More creative stuff

Caught up with Ian King for the first time in ages. You should take a listen to his album which was unleashed earlier this year – my favourite track is Edge of the storm. Beautiful. I believe some of the music appeared on And’s film but perhaps the boys could give us the detail.

If you want to invest here’s the link to Ian’s homepage. But it’s also worth visiting Ian’s Myspace page because there’s some sample tracks there too. Here it is.

And hats off to Howard for the fantastic cover photograph. Wish I’d taken that.

The Irish compilation seems to have gone down well so if you need any more info on artists just let me know. (Sue – there’s a copy waiting for you in Hereford).

Now for the bad news. My dad tells me we’ve sold Lionel Ainsworth to Watford. Doh!

Throwing it open

Was talking to And about making this blog open for anyone to start a new thread. I’d be happy with that – any feedback?

The alternative is to continue to read my mad ramblings. For instance I was studying the green and yellow on a teal today and realised that we don’t have enough words for varying colours. I mean the green on it’s flank is almost transluscent and the yellow is kind of very light egg-yolk but is really a shade all of it’s own which defies description. Again, a snipe’s legs are yellow but not banana or lemon – somewhere in between. Isn’t it frustrating?

It reminds me of the producer Matt used to know who asked what colour he saw the mix. I know exactly what he meant.

Anyway, will be back in the Shire to bore you with more of this stuff at the weekend. Matt and myself have a mission in Ludlow but should have plenty of time. Looking forward to a good gathering.

Latest releases

Just thought I’d share this with you.

And Matt’s album is now available on iTunes so dip in. I can’t attach a link here for some reason but it’s Tuesday Blue by Simon le Fort. Only £7.99 for the whole album, go on you know it makes sense.

At the weekend I shall also be bringing freebie copies of my folk collection for anyone who wants it. Wittily entitled ‘The best folk album in the world ever…sort of’ (excpet for Matt’s unique version – which is called folk2) you will be sure to want to keep this souvenir collector’s issue to annoy the neighbours. But don’t forget, if you like something go buy the album and allow these people to earn a living from their talents.

See you soon.

Humph and sigh

Well it’s a bit lonely here at Troy Towers slaving away on a book that won’t write itself and treading the deserted country trails in search of fresh inspiration.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to the Shire in a fortnight when hopefully we can all rendezvous with John and Steve. Anyone got any suggestions about where to go? It’d be nice to go somewhere fresh wouldn’t it? And I’m up for a walk-about – let’s make it a gang walk. Everyone welcome.

Nige called last night to say he’d bought yet another new sailing boat. It sounds like he’s after deck hands but a bit timid of ringing the Sutton sea dog because he doesn’t want to clog up the fast lane for our pal Michael SchuMatter. So I might pootle round the shallows with him if the aforementioned race ace could yell from the bank and tell us which blessed ropes to tug on. (Seriously Matt, I think he needs some of your wise counsel).

Didn’t get the WWT post. Whilst my nose was admittedly slightly out of alignment, I was livid about the discourteous way they went about everything. I blew a fuse in the end and wrote a stinging letter to the CEO. Hell I was cross. The insufferable irony is that we’ll no doubt have to tolerate Kate Humble waxing lyrical about Martin Mere on Autumn Watch over the next week or so. Why does that upset me? I can’t comment specifically about Martin Mere because I’ve never been, but the visitor experience at the organisation’s HQ at Slimbridge is nothing short of piss poor. And when I was at the Beeb there were strict rules about conflict of interest. That doesn’t seem to trouble our Kate who as well as being a BBC presenter is also a patron of the WWT. But then, she’s on the telly so that’s all right then. (Peel me another sour grape will you).

Feel free to wade in…