And, my goodness, Alicia on bass was marvelously Wobble-like, but in her own way (good luck in Europe with Ganser!). Robert KILLED the guitar, and Alan handled the percussion in a really articulate way. Orville on textures and keys and Layla on Cello were the icing on this wonderful cake! I guess Flowers began my love of cello and it doesn’t look like that is going to stop any time soon.
The online felt a little bit tricky in November… It never feels smart to give people a reason to stay home, but with bad weather predicted (the WORST in 30 years!), the online ticket provided an easy option for anyone worried about travel. Whilst I would’ve loved for more people to have made it to the Saturday Extremities show and out into the alley for a group hug / cash register fire ceremony, safety has to win out. Looking at the live stream conversations and locations for this weekend’s Flowers Revisited event, it provided the option for anyone who the album was important to to be able to join in. Bruce in Australia met PiL off the plane when we landed in Australia 1984, Cevin Key from Puppy, artist and friend PBH on the west coast and so many others.
Many made a special trip IRL – Rob and Skyler from Florida, Aaron came in from the west coast, too, and so many others. You are appreciated.
There’s immeasurable support from our seasoned Pigface crew: Joe Darnaby on sound, Fritz dealing with my drums, Condo dealing with whatever is necessary, Tom facilitating live recordings and then Sarah being spectacular on merch, Dylan on logistics, Katie and Becca remote handling all kinds of logistics, Julie, Maria, Briana, Austin Buchanan and Dani, too, helping and everyone in ‘whatever is necessary’ mode. Thank you.
Somewhere in amongst all of it, after designing the posters and shirts, Goss Advertising found the time to launch our temporary brand of ‘Chocolates Instead’! Thank you Shani and Tronnie – and how awesome to have Dark Matter / Sleepwalk provide the most amazing dark chocolate! We also had a special JKL button (thank you BusyBeaver) that commemorated Keith Levene’s (Julian Keith Levene) contribution and acknowledged his passing. Hand screened posters added that hands on, smudged DIY aspect that always seems to be present. Andres stepped up on visuals with 36 hours notice, and will hopefully be a part of these events moving forwards.
Someone asked ‘whats next’ yesterday I replied ‘my head on a pillow,’ but today I’m looking forwards to whatever might be next – there are certainly no shortage of anniversaries to celebrate – this is Pigface’s 35th anniversary and the 25th for The Damage Manual……….who knows how many for Brian Brain……heading for 50 in 2029? I’m not saying that we will celebrate each of these with weekends of events, but its not the worst idea I’ve ever had!
Lastly, none of this would be possible without the full commitment and support of Robby and the staff at Reggies – what a totally PRO crew over there, and what a spectacular infrastructure they have built to enable all of this. I sat in Robby’s office a year and a bit ago rambling about the idea of these celebrations, and when he rattled off the original catalog numbers of the Extremities and Flowers albums – I knew I was home.
Lastly, please make shit, do shit, be involved. I can’t tell you what a wonderful antidote to everything shitty these assemblings are. I think we need more of this. Stop worrying about how perfect something is or could be – get it out, connect. It’s not the product itself that’s important – it’s the connections.
Peace Love and Much Respect
Come visit!
Martin Atkins
Chicago ILLANNOYS
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