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We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, broadcaster and abstract artist

DAVID REILLY

This main page contains Cloudland Blue : A Diary, with daily entries since 5 March 2005 (scroll down for the latest entries).

DIARY

The diary is up to date as at Saturday 12 October

Currently, 148 days are "picture only" entries, across 5 periods:-

2005 (5): 8-12 September (5)

2022 (85): 18 April - 10 May (23); 6 July - 5 September (62)

2023 (58): 21 September - 15 October (25); 18 October - 19 November (33)

It is always the intention to update "picture only" days with the relevant text but doing so is, of course, subject to opportunity (and, indeed, memory!)

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SCHEDULED LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Planned performances include both solo, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models, currently playing covers (from Elvis to Tay Tay).  At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live...

Current scheduled appearances are as follows:-

Saturday 9 November 2024, 1:40pm - Cloudland Blue Quartet
Switched On Electronic Music Weekender, Flowergate Hall, Whitby, YO21 3BB
Repertoire: 40 Minute Soundscape Set "Live Suite 2024/25" (LP to be released 1 November 2024 on Bandcamp)
Available on the Day: Very Limited Edition of Exclusive One-Off Live Suite CDs, each CD coming with its own Exclusive Content


Saturday 29th March 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift


Saturday 24th May 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift


In addition to these, there are these further possible appearances...

Occasional Thursdays, 8:00pm - Cloudland Blue Quartet
Out of the Bedroom, Safari Lounge, 21 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh EH7 5SN
Repertoire: 3 song acoustic set (if attempting to secure a slot the date will be added here)

CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS ON BANDCAMP

To go to the Bandcamp discographies of these Crispycat related artists, click on an icon.

                    

Crispycat Recordings released the first 25 Cloudland Blue Quartet albums (recorded between 1996 and 2012) to Bandcamp in 2013.

A further 8 LPs were released between 2013 and 2019.

Then, with the advent of lockdown, David spent much more time on new Cloudland Blue Quartet works, with the result that, since May 2020, new music has been released almost every month, with some 60 releases having been issued over the last four and a half years.

At present, there are 14 further releases in the pipeline (see below) which will take matters through to August 2025.

This will take the total of Cloudland Blue Quartet releases available on Bandcamp to beyond 100.

Retrospective releases by David's groups Creek and Capital Models have also been issued over the years and these are set to continue with around 50 in the works all told, the first of which are due out on 4 October 2024...

CURRENT RELEASE SCHEDULE

Friday 1 November 2024

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Live Suite 2024/25 (Soundscape Live Suite LP)

Note that a Limited Edition of One-Off CDs, each with its own Exclusive Content relating to the Suite, will be available at The Switched On Electronic Music Weekender, Flowergate Hall,

Whitby, YO21 3BB, on 9 November 2024

Friday 6 December 2024

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Disquietmusik VIII (Soundscape Guitar Based LP)

   

Friday 13 December 2024

Sombre Reptiles & Cloudland Blue Quartet: Decades (Song Compilation)

Friday 20 December 2024

Sombre Reptiles: Songs of the Sombre Reptiles 1980-1995 (Song Compilation)

     

Tuesday 24 December 2024

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Twentytwentyfour: The Originals (Compilation of 2024 Releases)

Tuesday 31 December 2024

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Twentytwentyfour (Compilation of Rare and Previously Unreleased 2024 Recordings)

     

Friday 7 February 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" (Soundscape Variations LP)

Friday 7 March 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Wrexham (Soundscape Piano & Guitar Based LP)

    

Friday 4 April 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Dissolution V (Soundscape Piano Based LP)

Saturday 12 April 2025 (Record Store Day)

Cloudland Blue Quartet: GLAM! III (RSD Special: Covers LP)

 

Friday 2 May 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Variations on Brian Eno's "On Land" (Soundscape Variations LP)

Friday 6 June 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Strand (Soundscape Piano & Synthesiser Based LP)

       

Friday 4 July 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Gould (Soundscape Composers LP)

Friday 1 August 2025

Cloudland Blue Quartet: Variations on Fripp & Eno (Soundscape Variations LP)

   

(All Subject to Change)

In addition, a further 21 retrospective releases by Creek are planned between now and mid 2026 along with a further 25 from Capital Models over the same period...

BROADCASTS

David produces a weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.

Since 2014, over 700 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection" have been recorded.  Unfortunately, only the most recent 10 are able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform.

To obtain an MP3 download link for any currently unavailable Cloudland Blue Quartet Eclectic Selection, simply e-mail your request to crispycat@hotmail.com.

Click on the pic to go to Mixcloud...

Working on the third of three, so far...

Playlist

Various - The Impulse Years

Various - In & Out

Various - Cat Nappin'

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Glam! III (Demos)

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Semi-Automatic

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Doveloveshawk (2024 Remaster)

Field Music - Limits of Language

The Cure - A Fragile Thing

Sergio Armaroli - AboutCage 9: Structuring the Silence: The Garden | Four6

RÜFÜS DU SOL - Inhale / Exhale

Laurie Anderson - Amelia

Public Service Broadcasting - The Last Flight

Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM!

Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! #2

Up at what has become "the usual time"...

Wrote this and listened to a few, of the few, of my Dad's CDs which, I forgot to mention yesterday, I finally brought here after letting them languish at Loanhead since 29 June 2003...

And the as yet unreleased 2024 remaster of CBQ's "Doveloveshawk" - some great songs indeed on that LP, if I say so myself - which I do...

Out for breakfast down the road at the "ex-public toilet" place - unpictured top coffee and avocado on toast for Anne and a tuna melt for your correspondent...

We got the bus back up as it was pelting down with rain...

Finally got round to starting to add my CD collection to Discogs...

6 boxes so far, 119 titles, all classical, of which 25 have no recorded value on the site - doesn't mean they're worthless, only that no one has ever sold them there...

And there were a further 6 not on their database at all...

Mid Value of the 119, including 25 at zero, is £460 - which projects overall value to around £57,500…

Not bad…

High Value projects to around £100,000…

Of course, I’ll never get high value - but nice to know…

I imagine the final tally will be much higher, once I add in jazz, rock & pop, box sets etc.  For example, I have an Alice Cooper box set worth around £400 on its own...

And then there's my vinyl collection...

And my 7" singles...

Hmmm, this is going to be a long project...

Discussions with the organisers of the festival I'm playing at on November 9...

Trying to sort out a few logistics - hopefully they get moving on that on Monday...

Was up in the attic - thinking about how to present the one-off CDs at the Merch stall in Whitby...

Hmmm...

I still have quite a lot of rehearsing, recording and compiling & designing of said CDs to do over the next just under 4 weeks...

Hmmm...

Collected together all my albums on Bandcamp to a playlist, adding the eight I have ready for the future (six to be recorded and put together still)...

Some "Breeders" at late lunch time...

Anne's Pickel-Ball cancelled but she's being prioritised for the next one due to the botch up...

Late afternoon, working on "GLAM! III" - sourcing the lyrics for the songs in the long-list which I've never sung before...

In the evening, music listening, while "Strictly " was on the TV and Croatia v Scotland (another close loss 2-1, after leading - late goal did for them, late own goal for them chalked off) was on Anne's iPad...

Amelia Earhart is in vogue it seems, with two new LPs, Laurie Anderson and Public Service Broadcasting, both written around her fateful attempted round the world flight...

Enjoyed both of those tonight - the 2 would fit on one CD...

"Have I Got News For You" was somehow funnier than usual...

Followed by several more "Breeders" - we are almost at the end of Season 2...

Listening to "GLAM!" and "GLAM! #2" tonight too...

Hopefully "III" will be up to the standards...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Out for breakfast with Anne...

Today's New Music:-

A day, mostly, of memories...

Playlist

Various Artists - Alison Reilly Music

Earthside - Let The Truth Speak

Propaganda - Propaganda

Grand Electric - Dawn

Klaus Doldinger's Passport - Doldinger

Dream Theater - Night Terror

Cosmic Gate - MOSAIIK Chapter Two

The Bad Plus - Casa Ben

The Bad Plus - Electric Face (Single)

The Bad Plus - Epic Bad Plus

Joe Bonamassa - Different Shades Of Blue (Overdrive)

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Sombre Reptiles - Decades

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Glam! III (Preparatory Work)

Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways

Alice Cooper - Detroit Stories

Up in the dark, on New Music Friday and partaking of a few things as usual...

Wrote up mum's send off and yesterday's "normal" entry and uploaded the music to a different Mixcloud account so that that can be in the send off post and stay there...

Post breakfast, out to Loanhead to meet up with Sheila, Andrew, Andy and Ali (plus Dougie and Lockie - so Tori could work remotely)...

We were here, ostensibly, to sort stuff into "Keep", "Charity" and "Dump"...

Early on, I found this - the mystery of mum's ISA continues...

Ali headed into the attic and chucked down all the old, thankfully, empty cases...

And passed down the two parts of my Dad's mum's old camp bed thing...

A few laughs were had a long the way as bag after black bag of "Charity" and "Dump" items accrued...

The boys had a few wee things they wanted to take away...

Including, for Dougie, erm, an old Xmas Tree....

After the rest of the family had gone and "Staz", Ali's Lithuanian chum had popped by in his van to take away the sacks of "Dump" and the bed parts and cases, I took some time to look through more photos...

These were inside six Butlins "viewer things" from, probably, 1975-1977 or so...

Sheila & Pam...

Pam...

Pam and Gran'ma...

Gran'ma...

Gran'ma and mum...

My mum and me, oblivious as usual...

By chance, I noted the address on the side of this box...

I'd never known where exactly I lived for the first 6 months or so of my life..

But, here it is, today, per Google Earth...

...and, again, seemingly by chance, here are some pictures - taken at that very house - and also only seen by me today for the first time...

Me, aged 3 months (approx) - according to my mum's note on the back of one of this collection...

With Sheila, aged 3 and a half...

And these, from my Christening...

Sheila with our neighbours...

Sheila and the wee girl were friends...

Yep, it's the same house, No 38 Kilpatrick Gardens, Clarkston...

With my dad's mum and dad, Tom & Agnes Reilly...

Dad, at 29 with his son...

...and his son and daughter...

...and son and daughter (looking a wee bit cold) and wife...

And then, some pics from Paisley, on Newtyle Road...

Pam at 4 months, me aged 4, Sheila 7 and a half...

The light stripe is on the pic, sadly...

Classic "cutting off of the true subject of the pic" time...

Mum and dad, pre the kids - in their tennis days...

More of Pam...

...or, as we called her, monkey face...

In Paisley still, a few years later - I'd started school...

Shenanigans!

Later school pics, post us moving to Loanhead...

Holidays in the late 60s and early 70's, with Granma...

Sheila, with Elaine and Lesley Murray and their lovely dog - neighbours in Loanhead - mum and dad's house in the background, behind the sapling...

In the mid 70's, we took a trip to Gloucester and Bourton on the Water and the Cotswolds, to visit mum's Aunt Betty & Uncle David - where I purchased Sparks' "Kimono My House" and "Propaganda"...

I think these were taken in the late 60s though - so I'm probably a bit mixed up on matters...

Mum and Pam with Tufty the Guinea Pig, 1975 or 76...

Pam, at Butlins, on horseback, ok donkeyback...

...and in a carriage as the Gala Day Queen in 1975...

Around the same time, here's Mum sunbathing in Janette's garden - I remember that chair well...

And then, mum and dad's Silver Wedding in 1980...

Mum and dad with the Jardines, Edith and Mum met at primary school in 1938...

David Whitley and Ian Cowan, our neighbours either side in Loanhead - and Pat Telford from a nearby cul-de-sac...

Diane Cowan, Ronnie Telford and Janette Whitley...

David and Janette...

Took this to try and work out what the celebration was, to no avail, but Robert Jardine was able to fill in a few blanks, just by seeing the pic of his mum and dad...

...and here is Robert, with his parents and my mum, in 1981...

Another trip, without the kids this time, to meet up with Betty & David...

These, going by the "W" reg car, were taken around 1982 or so...

Betty was my mum's dad, Bob's, sister...

And, here, mum with her Aunt Elsie, wife of Uncle Bill...

She was a glamourous lady in her time - from that Germany...

Ah, here's Uncle Bill...

Those were taken in Southport...

Around the same time, a couple of Sheila with Andrew Senior...

...and our dad...

Dad was a member of an amateur operatic company - he took some backstage shots, this featuring David Whitley on the left...

Ah the old days...

I brought home all mum's jewelry, which Anne, Sheila, with the help of Jane and her Jeweler's Eyeglass, will go through at some point next week...

I get the feeling sorting everything out is going to take a while...

A "Sister Boniface" and some emptying of all music from my phone and then partially re-filling it with 100 "good" LPs from each of 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 took up most of the rest of the evening...

Along with initial prep for what will become Cloudland Blue Quartet's "GLAM! III" next April...

Highlight of the Day : Old photos...

Today's New Music:-