In the meantime why not check out the link below to get your own 20MB of free webspace?

www.fortunecity.com

Way back at the end of 1983 there came the demise of a much loved and respected band in London called Night People. Part of the folklore of the punk and reggae scene so strong at the time, their storming live dub reggae sets were the stuff of legend. But good things never last forever, or so we thought..

As we crawled from the wreckage of a bandwagon spun out of control, we found a new musical direction to embrace the future. Dub had taught us much about the groove and how to twist music away from tired formulas. The inspiration of artists and producers like Lee �Scratch� Perry, King Tubby, Mad Professor and many others showed a way that in years to come would be recognized in the boom of Dance styles revolving around Bass and Drums, and the use of technology to �DUB� the original performances of musicians into something altogether different.

But we were most hooked on playing live. We had always found ways with Night People to translate studio techniques onto stage. �Dubbing live� we called it. But there was more to it than imitating echo boxes...

There is a very tired old formula in modern popular music. You still hear it all the time. You take a song with a catchy chorus, spin a verse or two around it, twist it with a middle 8, repeat a bit and then cycle the chorus until you�ve drummed it into your listener�s head and they can�t help finding themselves humming it when they least expect. We all do it, I mean it works because it�s familiar. To add insult to injury it is then played exactly the same every performance. As a musician you always know what�s coming... it�s safe.

We had always been listening to other kinds of music; Jazz, Funk, Soul and R&B to give a few labels. But something was common to all. A spark which set us off in the first place. Only those artists who could lift their music above the mundane excited us, and our passion for playing overcame the stormy end of what had been before. Three musicians in particular came together for early sessions in Camden, North London around October - December 1983: Loopmaster T., DC, & the Mad Russian.

�When the rain falls�, recorded at this time marked the start of a writing partnership lasting to this day (and beyond!). So we sat over a cup of tea and examined what we wanted to do. The break up of Night People had been traumatic, none of us wanted to go that way again. So we wanted something that could never break up. It wouldn�t be a band, that was too rigid. Besides we might want to work with others, in different combinations. We had been stifled by our roles in the old days, it was time to break free.

As we played on, developing a style and a language of music, we thought more of what we were doing. We wanted to involve more people, so we needed space and instruments. But we didn�t want a band.

Also we were seeking the sparkle. Every now and then as we were jamming would arise a �Magic Moment�. This is one of the cornerstones of the T.M.C. ethic. Somehow through the mirk of struggling with a groove we would unify, the music would lock together in a wild and beautiful motion, like a crazy perfect dance and it would take us beyond ourselves into a space where we could find harmony.

Beyond music, the experience was significant, teaching us that we could communicate our hearts and minds with each other without words. In those moments we realized that something lay beyond the mundane day to day existence we are taught to think is the full extent of reality. Soon we realized that this was a form of E.S.P., some kind of telepathy. The aim of the jam became to have as many of these ecstatic �Magic Moments� as possible. Moreover, we wanted to spread the word, but without words... Here was a musical way forward which defied the tired formulas and boring music we all are subjected to.

A bit like a shimmering mirage, it was beginning to come into focus. We wanted to create something that didn�t exist, so that it could never break up. It would be a network of like minded people, seeking a truth that had only so far been glimpsed. Together we could pursue this goal through the language of music and by exploring ways to create and perform.

They were high ideas, but then so were we. Somebody came up with the name: �Telepathic Music Campaign. That about sums it up�. And so it stuck. To something that didn�t really exist, but had a name. And we all laughed and didn�t think much more about it for a while.

So began the age of the blag. We had no money, didn�t work much and had plenty of time on our hands. Somehow we managed to get funding via GLC and set about running music workshops in Camden in 1984. The first forays out of the backroom and into a venue were Wednesdays at the London Musicians Collective. The home of free improvisation for over twenty years, the LMC was world renowned for its eclectic musical performers and average 7 person audiences.

For four weeks the afternoon workshops went well, with more than thirty young musicians coming along and getting involved. Then on the fifth week something went awry with the bookings, and the afternoon was double booked. We were offered the evening instead. This was to be the first ever T.M.C. live EVENT.

LMC never really knew what hit them. More than 150 people, lots of very loud music, drink cans and spliff butts and nearly twenty musicians playing continuously in rotation. At least it could be said to be free improvisation, although nothing like that rickety old building was used to. As on many following gigs some of the best young musicians around were turning up and joining in. But we were not just aimlessly jamming. Most jam gigs revolve around standards or well known covers. I don�t think we�ve ever played a cover straight. Maybe nicked a riff or two (bit like live sampling really).

Alternatively jams are boring grooves with no changes because the musicians don�t know where to go. We worked on ways of twisting the music, inspired by dub from the old days. We worked patterns into the music, and most of all we worked hard on our telepathy. By knowing each other, listening really carefully and tuning in to the flow of the music, we found we could pull together in the same direction and really make things happen.

At the end of the day it was the pleasure taken in finding our Magic Moments which drove us on. Sharing them with an audience was an added bonus.

After a couple of gigs LMC could take no more, and we were banned. For some reason we were to come across this problem a few times on our travels. It was time to move on, so the workshops switched to Saturdays.

First at Manod studios, courtesy of Community Music, and then at the fabled Firehouse in Kentish Town, the Saturday workshops continued for over three years. An incredible flow of musicians from all kinds of backgrounds passed through the doors of a very informal session. Sometimes there would just be a few of us, the old timers taking the opportunity to delve into the Telepathic waves flying thick and fast. Other times the sessions would be a flood of faces, old friends and new. You couldn�t turn for connections being made, partnerships blossoming, flashes of inspiration, even bands forming before our very eyes.

T.M.C. was party to many EVENTS. Gigs, raves, parties, clubs, pubs, recordings and always the Saturday T.M.C. Open Music Workshops. They were not always �T.M.C.� the band! There was T-Funk, the Dex Brammer project, Phunklawds, Justuna, the Corsican Brothers, and many incarnations and line-ups of T.M.C. Sometimes the sets were well rehearsed. Other times improvised from our growing catalogue of tunes. Always on the edge of chaos drawing inspiration from the void.

Times change and we all move on. That was all up to ten years ago now. But one thing held true to now... T.M.C. never went away. By staying fluid we never disbanded, indeed had never really existed. A gig here, a jam there. The odd recording project such as �Music Of The Spheres�, or the key involvement of T.M.C. members in other realms; Red Ninja, for example (see LOOPMASTER T).

We�re still in regular creative contact, all involved in some serious groove engineering and digital desecration of dated dogmas. While T.M.C. may have been dormant as a �thing�, it has always been with us as an idea. Somehow guiding us in the things we do, so that we can�t help but spread the ways by what we contribute. In many ways the campaign is better served by us spreading our wings.

The ideas we believe in are not unique discoveries of our own. We don�t claim ownership of the ethic which is as old as the stars and craggier than the hills. Countless wise folk, philosophies and beliefs have explored the inner workings of our selves. For time immemorial we have expressed these truths not with clumsy prose but rhythm, harmony and melody. Music is a language which speaks across tongues.

�El Universo es Musica�.

So what now with T.M.C.? Well here we are in cyberspace. If you found yourself here as if by coincidence, then maybe it was meant to be. If you�ve got this far with this text then you must be half way interested, so we have communicated. If you have a passion for music, and believe that there is more to it than mass produced pap-music for the ignorant masses, then you are tuning in to our wavelength. You probably recognize what we are doing in your own work... you were doing this ages ago and you didn�t get it from us! True.. we�re all part of something much bigger than what we see and what we hear. So we want to hear from you. How do we take this thing to the next level?.