In the flesh...

Playlist
Robert Fripp – Orchestral Soundscapes
Robert Fripp & King Crimson – At The End of Time
Robert Fripp – Starlight Evensong
Herman Van Veen – Youtube
Fehlfarben – Youtube
Laura Pausini – Singles
Melanie – The Best of Melanie
Blue Oyster Cult – Tyranny and Mutation
The Byrds – Play the Songs of Bob Dylan
Miles Davis – Decoy
Rory Gallagher – Big Guns : The Very Best of
Jefferson Airplane – The Best of
Gentle Giant – Out of the Woods : BBC Sessions
Cherubini – String Quartets

Not much sleep last night – the inevitable Xmas/New Year cold is kicking in...

Listening to Robert Fripp and more King Crimson early on – downloads from the DGM website...

On Youtube I enjoyed videos by Herman Van Veen and Fehlfarben, buoyed by news of a new album from the latter in February...

Almost booked transport and accomodation in Manchester in July for a Laurie Anderson/Lou Reed performance - until I realised it took place last July...

A precarious walk down the road in the ice and snow, having foolishly opted to wear my “normal” (i.e. slippy and slidy) boots...

I was proclaimed an idiot by my much better booted up companion...



Uptown I made my way to FOPP with cash in my wallet – a present from my mum...

Discs were duly purchased – Blue Oyster Cult, The Byrds, Miles Davis, Rory Gallagher, Gentle Giant, Jefferson Airplane, The Mars Volta, Melanie, The Psychedelic Furs and, upstairs, a wee DVD of ELP...

In total, the outlay was around half of that which would have been necessary on Amazon...

At the time of writing I am, thus far, not too impressed with The Byrds, Rory Gallagher, Jefferson Airplane or Melanie – I can, however, declare the Gentle Giant disc to be superb...

Meeting up again with Anne, we climbed the steps to the Royal Mile and, after several unsuccessful attempts to find a café with enough empty seats, finally took refuge from the biting cold in the Edinburgh Larder on Blackfrairs Street...

Fellow blogger and King Crimson biographer & webmeister Mr Sid Smith was in town for the day with his lovely wife Debbie and so we’d arranged to meet up...



We’d never met before, though we have corresponded and, of course, we kind of know each other through the "medium of blog" but it was great to finally meet in the flesh...



Soup was eaten, tea and coffee were drunk and chins were indeed wagged with topics ranging from the ideal size for a home with two people living in it to our love or otherwise (step up the Exec Producer) for the music of the Beatles...

Sid took a couple of pics of me and Anne - this one's snaffled from his blog here...



We walked up the Royal Mile, down Cockburn St, across Waverley Bridge and Princes St for Sid to visit FOPP – one of the reasons he and Debbie were in town...

On the way Sid and I chatted about the new King Crimson remix/remasters (he worked on them and contributed sleeve notes) and about the ongoing work on the entire catalogue – some very interesting insights...

At FOPP we said our farewells and left with promises to meet up again...

A quick nip into HMV on the way for the bus resulted in two nice 3CD sets entering the collection – Violin Sonatas by Tartini and String Quartets by Cherubini, both on the very economical and suitably named “Brilliant” label – tasty...

It was dark by the time we got home...



...and I somehow managed to capture my freezing breath in this picture...



The evening was spent listening to and ripping the new purchases and experiencing a certain degree of buyer’s regret in relation to some of them...

Whilst listening, I spent some time checking which CDs acquired in 2009 are yet to be ripped into the jukeboxes, with a view to rectifying matters over the next few days...

Highlight of the Day : Finally meeting Sid and Debbie...