There’s a new 9/10 review for the MOAT – Poison Stream album today from Gerry Ranson at Viva Le Rock. We are trying to figure out where to have all the reviews easily accessible for all the records we make but one thing that has become apparent is the cost of the websites and the space they take up, it’s getting expensive. We have the In Deep Music Archive site, my website, Noctorum, and Olivia’s site on WordPress and the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance and Marty & Olivia sites on Squarespace but it is the two WordPress sites with the huge content that is the issue – In Deep and my site. So my question is how many visitors do these sites get? Do they justify their cost? When I suggested a while back that I might not bother with FB anymore and just have the blog on the website, a lot of people suggested that it was the FB post that led them to the site and they wouldn’t go there if the blog notification wasn’t on FB – they just couldn’t go to the site every day without the prompting. This also raises the question of how many people read the whole blog, see the pics on the website and get to the music part of the blog versus how many people just see the FB pic and read (or scan) the first paragraph and don’t bother with the full blog at all? Questions Without Answers. But also this is an opportunity for me to thank everyone that buys me a coffee and supports the blog (and reads it) and everything else because that’s what’s going to help pay these bills. When I get a tick I’ll go and thank you personally.

We’re still struggling with the anxiety of the flat situation. The one next door is huge but has fewer amenities and would be ridiculously expensive to heat when the winter months arrive, plus it’s more expensive rent. We wouldn’t have initially chosen to live in it at any price because it’s simply too big and not cosy at all with three bedrooms with double beds, the living room is a football pitch. It may only be next door but we’re in the middle of MOAT CD signings, sessions, illustrated lyrics and coordinating all these projects, we are busy all the time. One positive thing is that Portugal has been taken off the red list so I can travel to England without going into quarantine. I got another message today that my jab is waiting for me, everything all at once. Do I wait for a jab here or do I fly back to England for a few days?

It was another beautiful day today and I asked Olivia to come to the bakery with me so we could just go and sit in the park together afterwards. The sun was hot on the face, 73/22, even the pigeons were staying in the shade, sitting on the branches, waiting for someone/anyone to come and feed them. All the benches were full around the fountain but as we went to sit on the grass, the wandering man with the plastic bag and the rucksack picked up his things and left so we had a seat. I also noticed that the stone tables and seats had the barriers removed and the tape was gone so people could sit and eat lunch. New covid cases were down to 541 yesterday here but it’s disturbing to know that Italy is going into a third wave and Brazil is a disaster – will it ever end?

I had a sesh with Noelle in Montreal today, fellow Porto resident and ex Lush bassist Phil King sent me a copy of the latest Uncut magazine and sessioneer Orlando sent me a copy of his book Espresso. Thank you all. All things MOAT are nearly finished, Olivia is on her last illustrated lyric, which actually wasn’t a MOAT campaign perk, it’s sessioneer Noel, decoration for his new home studio. All the internet concert perks have been honoured but we have three more booked and the next one is on Saturday with Fred and friends in Minneapolis, so tomorrow we have to rehearse for that, we have Fred’s list. I’m realising that most of these new MOAT songs we can’t play as a duo, I need another guitar player who plays 6 string with weird tunings and some kind of fingerpicking style – it needs to be Niko or someone who can do that kind of thing whilst I sing the songs, a challenge for the live future if Niko can’t get on the road with us.

Music today has been the first Chicago Transit Authority s/t double album (1969). What a great record, quite different to what started to happen to them at some point in the seventies where they became schlock. This record is rough and ready, jagged edges and features Terry Kath, allegedly Hendrix’s fave guitarist. There’s one track called Free Form Guitar which is just 6 minutes of glorious feedback. But the album is so multi-faceted, cool organ, brass, great rhythms and a proper singer in Robert Lamm with Kath and Peter Cetera also taking on lead vocals. It has the classic Lamm penned Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?. It also has a cover of the Steve Winwood/Jimmy Miller song I’m A Man, originally recorded by the Spencer Davis Group in 1967. Then there’s the curiously titled Questions 67 and 68, Poem 58 and the last track, a stirring 15-minute version of Liberation, showcasing Kath’s guitar playing. It’s a really great album – if you like this kind of thing.

Hot Tip: If you are on Spotify don’t listen to the 50th-anniversary remix, it sounds bad, listen to the remaster. It’s so good, I listened to it twice.

Terry Kath – guitar/vocals
Robert Lamm – keys/vocals
Peter Cetera – bass/vocals
Walter Parazaider – sax/tambourine
Lee Loughnane – trumpet/claves
James Pankow – trombone/cowbell
Danny Seraphine – drums/perc

Music Of The Daze