Author Archives: karlhyde

Wednesday 10th April

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TOKYO STORY:
As my band climbed back into the sky as I rode the Shinkansen
north back to Tokyo, Spring in full bloom & sunlight casting
shadows thick & black that made my camera sing. Photographed
& interviewed ’till 9:00pm. Then a phone interview with the
Sun back home from a downtown alley under street lights where
even this time of night the air is warm. Writing emails &
online Q&A’s ’till 2:00am, lobby call 08:30, being followed
by a film crew for three hours round the city.
Back home it’s bin day – this week it’s recyclables collection.
(K)

Tuesday 9th April

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OSAKA MAXIMUM JOY NIGHT:
We heard the news from England, an era’s end!, riding late night
in the back of taxi with lace covered seats. The boys were laughing
rejoicing, shouting late night reveries in Osaka alleyways.
The lights of the city shimmering, dripping off buildings
like luminous rain. Girls clutched themselves, delicately dressed &
cold on corners with sharp suited Manga Boys as we wove our story
between them without them ever noticing. The light in our eyes,
the love that connects us after playing such a show together.
The smiles on stage, the laughter, the mistakes that celebrate
we’re alive & it’s fun. The warmth of the audience, raising their
hands with grins as we took a bow & danced like Tiller Girls.
Fly safely home, brothers & sisters, my ears are still ringing
with your songs as I pack another bag & catch the train back to
Tokyo for three days of TV & photos. You’ll be with me as I take
to the stage alone on Thursday Night, a little boy alone in his
bedroom back in Worcestershire strumming on a guitar his Dad
loved him so much he bought it for him for Christmas.
(K)

Monday 8th April

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OUT OF DARKNESS:
 
Phew, what a night!
Thank you
train to Osaka
Mnt. Fuji dressed in snow looking over the dark ring of hills
surrounding the city. White stone towers facing the sun. 
Get your ears on, slip into sleep & slide along the rails.
Sweet phallic train from the future, you’re always on time,
my softest ride, gilding between the backs of brutal houses, 
california styling, building blocks of rhythm in the fields 
of Japan. 
The adventure rolls on, from city to city – tonight, Osaka.
Throw the dice & see what happens next!
 
(K)

Sunday 7th April

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HOLD ME MOTHER!:
 
Out’ve the soundcheck from Hell we emerge into beautiful 
sunlight, heat on our skin, bento box in hand. Most people
at the venue haven’t slept for 28 hours & yet they smile
& offer help when everything on stage is crashing. 
Met the guys from Dark Star & Nicholas Jarr all of whom 
are how I remember bands being with one another, supportive,
& friendly. They both sounded great in their soundchecks
whilst we wrestled bits of wayward kit to the ground 
& went for a submission. Vocoders have a long history 
with U/W related events so I thought it appropriate for us
to uphold tradition. I work with a great team of people
who never lost their cool but traced the problem & found
a solution, inspiring confidence & putting it all back 
on me to turn it on & not let any of them down.
If the equipment works as it has for months then I’m 
the last weak link in the chain, let’s see if I can 
turn it on for you tonight then eh?.
 
(K)

Saturday 6th April

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LANDED IN TOKYO!:
 
Seeing double through sleep deprivation the sky covers us in 
warm rain wandering familiar back streets hunting the noodle.
People smile at us, stop us, shake my hand, other’s whisper
in passing,glancing, “Is that him? Yes it IS!” 
So good to be back in Japan with little more than a day
before this new band I love so much takes the stage. Outside 
the venue this afternoon we watched fish leap from the water 
trying to fly, photographing one another to prove that we’re 
actually here – amazed, the thrill is tangible. My body & my 
mind hunger to walk these streets, soaking up the rhythms of 
it’s people, but my head feels like someone’s sturing the 
inside with a dirty spoon & my eyes ache like they’ve been 
doing press-ups on their knuckles. Now I’m waiting for a 
loaner guitar, something to practise on. I’ve loved playing 
guitar since my fist one at seven years old, it kind’ve went 
away for a few years, but now the passion returns stronger
every day. Tomorrow night we get to play in Japan for the first
time all over again – what a lucky boy.
 
(K)

Friday 5th April

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COMING TO JAPAN:
 
Back into the sky, through the old tunnel we used for years.
The one between Essex & Tokyo delivering us from the frozen 
winds into the heart of the cherry blossom city. I was born 
& grew up amongst the cherry blossoms of Worcestershire, so 
this for me is like returning to a cherished memory of childhood. 
This time to share not only with dear friends in Tokyo & Osaka, 
but also with my new band of brothers & sisters some of whom have 
never been to the land of the rising fun, nor tasted the colours & 
rhythms of it’s generous people. Machines & towers, temples &
delicate papers that sing songs to make my brush load up with
fine black ink & dance. 
And what will we bring as gifts of thanks for years of your
support? Smiles, yes, in return, but also music, the new album, 
live, but also favourite U/W songs, some you’ll not have heard 
for years & others you’ll never have heard live.This connection 
we want to offer you as the album ‘Edgeland’comes directly from 
the root of U/W songs which nestled between the kick drum groove. 
Songs like Skyme, Tongue, River of Bass, Mother Earth & 8 Ball 
were the seeds from which ‘Edgeland’ grew, but only one of these 
appears in the live show we’re bringing, it’s one I know you’ve 
been asking to hear for years & that great stuff makes me feel 
‘Happy’.
 
See you in Tokyo
See you in Osaka
Smiles framed 
in a vibrant haze of blossom cloud
 
(K)

Thursday 4th April

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TALKING THROUGH WIRE IN A FREEZING WIND:
 
The fifth coming of Winter is upon us! Snow falls on Spring
buds & blossom refuses to bloom. I drive into town with 
heater & radio for company, head down to the art store,
top up on tools. The phone rings, fills with the tumbling
voices of journalists calling from Europe, positive about 
the Edgeland album. It’s refreshing to engage in intelligent 
conversation, they all see the journey & get the story 
before I even open my mouth. We get round to Synesthesia 
seems we had a lot in common, a curious combination of 
rhythms if our paths had crossed?
 
(K)

Wednesday 3rd April

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I’LL SEE ALL YOU ON PUDDING HILL:
 
As we gathered round the table in a back room of an eating club
surrounded by dark wood panels a small & shiny balloon floated
above your head. We glanced & for a second smiled, remembering 
the adventures of these past twelve years.Though there were 
some extreme dark times they were mostly fantastic, filled with 
light & dancing. Smiles have lined the route we’ve travelled since 
you first picked up the phone on reception & spoke to the world
with a voice that made everyone feel good. In the foyer of that
giant building that eventually floated away like that scene from
the start of Monty Python’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ you watched 
the big world from beneath your flowerpot hat & smiled back. 
Little did we all suspect the journeys we would take, the world 
& all it’s people & all it’s people’s food we ate, travelling 
together, spiralling around the beautiful planet. 
It was billed as a ‘leaving lunch’, but I had to grin, reflecting 
friends never leave, they just go on somewhere else & take a piece 
of you with them forever.
 
(K)

Tuesday 2nd April

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TUESDAY MORNING, 3:00AM:
 
Driving empty roads beneath stars, connecting the lights
of solitary houses. It’s the time of day when the world’s
temporarily returned to us. I remember walking from rick’s house 
in Splot, late night sessions listening to Dub, Kraftwerk & Low. 
Walking Cardiff precent, birdsong louder than traffic. Standing 
in the middle of the road elated, carless & smelling of clean air. 
The lights of the dash board illuminate, mimicking the stars,
underlining the glass between us, turning it into a film screen.
Today we’re screening ‘The Outer Edges’ Film, a Q&A for director
Kieran Evans & me, the stars are the people we met on our journey
around the crumbling rim of the Emerald City.
Their messages countering the relentless obsession with dark stuff 
fed to us daily in the news.
They remind me how to dance. 
 
(K)  

Monday 1st April

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APRIL:
 
Everything’s reluctant to come out to play today. Buds wait 
for a sure sign, bulbs pierce turf with green blades, but 
refuse to reveal their flowers. Hours of work this morning,
prepping for Japan, a man turns up at the door with my 
wheelie-bin, grinning. “Just off to meditate” he says,
“…you mentioned the saga of the bins, so I thought…”
We laugh, I make coffee, we talk literature & art & laugh 
some more. The house is quiet, no noise in the head or ears,
a fertile space for ideas to gestate. No need to wait for
Spring’s triumphant return, the garden in my head is in flower
& we can breath again.
 
(K)