the mighty and frankly disturbed meshmass played at ZU STUDIOS in lewes, england last night (and this morning). ZU is part of the complex of abandoned warehouses and factory sites in the so-called 'phoenix quarter', which was once lewes' industrial estate. now of course there is no industry in lewes apart from retail outlets and a bit of distribution, the harveys' brewery and a builder's merchant or two. it should have been easy, of course for meshmass to play there since they live within honking distance, but despite having just passed its MOT the little van's power steering failed on the way there and the resultant vehicle was less easy to steer than an old volvo, which is to say that it was like wrestling a water bison round corners using the horns. (a thing i do frequently but only in dreams). nevertheless we got there at about half-past eight and poor richard had to lumber all the stuff in. we set up when the very friendly and positive martin had cleared us a bit of space in the chill-out room and erected a table for us, and then we sat around talking for a bit. at about 10:30 martin told us the dj hadn't turned up and asked us to play early (we were booked to play our usual 2 hours from midnight). so we did, and played for about an hour. around about midnight we started again, and this time played for the allotted period or even probably a bit more. all in all it went very well. ZU was occupied as usual - packed, indeed - by indescribable people, mostly young, dressed up in unlikely costumes and enjoying themselves. this shouldn't be allowed and probably isn't. indeed, so popular is ZU that the developers Santon who have ownership of the site are determined to evict them, raze the area to the ground and build nasty new dwellings all over it to sell to people from London and probably chinese russian arabs as well on the hong-kong property investment market. this is how creativity is supported in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. anyway, MESHMASS are delighted to have played there, it is an exciting and entirely worthwhile place run by dedicated people with a real understanding of their audience and their culture. we even have a recording of the event which extends over 3 and a quarter hours.... more if you count the soundcheck. subscribers may get to hear more of this recording......