A busy day in sesh land today, Mike in Chicago, Fred in Minneapolis, Noel in Surrey, which keeps me indoors in Porto – noticing dust, yucky computer screens and dirty keyboard keys. Sometimes I just have to clean before I can do anything else. In the hallway, there’s a collection of weird creatures, some disguised as metal ashtrays, ceramic and metal exotic birds. It gets so dusty and it doesn’t help with me lighting Nag Champa incense sticks, plus it’s a black surface and to de-dust, you need to remove everything first. Did John Lennon dust?

Swimming buddy Hugo came around today to borrow a microphone, I was unable to spend much time chatting, I was in between listening and making notes on Mike’s songs, Noel’s songs and keeping up with the daily language lessons. I’ve been so busy without physically moving – the dusting was the closest I got to exercise. Hugo told me he went to the pool today to find it closed (he’s been away so wasn’t aware). We have to wait till September to get back into a healthy routine. So in between this exciting floating between the kitchen, the front room and the bathroom, I played Sharon Van Etten’s latest album We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong (2022) again and discovered a gate-fold Italian copy of The Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother lurking, infiltrating the newer albums, refusing to die.

Do mosquitos have cloaking devices? The one in the room tonight is only visible and audible when it attacks, hovering by your ear or stealthily landing on the extremes of your limbs. You don’t know it’s there till it has penetrated your defences, even as its dagger slips into your skin, it’s the aftermath, the lump, the itch that draws your attention to the fact that your blood has been plundered.

Olivia has had a box sent from her childhood home in Germany with some of the things that she wanted here in Portugal. It included some records that I’d bought in Sydney and Bonn but perhaps the most important item was the pizza plate. As I’ve mentioned before; the three most unbelievable things about me – I never had a driving license, I never had a credit card and I never ate a pizza. But tonight Olivia was going out with her friend Klaudia and she cooked something for me to eat later whilst breaking out the famous pizza plate for her early dinner. How did she survive without it?

Where were Olivia and Klaudia going? Yesterday Olivia and another friend, Gardenia, went to the cat cafe but today in the centre of Porto close to where we live there was a free open-air showing of the Elvis movie. Olivia’s seen it but she went again for the sake of the event. When she came back she said it was still tragic and went and looked at the photos we took when we went to Graceland.

Music today has been the Italian gatefold vinyl version of Atom Heart Mother (1970) – again! I’m wearing my Marquee Moon (1977) T-shirt today, how great that music so different can be so equally good.

Music Of The Daze

It’s hard being born in the fifties. First of all, it means you are already in your sixties but it also means that those that came before you are ready to catch the escalator to the stars and this week has been tough. First, it was Judith Durham (79) from The Seekers, then all on the same day: Olivia Newton-John (73) with Lamont Dozier (81) and The Pogues‘ bassist Darryl Hunt (72). If this is an average that gives me about 15 years if I’m lucky, depressing but getting older and then leaving in the silver spaceship is part of the deal and a lot of people have to leave on the earlier transport so it’s all good so far. I’m sure other musicians have left us this week too, it’s hard to keep up with the inevitable.

Judith Durham used her mother’s maiden name in the band probably because her real name was Judith Mavis Cock (you can’t make it up). Everyone in my age group remembers those timeless hits, including I’ll Never Find Another You (1964) written by Dusty’s brother Tom Springfield and reaching No.2 in the UK, No.4 in the US. In 1965 came two other Tom Springfield hit songs, A World Of Our Own (No.3 in the UK, No.2 in Australia, No.19 in the US) and The Carnival Is Over, which went to No.1 for six weeks in Australia, three weeks in the UK and made it to No.1 in Ireland. In 1966 they released Morningtown Ride, written by Malvina Reynolds (Little Boxes anyone) and Georgy Girl, music by (you guessed it) Tom Springfield, lyrics by Jim Dale, reaching No.1 in Australia, No.3 in the UK and No.1 in Cashbox chart in the US. I remember these songs so well because it was the sixties and they stuck in my brain as it was being formed. RIP Judith Durham.

Olivia Newton-John is remembered mostly for Grease (1978) and Physical (1981), big successes, but I remember her for Dylan’s If Not For You, miming and dancing in 1971. There were a lot of middle-of-the-road hits, most of which I don’t remember and then there’s Xanadu (1980) but don’t forget her sixties sci-fi film Toomorrow (1979), yes really. RIP Olivia.

Lamont Dozier wrote (with Brian and Eddie Holland) for Motown, Baby Love (1964), Stop! In the Name of Love (1965), Reach Out I’ll Be There (1966), Heat Wave (1963), I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, 1965), Band of Gold (1970), You Can’t Hurry Love (1966), You Keep Me Hangin’ On (1966) and Bernadette (1967) and of course many more. RIP Lamont.

Last but not least Darryl Hunt played bass with The Pogues and on the classic Fairytale Of New York (1987), featuring the great Kirsty MacColl who herself was killed in Mexico by a speedboat aged 41. RIP Darryl, RIP Kirsty.

Music today has been The Pogues‘ If I Should Fall From Grace With God (1988), Fairytale Of New York was a No.1 Irish and No.2 UK single in 1987, but it’s a perennial Christmas hit.

Music Of The Daze

Today we went to Gaia across the bridge on the other side of the river Douro to see Jorge. Jorge fixes things and while I was away he fixed my Roland 501 Stereo Chorus and my GB Fuzz Unit. Some, most even, might wonder what these things are. Well, they aren’t digital devices, they are the kind of effects units that you would find pre the digital revolution. You can read about the evolution of the Roland Space Echo but this unit has a wonderful warm sound and uses a looped tape and multiple heads to create echos. It has a reverb and warm chorus sound, it’s a beautiful machine. The weird fuzz unit is a rare gem, you can see pictures of these devices on my gear page on my website, gear nerds unite.

We left Jorge to go home but on the spur of the moment, I said to Olivia, let’s go to Foz. Foz is by the sea and suddenly we were heading there, plans changed, taking the opportunity to be outside longer and enjoy the sea air and the taste of the salty waves. The sun was out but as we got closer to the beach the clouds came over. We parked and walked out onto the pier, there were fewer tourists under the clouds but quite a few fishermen. At the end of the pier, on the concrete shelf below, dead starfish. In the water was a small shoal of large fish that the fisherman didn’t seem to be aware of. After this, we headed to the cafe on the beach for chips and to meet our friend Phil who lives in Foz. Phil was the bassist in Lush, Felt, Biff Bang Pow!, The Servants and toured on bass with The Jesus And Mary Chain.

After our chips and chatter, we left to return home via the psychedelic psupermarket. The sun had returned and the trip from the sea led us to the river and then into town. Palm trees and now tourists everywhere heading for the city on a cloudier day. A nice summer breeze and palm trees galore make you think that like everyone else here you’re on holiday – but then I remembered that we live here.

Dinner led to trying to find that last Strange New Worlds episode but it’s still missing, I guess it’s a glitch. I want to get more into the British Film Institute archive but who has the time? It’s got late already, still, there’s always time to learn some language, sleep, dorme.

Music today has been The Jesus And Mary Chain – Psychocandy (1985).

Music Of The Daze

Out there in the Marquês square, the locals take over the benches and the stone tables. Today every bench is full, Dogman, Bellyman and yesterday men playing cards, flattening a cardboard box and putting it over the round table top as a more appropriate surface. Another man, alone on a bench with a radio listening to the sport. It’s the summer, it brings everyone out, not always to do anything in particular but just to watch the day go by, this is how the older generation socialises, hanging in the park, talking. Not a mobile phone to be seen anywhere. You won’t see these people sitting together all on their phones, not communicating. How will the world be when the last of the non-digital generation have gone? I remember when a young lad came into the archive, picked up an album, removed it from its sleeve and asked what side the music was on.

Today I walked over the square and down towards the pool before I realised I should be in the parallel street. I was looking for the frighteningly named Scrape Needle Records. I’d passed it on a previous walk some months ago, it had been a Sunday and it was closed. Today it was open, it’s only small but it looked like a labour of love and inside there was a cool collection of contemporary underground and hipster titles from Godspeed You! Black Emperor to Goblin. I met Jusina (Josefina) who owns the shop and her partner Telmo, music lovers.

I could have bought ten albums, somehow I didn’t.

After this, I had seshes, first with Craig in Atlanta and then Stephen in LA. listening to the music, analysing what needs to happen to make it better. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds over dinner and boom my eyes went, the second time this week. As it happened today Olivia had bought me a small CBD oil bottle. I used it straight away and it did seem to help, something calming, I paused the episode, put on Pink Floyd and my sunglasses and sat in the semi-dark for 45 minutes waiting for the aura to pass.

I had a call with Salim in Texas and by 10 PM my eyes were back, my head not yet displaying that dull ache, that happened a little later. We planned and talked and laughed and afterwards, Olivia restarted the Strange New Worlds episode. It was better than the last two but this time they seemed to have taken the Alien idea, called it the Gorn and had some crew members dragged off screaming. It ended and I thought let’s watch the last episode of the series, but it wasn’t there, it is missing. Dear Paramount+?

Outside a flock of seagulls were squawking, screeching some streets away, the dog had finally stopped barking and a quiet fell on the outside. Darkness settled on the silhouettes of the houses, the angles of the roofs and the occasional defunkt aerial, ominous black shapes against a sky with no stars.

Music today has been Pink Floyd’s underrated The Endless River (2014), an album to soothe the mind when it acts up.

Music Of The Daze