” The bulky camera was about the size of a large shoebox,” recalls Eno. “I’d never really thought much about video, and found most ‘video art’ completely unmemorable, but the prospect of actually owning a video camera was at that time quite exotic.” In 2000, Eno’s large-scale projected installation Sonic Boom was shown at the Hayward Gallery, but otherwise he has been largely ignored. “I am firmly in the ‘musician’ box here, and people [in the art world] are a little disturbed that I might wear two hats – it smacks of dilettantism, they think. The rest of Europe doesn’t seem to have that compartmentalising mentality, but being a rock musician and a serious artist is regarded with some suspicion, especially in the UK. If you are a musician, you can’t be taken seriously as a visual artist and vice versa. “It is an odd prejudice and very alien to me as I have always worked visually and musically.

Neither my visual nor my musical directions would have taken the shape they did without each other. I make no distinction between the development of my visual and musical output as the two have been growing together, feeding and informing the other.” Watching the piece’s morphing images is hypnotic – and slow. “People ended up going round the gallery in Tokyo and Milan earlier this year several times to check,” says Eno. “It slows you down to its own pace.” It also creates an experiencebetween painting and music. ” We are used to the idea of paintings being still and music moving. When I started making ambient music, I was trying to make a type of music that approached the condition of painting – that approached a sort of stillness,” he says.

“Now I am doing the obverse of that: trying to make paintings that behave a little like music… I don’t have a clear picture of the finished piece (if indeed the piece ever ends), but sit back and see how they build and evolve.” at The Big Chill, Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire, 4-6 August ( www.bigchill ); the software for ‘77 Million Paintings’ will be available later this summer on All Saints Records/Wordsalad. John Reid’s decision to drop the planned merger of Britain’s police forces may yet turn into the most expensive U-turn in modern political history. A fortnight back, the Home Secretary abandoned Charles Clarke’s high-profile scheme to reduce the number of constabularies from 43 to 24.
At first, Reid’s move was welcomed, since all but two of the affected forces had opposed the mergers Now, however, there turns out to be a catch.

Senior policemen are holding the Home Office liable for bureaucratic costs involved with preparing for – and fighting against – the proposed changes And the expense will run to millions of pounds. Last week, North Wales Police Authority said they plan to bill the Government £375,000. Now Yorkshire’s four police forces are weighing in with an invoice estimated locally at £500,000. “We are looking to bid for costs incurred during the process, and also setting up a joint committee,” Mark Burns-Williamson, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Authority, told me yesterday “I don’t know where the £500,000 figure came from. It could actually come to more than that over the four Yorkshire forces. I’ve sent a letter to the police minister and I’m sure that other forces will be submitting similar claims.” If mirrored across the country, the total cost of Reid’s U-turn could top £10m. Says the Home Office: “We’ll consider any cases from police forces, but at the moment we can’t comment on them.” Tough guy Ray finds reasons to forgive In 2004, Ray Winstone tore up his West Ham season ticket, in protest against the newly relegated club’s directors “I’m not going to give the directors my money,” he claimed.

” I’ll spend money on anything, but I won’t give it to them.” Strangely, the tough-guy actor, is about to perform a volte face, and join the prawn sandwich brigade. “I’ve bought a box there, so all the family can go and watch,” he tells me. “I had a chat to the board, and they were willing to accept they made some mistakes. That was good enough for me.” Winstone, who was speaking at the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup polo finals at Cowdray Park, sponsored by Audi, forgot to mention another pertinent point. West Ham returned to the Premiership last year, and also reached the FA Cup final.