The cicadas are screaming, the noise makes the heat hotter, how do the creatures cope? Today in posh Highland Park we saw a rat running behind a bush. In this exclusive neighbourhood rats must find it hard to survive, they must fear the exterminator who is most likely a regular visitor to these parts with the manicured lawns, the preened grass verges, and the road-licking sterility. No people, just massive houses, is there anybody in there? You are more likely to see a runner than a walker because there’s nowhere to walk, you can only drive in this heat, it would be impossible to go for a nice stroll because it becomes unbearable in a few minutes.

David was in today playing bass. He’s the first person that I’ve spoken to in recent days who knows who Roger Nichols was. It’s always a pleasure to have David in the studio, he’s such a brilliant musician and sooooo humble. He played on six songs, trying out ideas on songs that had no bass and replacing two of my bass tracks with a better sound. It’s not just his magic fingers, he has a Rickenbacker, a Gibson Les Paul style, a Longhorn, and the Earthwood – all different sounds for every occasion. The range of bass sounds is wide, and David has them all and is able to execute anything in any way you want from complicated to very simple, the consummate musician.

Later Paul came in with his clear high voice to sing some harmonies. I told him that he must listen to the two Scarlet Party singles (someone out there must be able to find me the unreleased album Scarlet Skies, surely). The band was essentially brothers Graham and Steven Dye with Sean Heaphy on drums, later joined by Dave Gilmour’s brother, Mark. Signed to Parlophone, Graham Dye’s voice was so similar to John Lennon but after two amazing singles, they were dropped, Graham went on to sing with The Alan Parsons Project. Check ’em out.

Music today has been the two Scarlet Party singles 101 Dam-Nations and the eerily Lennon-like B side What Is This Thing (1982) and Eyes Of Ices/Another World (1983).

Music Of The Daze