{"id":180424,"date":"2026-09-01T22:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/?p=180424"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:06:35","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bat-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2026\/09\/01\/thoughts-from-the-bat-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from the Bat cave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Making music with other humans is what is missing for me. That is why working with the Invisibles is so important even though we hardly gig we are at least interacting and creating something. If I needed money I would do IT in some aspect but frankly I don&#8217;t. If i was gigging regularly I would get a new car to cart people and gear around in but no gigs means no point. I could pay about \u00a3150 a month to get a decent motor.  People that used to offer me gigs don&#8217;t anymore as they cant get anything. Looking back over the last 4 years my live music performances have really just withered away to nothing relatively speaking. That&#8217;s got me very depressed too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/soundcloud%253Atracks%253A2391260886&#038;color=%2332202c&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/dianastone\" title=\"Diana Stones Glasscage\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Diana Stones Glasscage<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/dianastone\/nothing-to-see-here-nothings\" title=\"Nothing To See Here Nothings Changed\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\">Nothing To See Here Nothings Changed<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s happening?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have talked to several people about the not being able to find people to work with problem. They all say the same thing nobody is interested. I am in touch with a really good percussionist\/drummer (all styles and has worked with allsorts) and it seems people just cant be arsed he said. You get in touch you chat and then they just don&#8217;t follow through? BTW its not an age thing or a trans thing as you don&#8217;t disclose that and it seems to affect every age group.<br><br>Out of a working life of nearly 55 years paying my stamp as they used to call it from the age of 15 I really only earned decent money for about 8 years out of the 13 at the Civil service. Most of my life I have never had an much of an income and by my standards I am wealthy on my 2 pensions.. I could buy more instruments or a car of course. But money was never a motivation for anything for me.I know a lot of creatives from artists to alsorts who basically managed to buy a home and then it all becomes irrelevant if you have enough to live on. I have accrued money from music (gigs plus PRS\/PPL). <br><br>There&#8217;s no fix for this other than meeting a musician\/creative type that&#8217;s up for treading the boards in a room with breathing, possibly drunken and smelly, shouty people \u2665 The thing is working with anyone on music requires engagement and some sort of comment and most people I meet seem to be poseurs and dilitantys. Music that I have written and recorded is played all around the world and it earns me a little money every year and so If I never played another payed gig that doesn&#8217;t really change my status or my history. <br><br>I am not rejecting anyone other than on grounds of total lack of ability by which I mean cant sing in tune or play in time and sadly there are a lot of those. You can be an unpaid amatuer and totally brilliant and in the case of folk music particularly perhaps played publically a lot but bit mostly not for a fee. The main difference between Musicians and pros is one gets paid for what they do. Its only at the top with sight reading session and orchestral players that there is a very,very high standard but a lot of of pros don&#8217;t have that ability in the rock and pop world. Jazz guys usually have the technique and theory but never get paid for anything except teaching usually. I am not chasing paid work I am looking for people that want make music and maybe be a bit creative.If no one&#8217;s interested I will just go further into promoting on line with video and so forth. I do not intend to stop playing and creating by choice. <br><br><strong>&#8220;How would your personal identity as &#8221; professional musician &#8221; be impacted by a choice of &#8221; no financial aspect&#8221;?&#8221;<\/strong><br><br>A friend asked this question recently. Well I have as have many others always done some stuff for free to promote or genuine charity stuff. I use professional in the sense that they are  not an arsehole and can play  and have the motivation to do stuff.  It&#8217;s about attitude really. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I love my new couch, if only it was real.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azquotes.com\/quote\/267265\">There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azquotes.com\/author\/13382-William_Shakespeare\">William Shakespeare<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"604\" height=\"1012\" data-attachment-id=\"180441\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2026\/09\/01\/thoughts-from-the-bat-cave\/always-been-a-dancer\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?fit=1232%2C2064&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1232,2064\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Always been a dancer\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?fit=604%2C1012&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer-611x1024.jpg?resize=604%2C1012&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-180441\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.5966826380199591;width:236px;height:auto\" role=\"none\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?resize=611%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 611w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?resize=179%2C300&amp;ssl=1 179w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?resize=768%2C1287&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?resize=917%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 917w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?resize=1222%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1222w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Always-been-a-dancer.jpg?w=1232&amp;ssl=1 1232w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(132deg,rgba(233,139,41,1) 0%,rgba(238,179,95,1) 100%)\">Its September. It was always a favorite month of mine.<br> I hope for a  few good things may happen with the change of season. rather than just the colour of the leaves. Hope springs infernal and the devil makes work for idle minds. Well I have I confess I have found it so quite often. <br>I have shot a few arrows in to the blue these past few  days and I hope that one will find the gold perchance.  The business of finding new people for musical ventures is something I have not done for many years.  So I need to use my  best  resource management head to see what I can make of it all and preferably not a mess. <br><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Making music with other humans is what is missing for me. That is why working with the Invisibles is so important even though we hardly gig we are at least interacting and creating something. If I needed money I would do IT in some aspect but frankly I don&#8217;t. If i was gigging regularly I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2026\/09\/01\/thoughts-from-the-bat-cave\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Thoughts from the Bat cave<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":180444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NRDR-KW4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61689,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2016\/11\/29\/sniffles-and-sneezes-spread-diseases\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":0},"title":"Sniffles and sneezes spread diseases","author":"diana Stone","date":"November 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems to be be my fate\u00a0to average about 2 colds a year. I got through 3 gigs at the weekend with one and I thought it was drying up only for it to reassert itself on Monday. My significant other woke me at about 4.00 am to to tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Musings&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":496,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2009\/10\/25\/may-you-live-in-interesting-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":1},"title":"May you live in interesting times","author":"diana Stone","date":"October 25, 2009","format":"gallery","excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I played two gigs this weekend: at Charlotte St Blues on Friday with Elephant Shelf in front of quite a big crowd and at the Garibaldi in St Alban's as half of the Delta Ladies.\u00c2\u00a0 Both gigs went really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/delta-ladies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Elephant Shelf at Charlotte Street Blues","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Shelf-at-the-Street-web-1024x682.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Shelf-at-the-Street-web-1024x682.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Shelf-at-the-Street-web-1024x682.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2012\/01\/11\/carry-on-and-keep-calm\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":2},"title":"Carry on and keep calm","author":"diana Stone","date":"January 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have just about got over Christmas. We were back in the studio in Burnham on Crouch yesterday and I put some accordion on one of the more rootsy tracks, which seemed to work OK.So I shall be doing a bit more of that in future though Phil Cunningham will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/delta-ladies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1363,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2012\/04\/19\/april-2012-so-far\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":3},"title":"April 2012 So far","author":"diana Stone","date":"April 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Not too bad a month so far a few good gigs and the sun is shining a little, so I am making the effort to take a little more exercise to help ease the back problems and stuff. Touching wood my back seems capable of withstanding regular accordion playing now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/history\/whatever\/delta-ladies-whatever\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1197,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2012\/01\/23\/small-worlds-and-village-pubs\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":4},"title":"Small worlds and village pubs","author":"diana Stone","date":"January 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This week has been a more of the same kind of week. One Band gig in Hitchin at a pub that has a regular blues night and a duo gig in a little Village called Flamstead at a very nice village pub which has quite a good restaurant. Both gigs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/history\/whatever\/delta-ladies-whatever\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/DSCF0048.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2010\/05\/19\/enjoying-the-sun-in-the-south-of-france-getting-ready-for-some-gigs\/","url_meta":{"origin":180424,"position":5},"title":"Enjoying the sun in the south of france getting ready for some gigs","author":"diana Stone","date":"May 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Delta Ladies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Delta Ladies","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/delta-ladies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Delta lady on Holiday","src":"https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 1x, https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 1.5x, https:\/\/scontent.flhr3-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/32015_410714011128_529614_n.jpg?oh=025c53e4c5111446dc087d3de6063e38&oe=5AE832BB 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/golden_hour_sunset.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180424"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180457,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180424\/revisions\/180457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}