And I have five leads:
- Some access to previously privileged knowledge: the name and phone number of his agent from someone who read this blog and has a big red book for agents of the rich and famous.
- A two-degrees connection from someone I work with, perhaps
- A possible two-degree connection from noted flaneur and esotericist Dan Hill.
- A tenuous four-degree connection from Kim P.´
- A tantalising IM me” from Euan.
Some promising stuff, and a lot of background material from others in comments – thanks!
For some reason phoning his agent seems like cheating, and certainly not the stuff that social network visionquests are made of. Plenty of room still for your suggestions…
Petafloptimism 
To clarify – I was with two people who know him an hour after reading your post!
Which is fairer? The processes involved in finding a lawyer (who will charge you a squillion pounds to tell you the truth) or a plumber (who will charge you a third of a squillion pounds, to tell you a third of the truth). That’s one of the dillemas of formal vs. informal models of association.
If you phone Brian Eno’s agent, you will get authentic Eno at market rate; if you network your way to Brian Eno, you’ll get dodgy Eno at knock-down rate. But then given the man speaks nonsense anyway, it’s not much of a choice.
he’s a friend of a friend
I swear I saw him down the Easton, with Alexander McQueen, enjoying one of their famous salads… 😉
He’s a GBN-type, right? So I reckon you could email Stewart Brand at sbb@well.com and ask him.
He might still be in Cannes, drinking cocktail with Peter Gabriel.
Might be a long shot but you could track him down via location and date shown in News reports like this one…
He might still be in Cannes, drinking cocktails with Peter Gabriel.
Might be a long shot but you could track him down via location and date shown in News reports like this one…
http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2004/01/26/digital_manifesto/
Esotericist?! Why I oudda…! I shall listen to Beyonce all day to counter this foul slur.
(actually I’m rather enjoying it)
My possible connection was via the author/musician David Toop, who I reckon knew him. In a bizarre coincidence (which Mr. S Johnson and Mr. J Raban know happens in more than just Victorian novels?), I was actually with Mr. Toop at a gallery opening on Cork St. that very same evening for the musician/artist Paul Schutze, who probably also knows Brian Eno (er, Cork St? Gallery opening? What was I saying about not being an esotericist?! Oops. Honestly, it’s my first one for years!)
What’s odd though is that – even at one degree of connection – Brian Eno would have absolutely no idea that I existed, nor would necessarily feel any particularly strong connection with me via Toop. I wouldn’t have thought there’d be much actual meaningful connection, given a) the sheer number of strong connections those 2 particular human-shaped nodes have, and b) the incredible number of weak connections Eno would have to deal with by virtue of being, er, Brian Eno i.e. an extremely important famous person. I think that does skew things such that Eno’s suggestion of a Mongolian goatherd makes for an interesting alternative experiment. Off you go, Matt!
Don’t be silly – try yell.com
Did you really get Brian Eno’s agent contact? Thing is I work for a Brazilian publisher who’s interested in “Oblique Strategies”. Do you think you can send ne his contact or at least his name?