Another little joy, which I have encountered since starting work at Imperial Music, is the lunchtime treats offered by the café within The Folk House. Unlike some of the trendier places around there, you can nearly always get a seat and the food comes quickly and cheaply.

The highlight is the magnificent apple crumble, which they serve a couple of times a week. As those that know me, will be aware, I am a real sucker for traditional English puds, so I was delighted to find this brilliant crumble. As with all great crumbles the secret is to have lots and lots crumble, with only a small amount of fruit. Served with lashings of hot custard, it truly is a wonderful thing.

Of course I really am lucky because Orynthia probably makes the best crumble in the world!

Lot’s of choices for gigs this week, not sure what we will actually end up going to. The only one that is certain is our trip to London on Friday to see Trashcan Sinatras and Camera Obscura. On Friday lunchtime, we are taking Orynthia’s mum to the lovely Red Snapper restaurant, in order to celebrate her 70th birthday. So Friday should be a pretty good day.

So we spent last night in the company of those rock and roll casualties The Libertines at the Colston Hall. When I say that we spent it with them, what I really mean to say that we shared a room with them and about 2000 others. Given their recent rather troublesome drug problems the band were kept well away from the bright lights of central Bristol. Normally security is used to stop people without tickets getting in, or to stop people getting backstage. I was told yesterday, a healthy amount of the security was purely concentrating on keeping the band IN the venue and out of harms way, with personal minders for Carl and Pete to ensure that they stayed in place!

So what about the actual gig? Well it was brilliant. The level of expectation when the band took to the stage was very high and the band responded with a blistering set. Loads of new songs plus all the gems off the album, all delivered with a swagger that only a band that know that they can leave the opposition standing can muster. At on point Pete through his guitar deep into the crowd, a potentially life threatening act, which luckily only resulted in one fan holding onto a rather special souvenir for the rest of the evening.

If they can stay (get?) healthy and keep out of jail, they could turn into the best singles band since The Buzzcocks or The Clash.

Well it had to happen, City lost on Saturday and then only managed a disappointing draw at home to bottom of the table Wycombe last night. Still promotion is still in our hands as we head into the final phase of the season.

I?ve really been enjoying the forthcoming album Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens recently. It's a deceptively simple, plaintive album from a guy who came to our attention thanks to the excellent Michigan album last year. I and the rest of the guys in the shop have also been pushing a fantastic country/blues album by Charlie Parr called Criminal and Sinners which is full of brilliant gritty songs. The forthcoming Future Pilot AKA album ? Salute Your Soul, provides another strange but rather confusing listen. A wild mixture of styles, which sounds more like a mix tape then any album, I have heard for quite a while. Bonkers!

It was nice to see a couple of old friends in the shop today, Pete who had made the journey up to Bristol for the Brian Wilson gig last night, it sounds like it was quite a show, which is good news as the tickets cost £50! Then later in the day, Bo came into the shop and made me (and Orynthia) very jealous, when she told me that Mr P and her are now owners of the kitsch classic car ? a Nissan Figaro! We want one as well!!!

Oh my, still feeling a little bloated after Saturday night. We were invited to a pudding party, which was fab. Orynthia made a spectacular sticky toffee pudding. Ashton made a sort of bread and butter pudding, with banana and coconut milk, which was yummy. Also sampled banana fritters, fruit and cream meringue nests, an amazingly rich chocolate mouse, fresh fruit salad covered in yoghurt and the splendid home made fudge of our lovely host.

I’ve fallen a bit behind with my reading recently, so I only got round to reading The Last Words On Earth by Nicole Krauss today. It was published in the Feb 9th edition of the New Yorker and I found it strangely affecting. Why not give it a go yourself.

As well as trying to catch up on my New Yorker backlog, I’m also reading the excellent Michael Chabon book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which is great fun so far (I’m about 280 pages into this 600 plus page monster).

I also read my first ever complete graphic novel, if that’s the right phrase? It was called It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken by Seth. I just noticed that it’s actually described as a picture- novella on the cover. I started to get interested in these sort of things after seeing the film Ghost World a couple of years ago.

I really like Seth’s style of drawing, it’s very simple yet strangely nostalgic. Sort of reminds of an old James Stewart film, although the book is a contemporary one. I guess it feels old because it’s all down in shades of grey/blue/black.

Our trip to The Field on Sunday evening was a pretty amazing experience. After parking the car, we had a 10-minute walk through the fields to the site of the installation. Here we found masses of fluorescent light tubes, set in rows underneath the main electricity pylons. Then we had to wait until darkness fell, it was absolutely freezing cold, on this very exposed hillside, and poor John and Jane had not bought hats with them (John did not even have gloves!). Eventually the daylight started to go and the tubes started to glow, purely from the electrical fall out from the cables overhead.

It was a strange and spooky experience, which was heightened, by the biting chill in the air, we prompted us to make our departure sooner rather than latter. You can see some pictures here, but they don’t really capture the strangeness of the evening. We rushed home for some hot alcohol to thaw out!

Really enjoyed the Fiery Furnaces gig in Cardiff. The only problem with The Barfly, is that the stage is so low that it may as well be a hole in the ground. Consequently, in order to see anything you have to get yourself right to the front. Luckily RLF, Beren and I managed to do this. The rest of our little group stayed nearer the back and enjoyed the gig less than we did. The band was much nosier than I expected and a lot of the songs were quite different in the live setting, from their recorded versions. Lets hope they make it to Bristol next time.

Talking about music in Bristol, local improv, free rock/jazz kings Fuzz Against Junk finally have their self-titled album released via the eclectic Invada Rocks label. Anyone who has seen them in live action, will already expect the unexpected. I’ve seen them playing as 3 piece doing folky/blues instrumentals then sometimes they are a 6 or 7 piece outfit sounding more like a mixture of Sun Ra and Hawkwind. The record is full of great ideas, once these boys find a grove they really work it.

In a few hours we hope to go and see this. Should be interesting.

And yes City did make it 11 straight wins yesterday, it’s all getting rather strange! We really aren’t used to this sort of thing.

I’d just like to say thanks again to everybody that sent Orynthia and I their best wishes recently. It was really nice of you all to take the time.

The funeral was held on Wednesday morning, and went as well as could have done. It was lovely to see that so many people wanted to be part of the day, quite a few people travelled very large distances to join us. As well as being a sad occasion, many happy memories were recounted, prompted in no small part by the fantastic collection of photo’s, showing Don with friends and family from his days back in Burma, right up to the last family picture taken on Christmas morning, which were on display around the hall.

So now we have to get on with the next phase of our life, tonight we are going over to Cardiff to see the American band Fiery Furnaces at The Barfly. I really enjoyed their album, which came out last year, so am hoping for a good night. It’s actually a bit of a works outing for me as Mark. RLF and Beren are also making the journey. In an effort to avoid too much shoptalk Orynthia and Jane are also coming along to keep us in check.

We have quite a few things lined up for the forthcoming months, The Libertines on March 4th,Trashcan Sinatras and Camera Obscura in London on March 12th,Jonnathan Richmond on April 11th, Lambchop in Bath on April 19th and finally something a bit different Derren Brown the mentalist on April 29th.

Bristol City have managed to keep up their good form, in fact the midweek victory at Grimsby was our 10th win in row, meaning that the team are in their best run of form since 1905! That win also took us to the top of the league, so with 15 games to go, it looks as though we do have a real chance of getting promotion this season.

I am sorry to say that Orynthia's Dad passed away on Tuesday evening. Although he has been through several operations and was in pain for much of the time, he went peacefully in his sleep.

As requested by Ian (see comments below), you can hear the Banana song here

Many thanks for all the kind thoughts and good wishes; Orynthia’s dad is now looking much, much better.

So other than hospital trips, it’s been a fairly quiet week. We went to see the latest Tim Burton film “Big Fish” earlier in the week, and although it is a strange mixture of Billy Liar, Forest Gump (not a good thing in my book) and It’s a Wonderful Life, mixed up with Burton’s madcap visual flair, it works more often than it fails. For the first time in years, we actually missed the start of the film, something I hate doing. I don’t think we missed too much, luckily one of Ashton’s friends was in the cinema and was able to give us a quick run through after the film.

Tomorrow City are at home again, this time looking for their 8th win in a row, so I’ll be at that cheering them on.

On Monday night I’m off to see The Rapture at The Fleece, this is the 3ed date for the gig so lets hope that it actually happens this time. On the music front, the cutting edge albums, which I have bought home this week, are “Waves In The Ether”. It gathers together albums made in 1947, 1948 and 1950 featuring the Theremin and some fantastically over the top orchestral arrangements. It’s barmy and great fun. The other disc is by Ray Ventura & ses Collegiens. Oddball novelty jazz songs from 1935-47, sung in French. It features a great version of “We like Bananas, because they have no bones” called “Vive Les bananas!” Splendid stuff in both cases.

Well we have had a pretty extraordinary time since I last wrote anything here!

Just after my last entry, we received a phone call from Orynthia’s sister saying that we should get to the hospital as soon as possible. We dashed off as quickly as we could, and when we arrived things were looking very, very worrying. During the afternoon and evening the rest of the family arrived, and we took turns sitting with Don and talking about all sorts of memories. It was a long and frightening experience, only eased by the shared feeling of bemused and shocked support that we took from each other.

After the other patient’s visitors had left we were still sitting anxiously around the bedside, when a strange thing happened. One of the other patients put on a cassette of some wonderful old Frank Sinatra songs. The mood on the ward seemed to change, Orynthia’s mum was convinced that Don could hear the songs and somehow the level of tension seemed to drop by a few notches. Eventually we made our way home, making sure that no-one would be stuck at home without transport, tried to sleep (without much success) and hoped that the phone would not ring in the night. Obviously we cancelled our planned trip to Bilbao.

Saturday morning came, without disturbance. Don had been stable overnight and by the time we got to the hospital, he appeared to be a little brighter. Once again the whole family were in attendance, so as well as sitting with Don, we sat in the day room in small groups and also chatted to other patients who were very supportive. It was decided that most of the family would come back to our house for a traditional Burmese meal at the end of the day, and amazingly we left the hospital sufficiently heartened by the day’s progress to turn the meal into a mini celebration, which had the feeling of a Christmas gathering.

Once again Saturday evening saw family members sleeping over, at various homes. The night passed peacefully and when we went into the hospital on Sunday, amazingly Don was sitting up, eyes open and talking. The sense of relief and joy was really incredible. Some of things he was saying were more than a bit confused, but after 48 hours of being out of it, who could blame him. In fact some of the things he said caused us to laugh out loud and brilliantly he joined in! His face turning into a huge beaming smile, one of the most fantastic sights I have ever seen. Sunday evening saw another mass meal this time at Don’s brothers house, with everyone in high spirits.

He still has a long way to go, but the events of this remarkable weekend will live with all of us for a very long time.

Last night I had the unexpected delight of seeing, the wonderful E.S.T. in fantastic form at St Georges. I say unexpected, because the opportunity to go to the gig, only arose in mid afternoon. They really are a brilliant group, who manage to escape the normal confines of a jazz trio, thanks to their innovative approach to sound, which works particularly well in a live environment.

Tomorrow we head off to Bilbao, I’ve stocked up on reading matter for the trip. The 600 plus pages of “The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay” should take most of my time, just in case I need further stimulus, I’ve got the latest 2 copies of the New Yorker magazine to get through as well. The weather forecast looks pretty good, considering that Bilbao is one of the wettest places in Spain, so we are hopping for lazy spells sitting reading in parks or outside café’s.

The reason for going away at this time of year is that February 4th marks our 17th wedding anniversary. We normally try to go away somewhere to celebrate, even if it’s only a few days in London. Quite often the weather can cause delays (our flight to Nice was cancelled last year!), so I’m pleased to see that the thaw has well and truly kicked in. Tomorrow, we will be driving to local railway station, getting a train to Temple Meads, from their we get a coach to Bristol Airport, from Bilbao airport we hope to get a bus to our hotel. Shame that we can’t fit a boat trip in as well to get most of the forms of transport covered!

So after the biggest build up since the 3rd Oasis album, the snow finally reached us. In the same way that the record was such a disappointment, the expected blizzards failed to arrive. We had a brief spell of snow, which has now frozen solid on the ground leaving everything looking very slippery this morning. Indeed last night, we went straight to the hospital to see Orynthia’s dad and due to some complications which arose when we were there, we did not get home until 10pm, by which time the short walk from the car to front door of the house, had become a decidedly tricky operation.

Bristol City managed another win on Tuesday evening, so that makes it 7 straight victories now. We are only 2 points off the second promotion place, so who knows, maybe this season it may all come good for us. Certainly we have the most balanced team and squad that I have seen at Ashton Gate for many seasons.

In the wonderful world of Imperial Music everything has gone very Ninja! No, we are not leaping around drop kicking customers away from the counter, the Ninja Tunes record label is having a big promotional push at the moment and we been selling loads of their stuff. The likes of DJ Food, Amon Tobin, Cinematic Orchestra and Mr Scruff amongst others have been flying out of the shop, Indeed towards the end of business on Monday, one guy spent over £100 pounds on Ninja stuff, when you consider that these CD’s are selling for £4.99 to £6.99 you can imagine what a huge pile he came to the counter with.

Wow the Camera Obscura gig sure was packed! I’ve never seen so many people in The Cube. A top night though, really enjoyed Jessie’s latest Morning Star line up, in their role as support band. Camera Obscura were great, even if they did have a few problems remembering the words!

Football dominates the start of the week for me, playing on Monday evening and all the weather forecasts seem to thing that it’s going to absolutely freezing! Then on Tuesday City are home against Colchester, bizarrely City have managed to win their last 6 games, amazing when you consider that normally we are lucky to pick up 6 points in the whole month.

Last night we watched the splendid Man Without A Past on BBC4, quirky and understated we both enjoyed it greatly. We also watched the documentary film Etre et Avoir, which was mildly diverting but no more than that. Still it’s great to see this sort of films on TV.

So Orynthia’s dad has had most of his left leg removed. It’s strange though, at first this sounded like such terrible news, but last Friday we had a real scare because of the problems that the poisons in his leg were causing him. So, with hindsight getting the leg removed sounds like the better option, if it stops additional problems within his body. His brother is in the same hospital for an operation today, so at least we can visit both of them at the same time rather than dash from hospital to hospital.

On a much less serious point, I managed to make quite a fool of myself in the shop yesterday. Jumping up from the lower levels of our CD racks, I managed to smash my forehead into one of the (actually pretty thick) hard plastic dividers, which we use to separate the vinyl. Resulting in a pretty stupid looking red line across my forehead, looking like an unfinished mark of Zorro!

Only just over a week to go before our trip to Bilbao, we really need to get organised for that, it’s creeping up on us very quickly.

Had a bit of a mixed bag of a weekend. On Friday we went to see the really rather good American Splendor at The Orpheus. On Saturday I saw Bristol City win their 5th game on the trot, although it has to be said the 4-0 score line did flatter us somewhat. Whilst I was enjoying that Orynthia was with her dad in the hospital. Then on Sunday we travelled down to see my dad in Devon, as he has now returned home from his hospital stay.

Quite a strange day in the shop, time for the annual January clear out. Some stuff being returned, other stuff being marked down. Kept seeing great Jazz albums being reduced and just wanted to buy them all. Still if you like Jazz and still have a record player, why not pop into Imperial Music, Park Street, Bristol and see what takes your fancy.

We are off to see the lovely Camera Obscura on Friday at The Cube, and was delighted to see that their first album has just been re-released, so I picked up a copy of that one straight away!

Well we spent last night in the company of the very strange but always beguiling Howe Gelb at St Georges. We both really enjoyed his album The Listener, which we picked up in Paris during our trip in April. I must confess to only hearing a little bit of his work with Giant Sand, and the vast array of material that he has recorded in the past 20+ years, so we did not really know what to expect.

Fortified by some excellent noodles from Wagamamas and sublime cakes from Boston Tea Party, we made our way to St Georges in a good mood. This was increased when we bumped into several friends in the bar (some of whom, had seats next to us by complete coincidence!). The start of the show was somewhat strange, Howe Gelb shuffled around the stage moving instruments around, whilst music played over the PA. He then walked over to a portable CD player and abruptly stopped a song mid way through, indicating that the show was about to commence.

As it turned out the CD player played an important part in the events of the evening. He used it to play us some unfinished tracks from the new Giant Sand album (joining in with some guitar solo’s as he did so), also using it to have Miles Davis add a trumpet solo to one of his songs and using some of the CD’s as effects by placing them on the stings of his piano, which produced at strange metallic sound, not dissimilar to a harpsichord.

The first 15 or 20 minutes of the show produced a lot of a confusion as Howe ambled around trying to find “the vibe” of the room, seemingly with no real idea about what he intended to do. Eventually he called Jon Parrish onto the stage to play drums and the addition of another musician seemed to have a calming effect, as he went on to perform some beautiful piano based songs. When he switched to the electric guitar things seemed a bit messy again, but that may be down to the acoustics of the room rather than the performer. Anyway it all made for a very entertaining (if occasionally confusing) evening. He is truly a maverick figure, completely at home with the idea of challenging both himself and the audience.

My dad returned home yesterday after his recent heart attack. The signs are good for the future, as long as he can keep away from the Clotted Cream, not easy for the men in our family! Things are not so good with Orynthia’s dad at the moment, but I don’t really want to go into that too much for the time being.

One of the benefits of my new job is that I don’t start work until 10am, consequently I have more lazing around time in bed every morning. This used to consist of me laying in bed watching the breakfast news on TV. However since Xmas channel 4 have given up on having any sort of studio based show and has decided to give us old runs of comedy shows. One of these is called “Everybody Loves Raymond”. I don’t know anything about the show, not sure if it’s been shown over here before (it’s obviously a few years old) but I’m hooked. It still feels slightly decadent to be watching this sort of show at 8am, but why not?

Since Christmas I’ve been reading the Chet Baker biography – “Deep In A Dream”. It’s a pretty brutal book, the level of self-destruction which Baker and his fellow Jazz musicians put themselves through is really quite amazing. I still can’t figure out how Baker made such brutal music whilst his was so busy destroying everything around him.

Things have been a bit quiet on the music front, really enjoying the new 10 inch ep from The Earlies. Had a sneak preview of the new albums by Franz Ferdinand and Lambchop and they both sound good.

Well our trip to London was certainly rich in contrasts. From the cheap and cheerful indie splendour of the Ladybug Transistor gig in shabby old Kings Cross, to the opulent glamour of tea at The Ritz, I think we covered most of the bases.

After arriving in London around lunchtime, we decided to head off to The Design Museum for our first visit for several years, in order to catch the Alison & Peter Smithson exhibition. It was a bit disappointing to find that for one week only the museum was closed for maintenance work! We caught the bus up to Liverpool Street station and then had a wander around the Spitalfields Market – Brick Lane area for a while.

After checking into our hotel (where we discovered that breakfast was included in our bargain price), we set off for the gig. The evening got off to a slightly farcical start when we found ourselves part of a small group of fans (including one of the Ladybug Transistor and the obligatory Japanese indie fans, everyone being very nice and chatty) outside the venue, watching as the staff tried to bludgeon open a very resistant front door. Eventually, the door was prised open and in we went. The night was the middle evening of a 3-day mini festival set up by the people at Track And Field, so we had four bands from the labels roster to entertain us.

First up were Homescience, who were pleasant enough, but seemed to lack any defining quality, which would make them stand out from the crowd. Next were The Finishing School, who I really enjoyed. They are yet another offshoot from The Ladybug Transistor (in fact the whole band minus Gary Olson), Sasha Bell is very much in control of this project, judging buy some other reviews I have read, people appear to have doubts about her voice, but I though it was lovely, imagine Natalie Merchant fronting a more 60’s sounding keyboard lead 10.000 Maniacs and you won’t be far wrong.

By way of contrast, the next band to take to the rather chilly stage area were The Broken Family Band, They are that strangest of all things an English country band. Wonderfully cynical, with more than a touch of early Loudon Wainwright about them, they were very entertaining and certainly went down well with the enthusiastic crowd.

Finally the wonderful Ladybug Transistor arrived on stage, giving us our first chance to see them since discovering them at The Bowlie back in 1999. They played a great selection of their best songs, including plenty from their recent and best self-titled album. Gary Olson has the best crooning voice in the world and we just love the minimal simplicity of Jeff Barron’s guitar playing (also love his strange knee’s and feet together, bottom thrust out stance as he drifts through those beautiful solo’s!). We took the short walk back to our hotel with a jaunty skip in our step.

On Friday morning we caught the tube to Camden and had one of those fortunate instances, where we found a great building by chance. On a whim, on leaving the tube station we went looking for the Jewish museum. Our track was unsuccessful, but we did come across Greater London House, formerly the Carreras cigarette factory. It’s recently been restored to its Tutankhamun inspired Art Deco beauty. A pair of huge cats guards the entranceway, whilst rather bizarrely the building is topped with an enormous row of smiling cats heads, which go the full length of this extraordinary building. Camden itself was rather disappointing, in the old days, you really felt that you could find anything there, now with a few exceptions it appears to either clothing or food, some of which is great, but the variety which made it fascinating is somewhat lacking.

We then made our way back into the west end in order to meet up with Crescentia for our afternoon tea at the Ritz. It was splendid, and even committed cake lovers such as ourselves had to admit defeat in the end and wave some away.

Things are going well for my dad, we are off to London for a couple of days.

On Friday evening we bravely ventured off to The Cube to see the latest knock about from the Coen brothers, Intolerable Cruelty. I say bravely because at this time of year The Cube can be a rather daunting prospect.

We have no problem with their splendidly idiosyncratic programming, or the fact that you can take piece of home made cake or pleasant drink of Polish vodka into the auditorium with you. Nor do we mind the fact that it’s quite likely that the film could start much later than the advertised time (approx 15 minutes on Friday) for any number of strange reasons. In fact all of these things help to make The Cube the wonderful place that it is. No the problem is that winter visits to The Cube, can be similar to sitting in an igloo, wearing only your underwear. To be honest it can be absolutely freezing! Any way this time we decided to go prepared, so as well as coats, hats and gloves, Orynthia came up with the brilliant idea of taking a blanket as well. To be fait to the marvellous folk who run the place, the place was nowhere near as cold as it has been on previous visits (see January 8th2003), but it still gave us a toasty glow, as we snuggled under the blanket like a couple of pensioners on a daytrip to Weston Super Mare.

We really enjoyed the film, a classic screwball comedy, worthy of anything from the 1940’s heyday of that genre. George Clooney was just marvellous as the superbly slimy legal whiz, bought to his knees by the startling beauty of Catherine Zeta-Jones.

We spent yesterday with my dad and step mum, in the hospital in Taunton (thanks for the messages of good will), he was in good spirits. Tomorrow he undergoes the tests, which should give us an indication of the extent of the damage.

So here we are in 2004, the old year ended on a familiar note for me yesterday with a hospital visit! Over the Xmas period my dad suffered a heart attack, luckily it looks as though it was only a mild one, so hopefully things should be alright in the long run.

Mark kindly let me take yesterday morning off, so I set off at 8am for the hour journey to the hospital in Taunton. Orynthia was working, so for the first time in awhile I found myself heading off to a potentially traumatic family situation without her at my side. I have to admit that I was quite pensive during the drive, but was delighted to find dad up and about and in good spirits. The facilities really are excellent. Alongside his bed he has a strange sort of pod, which houses TV, radio, Internet and E-mail access along with a phone, which enables us to call directly to his bed for a chat at any time. He is in a large room of his own, with en-suite facilities, so we were laughingly comparing this with some of the lower grade hotels, which we have both stayed in over the years. It’s good to see the much-maligned National Health Service coming up trumps.

Nature managed to provide a stunning diversion for me during the journey. The day had dawned clear and cold in Bristol. However as my journey took me into Somerset, the spectacular low lying fog over the Somerset levels made for some beautifully mysterious images, as several feet of fog hovered over the fields with the pinkish glow of the winter sunshine peeping through both above and below.

So in next few weeks, my sister will be starting the next phase of her chemotherapy cancer treatment, Orynthia’s mum will be having a heart bypass operation, Orynthia’s dad continues to come to terms with being in a wheelchair, and my dad will be recuperating from this incident. No point in us getting despondent though, it’s just one of the natural consequences of aging, inevitably people of our parents generation will have more health problems. As we can’t actually do anything about those medical issues, we just have to offer the help and support which we are able to and carry on enjoying our free time as much as we can.

We spent last night at home with Caroline, Jane (John was involved with the big Blowpop party) and from about 11:15 Jon and Katja joined us to see the New Year in. With the exception of Jane they all stayed over, although poor Katja had a rather disturbed evening and morning, requiring several visits to the smallest room, not a pleasant way for her to start the year, but I’m sure many others found themselves in a similar situation this morning.

Went back to work yesterday, for my first Saturday working in the shop. It was actually a pretty quiet day, many of the cafés and bars on Park Street were closed, so it felt more like a Sunday really. I like the fact that at this time of year it’s really easy to lose track of the days of the week. Today I’m off see Bristol City play Bournemouth, obviously that would normally take place on a Saturday, so tomorrow I’m going to be convinced that it’s Sunday, better make sure that we both remember to go to work. Then when we get back on track they go and throw New Years day at us, so another day off and more mental confusion for a simple chap like me.

We had a gently social time over the past few days. Met up with a few friends on Xmas eve to celebrate my birthday, had to have a late change of venue for our lunch gathering as the place which we had booked, was not actually serving food, although they had neglected to tell us this. Still we managed to find a nice café on Gloucester Road and had a fine time. After the meal a few of us popped into the excellent Repsycho, where we marvelled at their wonderful collection of the kitsch and the classic from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s.

Xmas day itself went really well, we finally staggered home and just about managed to stay awake to watch Belleville Rendez-Vous. Boxing day was a very lazy, apart from a brief trip to the dustbin, I did not leave the house all day, which was fine.

Whilst I was working Orynthia introduced her cousin Caroline (who is spending Xmas with us) to delights of the ladies lunch club at the Boston Tea Party.

Last night we popped round to see Rick and Louise and as is often the way. I found myself engaged in a long an interesting conversation about music with one of Rick’s friends. Having started off talking about “cool” bands like Joy Division, we eventually found ourselves admitting to our Prog Rock and Heavy Metal past’s. We all have our skeletons in the cupboard.

Record of the Xmas period for me, is the latest brilliant album by Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Really inventive, funny and funky, it’s a great record.

Despite a couple of weather forecasts raising our hopes, no sign of any snow here yet. We are long overdue a decent snowfall, maybe this will be the year!

Looking past Xmas, we booked a couple of things to look forward to. Firstly in early January we have got tickets to see the marvellous Ladybug Transistor in London, as luck would have it we were due to visit London on the 9th January for “Tea at The Ritz” (a Xmas gift from last year), amazingly the only gig that the band are playing in the UK on this trip across The Atlantic was scheduled for the night before, so we will be heading up to London on the Thursday in order to catch the gig as well, also pleased as we managed to book reasonably priced (for London) accommodation very close to the venue.

Then on Friday 23rd January the equally splendid Camera Obscura are playing at The Cube, the perfect place to see the band which gave us one of the best albums of 2003. I had a chat with the guy who has been arranging it for The Cube, and it sounds as though he has been having great fun trying to decipher those lovely Scottish accents over the phone, during the negotiations.

We’ve also booked the flights for the Bilbao trip for the first week in February, so all in all we’ve got a lot to look forward to in the New Year.

Although there is no such thing as an Imperial Music Xmas bash, the previous couple of evenings and seen me out and about on a pair of festive nights out.

On Wednesday Orynthia’s company treated us to an evening in the gothic splendour of Ashton Court Mansion. For the first since leaving BT at the end of October, I had to slip into a suit, luckily I just about remembered how put a tie on as well. Orynthia looked radiant and it was quite nice to be in a dressy environment for once.

Last night, the Monday night football gang finally managed to arrange a social night out, mainly thanks to the organisational skills of Scott. Nine of us met for a curry, before somehow blagging our way into the South West Press Xmas party, for a late drink. Scott is about to join the Australia exodus, which many of our musical friends seem to be experiencing this winter. Geoff is already down under for an extended visit, John and Jane head out for a month early in January. Scott and his musical partner Andy Smith have the exotic sounding prospect of a New Years Eve gig in Sydney, then New Years day in Perth, before squeezing in one more show in Singapore on the way back of their whistle-stop trip.

Had a pretty frustrating day today, sitting in the traffic of a grid locked city. I think that everyone must have finished work at lunchtime and decided to drive home. What should have been a pretty quick trip to take my sister to the supermarket, turned into a bit of a marathon.

Tonight it’s going to be the last ever Four Corner’s at The Croft, hopefully a decent crowd will make it a night to remember.

You can see some pictures here of our recent trip to Tate Modern in London.

Had a surprise visit tonight from one of our Spanish friends. Jose is from Bilbao but has been living in Bristol on and off for the past few years. We got in touch with him recently because we are hoping to go to Bilbao next February, so we thought we would pick his brains about accommodation.

He popped in this evening to say that he is going back to Spain for Xmas in a couple of days time, then after a brief return for New Year in Bristol, he is off to start a new job working for UNESCO in Jamaica! I think that he is still a bit stunned by it all, but what a great adventure, one thing does worry him though. I told him that the Jamaicans love cricket. For all his adaptability and willingness to adapt to local ways and customs, the majestic game of cricket has always remained a cause of bemused confusion for the poor chap. He once asked me “How can a game last 5 days, and still end in a draw?” Maybe with that warm Caribbean sun shining on his back the game will make more sense to him then it does in chilly old England.

We’ve had some interesting customers in the shop recently. Of course all our customers are interesting, but some stand out more that others. Last week Julian Cope spent sometime in shop before picking up a copy of the Gonga album. Today we spent a while with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame, he was in a very chatty and jolly mood, buying lots of goodies. In fact it was a pretty busy day, the Xmas rush really seemed to begin, now all we need it some snow. One of my old BT colleagues also came into the shop. The old team that I used to work with is being merged with another team and it sounds as though things are generally pretty miserable there at the moment, which is a real shame for the people concerned. I am so pleased that I left when I did.

Woke up this morning to a cold and foggy day. In fact the car would not start, I guess due to a combination of cold and damp, luckily this meant that I had a lovely walk through the misty splendour of Redland Green Park. Lots of birds were skipping around, I thought at first that were having their breakfast, but when you think about the ridiculous time which birds get up at, then I guess it would have been more like lunchtime for them.

Once in the shop, it was one of those days when lots of friends happened to visit. In quick succession 5 people came in, the funniest was Darren, more of an acquaintance really. He is one of the many people that we know through Steve Vowels. We watched a few football games together over a glass of wine. He was about to leave empty handed when he spotted me by the door, I was checking the stock situation, so I had pen and paper in hand. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen him so his was unaware of my change of career. He assumed that I had an enormous Xmas list that I was working my through and was shocked to find that I was working in “the best record shop in Bristol”. He kept on congratulating me on my new job and laughing out loud. After a few minutes of banter I’m pleased to say that he left with a couple of purchases.

Tomorrow night we shall be heading into town to try and complete (or at least break the back of) our Xmas shopping. We actually don’t have to buy too much this year, helped by the fact that my sister and her 3 boys have decided that they no longer recognise Xmas or indeed birthdays!

Our final gig in the crazy sequence was great. Belle & Sebastian played lots of different songs from the London show and went down a storm on their first visit to this part of the country. Support act Franz Ferdinand impressed me a lot with their spikey, angular performance. Have to say that they reminded me a lot of Josef K, Scottish favourites from a previous century.

I can’t really believe that we are so close to Christmas. Usually by this time of year, I’ve been out for lots of work related Xmas meals. I have to say that I quite like the fact that nothing like that goes on in the shop. The thing is that we all have a great time in work anyway, so we don’t need to conjure up an excuse for some joviality. I also love the fact that we can give such joy to people. It’s great to sell someone a record which they have been trying to track down for ages, and it’s also good fun helping out all those confused mums who come into the shop with scribbled notes indicating the music that their loved ones would like Santa to bring them. I guess in a way we are just Santa’s little helpers!

At last the chart the world has been waiting for is here! The definitive guide to the best records of 2003, can be found at the Imperial Music website. Did your favourite make the list?

So it’s been a really busy few days. The Strokes gig in Cardiff on Wednesday night was fantastic! They played for about an hour, and were gone without any encore, which was exactly right. Incredibly tight, they ripped through their set as though their lives depended on it. Next time they come to the UK, I fear they will be playing the big stadiums, so this may be the last chance I get to see them – if so, what a brilliant way to remember them.

Thursday night we were off to The Thekla to see 3 of my new colleagues in action, When RLF and friends supported The Bug. Brilliantly inventive electronica, with live brass section and scratching, they were great. As for the videos – Genius.

On Friday we took advantage of our journey to London for the Belle & Sebastian gig, and nipped along to Tate Modern to see the stunning installation by Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project. His enormous fake sun shining through the artificial haze creates an amazingly restful and calming atmosphere. It was very strange to see people lying on the concrete floor, to all intents – sunbathing, although no heat is generated. One couple even appeared to be having a picnic! Well worth taking a look at, and it’s free!!

After a brilliant Indian meal, we set off for The Astoria, when we arrived the “Indie Karaoke” was already underway. The efforts of the highly entertaining Johnny Seven made for an amusing competition, which was eventually won by a chap pretending to be The Mamas & Papas (no mean feat). When the gig proper started Stuart Murdoch appeared to be somewhat out of sorts, which resulted in a slightly tense atmosphere on stage. The mood lifted after Mick Cooke’s splendid impersonation of Herb Alpert and soon the band were back on top form and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Songs were liberally taken from all periods of the bands career and Orynthia cheerfully pronounced it, the B&S gig she had seen. Let’s see if they can top that on Sunday evening in Bath.

Today I went to City play Barnsley in the F.A. Cup, although we battered them for most of the game, we were unable to get the goal we needed, so the match ended 0-0. At least we are in the draw for the 3rd round, when all those millionaires from The Premiership join the competion, maybe we will get our chance to take on one of the big clubs at Ashton Gate, assuming that we get past Barnsley in the replay.

The following note is taken from the Belle & Sebastian website and refers to the the London gig which we are going to on Friday evening. Could be quite amusing.

"To all of you who made it to the Glasgow Album Launch, you'll know the drill already, however, for those who don't, the support band for the Friday London show is going to be an interactive karaoke affair! The Johnny 7 are going to be the band, and we need you, yes, that's YOU!, to choose from the delectable list of indie karaoke delights below and volunteer to get up on the stage at The Astoria and belt it at - simple really!
If you have tickets and wanna display your vocal prowess, please email and tell us which song you want to sing. We'll then contact you to discuss meet-up points for the night.
**Please note, if you haven't already got tickets, we're not going to be able to get you into the show, despite how much you want to participate, sorry.**
Stuart Murdoch will be your compere for the slot and there'll probably be a prize for the best performance too, so even if you're not up for singing, please come along early to join in the fun and shout loud for your fave.
Here's the list of Johnny 7 approved songs!
Aztec Camera : oblivious
Baccara : yes sir i can boogie
Burt Bacharach : this guy's in love with you
Shirley Bassey : goldfinger (or almost any bond theme)
Belle & Sebastian : legal man
Blondie : heart of glass / denis / sunday girl
David Bowie : the man who sold the world
Camper Van Beethoven : take the skinheads bowling
The Carpenters : close to you
Edwyn Collins : a girl like you
Doris Day : perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
The Delgados : pull the wires from the wall
Dexy's Midnight Runners : geno
The Doors : light my fire
Franz Ferdinand : darts of pleasure
Astrud Gilberto : the girl from ipanema
Mary Hopkins : those were the days
Jacky : white horses
Daniel Johnston : speeding motorcycle
Tom Jones : it's not unusual
Kylie : can't get you out of my head
Julie London : cry me a river
Madness : baggy trousers
Maaonna : like a virgin / material girl / borderline
The Mamas and The Papas : california dreaming
Kelly Marie : feels like i'm in love
The Monkees : last train to clarksville / i'm a believer
The Pastels : nothing to be done
Freda Payne : band of gold
Elvis Presley : bossa nova baby
Pulp : babies
Santana : black magic woman
Dusty Springfield : the look of love
The Strokes : last nite
Supergrass : alright
The Supremes : baby love
Teenage Fanclub : the concept
Thin Lizzy : the boys are back in town
Tight Fit : the lion sleeps tonight
Velvet Underground : sunday morning
Bobby Vinton : blue velvet
Dionne Warwick : say a little prayer
White Stripes : you're pretty good looking
Andy Williams : music to watch girls by
And almost anything vintage by Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones etc."

Lots of dashing around at the moment, hence the lack of entries here. Just time to say buy the new mini album, The Stereo and God by Joy Zipper, it’s a fine thing.

Managed to squeeze in visits to a couple of new restaurants this week.

On Tuesday we went to one30, the latest venture from Chris Wicks of Bells Diner fame. He has taken the brave decision to open a lovely new bar and restaurant at the lower end of Cheltenham Road, which is not the most salubrious part of town. The place itself is really nicely laid out, plenty of lounging space in the bar and a simple yet stylish restaurant area. As Orynthia had eaten at lunchtime, we decided to share a selection of Tapas for £12.50, which was both plentiful and delicious, great value for two people.

Last night one of Orynthia’s colleagues was leaving work. Every one met up at Wall Street for drinks. To our surprise the ground floor has been converted into a pan Asian restaurant, where you order A La Carte or pay £11.95 for a help yourself buffet. We elected to go for the £11.95 option just to keep things simple and it was a good choice. It was the opening night for this place and gradually quite a lot of Orynthia’s workmates made the journey downstairs in various states of inebriation, so it was a pretty good test for the staff. They coped well enough with the traditional drunken British male, so they should be OK in the future.

Well we have almost shaken off our collection of bugs and could both soon be sneeze and cough free.

On Friday we had our chimney swept in preparation for lots of snug winter tea times in front of a roaring fire. We also had a visit from Kev’s dad, he is coming back today to decorate our bathroom for us, which may be a tad foolish, as we don’t yet know what is causing our shower problem?

Friday evening was spent at Four Corners, lots of people were out and about including fellow blogger Paul Baxter. We have a good chat about the mysterious world of blogging, why we write and why people read them as well. No major conclusions but it we had a good laugh.

Saturday saw my sister coming out of hospital after her recent op and a cracking win for Bristol City against 2nd in the table Barnsley. Maybe we can start to put some real form together now, please!

During the rest of the weekend we have both been working on the end of year chart for Imperial. The web site is virtually done, the poster printing is going to be done by Katja’s company. With a bit of luck, it could all be sorted by next weekend.

Not many updates lately, most of my time in front of the computer has been spent on the end of year chart for the shop. We have made lots of progress now, thanks in the main to Orynthia’s web skills. Getting the chart printed up for the shop is proving to be a time consuming project. I took some staff pictures for the website today, which turned out to be quite amusing.

Other than that, I have fallen victim to the cold bug, which is doing the rounds, and Orynthia is still trying to completely shake off the flu. Ric should be coming to look at our leaky shower tomorrow. We both have the day off which is nice. We will be entertaining the esteemed Mr Ian Green of Fuzz Against Junk tomorrow evening before heading down to Four Corners with him. This week Monday night footie pal Scott Hendy will be joining the 3 wise men on the decks, should be good.

Looks like we might be going to see The Strokes in Cardiff at the start of December! Later that week we will be seeing Belle & Sebastian twice. Looks like the Xmas rush has started.

Oh no! Woke up this morning to find the kitchen covered in water. Looks like the shower is leaking!!

As soon as had I finished writing yesterdays entry, the heavens opened and the wind ripped most of the leaves from the trees. Leaving a lovely squelchy mess all over town.

In the afternoon, I meet up with my one and only cousin Robert. Even though for most of our lives we have lived no more than about 50 miles away from each other, it must be at least 20 years since we have seen each other. My sister Susan and I met up with him at The Watershed and spent the next couple of hours comparing notes. It was amazing to discover how much we had in common, hopefully we will be able to keep in touch, now that contact has been re-established.

Sue goes into hospital for another operation next week, she should be in for about 4 or 5 days, leaving 2 of her teenage boys at home together. Amazingly the two lads have not spoken to each other for about a year! I can’t imagine how they can live like that. Maybe next week they will have to break the ice as Sue won’t be around to act as an intermediary between them.

The Holly Golightley gig last night was a bit disappointing. The band seemed to lack a bit sparkle, so we made our way home before the end of the show.

Tonight we are off to a bit of party at Ceri and Simons and then aiming to end up at the latest Grumpy Man evening.

It’s strange but after only 2 weeks, Thursday now really feels like Friday used to. I’m enjoying working 4 days a week (who wouldn’t?). It has been a busy week, on Wednesday night we went out straight from work for some tapas with Mark and Bab’s before heading off to see The National at The Louisiana. I really enjoyed the band although some of the other reactions from our friends were a tad mixed.

Last night we meet up with Ashton. We were finally able to give him his 45rpm T-Shirt for his 45th birthday. We bought it for him about 11 months ago, pleased to say that he loved it. Then Mat and Helen joined us, before heading into The Fleece to see the divine Martina Topley-Bird in action. What a wonderful voice she has, also love the lose and laid back, blues edge which she has bought to her music. Marvellous stuff.

Looks like the Imperial Music end of year chart will have a web presence, when it is finally compiled. It may even have staff photos on it, so you will be able to see the guys that I am working with. So it looks as though the new digital camera will come into it’s own then. Actually it’s a lovely autumn day here today, so I might try and take some pictures of the neighbourhood in all its golden leaf glory.

Over the past few days I’ve revisited South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. It’s a really beautiful book. On the surface it’s very simple and understated but it captures the uncertainty of seemingly successful man brilliantly. It’s much more straightforward then most of his work, but is still well worth a read if you have the chance.

Looks like we may be off to a few gigs this week. On Wednesday it’s The National at The Louisiana, Thursday it’s Martina Topley-Bird at The Fleece and on Friday it’s Holly Golightly at The Croft. I also have got to try and catch up with my one and only cousin as he is studying in Bristol for a few weeks. Have to try and do this before my sister goes into hospital next week, which is going to be tricky!

It seems like the people of Bristol aren’t drinking enough at the moment!

It sounds like our favourite fortnightly Friday night out – Four Corners at The Croft, is under serious threat because the bar taking aren’t high enough. It’s true that on some occasions the place has not been packed to the rafters, but when it is busy people tend to be dancing or watching the band, rather than rushing to the bar to get blasted. It will be a real shame if it does close down, it’s always a really social night out for us.

The same is apparently true of The Albert in Bedminster. The Albert is a pretty basic pub, which has built a brilliant reputation for the Jazz and Folk nights, which it puts on. The landlord Ian has attracted some of the best names in the world of modern Jazz to this small pub. However the recent rise in property prices in the Bedminster area sounds like it has prompted the owners into thinking that they could make a lot more money by converting the site into expensive flats. Of course, there is obvious financial logic in this, but the reason why Bedminster has started to become popular is because of places like The Albert and The Tobacco Factory, sure they would all be worth more split up into tiny units and sold for stacks of money, but then the people that live their won’t have anywhere local to go to, so a previously vibrant and interesting area becomes a sleepy suburb again. The curse of gentrification I guess.

We surprised ourselves yesterday. We actually managed to get a radio/cassette fitted into our new car for exactly the amount of money we hoped to pay AND within about 30 minutes of leaving the house. We thought that having a cassette player installed might be a problem as every one wants CD players in their cars these days, but we were pleasantly surprised. We have enough problems locating CD’s, which are spread around the 4 players in the house, without wanting more being suck in the car. Also we don’t have the technology to allow us to burn CD’s so the good old mix tape is fine for us. Of course in a few weeks the car will become littered with unmarked tapes as we load it with our latest favourites.

A bit of a spin on the American "Most wanted" playing cards can be found here
I've spent some of my day off doing homework! Mark wants a list of my fav 30 albums of the year, for the grand, Imperial Music end of year chart. It's hard work you know!!

Well that’s my first week in the shop completed (ah the joys of a 4 day week!), and what a great week it’s been. As expected all the people in the shop are great to work with, I really enjoy chatting with the customers, and when we are doing the behind the scenes work, there is always some interesting music being played. As expected, the holes in my knowledge of dance music are clear to see, but in time I’m sure that come. I’m really lucky to be working with Jay who has an outstanding knowledge of Hip Hop and Ralf who knows his electronica inside out. So lots to learn, but what a great subject.

As hoped it’s a pretty sociable place to work, quite a few people have come into the shop, then again most of them are regular customers. After the barren couple of years in the dessert of the Temple Meads area, it’s great to be back in town again. Park Street is a brilliant area to work in, lots of great shops and interesting people, and yet I can still walk across the road at lunch time and sit on Brandon Hill, admiring the view as I eat my lunch, with the Squirrels running around at my feet.

Had a chance to go the swanky invite only Dazed and Confused party tonight, but as Orynthia has only returned to work today after her recent illness, we thought that a night in would be a better option.

This weeks pick ups: Buck 65 – Talkin’ Honky Blues, Josh Martinez – Buck Up Princess, Ladybug Transistor – Ladybug Transistor and the Rough Trade 25th anniversary compilation CD.

So the first day in Imperial Music went ok. It’s came as a bit of a shock to my legs though, they are used to loafing around not really doing very much, suddenly they find themselves being used all day, and I am just about to go and play football, so I guess that they will be pretty sore later on. On the up side, I feel much better for not having to sit in appallingly slumped manner, looking at a computer screen all day.

Spent most of the day working out what sort of music goes where in the shop. The wonderful world of dance music has many sub genres, most of which are a mystery to me, still I guess that will come in time. After that I spent quite a bit of time working out where the music is kept behind the counter, Then suddenly I was let lose on the public and found myself dealing with a till, a credit card swipe machine and chart return reader before I knew what had hit me. I think everyone got the music they wanted and the shop got the money it required, so hopefully everyone is happy. Just for the record the big seller’s today were the two new Ryan Adams CD’s. Why he has to release two on the same day I really don’t understand?

Last night I went to see The Raveonettes at The Fleece. Orynthia was meant to be coming as well, but she has been caught by the flu bug, which is doing the rounds and did not feel up to it. The band made a big old racket, but never really let go, consequently the large crowd was somewhat muted. The best Raveonettes songs are still the ones, which sound like Jesus, & Mary Chain out takes.

So that’s the BT career finished then. Had a lovely last day, so many nice people taking the time to see me off, and as for the digital camera, what a fantastic leaving gift. Thanks everyone.

Also wanted to say that The Lucksmiths gig in Bath on Thursday night was brilliant. What great songs, and beautiful vocals. Why don’t more people know about them?

Last night's Fuzz against Junk gig was a disappointment. They missed the drive and exuberance of Steve Dew on drums, although Keith did his best to replace the irreplaceable, it was just not the same. The other problem was that the expanded FAJ line up just seemed to be too unwieldy. Never mind the forthcoming album is good, so we can concentrate on that for a while. They are playing again on Friday with The Egg at Fiddlers, but we won't be able to get to that one.

One of Orynthia's colleagues is a huge fan of The Egg, so much so that he is going to dash away from a black tie ball, in order to catch their set at around midnight. I really hope that he arrives in his suit, I love it when people wear inappropriate clothing to things. A few years ago, several of us decided to sympathise with a friend of ours who had to go to evening games at the city ground wearing suit (he had to come to the ground straight from work). So there we were, sitting proudly amongst the leisure wearing masses, looking like a group of off duty hit men. Suits on, ties flying the breeze. We did get some strange looks from the people around us, as sartorial elegance is normally frowned upon in footballing circles.

I'm never sure which is the worst scenario, go to an event dressed to the nines (or as close as I can get to that!), only to discover that everyone else is in jeans and T shirts, or looking like a weekender when the rest of the gang are ready for an Oscar party. Dress codes are one of the changes that I am going to have to get used to over the next few weeks. My current job is a suit and tie sort of affair, can't quite see that being suitable in the record shop somehow. I do quite enjoy getting into a suit and dressing up for the right occasion (such as the Dexys gig on Monday), but wearing a suit day in, day out does take the edge off those situations. Part of me has always yearned for those long lost days from the pre 1960's period, when a man would not dream of stepping from the house, without his brogues on his feet, wearing an immaculate 3 piece suit and trilby perched upon his head.

Last night we witnessed the triumphant return of Dexys. The band were on top form, and Kev prowled the stage, looking for all the world as though he was a benevolent dictator from a small south American country in the 1930's. Passionate performance, interspersed with customary on stage chat of the "So Kev tell us ….." which all worked perfectly. This review in The Guardian sums it up.

Today I cashed in my rail season ticket, as I will no longer be using the train to get to work. I also had my last lunchtime visit to the little café on platform 11 of Temple Meads station. For the past year or so I've spent the hour between 12 and 1 in the café, reading a book or The Guardian whilst enjoying a large coffee and a piece of splendid home made cake for the bargain price of £1.99. The memory of their splendid Cherry cake, Flapjack and Bread Pudding will live long in the memory. I'm not really sure what the situation will be with regard to lunch breaks at Imperial, whilst it's true that Park Street is well blessed with trendy cafes, somehow it just won't be the same as popping in to see the pleasant old couple that run the place.

BBC Radio 6, what a great station. Where else could I hear the glorious Take the skinheads bowling by Camper Van Beethoven at 5pm in the afternoon? Magnificent.

I’m starting to get very jealous of our friends Jon and Katja. Next Tuesday they are off to New York for their first visit. We’ve been chatting with them about their forthcoming trip for a couple of weeks and yesterday afternoon, we compiled an email telling them about some of our favourite things to see and do. Later we popped round to see them and bizarrely I found myself thinking that we were going rather than them! I’m sure that they will have a great time, how could they fail to, it’s the best place in the world. Jon’s even playing a solo gig at Arlenes Grocery on November 11th as part of the IPO festival.

We had a very hectic and social weekend, Four Corners on Friday night, followed by a party at my friend Jackie’s house on Saturday night. We made full use of the extra hour, by staying up until 4am. Didn’t really mean to, but as usual in Bristol, getting a taxi home on a Saturday evening was virtually impossible.

You must try this!Go to the splendidiser section of the site. enter your URL of choice, why not use this page and enjoy!

Last night I watched a wonderful programme on the BBC radiophonic workshop. It was a unit which provided all the strange and spooky electronic music for BBC TV and radio shows from the late 1950's onwards. This was in the days before synthesisers and samplers, so they had to invent new ways of making music, mainly by using banks of tape machines, which they loop or cut up to create the desired sounds. The most famous example of their work in this country is the theme music for Dr Who, but the programme was packed with examples of their work, many of which bought back very distant memories of TV viewing in my youth.

Much of the music still sounded amazingly contemporary and inventive and it was interesting to hear about the flood of complaints which some of their "music" attracted at the time. It seemed that things were never quite the same once more sophisticated machinery became available to them. The lack of equipment prompted amazing ingenuity and creativity which was sadly lost when things changed in the 1970's. A few months ago the BBC broadcast a play focusing on the enigmatic Delia Derbyshire, one of the most creative members of the team, it charted he disillusionment with the changing face of the BBC, which prompted her early departure from the team. It also focused on her delight and amazement when years later she was hailed as a inspiration by the likes of Stereolab and Aphex Twin.

The pleasure I took from watching that programme, was a stark contrast to the sadness I felt earlier in the day, when I read about the death of Elliott Smith. I became aware of his work when Elvis Costello mentioned the Either/Or album in his list of albums of the year for 1997. I picked up a copy, which took a couple plays before the full scope of his talent crept up on me. We then saw him supporting Belle and Sebastian in Nottingham, well heard rather than saw, as he was sitting on a chair, so I only really saw the top of his hat. We also saw him hanging around at The Bowlie (although he was not performing), where our friend Stuart had a brief chat with him. The subsequent albums were good but he never became the star, which he was tipped to be, in hindsight that appears to be down his determination to remain his own man, coupled with the drink and drugs problems which I was unaware off before yesterday's shocking development.

So yesterday saw the release of the new album by The Strokes and the career spanning DVD from Belle and Sebastian. Two very different bands, both however have their home on the newly rejuvenated Rough Trade Records. Back in the late 1970's Rough Trade was at the forefront of the burgeoning independent record label seen, which exploded in tandem with punk. I must say that it's great to see the label in such good health again with the likes of The Libertines and British Sea Power also doing well for the label.

Last night was the first cold session for the Monday night football. I've always enjoyed playing in the cold weather, once you get past the initial "What on earth are doing out here…" and start running around it's fine. It also tends to prompt a faster game, as everyone is running around like lunatics in an effort to keep warm. Sometimes when the weather is too warm the games can become a bit languid for my liking, of course the main reason I don't like the warm weather is that the slower game is often more skilful and I was never blessed with the greatest amount of finesse. I much prefer running around like a nutcase and lamping ball into outer space!

Next week is looking pretty busy! So far the schedule looks something like this: Monday - play football, Tuesday - Dexy's at the Colston Hall, Wednesday - Fuzz Against Junk + Damo Suzuki (former member of Can), Thursday - The Lucksmiths at The Porter Butt in Bath, Friday - Last day in work, leaving bash, Saturday City V Sheffield Wednesday, Sunday - The Raveonettes at The Fleece, Monday - Start new job at Imperial Music, I also have of couple of farewell breakfasts, to squeeze in so it's fair to say that it's a pretty hectic time at the moment!

So there I was in the car showroom, struggling to act like the responsible 41 year old that I am. I was there to pick up and pay for our new (new 2nd hand, not new - new, you understand) car (yes another Fiat Seicento, which won't surprise anyone that knows us) when the dreadful moment arrived, the salesmen passed the phone over to me saying the bank just want to verify that you are the owner of the debit card. Fine, I think I know my mothers maiden name, I know my full name and at a push I could probably guess my date of birth, What can go wrong?

The first question throws me completely, "Other than utility companies can I tell them any other direct debits that we have on this account." Instantly I freeze, then suddenly inspiration comes and I mention a charity direct debit which we have, I radiate a warm glow of satisfaction. The follow up question comes and it's the banker "What is your mother's maiden name?" Bingo! I pass the phone back to the salesman with confidence, only to hear him say "Oh no, that's a shame" not really the response I was hoping for. The sales chap hangs up and tells me that my bank have rejected the transaction and that I need to call them.

So I'm covered in confusion, and convinced that not only will I not be able to take the car home, but worse still I'm going to be arrested for credit card fraud and whisked away to Staple Hill police station for the night. So I do the only thing that could save the situation, I call Orynthia! Whereupon I realise that the direct debit information I gave, actually comes from the other bank account which we have, hence the rejection!

A few minutes later, Orynthia calls back to say that she has spoken to the bank, they are not able to do anything without the trader being on the call, so Orynthia gives me all the information she can think of regarding the account and the (ever so patient) trader calls his people again. Eventually the moment of truth arrives and the phone is passed over to me. This time the first question is the "mothers maiden name…" one, I answer and then I get asked the direct debit question again, having been primed I can now answer this one. Then disaster, they ask me how long I have had the account?

I'm sure that once you get past 30 everything that has happened previously, appears to have taken place in the last 3 or 4 years (if you can remember it all!). Question - When did you first see Nick Cave. Me - oh about 4 years ago, actual answer 1985! When did you go to Milan - oh about 3-4 years ago, actual answer 1992. See what I mean. So this sort of question just throws me completely, and I tell the guy on the other end of the phone that I have no idea. He won't take that as answer so, we get into a conversation where he is trying to get me to guess at a date. The best I can come up with is that I know that I did not have the account before we were married, so it's some time since February 1987. "So", the guy say's "we can say that you’ve had the account for 15-20 years?" No, I reply, it's 17 years at the most but it might only be 4 or 5 years. We go on like this for a while and eventually, I think that the chap starts to pity the poor senile person that he is talking to and just seems to give up trying to get a definitive response out of me. He asks me to hand the phone back to the trader and after a nervous minute or two he gives me the thumbs up, and the deal is done.

I drove off into the early evening sunshine, with a relieved smile on my face.

Orynthia and I were talking about scrapbooks last night, in particular the fact that my Grandfather used to keep a scrapbook which I found fascinating as a child. He would cut out all sorts of things from newspapers, sports news, articles on the changing face of Bristol, the occasional polemical comment feature from the national press and assorted other bits and bobs.

When I was young, I found it amazing to read through these scrapbooks, it really sparked an interest in the city I lived in, and this has stayed with me ever since. Thinking about it now I'm curious to know why my grandfather started to collect these fragments. The books started off in the mid 1960's when he would have been well into in 50's. I know that he was forced to give up work well before that, due to ill health, so I guess it was a way of filling the hours. This was in the days before daytime TV, not that he was ever very bothered about TV from my recollections. He would groan his way through Top Of The Pops, with my sister and I, watch the occasional game of football with me, and laugh his way through various 70's TV comedy shows.

He was always a keen reader, and my happiest memories of visits to stay with my grandparents in the country, are of sitting on a bench, in front of the elderberry bush, in the seemingly huge back garden and reading my way though the endless supply of detective fiction that was available in the house. If I was thirsty, I could reach across and pump up some water from the well beneath the house.

Anyway I still wonder why he started to keep a scrapbook at a relatively late stage of his life? Orynthia and I started the conversation because of a section in the Andrew Collins book "Where Did It All Go Right". Apparently his grandfather used to keep folders of cuttings and assorted bits and bobs, and one day Andrew Collins found a folder full of stuff about him, which must have been a bit strange. I don't think that I ever made it into my granddad's book, but once my father was asked to comment on a football match by the local paper, and that was added to the scrapbook. I remember reading that several years after the event and being very impressed, of course these days the Monday edition of the Evening Post has masses of oh so witty, text messages, regarding the weekends entertainment. Somehow they just don't carry the same weight as my fathers comments from all those years ago.

In many ways, web logs such as this are the current equivalent to the scrapbooks of yesterday. Many blogs are crammed with links to other peoples favourite articles and writers. It's nice to think that I'm carrying something on which my grandfather started.

The view from our house

So only 15 working days left before my change of direction. Starting to get very excited about the upcoming changes!!

In true Bristol City style, what should have our easiest game of recent weeks ended up in a disappointing 1-1 draw on Friday evening. Still it was nothing less than Petborough deserved. So even though their equaliser came in the last minute of the match, no City fans could complain about bad luck.

On Saturday evening I met up with Pete and a couple of his mates to watch the England – Turkey match in the Kellaway Arms. It was a perfect reminder of the all the reasons I have for not watching games in the pub. People drifting in front of the screen, constantly, moronic comments from people around us, then a blazing row erupting between a couple of women who were about 3 feet away from me. It was an education, of sorts! Still England played really well and got the result they needed to put them into next summer’s European championship.

On leaving the pub straight after the end of the match, I nipped home to pick up Orynthia and we went down to The Cube. Another very enjoyable night at this wonderful little place. First up were Empress, a new band to me, a two specialising in quiet, sparse soundscapes along the lines of Aerial M or Smog, interesting without being great. Then after a short break the vastly increased line up of The Pastels took to the stage. A different points of the evening 9 people were on the stage including on lead / rhythm guitar, rather than his normal bass, the lovely Gerry Love from The Teenage Fanclub. Have to say that I was very impressed with the new look Pastels. Some gorgeous, brooding new instrumentals being the highlight for me. Apparently these were from the soundtrack to a film called The Last Great Wilderness.

On Tuesday, we will be back at The Cube again for the film Jeremy Hardy Vs The Israeli Army.

If you ever travel around Bristol by bike, on foot or via public transport, then this journey planner is a brilliant thing. Unlike some route planners, it includes routes that cars can’t use. So if I want to know the quickest route for walking from our house to Park Street, this will give me a route, which goes through the park at Redland Green.

Tomorrow night were off to Glasnost to help celebrate Helens birthday. The food is usually great, so I guess we will be adding a couple of inches onto the ever-expanding waistline.

I’m reading The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster. Without reading all his stuff, I have been a fan of his work since picking up the New York Trilogy why back when… TBOI is proving to be a very intriguing read so far, which is in stark contrast to Koba The Dread by Martin Amis. Honestly, I really tried to read it, but it is written in such a slapdash yet heavy-handed way that I just could not manage the whole thing. If ever a book need the attention of a good editor it’s this one.

If you like the Go Betweens or you like hair, then you have to read this it’s a bit scary!

Last night Petunia came round for some food and chat before we headed down to The Fleece, for some rock n’ roll frenzy! Well not really frenzy, but a top night out anyway. 1st up and very early it was, so the audience was the proverbial 3 men and a dog was Adam Masterson. Must admit that I’d never heard of him or his band before, they growled their way through a set of Springsteen pastiches, with all the charisma of a week old cabbage. Maybe the songs are good, but on this showing it was impossible to tell.

Next were new scouse fav’s The Stands. Only about a month since we last saw them headlining at the Louisiana, they ripped through a pretty short set, with the usual aplomb. We liked them even more than usual, as we were able to pinch their seats, when they got up to play. Thanks lads.

Headlining the show was the often erratic, sometimes brilliant Shack. Now few bands have had a tougher time of it than this lot over the last 10 years or so. Yet somehow they are still able to turn out wonderful, tender and touching songs, which often hint at the troubles, they have seen. A genially tipsy Michael Head, seemed to have arrived with no real set list, and was more than happy to engage in banter with the audience and take any requests, which were thrown his way. This willingness to have a go resulted in several songs being aborted well past the countdown! Yet nothing could spoil the atmosphere and no sooner had one song collapsed around the band, than they would launch into one of the seemingly effortless, gorgeous Jazzy, psychedelic, folksy pop songs which make them such a cherished band. The last time they came to town it all went a bit wrong and ended with smashed guitars and barely contained paranoia ruining the gig. This time it was smiles all round and the crowd drifted into the damp Bristol evening with a definite skip in their step.

Before City’s exciting 2-1 victory over Swindon this afternoon, I was chatting to the following people outside The Nova Scotia public house. Graham, who travelled from Naples Italy, Steve, who travelled from Hamburg Germany, Simon and his son from Winslow approx 120 miles away, Richard from Birmingham approx 70 miles away. I felt rather lazy to only have driven about 3 miles to the match. Still we all enjoyed the spirited 2nd half performance and the win that takes us above Swindon.

Great result for Bristol City last night, the 1-0 win at Plymouth followed on nicely from the draw at QPR on the weekend. So 4 points gained from a couple of very tricky away games and we now find ourselves in 7th place, with a home game against 5th placed Swindon coming up on Saturday. Dare I say that maybe, things are starting to look up?

I had a chat with my soon to be new boss yesterday, and it looks as though I'll be working 4 days a week in Imperial Music on Park Street from Monday 3rd November. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be great to get away from endless spreadsheets, interminable internal emails and starring at a laptop all day. It's strange really that I should get so excited about a huge cut in wages, but what is really amazing in the number of people who have said to me that they would love to do what I'm doing. I guess it's a bit of an adolescent dream to work in a great indie record shop and that at 41 I should be doing something more sensible. But why should I?

Whilst in the shop I picked up the new Rufus Wainwright CD, the "best of" Dexys Modnight Runners compilation, a great double CD compilation from Domino records and the new single from Camera Obscura. As we went down to The Bell last night, I've only had a chance to skip through a couple of them so far.

The Domino release is to celebrate 10 years of the label, so lots of great tracks both old and new can be found here. Dexys are the sort of band that people either love or laugh at, I think that if you ever saw them live, you loved them. The early gigs with the fantastic attack that the brass section provided were tremendous, I managed to see them couple of time in those days and they were awesome gigs. However those show's paled into insignificance when compared to the "Projected Passion Revue" show which I saw at the Old Vic In London before the 2nd album came out. The brilliantly menacing string section, which emerged from the existing band played a selection of spellbindingly intense new songs. It remains one of the greatest gigs I have ever seen. Sadly the Too-Rhy-Ay album which later emerged was a pale shadow of that performance and for years Dexys just seemed to mean "Come On Eileen", the curse of wedding disco's for years to come. One more beautiful album came out and then it went wrong for Kevin Rowland, well it looks as though he's back on form and I'm certainly looking forward to his return to Bristol on October 28th.

On Sunday we are going to see the inconsistent but occasionally brilliant Shack and The Stands at the Fleece. It's our first gig for a while, and heralds a run of gigs by The Lucksmiths, The Raveonettes and of course Dexys over the next few weeks.

Finally, Our friend Jon and his Modesty Blaise pals are taking part in the extraordinary looking International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool in the middle of October. Even more exciting, Jon is playing a solo set in New York when the next IPO festival takes place in November. Masses and masses of bands playing short sets, it all looks very strange.