Haruki Murakami’s short story “The Folklore Of Our Times” is back on line here, thanks to The Guardian. You can also find stories by David Eggers and Ali Smith amongst others, well worth taking a look at.

Last night we went to see the beautiful film “Dolls” by Takeshi Kitano. It’s miles away from the work which made his reputation in this country. Stunning imagery fills the screen as three love stories gently overlap. The mood is quiet and reflective and ultimately very moving.

What a busy weekend! On Friday night, we went to a couple of different events where a couple of my Monday night football pals were involved in entertaining the good people of Bristol. Through August a series of free jazz events are taking place in Queen’s Square, a short walk from my office coincided nicely with the start of The Organelles set, featuring tough tackling Dan on bass, they entertained the small but enthusiastic crowd.

Then we made our way home briefly before heading off to Four Corners at The Croft, where the normal holy trinity of Phil, Ian and John were joined by midfield star Scott Hendy, for a night of top tunes and dynamic dancing, most notably by that whirling dervish, Sarah Clarke.

Saturday evening was spent in the company of some old friends at a 40th birthday party for Rick. Not expense was spared, and the chandeliers in the marquee shone done on the 100 + people gathered together to celebrate Rick’s milestone birthday. A top time was had by all, especially when the power failed on a couple of occasions, and we realised that when it’s dark in the country, it really is dark.

Today we spent a few hours in the blazing sunshine at the harbour festival. Huge crowds of people were out, enjoying the hundreds of stalls and water related activity. Our main reason for going was to see one of Orynthia’s favourite bands from her youth – Heatwave. It’s been a running joke all week, as Orynthia would go up to people saying “Heatwave on Sunday”, they would reply with something along the lines of “ teas the weather forecast is pretty good” causing Orynthia to laughingly shout back “ No, Heatwave, the band!” As British soul / disco bands go they were probably on the best. And even I had to say they have fantastic voices and just seamed to be lovely guys.

Then after spending some time with Orynthia’s mum & dad, it was back home for relaxed tea in the early evening warmth of our back garden.

When we have been at home, we’ve been listening to a great album from James Kirk called “You can make it if you boogie”. It on Marina records, from that part of Germany, which is forever Glasgow. James was one of the original members of Orange Juice, it been many, many years since he recorded anything, but the album is fantastic. It’s just like he never went away.

Last night was the start of a pretty intense social phase. We went to the lovely Red Snapper restaurant on Chandos Road. With my dad and step mum and a couple of old family friends. Lovely meal, I had scallops fried with lardons and mushrooms to start. Followed this with a lovely piece of lemon sole, with capers, baked fennel and mash. Could not resist having a side portion of samphire with it – yum. Finished off with an individual lemon tart served with mascapone cheese. It was all great, Chandos road is one of the hidden gems of Bristol, I’m so pleased that we are within a short walk of all it's culinary delights.

Yesterday Orynthia's dad finally came home from hospital. Must admit I can't remember exactly when he went into hospital, but I guess that it must have been sometime in January. He still can't walk but I think it's a relief to be at home, it saves Orynthia's mum an awful lot of dashing back and forth to the hospital. They probably still need to a more user friendly house, so they still have a bit of upheaval to go through.

I had to make use of the excellent NHS drop in facilities myself yesterday. Ever since the Ashton Court festival, one of my eyes has been looking rather red, which did not worry me too much, but over the weekend, I noticed that a little lump was forming on my eye. So rather than wait a couple of days to see my local doctor, I nipped along to the walk in centre in town. I had to wait about 40 minutes before seeing a doctor, who then informed me that I had conjunctivitis, so nothing to worry about. He gave me some drops to take for a week and that should sort everything out. My only problem now, is trying to get the drops in my eye, rather than on my cheek or forehead! Its fine at home when Orynthia can deliver the drops, but left to my own devices it can get a bit messy.

The countdown to the start of the football season is now well under way. City's first league game of the season is on August 9th, when we are playing Notts County at Ashton Gate. A few weeks ago we lost Scott Murray our top scorer from last season, so I'm pleased to see that we have bought in Lee Miller a promising young Scottish striker and we are also looking to pick up a winger from premiership Middlesbrough. So hopefully, all the old crowd will be able to meet up, in an optimistic frame of mind, in that fine old pub the Nova Scotia for a pre match drink on the day. I was talking to some of the lads I play football with after our game last night, and they were fascinated by the idea that I have lots of mates that I only ever see at football related things. I suppose, it is quite odd that sometimes, I will see these guys 3 times in a week, for several hours at a time and yet in most cases we know very little about each other. Married or single, where they live, what they do for a job, nothing like that really gets discussed. We mainly end up talking about football and music, as we share the moans and groans over the next nine months of being a fan, of a unglamorous team.

Well I’ve made the work decision and I could be leaving. More will be known in the next week or so, but basically its up to the company now. Quite excited by the prospect!

At the moment I am loving the long awaited debut album by the over monikered Martina Topley-Bird, Quixotic is a gorgeous CD. Delighted that she will be playing at the Massive Attack extravaganza in Bristol next month. Also picked up the new CD by the Mink Lungs, although have only skipped through it so far. Finally picked up Street Dad by the grovesome Out Hud. It’s very different to the live band which I saw supporting Radio 4 a few months ago, no vocals for a start. But it’s full of splendid dubby electro tunes. Think New Order produced by Adrian Sherwood, and you will be on the right lines.

Having finished the under whelming Secret History by Donna Tartt, I’ve moved to something much more interesting, Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. His Number 9 dream was one of my favourite reads of last year and this earlier novel by him is just as intriguing and engaging. The echoes and influence of Haruki Murakami still leap out, but it’s fine stuff.

Woke up this morning (queue blues riff in the background) in an extremely tired state. All the result of the weekend exertions at Ashton Court, with a late night BBQ thrown in for good measure.

Saturday was a very sociable day, as we bumped into most of our friends pretty soon, as they gathered together watch Steve Dew's final performance in the now defunct Parkers Barton. Once they finished we set off on the traditional wander around the site, looking for exciting new food stalls, of which there were none and checking out the vast array of 2nd hand clothes. We hung around long enough to catch an impressive performance from Little Barrie, before heading home before the arrival of Robert Plant. We were home only briefly as Geoff and Emma were having a BBQ to celebrate Emma's birthday. Although, we did not arrive until about 10pm, we still managed to grab some very tasty grub before the serious drinking began. Eventually we walked home at around 2 in the morning.

Sunday was more of the same, managed to catch another of the Monday night football lads playing in his band Organelles. Very good they were as well, a gentle, ethereal sound featuring some gorgeous trumpet playing, I'll keep my ears open for them in the future. Sometimes I feel as though I'm the only one of our football crowd that isn't either in a band or in some sort of creative group. We have an eclectic mix of musicians, DJ's, wildlife cameramen, and artists all running around together, in fact on one occasion a few weeks ago, we worked out that we had 7 drummers playing in one of our games! Somehow we still manage to play without any sense of timing! After that we saw another one of Steve Dew's bands, the inimitable Fuzz Against Junk, as they took us back to the days of the psychedelic jams of the early 70's. much to Orynthia consternation we then wandered off to watch riff merchants extraordinaire Gonga, it certainly felt like we had travelled back 30 years in time! By now the clouds were starting to gather and the temperature had dropped a few degrees. Luckily we managed to find a lovely warm tent, selling hot chocolate, and cakes where we could sit down a relax for 20 minutes. Next up were the highly rated Brighton band The Electric Soft Parade, I have to say they we a huge disappointment, so much so that we walked off to stand in front of the empty main stage for 20 minutes to wait for McKay to perform, rather than endure any more of their self indulgent nonsense. Mckay was great, she seemed to be genuinely thrilled to be back in Bristol and put in a storming performance, shame that it was only 45 minutes long, due to the 11pm curfew. It was nice to end the weekend on such an upbeat note.

Excellent piece in Thursdays Guardian on graffiti star Banksy. A former resident of Bristol, he has acquired an air of mystique, through the fact that hardly anyone knows who he is. His reputation rests on the brilliantly humorous and inventive work which he produces. Lot's of his work is on display around town, a few years ago he made the move to London and things look as though they have gone very well for him. A couple of small books of his work have emerged and he did the cover for the latest Blur album, take a look at his website for a snapshot of his work.

You can find a report of his show with pictures here.

Boy oh boy, was it hot in The Cube last night! Still we really enjoyed Wonder Boys. We dressed as cool as we could, Orynthia in her amazing 2nd hand dress from Glastonbury, me in my Shag designed Aloha shirt. That’s cool as in not hot, not as in Milan fashion week. After the film, we nipped into the deserted Bell, where Ian Green told us that he had a picture of his mum and dad from the 1950’s dressed in the same manner. Fine by us.

Everyone getting pregnant at the moment, well a slight exaggeration. In the past 2 days I heard that one of the lads I play football is going to be a dad, as is one of my workmates. Also heard from Australia that Carlson and Cathy are expecting twins! Also down under it’s a matter of weeks before Sorelle and Jen both give birth. Then again, I was chatting to someone else in work, who been caught up in a terrible run of unexpected deaths recently. It’s strange the way these things always seem to come in groups, for the moment I’m quite happy to keep away from both end of the spectrum.

On the music front, I've really been enjoying The Thrills album So Much For The City, its perfect summer pop music, but how can a band from Ireland write so many songs about the USA? Also picked up the Kings Of Leon CD, not quite sure about that one yet. I am enjoying Again by Colder, even if it does sound like it could have been released in the early 1980’s. Last but not least Kraftwerks Tour De France 2003 EP is a fine thing.

D Day is getting nearer for my big work decision. I think my mind is made up, fairly soon I could be heading off in a new direction, only snag is, I don’t really know what the direction is?

What a very untypical English summer we are having. Yesterday it was so hot the our train home was cancelled as the tracks had buckled in the heat! Despite that we still played football last night, how daft are we? For once I managed to score a bit of a blinding goal, as I hit a peach of a short from about 30 yards. I don't know who was more surprised, the lads who are used to my lame efforts every week, or me.

Getting back to the railway tracks issue, I do wonder what happens, in other - hotter parts of the world? Yesterday I think that it was about 32c, pretty warm for Bristol, but no comparision to the tempretures which the lines which snake across the dusty plains of Spain, India and the USA are exposed to. How do these countries cope?

Tonight we are going to my favourite cinema, The Cube to see The Wonder Boys. For some reason, they have decided that on Tuesdays it’s only £2 to see a film. What a bargin. We missed The Wonder Boys first time around, although the feedback was pretty good from our friends.

Things are starting to build nicely for the start of the football season. Bristol City's first league match is on August 9th, however we have lost a couple of important players from last season's squad and at the moment no fresh faces have come in. According to the bookies, we are 3rd favourites to gain promotion behind QPR and Sheffield Wednesday. We do have a couple of pre season friendlies lined up, but I think I'll wait for the real stuff to begin.

On Thursday Orynthia's dad is going home for the day, for a sort of trial run to see how he gets on aroud the house with his wheelchair. Then it's back to hospital for a short time before he comes home for good. They are still hopping to move house, as their current home has dreadfull access problems, loads of steps everywhere, really impractical for both of them as they get older.

Can't quite believe it's Friday again, the week has just flown past. We are aiming for a quiet weekend after lots of recent late nights, and the fact that next weekend will be spent at Ashton Court for the festival. Time to spend a bit of time at home, we've still got stuff to put away following the Glastonbury weekend, if we don't do this weekend it may never get done!

We got some films developed this week, and was quite surprised to see photo's going back as far as last September when we went down to Cornwall for a short break. Consequently discovered pictures from all our recent holidays, Cornwall, Nice and Paris plus lots of other nice shots. If I find any time I'll to make some of them available via this site.

Having finished the Raymond Carver short stories, which were excellent, I finally got round to reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I'm about 200 pages in and it's starting to grip, but I can't help thinking that it's taking a very long time to get where it's going.

Don't want to say too much, but I've got to make a very big decision regarding work over the next 10 days. Nervous but excited!

Well since our return from Glasto, it seems like 90% of the conversations I have had with people have been about THAT weekend. I'd forgotten how many people from Bristol go to the festival, those that didn't make it tended to watch lots of it on TV, so everyone has been comparing notes, on what they saw or did. It sounds like everyone who went had a great time.

We had an interesting night out on Friday. A number of artists have been commissioned to create artworks relating to the dock area of central Bristol, included in this group are our friends Anna Oliver and John Pym. This Friday marked the launch of the project, so I meet Orynthia straight from work and we set off to catch some of the work. Anna's work was the first thing that we saw, over recent months Anna has been asking people to send in their stories and memories of the docks (you can see these at her website, see link on right of page), she has taken over a derelict corner of the docks and decorated it with these stories. Some funny and poignant stuff here and anyone who has lived in Bristol for any length of time will find something that triggers a memory. Yesterday we took a look at John's installation, once again he plays with daylight and space in a slightly unsettling way. Worth taking at look at if you can. It's located opposite the main fire station in Bristol and it was good to see the fireman checking it out and encouraging their mates to take a look.

Later in the evening, we ventured up to a pub call The Greyhound In Clifton. Over the past couple of weeks, our friend rob has started playing old Ska, R & B and rock and roll records in the backroom of the pub. Rob had assured us that hardly anyone turns up, so we ventured in expect to find a handful of people. We were somewhat confused to walk in to a small room which featured about 15 very drunken blokes, who were in the later stages of a "stag" night. What joy! We managed to find ourselves a table in the corner which was farthest away from them (only about 10 feet), whilst Orynthia was waiting to be served, one of the happy gang who had been sitting on the Pool table behind Rob, leant forward and just kept going. Landing head first with good old thump! His mates gathered round and managed to get him back on the Pool table whereupon he decided to throw his cigarette away, unfortunately he decided to throw it into Robs record box! Things started to get a bit heated (in more ways than one!) and for a while I thought that we were heading into a classic bar room brawl, with us lot hiding in the corner. Luckily some of the stag party managed to combine with the landlord and calm things down, before the group were ushered away into the night. Not quite the quiet end to the evening that we had planned.

Well, I can still feel the sunburn on the back of my legs, and I could swear that my festival wristband was still in place, but the Glastonbury experience is over!

What a brilliant 4 days, everything went remarkably well. Hey, the lovely John Stapleton even put our tent up for us, the day before we arrived, in order to make sure that we could camp with friends from Bristol!

Arriving on a sleepy site at around 9am was a strange experience. The 70,000 people who were already on site had obviously enjoyed a lively Thursday evening, as people were about as common as a guitar solo in the dance tent. Thanks to John we were able to obtain passes to get into the backstage camping area for the One World Stage, where we had access to reasonable toilets and even shower and sauna facilities!

Whilst we were in the Left Field tent waiting to see Jeremy Hardy (one of the few no shows over the weekend), the sound of rain falling on canvas could be heard, for the next hour it rained pretty hard, before eventually turning into the dull drizzle which greeted us, as walked over to see Chuck Prophet entertaining the small and soggy crowd in front of the One World Stage. Luckily that was about as damp as things got, by the time we had grabbed some food, and wandered over to watch Yo La Tengo giving a sometimes inspired, sometimes indulgent performance the sun was breaking through and all was well. I spent a while relaxing in the backstage area where the luxury of having proper chairs, a bar with no queue and odour free toilets we proving to be very popular. We managed to catch up with Orynthia’s sister and her kids for an hour or so, enabling us to hand over the additional drink and food which we had bought into the site for them. Later we caught a short burst of the Skatelites as we munched our way through a Gambian meal. Then it was over to the main stage to see about 25 minutes of REM. Although to be honest we were so far away from the stage, we had to watch the performance on the giant monitor screens, before we snuck off to The Other Stage to catch a remarkably lively Primal Scream in action. Don’t think I’ve ever seen Bobby G. as animated as he was in this show. Although John and his other “Blowpop” pals were putting on some entertainment in a marquee in our camping area, we retired to bed at about 1am, with earplugs firmly in place, as the party was due to go on all through the night.

Saturday dawned sunny and bright and we all emerged from our tents to wish Jane a happy birthday. Musically the first thing on the agenda was an old favourite of Orynthia’s schooldays, Linda Lewis. A brilliant voice and a lovely personality masked the fact that her choice of songs left a bit to be desired, it was however a nice way to ease ourselves into the day. And what a day it was, the sun shone brightly as we enjoyed great sets by The Thrills and The Stands before heading back to main stage to see the effervescent Polyphonic Spree burst on the stage as the vast crowd melted in the baking sunshine. By way of contrast, I then made my way over to The Other Stage in order to see Interpol. They were great, it can’t be easy to playing brooding music on a hot sunny afternoon, but they managed to pull it off. Amazingly Carlos managed to keep his jumper on for the whole set! Next up were The Libertines, who despite all the problems facing the band at the moment, managed to put in a blistering performance and they deservedly went down a storm with the crowd. We then went back to the main stage to see Suprgrass, must admit that I’ve never really “got” Supergrass, so after 3 or 4 songs we went back to the camp to meet up with our friends before The Flaming lips set. They were the one band that virtually everyone in our group wanted to see and they didn’t disappoint. A madcap wonderfully engaging show, which importantly also features some killer tunes left everyone beaming from ear to ear when they finished their set with a cover of Breathe by Pink Floyd. We decided to ignore the bleating of Radiohead and instead went off to one of the strangest parts of the vast festival site, Lost Vagueness. An amazing area which features a Ballroom complete with Cancan dancers and cocktails, a silver service restaurant with a strict dress code and our destination for the evening The casino. Now to gain entrance to the Casino you have to be dressed up, as most people who go to Glastonbury turn up with 1 T shirt, and a pair of shorts, they will very kindly hire you the most amazing clothes – Ball gowns, Tuxedos, feather boa’s and the like. Luckily for me I managed to get the last man’s jacket, other wise I would have had to wear a dress (as many men did). The entertainment inside The Casino was sublime; a bizarre decadent 1940’s style cabaret review has us alternating between uncontrollable laughter and open-mouthed astonishment. The (cheap) champagne flowed and the whole thing turned into the greatest fancy dress party in the world. We stopped for an hour or so in the Blowpop tent, telling everyone what a fantastic time we had. Finally we staggered off to bed, very drunk long before the 5am finish. Brilliant!

On Sunday we were eased into the day by the occasionally brilliant My Morning Jacket, before heading up to the sun drenched grass outside the Acoustic Stage to see Roddy Frame, after a few years in the wilderness Roddy appears to be right back on form and the large crowd cheered him on wildly. I then took the long walk back to The Other Stage to see The Raveonettes only to be greeted by a deserted field, as they were apparently another no show. Orynthia than watched Macy Gray on the Main Stage whilst I enjoyed The Rapture with guest dancer Bez joining them for their final song. Orynthia walked over to join me and we watched the charming Grandaddy together. As with all the American bands, they were very keen to tell us exactly where in the U.S. of A. they came from and seemed to be genuinely delighted to be playing the festival. By now we were getting seriously tired, so we decided to grab some food then head back to the comfy seats of the backstage area of The One World stage, where we listened to Calexico playing a great set. We managed to drag our legs round to the front of stage area for their last song and that turned out to be the last band we saw. A fitting way to end it for us, as they were superb. Rather than watch Moby or Tricky we went to the Green field area to see the Glastonbury stone circle and see at close hand the breathtaking firework display at midnight from the hill, which gave us an amazing view over the vast and wonderful site. We made our way slowly back to our campsite, taking in the beautiful and relaxed atmosphere of the green field tents and Tipi’s along the way.

Monday morning, we all slept in late, before dismantling the tents and saying goodbye to friends old and new. It was clear that the traffic was going to take a very long time to disperse, so after dropping our gear in the car, we walked back into the site for a final meal, whilst we watched the site slowly being dismantled. We finally left at around 4pm after 4 unforgettable days. So many things to see and do, so much terrific food, from every part of the world. So many lovely people.

Shock news from Bristle's best website!

No more work between here and Glastonbury! I’ve booked tomorrow off for last minute sorting out before the weekend fun begins. Top of the list is a good haircut. I’m long overdue for a cut and a weekend camping calls for hair that requires minimum attention, so off it comes!

Tomorrow is also Orynthia’s dad’s 75th birthday, so we are going across to see him in the hospital and hope to take him out for a bit of lunch if the weather is nice. He is in a wheelchair, so we will just push him down to one of the pubs or restaurants around the harbour.

We are aiming to leave at around 7am on Friday morning, to make the short journey south to Glastonbury. Things get underway around noon, but we are allowing lots of time for the inevitable traffic jams and of course we have to get our tent erected as soon as we can. As well as music, the festival features literarily thousands of other things to see and do. In fact one of the first things that we want to see in a documentary film called Jeremy Hardy Versus The Israeli Army It’s the sort of thing that sums Glastonbury up and what makes it different to any other festival. Although the main attraction for us is the music, many people will go and not see a band for the whole weekend, yet they will have a brilliant time, thanks to the huge array of diversions that are available to them. It’s fair to say that we are both getting pretty excited!

Last night, we managed to have a test run at putting up the tent we have borrowed for next weekends Glastonbury festival. After initially doing it completely the wrong way and wasting about 20 minutes, we started from scratch and up it went, in a pleasingly easy manner. The inflatable mattress fits inside perfectly and the battery operated pump makes that whole inflation thing a walk in the park.

The first time I went to Glastonbury, several friends and I borrowed a tent from a friend of ours. In those days tents weren’t the straightforward things that they are today, so when we reached the plot of land where we set to make camp, we were dismayed to not only be met with falling rain but also with a mass of poles which we had no idea how to fit together. The rain continued to fall, the daylight gave way to darkness and we got no nearer working out a way of assembling the tent. Eventually one of the gang said “Why don’t we just make some sort of structure and then just throw the canvas over it for the evening.” It seemed like a reasonable call, so we joined various bits together, and came up with a frame that was about 20 feet long but only about 2 feet wide! Useless!! Luckily, in those days you could still park your car next to your tent, so we decided to sleep in the cars and listen to the sound of the rain. When we awoke the next morning, it all seemed blindingly obvious and we managed to erect the tent in about 15 minutes. Mind you, the heavy rain and a leaky roof meant that for the rest of the weekend, we had a very damp no mans land along the middle of our fortunately huge tent.

I was very sad to hear today, of the death of Jimmy Knepper. He was a jazz trombonist and came to my attention due to his outstanding work, with the maverick Charles Mingus in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I first started to listen to jazz, indeed all music because of my father. I never made much of a connection with my dad’s Dixieland records, but when I heard the music of Mingus, John Coltrane and Miles Davis I was hooked. To me one of the highpoints of their work together is brilliant track called Haitian Fight Song from the album The Clown. It really drives along, my old vinyl version is still one of my favourite records.

Better news today was that Zaha Hadid has actually managed to get a large building built. One of the most intriguing architects in the world, she has been bedevilled by endless setbacks as projects around the world have failed to become actual buildings. Credit then to people in charge of The Rosenthal Center of Contemporary Art in Cincinnati for going the distance. Lets hope it’s the first of many.

The Lloyd Cole gig the other evening was lovely. Quiet, refined and with a steely resolve underneath the apparent gentleness of the songs, the show was a delight. It was quite strange to walk past Lloyd Cole on Park Street as we dashed to see our friend Babs before the gig. We smiled to ourselves and let him pass without having to put up with any inane platitudes.

I was somewhat shocked yesterday, when I calculated that next week, will mark the 25th anniversary of me starting my first job! I well remember the excitement, when I received my first weekly (cash) pay packet of £24! How on earth would I manage to spend all that money? I know that some of the people that contribute to this blog with their comments, were either very small children or not even born in 1978. Thanks for sticking with an old man!

At least I know that I'm well over 1/2 way through my working life. it's all down hill from here.

So, on Saturday we managed to buy an inflatable mattress in preparation for the Glastonbury trip. So at least we will have something comfortable to sleep on. If the weather remains as it is then the ground is going to absolutely rock hard.

The trip to Moles on Saturday night was interesting. We got there just as they were opening up, The main door was still locked, but another door was open and we could see a couple of guys walking around, so we wandered in, went to the bar and got some drinks and no-one asked us to pay the entrance fee! The gig itself was good, first up were The Bitter Springs, whose first couple of songs I liked but as their set drifted on, my interest drifted away. Next up were a band called The Loves, apparently they have been championed by John Peel of late, which is often a good sign. I really enjoyed their slightly chaotic set, sort of Belle & Sebastian meets the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, good fun. They have an album out later in the summer. Vic Goddard, was at his normal eccentric best. He emerged wearing the classic footwear in the Englishman in summer - sandals, with white socks, and clutching handfuls of paper with lyrics scrawled upon them. A set which ignored all the old Subway Sect classics was still very entertaining especially a little section of songs relating to that famous old English seaside resort, Blackpool.

Yesterday, on what may well have been the hottest day of the year, the Monday night football gang meet up for one of our occasional challenge matches. This time we ere pitted against some alleged hotshots from Clevedon. I say alleged, because we eventually ran out 6-2 winners. It was really hot work and playing in the noon day sun was a mad thing to do. Thankfully I managed not to make too much of a fool of myself.

Tonight we are off to see another blast from the past - Lloyd Cole, without his Commotions. Once again it's in the refined splendour of St Georges. So Lloyd and his guitar should sound lovely.

Last night I enjoyed a study in contrasts. Headed out straight from work with current and past colleagues for a combined birthday/new job type, get together (not for me I hasten to add). Anyway we all met up in Revolution, a vodka bar in the heart of the high heels, short skirts, bad music, Friday night drinking part of town. It was good to catch up with some old mates but come 10pm I was starting to feel more and more out of place. The recent sunny weather meant that a lot of very red flesh was on display, time to say my farewells and take the 15 minute walk to The Cube.

Here former Blue Aeroplanes front man Gerard Langley was launching his new limited release CD of him reciting the poetry by the likes of Dylan Thomas, Pablo Neruda, And various luminaries from the beet generation. For this performance he was be backed by the ever expanding Fuzz Against Junk. I took refuge in the back of the auditorium alongside Orynthia, John, Jane and Teresa. Only caught the last 3 numbers and compared to dross that was being blasted at me earlier in the evening it sounded wonderful. On our way out we bumped into our friend Ian from F.A.J. who was delightedly telling us all that some of the obscure folk records he has recently sold on EBAY were being bought by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Maybe a sign of a change of direction for the noisesome New Yorkers.

Tonight we’re heading to Moles in Bath to see an old hero from the glory days of 1976-77. Vic Goddard from the underrated Subway Sect.

Another Bristol & Bath blog added to the links "Dearie Me".

We have added another page to our site about The Bowlie.