I went swimming today, did my 70 lengths, and then walked home. It was a beautiful day and despite my body telling me, “Wait, you just did 70 lengths and now you want to walk home?”, I thought that the distraction of sunlight and the daily life of an old Portuguese city on a warm spring day would take my mind off the effort. It was mainly true but by the time I’d been to Tubitek to check on the tragic damage to the two priority albums I wanted for Record Store Day (Ian McCulloch’s Slideling (2003) and The Groundhogs’ Crosscut Saw (1976)), I was fading and I didn’t get the records. I met Olivia for a coffee which was a welcome rest and a nice sit down in the centre of town watching the world go by, but when we arrived back at In Deep headquarters, that chair in front of the stereo has never looked more welcoming.

The handyman, part plumber, part electrician, part porpoise (see Robert Wyatt’s Sea Song, from Rock Bottom, 1974), was putting a plug on the cooker. So tonight it was ‘the classic’, veggie sausages, peas, mashed spuds, and broccoli – never had something so simple tasted so good. Although at one point the electricity went out because that baby takes some power out of the walls. Earlier, a real electrician had visited to assess the needs of the archive/studio/creative space and apparently wasn’t happy with all those devices plugged into scarce outputs and suggested we get in some more lines and pre-empt the cooker draining the electricity, he suggested a separate line for it.

Pedro and Carolina dropped by to say hello and check out the place that they’d helped us move to. Luckily I was watching Ronnie get beaten (go Luca) and missed the collapse. It was a big day for the premiership with first (Arsenal) playing second (Man City) and second winning 4-1, the best bit was seeing Haaland score his goal with his hair untied and flowing in the wind, I hope this encourages a new direction in hairstyles as other players become aware that the longer your hair, the more goals you score.

We watched the last two episodes of Picard which seems to have closed the book on the Next Generation crew and opened one on Captain Seven of Nine, nothing announced yet but the way they left it means something is cooking. I watched the first episode of The Mandalorian, I like the robots and the aliens more than the script so far, but it’s often the way with American sci-fi.

Music today has been the half-speed mastered 50th Anniversary release of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane (1973). It was the last album released with The Spiders, although Mick Ronson and Trevor Bolder also played on Pin Ups, also released in 1973, Woody Woodmansey was replaced by Aynsley Dunbar who stayed to play on Diamond Dogs (1974). The Aladdin Sane lineup also included piano virtuoso Mike Garson, allegedly suggested to Bowie by the amazing Annette Peacock who’d turned Bowie down when he asked her to play with him. Check out her great debut album, I’m the One (1972). Lady Grinning Soul (and Brown Sugar) was written for soul singer and one-time Ikette, Claudia Lennear. You can see her interviewed in the doco 20 Feet from Stardom.

Music Of The Daze