'Noise Candy' ships! Paul Page has informed me that he has received all the CD's. At long last, the work is done and orders are being shipped as quickly as they can be processed.
In response to a couple of questions i asked him, Bill provided the following comments on the four year odyssey in getting 'Noise Candy' out the door to his fans. He sheds some interesting light on how he views the whole project now that its almost done:
After a whole week of threatening, pleading and cajoling, I'm afraid that I've had to resign myself to the fact that it is now too late to do anything about the Noise Candy text errors. It seems that Mike Inns had signed off the proofs to the printers without properly checking them and they consequently went ahead and printed the entire run. To reprint the project would cost two thousand, five hundred British pounds, a sum that Lenin Imports are unable to bear. Regretfully, I have had to accept the situation, although I am far from happy about it. (In fact, my blood's been boiling to the point of violence.)
My friend and occasional assistant, Jon Wallinger, has volunteered to go through the finished package with a fine tooth comb and make a master list of any errors. The most major of these will be printed on an 'erratum' slip which will be inserted into every Noise Candy package before being mailed to purchasers. Should there ever be a second run of the project (which is by no means certain) then these errors will be corrected in the print-run proper. One side benefit to collectors is that this first run, with its mistakes, will become a valuable item in years to come, as do all short run releases bearing such mistakes. Ironic? Tell me about it !
Noise Candy has suffered from various problems from the start. I don't want to hold myself up as some kind of shining example but I think that it is fair to say that I've upheld my part of the bargain. I've written, played, recorded and curated ten year's worth of music into a 121 song, six-CD collection (almost a year's preparation there alone), mastered it, come up with concepts for each album; sourced and originated many pages of artwork; insisted on getting the visual aspects right and overseen this at every stage, even working on the content and form of the project's press release. It has been the most time consuming, demanding, debilitating work I've ever done for just a single project. It has also been the most frustrating experience of my career. I've learned some serious lessons along the way, not least that, no matter how much care one puts into one's work, there will always be the possibility of it falling foul of another person's indifference. It is so annoying that as soon as I handed the work over to someone else's care, trusting them to fuss over the final details, the mistakes happened. Well, no good crying over spilt milk. There is no milk in Noise Candy, only blood and tears.
Despite these typographical errors, it is still a magnificent looking package and a triumph of low budget, low resource, 'cottage-industry' production. And, of course, the music is unique and special too. (Even if I do say so myself!) Orders for Noise Candy will be fulfilled very shortly. I am hoping that Lenin will now pull out all the stops to distribute and promote this piece of work in the marketplace. I've done my bit and, once the forthcoming tribute concert is out of the way, I need to rest my frazzled nerves.
This following image is a copy of the advert Bill references in his May 3rd diary entry. Image is courtesy of Paul Page of Lenin Imports.
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A 6 CD boxed set of music by Bill Nelson comprising of:
October 27, 2000 - Jon
Wallinger's impressions of Noise Candy.
Old Man Future Blows The Blues
Stargazing With Ranger Bill
Sunflower Dairy Product
King Frankenstein
Console
Playtime
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