Straight out of bed into a Bolt and down to the water to meet Virgil Donati, one of the world’s great technical drummers. Although he started in pop and played with Oz glam rockers Taste in the seventies, he found his first real taste of high position chart success with Southern Sons in Australia. He lives in Italy now and as his name suggests, he was a lad growing up in Melbourne with Italian parents who had him speaking Italian as a boy. The drum show will see him do his workshop tomorrow, but he took us into a room where Billy Cobham was rehearsing, Cobham is one of the world’s most famous drummers. Nice to talk to an Australian musician who was aware of all those venues we played in Melbourne in the eighties.

We left to get to André and Nuno’s get-together down the street. Our real estate agent and ex-landlord were inviting all their clients for snacks in Nuno’s gallery. We couldn’t stay long, as we had tickets for the art cinema to see Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (1985). All was well – until the film abruptly stopped. As it happened, the person sitting next to us was the organiser. He got up, grabbed a mic, and told us all they were working on fixing it. Eventually, they did – for three minutes and it stopped again, so that was it, they told us we could get a refund, the problem – a corrupted digital file.

We came back for dinner and had the bright idea of searching for the film on the internet. We have a large-screen TV, so it might just be as good! Olivia found it and we managed to watch the whole film after all. We’d only paid €5 total for the tickets and it was £3.50 online, which was real value for money. The film, based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, is one of Kurosawa’s later epics with amazing cinematography, action scenes, and incredible acting – with a storyline from a master. Where do you go from something so special? It’s obvious, Match Of The Day on the BBC with the highlights of five games. Liverpool play tomorrow.

Music today has been Far East Family Band – “The Cave” Down To Earth (1975). If you like some Japanese Floydyness, this is for you.

Music Of The Daze