A big box arrived from Germany today, sent by Olivia’s dad and containing a whole lot of things that we couldn’t bring back to Porto from Cologne on the plane, it’s cheaper to send a box DHL than to put an extra bag on the flight. There’s a size and weight limit for cabin baggage and it’s just easier to send it (Thanks, Gerd). What is it about opening a box, it’s just so exciting, even if you know what’s inside. It must be the present syndrome. We have a hallway full of empty boxes waiting to be filled and that makes for an unhomely home, you know you’re moving and every trip into the hallway reminds you of the fact. But we have somewhere, there’s only one problem…

We have found premises for The Archive, so begins Phase 2, turning the space into a place where The Archive can be set up. But the task at hand is a big one. We will have to build rooms and of course, find a way to get the archive to Portugal (that’s Phase 3, and possibly the most complicated because of the Brexit customs issue). In the meantime, we intend to put all our resources into the space. We have to gut it and slowly build it from the ground up, but it’s an empty shell full of potential. We are going to put a bed in the corner and live with the renovation. With a British tour coming up, we’re hoping that we can get some work done on it while we are away with our landlord Nuno overseeing it. We are going to be starting a GoFundMe In Deep Music Archive – Phase 2 if you would like to contribute to the concept, a music archive collecting vinyl, CDs, cassettes, books, music magazines, posters, memorabilia, guitars, amps, record players and radios, concert tickets (yes, even old concert tickets) but also VHS videos and DVDs. It seems to me that there are not a lot of collections that are trying to project themselves into the future after the collector has fallen off his perch, this collection must survive.

We went back to Nuno’s house with the real estate agent, André, and the contract man, Francisco and we raised a glass of Coke Zero in celebration of the future (they had champers). We went out with Nuno and his family to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner, his wife Carla is a doctor (his son Miguel is eight). Lovely people and as Nuno is a photographer, web designer, arty, he loves the idea of the archive dream. When he came downstairs to meet us I could hear Reptile playing.

We walked into the centre of town on the way home, Olivia got some tasty Bangladeshi sushi to have as a supper snack, I ate a big plate at the veggie place so I wasn’t hungry for anything…except the chocolate-covered carrot cake in my bag, a Portuguese delicacy. At home, I was straight into the Arktik Lake mixes. Andreas and I have a conversation about the songs every other day, then he sends me mixes and I listen to them, make notes and then he makes notes after he hears what I have to say, then he makes the changes until the next time. The notes get fewer and fewer as the mixes get completed. It still takes a few hours to go through everything but we are about done now, as far as a release, that’s another conversation.

Music today has been Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief because our mate Derek posted that ace picture of me at the Birmingham Symphony Hall sound-checking when All About Eve supported. Liege & Lief was the band’s fourth album but the third album they released in 1969. Folk rock was born around this time.

Music Of The Daze