I made video for Dinosaur Skull using children’s drawings that the band supplied.
Squirrel’s Song by Dinosaur Skull 2020.
Drawings by George Leggatt, RB, Astra and Ramona Giles, Regan Conkle, Koto Yamamoto, Kei Ridolfo-Takahashi, Annabelle Faulkner, Alex and Oscar Gatti, Amy and Joe Wenn.
Guest star is Cherry the Squirrel.
Video artworking and editing by Lorna Tiefholz.
I panic bought furry leggings and fluffy slippers at the start of Lockdown 2 so that i would be ready for the winter. I look horrible in this outfit but I don’t care because it is warm. I don’t want to pay to have the heating on all day so I wear warm clothes while I work from home. I wear a rotation of tops so on daily skype meetings it looks like I change my clothes.
When ‘our song’ comes on the radio we have a dance. We’ve made our own dance routine. I doubt that we would win Strictly with it, but it’s fun to do and when the pub opens we will do it at the pub disco. (‘Our song’ changes depending on the BBC 6 music radio playlist, currently it is Juniore Un Jour Ou L’Autre)
Mogwai played an online gig in our living room. It was our first online gig. It was great. We got the screen and projector out for it and hooked up the sound to the stereo. In between each song I clapped and Gav whooped.
the pros of online gigs – no one talked through it, no queue for the bar or toilets, I wore my PJs, no journey home afterwards.
the cons of online gigs – the atmospehere wasn’t as great and it wasn’t as loud as it should be (I’ve got upstairs neighbours so can’t put the sound on as loud as a usual Mogwai concert)
Things that we get up to in Lockdown 3.
Lyric zine for a Rabies Babies song about a messy night out.
During the first lockdown I made a video for my band.
Illustrated lyrics for a zine to go with a song that I wrote about how men in punk bands seem to be able to get away with sexual assault.
I also used the drawings to make a lyric video for the song.
I’m a bit late putting this one up… my favourite Glastonbury for years.
21 May: Foggy on Shetland, it was difficult to see which was a puffin and which was a seagull (Gav kept calling them pigeons)
22 May: Pyjamas and cleaning day followed by a bad choice of film (i’m barred from picking a film for a while)
23 May: Woke up to good news!
24 May: A Very British Eid.
25 May: Gardening Day
26 May: Everyone is angry about Dominic Cummings, Gove says that he’s also gone for a drive to test his eyesight. Does anyone believe that our government is doing a good job?
27 May: Surely NO ONE can still believe that Johnson is a good leader?
28 May: Doctors protest outside Downing Street while the Tory MPs who have shafted them ‘clap for the NHS’. The new ‘Track & Trace’ app is launched, but doesn’t work. Matt Hancock laughs on TV.
29 May: The final Trunk Of Punk from Craig Charles on 6 Music
30 May: A rocket went to space and I didn’t do pilates.
31 May: Sushi!
1 June: Lockown eases. The end of this Corona Diary. The book has run out of pages.
11 May: We watched Dirty Dancing and decided that we should practice our dirty dancing moves in case they ever made a follow up film and needed some new stars for the film. We were not feeling Alert, but we tried to Stay Alert.
12 May: Gav had the lockdown blues, Damaged Goods did a mail out about the Rabies Babies record, which was sort of sad because I am really missing having gigs and band practices. We went to bed early and listened to Gideon Coe’s show on 6music.
13 May: Work stuff.
14 May: I had to cycle in to work to take my back up.
15 & 16 May: ill again
17 May: A bit better, did cleaning (of me and the flat) and we tested out the inks for the screenprinted sleeve for the Rabies Babies record.
18 May: Slow internet and social distancing visitors.
19 May: Puffins!
20 May: The contrails are back ruining the sky.
I’ve started making a lyric zine for the new Rabies Babies record. All of the band members are illustrating songs, here’s a sneak preview of one that i’m doing….
The last week has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. I’ve felt sad and grumpy, then was ill for a couple of days and then felt very angry at our government and then I was grumpy again and today I feel OK again.
The absolutely best thing about this week was coming across the Shetland Islands Cliff Cam 3. Every evening we watch the puffins. It is the highlight of the day.
It was a lot more fun than i expected… we danced til 2am.
The week was tough. The reality of working from home has hit. We are at home, in a crisis, trying to work. Lots of my colleagues are furloughed and the ones left are trying to keep it together. It sucked last week, I hope that this week is easier.
Monday blues. I just couldn’t concentrate on work.
Gardening and family skype.
Saturday 4th April.
I got really bored with lockdown so i pretended that it was Christmas Day. We drank weird drinks from the leftover xmas booze and we watched Planet of the Apes on telly.
Thursday and Friday.
How to play:
1. Write a list of things that you would like to buy, things that are usually always in the shops.
2. Go shopping.
3. See how many you can buy off the list.
I played with Gav. We both wrote lists and he went out to the shops. We both scored 8 out of 11 items.
Sunday to Wednesday. I had a wobble on Tuesday. I read on Twitter that we are not working from home, we are at home in a crisis, trying to work.
On Wednesday we invented Lockdown Shopping Bingo, which makes shopping more fun.
I’m doing a Corona lock down diary to help me stay sane and so I can remember what me and Gav got up to. We’re eating better than ever because there’s so much time to cook meals and I think that the food in my Brexit box will last another few weeks (IÂ panic bought my tins and pasta two years ago when my biggest fear was Brexit), when the Brexit box is empty then the memory of these nice meals might be comforting, already I am rationing the Cheddar biscuits.
Last year I saw Juniore play at the 100 club, i did this drawing and posted it on twitter. The band saw it and asked if they could use it on a postcard to be included in the vinyl release of their fab new album Un Deux Trois.
gigs and pencils 