Memories of Mick

[Blemished]

Amidst the shock and sadness of Mick's passing, it would be really good to celebrate his life too and the impact he had on us all. Unfortunately I never met Mick nor had the chance to see him perform live, but I'm sure many of you did and have some nice stories, particularly given his reputation of being a very funny guy!


In my case, I am one of the many people who were inspired to try and learn the fretless bass in a doomed attempt to try and replicate that amazing sound. As a young lad I think I saved up money for about two years before I was able to go to the local music shop and buy a second-hand fretless - which was all wood, so at least looked at bit like one of Mick's famous Wal basses!

And what was really thrilling was that the shop guy demonstrating it suddenly and unprompted played a Mick-like riff and said 'and you can play it like this if you want to sound like Mick Karn'. Cue some inane grinning on my part. Of course I got nowhere near Mick's sound, but do remember the excitement at learning to mimic those harmonics and harmonic slides on Sons of Pioneers, Blackwater and the like...not sure how to describe them, but you know it when you hear it!

Other than that I was always remember the sheer thrill of hearing those awesome basslines for the first time...the brilliant craziness of Dalis Car; the "heads we're dancing' track with Kate Bush; playing Bestial Cluster for the first time - the first release for six-odd years at the time; hearing the Virgin Videos 'ident' and realising that it just had to be Mick playing the bass...to find your own, truly unique sound in the way Mick did is such an achievement. He was a true original and it's been an absolute privilege to have been along for the ride.

[Blemished]

Maybe this was too soon - please forgive me if so.

But I agree with Steve Jansen's comments about celebrating Mick's wonderful life. It would be good to hear how he made his mark on all of us.

[Silver Moon]

Oh I completely agree!

I made the banner above to celebrate his life. I have him from his youngest to the most recent pictures. I also tried to put in as much as I could of his talents... Music, sculpture, culinary, fashion... I also made the background, though it's hard to see, a picture of a sunset taken in Cyprus. Hopefully more folks will reply to your thread when they are comfortable.

On the subject of Culinary... I know he ran the 'Penguin Cafe' for a while, but I wasn't able to find many pictures of it. Does anyone have any pictures of the cafe? Did anyone ever go there in person? It's so cool he loved cooking, I do too. Something that I don't think he had in common with the other guys!

Rest in peace, Mick Karn... he left an awesome legacy, and there will never, ever be another one like him.

-K

[karnsculpture]

This page includes a picture of the cafe now - not sure if it will have changed that much:

http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/about_us/spaces.shtml

[MrNormall]

The Electricity Club (http://www.electricity-club.co.uk) interviewed me a month ago about my "amazing adventures". One of the questions was "Tell me a funny story about one of your meetings" and I told about meeting Mick Karn and Steve Jansen. I don't know if it's funny but you can read it here anyway: http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/html/mrnormall.html