A dozen or so people in a circle can be surprisingly enjoyable...

Playlist

It was light by the time I got up today...

Got the things done first thing that I "have" to do...

1. Post Morning Morning post 

2. Amend the landing page 

3. Download pictures from yesterday 

4. Create pics of yesterday's playlist and new additions 

5. Prepare yesterday's diary entry 

7. Post yesterday's playlist

8. Post the CD Box of the Day

9. Repost the podcast

10. Repost the latest LP etc

Except No 6

6. Write yesterday's diary entry x

But, post breakfast...

...I got to work and started to finish off the Amsterdam posts - the final three were completed shortly before 1...

Then, I added two pre-prepped post Amsterdam posts...

Strange jittering on the laptop re music listening has been bugging me for the last two days...

So bad that I'm having to listen to CDs if I'm online - there's no jittering re hard drive music if I'm not online...

Extremely frustrating...

However, that meant that the work on the diary was soundtracked by these two CDs...

I did not play the next one but chose the CDs from the next two boxes - here's today's box...

Marais to Medtner...

I chose the last of five Peter Maxwell Davis CDs of his 10 string quartets, commissioned by Naxos...

Inside, I found our tickets to his 80th birthday recital in Glasgow in September 2014...

That was a good night...

And so, more oblique string quartets joined the one CD from each box selections thus far...

We continued with "Younger" over lunch...

Anne was off to the dentist and to see her mum...

The work on the diary continued in her absence...

I managed to write up another four days - so, now, I'm less than a week behind...

Post Anne's return, some more "Younger" and a tasty chicken based tea, I drove to Newhaven and picked up Ian Sclater...

To London Road and the Artisan Bar...

Learned a few things about Ian tonight - he is a die hard Rangers fan - his dad took him to Tynecastle in 1965 to see Hearts play Rangers and he "fell in love" (his words) with Jim Baxter...

He also supports Bonnyrigg Rose - which, it turns out, is his hometown team...

Which means he attended Lasswade High Secondary School - exactly the same school as me - but he was there 1965-1971 and I was there 1971 to 1977 - so we just missed being there at the same time...

I already knew that Ian's sister is married to my old chum from work days, Ross Young...

But, in another twist, Ross is the son of one Archie Young, who played left back for Bonnyrigg Rose in the 60's and, despite Ian's love for Jim Baxter, Archie was his absolute footballing hero...

Anyway, enough of all this...

Upstairs for a "music night"...

Around a dozen musicians sitting in the round, with people just starting to play reasonably well known songs and everyone just joining in...

Ian played two of his own tunes, which, of course, no-one knew so playing along was fairly impossible for them...

But they indulged him - this was his local when he lived near here for many years and most of the guys knew him...

For my sins, I managed to lead the group in a rousing rendition of "Let's Stick Together", complete with both violin and accordion solos...

Set list (of sorts)

Lyin' Eyes

Cocaine

Sunny Afternoon

House of the Rising Sun

Some Scottish Pish

Folsom Prison Blues

Ian’s song about Dr Winter

A Bob Dylan song

Dirty Old Town

Don’t Think Twice It's Alright

Ordinary Man (Christy Moore)

Ian’s song re the last man hanged for blasphemy

As Tears Go By

Fisherman’s Blues

The Leaving of Liverpool

Let’s Stick Together

Meet Me on the Corner

When I’m Dead and Gone

Over the Mountain

Some More Scottish Pish

and

A song about a drunk guy coming home to find a different item, each night, for a week, which belonged to another man, whom his wife was obviously seeing while he was getting drunk at the pub

Some things were better than others...

My unannounced tips for the team were:

Set up a WhatsApp group and post the songs you'd like everyone to play - maybe just the titles and the keys - to allow everyone to be reasonably familiar with what's going on rather than, quite often, just guessing the chords (and to decide whether or not they want to participate in a song)...

Introduce elements of percussion to the evening - even just shakers or muted tambourines...

All in all though, surprisingly enjoyable...

Took Ian for a tram home from the top of Leith walk and I was back home by 11 for a "Chicago PD"...

Bed post midnight...

Highlight of the Day: Musicking and diary catch up...

Today's New Music: