Teeth

Following my friend Wolfgang's root canal torture a fortnight ago, it's my turn to visit the dentist - ostensibly for a check-up but as it happens I've got some pain in a rear molar. I hate dentists. The smell, the equipment, the injections, the drills, the ache of having your mouth stretched open for ages, the taste of the mouth-wash, the waiting, the cost... Like Bowie for most of his life, I've never been one for whiteness and uniformity at all costs - the Hollywood smile. In fact I don't (somehow can't) show my teeth when I smile. My lips cover them. So my teeth are OK, not great, not bad. Average perhaps. I ate a lot of sweets in my youth so I've got a lot of fillings. My new dentist asks if I grind my them in my sleep as they're quite low in my gums. I've no idea. I mean, I'm asleep.

T is for...

Plenty of good Ts...

• Tangerine Dream
• Throbbing Gristle
• Simon Fisher Turner
• Talk Talk
• Talking Heads
• Traffic
• To Rococo Rot
• This Heat
• Masami Tsuchiya
• Tristeza.

The 70s were my formative years and Tangerine Dream were a favoured soundtrack to a sizeable chunk of it, especially Zeit, Phaedra, Rubycon and Ricochet. I still kick myself for not attending their first UK concert which bizarrely turned out to be in my home town of Chichester in 1974, although to be fair I was only 13. They're rubbish now of course.

Throbbing Gristle were another great (late) 70s influence. If TD used electronics for dreams, TG used them for nightmares. I was lucky enough to see them three times in 1979-81... which was the same time I got heavily into This Heat. Simon Fisher Turner is a bit of an unsung hero. From teen idol & protege of Jonathan King, he went on to work with The The, provide soundtracks for several Jarman films and has released around 20 other largely instrumental albums on myriad labels. I had the pleasure of inviting him to Tokyo for a project several years ago, as part of which he played a small concert in our office which still ranks as one of the best gigs I've ever witnessed.

Traffic were occasionally brilliant. My elder brother played me Mr Fantasy when I was about 10 and I live it now as much as I did then. In my humble opinion Talking Heads are a tad over-rated, but Remain in Light isn't. Talk Talk were hugely underrated and split too soon.

Former Ippu Do frontman Masami Tsuchiya has released several solo albums but Rice Music (1982), is the one, featuring Sakamoto, Bill Nelson, Percy Jones, Mick Karn and others. To Rococo Rot are one of the best of the 90s crop of post-Krautrock bands. I remember hearing them for the first time in the tiny Rough Trade shop in Neal's Yard. Pretty much all their albums are great. And then there's Tisteza, a great Californian post-rock band.

And the rest: The Teardrop Explodes, Tackhead, Tears For Fears, 10cc, Telex, Test Dept, The The (especially Soul Mining), This Mortal Coil, Tracy Thorn, Throwing Muses, Asmus Tietchens, Tom Tom Club, Laurent Thibault, T.Rex, 23 Skidoo, Two Daughters, Tindersticks, Amon Tobin, Tomorrowland, David Toop, Rafael Toral, Tortoise, Towering Inferno, John Tavener, David Tudor, Tarwater, Techno Animal, Transglobal Underground, Travis, Tricky, Television (if only for Marquee Moon), Third Eye Foundation, Richard Thompson, T-Power, Two Lone Swordsmen, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, They Might Be Giants, and (guilty pleasures) Thin Lizzy and Thompson Twins. And a few more Japanese: Yukihiro Takahashi, Towa Tei, Nobukazu Takemura, and Satoshi Tomiee; though try as I might I could never get into Tomita.

Jetlag & teabags

Three films (Monsters, Cars and Made in Dagenham), half a book and 2 hours sleep later, I'm back in Beijing. Drop suitcase off at home and into work after lunch. Lots to catch up on but jetlag kicks in and I'm back home by 6pm, struggling to read bedtime stories. Liz pleased with the ton of stuff from Boots, Sunday papers, magazines, and 320 Yorkshire tea bags. The latter fail, however, to keep me awake beyond 10pm.

Terminal shopping

Long journey back 'home'. Heathrow is the strangest of places. Its five terminals are like separate towns within a sprawling conurbation, highlighted by shopping malls, car parks and slipways. J G Ballard, who lived in its hinterland, was fascinated by it. Normally I fly in & out of T3 which creaks & groans under the weight of passengers, but today I'm in T5, which opened three years ago to the day. I thought T3 had a big shopping mall but it's got nothing on T5. It's a license to print money: thousands and thousands of captive customers with time & money on their hands. I pass on the Prada and Rolex but usually end up buying a (plastic) bottle of Gordon's and some chocs, even if I've no idea whether they're actually any cheaper than 'outside'.

Chichester get-together

Arrived in Chichester last night with mum of course already here but also Patrick, Tricia & Catherine. Mary & Nick and Andrew, Florence & Sophie arrived lunchtime. The weather continues to be fabulous so we lunch in the garden - in March! Great to catch up with everyone, although shame Sally couldn't make it (minding the shop). Pleasant walk into town late afternoon. I could quite happily live here again, 'though a 2hr commute to London is off-putting to say the least. Mum will be 84 in a fortnight, Andrew just turned 60, Mary will be, ahem, fiftysomething next week and Patrick is 48. Of all these, I find Andrew's 60 the hardest to believe. How did that happen? In any case, he looks ten years younger.

Christian Marclay's Clock

Final day of meetings. I totted them up and it came to 28 over the course of this week. If that required acute time management then spare a thought for Christian Marclay whose Clock film at the Hayward Gallery British Art Show 7 beggars belief. I think it's already been shown in Nottingham and at White Cube so this is probably old hat but bear with me... Basically, it’s a 24-hour film made up of thousands of clips showing scenes from films which have clocks or watches as part of the story or are simply shown in the background. So the entire composite movie is like a giant clock, visibly progressesing if not second-by-second (it's not that anal!), then certainly minute-by minute. The editing must have taken forever. You can see a bit of it here. The last time I saw a Marclay piece was in Tokyo when he was Swiss. Though he was actually born in California. Maybe in a few years he'll be Chinese? Anyway, fabulous work.

Lights out for Whitehall and Elizabeth Taylor

More meetings, but mostly external - which was just as well as there was a big powercut this morning which knocked out the whole of British Council HQ and Whitehall. Can't believe this fabulous weather: everyone's out on the streets soaking up the sunshine. Some in shorts. Nice evening down the pub in suburban Sudbury Hill with Kate, Nick & Emily, where I learned that Elizabeth Taylor has just died, aged 79. Actually, she didn't die in Sudbury HillI, let alone the pub (though she liked her drink did Liz)... probably more likely Beverly Hills. I thought she was older. It seems she was around forever without actually starring in anything.