Not prog but kind of prog can be very good indeed...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Rubinmusik 1977-2017 (Remixed Remastered)

Sparks - Propaganda

Count Basie - April in Paris

Parliament - Tear The Roof Off 1974-1980

Hafdís Huld - Synchronised Swimmers

Amanda Rheaume - Holding Patterns

Roger Roger - Fairweather

Françoise Hardy - In English (Marble Arch)

King Curtis - Instant Groove

Suk - Works For String Quartet

The Conference of Birds - Birdsong and Music - Pieve a Castello

Up early and working on the pics from yesterday...

Breakfast at home...

Then, out for some looking around the shops...

Purchases were made by Mr CBQ...

Jazz discs by Nancy Williams and Count Basie directly opposite the door to our apartment at the Sue Ryder shop...

Then, round to the (actual) record shop spotted yesterday, Mod Lang and a good chat with the owner Paul Bradshaw, swapping stories about record shops...

It's a great wee place, set out to be like a room in a music-lover's house and, as in Reptile Records back in the day, there was a comfy spot for "partners" not quite so interested in music to sit (today out of the pouring rain) and have a relaxing time...

I came away with a 2CD box of funksters Parliament's best work from 1974-1980...

Into the main streets of the town and Anne was on a disappointingly fruitless search for some new woolen ware, while I found the soundtrack disc from fave TV show "Roswell" for just 49p in the Severn Hospice shop...

In Oxfam, three discs were taken for various reasons and, all told, for the same price as the Parliament box...

Icelandic singer, formerly of Gus Gus, Hafdis Huld's second LP - because of the presence of Phill Brown, whom Anne and I got to know briefly while we still had our record shop in the 90s, via ambient artist Dave Allinson...

Mr Brown engineered the best work of Talk Talk...

Amanda Rheaume's album, "Holding Patterns" was purchased because she's from Canada - although, on opening the shrink wrap, I found one track has a co-write from Rheostatics' Dave Clark...

And twins and offspring of a Weakerthan, Madeleine and Lucas Roger's LP, "Fairweather" - also merely because it was Canadian...

All three turned out to be good purchases - always good to take chances and get no clunkers...

Anne's search continued - I returned to the Severn Hospice and got a strange but good disc of birdsong, mixed with classical performances by a chamber group, The Conference of Birds - field recordings from Tuscan walking holiday destination the Pieve a Castello, with music recorded at a nearby church...

Home for coffee and lovely cakes from the patisserie in our street...

The new stuff was sampled...

Then, around 1, out again, this time to the medieval St Laurence's Church, whose tower, along with the castle, dominates the town...

What's this?

We were here for a recital by young organist, Jonathan Allsopp of Westminster Cathedral...

The camera was to allow the audience to see his hands (and feet) at work...

I asked him afterwards if he ever listened to Prog Rock, given his amazing technical ability across the four keyboards of the organ console, not to mention the footpedals and stops...

He advised not, although he said he'd "take" my comparison to Rick Wakeman even if he prefers a suit to a cape...

Out...

...and lunch at the market...

Home made pork pie for Anne...

...and a giant Scotch Egg for your correspondent...

More wandering ensued...

Strawberries and pressed apple juice from the fruit market...

...and two discs of string quartets as I returned to the Oxfam shop - Kozeluh and Suk were the composers in question...

Further exploring..

...including a browse around Holloway's...

A nearby off the beaten path place, La Jewellery, resulted in a purchase of a lovely wee bracelet, a hand-made one-off item of recycled silver for the Exec Producer...



Speaking of purchases - here the day's CD haul...

...which, back home, was ripped as far as possible, while Anne enjoyed some TV...

In the evening, out to The Church for, this time, a pre-arranged meal with Teresa and Christopher...

Later on, Mack the Dog was fetched...



...and drinks and chat were enjoyed back at the Blue Boar, The Church having become too noisy for any meaningful conversation between consenting adults to have taken place...

Here Mr C to the T holds court, much to Anne's entertainment...

All back to ours for coffee and excellent shortbread, provided by the owners of our lodgings - who run a tasty wee bakehouse downstairs...

T and C left around one, at the end of another excellent day...

Today's artwork, "Sound Systems from the Seventies"...

Highlight of the Day : A young man on his organ...