I left the protection of the indoors and rugged up. I have some small irritation in my chest so I thought, it’s autumn, you may want to wear a coat? So I put on jeans, T-shirt, waistcoat, scarf, warm jacket and ventured out. It was then that I realised the sky was blue, the sun was shining and I was overdressed. I went to pasty land, Quorn fillet land and sprouts land. I wished I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I went back inside and had a shower, happy that it’s working again. Back into town via W.H. Smith’s, picking up the McCartney issue of Uncut where he discusses his new, more thoughtful record McCartney III which, although it has perhaps a less thoughtful title, is a continuation of a theme where McCartney plays all the instruments as he did on McCartney II (1980) and McCartney (1970). I walked past Vicky and Joe’s house, Vicky was working at her desk in the window (it’s Joe, her husband, who masters our projects). As I walked down the road the weather had completely changed, the sky was grey, it was darker, it was colder, the sun and blue sky had completely gone. I had been indoors for just 45 minutes. I need a clothes change for every hour, it’s times like these that it would be good to be Elton John.

I saw a cat in the distance yesterday and beckoned to it and it came running towards me meowing. I’ve been reading that adult cats don’t meow at each other, kittens meow to mama when they’re cold or hungry. So when a cat meows at you, it recognises that you are an alien and is asking you something in a language reserved for you, probably I’m cold or hungry or perhaps scratch my ear.

I spoke to Gerd, Olivia’s dad, tonight because I had a question (he’s a scientist) – are the planets all in a row in our solar system? I was also wondering about infinity and if our Milky Way galaxy, which has millions of stars, is one of infinite galaxies in all directions, up, down, left and right, I mean infinite galaxies, then surely until we check some of them out, any explanations we have for existence are premature.

We were in the studio again today trying to finish the Arctic Lake recording which we did in a three-hour session. I played some more lead guitar on the Strat, some arpeggios on the Rick 6, the Les Paul (and the Strat). Dare played some organ and we edited some parts in and out, the wonders of computer programs. We will mix on Saturday and then just have one instrumental track to work on and Tony’s Arctic Lake’s latest songs will be done and up to date, we wait for more.

Next week we have brass booked in for the final recording on Ahad’s album. Trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn. After that, we’ll check all overdubs are done and we can start with mixing into December. I’ll be here for the early mixes and when I leave Dare will be sending mixes to me for my input. Jed has sent me the first song for Space Summit 2, months before Space Summit 1 has been released. MOAT’s Poison Stream will be in your hands before you know it.

GET POISON STREAM HERE

I’m finding it quite hard to keep up with the musician losses this year, I haven’t even mentioned Jerry Jeff Walker, Helen Reddy, drummer Tony Allen, Johnny Nash, Dave Munden from The Tremeloes, Brian Locking from The Shadows, Mac Davis, Tommy DeVito from The Four Seasons, Roy Head, Max Merritt, Pete Way, Justin Townes Earl, Wayne Fontana, Mark Wirtz, Trini Lopez, Walter Lure from The Heartbreakers, Jan Savage from The Seeds – Agghhh! This is just since the end of August and not including those I have mentioned: Lee Kerslake and Ken Hensley from Uriah Heep, Spencer Davis, Gordon Haskell, Eddie Van Halen. I have records by all these people and they are all gone. I don’t really want to have an obituary blog. If I wrote about everyone that died and who deserves to be written about then I would only be writing about death but then obituaries are celebrations of life and we mourn them as much as we can.

Music today comes from the very alive Danish mood master and singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. Her debut CD Philharmonics (2010) fell through the letterbox this week and this is the second time I’ve had a chance to listen to it. It’s interesting to hear how she has developed between this, a rather simple mainly piano-based album of songs and voice, to her later more atmospheric and sophisticated effort that is Myopia (2020). Not to say that this isn’t an atmospheric record, it’s just less treated. Philharmonics is a rather nice entry into the world that would see her develop through her albums, Avantine (2013) and Citizen Of Glass (2016). She cites Erik Satie as an example and the album has four instrumental tracks. A surprising cover of John Cale’s Close Watch seems somehow out of context but that might be more about my familiarity with the original. Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel lives in a world of hushed tones and you know she loves her silence as much as she loves her sound.

Song Of The Daze