Hot, hot, hot, it’s 31 degrees again today so we broke out the fans. We tried the old ice in front trick but it just melted so quickly that it only lasted about 15 minutes. The rest of the week will taper off but it won’t be cold and it will start getting hotter again by Friday. So, no gigs, no studio, no swim, I might take a week to get back into being home, catch up with emails, and mingle with the tourists of which there will be many. Also tomorrow, it’s a new month, new dreams, new ideas and new creative pursuits. Sessions galore and getting into the home studio, writing songs and working with the sessioneers. Last but not least this is the period where we attempt to get the archive moving. I don’t think it’s going to be easy but we are certainly going to try our best to make it happen, get it here, find the money to pay the costs somehow and have it set up, a love letter to music.

Today is the Euros final, England vs Germany, the result is to come later in the blog as it hasn’t happened yet. A great event and a wonderful advertisement for women’s football whoever wins. The girls complain less, fake it less, argue less and the skills are evident, just look at Russo’s goal or Stanway’s goal against Sweden or Earps in goal. When you think about yesterday’s Community Shield and how Manchester City chose not to collect their loser’s medals, something I’ve never seen, it makes me almost as sad as a football fan as when opposing fans boo and whistle when the opposite team has the ball, sad, sad, sad.

Drink, drink, drink, that’s what they say about dealing with the hot weather, but is it just water or is it liquid? Does tea count? Hot, yes I know, but I don’t stop drinking tea because it’s hot. Also as I’m on a sugar-free trip is coke zero bad? Ok, it’s bad, but how bad? Sugar-free but chemical-heavy.

So they won, they beat Germany 2-1 in extra time. A wonderful thing for women’s football. One thing I noticed at the women’s game, there was no singing in the crowd. I didn’t really think that singing was an exclusively male thing for football supporters. As Travis said Sing, Sing, Sing. But the friendly family atmosphere at women’s games and the enthusiasm bodes well for the future.

No, no, no, another iconic woman has died, Nichelle Nichols who played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek. All the trekkies loved her and it’s so sad to hear she is gone. Uhura was responsible for the first TV interracial kiss with Kirk, a groundbreaking moment, ridiculous as the world is, we had to go to space to make it happen. You may remember the episode where she was singing, “What is music?”

Music today has been now, now, now or as the world would have us believe, Beyoncé is the sheeet. It’s fascinating to listen to music like this. I always wondered about the punk and indie crowd who thought prog was overly complex, it’s a criticism that is never raised in regards to contemporary R&B but this album makes prog sound like the Pistols. I suppose the difference is inner dancing rather than outer dancing, brain and body, but this record is smart. Apparently politically aware, I can’t really hear that in the lyrics but I do hear one too many F-bombs for me. Today’s paper has a controversy over a lyric, derogatory to disabled people.

It’s a record that all music fans should hear, I bet Kate Bush likes it, I bet Kate Bush is astounded by it. It has her invention with the R&B groove, immaculate production, warm, how do they programme the drums to sound and feel like this? If you like Motown and classy R&B with a creative spirit and skills galore from the singing to the backing vocals, the musicality, the arrangements, the groove and the songs themselves, then you’ll like this or at least some of it…a lot. I’m yet to see the videos…

Music Of The Daze