The golden rule of travelling is to sleep in the next day. If you wake up, don’t get up, only get up when you find yourself contemplating the images of the beasts in the wallpaper pattern, only get up when your mind is completely engaged in the waking hours, your head buzzing with all the things you have to do. Essentially, you have to pace yourself, do something exhausting, then rest, take every opportunity to get things done and take every opportunity to relax. You can’t keep at it 24/7 and you can’t sit around waiting. Isn’t balance the simple answer to everything?

Outside in the fields, the muck spreader was out, enriching the soil before the crops are planted. I remember this from when I was a child, living in the countryside between Glossop and Marple Bridge. I suppose it’s a sign of spring along with the daffodils that have come to life in the garden. Boydie was off to see Plymouth Argyle play Derby (2-1), leaving at 3 o’clock, two hours’ drive south from here but before he left we hit the psychedelic psupermarket for some supplies. The sun was high in a blue sky and you could feel a wave of warmth through the cold fingers holding on at the end of the winter. Inside the winter was real, it was freezing, I was glad of layers, a scarf and a big coat, I really don’t know how all the old age pensioners were dealing with it. A man came in in shorts and T-shirt, I told him he was going to freeze to death as he passed me, a few moments later he passed me again and said, “I forgot what I came in for”, the cold was doing its work.

We returned to the house driving past the alpaca farm, all red fur contrasting white curls and strangely-shaped heads gathered together on one side of the field. Trevor was soon gone and we set about looking at the records and T-shirts that had arrived from the US for the tour. Next, I was pulling out my guitar from the case to hear the battery rattling around on the inside, it always happens after a flight. It’s not easy to access these old Takamine 12-string models through the strings and you just hope that the wires haven’t come off.

I have lyrics to learn and I have been asking people what songs they want to hear. My plan is to rehearse at Boydie’s, see what comes out, see what’s possible to play and which lyrics I can remember, haha, there’s always the lyric book on stage at acoustic shows, from Dylan to Lucinda Williams. I don’t really need it but sometimes there’s a mental block and you forget the words to the chorus of Smoke On The Water.

Music today has been Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – Live At The Roundhouse (2020). They have just been announced as the headliner on the Friday night at this year’s Night Of The Prog festival at Loreley, Germany, which Olivia hosts. It is their second appearance at the festival. You can compare the 2019 and the 2022 setlists.

Music Of The Daze