Today Olivia was trying to follow up on someone who sent us a picture of the needed part for Ariel. The part is here in Portugal, where it seems that the 1993 Nissan Vanette was a popular vehicle. The mechanic in England said the part looked right, so Olivia tried to get in touch with the fellow today but to no avail, we’ll just try again tomorrow and hope we can make contact. The idea that Ariel isn’t fixable isn’t really working for us because after finding a cylinder head, a camshaft seems much easier, we’ll see. In the meantime, we continue to look for parts in other places, thanks for your mails on this subject. Our friend William has been looking in the US, Noel is looking in the UK, perhaps we need to go on a scrapyard tour, might be fun, but fingers crossed, maybe Kate Bush can help.

On the subject of Kate Bush, today I picked up a nice new reasonably priced copy of Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back (2010), a double covers LP, one LP of his cover versions, and one LP of others covering his songs. We’ve been waiting twenty years for a solo album of original songs from him and I know he’s been putting singles out in the last few months as he tries to negotiate the ‘new world’ that is being a musician, but I saw this and thought, it’s a start, hopefully, there will be a ‘proper’ album soon.

I also picked up the new Pretenders album today, Relentless (2023). I love Chrissie Hynde when she’s on, but I found her albums to be patchy in recent years, I keep the faith and keep on buying anything she puts out and it is actually worth it for a glimmer of her magic. I also picked up a lost classic, Andrew Gold’s tribute to 1960s psychedelic music, Greetings from Planet Love (1997), issued under the pseudonym The Fraternal Order of the All. Gold is best known for some soft rock hits, Lonely Boy, No. 7 in the US in 1977 and Never Let Her Slip Away, a UK No. 5 in 1978, as well as his collaboration with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman (Wax), but this is something else. Check it out, and thanks to my mate Biggles in London for turning me on to it. (Also, it’s a snazzy double 10-inch.)

I was up for a sesh with Bob in Boston at noon and another at 5 PM with Artoush in Atlanta, jumping in and out of The Archive in between. Olivia went and dyed her hair pink and on the subject of pink, I told a young lad in the record store that one of the good things about being older is that I saw the tour of the band and album on his T-shirt – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon – his mate commented that he was born in the wrong era.

Music today has been Kate Bush’s Aerial (2005). She played parts of this album when I saw her live in London in 2014, I was one of the lucky few who got tickets. She’s another one who rarely releases a record, what a shame, I think her worst work would be great, but she’s such a perfectionist, it takes her years to be content with what she’s doing.

Music Of The Daze