Finished..but not finished

Well that, I think, is the last of the vocal recordings. That is unless someone finds a really crummy bit of singing that needs redoing... The next step, and a crucial one, is the mixing which will take place in Norfolk by the sea so I just have to wait patiently for songs to come flying down the internettery for me to hear.

It seems very strange and I felt sort of flat when Tim and Alistair left yesterday. But there is bound to be something interesting and different that will turn up..

For instance, I have just sung a song for Sand Snowman (I hope he likes it!) and I will be singing something for the Lunar Dunes in January which will be different again.

And there will be stuff in between I expect..

Flower and Whizzy are asleep. They have just moved an ear each.

Hair,Headphones and a Dog

Picture the scene: a not-very-big-but-big-enough room, containing, amongst other things, a sofa, an armchair and a few other sittables.Plus desk,tables, bookcases, shelves and a piano.

The laptop is on a trolley, Alistair is in charge of the recordings. There is one large dog (Whizzy) who has crept onto the sofa and is surrounding Alistair with legs and paws. Tim is sitting in the armchair, headphones on and listening. There are headphone wires all over the floor and the other large dog (Flower)has chosen to lay at Tim's feet, on top of all the wires which are busily tangling themselves round her paws. I am standing the other side of Flower behind a microphone stand whose legs are also busily being entangled by more bits of wire. All is well and I am re-recording some bits for the album.

I am wearing a pair of headphones that are working perfectly, but are slightly the worse for wear and keep slipping off my head, so I am shoving them back on my head again, not realising that my hair is gradually getting caught in the adjustable side of the headphone. It is becoming more and more tangled as I am trying to untangle it. At the same time Flower decides to get up and move taking the headphone wire with her. I am, by now, giggling insanely, crawling around the floor trying to untangle Flower's paws from the wires while trying not to have my hair pulled out as I am dragged further and further around the room.
Eventually someone took pity on me and untangled my hair, while I hung on to Flower's collar, stopping her from going anywhere while I untangled her feet. Little by little, calm returned to the Pink Room. And we continued with the recordings.

Well it was quite funny while it was happening. And then we had a cup of tea...

Photos and Fireworks

One of the things I find really difficult is having my photo taken. The lovely Nick Jones has been here twice now to take some pictures for all the things I am apparently going to need pictures for.

The first time he came we went to the baby wood and took lots of pictures amongst the trees, with the dogs, and in the garden. He even let me nonchalantly lean all over his Harley Davidson motor bike thing. Very shiny it was. And everything looked fantastic. Except me. Nobody's fault. Just that I was not comfortable..

So today he came here again and took more photos, with my harp and apples and things. These may possibly turn out to be better. It was quite a giggle anyway. And Nick said it was good practice....


It's raining and there are fireworks tonight. The village was having it's annual bonfire and fireworks display. I was wondering how Whizzy and Flower would behave, but apart from a couple of twitches they stayed asleep. Good! Tiggy used to dribble on me in stark fear and it was very distressing that I couldn't calm her.

What else? More contributions for the album are arriving and the demos are getting better and better and in a short while Tim and Alistair will come here to do the final vocal re-records and will record Simon Nicol, Jacqui McShee and Sanchia Pattinson. And then....and then... it'll be nearly finished. Coo.

I Am Continually Bemused...

....by the bits of technology that work perfectly well and then stop. The counter on this site for instance. Happily ticking away to itself counting things and then ptoof! gone!!! I didn't tell it to go or throw it away, it just went and I can't figure out how to make it appear again. I don't care...

The dogs are settling down nicely (on the sofas for preference) and they are beginning to learn the trick that all my previous greyhounds did. Which is the nose under the wrist at the moment when I have a cup of coffee in my hand. Thus causing a mess. I let Whizzy off the lead in the wood today. She walked at my heel for most of the time, and then was distracted by some bit of grass and had to gallop to catch up. It is one of the most wonderful sights to watch a greyhound run free, but you have to be fairly sure that they will stop and return to you...

The album continues to grow and expand and change and become more lovely. It is now having bits added to it by musical friends in different parts of the world and will be all the more lovely for it.

I was saddened by the recent deaths of Rick Wright and Brian Morrison, both were connected to my early musical life and were kind to me.

And it seems that I shall become a grandmother early next year! That'll be wonderful, I'd better start practising...... hooray!

That London Again and Dog Hair (lots of it)

Dear me. I keep forgetting to write this. Here we go.

London again. (How cosmopolitan can I get?) This time to Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush to see the extraordinarily fine No-man concert, their first for 15 years. Tim Bowness is one half and Steven Wilson the other, the music was wonderful, the hall was absolutely packed out and very very hot and I wish I'd found the little upstairs bit earlier, where I could actually see over the heads of all the dedicated fans. I am going to get taller one day. Alistair Murphy was there and it was nice to natter about various bits of songs

Jon the manager was supposed to have accompanied me, but a broken foot, plaster up to his knee and a lot of painkillers meant that he had to miss the gig. However I borrowed friend Fi's fiance, Nick, and whizzed to London and back with no problem. (Not very keen on trains and tubes on my own late at night!)

They did two more concerts in Holland and Germany and there are some youtubes of those, I believe.

And now for the other news. My new old greyhounds Whizzy (age10) and Flower (age 12) have now taken possession of the sofas and floor (and the spare bed if I were to let them ).. They are lovely and quite huge. End to end they measure about 8 ft long (if you added the tails it would be over 9ft (3m)) and they are beginning to show their temperaments. Flower is the me me me one that tries to lick everything, Whizzy is the more timid. She only has 4 teeth (the rest were rotten and had to be removed) and they are all at the front of her lower jaw, so her tongue falls out when she's asleep. But I think they are happy and content. They haven't seen much of the world so the fish in the pond in the wood opposite caused a major surprise and quite a lot of rusty barking from Flower. Whizzy wasn't bothered...
Photos when I get them.. In the meantime if you are interested in rehoming a greyhound (or two) here is one of the many excellent sites..

So there we are. More songs are being worked on, more lovely musicians are being roped in to play for me and plans are being laid for the album's future. I will believe it all when it happens..

That London....

Ah well. That wasn't so bad.. the internet and landline changeover was reasonably painless. In fact it was very painless, (there's asking for trouble...)

So I am still here in the world of the interknitted. Hooray! And only a week to go before the ladies come to live with me. Not exactly panicking, but it's quite a while since I've had two dogs at once and I can't remember how to do it!! It will be all right..

Anyway... feeling very cosmopolitan last week I trotted off to London late on Thursday afternoon on the train. I had been invited to the first birthday party of Dean St Studios where Tony Visconti recorded such people as the Moody Blues, Marc Bolan and David Bowie amongst many others, follow the link and read all about it... now managed by Jasmin Lee, it has become the place for people like Bullet For My Valentine, The Wombats and Sham 69 to record. If this sounds like an ad, well it is a bit... the sense of history is immense and tangible there..

Anyway it was great to see Jasmin and her mum Suzanne, longtime old friends, (my children used to play with Jasmin when they were small) but blimey! Soho is such a noisy crowded place!
Jon the Manager was with me and we were both battered by the racket and the sheer amount of people.. even in the pizza place we had a snack in, that was really noisy as well..

It was lovely to come home and getting off the train at my local station where it is quiet and peaceful.

Dear me, how very rural of me....

Now then what else....I was reading 'Leaving Home' by Garrison Keillor on the train. It was very hard not to chortle out loud. In fact I did a couple of times...

That'll do for now...Toodle pip!

Dogs (2)

Yes. Well. Exactly. And precisely.

Two dogs will be coming to live with me at the beginning of September. See? I told you I wouldn't last out a month. Well, I was getting lazy and not walking, haven't been in the little wood opposite for ages, don't need to, nothing needs to be walked twice a day.
So that's reason one.
Reason two is that I am just a sucker for a sob story. My daughter is a volunteer at at a greyhound sanctuary, (because she can't have a dog of her own and she needs her greyhound fix) and there, of course, are all these beautiful dogs waiting for homes.

Amongst them were some very elderly dogs. I always adopt old dogs because they are the ones that find it hardest to rehome, and there they were. Whizzy and Flower. Aged 10 and 12. Needing to be rehomed together. Well how could I resist? So I didn't...
I'll post pictures when they arrive...

Fairport's Cropredy Convention was, as usual, a wonderful thing... Accompanied by one of my sisters and two Cropredy (probably Festival) newbies, we had a great time giggling and nattering and listening to good music. The two newbies were Alistair and Tim, so we took advantage of them being here to record more vocals and some autoharpings for the album.
There was a lot of giggling, especially when I was trying to record a very sad bit of singing... I made them shut up after a bit, but only for a few minutes..

We did an interview with Sophie Parkes for Spiral Earth, it's not on the site yet, perhaps we were giggling too much.

This is tremendously lovely. A version of 'If I had a Ribbon Bow', with plasticene figures and 'Ken' dolls. Beautifully badly animated. I think it should win an award .'Treasure of the Year', something like that.

Right then. I'm about to change internet and landline providers. I expect it will all end in tears...

Dogs

Never again. I am not going to do it. They weave their way into your home and your heart. You trip over them, they steal the cake off the table and dribble in terror on your knees when it thunders. They take irrational dislikes to shiny floors and they cost an absolute fortune at the vets.

So I am going to lead a dog free life. I shall get into my car and drive off to exotic places like Norfolk and Sussex without having to make elaborate arrangements for the care of the ancient hound. I don't need to walk in the rain and snow and howling gales and blazing hot sun twice a day.

I don't need to hear the patter of claws on the tiled floor of the kitchen. I don't need to have the damp nose of a long furry muzzle thrust under my hand that's holding a cup of coffee, just because the owner of the nose wants to be stroked. I don't need to have the warmth of a dog leaning on me and making room on the couch just so that I can sit next to it and become a pillow for it's head.

I certainly don't need to have those big eyes watching as I eat the last few crumbs of a piece of toast, or indeed just watching me in case I look as though a walk might be in the offing. And I don't need to be always looking out for the paws that are just in the right place to trip me up.

Most of all I really don't think I need the silent companionship that is just there when I am sad and need comforting.

So I will stop looking at elderly greyhounds that need a home and trying to decide which of them might be my next beloved companion to join the ghosts of all my previous beloved companions.

Who do I think I am kidding? This is all lies. I expect I will last a month at the outside and then another one will be lying on the floor at my feet ready for me to fall over it...

Elderly Astral Folk Goddesses

Yup. That's me apparently. Top left. According to these extraordinary trading cards given away with Galactic Zoo Dossier last year.

So there I was on Wednesday, having a whale of a time trying to find a parking place outside the rheumatoid arthritis day clinic so that I could be infused with the bi-monthly dose of the fearsome drug that enables me to function like a (fairly) human being.

Another half an armful of blood taken to be tested to make sure I haven't fallen to bits in the last month and then sit in a chair and do all the crosswords in the paper while the infusion goes into my other hand, while trying not to spill the cup of coffee that the lovely nurses supply me with...

2 hours later and I am home again with a hole in my bruised wrist, but with joints that don't ache as much. So that's me set for another couple of months...

Now. Why have I written all this? Because as I understand it, it is being recommended that people with RA are only allowed to have one try at these fearsome anti-tnf drugs. And if they don't work then that's it. Goodbye.

It has taken 4 years of trying drug after drug to try to suppress this rotten disease that I have and three different anti-tnf drugs until I found one that actually let me be human again. So I think it is blimmin' unfair.

Right what else has this elderly cult goddess been up to this week? Cleaning out the shed. That's what. Full of stuff that needed to go to the tip. With the aid of someone else though. Half the stuff I couldn't lift or move. Feeble thing..There's lots of room in the shed now and I found a lot of things that I'd forgotten were there.

That'll do for now. I'm going to Womad with theNeff tomorrow and I shall hopefully be able to meet up with my lovely publisher Rob and have a natter..

Toodle-pip....

Articles and Interviews

I have put some articles and interviews up on my myspace site. In the photos bit...

www.myspace.com/judydyble

They are scans so I hope they will be readable..

They are from Rock'n'Reel, Shindig! and fRoots. and there is a new interview at www.madeloud.com

I expect I have said the same thing over and over again, but there you go :-)

I haven't done much this week bit of gardening, bit of dusting, bit of visiting Fairport's new offices (very cool indeed) and a bit of falling asleep a lot...

Ho hum. It was summer for a few minutes every now and again, but I can see that my socks will be coming out of hibernation if it doesn't cheer up a bit more..

I just heard that you can't order whitebait any more as a meal. You have to call it Blanchbait apparently...
That's really daft that is...

Good grief...Time flies...

I can't believe it's so long since I wrote. Mind you, I've been computerless for a few days, a victim of the Windows XP update/Zone Alarm firewall collision. All sorted now, but the computermending man has put something else as a firewall/anti virus and I'm not sure that I like it...

Not only that but I have been struggling to learn how to record myself at home. Got all the bits, got the program, but I have hit a snag and I'm getting bored with it all now. I think I need to be recording with someone else listening and saying, 'do this, try that...'. We'll see. Perhaps I'll get the hang of it all.

I went to Cornbury and saw Paul Simon sing. I forgot to take my wellies and my feet were frozen. It was also a vast distance from the car park to the arena (and back) and uphill in places. I have problems breathing and talking on flat ground, and hills are a real problem so I was distinctly lacking in oxygen by the time I got there. And it was soggy and freezing cold. What fun eh? However I met up with friends and watched (well, just heard, really) Mr Simon and then trotted home again.... I'm not very good at this festival lark, I'm afraid...

A nicer visit yesterday to Adderbury's Party in the Park.. lots of local bands playing including 'Harlequinn' and they all sounded great. And the scones with cream and jam were gorgeous...

A drum track has been added by Pat Mastelotto to a couple of the tracks on my new album and has made them sound amazing...

What else? Got to post stuff to Dan the boat boy who is currently on a canal up north. Manchester I believe.... more later..

'My Sunrise' John Gillies

Good grief! Two blogs almost at once!

This is to tell you about this fabulous love song, released by John on the 30th June.

John is the guitarist and writer for The Conspirators and this is his debut solo single

you can hear a bit of 'My Sunrise' here

and it can be found at HMV as a download

Oh and it's a really lovely song .....

P.S. It got to 25 in the HMV download charts and 5 in the HMV indie chart. Brilliant! well done JG.

Jack and I reunited in a little way

Friday afternoon and I was on a train to London. Feeling a bit nervous because I was going to meet a bit of my life that I hadn't seen for over 20 years and hadn't sung with for nearly 40. (Dear me, statements like that look so dreadful when written down...)

Jon the Manager met me at Marylebone and we walked briskly to Baker St, well , JtM walked briskly, I trotted breathlessly.. When did I forget how to cross roads in London? Nearly got run over at least once... So Baker St. stairs down, that's all right, I can do that. Find the right platform, JtM did that. Get away from the very loud station announcer... impossible. Get on train. Squish squash, I'd forgotten about the rush hour....squish even more, all the way to Hammersmith. Via Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park, all the stamping grounds of my youth seen out of the carriage windows.
Hammersmith at last, another hugely busy road with a million traffic controls and screaming sirens in all directions. Closed my eyes and followed JtM (not easy!)
And there was the Irish Centre with posters saying 'Tonight! Jackie McAuley'

Jack hadn't got there yet so off to have a coffee in one of those coffee places that aren't very good when you say 'a cup of white coffee with some sugar please'. Got to say what kind, big little small etc. and then wait 15 minutes while the huge machine does it's thing.

Back to the centre and there was Jack in the middle of a soundcheck. Hug hug. He's still enormously tall, introductions to Jon and then to sit for a while to listen to the soundcheck. Jack's brother Brendan, was playing with him, whistles, uilleann pipes, flutes, bodrhan. They called me up to do a soundcheck, Jack played and I sang 'Down & Out Blues'. It was amazing. Instantly transported back to my youth, then we tried a song that Jack had sent me, 'Radio Waves' . Never sung it before with him, but a harmony appeared from nowhere and it sounded lovely.

We all went off to find something to eat and returned to find Jack's mum and another brother, had arrived. I listened to a few of the very good floor spots and then slipped out to talk to Jack in the foyer and catch up with a tiny part of the years.

Then it was Jack's turn, he sang several songs then called me up to sing.
No nerves at all, Jack was brilliant and it all sounded beautiful.

We stayed to watch nearly all of Jack's set, but then we had to go so that last trains home could be caught..
Oh that was such fun!

A bit breathless (not used to hills)

Lynton & Lynmouth are miles from everywhere and surrounded by hairpin bends and hilly hills.
Very beautiful though... and the weather was wonderful for their music festival last weekend, warm with a breeze. I sang with the lovely Conspirators, on stage at about 2.30pm on Saturday.

The first one that I sang with them was a harmony with Genevieve on John Gillies beautiful song 'You Are My Sunrise' which is released as a single at the end of June -you can hear a part of it here.
Then came one of my songs, 'Rivers Flow',only the second time I have sung it live (the first time was the night before at the warm up gig that we did at the Village Inn in Exwick -lovely people there). It made me wonder why I'd written so many words? It would have been easier to remember them if I'd written fewer!. Then came 'One Sure Thing', our joint 'hit' single, and then a Conspirators song 'The Trap' for which I sang a backing vocal. After that I left the stage and the Conspirators rocked into the rest of their set.

I was privileged to meet John Hurford there. He is a massively talented artist that was around the London scene at the same time that I was, in fact he spent a lot of time in the record shop (Simon's Stable) that my soon to be husband ran at the time. We used one of his designs for the cover art for the single and I am hoping to use more of his artwork on my future albums. it was such a pleasure to meet him

The Conspirators camped overnight, being young and bendy, my travelling companion and I, being slightly older and unbendy were able to stay with two lovely people, Dave and Pat, who lived nearby. They took us out to supper at a lovely pub/restaurant and were totally wonderful hosts, and drove us the next day to Barnstaple where we caught a million trains back to Oxford. Thankyou Dave and Pat xxx
So that was a real adventure...

Now what. Oh yes I remember. Jack McAuley is coming over from Ireland to play at the Irish Centre in Hammersmith this Friday (20th). I am going to listen to him and hopefully sing a song with him. A Trader Horne mini-reunion. That'll be fun! We haven't met for over 20 years....

I was idly thinking......

When I read reviews of concerts, albums, shows, art exhibitions, in fact anything that has come from the creativity of an artist, I wonder how much the reviewers think about the actual person whose work they are reviewing.

I have seen it written that if an artist puts forward a piece of their work into the public domain then they shouldn't be upset if that work is criticised. Is this supposed to assume that the artist or creator should have such a thick skin that any criticism should just be taken note of and then shrugged off?

But then how is that artist or person supposed to create? Surely there has to be a sensitivity to the world that surrounds them to allow them to create a piece of art or music or a poem? Or are the artists supposed to have an extra layer that they can just add to themselves when faced with reviews that are very critical of whichever creation they are offering.....

Heavens that's all a bit of deep rubbish isn't it?

On a lighter note...the honeysuckle is in full flower and I am simultaneously drowning in the scent of it and sneezing.......

Where Was I?

Ah yes....

Dickens Unplugged is very very funny indeed. And the music and songs are brilliant. 'The Old Curiosity Shop' in four lines is just one of many wonderful things.

Adam Long who wrote and directed it is lovely as well. What a talented man!

As we had a bit of time to spare before seeing the show, friend Angie and I had a mooch around Fortnum and Mason. Beautiful things that I don't want but I am glad that someone has made them. I quite liked the £60 egg cup......

Now then. Colin Harper, he of the witty pen, biographer of Bert Jansch, writer of other books and compiler of many a good compilation and Librarian in Belfast, has put together a 2 CD set of songs that he has written, played and sung by himself and his many highly talented friends and errr, me. It's called The Fieldmouse Conspiracy and you can read about it and listen to bits of it here

I am singing on the track 'Looking Glass Hall'

Colin reviewed the 30th anniversary of Fairport at Cropredy in 1997 for Mojo magazine. He said that I had 'gracefully aged'. He is now my friend forever... :-)

I'm off to do some recording of guide vocal tracks tomorrow for three more songs. Alistair and Tim are working hard on the tracks I have done. Alistair won't let me hear them yet. Grumble mutter grumble

More soon....

Halfway through....

....another week.

I have just watched the last few minutes of the Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.
My post modernist deconstruction of the whole game is that all the players should have little umbrellas tied to their necks. They looked very soggy. And their mums will be very cross that they got so muddy.

And that Kimmo Pohjonen was absolutely stunning. What a superb musician he is. And to incorporate, tractors, hay balers, chainsaws, pigs, into the performance was just extraordinary. And all in a farm barn with hay bales to sit on and a corrugated iron roof.
Go see him if you can...

Right where was I? The little skin thing that might have been nasty and cancerous is benign. So that is really good news. Hooray!

Lunch at the fab restaurant was just that. Fab. M. Blanc's Manoir is just wonderful and it was great to meet up with the old school friend and try to remember names of people. Not very successfully, but thank you James anyway!

What's next? I am going to see Dickens Unplugged on Friday. I am looking forward to that!

I'll tell you what it is like later

It's Saturday

It was warm last week, and then it went cold. Now it's a bit warmer. So was that Summer? And are we now in Autumn? And will it be Winter again soon? Whatever- I have put my socks back on..

I am writing a list of the songs that I want to record for my next album.
Four songs already have vocals recorded and the beginnings of the beginnings.
Another two are written and are waiting for the recording of the guitar parts, so that I can sing the words.
One more is on it's way to me from the writers.
And I have a CD of 12 more songs to choose from.
Oh and there are at least four more of my own songs waiting patiently in the wings including an autobiographical song that might end up as a concept album all on it's own if I don't keep my eyes on it. I can feel it wanting to spread out and escape.

But actually, what a lovely thing to be doing...

I have been listening to No-Man's 'Schoolyard Ghosts' this week. If I am not careful I can just drown in this kind of music and there is one song on it that I would quite like to sing. So that gives me good reason to listen to the whole thing repeatedly. As if I need an excuse............

Tonight I am going to see that Kimmo Pohjonen, the Finnish Accordion player on a farm.
I may wear my wellies and take a scarf

And I shall go to the opening night of Dickens Unplugged next weekend because I have been invited by the man who wrote it. How fine is that?

All this and lunch at a fabulous restaurant with someone I was at school with. It's going to be an interesting week.

Just a shame that the scar on my face is a bit swollen and unhappy. It's a good job I am not vain...

Daft bats

It's 10.pm on Tuesday evening and I am listening to the Pete & Dan show on Phoenixfm radio.
I still don't know why I think this funny, but I do. They are the Belisha Band boys and they are both quite bonkers. They do write splendid songs though. listen to Calamity Lane...

My face is a wonderful mixture of different non-matching colours now. The stitches come out on Thursday and I think that after that I might begin to look reasonably human again. Well there's always hope!

The lawn needs mowing. Again. But I shan't do it right now because it's nearly midnight and it's a bit dark.

Real World had their servers stolen so they are off line. How can someone steal a server? I thought they were bits of ether. Could they be sold on to someone? My mind is having a little boggle here

Right that's enough wittering...

ooooh Ouch ouch

This evening I am currently looking like a half-hearted attempt to imitate the Invisible Man. I had a small skin thing removed from my face this morning. It's not definitely a skin cancer but to be on the safe side it was removed and will be checked.

I therefore have a wodge of steristrips protecting some stitches and the beginnings of a beautiful black eye. And the anaesthetic has worn off now, so I feel as though I have walked into a wall..

And the moral of the story is.....if you think you may have a weird lump or mole, anywhere, get it checked out.

Right. That's enough of the serious stuff. What made me amazed today?

That Finnish accordian player Kimmo Pohjonen

I shall go and listen to him play next month. Earth music. On a farm. Where else?

Sunny Sunday

LLAMA festival all sorted. Song written and sent. Barbecue was a success.

And I have planted some seeds. Glory vines. They've been sitting in a paper bag for two years so they might not germinate.

And the pink fir apple potatoes that I planted in two big flowerpots have all sprouted. Definitely a growing day today.

Why are baby stinging nettles so vicious? Eh? and ouch!

I should have mowed the lawn..... but I played the piano instead.

Spring Saturday

A beautiful morning. I walked the Tig around the not-quite-so-baby woodland and tried to fix the words of a song into my brain. One I hope to be singing with the Conspirators at the Lynton & Lynmouth Festival. Providing we get a chance to practice it somehow, them being up in Yorkshire and me being in Oxfordshire. Let alone the logistics of getting to Devon. I am sure it will sort itself out....hopefully..

Right this minute I am waiting for my daughter to possibly arrive. My son and his wife are having a farewell barbecue before they set off on their travels around the canals of England for as long as it takes them..... So theNeff and I will be joining them and their friends in glorious Cropredy. And it looks like they've picked the nicest day for a barbecue.

So I wait...... and delete all those emails from the lovely people who want me to help them move money around or buy shoes or watches or drugs......

Think I'll have a biscuit.

Jude

P.S I said these would be 'witterings'. Was I right? Yes.

Friday morning

The piano tuner came yesterday. My poor old piano that I love and have owned for 30 years is about a semitone flat. That's because I didn't have it tuned for (ahem!) 10 years and when it was last tuned six months ago, it was so flat that it couldn't be brought up to concert pitch in one go.
In the last six months it has been gradually de-tuning itself again so it needed to be sorted out quite badly. It's now in tune (still a semitone down though) and will hopefully stay that way for 6 months when hopefully it can be tuned up again.

Well that's fairly boring isn't it?

What is more interesting, is that Enchanted Garden is be issued again soon and I hope that it will be more widely available than it was before.

And even more interesting is that last weekend, I got to meet the two people who will be collaborating with, arranging and producing my next album, Alistair Murphy and Tim Bowness.
Tim Bowness, of course, is half of No-Man with Steven Wilson and they have a new album released next month and has worked with many fine artists including Richard Barbieri, No-Sound and Markus Reuter/Centrezoon.

Alistair Murphy,(Half Life) is a writer, performer and collaborator with Tim and with Terry Stamp (Third World War).

(Hope I've done those blue clicky things right....)

Anyway I plied them with 2 different sorts of tea and jam tarts and recorded some vocals for them to take away. Always very strange meeting people that you've only been talking to by email and even stranger to be singing to them in my house. But it was fine and there were many giggles and jokings and natterings.
Tiggy the ancient greyhound lay around amongst the cables and feet in the contortionist positions that only greyhounds can sleep in. She is old and occaisionally rather pongy, but one has to ignore that kind of thing......

Right. That'll do for now. More later

Right then, what have I gone and done now...?

It's 7.45 pm and I have just decided to start writing my own blog.

Whether this is a good idea or not, remains to be seen...