Up to hang with Sarah for a couple of hours before she headed out of town. Gerd, Olivia’s dad, also came over for what will be his last day and we listened to records, ironically one of which was Wish You Were Here. We’ve been doing a lot of record listening in the last few days and what an absolutely spiffing pursuit it is. A phone-free zone, using the ears for better horizons, the eyes for the cover art, and feeding the soul without moving. Sarah had to go to catch her flight and we waved goodbye as she descended the Archive steps towards the waiting Bolt, even harder to leave on such a beautiful day.

Olivia and Gerd had decided to go and visit the botanical garden and museum whilst I floated around The Archive, imagining the shelves full of records whilst happily listening to Caravan’s If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You (1970), the French release in a different cover. Time flew by and by the time I’d watched half of Man City/Forest, it was time to go out.

I was meeting Olivia over at a park in Cedofeita where local lads Population 5 were playing open air. Chico from one of the nearby record stores was singing, and Phil from Lush was playing guitar. We finally got to meet Phil’s partner Marta after three years here. The vibe was cool, the PA was troublesome, Chico disappeared into the leaves of the trees, but on a lovely day with kids and animals including a spider coming down to listen on the longest-ever web line, we’re happy. We left as the encore ensued on the way to meet Gerd for a home-cooked dinner.

It was a lovely walk through the city as we wound our way through dilapidated buildings with beautiful architecture, I just kept on thinking – in ten years! So now’s the time, winning the lottery would be really handy right now, but I guess you have to buy the ticket. As we came close to the Hard Rock Café, Castro and his friend Renata were standing outside. Castro has booked us to play there on the 30th of November. He invited us to come and see another performer there, Alain Johannes (on October 5th) who used to be in Queens of the Stone Age, amongst many other projects, just to get a feel for the place.

Back at the ranch, Olivia cooked another exotic dish for dad and for me and we listened to Robin Trower’s first, Twice Removed From Yesterday (1973) and last, No More Worlds To Conquer (2022) as well as the last two ELO albums Alone In The Universe (2015) and From Out Of Nowhere (2019). Dad went back to his hotel, I caught up with the blog, and now I’m going to bed, a mad few days of catching up with projects are coming.

But first, what was Today’s Music? Sarah arrived, she went to the shelves and picked out Alice Cooper’s Killer (1971) – hard to beat.

Music Of The Daze