I went to bed so late last night, after 5 AM, the milkmen were out, sixties and seventies ghosts, I thought of Ernie, the fastest milkman in the west, which will mean nothing to most and everything to some (haha). I was up at lunchtime and watching the rain but made a dash for it in a break and headed to the underground and took a train to Gaia. I was meeting Jorge again as he’d finished setting up my guitar. It was an overhaul and lots of issues were sorted out, action, bridge, nut, neck, pick-ups, machine heads, intonation, there’s a lot to go wrong on a guitar – even more when you pick out the notes.

After Jorge had taken me through the guitar repair, I walked back up the hill to the train and gazed down at the river Douro from the bridge that slices Gaia and Porto in two. I got off at Aliados right in the centre and walked back to The Archive via the record store and picked up a copy of the new Kills album God Games (2023). Christmas is coming, bands are releasing records, box sets, The Beatles, Peter Gabriel, The Who and I just saw that Kate Bush has some lovely expensive reissue of Hounds of Love that I’m pretty sure is going to be out of my budget even if I am the biggest fan. Reissues of the albums are coming too, The Archive sometimes has to look away.

Olivia was out when I got in. She was sending a Marty & Olivia T-shirt to New Zealand (Thanks, Marcus). I’d left her my phone as she was trying to organise the sad towing of Ariel from the garage in Bristol (who want to see the back of her) to the storage house car park in Wells as we try to figure out our next move to save her life – the towing, £180. Ariel is like a pet and when your pet gets sick you take it to the vet to do everything to keep it alive – and then you get the bill.

Olivia cooked, I hoovered, we watched another episode of Bodies over dinner and then I had a sesh with Noel in England where we talked guitars and aeroplanes. I was trying to speak to Craig as he just received the vinyl copies of the Blueburst album and was so happy with how the vinyl sounded, he wanted to share the joy, as you do. After Noel, I retired to the front with my ‘eye thing’, got under a blanket and listened to CD 2 of Pulse (1995) again, The Floyd heals.

Music today has been Kate Bush – The Sensual World (1989). Dave Gilmour plays on two tracks, John Giblin on bass (who sadly died in May). Mick Karn also plays bass on one track, Stuart Elliott and Charlie Morgan on drums, Nigel Kennedy, Eberhard Weber on double bass, Trio Bulgarka, and Kate and the songs. I love it.

Music Of The Daze