For those of you that like some kind of visible stimulation when you hear a new song, Craig has engaged the talented Sarah Downen for a simple yet effective way of visualizing the latest Blueburst release, Supernova, with a lyric video over Craig’s psychedelic image, we hope you like it. You can also listen to the first single Vanish below. Lots of good reviews abound. Craig has been on a 20-year sabbatical from his nineties band The Reach but he’s back and I have been collaborating with him through the sessions as sometime writing contributor, sometime producer and sometime guitar player. Enjoy.

Getting to the swimming pool from the new place is a bit of a hike. Walk to the subway (Campo 24 de Agosto), train to Trindade, change trains and train to Marquês and then walk to the pool from there. There’s a little more to it than when we lived in Marquês. I managed my non-stop freestyle mile today, it’s amazing how quickly my body gets back into it. I was in the pool talking to my swimming buddy Hugo about it and there was a young’un there who overheard and said “64 lengths non-stop, are you a professional swimmer?” – Haha, I’m an elephant in lead boots in comparison with some of the people in there but he said he couldn’t make one length, I told him ‘yet’, it’s like everything, you gotta practice.

It was such a beautiful day that I decided to walk back, taking a not-so-familiar street and winding my way down into the city. I suddenly recognised where I was and found myself outside one of the cool record stores in Porto (Louie Louie). I was in there like iron filings to a magnet. I found a couple of interesting records (haha, no?). An odd Norwegian vinyl album of mostly covers by Susanna, Flower of Evil (2008), back in Norway, it has some unlikely tracks from the extremes of Nico’s Janitor Of Lunacy from the album Desertshore (1970) to Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak (1976). Also, a Stray collection that I didn’t have, Reflecting A Generation (1977). Also in the store they have 5€ CDs so I bought the two U2 records that seem to polarise, Songs of Innocence (2014) and Songs of Experience (2017) in the light of the comments about Songs of Surrender (2023). I also found a posthumous CD release of Billy Mackenzie that I didn’t have called Transmission Impossible (2005) which would be worth it just for his version of Wild Is The Wind.

I was actually on my way to Tubitek to pick up the new Feist album Multitudes (2023) but was tempted by more 5€ CDs, Morrissey’s Low in High School (2017) and the first Magpie Salute CD, High Water I (2018). The Archive has to continue to be in stock with new and older records, CDs, growth material. I suppose if we were millionaires we would have department heads, a classical department, a hip-hop department, and of course the history of Fado.

I watched Man City qualify for the Champions League semifinal after a draw with Bayern Munich and at midnight had a meeting with Arktik Lake Tony and video director Pete in Byron Bay to discuss a video for the first Arktik Lake single. It was 1.30 AM by the time we were done and I had to be up at 8 AM for the gate people. I was flagging and slid into bed and was asleep before I’d thought about it.