After spending all day yesterday in the studio, today I was determined to get down to the sea, but first I went up to the pool for the midday mile. It was strange weather out there in the world, a cloudless sky, a dynamic blue ceiling, hot, but very windy. In the pool, the fast large woman told me she was still sticking to the medium lane, another fast small woman told her to come in the fast lane, which she did until she returned to the medium lane when more fast large and small swimmers arrived. She completely misread the rhythm of the medium lane, always catching everyone up, making them stop to let her by. She was like a guitarist playing the solo before the singer had finished singing the verse, the trials and tribulations of the swimming pool, I tell ya. Then she climbed out early perhaps seeing how her soloing wasn’t fitting in with the arrangement. I swam on like a madman, thinking I wasn’t going to make the mile in time and managed it in 47 minutes, a recent record but I went for it like a crazy fish. When I came out the showers weren’t working, first world problems.

Down in pasty land and greengrocer land, the day was shaping up to be another no courier day and potential sea jaunt experience. Olivia made me one of those protein drinks, vanilla flavour, mmm and we went to Specsavers so I could get them to put a screw in my glasses arm. You aren’t allowed in without an appointment and inside all the staff look like they are wearing hazmat suits. But I was astonished when the lady took my glasses at the door, fixed them and 10 minutes later returned with the arm securely screwed back on. From where we were standing we could see the sea in the harbour and it was really choppy in the wind. It was mint green with marshmallow tufts and at the harbour, the yachts and dinghies rolled on the water’s surge. The tide was high but unlike yesterday Blondie was cased up. We walked past the boats towards the prom and stood by the wall near the swimming pool and watched the sea crash into the rocks. It was churning like an angry monster, spitting and cursing, throwing out sheets of spray. It looked like danger, beautiful danger, nature’s ire but under a glorious sky on a beautiful day.

There were two biggish ships anchored off shore and as we walked past the Jubilee Pool there were sandpipers, swooping and diving into the wind at fantastic speeds. A lone seagull sat on top of the waves like the whole experience was a fairground ride. The spray was now coming over the sea wall and as we walked on the other side of the construction the sea was coming over onto where they were trying to lay new concrete on the almost completed ground part of the new promenade. I talked to one of the workmen, he said they were nearly done but it was pretty hard to work with this weather. He didn’t think the prom would be finished for quite a while, hopefully by Christmas I thought but then I realised we’d be long gone by then virus permitting as Olivia and I attempt to find a life for travellers in the new climate of Brexit and all the complications it has inspired.

There were parts of the walk where the wind just dropped and then appeared again. On the pebble beach, the tide was higher than I’d ever seen it and there were thousands of strange sea insects obviously disturbed by the gusty wind. One wonders where they were before, possibly dormant in the seaweed but today the seaweed was being thrown up in the air and any creatures that lived in it were thrown out too. We headed back to the studio via the supermarket, worn about by the walk, the wind (and the swim) and soon I had a preliminary session with Daniel in Tennessee. After an episode of Humans, I caught up with some emails (some) and then did French – Day 105 before wondering what I was going to write about today and what I was going to listen to. Every day is a surprise and I wonder what it will be like experiencing different cultures, travelling again and having new adventures that take me from the town limits out beyond the wild sea and into the wild world.

Music today comes from the uniquely named Fresh Maggots, a duo consisting of Mick Burgoyne and Leigh Dolphin from Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Their one and only album was released in 1971 and this is why I’m grateful for the resurgence of interest in vinyl as Sunbeam Records have re-released it as a double album with extra tracks. It would be impossible to find otherwise unless you have a spare £1000 and then it wouldn’t be a mint copy. But what’s it like? It’s early seventies 12 stringy, flutey Folk that sounds a bit like The Incredible String Band but not as mad and with fuzzy guitars. On Frustration, the final track, they are joined by frenzied strings. It’s the same school as Tyrannosaurus Rex but not as cosmic. Highly recommended, but it depends on what you like.

The first Blackfield album (2004) arrived in the post yesterday and I don’t need much of an excuse to play either this or the second album. The collaboration between Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen has given the world some lovely pastoral string-heavy Progressive Pop. Guitars, pianos, melodies and some thoughtful songs, moody, catchy, it’s intelligent Easy Listening. Highly recommended, but it depends on what you like.

Song Of The Daze

Warning: Lots of talk about guitars today.

Last day in the studio today for major guitar parts on Ahad’s record – after today it’s all bits and pieces. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing left to do it just means that if a song has a solid bass part, a rhythm part, a riff, a major arpeggio or a solo then everything is pretty much done. We won’t be back in the studio for a week and then we’ll consolidate, go through the tracks and ‘brain on them’ till Ahad arrives to sing. We’ll probably come up with some more ideas, reassess, we’re making a record! I had a lot of electric guitars out today trying to figure out which was the right one for this last song. But I started with acoustics as there were acoustics on the demo and even then I had to try different guitars, settling on the Fender El Rio (the guitar I wrote Spark on) for the main part but then, later on, we added some Takamine 6 string. This is what happens, one idea leads to another and one sound leads to another, the blend between two guitars is often the answer and that’s why I have a range of different instruments that give you different sounds. Different guitars make you approach how you play, differently. You just can’t play an old Rickenbacker like a Les Paul.

So today we listened to the demo and then thought, Les Paul. This song is capo 2 so I have to retune all the guitars before I start. So I plugged it in, pedalboard, Vox AC30 – sounded awful. This is what happens, songs want what they want and this one didn’t want the Les Paul. On other days the Les Paul would have been the one but not today. Next, try the Strat, the Strat works on most anything, it’s the workhorse guitar, it’s great for most things, arpeggios, rhythms and great for soaring melodic guitar solos. Plugged it in, it just wasn’t right. So, what next? Of course, the Telecaster! It cuts through, it sparkles, it’s got some edge – nope. Then Dare suggested the Gibson 345, how could something from 1962 not be right? For a moment we thought we had it, but nah, not enough sustain. Dare then suggested Blondie! When in doubt go to Blondie. Dare loves this guitar and so do I. I bought it out of a garage in LA in the eighties for $750, it’s worth a lot more now and it sounds like a wise old tree with a pickup. Sometimes I imagine it bearing fruit, sonically it does just that. It was the one, but it took a while to figure it out and it wasn’t obvious, Rickenbackers never are. After the electric 6 string was done, I brought out the other Blondie, the Rick 12 string and played it on the chorus, a nice little arpeggio. We ended up back on the acoustic Takamine, finding that blend before the evening’s end.

So apart from the bits and pieces, we need to get some other musicians in to do some things that we can’t do, horns, piano, perhaps more Olivia on the violin. What we really need is Ahad and by the time we’ve tied up all these loose ends, it will be time to get him down here to sing. There will be backing vocals and there will be mixing, then there will be mastering, there will be manufacturing and then all you can do is hope someone likes it and buys it. Then you start the next project and go through the whole process again.

So I didn’t see the day today. I was of course keeping one eye on the courier that never came. I suppose he’ll be here when I’m swimming tomorrow but just leaving, turning the corner as I arrive at the archive door, missing him by seconds. I’m waiting for the Record Store Day releases, Cradle (the Quatro sisters), Exit North, wonderful moody Swedish band with Japan’s Steve Jansen (limited coloured vinyl). Groundhogs’ Split and another version of Mellow Candle’s Swaddling Songs to add to my collection of different reissues (an original album sold on Discogs for nearly £3,000). So tomorrow I hope to see the sea after swimming and before my next session – music and nature what a mixture!

Music today has been Paul McCartney’s three Fireman albums starting with Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest from 1993 which my friend Derek sent to me today as a donation to the archive (Thank You, Derek). At this point, McCartney and his collaborator Youth had not admitted to being The Fireman although it seems it wasn’t the best-kept secret. This first album is a kind of pulsating trancy electronic instrumental record with tracks averaging around 8 minutes in length. It’s an odd beast that seems to repeatedly bang on with the same idea, one might say it’s very 1993.

Rushes is different, it’s more of a charming instrumental album with synths and sitars and all kinds of exotic moods and atmospheres, a very pleasant listen released in 1998, it was 10 years till they went public with their third album, Electric Arguments. Rushes might have been more like something George Harrison would have released if he’d not had his mind set on – more commercial sounds. Fluid and others sound like Mike Oldfield. This is why McCartney is so frustrating because he’s so able to create on any level.

Electric Arguments is a long way from Strawberries and I suppose Rushes is the link. The moody quality extending into a sometimes very moody vocal record. It sounds very much like McCartney doesn’t care what anybody thinks and consequently, with this attitude, I believe he makes better records. Egypt Station being a major disappointment because it’s come from someone not just with his talents but with the imagination to make something great – when he tries. It’s actually hard to understand why he makes the tame albums because that audience, the audience that would like those kinds of records only want to hear The Beatles and Wings hits anyway. Imagine seeing McCartney playing the interesting newer stuff instead in a smaller venue with the show advertised as only the odd stuff. But they all do it, Gilmour does it, Robert Plant tries a little harder but live he seems to think he owes the audience something. I remember hearing a Bowie interview where he was suggesting that playing The Bewlay Brothers just wouldn’t work, well it would have worked for me, a lot more than the godawful Modern Love. What these artists don’t understand is that they only owe the audience one thing – to keep it interesting. Are they so in love with playing mega stadiums all the time? I don’t believe they can be, faceless, no connection between McCartney’s soul and their senses, just a nostalgic sea reliving the legacy. How about this, mega stadium tour every 5 years, great, all the classics but in between a smaller tour where there’s more songs from Chaos And Creation In The Backyard or Driving Rain and The Fireman albums and leave the hits alone, leave them for that audience. Of course, we love hearing We Can Work It Out and Penny Lane and, you know, the 150 other classics but what we really love is when you are creative and interesting and thought-provoking like Travelling Light, Is This Love? and Don’t Stop Running from Electric Arguments – I know you can do it, Paul, come on!

Song & Show Of The Daze

With Nightjar coming to the next Record Store Day on September 26th we hear it’s a good idea to contact your local record store and make sure they are getting it in. The album has never been on vinyl before and not only that – it’s red to match the eyes of the moth/goat/bird. There’s some extra artwork and all the lyrics printed out in a lovely gatefold. It’s going to be limited edition so make sure you get one. It’s the last of the solo records that needed vinyl and I’m already contemplating what should be next, Dancing With Death 10 inch, Rarities, Seeing Stars? We would, of course, like to have something new ready for the next Record Store Day but time is short and nobody seems quite sure if next year will be happening at all, that is for anybody doing anything, not just RSD. We just heard that the US government have put the price of work visas up so we need to find $5,000 before we start. They are essentially stopping anyone without a following playing in America, especially if you are a band. I heard it’s not reciprocated and for American musicians to come to England it’s relatively cheap and easy. Is that true? I can’t tell being English and having a British passport. But these pre-tour costs to play in America are another blow to musicians who are already struggling with the problem of selling their music, if they are priced out of touring then what hope?

It was a beautiful day and I left for my swim forgetting my swimmers. I had to go back and put them on as well before I left as you’re not allowed to get changed there, but I hadn’t got too far away and I still made it in time. If I was a few minutes late I wouldn’t be able to make the mile. I always start a couple of minutes early and finish a couple of minutes early, it seems to take me the exact designated time. There’s no messing around, no stopping for adjustments or a drink of water and certainly no chatting. You’d think I’d get faster, but no, this is my 7th mile and my time is the same. Maybe like in evolution there’s suddenly a giant leap forward.

Today would have been a perfect day to go and look at the sea, take in the breeze, enjoy the sun but I was waiting for the courier (day 3) that still didn’t show up despite two messages saying they would and then one message saying they wouldn’t be coming. They must be affiliated with the plumber. This reminds me of another alleged reliable institution that seems to have lost itself in the modern world. The number of typos I see in the newspaper these days, I’m sure it wasn’t like that. What happened, did the person that was checking everything for the last few decades retire? Does nobody care about those pesky details anymore? Is spelling properly out of fashion? Are the words we hear out of touch with reality? Have words become speechless? Are words only for misspelt lies in print and insincere in speech? What a sorry state we find ourselves in.

I had two sessions today with Kevin in Atlanta and Chris in New Jersey, progress! It’s Ricky Maymi’s birthday, progress! The Penzance promenade is almost all paved, progress. Ahad’s album is approaching its last major guitar day, progress. Jerome has all my tracks for our unnamed project (best so far: The Refractionists), progress. MOAT (Niko and I) have released the first track from Poison Stream, progress. Space Summit is taxiing, progress. Salim has sent me tracks to listen to, progress. Dare’s loft is done, progress. I stopped drinking coke, progress. I’m swimming again, progress. Olivia and I have gigs booked in Europe next year, progress. Nightjar is coming out on red vinyl for RSD, progress. One could almost imagine the world as a positive place.

Last but not least in Sweden where I have family there have been reports of their crazy Covid strategy and their sane Covid strategy. I don’t really care who’s right and who’s wrong, I just want to know why the facts have been so polarising. Aren’t facts supposed to be facts whereas opinions are the things that can be polarising? Anyway, this from The Guardian.

Music today has been catching up on Exmagma, the German experimental Jazz and Krautrock band whose record I had to have because of the band members’ fantastic flared jeans. Just that alone told me it was going to be interesting and so I went ahead and bought the other two available albums. The band was Thomas Balluff (keyboards, trumpet, flute, vocals), Andy Goldner (guitars, bass, sax, vocals), and Fred Braceful (drums). They were formed in Stuttgart in the early seventies, their first, self-titled, album was released in 1973, their second, Goldball, in 1974 (the most accessible musically) and their third, Exmagma 3, a double album that seems to be more vocal orientated on Sides 1 & 2 although it’s not exactly singing. It does have the classic line: “Do you still like this R’n’R music, don’t you think it’s time for a change?”. Sides 3 & 4 seem to be more jamming with strange sounds. It was recorded in 1975 but not released until 2006.

Fred Braceful was actually an American based in Germany with the military, he settled in Stuttgart when he was discharged. He worked with some notable German Jazz musicians in the sixties (pianist Wolfgang Dauner). He died in 1995 just short of his 57th birthday. Their sound was something like Matching Mole meets the avant-garde dressed as Rock musicians. The range of instruments Balluff and Goldner played made it difficult for them to play anything straight and there was a lot of jamming, exploring and improvising going on, often more in the direction of sound searching rather than actual music. Highly recommended if you like tall men in very long flared trousers that answer to nobody (the trousers that is).

Album Of The Daze

Today I had the day in my hands, a tight grip, my fingers clenched around the leg so it couldn’t slip and then as the doors opened and the breeze rushed in I let go and the day was gone. I always think of days when I have no sessions, no studio and no swimming as free days but it’s so not true. In actual fact it’s the opposite, these days are days to catch up on all the things I couldn’t manage on session days, studio days and swim days. It’s then I realise why I couldn’t catch up, there’s too much to do even if I have what I think is time to do it. I suppose I could stop doing French (which was really hard today as I moved onto a higher level). I could stop writing every night and not watch or at least have the football on. I could listen to less music, I could stop gazing at the sea. I could stop looking for records for the archive. I could stop encouraging donations and then having to file records away as well as reorganise and note what essential records might be missing. I could probably buy less records and rent a cottage in the middle of nowhere, turn off my phone, delete Facebook and read everything by Emile Zola. I could then write stories and write songs and sing and play my one guitar on the porch. I could stop with the sessions, I could leave the modern world, sell my guitars and amps, sell the records and live frugally in a beauty spot till I fall off my perch. Nah!

I read today that vinyl had sold more than CDs for the first time since CDs were introduced. But although for people like me it’s great for getting vinyl copies of hard to find records, reissues in perfect condition and new vinyl albums by new artists, we never could have imagined that technology could find a way to destroy our income from selling the records we make. Only big bands can make those big records anymore. Only U2 can sit in the studio figuring out guitar tones, working on the snare drum, doing multiple takes, using all the advantages of a major studio, all the costs justified by the record sales. The problem is that you can also make records with fake Voxes, fake drum rooms and famous producers’ snare drum sounds but I don’t know if you’ve had sex with a robot, but it’s not the same. Even Kraftwerk knew that.

Today was a frustrating day as it was lovely and warm but I didn’t have a chance to appreciate it – straight to pasty land and straight to the studio to wait for a courier who went to the wrong address with my package yesterday, sent me a photo of the Acorn Theatre across the road and told me I wasn’t there to receive it. Great work. Today I got a message saying they would be here between 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock and at 4 o’clock told me tomorrow. A wasted day of expectation.

I did get to speak to Jerome in Berlin whilst pacing around in the street. I’ve sent him bass parts and he is now going to try and put our project together. If anybody would like to come up with a name, please feel free to make suggestions (not too silly). I spoke to him whilst waiting outside for the courier that didn’t come and deliver my package to the wrong address. At one point whilst waiting I sat on the studio steps – on chewing gum. It’s bad enough on your shoe, on your pants it’s a disaster. In Singapore chewing gum is illegal!

The ban remains one of the best-known aspects of life in Singapore, along with the country’s laws against litter, graffiti, jaywalking, spitting, expelling “mucus from the nose” and urinating anywhere but in a toilet. (If it’s a public toilet, you are legally required to flush it.)

Apparently you can get Nicotine gum and sugar-free gum with a prescription these days but this kind of law really makes me wonder about the laws that would be brought in if say an opinionated civilian was given carte blanche. They say that Brexit was an example of letting the uninformed execute decisions that the informed should have made. They also say that if there was a referendum on the death penalty in the UK, that it would have a good chance of returning. I was once pulled up at an airport by security in London when I was wearing an anti-death penalty T-shirt. I explained it was an Amnesty International shirt, “What’s that?”, they said.

Music today starts with Toots Hibbert, charismatic lead singer of Toots And The Maytals. He died last Friday leaving behind the legend and along with Bob Marley and others the legacy of turning Reggae music into an international sensation. Hibbert’s 1968 song “Do The Reggay” is widely credited as the genesis of the genre name reggae. I always struggled to find a Reggae scene outside England, there were catchy commercial Reggae bands in Sweden and Germany and some Reggae inspired acts in Australia but not the scene like here. (You could, of course, include the innovative Dread Zeppelin in the US but I’m not sure they qualify.) I lived in Ladbroke Grove in London for a few years and Reggae was part of the musical furniture. It didn’t just affect the Jamaican community, it was taken on board by British groups especially in the Punk era – The Specials and The Selector, UB40 and The Beat as well as the more Punk orientated bands like The Clash and The Ruts and instead of cultures clashing it was a bringing together with infectious beats, political statements and a whole cultural identity. Although the constitution in Jamaica still allows imprisonment for same-sex unions (but not for women), what does that say? They don’t accept gay people and sexual prejudice continues to be rife. It seems that this attitude isn’t unique to Jamaica despite relatively recent changes in the law (homosexuality was illegal in the UK till 1968). I suppose we can avoid the openly hostile homophobia of Buju Banton (allegedly he had a change of heart) but today openly hostile seems to have been legitimised. The ignorant never learn or as Love and Rockets said on the song No New Tale To Tell from Earth, Sun, Moon (1987):

“You cannot go against nature
Because when you do
Go against nature
It’s part of nature too”

Neville O’Reilly Livingston’s (Bunny Wailer) second album Protest was released in 1977. An original member of the Wailers but unlike the first album Blackheart Man none of the original band play on Protest although there is a version of the Marley/Tosh song Get Up, Stand Up. Famed bassist Robbie Shakespeare plays on the album. For me what I call the straight Reggae albums aren’t the thing, it’s the Dub Reggae that I like the most apart from the Marley classics, Gregory Isaacs, Peter Tosh, haha wait a minute, I feel a list coming on of albums I really like anyway. So, in fact, there’s all kinds of Reggae records I like.

Despite the legends of the Toots and Bunny, my highlight album of the night so far has been Legalize It, the debut album by Winston Hubert McIntosh (Peter Tosh) released in 1976. Two songs were co-written with Bunny Wailer and one with Bob Marley. Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer were original Wailers members and when they left in 1974 due to a conflict over where they played as members of the Rastafari religion, that’s when Bob Marley And The Wailers were named, the last album as The Wailers was Burnin’ although a version of The Wailers reformed after Marley’s death. Both drummer Carlton Barrett and Peter Tosh were murdered in Jamaica. Discovering Reggae is a rabbit hole and you may find yourself on a deep and long journey down it but you could start with a classic, The Wailers’ Catch A Fire. It’s hard with Reggae because Reggae fans don’t seem to listen to anything else and the style seems to be off the radar of non-Reggae fans but remember, quality always wins whatever the genre. I went to Jamaica once, but that’s another story.

Songs Of The Daze

 

Peter Tosh with The Revolutionaries, live at Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Recorded 07/16/1979.

Peter Tosh (lead vocal & percussions)
Sly “drumbar” Dunbar (drums)
Robbie Shakespeare (bass guitar)
Darryl Thompson (lead guitar)
Mickey Chung (riddim guitar)
Robbie Lynn (keyboard & organ)
Keith Sterling (keyboard & organ)
The Tamlins – Carlton Smith, Derrick Lara & Junior Moore (background vocals & percussions)

An unscheduled run to the sea in between sessions just to look at it, breathe in the salty air and gaze in wonder at this trembling blue mass. Today it looked coloured in, like a child’s drawing with crayons and we stared at it through the fence on the prom that has been under construction for months, probably ready just in time for the winter. We only had 15 minutes so we took some pics by the gate to the Jubilee Pool. It’s the UK’s largest outdoor lido and was opened in May 1935 to celebrate King George V’s jubilee, hence the name. Just beyond is Battery Rock and although we didn’t have time to go down to the water we looked over the wall past the rocks at two boats sailing into the harbour and one coming in the distance, The Scillonian, the regular transport between the mainland and the Isles Of Scilly. A cormorant flew at speed inches above the surface of the water. We had to go so soon after arriving for the second sesh of the day with Mike in New Orleans. It was a lovely day and just being outside for 15 minutes recharged the batteries, that’s why we went to Battery Rock.

I’d had a sesh earlier in the day with Tony in Sydney but on return from the ocean, I spoke to Mike who told me that a hurricane was coming Tuesday. Tropical Storm Sally doesn’t sound very scary but neither did Katrina, you’d think they’d call them more terrible names like Tropical Storm Satan or Tropical Storm Annihilator, calling them sweet female names doesn’t seem to be appropriate. So fingers crossed for the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. I’ll be speaking to Paul in New Orleans tomorrow (moved from Tuesday) and will get a first-hand update. I remember going to New Orleans and driving through Louisiana sometime after Katrina. I saw whole houses lifted off their foundations and blown into the trees. I remember seeing mountains of broken wood and tangled metal in the middle of supermarket car parks, years went by and the destruction was still evident.

Yesterday Olivia was sick with, wait for it, migraine! She gets them rarely but yesterday, it was the vision thing, numbness in the tongue and fingers, nausea and a headache. I hadn’t realised that migraine was a virus? You could see the pain on her face and all she could do was lie down and wait for it to stop. She tried to sleep it off and in the middle of the night edited the blog and put the pictures in, she’s a trooper (and better today).

The football season was back and West Brom were playing Leicester 0-3 and Spurs – Everton 0-1. So most of my football mates lost, Spacehog Jonny (Leeds fan) lost 4-3 to Liverpool, Biggles (Fulham fan), producer of your favourite seventies Metal band Saxon, lost to Arsenal 0-3, Geoff in Brisbane (West Ham fan) lost 0-2 to Newcastle, Jay Aston (Spurs fan), but Dare (Everton fan) with a flashy new lineup, won.

Music today had me investigating the recently released Jethro Tull Live At The Isle Of Wight in 1970 album and wondering if I should buy it because older Jethro Tull records I like and I mean the oldest ones, the bluesier ones (ok there’s a couple of seventies ones I like too). I listened, yeah, I like it. I like anything from 1970 (haha). So that made me dig out This Was (1968). This album had the early lineup with Mick Abrahams on guitar, Clive Bunker on drums and Glen Cornick on bass with whatsisname on flute and vocals. It’s Anderson and Abrahams mixing their ideas together and so Abrahams had to go and left after this album to form Blodwyn Pig. Anderson became the unquestionable leader that led to some amazing and some terrible albums, that’s what happens. But this album like yesterday’s Family Entertainment has the leader letting the other guy sing because he hadn’t assumed absolute power yet. I like this album, it’s different to their others and I always know a good album when well-known critic Robert Christgau hates it.

Their second album, Stand Up (1969), saw Abrahams replaced by Martin Barre who would stay with the band for 44 years, Cornick and Bunker remained for now. The album went to No. 1 in the British charts. There was also a non-album single, Living In The Past, that went to No. 3 in the singles charts. The album went Top Ten in the Dutch, German, Norwegian and Danish charts and Top 20 in America. It was the beginning of a long and successful career. Stand Up even won the New Musical Express award for best album cover art of 1969. The album cover was a wood carving of the band members with a ‘pop up’ in the gatefold. My point in telling you all this is that once unhip bands were both hip and successful despite how they are seen today – Genesis were hip, popularity and the changing times put an end to it all (as did their music) but their popularity remains. The final nail in the hip coffin of Jethro Tull was when they won the 1989 Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal recording for Crest Of A Knave over Jane’s Addiction, Iggy Pop and Metallica. It’s another example of people in charge not having a clue.

When Abrahams left Jethro Tull he formed Blodwyn Pig with saxophonist and flautist Jack Lancaster and included Andy Pyle on bass and Ron Berg on drums. They recorded Ahead Rings Out (1969) and reached No. 9 on the UK chart. It’s in the direction of the Blues and the reason that he left Jethro Tull. If you like the bluesy or the jazzy bluesy scene of the era you’ll like this as well as the second album, Getting To This (1970). The second album did well too, reaching No. 8 on the chart but that was about it for them and apart from the occasional reunion, these two albums were all that mattered.

Gotta sleep.

Song Of The Daze