Last week:

I'm so glad January has finished. I know it's still winter and there's the ever-present threat of more snow (depending on who you talk to) but I always find it a long, cold, dark and generally crap month. I'm sure it's no coincidence that it's a lot brighter today and even a little bit warmer. I don't really take much notice of the weather forecast, just in case it's bad news...after all you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.

I know a couple of people who revel in telling everyone it's going to snow 'later in the week', even if it's already Friday. They place great faith in the Country File Five Day Farmers' Forecast, told by a suitably youthful forecaster of course. Why I don't know, as it's all from the BBC Met Office, the same people who do the forecasts day in day out. But somehow because it's for farmers it's taken more seriously as if they're the only ones who have the right to know the real weather.

But the real point to me relating this is that they always seem to want it to snow. I'm sure it's so they can then crow about their vehicles' snow-driving capabilities while the likes of me are planning any possible excuse not to get out of bed that day.

Oh, last week, I was supposed to be talking about. Well the Paul Jeffery Trio played it's first full gig as planned at the Rose & Crown, Greetland on Saturday night. It went really well, the first full band gig of this sort I've done since about last March. It was good to do a gig at a venue that has the right attitude to putting on live music, and I'll be happy to play there again soon.

Last night (Monday) I also played a solo gig at Milo in Leeds. I arrived just in time to be greeted by about 50 people decending from a meeting upstairs. 50 people is a lot in there, and then I found out they were all musicians in bands or producers. I played the last set (headlining we call it if we're wanting to show off) so most had gone by then, but it was still a good night and a really good sound too for my set.


This week:

It's a bit quieter with now just the big Atlanta Soul gig at Manchester Uni this Friday. I'm doing some more writing of late so there's all that to fit in, plus the recording of the demos.

A-Z of Music:

What a great treat on Sunday night on BBC 4. I'd just walked in from the pub when an hour-long programme about Mark Knopfler started. It kind of restored my faith in him to be honest. I don't know if I mentioned it here but I saw him at the M.E.N last year and was a little disappointed, mainly because he just isn't an arena performer. Some great interview segments, and of course some great playing though, and I always like to listen to what seasoned musicians and songwriters have to say. Especially one as intelligent and articulate as he.