I hope everyone enjoyed the listening party for the Blueburst album Significance today. Or should I say, the listening parties, it seems that some of us were listening and commenting on a different link, me from Bristol airport. I’m not quite sure how it is even possible to have two different links for the same event, but that’s what happened today. So just to let you know that I was there but may not have been on the link that you were on. The album is available now on a very limited vinyl run, I can only hope Craig is saving one for me.

I was up and catching up with old friends today, I managed to get hold of Lesley in Manchester. Lesley is the friend I worked with at the Lansdowne Hotel in Fallowfield in the seventies. We went grape picking in the south of France together. I spoke to Lisa and Mark in Liverpool, we stayed with them the last time we played there. Spant called me back from the Wirral, Dare called me back with the flu, Andy C didn’t answer the phone, and Eddie J, drummer friend and collaborator, was an answering machine. To my surprise, Biggles answered the phone in New Malden, he doesn’t usually pick up for strange men.

We had a lot of stuff to bring back to Portugal after my Wells warehouse trip and I tried to bring back as much as possible, which was tricky as we were travelling by plane. The original plan was to drive back with a fixed Ariel, but I had to leave most things behind. I managed three guitars, the Shergold 12-string, the 1968 Hagström 8-string bass, and the Takamine nylon string. The NAD amp, the wine rack, the framed Syd Barrett poster, CDs and records, and the stamp collection.

If you’re ever visiting The Archive and you can’t decide which album to donate because you think I might already have it, then you can always bring stamps, they are much lighter and are part of the collection here. It was stamps that first got me interested in travelling, leaving England, and seeing other parts of the world. If it wasn’t for stamps, I may not know about Nits, 22-Pistepirkko, Moving Gelatine Plates, or Agitation Free. I might not know about Flower Travellin’ Band, Kahvas Jute or Mandrill. I might not have been in an Australian band (or two).

The plane was packed, apparently, it’s school holidays for a week, so there were a lot of families heading to Portugal for a warmer short holiday. They might not get guaranteed sunshine, but they will definitely get warmer rain.

Like a nutter, I listened to Judas Priest – Defenders Of The Faith (1984) and Hawkwind – Blood Of The Earth (2010) on the plane – for some reason, I had to hear a racket, this was guaranteed. So music today has been Hawkwind’s Blood Of The Earth (2010). Lots of whooshing.

Music Of The Daze