eBay woes

I mentioned last month that I was intending to put my unsold gear (below) on eBay but try as I may I've yet to creat a 'Seller' account. I must admit that a year ago I was very anti eBay, as I'd been ripped-off (twice) some years ago. But I gradually got drawn back in during 2007 and ended up with some really good buys last year, mainly effects units and pedals.
But here I am still trying to set up a Seller account but ebay won't play ball (after 4 weeks!). Various eBay technical departments have tried to reassure me that there shouldn't be a problem setting up my account to sell stuff BUT it basically boils down to this: they are aware of a problem, they don't know why there is a problem and they don't currently know how to fix the problem.
So in leu of finally (if ever) setting up an eBay Seller account I am putting ads in various places with a link to my 'Gear Sale' page and a PayPal 'Buy Now' button.

UPDATE:
OK I've managed to set up a temporary eBay account that will let me sell stuff for the time being: this is the link.
I've also added a few more items for sale.

Illness

Some of you may already have heard, or not, but Cosey has been very ill since the begining of the year. This meant the majority of our upcoming projects and all our current activities were rescheduled or put on hold. Cosey's health has improved somewhat in the last week, although she still has a way to go before a full recovery, but we are now in a position where we can attempt to slowly begin catching up with our most pressing or outstanding work.
Number one on our 'to-do' list has been starting our Feral Vapours film, which will now be released on DVD much (much) later in 2008 than we originally planned. We have also completed contributions for a number of compilations and collaborations that will be released in the coming months (details when we have them). We will definitely be playing some Carter Tutti shows in Europe this year but are waiting on final confirmations before we make any announcements, which will be soon. In a couple of weeks we will also begin preparations for a few European Throbbing Gristle shows this Summer.

Gear for sale

I'm selling my Monome 40h USB controller (actually now sold) and my DS Evolver desktop synth as I just don't use them quite as much as I'd like to anymore. If anyone is seriously interested in making an offer for either unit then please drop me a line. But if no one does I'll be putting them up on ebay next week (4th or 5th Feb).

Online interview

For anyone that might be interested there a new(ish) online interview with me at: www.ikonenmagazin.de
BTW: the picure accompanying the interview is ancient, I don't currently look anything like that.

TGV is in the wild...

Well we've done it... an actual, finished production copy of TGV is sitting here in front of me on my desk... and it's bloody brilliant!

Hat's off to Paul Taylor (in particular) and all those at Mute and Technicolor who really (and I mean REALLY) pushed the boat out over the last month or so to make this beautiful package a reality.
But as Paul said earlier today: "I'm not sure I can watch it again for a little while though".
I know exactly what you mean mate, I guess you know when you've overdone it (especially on something as intense as TGV) when even your dreams (mine) start including TG gigs, TG people, TG graphics, TG sounds (you name it!) that you've been working on for so long.

Time for a festive TG break I think. ;-)

BTW: Pre-ordered copies are being mailed as I write this.

Stockhausen

I was saddened to hear about the death of Stockhausen. A true genius and a hero of mine for many years. Myself and Cosey last saw him perform in London in 2005 when he staged Kontakte and Octphonie. It was a wonderous, enthralling evening of sublime experimental music.

By coincidence this week I recorded the first piece for my CCCL project, details are HERE I am dedicating the recording the Stockhausen.

And another milestone

The inception of TGV started after our TG 're-grouping' performance at the Astoria in May 2004 (on disc 6, I think). That show alone was a major milestone for TG as, apart from being 'free', it was our first show for 25 years or more, started the TGV ball rolling and we somehow accumulated a paid crew of around 40 people. Which was a big change from the 1970s' & 80s' when we just had a handful of volunteer helpers.
Naturally there was a film crew: consisting of a dozen or so camera operators dedicated to filming the whole thing on stage and back stage, the 'FX Rentals crew': who were recording everything onto 24-track and binaurally, a 'second unit / just in case' crew from Mute studios: who were piggy-back recording onto another 24-track, a hardcore FOH 'seen it all before' PA crew (TG's first encounter with Charlie Poulet, who's now become our regular FOH engineer). Plus of course, what was to become the current 'TG entourage' made up from: TG ourselves, our manager, tour manager, onstage & road crew, the Mute PR & merch teams and various but essential friends and family. And it's this entourage that has been our ongoing 'TG support structure' since the Astoria. So if you've ever wondered why TG don't perform live quite as much as you'd expect us to it's because (apart from following our own non-TG careers) this 'not so little lot' costs an absolute fortune in transport, airline tickets and hotel bills. Plus there's the matter of a TG fee of course! That's why we have yet to play in the USA this time around, partly because most of TG and our entourage are based in the UK and there don't seem to be (so far) any US promoters prepared to cover our substantial costs, plus the continuing demise of the Dollar exchange rate has to be factored in too. So, so far we've only played festivals in Europe or large or unusual venues like Tate Modern and the ICA where things like 'finance budgets' aren't such an issue. I guess a re-grouped TG playing in the USA would be another milestone wouldn't it?

Another milestone

I've put up the pre-order pages and links for the new Throbbing Gristle TGV, 7-disc DVD boxed set. Which roughly equates to... TGV has almost reached its final milestone and is now 98% closer to being a real-life physical product, and a major step-up from what seemed like the eternal limbo of compiling, editing, mastering, authoring, beta testing, bug fixing, tweaking and test viewing. TGV pre-order page.

A Milestone

Last week our new Carter Tutti album Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether... was released in the USA by Divine Frequency. It's hard to believe but this is our first US 'domestic' release since we were signed to (the now defunct) Wax Trax in the 90s'. Between then and now all our CD releases were exported from Europe by (the also now defunct) World Serpent. Of course the most obvious consequence of this is that the CD will (should) be a available in more US stores, so our music gets to by a wider audience and our fans and admirers won't have to pay inflated 'import CD' prices. Which has to be good news for everyone. www.divinefrequency.com

Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether album released

OK, so I'm going into blatant self-promotion mode::::
Our new CarterTutti album Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether is now available from iTunes and will be available on CD from next week in UK/Europe and in a couple of weeks in the USA. This album has taken us over two years to record, the longest it's ever taken us to finish a mainstream project. And even though I say so myself (I know your thinking "he would say that wouldn't he") it is definitely our most acomplished album... ever. But judge for yourselves, if you go to our MySpace page, or even better visit iTunes, you can hear clips of all the tracks. If you like what you hear please buy a copy... because this is how we make a living. Actually, in a couple of days we'll be opening our new CTI Web Store so if you prefer physical product you can order a CD directly from the artist (us).

Oh... and over there in the left-hand column is my CCCL tab, where you will find a couple of recent updates.