Phone rings. Caller ID thingie says it’s Ned Evett. Where’s Ned? I answer. Turns out his in Islington! (the exclamation mark is there ‘cos I was expecting him to be in Boise, Idaho – if someone from St Luvvie’s had rung me to say they were in Islington, they wouldn’t warrant any ! at all.)
Fortunately, I had a few hours that I’d set aside for practicing and writing new tunes that I could happily sacrifice for a couple of hours sat eating and drinking mint tea with Ned. Ned’s a fretless guitarist – makes his own fretless guitars (or, at least, renders other guitars fretless) by removing the fingerboards and replacing them with mirrored glass. Yes, that’s what I said, mirrored glass. No lines, no frets, just smooth glass. He’s clearly insane, or would be if it didn’t sound so great. The lovely thing about Ned’s music is that despite the freakishness of his chosen instrument, it’s all about songs. He’s a singer/songwriter, who happens to have a guitar that looks like it was designed by Salvador Dali.
Anyway, I can’t think of many nicer ways to spend a monday afternoon that sitting chatting with Ned.
Soundtrack – Talk Talk, ‘Spirit Of Eden’.