Today we played an online concert. We’ve been doing Skype concerts every couple of weeks for at least a few months. The idea is that you send us a list of songs from my catalogue, that is anything I’ve been part of, and we’ll see what we can translate into guitar, violin, and voice. It can be solo songs, projects, ex-band songs, anything really (today it was all solo and Noctorum songs). Sometimes when we get a list of songs we look at it and wonder how we could play some of the suggestions but it’s surprising when you start trying to work them out – some of the most unlikely choices end up working really well. Other songs that might seem quite obvious, don’t work at all.

BOOK A SKYPE CONCERT HERE

Today we played 14 songs, Water, Sanctuary, You Whisper, How Come They Don’t Touch The Ground, I Must Have Fallen, Lullaby For the Lonely, Melody Of The Rain, Feed Your Mind, Hopes And Fears, St. Germain, High As A Kite, You Bring Your Love To Me, My Museum, and a rousing encore of Time Is Imaginary. It’s strange how you can just miss an album and today it was Spirit Level, but there are just so many records and so little time – that line relates to the In Deep Music Archive as well.

MOVING THE IN DEEP MUSIC ARCHIVE

It’s such a buzz playing to an appreciative audience, today the good folks were in Utah and Idaho. These days I have more of a studio set up so we are using proper microphones rather than singing through the computer speakers, so sound quality has improved since we started. I still only have one guitar here in Porto so I have to tune every time I put the capo on and off the guitar. I’m playing with a violinist so my guitar has to be in tune with that instrument rather than in tune with itself. I usually have two guitars for this very reason, one with capo, one without, saves all the fiddling.

It’s all about this concert today because I didn’t do anything else apart from watch the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Leicester, Leicester won 1-0 in an exciting second half with a classic goal by Youri Tielemans. It’s the first time Leicester has won the FA Cup, Chelsea has won it nine times, so someone else got a turn. For football nerds, they play each other again next week in the Premier League which could be a deciding game about who of these two make the Champions League (if Liverpool win their next three games…). Then there’s the Champions League final here in Porto between Chelsea and Man City, Chelsea will be desperate to win one of these three crucial games. That’s the football latest.

But back to the concert, it takes all kinds of furniture moving to get set up to play. Hawaii can’t believe it, it’s just so exciting for him. Oh my Cat God they’ve taken two chairs out of the kitchen and put them in the front room! (If it wasn’t obvious, that’s Hawaii talking.) I put some tape on the floor for our first concert and since then I’ve been using the old faded pieces of tape to put chairs and mic stands and tables in exactly the same place so we don’t mysteriously sound sonically good one week and not so sonically good the next. Hawaii was causing us some grief as we were playing. He looks up at the computer on the table ready to pounce and you just know if you let him jump he’s going to switch it off. Olivia has discovered the knack of playing violin whilst gently pushing Hawaii away with her foot.

Language today was French and Swedish, I’m wondering can I learn more than one language at the same time without getting confused? I sometimes write a sentence half in French and half in English and at first, I don’t notice. I was reading that the part of your brain that lights up when you speak your mother tongue is a different centre to the part that lights up when you speak a second language – fascinating.

Music today has been Robin Trower’s Twice Removed From Yesterday (1973) and Long Misty Days (1976). Olivia says I play Robin Trower when I’m stressed. I just fall into the guitar tones.

Music Of The Daze

Walking past Café Pereira today, there are now tables outside as lockdown has ended and there’s a regular clientele that I’ve started to recognise along with the different customers of the day. Today a girl sitting on her chair swinging feet in pink sneakers, a man with mirror glasses and a cigarette, the man with the black crash helmet, two black dudes on their phones, one with the most ornate yellow and black jacket you’ve ever seen and football haircuts. One man, always there, beer and cigarette, always alone. I suppose café, coffee, beer, and cigarettes, observing the day, waiting for a friend, meeting for a chat, is as relaxing as it gets. The café sits in the shade later in the day, perhaps in the morning it’s in the sun, I don’t know, I never see the mornings. In two weeks the café will be swarming with Man City and Chelsea fans as will the Marquês park as 12,000 of them head for Portugal. I hope they don’t fight each other, one team has to lose. No second prize, human sports teams find it hard to be in second place, imagine if the losers were jumping up and down singing yay, we came second.

I was speaking exaggerated proper English in the bakery today, one of the guys in there has no English, so I told him ‘very clearly and slowly in a very posh voice that I could help him out’, he just got embarrassed and blushed, it really should be me who is embarrassed as I have no Portuguese. I suppose languages you’ve never spoken or never really heard aren’t the easiest to get into at 63 but if in five years I want to apply for citizenship here I’ll need to reach a certain level – I have time and it’s not like I have no experience with languages at all, it might be much harder if this was your first go.

Yesterday, walking to the pool, there was a flock of pigeons (I so wanted to say A Flock Of Seagulls) flying in a perfect bunch, never colliding and swerving through the air backwards and forwards. Why do we take such incredible acts of skill so for granted, especially if it’s pigeons? I love it when you look up in the sky and see birds in that perfect ‘V’. Hawaii loves the birds too, he sits in the window and marvels as they fly by and watches them closely when they sit on the roof opposite – I guess it’s not appreciation.

Seshes today with Stephen in DC, Fred in Minneapolis, and Noel in Surrey, and before that walking back from the pool, I took a different route and found myself walking past a recording studio with music bursting out. Thank you to everyone that has donated to the In Deep Music Archive GoFundMe campaign so far. The idea is to also bring all the guitars and amps and get my studio gear out of storage, equipment that has been there for 20 years, I have three tape recorders, the Teac 4 track that I recorded In Reflection on in Sydney, a Fostex 16 track that I recorded Rhyme on in Stockholm and a Tascam 24 track that I used in the studio in Stockholm along with a Tascam 32 channel mixing desk. I haven’t seen these items for years. It would be amazing to have a studio, archive, cafe, and living place all in one, then all the sessioneers could record there. We would nip downstairs, take the Rickenbacker 12 string off the wall and bring it upstairs for the recording sesh – I can see it all, Mr Ek.

It’s cicada season and that incredible 17-year cycle and if you’d like to find out a little more about these amazing creatures with a short video like I did go here.

Music today has been the Charisma Records 3-disc Anthology CD, Refugees, 1969-1978, released in 2009. The late Tony Stratton-Smith’s extremely varied label from Brand X to Clifford T. Ward. A lot of forgotten musical treats like The Nice, String Driven Thing, Rare Bird, and Audience. Great, if you like that kind of thing.

Music Of The Daze

As we walked towards the gym today, we caught the breeze in our bones, cloudy sky, no rain but after five minutes of walking you’ve warmed up anyway. It’s not exactly Siberia here and cold is relative, I still see people in coats when I’m in a T-shirt. Today walking through the Marquês green island, there was a seagull pecking at the carcass of a dead pigeon. Ok, it’s nature but to put a sentimental slant on it, this little park is usually populated by both seagulls and pigeons, they share it, but if you die, you just become meat. The park is across from the church and there are often homeless people here who go across to the church for food. Yesterday as we were just finishing the interview three teenage girls came up to us and told us that there was a man over there who was not feeling well. He was sat at one of the stone tables, he was homeless, he was an alcoholic and Carlos the interviewer went to help him and called an ambulance. The ambulance crew arrived and knew who he was. He hadn’t eaten all day and looked very fragile, Carlos went and bought him a sandwich. The ambulance took him away, another day in Marquês.

I had a sesh with Orlando in Cornwall today, I finished his book and was thinking more about how reading has this strange ability to make you love it whilst you are doing it, and yet despite that finding the time is almost impossible. Again, it’s priorities and even half an hour a day would be worthwhile but I was thinking today that in order for me to do everything I want, I may need to make a list with times on it that says things like, 8.00 PM eat, 8.02 PM, chew. I suppose one has to face up to the fact that most of your life has already happened and any big plans have to be carefully set out. Well, my father lived till he was 93, 30 years of music, travel, reading, languages, curating the In Deep Music Archive, and living, hopefully healthy, seems like quite a long time to enjoy your hobbies.

I didn’t want to get out of bed today and reluctantly got up after the third alarm. Hawaii is always the first task on the list as he lies by his food bowl and meows until he gets his brunch. Half a papaya, some cereal, and a cup of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer with honey for me, and it’s time to go, Olivia also trying to catch up. In the gym, I was reading on the bike and avoiding any machines that relate to my back as I have muscle pain higher up on the right side. On the pavement outside the gym, there were bags of half-eaten food strewn near the bins, it might have been the seagulls that had dragged them out but they don’t seem to like cherries as much as pigeon flesh as they lay untouched on the ground.

On the walk back home I noticed that there are posters displayed at the bus stop for live music. Os Azeitonas (The Olives), a pop-rock band, popular here in Portugal. It’s good learning languages because you finally understand things like ‘Os’ is ‘The’ in Portuguese. The Portuguese sixties psychedelic band Os Mutantes who became known some years ago outside Brazil translates simply to The Mutants, a radical sound, look and name for their country and era. Actually today I studied three languages, none of them Portuguese, I did simple exercises in German, Swedish, and French. French has become a little more complicated and I need longer periods of time to get through the lessons, so a slow down for the complicated and an introduction to simpler forms in other languages until I can get solid concentrated time on the more difficult levels.

Football today was very exciting for Liverpool fans as they beat Man U at Old Trafford 2-4, Kloppo’s first victory at their ground. It gives Liverpool the chance to qualify for the Champions League next year. But they have to win their last three games against West Brom, Burnley, and Crystal Palace. It would be a magnificent end to a disappointing season.

Music today has been a mixed bag, I woke up and played Wind And Wuthering (1976) by Genesis because Olivia likes it. Later it was Procol Harum’s great third album, A Salty Dog (1969), followed by Van der Graaf Generator’s more recent releases Trisector (2008), A Grounding In Numbers (2011), and ALT (2012). The first two are vocal, the last instrumental. Ooh, so good if you like this kind of thing. MORE ABOUT VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR.

Music Of The Daze

Today is exactly one month before the debut Noctorum album Sparks Lane (2003) is released for the first time on vinyl for RSD Drops on June 12th. I’m not quite sure why Record Store Day is called RSD Drops this year but apparently, it’s something to do with the pandemic and the fact that it’s not all happening on one day (another RSD Drops will occur a month later). If you’d like to hear the album so you can decide whether or not to get it on limited and exclusive moody grey vinyl then you can simply go to Spotify and listen to it there:

Some people might wonder, why buy the vinyl when I can just go and listen to it on Spotify? Well, one reason is that the owner of Spotify, Daniel Ek, is using his current financial position, money made from his streaming business, to put in an offer to buy the Arsenal football team, whereas I am trying to raise enough money to move the In Deep Music Archive to Porto as a worthy physical musical presence. I’d ask Mr Ek to contribute but I don’t think he likes the look of my business model. The other reason to get this exclusive release is that it’s beautiful and this limited-run may be the only time it ever sees the light of day or rather the dark of your warm and cosy, comfy atmospheric record room with its soft pillows on the couch, mood lighting and quality speakers, quality turntable and amp, sinking in for an evening of audio bliss.

Today was the day that I met Carlos for the interview for one of the independent Portuguese TV stations (SIC TV, channel 3). We met in the café where we buy our bread and had a chat about the world over a nice cup of decaf. We ventured out into the Marquês park area where we sat at the concrete table where someone has graffitied a large red Jesus fish. It was slightly chilly out of the sun but we sat and had a good conversation about moving to Porto, different projects from MOAT and Noctorum to my collaboration with ex-Tangerine Dreamer Jerome Froese, and the sessioneer projects. We talked about moving the In Deep Music Archive to Porto and what a huge tourist town this is, we have only experienced it over the last five months, most of which has been winter and lockdown, but apparently, even in the offseason, there’s a lot of tourists here.

It’s all going to go mad here very soon because England opens up for travel next Monday, May 17th and Portugal is the only short-haul European country on the “Green List”. This is the only place where the humans can come where they don’t have to return to quarantine. But that’s not all, it seems like they have relocated the Champions League final between Man City and Chelsea to Porto because Istanbul is on the red list – the stadium is walking distance from our place, not far past the Psychedelic Psupermarket. It’s happening on May 29th, my vaccination is May 26th, sounds like good timing. On other football news, Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 and that is great for Liverpool who play Man U tomorrow in a must-win match.

Mega swim today, 82 lengths, one hour and ten minutes but I have to swim hard to fit it in, it isn’t a smooth, casual float between the ends of the pool with small rests, it’s non-stop. But I’m trained and I leave there invigorated, not crippled (haha). I still can’t swim like some of the younger people that career past me at great speeds but I am always first in the pool and always last out. I’ve discovered that I have to swill the chlorine out of my nose after the swim otherwise I’m sneezing and getting headaches – I still do have some sneezing and blowing my nose but nothing like the other day when I came back home with a poisoned head. I just have to remember when I take that shower that chlorine is a chemical and possibly not good to leave circulating through your body and seeping into your skin.

Music today was just one album after all that happened in the day. It was The Beatles‘ Let It Be, the reason being that I was singing a silly version of The Long And Winding Road to Olivia and she wasn’t recognising it, of course you could think it might be me doing a terrible version (surely not…The Beatles are in my blood).

Music Of The Daze

Today Olivia booked me in for my vaccination, Wednesday, May 26th. This means that when all those tourists start arriving after May 17th to the only green list European country, I may feel a little more secure in a crowd of revellers. I’m not sure which shot I’ll be getting but I’m just hoping that I don’t feel too awful in the aftermath. We’ll see. All I need now is my Portuguese residency card and I’ll be ready to travel. There’s one problem and that is that Olivia’s age group are not going to be vaccinated till who knows when? So, early travel may not be happening for us until she has had a vaccination as well. At some point, we have to travel to England to sort out the archive and move out — a major operation. We have to have the whole thing sorted before the end of December because we had to re-book our cancelled air tickets from last year and we will now be leaving for the USA on December 28th…no pressure. Thank you for the ongoing GoFundMe contributions, I will be contributing to it as much as possible too and figuring out how to make some exclusive music for contributors at some point in the future. The In Deep Music Archive needs to survive.

Help move the In Deep Music Archive here

Olivia and I ventured out to the gym today but didn’t leave the house until the last minute. I actually got up earlier to feed Hawaii but it wasn’t good enough for him – I went back to bed. First, he turned his nose up at his brunch and then meowed for company for an hour and scratched at our bedroom door. We’d let him in but the broken mirror is still in there and he, of course, finds that the most interesting item in the room. He left some evidence of revelry in the kitchen, when I came in to feed him, one of the wooden kitchen chairs was upturned. You’d think that such shenanigans would wear him out but it seems that his sleep-play routine is heavier on the play side. I did actually break something today, a breakfast bowl that I was drying, it slipped out of my hands onto the tiled floor and shattered. Guess who ran into the middle of the shards to investigate?

Whilst we were out today, we took a picture by an old-fashioned bell and intercom system long out of use. I was wondering if both the pull cord and the intercom were actually from different eras. Technology added and then becoming obsolete itself, superseded.

Isn’t it odd how something goes out of date and is considered useless and insignificant and years later becomes a fascinating curio? Think of a car from the past, not just chrome beauties but any car from the sixties and that’s just sixty years ago. What about seventies fashion items and wasn’t eighties music supposed to be cool again recently? What is the thing about highly valued sneakers? Who could have predicted that? Expensive Star Wars memorabilia or even scribbled lyrics written one afternoon or more likely written in an hour and then sold for incredible amounts of money because it was Lennon or Dylan.

The other day sessioneer Matt was trying to explain the concept of the non-fungible token so I read this article and now I’m clearer, so I will be plotting an NFT for the future because the archive could do with 69 million quid. Two other sessioneers today, Chris in New Jersey and Jeff in Ohio. How come all my sessioneers are such interesting people? Although we talk about music, solutions, ideas and the progress of whatever it is we are working on, we also have such interesting conversations about the universe and how to save it.

Music today has been Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, although I listened to a playlist of all the original songs first. Olivia and I saw them at Night Of The Prog playing songs from the beginning of the band to Meddle, that is pre-Dark Side Of The Moon. The live album they released is much better than their live show because you can’t see them. I’ve talked about this before, retired yachtsmen, Ferrari Owners’ Club’s day out, land of the too white sneakers, short-sleeved flowery shirts from a catalogue, and never duckwalk to One Of These Days, Syd will torture you in heaven. But as far as the songs and their musical performance, worthy and a great idea.

Music Of The Daze