Perugia - Sep/Oct 2012

We arrived in Perugia by train from Spello sometime either in late August/early September 2012 (can't remember right now). It was our first time there and a strange but nice little town. Our apartment was small but comfortable and with everything we needed. Except working internet! We'd made sure to get that sorted before we booked as Italy is renowned for difficulty with internet access. The woman promised us it would be working but when we arrived we spent the whole afternoon with her (and later her husband) trying in vain to get the usb stick working with our laptop.

So the following day she drove us out to one of those retail park places to a computer shop to get a new usb stick. That was quite a bizarre experience. She could speak no English and we only knew a few phrases in Italian but we somehow managed to communicate and have a laugh on the journey there. We eventually got a working usb stick and internet up and running.

A few days before my 33rd birthday this song came:

The song was pretty much written as it was recorded - an unusual way of writing for me. I remember sitting on the couch and the main acoustic guitar riff came with a bit of the melody. Since it was a sort of cyclical thing, and I just kept singing the same part over and over, we set up and recorded the idea and looped it. Then piece by piece the song was built from there, the verse melody, the words... we just kept adding the next part and recording it as we went. Before we knew it we had the whole song recorded on the computer and realised it had a feel to it that we'd never recapture if we tried to re-record it again. So we left it and began adding vocals and percussion parts. Then we sent the song onto Mark in Edinburgh where he recorded a bassline, sent it back to us and we mixed it and put it up the day I turned 33.

Some information has recently come my way which ties in with what I'm about to go into here...

One afternoon in Perugia, Kate was up on the mezzanine having a nap in bed. I was downstairs playing guitar. I went up to see how she was and she told me she'd seen a reptilian face grinning at her while her eyes were closed. She was sort of shuddering as the told me, saying it was horrible. We didn't understand what this was about at that time but this month, June 2015, I happened to read a post by a woman who writes about the ascension process. She describes how reptilian entities are now beginning to show parts of themselves in an attempt to 'read' where we are at, those of us pushing forward attempting to break down this system of control.. What she describes is EXACTLY like what Kate described to me... and this was back in September 2012. We have said all along to people there are dark forces attempting to stop this Music and I am convinced they played a part in Kate's condition and the way things turned out for us last year. In the article you will see this woman has also been under constant heavy attack throughout 2014 - 2015. I can certainly relate to her experiences! Here is the article:

We Knew Team Dark Would Make A Strong Last Stand

After a short trip to Venice in late September, we were coming back to Perugia on the train one night at the beginning of October, and had a very bizarre evening. We had to change trains in Bologna and so getting off there, we left the station and crossed the road to find some food. There was a little mall place we went into, I had my guitar strapped to my back, and we'd just stopped to look at a menu, considering whether to eat there, when these two young Italian girls appeared from behind us and started putting their hand over their mouth, and looking at me in disbelief as if they recognised me or something. They couldn't speak any English but they started doing a strumming motion and I nodded. They were sort of giving "is it you?!" kind of looks and after our experience in Barcelona when our laptop was nicked, I was becoming a little cautious... like is a guy gonna sneak up behind me here while they get my attention. Kate sort of stood in the background while this was going on and I was wary of her too, with her condition. I could eventually see the girls were for real but could not figure out what they wanted and what they were trying to say. I figured they surely can't be mistaking me for an Italian musician by now since I was speaking in English but still they carried on. They then started indicating they wanted me to write something down... I don't know if they wanted my name, an autograph, website... whatever... but they eventually gave up and disappeared into nowhere as quickly as they'd appeared.

Whatever it was all about it left Kate and I quite spun round. We walked back to the station in a bit if a daze, wondering what the hell that had all been about! Then Kate began to notice as we walked around the station that people were looking at us, as if they recognised us or something. We were in a lift with a bunch of people and I saw in the mirror a woman behind me look at the guitar on my back and then place their hand on my guitar case for a few seconds, as if she was blessing it or something! Then waiting at the platform people kept looking at us as they walked past. It literally felt as if we'd stepped into some twilight zone for that night in Bologna, like a parallel world or something where we were known in Bologna. Very weird!

That night when we finally arrived back at the apartment, I switched the tv on and we started watching the music channel. I was quite taken aback when the following 3 songs came on one after another and all of them carried a certain feel that was somehow related to our earlier experiences in Bologna:

A day or two after this we recorded a live acoustic version of "October Rose" with reworked lyrics referring to the experience with the Italian girls. We also did a version of "Sunrise" in this Perugia apartment, making use of the Marilyn Monroe images there.