A review of the day by fan, Peter McIntyre.
A novitiate in the Nelson cloisters
Having never attended any kind of music convention whatsoever, let alone a Bill Nelson event, I was a little unsure of what to expect. However, within minutes of entering the main exhibition space, I found myself deep in conversation with a couple of chaps I’d never met before over the heated topic of typos in promotional posters (there was one on the day, the same one that made me smile when it appeared on the front of a box set from Bill way back when). There was none of the usual posturing you seem to get nowadays when people talk about music, none of that sense of sound bytes being cut and pasted among peer groups with little personal input from any individual within that group. These were genuine opinions, formulated in single heads and shared among like-minded people, as eager to hear what others had to say as shout above everyone else. I couldn’t help but feel that while these guys were keen to let me know what they were thinking, they were every bit as interested in hearing what I had to say. Remember that - that’s called a conversation, and, in an age where people seem as intent on downloading their opinions about music as they do the music itself, it was so nice to see that people are still willing to spend time and effort talking about what a musician’s music and career had meant to them, in personal terms.
It really did feel like a community in those rooms, no matter where you went: the listening room, featuring a playback of the new Signals from the Realms of Light album, a communal affair, despite no words passing between those of us in there, where knowing glances, nodding heads and feet tapping in rhythm, formed a shared language; the video room, featuring a fantastic array of footage, old and (relatively) new, exploding in shared laughter at Whispering Bob Harris’ sublimely restrained appreciation following a particularly blistering Whistle Test version of Down on Terminal Street ; even the drinks counter, where I overheard a guy speculating that, even when these conventions had passed into memory, this group of people would continue to meet and come together.
As for the live performances themselves, Bill’s solo set was completely spellbinding, at points taking me back to the Invisibility Exhibition in 1984, while retaining that strange retro-futurism that his music now seems to encapsulate; and while, in my opinion, the Orchestra Futura set was slightly marred by a muddy sound mix, the feeling of empathy between the three musicians was almost tangible – and like all good leaps in the dark, the sense of dislocation you get on landing was exhilarating. That’s the kind of thing that could give improvised music a good name!
All in all, a great event, but what I think I’ll take away most from it was a deep sense of community, a fitting response, I feel, to this most human and personal of musicians.
Peter McIntyre
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