Daniel Johnston & Friends - Glasgow - 23/07/08

The Duck is back! I've not posted for quacking ages for many reasons but mostly because I got obsessed with fixies and spent a month solid watching the MASH trailer and researching bar tape and shit. I built my bike up over Christmas and throughout January I've been all depressed and at a loose end so didn't bother posting here.

This blog has been going for just over a year now, 30,000 unique users (according to my stat counter) visited in 2008 which is pretty bloody amazing, just goes to prove that I'm the best :-p To celebrate this I'm staging a bit of a competition...

A photo I shot of Daniel Johnston backstage in Manchester back in 2007 has been used on the sleeve of a vinyl issue of his Lost and Found album put out by COPPERTREE RECORDS which in their own words is "...a lavish double album with a double-weight embossed sleeve, full colour inner lyric sleeves and virgin vinyl for the 180g pressings." In my words "it's fucking lovely!" check it out in all it's photobooth glory...

To be in with the chance of winning a copy of the record all you've got to do is download this A4 BOXING DUCK and get arty farty with it. I don't care whether you colour it in with pens, crayons, pencils, Photoshop, MS Paint or glue and glitter just make sure you make it special. Feel free to draw on your own characters, stick on cuttings, add speech bubbles etc. When you have finished post it to:

Boxing Duck

C/O Exist Outlet,

214 Oxford Street

Swansea

SA1 3BG

Wales

UK

Or if you are going the digital route email it to boxingduck@me.com

I will scan and upload every entry and my favourite one will get the vinyl in the post, the deadline is in a 2 months from today so make sure I get your entry by the 7th april 2009!!!

- 

Now for the download, Daniel toured with a bunch of 'friends' last year under the catchy title of "An Evening with Daniel Johnston and friends" which I would have loved to have attended but I was fighting 'The Man' at the time and was proper 'skint' so it was a no go. Luckily the internet is full of presents and I found this great recording of their performance at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow. Daniel is "... supported and backed by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, Scout Niblett, James McNew of Yo La Tengo, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair of Half Japanese." The setlist is flipping radical, check it:

Mean Girls Give Pleasure
There Is A Sense Of Humor
Mask
Mountain Top
Speeding Motorcycle
Casper
Hey Joe
Fish
Rain
Go
Story Of An Artist
Rock This Town
Walking The Cow
Love Enchanted
Rock N Roll
Crowd
True Love Will Find You In The End
Devil Town
Most Beautiful Widow

choose from any of these fine links:
http://sharebee.com/eb318230
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=24279P2F
http://www.badongo.com/file/13269883
http://rapidshare.com/files/194941721/DJ-GLASGOW-08.zip.html
http://www.zshare.net/download/55220114dd3fb184/
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/osu267miz

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Meeting Daniel Johnston

The Comedy Store, Manchester
Monday 21st May 2007

Before the gig I was taken Daniel's dressing room, pretty quickly I noticed that he was really quiet compared to the supports who were also in the room, they were all having a good time and Daniel was just sat, hunched, chain smoking and drinking coke, he didn't even lift his head.

After the supports left to go on stage I said hello to him and said that his brother said I could take some photos and he just went "uh-huh", didn't look up, I asked him how ATP went and he said "uh-huh", I asked if he minded me taking some photos and he said "uh-huh", not once lifting his head. I gave him a set of comic badges I'd bought for him with "pow" and "zapp" and stuff on them, he said he really liked them and right away just zoned out again. I snapped one pic of his reflection in the mirror and left him to his thoughts.

I spoke to his brother upstairs who said he was ok during soundcheck but had just gone out of it. He said that he ended up playing both days at ATP and an outdoor show as well and that he'd had a really good time. He said he'd probably be in better spirits after the gig so I decided to leave him to it until then.

During the gig he was on top form, he was joking, smiling and seemed really happy. I went backstage right after the gig and he was sat back in his chair same as earlier smoking and drinking coke again, he was pretty untalkative to the supports (who played with him on most of the set), then he went outside for a smoke and was out there a good 10mins, he came back in, hunched into his chair and continued smoking.

Badly Drawn Boy (Daniel had no idea who he was) came in to the dressing room, I can't remember why but daniel said he wanted to get on a major label again and record in the big studios, and that he wanted to be famous, within the next 10 mins BDB bragged about being "the most famous musician from Manchester", being "a millionaire", recording a big budget video in london the next day and (laughably) said "I'm the best songwriter I know". He was 'joking' about all this stuff of course but he very obviously believed what he was saying! A very insensitive choice of things to talk about if you ask me. Daniel seemed to sit silently for AGES before answering people at times, there was this great example where BDB asked him if he wanted to release an EP on his label, there must have been a 30sec pause before Daniel looked up, really animated, and went into this big thing about how in movies and comics you can do things that would be dangerous in real life and thats why he likes them so much, then he just slumped down again. BDB was all "I play shows and I say my fave musicians are Bobby Conn, Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston and nobody knows who they are" obviously pulling out the most obscure dudes he knew to appear cool, so I said to him "but you're a big Springsteen fan, people have heard of him". Daniel said he was a big fan too and that he'd seen him 3 times, BDB of course was better than that, he'd seen him 30 times and actually played with him 5 weeks ago. He was such a twit! His girlfriend made him leave and on the way out the door he went "ahhhhh" like he'd just met a disabled child in a hospital. That really annoyed me cause Daniel very probably heard.

By this point I thought Daniel had had enough hassle for one night so i asked him to do me a drawing and right away he came alive, he asked me what I'd been up to, I said that I'd just been working to which he replied "working is a real drag, I havent worked since 1986, I used to work in Mcdonalds" he gave me my drawing and right away zoned out again. I packed up my gear and said that I liked his full band, studio recorded albums and the direction he was moving in but all I got was "uh-huh" so I said my goodbyes and went on my merry way...

It was not the great meeting with a musical genius that I was hoping for BUT it was certainly a really intimate peak into his life and something I will never forget.

MP3: Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Your Griviences from Yip/Jump Music

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