Party time...

OK, when I said I went to bed last night at 2 after compiling John's 4CD History of Popular Music 1955-2005 set, what I meant was, that I had compiled the track listing but not the actual discs...

So, this morning I am up again at 8:30 and start loading the various tracks (51 tracks from 51 different CDs) onto the hard drive, downloading the cover art from www.amazon.com and designing the labels and covers whilst I work - listening to the occasional track as I make my way through...

By 12:30 I am almost finished when Anne appears at the door of the computer room, ashen-faced. "Hmm, perhaps someone has died" I think to myself - but no, it is the news that the bottom has fallen out of Heart of Midlothian Football Club's World - their manager has "parted company" with the club...

I console Anne as best I can and then continue with the task in hand as various journalists and pundits on the radio make stabs in the dark as to what could possibly have happened. Why would the manager of a team which is unbeaten this season and who sit at the top of the league (as they have done since day one) leave the club...

Apparently there's a press conference planned for 6pm...

I take Anne to her mum's for their ritual preparation for their visit to Tynecastle (Hearts v Dunfermline - can the mighty JT's remain unbeaten after playing every other team in the league? - well, yes they can actually, easily thrashing "the Pars" 2-0) then I head off to buy John's birthday card and some wrapping paper...and a lottery ticket - I cunningly buy two extra tickets choosing the numbers on either side of our regular ones - trying to cheat lady luck, boot her in the backside and roll her down the side of the road into a ditch - (Result? £10!!)

Back home I work on a couple of the tracks for the new album for a couple of hours, recording one new vocal and adding sound effects to another track...

Then back to Anne's mum's to pick Anne up and listen to the press conference. Nothing is revealed - parted company - mutual consent - irreconcilable differences - mutual confidentiality agreement...

So it's back to the speculation...

I finally put John's CDs together, burned, labels printed, covers printed, cut and glued and into plastic sleeves, and, last but not least, the overall cover, of which I'm particularly proud as it's my first attempt at doing such a thing - it looks like a 5" single now...

And we set off to the wilds of West Lothian to John and Ali's new house. It's old on the outside, modern on the inside. The party has been going on since early afternoon and both John and Ali's extended families are there - loads of babies and kids of various ages....

Also in attendance are many OOTB regulars (John is chairman, Ali, secretary) and singing soon breaks out....

But only after one of the CDs we've given John is loaded onto the sound systemn - luckily I manage to turn the volume down a bit for a particularly raucous track by the Mahavishnu Orchestra from 1971...

Anne comments "that's not exactly background music" as "Siberian Khatru" by Yes blasts forth...

The food is excellent, the booze is flowing - Anne partakes of quite a few glasses of the old vino rosso but, as I'm driving I have one can of lager and then refill it continuously throughout the night with sparkling mineral water so I still look hard and street and cool in front of my peers....

Tommy Mackay starts off with a couple of his comedy songs, including "Zoinks a Tenner")...

Then the cover versions start (no one is allowed to do covers at OOTB)...

Jim and Nelson from Flowers For Algernon do a couple of Beatles numbers - Fraser Drummond sings "Paddy McGinty's goat"...

I pick up a guitar and start the riff for "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen - eventually someone, Tommy Mackay I think picks up on what it is and soon everyone's singing and playing along (it is the easiest song in the world - hence me playing it!)....

We murder Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" - Fraser Drummond plays the chords - I am half a second behind him watching his fingers closely to see what comes next...

Lindsay Sugden gives us "Yesterday"....

"My Generation" takes a hammering....

"Gloria" sounds more Patti Smith than Van Morrison...

Scott Renton delights us with his popular song about pigeons (don't ask)...

No Impossible Songs are played due to the inebriated state of the band members (understandable as they've been drinking and partying all day)

John and Ali's kids played along on various percussion instruments - I am beaten with a drum stick by one of them...

Anne can't understand why people aren't just talking to each other like at "normal" parties...but this is the musician's way...if a guitar is present , it will be played...

A rendition from me of "Very Small", complete with the usual errors, and then I'm off to the kitchen...

We leave around 12:30 (taking the pics below of a very drunken trio Anne, John, Ali) ...

"One more song Cloudy" they cry..."Sorry" I say "I really must actually learn my songs (and a few cover versions too!) if I'm going to go to these parties"

A good day (apart from George Burley leaving Hearts of course and QoS being thrashed 3-1 at home by St Johnstone....)