Blue, white and...

Playlist
King Crimson – Cadence and Cascade (3CD-R)
King Crimson – Epitaph Vols 3 & 4
Cloudland Blue Quartet – Soundingfall
Soft Machine – Man In A Deaf Corner
Rush – Retrospective III
Michael Rother – Katzenmusik
Donlad Byrd – Free form
Dexter Gordon – Clubhouse
John Martyn – Solid Air
Nazz – Nazz
Medeski Martin & Wood – Note Bleu

Awoke with King Crimson still playing in my ears from last night...

Up at seven and wrote up yesterday’s celebrations...

An e-mail from a music buddy offering a possible gig in March led me to listen gain to my new songs – no work done on them now for a couple of weeks...

Finally got round to listening to the 2CD Soft Machine set purchased in the FOPP sale pre-Xmas...

The first disc is “interesting” but the highlight for me is the set recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in 1969 by the trio of Hugh Hopper, Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt...

Compiled a mock up of Rush’s latest retrospective album – I have all the tracks though two are labelled as “remixes” and one is live (which I’ve probably got too) – noted also a best of re Medeski Martin & Wood’s five year tenure on Blue Note – again I have all the albums...

A late breakfast once Anne finally emerged from the land of Nod and then we watched the first in the Three Colours Trilogy, “Three Colours Blue” – a tale of tragic loss and unravelling secrets – I love French cinema...

It’s at times like these that I understand why people buy DVDs of films – they take you right out of reality and it was a downer, once the film had finished, to be subjected to every day mundanity of daytime TV...

So I nipped to the shops to get some lunch and, while consuming this we remained inert, watching this week’s “My Name is Earl” before the second film of the trilogy “Three Colours White” – regarding betrayal and equality...

We now look forward to the final part which I hope we’ll watch over the weekend...

Played through quite a few songs in around 40 minutes, as Anne watched even more TV...

Tried to have a look round “Second Life” to no avail but a “gig” via Pol’s site on this virtual planet beckons in the near future – hence the running through of various tunes...

The death at 60 of John Martyn was commented upon in at least three of the blogs I regularly read and I duly downloaded and gave a listen to his classic “Solid Air”...



Very enjoyable...

His appearances on Youtube indicate I bore a striking resemblance to the man, when he was around 30, and I was around 20...

I remember “Solid Air” being popular with schoolchum Rory around the time I was listening to Gary Glitter, T Rex, Mott the Hoople and Chicory Tip – of course he had hip elder siblings...

The one artist he liked whom I could get into was Roy Harper – I have always hated the Incredible String Band though....

So, while John Martyn has always been on the radar, I’ve not really been enticed into buying anything –I think many of his albums are available cut price in Fopp...

No doubt they’ll be flying off the shelves now...

Also downloaded the debut album from Todd Rundgren’s Nazz – interesting, if rather ponderous in places, psychedelia...



A Tonight Special on how the falling value of the pound is affecting holiday makers and people who’ve moved to Spain...

The programme did its best to try and evoke sorrow for them but anyone who bought a house on the Costa Blanca for 300,000 Euros two years ago gets no sympathy from me, pensioner or no, when there are plenty pensioners in the UK who have to put up with life in Labour’s Britain...

Interestingly there was absolutely no mention as to WHY the pound has lost around 30% of its value over the last nine months or so...

Take a bow Gordy boy...

Corrie was watched and enjoyed as was “QI” and the first in the new series of “Not Going Out”...

The news did nothing to cheer me up...

Wrote this up, accompanied by Medeski Martin & Wood, while Anne watched Jonathon Ross...



Highlight of the Day : French films...