DX7 and 'Kalimotxo'

In 1986, I formed a band with a keyboard player called Simon Foster. That summer, we spent a lot of time at his house, playing music and writing songs, while films played silently on his TV. (This being the mid-eighties, our choices would have included 'Highlander', 'Terminator', and other mostly sci-fi movies.)

Amongst the equipment Simon owned was a Yamaha DX7, pretty much the first of the digital synthesisers and it used FM synthesis to generate sounds. It was both horrible to program and I hated its sounds, which were ubiquitous across the charts for a while.

So, this afternoon, thirty-five years later, I had some reservations about today's college lesson, which I attended after an early dash north from Bath. However, thanks to the excellent tutor, Yoss, I found that actually there is a lot to love about FM synthesis after all, so it was quite a transformative day for me!

After the lesson, a few of us went down to the New Oxford, which is pretty much next door to SEM, and I had a couple of beers before the Minx came along and we popped across the square to Porta for dinner.

When we'd finished, Yoss and a couple of the others were still sat outside the pub, including a guy called Elliot, who has just joined the class. I'm really warming to him: he's a nice guy, with an interesting peripatetic history. Anyway, we joined them for what I think was supposed to be one drink and Elliot told us about a beverage that is popular (I think) in southern Europe called a 'Kalimotxo', which is red wine and coca cola. I know.

Anyway, possibly because of the Minx's 'just say yes' philosophy, we ended ordering a round of this concoction. It was, at least, better in practice than principle. Just!

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Reading: 'Meet Matilda, Rocket Builder' by Dom Conlon.