Judeblog - Meanderings

New Beginnings. Again.

2012-01-23T13:02:00.000-08:00

After the disastrous ending to Newborn Creatures, and the parting of ways from the management, I am picking myself up and starting again. Although I am, in fact, returning to the half begun music that was put on hold while Newborn Creatures was being created.

Next month, hopefully, Alistair will visit and we will sort out what's useable and what needs to happen and what music will fit which words and maybe, just maybe, there might be a plan...

Fingers crossed.

Newborn Creatures Promo Tastery thing

2011-08-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Thought you might like to see this, Lee's made a lovely short film with little bits of songs and Catherine's pictures
Newborn Creatures teaser:-)

and to say that I was finally given the Talkawhile Hancock Award for Best Original Song for 'Harpsong' at this year's Fairport's Cropredy Convention Festival. At the bar! Lots of lovely Talkawhilers and I hope I can put a picture of the award here. It has my name on it but it was a joint composition between myself, Alistair Murphy and Tim Bowness. I should have been given the award during 2010, but I didn't do any gigs so they couldn't give it to me before :-)

Anyway, it's very beautiful and is made of stained glass..

It reads:

2010 Hancock

The Talkawhile Folk Awards

Best Original Song

Harpsong

Judy Dyble

voted for by the members of the Folk Corporation ‘Talkawhile’ Bulletin Board, in memory of their much loved colleague Carey ‘Ces’ Hancock. His love of folk (and rock) music produced many lively debates and humorous opinions (mostly his). It is in the spirit of Carey’s devotion to live and recorded music of many genres and his appreciation of the talents that created it, that this award is given

Isn’t that lovely?

More news soon....

Newborn Creatures...delayed oh dear...

2011-08-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

...and the news is that plans for the release of Newborn Creatures hit a few buffers and had a few hiccups, but I am working on sorting a new release mechanism (as they call it)..

I'm sorry to be cryptic and vague but I will tell you all when I know what's what..

It's all been a bit disheartening, but onwards and upwards...

News , News, Interview and News....

2011-04-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well the news is that hopefully Newborn Creatures will be released in June 2011... here's a picture of the cover, the artwork has been created by Catherine Hyde and is fabulous
.
Partially co-written by Lee Fletcher, who also produced and, mixed and partially co-written by Markus Reuter both of whom played on all the tracks, and with contributions by, amongst others, Steve Bingham, Alan Burton, Luca Calabrese, BJ Cole, and many brilliant others, (there's a list on Lee's website) it sounds gorgeous, - one cover of a Scott Walker Song and the rest self penned and co-written. I am really looking forward to sending it out into the world..

If you can find a copy of the latest Classic Rock Presents Prog (Issue No 16 out today 20th April!) there is a five page interview about wot I have done, with pictures and lovely natterings from some of the people I have worked with over the years and best of all (but for UK purchasers only) a CD sampler of my work, 2 songs from Newborn Creatures, 2 from Talking With Strangers and 3 demo tracks from my dim and distant (and in one case not so distant) past which will be on the Anthology for release later in the year. I hope.

Here's a pic of the front and back cover of the sampler CD

both with artwork used in the TWS album by the lovely Jackie Morris and that is the end of todays news xxxx

Oh My Giddy Aunt........

2011-01-07T15:25:00.000-08:00

I've just remembered to look at this and discovered that it's been 6 months since I last wrote anything.. Sorry! Been a bit busy, what with having another dose of sciatica, back in August and then having another back operation to sort it out. And then it's taken absolutely ages to recover from the resulting damaged nerves in my legs. Just about able to stomp about fairly normally now, but I do tend to fall over if I stand on one leg. Very hard to put my wellies on I can tell you....

But the new album has progressed and is now in it's final mixing stages.. 2 songs left to be tweaked and it will be ready for mastering. Hooray! Lee has worked so hard on the productions and tweakings.

Artwork for these Newborn Creatures is being prepared by yet another fantastic artist, Catherine Hyde . I am so privileged and honoured to be able to use her work on this album as I have been to use the work of Jackie Morris on Talking With Strangers. Both such stunning artists, each very different, but who seem to be able to match their work to my music. Fantastic! Gringringrin!!

Through various illnesses and delays and problems, some of the plans in 2010, didn't go as, errr, planned. Grey October Day as a single release was delayed, but will still probably go ahead sometime this year..the limited edition of the vinyl Fragile ep was held up by many hiccups, not least of which was the weather and the Trader Horne vinyl reissue was also delayed, mainly because it needed to be absolutely perfect and it took a while to become so.. but that is being packed up and sent off imminently.. So I am really sorry for any angst, but they are on their way....

What else..? Ah yes the sad news of the death of my little brother in California, where he has lived for 30 years. He could play a mean brass watering can, and I had hoped one day to have him perform live on stage. So sad.. RIP Stephen..

Jolly fab news that Richard T has been awarded an OBE. I am really delighted that his wonderful talent has been recognised in this way... Excellent !!

And also that Mr Blackbird has finally returned to steal grapes from the kitchen.

Right, then , that will do for now.... More exciting stuff happening very soon and I'll tell you all about it shortly...

Remix me!!!!!!!!

2010-06-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Join Judy Dyble and Tim Bowness in releasing a record.

Producers, remix wizards, musicians, here is your chance to work with a number of legendary artists, by remixing a track to be officially released as a B side..

Grey October Day – from the Mercury entered album Talking With Strangers, features Robert Fripp, Tim Bowness, Alistair Murphy, Simon Nicol, Ian McDonald and Julianne Regan amongst others, has been superbly reviewed worldwide, and this single will be issued as a download, CD EP and limited vinyl, and you could be involved...

From Saturday, 26th June, the entire file stems for this track will be available from www.cromerzone.co.uk, and YOU will be able to construct your own remix, in whatever style you like. It needs to be made 3 mins long (max), and the only rule, no 'effects' can be put on Judy or

Tim 's vocals.

Otherwise, the floor is yours, do whatever you think best, and see what you can achieve with this superb track...

Rules of remix,

# The 10 tracks that Judy and Tim consider best will be released as 'official B sides downloads' on MONDAY OCTOBER 18TH 2010, via Brilliant!/Genepool/Universal.

#The winning track will additionally be released on the CD, EP, and the limited vinyl

# Each version will count towards overall chart success, and the single will be heavily promoted to help achieve this.

# Each artist chosen will be accounted too, and paid a small % royalty of the tracks overall nett profits, 6 months after release. A simple one page licence release form will be agreed and signed.

# The closing date for mixed and mastered tracks is Friday 30th July 2010 at midnight. No late entries will be accepted, and Judy Dyble's decision, via her management company is final.

# All entries are to be submitted via email, to judydybleremix@gmail.com

# Any enquiries to the same address.

This is your chance to work with a superb recording, a phenomenal cast list, and be involved in a fully promoted, major release campaign.

Ends.

Jon @ Brilliant Management for Judy Dyble.

judydybleremix@gmail.com

www.judydyble.com

www.cromerzone.co.uk

www.burningshed.co.uk

Talking With Strangers launch at the 100Club review and an interview

2010-06-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

A bit late but here is a review by Brian Hinton of the launch gig of Talking With Strangers at the 100 club back in August last year and an interview by Ian Maun

Both are here on the S.I.I.Y.E site of Geoff Wall

Am I becoming big headed..?

Will I demand socks made from llama's eyelashes on future gig riders.. ?

Anything's possible.. ;-)

Dirty Linen

2010-06-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

You may have come across this magazine over the years, begun as a fanzine for lovers of Fairport Convention in the United States, it developed into a glossy magazine which promoted all sorts of wonderful bands and people. And all done for love..

Sadly it is now no more, and you can read about it's history here Dirty Linen

A shame.. :-(

They do have a certain amount of back issues for sale which you can find here back issues

Postage to the UK is expensive, but if you live in the US it's not too bad I guess...

I will get to Paris....

2010-05-27T02:54:00.000-07:00

....I will.. Talking With Strangers is being released in France and I have been trying to get to Paris to do some early promotion for it, but every time it is all arranged, disastrous events beyond anyone's control cause it to be postponed.. My bag and that of Whizzy have been packed and unpacked and now they sit in the limbo status of semi-unpackedness just waiting.. like me...

It has been a very strange year so far.. The time has ticked away and the year is nearly half over. I don't feel as though I have accomplished much this year, although in fact the work for the Jude/Lee/Markus album that was begun at the end of last year is in the process of being transformed and translated into what I am certain will be something wonderful. But that all happens away from me so, apart from updates and snippets, it's all a bit disconnected and distant.. But the joy of hearing what has been created is lovely and worth the waiting..

Did I tell you that I sang 'If I Had a Ribbon Bow' in public for the first time for years at the Oxford Folk Festival with Roots Union?
Well here it is..:-)
It was fun to do in amongst my Festival duties as Artist Liaison.. There are very weird accoustics in the Town Hall and if you wonder why I am laughing as I sing, well there is a little orange bouncing blob on the left hand side of the stage and that is my dancing granddaughter in the arms of her mother. And yes I do do the sigh...

I sang it once more at the Oxjam gig at the Guildhall in Axminster, Devon and that was fine too, but twice is enough for returning to old songs I think..:-)

What else have I done since March? Oh yes I was invited by Ambassador Margus Laidre to the Estonian embassy for a reception where the English translation of one of Dr Laidre's books was being launched and Tim Bowness was playing a short set.. It was lovely to meet Margus at last and it was weird to think that by stepping over the threshold of the Embassy, I had spent a couple of hours in Estonia.. Now that is the kind of travelling that really appeals to me.. just step through a door...:-)

I have been trying to buy new specs for the last few months, but as I can't see anything without my glasses and those photo things they have in opticians produce absolutely ghastly photos...I have been putting it off.. But yesterday I did buy some new ones. I think they are lilac and I think they will look ok, but actually I haven't got the foggiest idea what they will really look like till they appear. Oh well. I could dye my hair lilac to match. Or maybe deep violet as a contrast.. I hate shopping for anything...

And on that cheerful note I shall stop. It's time for coffee and an invisible biscuit....

Grey October Day on Norwegian Early (Very Early!) Morning Television

2010-03-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Got up at 4.30 am. (3.30am by my brain) and off to the God Morgen Norge tv studio at 5.30 am

Sound checks and hanging about and make up by the ton and here is the result :-)

Grey October Day

Hope you like it.. I think it's pretty good :-)

Snowy in Norway

2010-02-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

I was a bit worried you know... Talking with Strangers is about to be released in Norway by Termo Records on the 1st March and I had agreed to go there for a couple of days to do some interviews with magazines, if they wanted me to do so.. Suddenly the whole thing expanded to include two television and one radio appearances and quite a few interviews.. So instead of just going over there quietly with Jon the manager and nattering a bit, I ended up taking Tim and Alistair as well to perform with three fantastic young Norwegian musicians, Norwegian Grammy nominated saxophonist Magnus Furu , bass player Ellen Wang, and flautist Ketil Einarsen who all played sensitively and beautifully on 'Jazzbirds' and 'Grey October Day'... and didn't seem to mind having to rush around Oslo and get up at ridiculous times of the day for two days.

We were recorded for 'Lydverket' Norway's premier music tv show (I guess the equivalent in the UK would be Jools Holland's 'Later'at the rehearsal studio and for God Morgen Norge the morning breakfast show (we had to get up at 4 am for that one) and for NRK P2 which is a cultural radio station a bit like Radio 4 in the UK .. interspersed with interviews for daily papers and rock magazines so it was all a bit of a non stop couple of days.and great fun... the Norwegians were so very kind and delighted that I was there that I was very relaxed and , I think, sang my best.. apart from when I totally forgot a line and had to make something up on the spot. Luckily it rhymed..;-)

Best of all was meeting Jacob and Lars from Termo Records who looked after us so well , and not forgetting Lars' parents who let three tired people stay at their beautiful farm and fed them magnificently. xxx's to you all

Radio Radio

2010-01-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

I shall be nattering on Wolverhampton Community Radio tonight.

It's on between 10pm and midnight on 101.8 WCR FM which is Wolverhampton's Community Radio Station available in that area on 101.8 FM and everywhere else at http://www.wcrfm.com/

I have no idea what I shall say - it depends on the questions... :-)

Otherwise all is going well the album is in repress and it has featured in two 'Best of 2009' critic's charts in Classic Rock presents Prog.. I am really delighted...

Harpsong is in the running for a much admired Hancock Award on the Talkawhile forum for 'Best Original Song' and that has delighted me even more..

The songs for the new album are coming together and plans are afoot for a one-off Trader Horne re-union gig later this year.. Gulp!

An Excellent Book

2010-01-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

A very quick post to publicise a book that Search Press are producing to help their daughter's, (my niece) school to raise money to build a school in Ghana

Here is a link to Search Press and the book is only £4.99.

Excellent eh?

New Year - New Adventures

2010-01-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

A very happy New Year to everyone (anyone!) who reads this..I suspect it will be full of lovely things and possibly scary things, of joyful things and a few sad things, of daft things and annoying things...much like most years really, but with the added excitement of the unknown. So I will be very positive and say that I am looking forward to it.
My New Year's resolution is that I will stop using the word 'that' when I really mean to say 'who', unless of course when I really do mean that. Like just now for instance. I'm confusing myself now...

I have been doing a little bit of singing for one of the new album songs, but I have no idea how it will fit where it needs to be fitted...and I am impatiently waiting to hear the melody for another song. So I am in a kind of limbo. Waiting for things to appear and trying not to be too impatient because I do know that these things take time and drumming my fingers won't help at all. Or stamping my feet. Actually stamping my feet might warm them up . It's freezing tonight.. I took Whizzy on her last walk of the day just now and the frost was thick and sparkling under the moon.

Somewhere else, the question was asked. 'What were you doing 10 years ago?'
My children were away from home, both had sweethearts (who they subsequently married) I had been widowed for 6 years and was just getting the hang of being on my own with dogs for company.. I had no internet connection or indeed a computer that it could be connected to, for anything I wanted to type in a straight line, I used my trusty old BBC B computer with a huge printer..

I was working in the library as a casual assistant so I got called in when they needed extra hands. I loved that job, no responsibilities, books all over the place and lovely people to work with..and I had no intention of singing again, apart from the one speedy re-appearance at Cropredy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band...
The island pond field where I had walked my dogs for years, had been bought by the village and the Woodland Trust from the developers ~~that~~ who had tried unsuccessfully for years to build 300 houses on it, and the whole field was now full of newly planted twigs in plastic protectors that would in ten years time become a respectable young wood of forty-foot trees (or possibly more - I can't judge that sort of thing) and where I would find songs hanging in the wind for me to play with. But ten years ago that was all in the future.

So. Ten years later I am still on my own with a dog, smaller and scruffier than ever (me, not the dog,they just get more elegant and graceful), but with four albums created, the latest of which is the one I am most proud of. The others may see the light of day again one day. I may redo some of the songs because they are almost 'there', but not quite... but then againI may leave them as they are - a snapshot of my past. And I did fall in love again briefly, but it was a fragile thing that had no air to breathe. But who knows what is in the future? I am continually curious....

New artwork, new releases, new things...

2009-12-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

Now this is such a cheating thing to do.. I have cut and pasted all the following info from my myspace blog.

Talk about lazy......

Well, to celebrate various releases of the album in different far flung places in the world, as you will see, the artwork for Talking With Strangers has had a complete overhaul. Thanks to John Hurford and Koldo Barroso for the lovely images on the first UK version (which is all but sold out now) and so the next UK pressing, and the Scandinavian release (Termo Records, Jan 25th 2010) now features the simply lovely artwork of the very talented Jackie Morris. please do check her website out -

The new version has an extensive booklet, featuring stunning gold leaf backed paintings, in the style of the front cover you can see.

Please do support Termo if you are in the wintry reaches of Northern Europe, and especially as that version has a currently exclusive bonus track 'Fragile'. You will be able to buy the album from all good record shops throughout Scandinavia.

Right, what else? Well, recording continues with Lee Fletcher and Markus Reuter, we have the beginnings of 6 songs now, which sound absolutely lovely, and we will be continuing to work on those over the winter.

Recording has also started in earnest with Tim Bowness and Alistair Murphy for the follow up to TWS, so far, we have one song written with Julianne Regan which is as wonderful as you might hope it would be, and 3 others in various states of readiness. I will keep you updated on progress...

Live shows in 2010. Yes, (gulp!) you read that right, I am likely to do 2 or 3 festivals next year, with a very special line up. More news on that early next year.

It is also very possible that Jack and I will reform for a one off Trader Horne reunion show, and that will be quite enough live singing for one year, thank you very much.

Finally for now, 2010 will see a re-issue of the Trader Horne album on vinyl, which rather wonderfully will include exact replicas of the two very hard to find vinyl singles. I am told this will be in March, and details of how to order will be available soon.

Oh, and the small matter of the 'single' from TWS, the Fragile box set, a compilation with a song of mine on for the very clever man who formed Creation Records, and TWS to be released in the USA, France, Australia, and Japan.

Retirement seems a very long time ago.....

'Best of 2009' -- well that's what it says

2009-11-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

HMV in Manchester have got TWS in their Best of 2009 'Specialist music' rack!

Isn't that lovely!! I've got a picture of it if I can figure out how to post it.....

Last Week - Meetings and Songs and Workings...

2009-11-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

Last week Markus Reuter and Lee Fletcher came to stay for a couple of days. I had met Lee for the first time at the 100 club launch, but Markus I had never met, although I had been exchanging emails and messages via myspace and facebook for a long time..

This was to be a pretty intensive recording and writing session with the hope of creating some interesting music, Lee had been writing music for some of my words and I had been writing words for some of Markus' music so this was a chance to put everything together and see what happened...

They were both delightful visitors and we got on famously (I think!). The Pink room was once again filled with musical instruments and bits of electronic machinery and cables and pieces of paper with scribbles and transpositions and extra additional words.

The end result was the beginnings of 6 seperate songs, one of which was a cover, but the others were all new.. I love this bit, when ideas are being formed and harmonies and dissonant chord sequences are being invented, taking shape and becoming surprising and delightful bases for the songs to grow on..
They both left on Friday to go to London where the album 'This Fragile Moment' was being launched at the Estonian Embassy. Produced by Markus and mastered by Lee, it features Markus, Toyah Willcox, Chris Wong (both from 'the Humans')and two Estonian musicians, Robert Jurjendal and Arvo Urb

It's lovely, as is the album that Markus has produced for Chrysta Bell

It's so good to be working with such creative musicians :-)

And I hope to start working on Jude2 with Alistair, very soon.
Coooo!

Updating..updating..updating

2009-10-22T01:19:00.000-07:00

Right then, news and plans for the end of this year and next year (heavens!)

I have done a bit of singering on the forthcoming Kings Cross vinyl single Every Sentimental Moment available here

that's released on the 2nd of November

An ep of 3 songs that weren't included on Talking With Strangers, and one song of Sand Snowman's that I have sung on will be released in January

It will be called 'Fragile'

And my own single with Tim, Grey October Day will be released in ~~October~~ January as well :-)

Tim (the Crooner) and Alistair (the Curator) and I will be working on my next album currently called Jude2 until we think of something better! I expect there will be more collaborations with startlingly nice people.....

I have also just begun to work on a collaboration with the lovely Lee Fletcher and the fantastic Markus Reuter on music that will probably be extraordinary and different..

Talking With Strangers is being released in the US, Australia,France, and Scandinavia early next year

And we will be releasing a vinyl re-issue of the first Trader Horne album, 'Morning Way' early next year

And there are more odd things in the pipeline...to be continued

Sad

2009-10-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

It is an uncomfortable thing when people fall out, as sadly I seem to have done with the creator of the illustrations in the inlay booklet of Talking With Strangers. He requested that he should do the illustrations and I was delighted for him to do so and very beautiful they were, although they were his interpretations of the songs and not mine. I was a little perturbed, that, having agreed that he could write in his blog about how the work was progressing, that he was posting the illustrations wherever he could on the internet, thus removing one of the nicer surprises of the release. But what was done was done. And a couple of times I had to remind him that it was my album and that the drawings were definitely secondary to the music and not the other way round.
So all was well and under the terms of the contract copies of the album were sent to him after release, many more than he had asked for, and because the first box didn't arrive, more were sent to him in the USA where he lives. No more was heard, so the assumption was that they had arrived. But they hadn't as I discovered from reading his blog of yesterday and he has been really quite unpleasant about me and this has been most upsetting. I have commented on his blog, but it probably won't be allowed to appear... As he was also really quite offensive to Jon the manager, and was not happy to have his work on the US release, I have decided to take all his work off the inlay booklet and replace it with something else for all future releases. So this is very sad when a working relationship goes wrong. I have tried to fix it, but c'est la vie....

Onwards and upwards eh?

It's......October..

2009-10-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

...and I haven't written a thing for ages..

So what have I been up to? Well I got on a train and went to London one fine September day, I met up with the lovely Stuart E at Marylebone and we set off through the tunnels of the underground to Old St where I was to meet and do a short interview with Robert Elms, for British Airways. To go on the in-flight audio whatsit that gets played to all the passengers (if they're not watching the film, that is). There would be a review of Talking With Strangers interspersed with nattering from me.. I knew I should have made sure beforehand that everyone knew that Dyble rhymes with libel and not scribble, so I had to interrupt Mr Elms and say 'errrr sorry that's a bit wrong'. Hated doing that but there you go.... He seemed happy about it and we nattered about this that and the other, and then back on the tube and the train and home... Hope it was ok but I haven't heard anything more about it so no news is good news..

An old friend from my primary school days contacted me and came up to visit with her husband and have meal at the pub with me. It was lovely to be nattering after (good grief!) 50 odd years, but lovely too, our lives have some interesting coincidences.
Then another radio interview, this time with Roger 'Twiggy' Day at Radio Kent. He was very nice and it was only later that I realised just how far back in my radio-listening he had been a part of, Radio Luxembourg and the Pirate Radio Caroline and the early days of Radio One (I think) as well...

Through facebook I have been virtually introduced to Jackie Morris whose wonderful status updates just flow like magical streams of consciousness, but with the added piquancy of her wit and practicality. I swapped a signed CD for a copy of her latest book 'Tell Me a Dragon' and I think I got the best of the bargain because it is a totally glorious book. I think it is aimed at very young children, but I suspect it would become a favourite and would be a treasured book forever. When Freya gets bigger, I shall read it to her, but I might have to buy her her own copy because I love this one so much. And anyway Jackie has drawn me a singing dragon of my very own on the title page..
I hope to be collaborating with her in the near future. How lovely will that be?

I am also looking out songs and ideas for the next album, which feels odd because Talking With Strangers is only just out into the world, but that's how it has to be. The vinyl version has just been released as well and is now available from Tonefloat. There is a signed postcard in each copy and there are only 500 copies for sale of this beautiful thing..

The CD will be released in the USA and in Australia in January and talks are going on for Japan and France . And Scandinavia. Well well. Who'd have thought?

Oh yes.. I have done a bit of singing on a new single release from Kings Cross, called 'Every Sentimental Moment' That's released in November.. and somewhere along the line, Grey October Day will be released as a single. Should be in October shouldn't it? Well we'll see.....

Onwards and upwards... Whizzy sends a toothless snore to you all... :-)

Launch Gig at the 100 Club

2009-09-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday...I woke early and twitchingly, got up and let Whizzy out..packed a bag with things to take...words (printed LARGE) and a music stand (blimmin' heavy) walked Whizzy, arranged for her to be fed and walked later and headed off to the station to catch the train to London. The train was cancelled due to something else happening somewhere else, but I caught the next one, arrived at Marylebone to find the Bakerloo line was closed for three days while it was being mended or something...walked to Baker st, caught three different trains and finally arrived at Tottenham Court Rd to meet Jon the M and Rachel Hall the violinist...

Now then that's all very ordinary and boring unless you know that I have emphysema/COPD due to years of smoking (DON'T DO IT) and that while I am usually ok, stairs and escalators and long walks leave me unable to breathe and fairly blue in the face. So with all this extra walking I arrived in a kind of gasping stressed state, unable to even say hello for a good five minutes... By the time I had returned to normal and had a cup of coffee, it was time to make our way to the Blue Posts and say hello to Dan the manager and his partner. They looked after us beautifully, and I spent the next hour signing the 500 postcards that were going to be given away with the vinyl issue of Talking With Strangers.. So one worn out aching wrist later, it was time to move on to the 100 Club..

I know it's historic and zillions of bands have played there and it's an icon of a place and I am honoured and all that, but it really did remind me why I hate singing live. Nothing to do with the people running it or anything like that, it was just umm not a very comfortable place... the dressing room was really a corridor and was full of stacked up tables and chairs, the walls were covered in signatures of all the bands that played there...and it was all very splendid, but nowhere to sit and have a quiet moment before playing..

Laurie the Sax player arrived as did Mark the bass and Alistair, Tim, and all of Tim's friends who were going to do a set of No-man songs in the evening.. I left them all setting themselves up and getting organised and returned to the pub where Simon Nicol was sitting, we nattered for a while and discussed bits of this and that and on our return to the Club, found Phil Dudderidge and Big Little Stephanie (too complicated, one day I'll tell you.)

Phil had been one of Fairport's roadies when I was in the band and had later gone on to be Led Zeppelin's sound man and then to be the founder of Soundcraft and later Focusrite both giant companies in the world of mixing desks and sound design, and what's more he was going to be our soundman for the day.. lovely man that he is! And he did make the sound fantastic along with Ray the house soundman.

So we sang four songs for the press part of the day, and in the early evening, Sand Snowman, David Hughes and Tim and his friends, all played short sets before the bit where I had to sing almost the whole of the album, (except for the main part of Harpsong). I have no idea what it sounded like,everyone played brilliantly and the audience all seemed to enjoy it , then it was natter natter, rush to get everything say goodbye, and grab a taxi to the station (with a couple of friends from the village) get on a train and go home at about 1am. And that....was that!

Well heavens...

2009-09-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is a bit late...a lot of things have been happening so I shall just tell you some of them...

The week of the release was good fun if a bit talkative. I did 7 or 8 local radio interviews mostly be telephone and I wittered and waffled to the best of my ability about the album and my odd life..Seemed to go down very well, which was good. The weekend was Fairport's Cropredy Convention Festival which I started off by being interviewed at Radio Oxford, then dashed off to the festival with Jon the M who hadn't been to Cropredy before.

The weather was fantastic, the artists were all brilliant, Steve Winwood and Yusuf Islam in particular.. I wasn't singing but I was signing Cds at one stage and nattering to as many friends as I could find. back home every evening as I live fairly nearby and not a wellie was needed, or indeed any coats.

Friday evening I listened to old friend BP Fallon on Breakthru radio in New York who made me artist of the week and was just lovely about the album

Took Whizzy on the Saturday to see how she got on, but as she got a bit stressed by so many people,and the heat and the walking, I took her home again where friend Nancy looked after her. She soon went back to sleep on the couch... again..

Sunday morning was exciting, we'd had a message that the Mail on Sunday wanted pictures sent, but we weren't quite sure why and we were delighted to find that we had been given a really nice review in the paper.. Grin grin... and I did another radio interview via Skype with Vince and Daisy Font of the Prog'opolis radio programme that will be aired sometime soon.

The next week... more interviews and then suddenly the weekend arrived and along with it Alistair and Mark Fletcher (who played bass on the album and whom I'd not met before) we began to run through the songs from the album in order to prepare for the launch gig at the 100 Club, the following week. That went very well and we all went to the pub for supper, about 11pm Tim appeared, having been driven up from London where the newest No-Man DVD- Mixtaped- had been launched that evening. So Tim had been nattering and chatting to No-man fans and was quite tired, but we still stayed up nattering till around 2 am.. Then Sunday the three of us started rehearsing and in the early afternoon, Simon Nicol joined us, to run through everything that he was playing on.. All went well and everyone had gone home by about 6pm.

Whizzy had managed to damage a claw on the Friday night so was limping about in a big blue bandage looking pathetic all weekend, but the bandage was removed on the Monday and she forgot all about limping...

More interviews.. a trip to the hospital for my bi-monthly infusion of fearsome drugs to keep the rheumatoid arthritis beaten into submission and then....it was Thursday..... more tomorrow. :-)

Tomorrow is a brilliant day

2009-08-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the 10th August 2009 and it is the day that my album, 'Talking With Strangers' is finally released. What shall I do to celebrate it?

I know! I will get up early,feed and walk the Whiz and probably drive to the Park and Ride in Oxford, go to Radio Oxford in Summertown and be interviewed there for about half an hour. Then I will take the bus further into Oxford (hooray for bus passes) and go to look in HMV and see if my CD is really and truly there.. And if it is I shall hug myself and want to tell someone, so I will go and have a cup of coffee with friend Chris and tell him all about it. Then I shall get back on the bus and return to Radio Oxford at 1pm to do another interview with Radio Suffolk to go out that evening. Then back to the park and Ride and drive home and back to the reality of walking the Whiz again

Look here! 4 wonderful reviews....
BBC Music Reviews written by the lovely Sid at DGM who have a copy of the album to give away here

The Progfiles. (I'm doing an interview with them at the moment)

Record Collector

and Netrhthyms

It's all going swimmingly !!

then it was Saturday

2009-07-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

So. Awake, panic, have a shower, panic, clean teeth, get toothpaste everywhere. Now why was that? The ensuite bathroom to my room was incredibly elegant with a washbasin encased in a beautiful granite surround, But.... it was very high and the basin was set very deep in the granite. So I had to stand on tiptoe and I still couldn't quite reach the basin to wash my face..I had to kind of aim at my face and throw water at it..managed it in the end though. but hence the toothpaste everywhere as well.. Where was I? Ah yes clean teeth, panic, get dressed, panic,down to breakfast, panic...etc. I was a bit twitchy as you may guess.

Anyway Jon and I went out for a walk and found errr nothing much but concrete! Being the City of London it was mainly closed on Saturday..so more concrete walking and back to the hotel, where we had a cup of coffee and nattered to Iain Matthews while we waited for the transport to take us to the Barbican, where soundchecks were going on and lunch was waiting..

I was not hungry, so I ate a handful of liquorice all sorts and nattered to whoever was passing. Practiced my harping and my recordering and panicked some more..

Finally at 6 pm it was time for my soundcheck. By this time I was really twitching and everyone else was really tired, but the sound was set up for me and my harp and my voice as I would be on first..

So I changed into my stage outfit, and tried to look as if I knew what I was doing with eye makeup and the like.. and suddenly it was time. Ashley Richard and Simon went on stage and took their places followed by me. I was going to start off the whole thing by talking a bit about where I had met them and where we had played and then began play my autoharp and to sing 'Satisfied Mind'.

I haven't really played my harp properly on stage since the Trader Horne days and the swollen joints of rheumatoid arthritis had led me to believe that I wouldn't ever be able to play again. Luckily the fearsome drug that I am infused with every two months had suppressed the disease enough for me to play the harp once more. My wrists ached and I had bruises on my arm from where the tuning pegs were pushing into my forearm but....I did it.
And I remembered all the words!. Then off with the harp and straight into 'Time will Show The Wiser', then 'One Sure Thing' with a bit of recorder playing, and finally 'Jack O'Diamonds' with a sort of odd recorder solo.

Then I was done.. Off stage and then back stage.. to watch and listen to everyone else. Till it was time for the encores. I didn't go on stage for 'Si Tu Dois Partir', because I can never remember the words, but Chris While and I joined the rest of the band and singers for 'Meet On the Ledge'.

And that was that...what a fantastic night!

Lots of natterings and chortlings, the recorder was signed by Iain, Ashley, Richard, Simon and me and I have just auctioned it on ebay in aid of the Greyhound Charity from whence Whizzy and Flower came. It raised £210 so that will be on it's way to them very soon..
Then back to the hotel and fall asleep and it was all over..

Well. That was quite extraordinary.

2009-07-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about this before I went but things kind of got away from me. You know. Nerves. Terror. Emails. Phone calls - that sort of thing. I'd decided to put my harp in a wheely suitcase to take to London. Came the day and the suitcase was 2 inches too short, and the only one I could borrow was huge so it got stuffed into a bag instead along with a few other bits and pieces. Jon arrived on Thursday and kept me from running away.

Friday morning..goodbye Whizzy, be good, Nancy will look after you see you Sunday. Ed and Angie drove Jon and myself and a million bags to the station(well five anyway) where we caught a train to London.

Arriving at Marylebone, I was surprised to find a heap of Cropredyites,filming a bit of The Dodge Brothers who are playing at Fairport's Cropredy Convention this summer. So we said 'hello' and 'how are you' and went to find the car that would take us to the hotel to leave our bags, before another car came to take us to the rehearsal studios where the rest of my Fairport were waiting for me to appear.. I was only a bit late..

After the usual 'haven't seen you for ages' and 'what you been up to thens' we had a quick run through of the 4 songs I was going to do with them. One song, Satisfied Mind, was one that we may not even have done together, but it was the kind of thing we had played before we were even called Fairport and it showed off the autoharp rather nicely, and as I was singing it as well it wasn't too much of a problem.. then out with the recorder and a quick blast of Time Will Show the Wiser, One Sure Thing and Jack O'Diamonds and that was my rehearsal over and done. Jon and I then went to have a cup of coffee and something to eat, until we were sure I wouldn't be needed again, then we were taken back to the hotel.
Nothing much was happening so we set off on a tube to Hertfordshire to meet Big Little Stephanie for a meal, then back to her houseboat and then back to the hotel. Old Street in the City of London is quite a scary place at night and as neither of us could work out where we were, internal compasses definitely not working, we got a taxi to take us back to the hotel. There is such a lot of concrete in that area.. and not much greenery. Then back to the rooms to fall asleep.

Right. More later

Not Long....

2009-07-05T03:27:00.000-07:00

...before the Barbican show.
Should be most entertaining I reckon. Autoharp is tuned ready in case it's needed. Finger and thumbpicks are gleaming in the sunlight. Old plastic school recorders have been located and decisions have been made about which one to use..white?...brown?... should I find a wooden one? More importantly will my fingers play it and have I got the puff to blow.. I expect so, anyway it will be just like the olden days...

I won't worry about that till next week. Jon the M can do any panicking necessary..
Last week I was interviewed for one of the local papers..lovely lady Gill Oliver came for a cup of tea and a natter. I'd spent some of the day in the boilingness that is Oxford seeing my beautiful Freya, who is two months old, smiling and, as far as I can work out, trying to dance, judging by the waving arms and dancing legs.., so by the time I got home I was hot and bothered, but I think I answered all the questions properly. Or possibly improperly. I'll have to wait and see what I said..

Yesterday I had lunch with Richie Unterberger an American author and journalist. Lovely interesting man to natter with.. he is in England to promote his latest book on the Velvet Underground, a fascinating subject, that I should know more about than I do!!

What else? Ah yes, I recorded some harmonies and backing vocals for the probable next Kings Cross single, Every Sentimental Moment/Never Say Never , there are snippets on there, but from before I did anything.. They may of course not like what I've done, but that's fine

And we've been sorting out the artwork for the vinyl limited edition of Talking With Strangers, which will be released by Tonefloat records in September..

And we're sorting out the album launch gig thing which will be in London in mid August. .

So it's all been a bit busy and hectic.
Writing songs? What's that? I'll have to get round to a bit of that soon as well. I suppose..but for now I will feed the Whizz and make a sandwich. Oh no...not cheese again :-)

(strange spellchecker on here..it thought enrtetraining was a proper word...???)

Signings and Signposts

2009-06-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

'Right then' I said to Mr SatNav man. 'I have to get to Brixworth Country Park from here. And no you can't take me via Silverstone, which we both know would be the easiest way to go, because it's the Grand Prix weekend and the roads are closed off. So take me there and don't get me lost'

Well. He did his best, poor Mr SatNav man, but sometimes I forgot to listen and sometimes I didn't quite understand what he meant by things.. He was very patient though and just kept changing the route till we got there. Mind you, he did take me through Northampton, which was a bit scary and my phone began to ring when I was in the middle of a triple carriageway bit. 'I can't answer' I yelled 'and just be quiet 'cos I can't hear what Mr SatNav man is telling me to do' Twice it rang and then there was a message beep, by which time I had 'reached my destination' as Mr SNM kept telling me. 'I know I'm here' I muttered, 'I can read can't I?'

(The phone calls, I discovered later, were from Alistair and Jon, because Alistair had forgotten where we were meeting, so had been frantically trying to contact me...)

And there was Alistair grinning at me. He and Tim had driven across from Norwich and Cromer to meet me so that we could sign the inlays together. And waiting for the inlays to arrive had been another heart-stopping tale, they had been supposed to arrive on Friday, having been sent on Thursday, but they somehow hadn't got picked up, so the couriers had had to send them to arrive on the Saturday. Which they duly did. At 8am but I only got them because I had seen the ParcelForce van drive by and rushed into the lane to find him trying to deliver the parcel to my neighbours house behind their electric gates. He'd have taken them away if I hadn't stopped him.

Anyway all was well, Tim, Alistair and I took over a table in the cafe and signed all our signatures and generally nattered. Over the course of the 2 hours, my signature got more and more idiotic, Tim's got more obscure and Alistair's stayed the same. and there was one that I signed upside down and didn't notice until I'd signed it a second time, so Tim and Alistair signed it twice as well. That will surprise someone I expect.

So signing over, back in the cars...goodbye, goodbye, see you soon and we went our separate ways home.

I got lost. I'd managed to tangle Mr SNM and he was trying to take me through Silverstone and getting really cross when I wouldn't turn round. I kept saying 'don't be silly I can't go that way', but did he listen? no he didn't. Well he is a machine. I found my way home, through some very pretty villages and I was a bit shattered but happy that we now had 500 inlays signed.

Tim took half of them and I sent the others off to Jon to put back in the CD boxes. All very lovely..

Did I say that it all looks wonderful and sounds even better? Well it does and I shall say it again. I think it is the best thing I've ever done.. yaaaay!!

Fetes and practisings

2009-06-13T02:48:00.000-07:00

It's the village fete today and for an amazing change, it isn't raining. Well not yet anyway! It's a lovely thing to do, walk down the main street through the village and see and say hello to the people that I have known for years, but in some cases haven't seen for months, but Fete day, everyone comes out for a natter. It's also extraordinary how many people I don't know, who have moved into the village while I wasn't looking. 'Tis what happens when you don't have children at the village school any more, that is the place where many friendships start and continue till the children grow up and move away. Like many villages, sadly there is no way that the children can afford to buy houses in the village where they were born, thus some continuity is broken..

However, there will be cakes and teas and raffles and tombolas and bric-a-brac and plants and guess the weight or guess the name.. and there will be music and dog shows and all the things that a church fete should have on a beautiful honeysuckle filled summers day...

What else? Ah yes I have been practising playing instruments that I haven't really played for too many years so that if I should be called upon to play them I might be able to at least make a stab at it. And relearning songs that I haven't sung for, well,40 years or so.aarrgh! This is all for the Barbican concert in July. Which seemed to be ages away but now errrr isn't that long..but it will be lovely to be playing with old friends. And what's more I will have to be staying for two nights in that there London, on account of rehearsals and idiotic train times. Hopefully the Neff will be dogsitting the Whiz

Plus getting excited about the album which looks (and sounds!) wonderful and can be pre-ordered via my myspace . if you want to. The CDs should be sent out at the end of June/beginning of July.

More building work is going on around me, I wouldn't mind but it's not me that's going to benefit! Big concrete lorries and earth moving tractors outside my windows for the last three days. and because my house is a long old stable, there isn't anywhere to get away from it..hopefully they'll just be building now and not excavating any longer.. I seem to have been surrounded by building works for the last three years.. and I still think the worst thing are the radios blaring at full volume while the builders are somewhere else.. Right, that's today's small rant over :-)

Shall I mow the lawn again? No it can wait for a day or so...

A couple of very large pigeons have built a nest in the winterflowering honeysuckle tree near the kitchen. The crash landings into the branches make me wince, but so far nothing's fallen out of the nest. Not sure there's anything in it. Perhaps it's just a holiday home for them.. There was a panicky baby bird in the kitchen a couple of mornings ago, it must have flown in the evening before. Naturally it was squeaking and attempting to throw itself out of the window, so I had to balance on a stool and grab it (it's a deep windowsill, behind the sink)I caught it by its little feet and then carefully calmed it a bit and put it on the table outside. It flew away... a trifle grumpily I thought..

The honeysuckle and philadelphus blossoms are making me sneeze and my eyes itch. I don't care, it's worth it for the glorious scents :-)

It's a bit warm today...

2009-06-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

....so I delved into the darkest recesses of the freezer and found a choc ice left over from last year. It's a bit chewy, but it is cold and that's just fine..

So where have I been and what have I done lately? Been cooing over the babe obviously.. She usually cries when I hold her, but I am assured that it is because the holding coincides with needing a nappy change or feeding, but when she isn't crying she is very very pretty. Of course..

Huge gateposts have been built opposite my window for huge gates to be hung, at the entrance to a big house over the lane. I feel a bit as though I am surrounded by people who want to be shut away behind walls and gates, not like the openness of the village when I first moved here, but I suppose people need to feel secure. It seems a shame though. Mind you the other house at the end of the lane has electric gates which have stopped working. Oh dear. I giggled a bit at that.

The album is now manufactured and I am awaiting a pile of them to appear. Somehow, Alistair, Tim and I will have to find somewhere obscure to meet, so that we can sign the first 500..perhaps a tea shop in St Neots, or a service station in Towcester..who knows where we'll end up? McDonalds in Kettering probably..

And the Barbican concert is beginning to loom as opposed to being just a thought on the horizon, Still not sure what I will sing, but I have every faith that Ashley and the others will make a decision for me. It looks as though I shall have to spend two nights in London. Cooo, haven't done that for many a year, have to get someone organised to look after the Whizzy though (whom I am seriously considering renaming Dozy).

Right then, what rock cult legendary thing shall I do now? Mow the lawn? Yes I think so...

Pre order Talking With Strangers

2009-05-14T15:04:00.001-07:00

Now...this is cheating a bit, because I am going to give you a link to my Myspace blog where you will find that Jon the Manager has put all the information needed to enable people to pre-order the new CD and get a signed, numbered one..

And a bit of news about Trader Horne....

Back soon

Grannydom

2009-05-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yup that's me. Granny Jude...

My son and his wife became the extremely proud parents of Freya last week. Let me just say this one thing..she is absolutely beautiful and I am besotted. Yes that's two things. I know. I don't care!!

What else has been happening? The artwork for the album is complete and the music is mastered and it all goes to be manufactured this week and then hopefully I will have the definitive release date and I can work out what I need to do.. I think I will have to have a launch party thing and I expect I shall have to do a bit of singering for that... I will worry about that when the time comes..

I am waiting to hear what the plans are for the Barbican thing, what songs and when rehearsals are. I really hope I am allowed to sing one of the songs that hasn't been sung for 40 years...that would be really nice, but I suppose it's not really up to me.. I might get pushy though...

I thought I would pull up some stinging nettles yesterday, but put the thin gardening gloves on instead of the old motorcycling gauntlets (my favourite for nettles and brambles)and, sure enough, ouch ouch ouch! stung hands and tingly fingers.

That'll learn me.. Someone was supposed to come and remove mounds of ivy and brambles from the side of the little stream, but he didn't turn up. I hate it when people don't let me know when they aren't coming. I think I will look for someone else to help. Unfortunately the rheumatoid arthritis, COPD and the back problem that I have mean that I can no longer do very much gardening and then only for a very short time, and it has all got a bit overgrown. Looks very picturesque, but will look just plain disastrous if it's not cut back a bit soon. Never mind, I will find someone..

I am reading Mick Farren's book - 'Give the Anarchist A Cigarette' It's set in the era and the place where I lived in the late 60's/early 70's, all around Notting Hill Gate. I used to bump into him at various gigs and watering holes in London, when the Deviants played the same places as Fairport. It is bringing back a lot of memories...
I recommend it to anyone who wants to know what that whole hippy era was really like, he is an excellent writer..

Right then.. another cup of coffee I think... I wonder how Alistair's gig is going?

Alistair's solo gig

2009-05-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Alistair Murphy who has helped to make my new album such a wonderful thing is making his solo debut next Tuesday 12th May.

Accompanied by Laurie A'Court(sax)and Mark Fletcher(bass) who also appear on my album, Alistair will be a special guest of Dan Reed at The Musician venue in Leicester. He will be on stage at 9.30, and if you are anywhere near there, you should go and see him as they are all fantastic musicians....

The tickets are selling well (and they are cheaper in advance!!)

Now just remember...12th May 9.30pm The Musician Pub Leicester

Grannytobe(wellalmost)Jude says go on.........

New snippets

2009-04-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

are up on my myspace now

A little bit of Grey October Day with the silky vocals of Tim Bowness.. this will be a single I think
and a tantalising glimpse of the Harpsong - the 20 minute epic- this is a small section just before it all goes a bit bananas :-)

There will be more and different tasters over the next few weeks.

That's so mean isn't it?

:-)

Barbican 18th July

2009-04-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

I have just been asked if I would like to sing at the Fairport concert here..

I think that might be quite fun to do...

Lovely day today and what has made it even nicer is that the masters have arived. Y-a-a-a-y!

Changes...

2009-04-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time to stop wittering and have decided to meander instead.

What's new this morning?

I have been looking at the places that I look at every day. DGMlive for instance, Robert's diary and stuff within the world of King Crimson....and Sid Smith's blog. Which is always really fascinating, reviews and natterings and updatings, plus the most fab photos of the mornings around his house.

Oh and have a look at Julianne Regan's myspace. There are some lovely bits of song there and she's a wondrous person..

and now I am going to deal with the ongoing illustrations kerfuffle and the plots and plans for releasing this album.

Oooh it is jolly interesting...

New album track snippets.....

2009-04-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

you can hear them on my myspace

a little bit of 'C'est La Vie' and a little bit of 'Jazzbirds'

I hope you like them!

The album 'Talking With Strangers' now has a release date of July 20th 2009

Yippee!!

Patience, patience, is a virtue.......

2009-04-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

....but I am getting to be so very tired of being patient.

Especially patiently waiting.

And extra-especially patiently waiting for things that should have been finished and dealt with months ago and shouldn't need to be patiently waited for any longer....

Enough of that...it's making me very cross and grumpy and I really don't want to be that...

Right. Where are we? April and more exactly Good Friday...since I stopped working in the library I find these public holiday things creep up unannounced and startle me. I always found it interesting that when the children were young they always developed some kind of illness that needed to be sorted out by a doctor on the Saturday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend. Uncanny that..

I have a lot of beginnings of new song-words floating around in my head these days. I haven't been able to pin them down to anything definite mainly because I would like to get the current album sorted out and completed before I start drowning in new songs. So phrases are just dancing around my days, tantalising glimpses of new tales that I can't quite get hold of...

I spent quite a while over the last couple of weeks answering some questions for someone who is writing a book on Acid Folk. Really interesting questions, quite simple and straightforward as questions but the answers needed a lot of thought because they led me back down the backways of memories that I hadn't thought about for many years. And of course none of us realised that the music that we were making was acid folk... it didn't feel like any kind of folk at the time...it was just what it was.. Fascinating to find so many different kinds of labels attached to one's music but I suppose it all needs to be put into context. I am really quite flattered when people want to know why and what and when and where. I so wish I had kept a diary....

Not long now before I become a granny. woohoo...

A gardening man has been doing some work in the garden over the past couple of weeks as well. There are things that have been sidetracked and untouched for the four years since I have been unable to keep the ivy and brambles under control so parts of the garden have become neglected. I have been trying to sort parts of it out, but I am very limited in my ability to pull fiercely rooted things up now, so I finally gave in and found a Person with his Own Shredder to come and do in a couple of hours things which were taking me weeks. And especially to do the pruning of pyracantha and holly trees which were trying to take over the universe. Hah! not any more..... it will look ok when it's finished..but I have to work out what to do with the dog decimated lawn..hmmmmm..

More later....

Must Write More Often...

2009-03-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

I keep saying this to myself and then I don't... Not sure anyone reads it anyway!

A lot has happened this month, the saddest thing being that Flower, the older of my two greyhound ladies, was put to sleep last week. Her back legs collapsed, I think her spinal nerves stopped working, whatever it was she couldn't get up and was in great distress. The same thing had happened to Tiggy, my previous dog, so I knew that it was the kindest thing to do for her. She was 12, she was clumsy and she tripped over me and I tripped over her, but she was such an affectionate thing and she did at least have 6 months sleeping on the sofa in the warm instead of being in a cold old kennel.

Whizzy looks a bit lost and sad, but I don't think I will look for another companion for her yet. I will see how she gets on as a single dog..

The album has now been tweaked and twinkled and is being mastered in the US as I write.. hopefully Tim, Alistair and I will be happy with the result and then that will be that! The lyric illustrations have been completed by Koldo, so now it is just up to Michael of Urban Art to pull it all together and that will be that bit done.. Jon the manager can then get on with everything else that has been waiting for the finished album and that will be that. As well! And I shall say hooray and have a celebratory biscuit..

With Anji (and lots of other nice people) I was part of the Artist Liaison team at the Oxford Folk Festival this last weekend. It was huge fun, but vastly tiring. Made lots of tea and coffee and made sure all the artists were comfortable and happy.. I managed to see a bit of The Dhol Foundation - how fantastic are they? (well they jolly are!) and a minute of Kate Rusby and a song from Spiers and Boden and also a song from Cosmic Aubergine. They were all excellent!

Caught up with lots of people I haven't seen for ages including my son and his wife and the bump which is nearly ready to be born. Anytime now....

I have been looking after my daughter's zebra finches while she and her husband have gone on a belated honeymoon to Canada. We had a pair of these very cute little birds when Neff was young and they were most entertaining (and noisy!) and I am now remembering just what a strange little song they have. And four of them sound like a whole factory of little machines. They are very sweet, the sitting room is now full of feathers and seed along with the usual dog fluff..

Right then.

Time to feed the Whizz who has been watching me with one eye open for the past five minutes in case I should head off to the kitchen...

Good Grief! It's March!

2009-03-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

...and I am officially elderly. If I were to be knocked down by a bus (heaven forbid!) the incident would be described as an 'elderly female pensioner was hit by a bus. eyewitnesses have stated that she appeared to be trying to balance on a skateboard...' or something like that..

However the upside is that I now have a bus pass, can have my eyes tested for free and don't have to pay for prescriptions any more. Yippee!! Where shall I go on the bus? How about Haverford West? (Where's that? I dunno, be interesting to find out.....I expect..)

I was bored one day last week and decided to google the address that I lived in when I was a child. We (my parents, sisters and brother) moved into a newly built block of council maisonettes, one of four similar ones, from the soon-to-be-demolished prefab where we had lived since I was born, (and possibly longer).

We had a lovely garden at the prefab, it seemed huge to me anyway, but the maisonette just had a piece of ground divided up into squares, one bit for each family. Enough room for a washing line and a bit of grass and some flowers. My dad soon took over the next door's bit of earth as they didn't want to grow anything and soon after acquired an allotment to grow vegetables.

The blocks of maisonettes, functional, but truly ugly as only late 50's council buildings could be, were end on to the railway line, the London/Scotland line (whatever that was!). It was still the age of steam trains and the Flying Scotsman was a regular passer-by and shaker of windows and rattler of walls.... In the summer the sparks from the engines would set light to the grassy sides of the rails and then we'd have the added excitement of watching the fire brigade come to douse the flames..

We all went to different schools, mine was Minchenden School in Southgate, which was quite a distance from home in Wood Green so I either took a bus, a train or a tube depending on how much walking I wanted to do. During the summer I would quite often walk home from school, I think it was quite a long way but then that was what we did in those days in the last century!

Now why did I get nattering about this? Oh yes, having googled my old address I discovered that all those maisonettes are now desirable places to live and sell for £250k. Well they did before this current credit upheaval..

Anyway, enough of all that, I had a fantastic birthday, going out to lunch 3 days on the trot with different bits of friends and family, only slightly marred by Whizzy slicing her foot while running in the icy woods and needing stitches and anaesthetics and bandages and a huge mortgage to pay for it all.. I had thought about pet insurance, but because the dogs are so old, the premiums would have been £30 per month each and that is quite a lump. Even then it wouldn't have covered all the treatment. So I just paid the bill and told the dogs they'd better not have any more disasters for another 6 months (touch wood!).

Whizzy's all better now...and is asleep on the sofa. Flower is also asleep but on the floor. I vacuumed about a ton of dog fluff from the sitting room the other day and there's probably as much again now. I should put the fluff outside for the birds to build nests with, but I'm afraid they might suffocate under the weight..

Right that's enough for now, the album continues to continue and I am beginning to believe it's all a figment of my imagination and will never be ready. I expect it isn't and it will though!

Illustrations of wonder

2009-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

How lovely is this?

Koldo Barroso is creating wonderful illustrations to go with the lyrics for the new album. If you look at his blog on his website, you can follow what he is doing for me.

And if you look at his portfolio you can see more of his wondrous creations... some of them are kind of whimsical but with a slightly sinister edge..... but his little animals are so sweet they ought to be cuddled.

Cold here and going to get colder, but the witchhazel is flowering and snowdrops have appeared so there is always something to say 'ah!' to.

The dogs are watching me, each with one eye open...obviously in case I rush off to the kitchen to find them something edible... they have been here for 5 months now and I am at last getting the hang of them,

Whizzy is a bit of a nervy thing, doesn't like to be left behind and would like to attach herself to me permanently so that I can't go anywhere without her...
Flower is like a lollopy colt, the muscles in her back legs are not strong so she does a sort of flailing run if she gets left behind. She is so long that she can't turn round quickly and I keep treading on her toes by accident - yelp! yelp! I am so cruel..... She hasn't put on any weight, her bones are still very prominent and I guess she is just one of those dogs that gets very thin when they get old... Whizzy however is getting to be quite plump. Well -plump for a greyhound anyway. but they both seem happy enough...

Right then. More later :-)

Hooray hooray!!

2009-01-19T01:36:00.000-08:00

The album is just about finished and ready for mastering. It will be called 'Talking With Strangers' which is something that I seem to do quite a bit..

If you look here , you can see who has been kind enough to play for me. I am just so delighted with the end result. It makes me grin every time I hear it..

Next step is to let it out into the world and hope that others enjoy it. Gulp! Always the difficult bit. But no use writing all this stuff and making all this music and then hiding it away in a cupboard is there? Tempting though the thought is....

I may have to sing live somewhere. If I do and you see me, I will be clutching some screwed up bits of paper containing the words. Absolutely terrified of forgetting them and going blank... I think I will worry about that later...

What else? Pensionerhood and Grannydom are beckoning in the first part of this year. That's going to make life even more interesting. I shall claim my bus pass and go out for discounted meals. Yippee! It's funny how each new decade seems to bring a new change to my life. I expect it happens to everyone though..

I did a bit of a garden clear up yesterday, just tidying up the japanese anenomes, which seem to have become bullies here.,taking over every bit of spare garden.. Very pretty though in the autumn. And the little witchhazel tree has begun to flower. It is usually out fully by my birthday and has a wonderful smell.

Oh yes and I had the roof fixed. There was a little leak where the previous repair to a flat roof hadn't been properly joined to the main roof. It only leaked when the wind was in a certain direction and it was pouring with rain, but as it was above a doorway and the door was beginning to warp, I really had to do something. So I did. The trouble with having stuff done to a roof is that it doesn't look any different when it's mended. Ho hum..
But the roofmen managed to knock a few of the crystals off the crystal tree so I had to thread them all again and rehang them.

Dear me! This is turning out to be a boring old blog isn't it. I'll try and do better next time..

Jude xxxx

Finished..but not finished

2008-12-06T02:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

....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)

2008-09-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-08-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-08-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-29T03:43:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-07-14T00:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-06-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

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......

2008-06-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-05-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

....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

2008-05-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

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...?

2008-04-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

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...