So how was your Record Store Day? Hopefully, you found some interesting gems. If you were looking for Nightjar and your local shop sold out or didn’t have it, you’ll be happy to know that if you get in touch with Schoolkids Records on Monday you will be able to order a copy from them. Here in Penzance Record Store Day doesn’t exactly have people chomping at the bit. There is a new store here but it’s very small and it only sells cool left of centre secondhand albums, although you can order new records there too. The nearest RSD record store is in Truro, not that far, but as we were in the studio today preparing for the arrival of sessioneer Ahad and we don’t have a car we weren’t going. So Record Store Day has struggled this year with its April cancellation and it’s split into three days over a three month period (I heard that the ex-band has Gold Afternoon Fix coming out on October 24th, the last of the RSD Drops). One wonders if they will be holding the next Record Store Day in April next year? If so, what should be the next RSD release from the back catalogue? We need to start preparing for it. Pic today is the original of some extra artwork included in the RSD Nightjar release.

Today was studio day but we started off by watching Everton – Crystal Palace mainly because Dare is an Everton supporter! (Everton won 2-1.) I have Amazon Prime and this one match was exclusively shown there today. Plus we had the time today, Olivia was playing some violin on a track and Dare wanted to have a listen to see what other musicians we might need in the piano or the trumpet department. But it’s all about Ahad now. He arrives in England on Sunday and he will be down here on Tuesday night, on Wednesday we will start recording the vocals, no pressure Ahad! We are hoping he can stay long enough to sing all the songs in one trip because the pandemic might hinder travel in the future and we need to have everything recorded before the mix. We’ll see.

Sessioneer Tony in Sydney has been recording too and he is sending Dare and I works in progress for me to add to as I see fit. So straight after Ahad we have Tony’s EP to look at. I’m not sure when Olivia and I are going to be able to record songs from our live set and I also don’t know when Dare and I will be able to continue with the next Noctorum album that we have already started. Because of Brexit we have to get to Portugal in November, I need paperwork to be able to be in the same country as my wife.

Next year? Who knows what is going to happen next year? Virus believers and non-believers are going to be slugging it out. All I know is that restrictions are in place and it’s pretty hard to plan, especially when you are also being forced to move country (thanks Brexit). It’s not like we don’t have anything else to worry about. Olivia and I have dates pencilled in for Europe in Feb/March and Anekdoten dates in Canada in May and in Sweden in June. Will they happen? Will the virus that one lot doesn’t believe in and the others do be gone? Will the non-believers switch off the hologram or will the believers mourn the dead that the non-believers don’t believe in? Will the restrictions be here or be gone? Will the venues have survived? Will the audience still exist? Will America still be there on November 4th? Does America even exist if you’ve never been there? An article in the Independent today for you to read.

Music today comes from Italian proggers Banco del Mutuo Soccorso who released their debut album in 1972. Hailing from Rome, their name means Bank of Mutual Relief, pretty funny I thought. If you have never ventured into the land of Italian Prog it’s a treasure trove of amazing music and somehow it suits the language. The band on this album is the Nocenzi brothers, Vittorio and Gianni, who are both keyboard players. Vittorio also plays the clarino (a kind of trumpet) and Gianni the E-flat clarinet. On guitar Marcello Todaro and Renato D’Angelo on bass with Pierluigi Calderoni on drums but although there are lots and lots of great instrumental passages they have a wonderful lead singer in Francesco Di Giacomo (he was tragically killed in a car accident in 2014).

Their second album Darwin! was released in the same year and follows the same path with the same lineup (despite AllMusic’s review that says it isn’t). If you are a Gentle Giant fan you’ll like this a lot, if you are an ELP fan you will also like it a lot. But as you might have heard me say before, it’s really great – if you like this kind of thing. Musical criticism only becomes relevant when something isn’t happening within its genre – this is definitely happening within its genre. And also note that the Italian Prog scene is a rich vein to mine.

Song Of The Daze

 

Looking forward to your Nightjar pictures: