Shellshocked...

Playlist
Various - Weekly Playlist No 12
James Jamieson - Precious
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Deeperdown
Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley - On Stage
Andrew Hill - Mosaic Select
Sallinen - String Quartet #3

A strange day...

Shellshocked...

Tried, however, to keep things "normal"...

Meg the Black Cat's approximate 17th Birthday but no celebrations...

Put together the Weekly Playlist first thing but, this week, no chat, just the tracks - adding one of Jamie's to the end...

I had already compiled the tracklist from the week's listening before the news about Jamie came through but much of it, post the happy go lucky McCartney opener, was presciently sombre in mood...

Which Jamie would have scoffed at of course...

"Choose your ten best upbeat songs and play them Dave" he used to say to me, complaining that much of my output was too downbeat and depressing...

He's one of the few people to have heard the "Twenty Four Paintings" recordings (not all of them of course - that would have been too much for a man of his happy-go-lucky nature) - and, like the Exec Producer, he found it hard to accept that what I've done is "music"...

McCartney was followed by an excerpt from said "non-musicking", then Brian Eno and a long piece by Arvo Part...

John Cale and The Velvets lifted the mood slightly but were balanced by Paul Simon and Dido...

Midway through Isaac Hayes' cover of "Close to You" I wasn't doing too well in the keeping it together stakes...

Anyway, that'll be going up soon...

Breakfast at home and then some listening to more of Jamie's music, with and without me...

Around mid-day I drove over to drummer Keith's to try and find out from his kids when he might be back from Cuba...

No reply...

Then, to Jamie's to speak to Suzy...

After the initial, inevitable breakdown, a good chat with Suzy and daughter Madison about Jamie and all the things he meant to us - laughter and tears - it's the way really...

In the afternoon, back home, a taking our minds off matters "Inspector Montalbano" and then I cooked the same risotto dish I made last week...

...soundtracked by Elvis Presley - Jamie was a big fan - and he raised a shed load of cash for charity over the years with his Elvis impersonations...

Tonight, Jim Igoe, co-founder of Out of the Bedroom - the songwriters night Jamie and I played at over many years, had posted this to Youtube...

"Why Billy Why" was a song Jamie wrote about one of his favourite singers, Billy McKenzie of the Associates, who killed himself at just 39 years old...

A thoughtful tribute from Mr Igoe...

I found this on my hard drive today (Sunday) and have posted it up too...



This was Jamie, doing what he loved best I think - entertaining...

Having not had much sleep last night, I dozed off in my chair this evening while trying to follow the new Italian detective series on BBC4, "Inspector de Luca"...

Retired before it had finished...

A strange day...

Highlight of the Day : Chatting to Suzy about Jamie...