No news on Ariel’s camshaft today, but we did get a reminder for the MOT from the Portuguese authorities, so we have a month to get it found, fixed, and driven back here. It seems like a monumental task, but we have to keep on trying or hope that those who have been in touch about the part can really make this happen. The glimmer of hope is that a camshaft is easier than a cylinder head, but if it takes even half the time, we will have to assess the legality of driving across Europe without a valid MOT. I’m not sure we could get one in England because it’s a foreign car, left-hand drive, I imagine that having the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car isn’t considered safe. Why would ‘The Hoople’ (1974) be today’s album? Well, you might have to ask Ariel Bender.

I was up and in house cleaning/project analysis mode. I find it hard to work with a sink full of dishes or a carpet that is demanding to be hoovered. So I did that first, finishing in time to nip around the corner before the bakery closed to pick up a ‘kanelbulle’, essentially a Swedish baked good. When we first went there they had the spelling incorrect or should I say they were using the plural form ‘bullar’ instead of the singular form ‘bulle’ when they were referring to one item at €1.80. It reminded me of those signs in museums that someone has translated into English over the glass display cases where the grammar and the spelling is all wrong.

I dropped in at the second-hand furniture store but not before running into Vítor from the music store and his girlfriend who had just been perusing the furniture. I walked around and found a posh CD cabinet like it was made by a serious cabinet maker, I need to show it to Olivia. Across the road, there’s a shop that sells old turntables, amplifiers, and speakers. I dropped in because my turntable has an issue with how low the cartridge is. If a record has a ridge, it touches it, it’s not a problem when the record gets going but initially it makes a noise. I left my number or should I say Olivia’s number, I’d like to get the guy to come here as it’s so close rather than taking the turntable there, we’ll see.

Back at the ranch, I got my head deeply into NJ Brian’s Valley of Salt project, finalising all the things that needed to be addressed. It’s complex and has to be right and we will endeavour to make it as good as we possibly can. Next was the copy on the mysterious RSD album for next year – lots of errors to fix.

Music today has been Mott the Hoople’s The Hoople (1974), that reached No. 11 on the UK chart, No. 28 in the US. On this album, Ariel Bender aka Luther Grosvenor ex Spooky Tooth replaced Mick Ralphs who had left to form Bad Company with ex-Free members Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, and ex-King Crimson member Boz Burrell. I really like this album, and it even has hits, the classic Roll Away the Stone (No. 8 in the UK) and The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll (No. 16 in the UK). It was singer Ian Hunter’s last album with the band before he went solo. You may have recently read about Kari-Ann Muller/Moller, the model on the cover who was also the model on the first Roxy Music album (1972). She is Norwegian and lived for decades in the UK, but since Brexit, they challenged her right to stay, nice work peoples.

Music Of The Daze

Cam Shaft, sounds like a seventies soul singer, and Shaft of course was Isaac Hayes with that classic song released in 1971. We’ve had some hopeful progress on the ‘real’ camshaft, although nothing definite yet. We can’t really follow up a lead that tells us the part is in China, but we are looking at a contact here in Portugal and other possibilities outside Europe, although we really do not want to have to go that far afield, expense to ship being one reason, although a camshaft is small-ish. All the details for Ariel are in yesterday’s blog. We have to get this done in the next month, a race against time to get Ariel up and fixed before the MOT runs out. What’s Dean Friedman got to do with it? His most famous song is called Ariel.

I was up and ready today, ready to attack all the projects I have to get going on, but then my eye thing happened and I had to go and sit down in the front, sunglasses on, soft music playing, and wait for it to go away. Of course, the aftermath is feeling deadened and dull, so I set about cleaning things and then getting out of the house into the fresh air (that is fresh city air). Olivia had to make the post office and I went to Tubitek and picked up Blackfield V (2017) and some CDs, The National – Sleep Well Beast being one. I’m not sure I need to list everything all the time, you just need to come here and see what’s in the shelves. Having said that, I did get a nice second-hand vinyl copy of Gilmour’s On an Island (2006) and a CD of Robyn Hitchcock’s Spooked (2004) at Chico’s (singer in the band Population 5 with ex-Lush member Phil King).

I walked around the streets and found that the tourists are still here even though the summer hols are done. The kids are back at school, but not everybody has school-age kids. We went to buy some more Nag Champa, but he was out of stock, getting more tomorrow. I buy them in bulk, but they seem to go quickly. Next, a well-made coffee and a trip to the supermarket where we bought wine we don’t drink, so there’s something here for people that do. We now have a red, a white, and a bottle of port.

I feel better now and am hoping to knuckle down on Blueburst info, which is now finished, Brian’s Valley of Salt, Arktik Lake, and the mystery project. At some point, I’ll catch up and all these projects will be out and available. All I need is a clear head.

Music today has been Dean Friedman’s self-titled second album, released in 1977. Tony Levin plays bass, Rick Marotta (amongst others) on the drums. A singer-songwriter with thoughtful, sometimes amusing observational lyrics, an engaging writer who carries on with his dedicated audience despite being under the radar to most.

Music Of The Daze

The continuing saga of Ariel moves on with hope. We now have a working fitted cylinder head, but now we need a camshaft, and the picture is there for everyone to see. If anyone has any idea where we can find this part, please let us know.

These are the details from the mechanic in Bristol (it’s a 1993 Nissan Vanette):

“Engine numbers are LD20 11
Al162183 x
Zy256
Camshaft numbers: 
12a
01
We need the camshaft and all four camshaft carriers.”

If you have any ideas, please get in touch with Olivia at olivia@martywillson-piper.com. We need to find this part and get to England within the month because, at the end of October, we have to renew the MOT. This will be a recurring picture for the week.

Gerd, Olivia’s dad, watched the Liverpool game with us today before he left to fly back to Germany. Sarah landed back in Dallas and we stayed in Porto on a beautiful day with a sweet breeze. We sat in the café in front of our gate at half-time, handy.

Music today has been Australian fantasists Ariel – A Strange Fantastic Dream (1973) featuring our very own Arktik Lake drummer Nigel Macara. Mike Rudd features on guitar and vocals and Tim Gaze who like Nigel played with the legendary Tamam Shud also plays guitar and sings, John Mills is on the keys.

Music Of The Daze

Up to hang with Sarah for a couple of hours before she headed out of town. Gerd, Olivia’s dad, also came over for what will be his last day and we listened to records, ironically one of which was Wish You Were Here. We’ve been doing a lot of record listening in the last few days and what an absolutely spiffing pursuit it is. A phone-free zone, using the ears for better horizons, the eyes for the cover art, and feeding the soul without moving. Sarah had to go to catch her flight and we waved goodbye as she descended the Archive steps towards the waiting Bolt, even harder to leave on such a beautiful day.

Olivia and Gerd had decided to go and visit the botanical garden and museum whilst I floated around The Archive, imagining the shelves full of records whilst happily listening to Caravan’s If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You (1970), the French release in a different cover. Time flew by and by the time I’d watched half of Man City/Forest, it was time to go out.

I was meeting Olivia over at a park in Cedofeita where local lads Population 5 were playing open air. Chico from one of the nearby record stores was singing, and Phil from Lush was playing guitar. We finally got to meet Phil’s partner Marta after three years here. The vibe was cool, the PA was troublesome, Chico disappeared into the leaves of the trees, but on a lovely day with kids and animals including a spider coming down to listen on the longest-ever web line, we’re happy. We left as the encore ensued on the way to meet Gerd for a home-cooked dinner.

It was a lovely walk through the city as we wound our way through dilapidated buildings with beautiful architecture, I just kept on thinking – in ten years! So now’s the time, winning the lottery would be really handy right now, but I guess you have to buy the ticket. As we came close to the Hard Rock Café, Castro and his friend Renata were standing outside. Castro has booked us to play there on the 30th of November. He invited us to come and see another performer there, Alain Johannes (on October 5th) who used to be in Queens of the Stone Age, amongst many other projects, just to get a feel for the place.

Back at the ranch, Olivia cooked another exotic dish for dad and for me and we listened to Robin Trower’s first, Twice Removed From Yesterday (1973) and last, No More Worlds To Conquer (2022) as well as the last two ELO albums Alone In The Universe (2015) and From Out Of Nowhere (2019). Dad went back to his hotel, I caught up with the blog, and now I’m going to bed, a mad few days of catching up with projects are coming.

But first, what was Today’s Music? Sarah arrived, she went to the shelves and picked out Alice Cooper’s Killer (1971) – hard to beat.

Music Of The Daze

As the evening comes to a close after a long, long day, the Friday nightclub night bangs on till the early hours. For some reason, it’s only Friday – Saturday it’s quiet, you’d think it would be both weekend nights – I’m not complaining. We’d been out for dinner earlier with Sarah from Texas and Olivia’s dad from Bonn/Cologne – we have visitors from other worlds, and it’s become apparent that this is the kind of place that people like to come to visit, which is good for The Archive. In Penzance, it was just too far off the beaten track, Cornwall’s beauty didn’t matter, if you made it to London, you still had another six hours of travelling to go. Also, Penzance isn’t a city, Porto is, there are just more people out there and more to do, city life, plus beauty all around.

A sesh with Fred in Minneapolis had to finish a little early because he had to go and get an injection in his thumb, as you do. He’d been helping with trying to figure out why my computer wouldn’t let me buy some more iCloud storage, but he had to go to be tortured. Sarah took over and put in some serious time trying to work it out and finally did after some hours of pulling her hair out. Qapla’, now I can work properly. It’s a long story, but despite having external hard drives, not being able to save anything on my desktop was driving me nuts. Fixed! Thank you, now I can uncurl myself from the ball and take the thumb out of my mouth.

Raúl the piano tuner was here again today for the semi-finals and he seemed saddened when we broke the news to him that we don’t play the piano! Well, Olivia keeps on working on a piece that gets better each time and now it’s in tune for simple stuff and will be in tune for someone who can really play and we will be able to get some real piano on a future track. Raúl will be back for the final in two weeks.

I had to go back to Tubitek earlier in the day because I hadn’t picked up the record I originally went to pick up – I was distracted by the bargains and forgot to get the one I’d ordered, James Blake’s Friends That Break Your Heart (2021). Since the day before, another ordered record had arrived, Rain Parade’s Last Rays of a Dying Sun (2023). I’m very much looking forward to hearing that.

We spoke to sessioneer Mike in Chicago, who is helping us with the mystery album cover. It’s looking good, there will be more information soon. The day had started with a sesh with Alain in Cyprus at midday and I was up earlyish preparing for a busy day that started here and finished with my head falling to the pillow like a stone, and then I was asleep.

Music today has been PJ Harvey’s new, semi-weird record with the semi-weird title I Inside the Old Year Dying (2023). I like it a lot – more than White Chalk (2007), Let England Shake (2011), and The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016).

Music Of The Daze