Last week:
A lovely summer's week it has been too! I played at the Abbey Inn festival on Friday evening. I was the opening act so was a bit unsure what the turn-out would be like. With the weather very definetly in our favour, it was a good turn-out and I enjoyed my set.

This week...
With the World Cup nearly over, it's time to start thinking about more regular outings to play gigs. I'm going to be doing a short set with Katie at The Ship in Leeds this evening (Tues 6th). I am also now in possession of a fairly basic camcorder in order to film some 'home-performances' of my songs, and some cover versions as well! I'm looking forward to doing this for a number of reasons. The main one of these is that it gives people who can't attend the shows a chance to see some live performances, without either of us having to leave our own homes! I'll be uploading those to my youtube channel so will let you know when they're there.

A-Z of music:
Listened to the rest of Paul Carrack's mid-80s solo album 'Groove Approved'. Not really any very strong tracks on this, I think his best material really began about 10 years after this point. I also listened to a Crosby-Stills-Nash album called 'Allies'. The short up-tempo opening track was very good and full of energy. The bulk of the album is live and there's a great version of 'Blackbird' about halfway through. Their material is growing on me all the time, once I get past the gorgeous harmonies and onto the songs themselves!

Speaking of harmonies, can you believe that it was only a few days ago that I had my first full listen to the Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds'?? Of course, 'God Only Knows' is one of the finest songs ever written, and I think everyone ought to agree with that (!), but what of the album as a whole? Must admit another couple of plays may be needed. The drug-influences are very strong, and that makes it harder for me to follow. Some of the songs felt like sketches without having a beginning, middle and an end. Of course, nothing wrong with that, but it was at times hard to follow what was going on. Perhaps that's how BW was feeling at the time too!

Moans:
I've finally calmed down about Facebook and my 'blockade' on friend invites has been lifted. I'm still very cautious about inviting friends on there, but will see how things settle down. The upside to all this (and there's always an upside) is that I've found a few new things to do on myspace, including utilising their excellent Instant Messenger in order to keep in touch with the many people I've added on there over the past few years.