ITR - SubSource At Waveform Festival 2007 The Complete Deal

SubSource – A Dub-Sub & Souf London Street Musical Coalition

Ok right now as I write this whizzing up through the etheric realms missing particles and sub particles, atoms and molecules of resistance is/are the parts that make that Souf London - Upper Surree (South London - Upper (more wealthier) County of Surrey - Stockbroker Belt Land) shall we be more specific Ger - Ger - Guild, slight pause, Guild-fer fer fer - d - Guildford Band - SubSource and yes Source not Sauce - Kimber was specific about that and so was the slightly shorter Stu.

Michael Dixon of InTouchRadio.net met SubSource before they set foot on the still virginial stage at Waveform Project Festival in September 2007. It was Waveform's first outing as a festival, sister'd or brother'd to Sunrise Celebration Festival. Innocent you would think in the normal sense of the word but devilishly different. Sunrise - taken as the first festival of the season, heralded in the wettest festival season on record, for consistently wet weather. Strangely enough after only one down pour which set some tents afloat it proved to be deliciously sunny and early summer creamy, not that the others would see it quite the same way, Sunrise was lucky, some others were too. Now in Galactic talk - several light seconds later and in another part of the Universe came the last festival, the untouched, unknown, but much waited for Waveform Project.

Set in another county from South Somerset's Sunrise we segue across the county line into Devon and follow around the Roman capital's (Exeter) city-ship and keep the sea estuary to our port side before coming into the lands of Powderham Castle, home of landed gentry with palatial grounds, beautified by rolling countryside, stately home and the estuary waters of the River Exe reflecting the natural Devon countryside.

It was here that Michael (InTouchRadio.net) arrived and set up camp outside the Press Tent, which had been moved due to some dramatic happenings prior to his arrival. A new tent had been secured and the whole area slid back nearer the main stage and there in the middle of what had been the secure area of Press and media people stood the forlorn Festival Toilet, now exposed and the territorial right of anyone and everyone passing. Stress sectioned the Dixon mind into loitering thoughts about purloining the stars loo's stage right, maybe it was stage left, at this point it makes little difference - just a marker or pointer to give the right emotional festival 'feel'.

Getting back to that Souf London - Upper Surree band SubSource. They were unloading their prestigious ex- Post Office, I believe Stu later told Michael (InTouchRadio.net), much travelled and much loved, van. Their passion and ‘much-loved-ness’ of that van; Michael couldn't quite make out. Whether it was love or something more unmentionably disagreeable may have had one considering the use of a more apt term than ‘love or loved’!

The first thing to grab Michael's attention as he slid his hand into his pocket groping for pen and an InTouchRadio.net Waiver form, was this four-string naked beast standing upright against the main stage tent sidewall. His hands sweated making their own minds up - pen and Waiver or the slinky broad beamed neck of that fretless, bodiless bass. Suddenly there was a shorter version of Michael with less hair staring him straight in the eyes and threatening without speech or action.

"Hi - I'm Stu of SubSource - who are you and why are you salivering at my bass". Recoiling back somewhat at the sheer openess of a smaller less haired, what he thought, of obviously Italianate origin, Michael went into one of his stuttering apologies and mentioning his connection with EchoPress, audio frequencies and his newly set-up on-line (well sometime in the future) internet radio station called InTouchRadio.net (coming soon somewhere near you).

Stu's eyes glistened and warmth came into his voice and a knowing sigh slipped out of that, so obvious, Italianate thought form. (Actually Stu’s background is Spanish) He instinctively knew another bass player, even one of such apparent older age. "You a bass player too?" he said with conviction and absolute knowing.

Michael relaxed, felt around his pocket for the missing Waiver - one hand had already gripped the Bic Biro, which until a few moments ago had slept unceremoniously on the EchoPress table in front of Tamzin's open mineral water. He never could resist the unguarded pen, never.

The ever-present Stu reminded Michael of his question. The two were suddenly talking bass player's dirty talk, makers, weight, individual neck lengths for the shorter person and the fact that most bass players have short fat hairy legs.

Michael now waking up to real-talk finally found the crumpled Waiver and the two discussed the finer points of what was the best rig to have in such open spaces, an older Michael was learning fast, times had moved on, amp power meant little these days and neither did the size of your 'speaker cabinet’. These two were now inseparable, Waiver forms and bass and bass and Waiver forms meant little in those moments backstage.

InTouchRadio.net Waiver signed Michael, keeping the bass in view made his way to the main desk, his usual stance took place not legs side by side in a normal human but one slightly ahead of the other, giving him the appearance of one that if needed, could make a quick exit, especially if he could see it clear to the 'artist's' loos.

Out came his portable recorder, the cables were connected, the levels set and driver-ship was given to over to the main stage engineer who promised faithfully to keep everything running, which he did. Michael however put on another hat, somewhat dishevelled in appearance and looking 'far out' with a few glasses of wine under his belt, he slid his Nikon out of its 'festival tried' bag.

No one would have recognized that same energy as it slid on bended knees, hid behind bass bins, middle and top bins, tables and tripped the light fant-tangle of mics and stands, and all because SubSource controlled that now incensed human called Michael. No-one noticed the punishing look that only another bass player travelling with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes could give, SubSource knew they had him. The rhythm rocked; even with failing stage-engineering issues, they carried on driving polker dots of street music across the 360 degrees of Waveform main stage.

Expletives have been left in, it is a festival, it is your choice to listen or not or perhaps you may consider trying to under stand our modern-day living English language usage; the ambiguity of a free thinking society and the power of those ten billion bass-player Stu's butterfly sneezes.

BTW Stu fell off the main monitor while he was watching me, that was my fault, he couldn't hold the power of an aging hippy any more than he could hope to jump the light years between bass bins, only the leggier Kimber could do that.

Michael (InTouchRadio.net) observed when his senses returned that there that been a strange, what he thought Chinaman on stage called Dennis, others' calmed his still-delirious mind, "No - No", just a figment of your imagination, "Yes - Yes" he shouted back, "playing some weird instrument and a shrunk keyboard and wearing some strangely European cowboy Stetson hat!" "oh, and, and another really odd looking guy with a guitar strapped to his back playing a secret keyboard with the most unbelievably deformed lips that would have made Mick Jagger look like he'd got flat tyres, oh, yes and some crazy guy who seemed to be playing drums with arms flying like a mosquito’s and who kicked something at me when I walked past, yes, yes, he nearly broke my foot, look you can see the bruise - oh, ouch!" Tamzin and Steve from EchoPress found Virgilio and Nathalie from UseYourEars.com and they took Michael back to his tent, his eyes glazed and still rolling after being so evidently SubSourced.

Enjoy the interaction of a truly great Souf London - Upper Surree Dub, Sub and musically brilliant band called SubSource.

And thank's guys for becoming such good friends and look forward to Stu's marriage in the next couple of weeks to his lady Nathalie.

Check out SubSource on www.subsource.co.uk and on www.myspace.com/i_am_michael_dixon and www.myspace.com/intouchradionet where they are friends of InTouchRadio.net


Michael Dixon
©2008
InTouchRadio.net