Today was the day for Ariel to go to the doctor for a check-up before our trip and to have her stubborn wheel nuts looked at. Our friend Ricardo had organised Luís in Maia, a small town half an hour north of Porto. It was nice for Ariel to take us for a spin after being cooped up in a dusty garage. It’s always nice to get out onto the road and see the signs to places we’ve never been like Braga, Vila Real and Lisbon. I commented that we must just drive to these places one day and spend a few hours walking around, checking them out, although I did play in Lisbon once with the ex-band and was in the country for about ten minutes. We arrived in the town half an hour early and I took the opportunity to take pictures of buildings and doors and pipes and electricity boxes and boarded up windows and fire hydrants and anything else that had an interesting shape or looked like history had worn it down into disuse. Spectacular disused buildings seem to be everywhere in this part of Portugal and one wonders how they fell into such disrepair from their original grandiosity.

Luís arrived with a family member and a friend. Luís was a real character, he was joking about our silly van the whole time but he helped us a lot, supplying us with a big metal bar and a tyre iron to loosen the nuts, he checked the oil, told us where to put the jack, showed us how to get the spare tyre down from underneath the car, gave us a pile of bulbs for the headlights that he said is mandatory to have in the car in Spain and he even fixed the radio – result. In the end, I asked him how much, he said, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out on your return in a month when you bring back the tyre iron and the metal bar.” Classic, typical Portuguese trust! I love it here for that. He told us about the tyre pressure which we fixed on the way back home. I also asked at the garage if there was somewhere we could wash the windscreen. I remember buckets in English and American garages, full of horrendous dirty water and a window cleaner implement to clean the windscreen. The man in the garage said we don’t have that but told me to go and see his friend around the back and he will help. At the back was a full-on car wash. I talked to the man there and told him that I just wanted to clean the windscreen, not a proper car wash. So, he got a high-pressure hose and cleaned the whole of Ariel’s body and windows. When I asked, “How much?” he told me not to worry about it. Welcome to Portugal.

We got back in time for the tennis final where they had a silence for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and set about one of the most fascinating finals of the modern era as two teenagers, Leylah Fernandez for Canada and Emma Raducanu for England, fought it out with Raducanu winning – the first British woman to win a major final since Virginia Wade in 1968. These women are so talented, so powerful, so level-headed, mature and such great athletes. Raducanu didn’t lose a set in ten matches and had to go through qualifying to win, no other qualifier has ever done this. Both are sports stars in the making, the new guard. New wave and punk, post glam and disco.

Space Summit has started its first day of release with three fantastic reviews with Jammerzine, New York Music Daily, and The Afterword. You can order the album here on CD and we are setting up a Bandcamp page through Schoolkids Records. You can pre-order limited vinyl now for an early next year release. If you want to listen first or prefer streaming to owning, it is available on all the appropriate streaming sites. Please be aware we make nothing from these sites, it’s the pre-orders and physical sales that give us the budgets to make future records and we thank you for that. We hope you enjoy all the records we make through whichever format you choose.

Music today celebrates the loss of that man from Leeds, Michael Chapman, who died Friday aged 80. He was a singer, songwriter, guitar player, and had a very distinctive voice. I saw him in a small venue in the middle of nowhere in Cornwall a few years ago. I have more than ten of his albums and often wondered how he wasn’t better known based on his skills, his distinctive voice with people with a penchant for Bert Jansch as singer and guitarist and Jimmy Page as acoustic player. He was one of those musicians that other artists knew well and it says it all that although he does have a Wikipedia page, none of his great albums do. RIP Mike.

Music Of The Daze

Congratulations to Jed “Space Summit” Bonniwell who is celebrating the release today of the first sessioneer album. It’s a collaboration that has Jed singing and writing the words, me playing all the guitars and bass and has us writing the songs together, with a team of sooper others including Olivia on violin, Phoebe on BVs, Dare on co-production, mixing and additional instruments, Ed on drums, Nicklas and Sophie on Mellotron, and Shannon on BVs. Jed was the very first sessioneer and there’s something gratifying about having the first person that got in touch on the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance sessions to be the first to get an album out. The feedback about the record has been great and I’d like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work, including Jed’s super positive unwavering enthusiasm for the project and of course to everyone out there that has supported us on the project including Stephen at Schoolkids Records, Lizzie with the finishing touches for the artwork and Lucía with the Berlin gallery pix. The album is now available to buy as a CD, it’s on all the streaming sites and next year there will be a limited blue vinyl version of the album available for pre-order now. Thank you for the support and just to let you know we have 15 new songs for another album, sorry. Read the review at jammerzine.com here.

After swimming today I came home to session land via the bakery to get some bread rolls and there was a pigeon in there, flying around. They were quite nonchalant about getting it out. They had the attitude that it would find its way out eventually and weren’t actively chasing it and so it sat there on the counter looking around like a pet. I appreciate people who don’t hate pigeons, because they’re smart like a lot of birds are, parrots and crows for example. How can people be cruel to animals? Even though I’m spheksophobic I still try to shoo them out rather than splatter on the window. But my murderous problem area is mosquitos. I can’t set them free because they’ll just return and bite me and suck my blood, mosquitos are so ungrateful, they leave you no choice.

Seshes with Noelle in Montreal and Fred in Minneapolis today although the Noelle conversation was more a checking in, a chat about Logic, singing and her cat Riley. Fred and I were talking about gear, Rickenbackers and the Ibanez UE 405, the multi-effects rack compressor/chorus/EQ/delay, which I finally found on Reverb after years of looking for one at a reasonable price. Fred now has two of them. It’s the effects rack I used in all the early years of the ex-band, that’s the sound. I’m looking forward to hooking it up through the Voxes. It’s a primitive piece of equipment in comparison to today’s sophisticated devices but what’s great about it is that it’s not digital and that means that there are never robots at the gigs.

I won a Cry Baby wah-wah on eBay tonight. I bought one in Texas when I was there working with Salim Nourallah but it went walkies. (I spoke to Salim tonight too.) I don’t know what happened to certain pieces of my equipment. I had a pedal called a Boss CE1 that went walkies in the nineties, to buy one now they’re six hundred pounds. Although you can do so much with ‘plug ins’ these days, there’s nothing like the sound of a primitive, awkward-sized metal pedal that occasionally breaks down, is heavy and superseded. I would love one of these ancient pedals again and the more chunky, oversized and ugly it is, the more I’m going to like it.

Music today was Manic Street Preachers‘ album The Ultra Vivid Lament (2021) which sounds like Chris de Burgh on acid. They certainly don’t have a single punk bone left in their body but it’s not really criticism, it just sounds like an album made by people in their fifties, sonically confident, cosy and pro with mature lyrics.

Music Of The Daze

Today was interview day with Edward Rogers for the WFMU radio show Atlantic Tunnel on wfmu.org/rocknsoulradio and it will be aired on the upcoming Sunday, 12th September between 2 PM and 4 PM East Coast time. The show will be two hours long and we will be playing tracks from all the projects from this year, MOAT’s Poison Stream (Feb 15th), Space Summit’s Life This Way (Sep 10th – That’s NOW), Arktik Lake’s Shimmer (Oct 4th), Brix Smith et moi’s Lost Angeles (Oct 15th) and Afridi/Willson-Piper’s In The End, The Birds Will Sing (early November) – phew! Okay, I know you know about all these but it might be a good time to let you know that there will be no Record Store Day release from me for next year, no second Noctorum album Offer The Light on vinyl. One of the reasons is that there is such a backlog at the pressing plants to make vinyl, plus they are trying to figure out how RSD works next year with what one presumes will be a once-only event. Then there’s the number of records that I am already involved in not just this year but also the releases next year with Jerome Froese and hopefully Salim Nourallah and The Wild Swans. The funny thing about all this is that as soon as all of these records are released, there’s the next ones, the ones that are being planned and most exciting of all, the ones that aren’t written yet.

Rain has come to Porto this week and it’s nice. It’s warm relieving rain and it happens mostly at night when the dark air is still. Generally, a coolness comes at night time but it’s almost as if the clouds keep it warm when the day is done and the inevitable rain brings us back to the usual temperature. That’s northern Portugal, it’s different down south, hotter, stiller, the Algarve, we haven’t been there yet, what a fantastic country Portugal is to explore.

After the interview, a sesh with Brian in New Jersey (possibly somewhere near WFMU) and then a chat with Dave Newton, guitar player from The Mighty Lemon Drops. We toured together in the late eighties. Dave lives in LA and still has his Wolverhampton accent, impressive. Then another late sesh with Elliot in Melbourne and then the US Open tennis semi-finals. You have to love tennis when there are two new teenagers in the final. It’s interesting how many musicians can’t relate to sporting events but I always think about the British bands, the Bunnymen, New Order, football fans, and one of the great football fans and a goalkeeper was writer Albert Camus.

We went to the gym today and every day since the beginning of the new season the reception area has been full of people registering and yet in the gym there was nobody, just us and the trainer Ana. So what are all these people registering for? Not the gym and it doesn’t seem like it’s the pool either, I see the same people in the pool. So, it must be classes. I went to yoga classes and once went to a Bikram Yoga class where you do yoga in intense heat a few days in a row. On the last day towards the end of the class, my body was overcome with a disconcerting blend of tingling, numbness and became completely out of control. It must have been something to do with blood sugar (not that I really know), eventually, the feeling came back but it really was quite unnerving.

Music today was me trying to make a playlist of contemporary artists, originally because I was trying to get some modern sounds into the show I was doing with Ed but time, the talking, the questions and the explanations and the show peppered with Ed’s music choices outside of my projects just had us run out of time. Ed and I could talk music for days non stop – I wonder if there’s a Guinness Book Of Records entry for longest music nerd conversation. But anyway those contemporary songs that I chose that I actually listened to loud with my eyes closed and head buried between the speakers were:

Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto – Punisher (2020)
Lump – Bloom At Night – Animal (2021)
Lana Del Rey – Brooklyn Baby – Ultraviolence (2014)
Evan Wright – People – Sound From Out The Window (2021)
FKA Twigs – Two Weeks – LP1 (2014)
Bess Atwell – Co-op – Already Always (2021)
Drug Store Romeos – Frame Of Reference – The World Within Our Bedroom (2021)
Wet Leg – Chaise Long (2021)
Billie Eilish – Bad Guy – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart – Fever Ray (2009)
Dry Cleaning – Scratchcard Lanyard – New Long Leg (2021)
Goldfrapp – Crystalline Green – Black Cherry (2003)
Sharon Van Etten / Angel Olsen – Like I Used To (2021)

Music Of The Daze

Lots of pieces of paper in front of me with things I have to do before leaving for England next week – responding, listening, planning, filling in forms, Covid tests, illustrated lyrics, Space Summit press release for Friday’s album release of Life This Way, sessions. Plus there’s the French, the swimming, the packing, the getting to Santander for the ferry which leaves at 5.30 PM but it’s a 6-hour plus drive, and the issue of getting the wheels off the car and putting them back on again. If you read an earlier blog, you’ll know that the wheel nuts are all fused tight and we need a garage with one of those machines like the ones they use in Formula 1. Haha, Ariel will be so embarrassed to think we need Lewis Hamilton’s wheel nut remover before we can travel without fear.

The 700 boxes arrived at the archive today. Aram, the guardian whilst I am away, and Dave, Dare’s brother, helped get them into the cave (the live recording room). Thanks, both. Aram got them from the outside and into the building, thanks, Aram. The truck driver couldn’t get the truck down the street so he had to use one of those industrial pallet lifting devices to take them down the street from the Co-op car park. He apparently told Aram he wouldn’t normally do this, hah, OK, well, thank you Mr Truck Driver for doing it this time.

I’m hoping that when we get there we can fill the boxes and stack them where the shelves once were. We can load them into the removal truck through the window instead of taking them the long way around up the stairs and along the hallway, so that’s a result. But what a job we have ahead of us and I still have to get the paperwork together for us to be allowed to bring everything into Portugal as personal items. I was awaiting one document that arrived today and now have to present it all to the authorities. Phew!

Today my friend Andreas in Sweden took me on a five and a half hour training course for Logic Pro and did a great job of explaining all the important initial points I need to know in order to use the programme, setting up a workable and easy to use template. Will I remember it all? Well, we’ll see, but the point is that I see a light and can imagine that once I’ve taken all this information in and retained it that I will be able to do what I need to do. I need to have this working for my own songwriting but also for adding parts to sessioneers’ demos but also eventually to be able to record guitar parts that can be manipulated and used on artists’ records. I have started to be asked if I play on people’s songs – people who are not sessioneers, people that want my thing on their songs. The answer is yes, but I have to get a lot better at the technical skills before I can commit to that, especially if I am getting paid session fees.

I spoke to my mate Boy D in England today before swimming and we discussed the universe and music and later to Derek in Wales where we discussed the universe and music. During the swim, I managed two magnificent butterfly lengths! Looks like Derek will be joining us on our trip to Cardiff Castle on Monday, 20th, along with our friend Lynne from Atlantaeum Flood. On the castle series that we just watched, there was one episode that was all about Cardiff Castle and there are some sumptuous rooms in there that we would really like to see in the flesh – and as far as flesh is concerned there was a lot of blood let here, but then where is there not a castle where brutality hasn’t reigned even if they did create beauty and opulence. I once went to Versailles (by myself). To think what the invading hordes must have thought when they discovered how the other half lived, it’s mind-boggling. Apparently there’s no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”.

Music today was one of my favourite insane records, Matching Mole’s debut (1972), featuring Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals, Phil Miller on guitar, David Sinclair on piano and Hammond, Dave MacRae on electric piano, and Bill MacCormick on bass. It features one of the most beautiful songs ever, O Caroline, and you can hear it on the WFMU radio show that I will be co-hosting with Ed Rogers, hopefully for broadcast this coming Sunday. As a bonus for jazzy progressive rock nerds there’s a bonus track on the 2 CD version, ending disc one is a 20-minute jam, Part Of The Dance, and is there another take on disc two? Of course there is. What more could you ask for?

Music Of The Daze

Any day when the alarm goes off before midday is an early day because it’s usually between 4 and 5 AM before I go to bed. So this morning I had a sesh with Anthony in Sydney at 12.30 PM. I just didn’t want to get up – 11.55, 12.00, 12.05 and finally I accepted reality and crawled out of bed. That haze after sleep when you’re still tired, hard to focus, eyes half-closed, shuffling instead of walking, bathroom, kitchen, computer. There’s nothing like papaya to wake you up, it freshens your mouth and pumps life into your veins. I compare waking up to being an inflatable swimming pool.

Olivia and I were expecting terrible weather today as it rained pretty hard last night or should I say this morning, meaning between 3 AM and 5 AM. But she rose an hour and a half after me and we walked out towards the non-inflatable swimming pool on a day with lots of different clouds – the kind of clouds that meteorologists can name. There was drama in the sky as if the clouds were at war with the blue arc, obscuring the bright positive translucent light, just to be spiteful. They didn’t need to be there, they weren’t even raining.

On the way back a nice breeze and the life-threatening crossing where there’s the markings on the road like a zebra crossing but no lights to control the cars. Sometimes the cars ignore you and keep on driving but mostly they do stop. The only problem is that with two lanes, one lane stops and the other doesn’t. So I won’t even set foot on the crossing till I know both lanes have stopped. I’m not sure if it’s ignorance, rudeness or recklessness but as a pedestrian, you take your life in your hands every time you cross the road. The crossing is supposed to make it safer but that isn’t always the case if you have a driver with zero awareness who doesn’t see that the other cars stopped, the person on the crossing or even see that there is a crossing. My dad was Merseyside road safety boss, it’s the reason I don’t drive. I’ve said this before but he used to come home with posters for seat belt campaigns featuring pictures of pretty girls with stitches in their face where they went through the windscreen because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt, it puts you off.

We watched the first two episodes of the Paul McCartney / Rick Rubin docu series. Wonderful nerd fest which I won’t describe here except to say if you like this kind of thing you’re going to love it. Someone reminded me that signing up for the Disney channel might just be what I need for the Get Back film when it’s released. I watched Scotland beat Austria 0-1. Stephen at the label, Jerome, Olivia and I discussed the album we have made and came to the conclusion that it best be a project released next year. I didn’t even think about it whilst we were discussing it but when I see that we have Space Summit – Life This Way on September 10th, Arktik Lake – Shimmer EP on October 4th, Brix Smith et moi – Lost Angeles on October 15th and Afridi/Willson-Piper – In The End, The Birds Will Sing early November, that’s probably enough for this year – plus earlier in the year there was the second MOAT album, Poison Stream – slow down already.

Music today started as a result of chatting to Ed Rogers about the WFMU we will be doing together. He told me that Andy Partridge had a new EP out, My Failed Songwriting Career (2021), and I was going to listen tonight but I can’t find it digitally. I bought the EP but I’m going to have to wait. So I thought I’ll listen to TC&I, ex XTC members Terry Chambers and Colin Moulding’s EP Great Aspirations (2017) instead. I already have the EP in the archive but I couldn’t find that digitally either. So I looked at some of Andy Partridge’s collaborations and found an interesting one with ex Zappa guitarist Mike Keneally called Wing Beat Fantastic (2012). Sounds like an odd combination but great. I went on to more of Ed’s recommendations and was happy I did as he turned me on to North Sea Radio Orchestra’s Craig Fortnam and his solo album Ark (2021) which I immediately bought and the Canadian artist Harkness The Occasion (2021) that I can’t find to buy on vinyl but is available to listen to digitally, and you must. Last but not least I always buy everything by Chrissie Hynde because of her voice. Her last solo album Stockholm (2014) and most of the last couple of Pretenders albums Alone (2016) and Hate For Sale (2020) were a bit of a struggle and if you are aware of JP Chrissie and The Fairground Boys, Fidelity (2010), the jazzy Valve Bone Woe (2019) and now this latest album Standing In The Doorway (2021) covering Bob Dylan. With all kinds of guest appearances over the years, it seems like she’s searching for that old magic but who isn’t, it’s hard to keep it warm.

Album review: Craig Fortnam – ‘Ark’: North Sea Radio man gathers his world in a prog-pastoral-folk craft of intricacy and thoughtfulness

Music Of The Daze