I think they call it filthy weather in the vernacular, but although it’s grey and slightly windy, with more or less constant rain…it isn’t really cold. All this but it’s still 17°C/62°F+ – in Stockholm it’s snow, in Germany and England it’s ten degrees colder. We don’t have any heat on, so no massive heating bills. Hopefully, the government crisis doesn’t turn into a populist victory in the snap election. We are after all foreigners, I don’t speak Portuguese, having said that, I have never been to a friendlier place as a foreigner, I feel very welcome here, the Portuguese are wonderful people, but it is true, wages are very low and accommodation can be pricey, making it difficult for the locals to find an affordable home. There are lots of younger people getting older living with their parents.

We ventured out – me with my Liverpool umbrella not quite coping with the rain’s angles, signifying the loss to Toulouse yesterday, 4-3, in a classic game. I see games like this and figure that it means so much more to Toulouse to beat Liverpool than it does for Liverpool to beat Toulouse, so even as a Liverpool fan, I was hoping they could manage it. I figure Liverpool will qualify for the next round anyway, one hopes.

We were picking up a package from Olivia’s dad with some bits and pieces for Olivia and some ‘magnetic writable stripes’ for my whiteboard that allow me to move song titles around for sequencing in a much easier manner than if they are just written there or in a document on the computer. Great for sequencing albums or putting a setlist together for a live show. On that subject, our first live show is in León, Spain, in 12 days. So I even managed to play three songs on the legendary tape guitar today whilst having to string the Seagull (no animals were harmed), not changed since the shows in England in March. I managed to get through the whole process without drawing any blood till the last second and somehow I pricked my finger on the Octave G, it was like an own goal in the last second of the game.

A sesh with Sarah at 10 PM as she prepares to fly to Porto via NYC. She will be here Monday and she will be helping me do some recording in the studio and tour managing the three shows we are doing, yay. She’ll also be bringing me Celestial Seasonings – Tension Tamer tea, as it’s getting low here and not the easiest thing to find in Porto. She’ll also be bringing vinyl/CDs and T-shirts, so if you want anything, you’d better send an email to Olivia (olivia@martywillson-piper.com) to reserve something before the Spaniards and the Portuguese go nuts and buy everything (unlikely, but you never know). We have all the recent releases except for Noctorum – The Afterlife (2019) and Spirit Level vinyl (1992 CD only/2018), which have both sold out.

Music today has been Cream – Wheels of Fire (1968). The reason I listened to it was that a random track came up, Born Under a Bad Sign, written by Booker T. Jones with lyrics by William Bell that has the classic line:

Born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl, if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.

I thought, any excuse to listen to Cream – plus it was produced by Felix Pappalardi of whom I am also a fan.

Music Of The Daze