Well it’s been pretty hectic, since I last wrote a proper entry here. We caught a couple of contrasting gigs by RLF, firstly in intimate surroundings when he played with the wonderful Freeze Puppy at “Here”, then at the very busy, very hot “Croft” on Saturday evening. I guess it’s the last time for a while that we will see the magnificence of RLF in Bristol for a while as he is about to move away from the area. London, your gain is our loss.

I also managed to catch PJ Harvey in action on Sunday evening, she was great but was not so sure about some members of the band, as they appeared to more interested in throwing shapes than playing the right notes.

In the midst of all this activity the shop finally closed last Wednesday, so ever since then we have been clearing the place of any indication that we may have existed. Initially, this entailed breaking up the counter and removing everything from the walls and then yesterday we repainted the whole place, which was actually more fun than I thought it would be, not enough fun to think about making decorating a career option though.

I know that I mention the New Yorker magazine from time to time, but I just have to say it really is the best magazine I have ever read. The recent double size food issue was a wonderful case in point. Consistently fantastic writing about all manner of things pertaining to food made it an endlessly fascinating and informative read. The only problem is finding the time to read it, the latest issue dropped through the latter box this morning and I’ve haven’t started last weeks yet.

As BCFC were at home last Saturday, we only managed to catch 3 places on open doors day, before going to Ashton gate to see City thump Stockport 5-0! That’s 9 goals in the last two home games; it’s all really rather strange. Anyway this weekend we off going to London for open house weekend. We managed to get some bargain coach travel and will be staying with Orynthia’s auntie, so it should be a pretty cheap and interesting weekend. Any tips on good places to see will be much appreciated.

Oh my word, it looks as though I shall be going to the Tom Waits gig in London!!

Well we had some very exciting news in Bristol yesterday, from May 20th next year Continental Airlines are going to be operating a direct flight between Bristol and New York!! We have already started looking at our finances and planning to take advantage of this new service. Hopefully a few people from New York will want to visit Bristol as well, maybe I could be some sort of tour guide for New Yorkers looking for real insight into the delights of Bristol. You know the sort of thing, how to avoid the late night beer monsters in the city centre taxi ranks, where to find the best Asian food, giving the low down on all the quirky little music venues we have......

Talking of quirky little music venues, tonight we are heading off to the basement of “Here” to one of RLF’s farewell gigs before he leave us to head back to London. He is playing 4 gigs, in 3 different venues around the Stokes Croft area. As well as this evening’s gig we are also going to his final big show on Saturday at the “The Croft”. It’s amazing, we have around 5 different options for really good things to do on Saturday evening, when normally Saturday turns out to be a bit of a stay at home sort of evening, with all our going out taking place during the week. On top of that it's open doors day and City are at home against Stockport, it's going to be a pretty busy day.

Wow we had a great evening yesterday, watching the wonderful Charlie Parr in action at The Cube. What a fantastic guitarist and songwriter this man is. If he plays anywhere near you, you really should go and see him. He is a real gent as well; it’s high time that his work was more widely known. If you can’t get to see him in the flesh, he has two excellent albums available (and cheap), do yourself a favour a grab them.

Earlier a writing an email to blog friend Heather who lives in the states and found myself writing the following:
Meeting so many people who are involved in making music has been one of the joys of working in the record shop. As I am easily the wrong side of 40, it's really energizing to chat to these young people who are determined to make things happen for themselves. So many of them either make their own music or promote gigs and club nights, we even have a small cinema/ music venue (capacity around 110), which is run entirely by volunteers. They are so supportive and encouraging of each other, it really is great. No one makes any money, yet they keep on putting on interesting entertainments for the people of Bristol to enjoy. How lucky I am to live in a place where such things take place!

I think this really is a time of change in Bristol, as places like Imperial close and although it serves a different crowd, I was sad to hear of The Depot closing as that was a venue where people could enjoy hassle free dance music, without the big club attitude, which many places have. Although I never went to any of the nights there, I know from talking to friends that it will be much missed by a large section of the Bristol community. Still, it is really good to hear about the people that still want to find ways of doing interesting things for the right reasons, so in no particular order here are some of the people who continue to make this town of ours an interesting place to live; The Cube, Here (it’s a shop in Stokes Croft), Tom of my two Toms (and about 20 other bands), Mark from float and The Cube, Lady Lucy, RLF (sadly not in Bristol for much longer), Chiz, Ed, Dutty Girl, Simple Kid promotions, Aaron of run run promotions. Whilst we still have the likes of John Stapleton, Paul of Espionage fame and a few others of my generation working hard it’s fun to watch the new blood coming through.

Since I last wrote we have had the last of the summer bank holiday breaks, whilst I have been working in the shop these have been even more lovely as my Fridays are spent at home anyway, this means that I have had a lot of 4 day weekends. Splendid!

As ever quite a lot of our time has been spent watching live music, on Friday afternoon I wandered into town for the free jazz in Queens Square. I meet up with Orynthia and Teresa and shared a couple of bottles of wine, whilst listening to the cream of the Bristol jazz scene playing for a few hours.

On Monday afternoon we had our second look at Wilma and their amusing take on the world of country music before heading up to The Downs to catch some of the music and food on offer at the Asian festival.

Last night was spent at the Polish club, watching the crazy vaudeville show provided by The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. They are a real one off, presenting more of a “show” than a normal gig experience. I can really see why they were such a hit at the Edinburgh festival. Special mention also needs to be made of the support act, Bristol’s own Kid Carpet, who put on a hugely entertaining show using kids toys and cheesy samples, car boot fair pop is the only way I can describe it. If this tour comes anywhere near your town it’s well worth seeing.

What else.....well the shop is really looking very, very empty now. I’ll be surprised if we have any stock left after next weekend. People are still saying the nicest things to us and sometimes it does feel that we should be offering a counselling service to help them get over the devastation that our imminent departure is causing.

The big treat on bank holiday Monday, was seeing Bristol City finally win a league game this season. A spanking 4-1 victory over Brentford should be the catalyst to push up the league table.

Well following on from my last entry, here is more about music – well sort of. On Tuesday evening Orynthia and I went to LeRoc classes at the nearby Elmgrove Centre. Now I’m sure that some of you will be thinking what on earth is that. Well LeRoc is a slightly more modern form of Jive dancing and following out Jitterbug experience the other week, we thought that it would be fun to have another go at this dancing thing.

I have to say that I was initially sceptical, but the evening turned out to be great fun. I was pretty hopeless, but all the people I danced with were very forgiving (quite a few were on their first visit as well), and we spent a lot of time laughing. Sadly we won’t be able to make it next week, but I think it could become quite a regular Tuesday night event.

We won’t be able to go next week because that nice Mr Stapleton has arranged a gig by the intriguing Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players at The Polish Club. All the reports about them make this sound like a must see gig, which is strange as I have only heard one track by them (which was great). Next week see the return of the wonderful Charlie Parr to Bristol, when he plays The Cube on September 2nd.

Looking further ahead, Saturday September 11th is Bristol doors open day, it’s always one of our favourite days of the year, because you get the chance to look around lot’s of interesting buildings which you cant normally gain access to. It’s been going on for several years now, so we are always on the look out for new places to see. This year we can go behind the scenes at the Colston Hall and visit the beautiful looking 1920’s retirement home known as St Monica Trust amongst others.

Before Imperial Music moved into 58 Park Street, it was the home of Tony’s another great record shop which moved from it's smaller location in the basement of Focus in Clifton village. Tony himself is a former rock n’ roll musician who staffed the place with people who would go on to becoming luminaries of the Bristol music scene such as Si John and John Stapleton. As such it was one of the places at the forefront of selling records from the emerging New York Hip-Hop scene to the impressionable young people of Bristol.

In those days (early 80’s) Hip-Hop was more about sharp electro beats and breaks than boasting about all manner of things (guns, drugs, treatment of women), which sadly most of it has become today. That’s not to say that you can’t still find brilliant Hip-Hop as albums by the like of Madvillian and Masta Killa have proved this year. So it seems right that one of the last new release albums that we are taking in any quantity before Imperial Music moves into the history books and 58 Park Street stops selling music for ever, is a wonderful compilation called “Dread meets B-Boys downtown – The Hip-Hop sound of New York 81-82".

I was never cool enough to be a B-Boy, but I did pick up my share of 12” singles around that time. I well remember my amazement when I first heard the Grandmaster Flash – “Adventures on the wheels of steel” record on the John Peel show. It’s hard to imagine now, but we really had no idea how records like that could be made. It really sounded like music from another planet rather than continent. As soon as I tracked down a copy myself, I forced everyone I knew to listen to it, even my poor confused mother! I’m not sure what people who are in their 20’s will make of the music now, but to me it all sounded fantastic yesterday as we pumped it out in the shop. It was one of the things that fired my fascination with New York and helped to prompt the excitement that resulted in my first visit to NYC in 1984.

Last night I think we witnessed something rather special! No, not a first win of the season for Bristol City (though maybe it could happen this Saturday) nor was it a gold medal for a member of the British Olympic team (may never happen), it was an absolutely amazing performance by Joanna Newsome at St Bonaventures.

I must admit that on first hearing her album had most of us in the shop confused and not a little scared. However over recent weeks most of us have come to love her wonderfully individual and idiosyncratic approach to both singing and song writing, when these talents are aligned to her beautiful harp playing you start to realise that something wonderful is brewing.

Although she was nominally the support act last night, it was pretty clear that a hefty chunk of the audience had come to see her. If they were anything like me, they probably approached the gig with high levels of anticipation, mingled with the apprehension that she would not be able to produce the atmospheric beauty of her recorded work. Well we need not have worried! Her performance started with an exuberant acappella song, accompanied by only her wild, swinging handclaps and joyful grin. The next 40 minutes provided us with a real treat as she worked her way through her album. Undoubtedly her unusual vocal style will draw comparisons with Bjork, can she achieve the same level of success as the Icelandic visionary? I’m not sure, but I’m delighted to have had the chance to see her at such close quarters. One to watch, although I do warn you that on first hearing you well be somewhat perplexed.

Tomorrow night we are off to see one of the many bands, which feature our favourite drummer, the marvellous Steve Dew. He will be in action with Wilma at The Prom. Reports on the band are good, although we are yet to see or hear them, luckily that will be rectified within the next 24 hours.

Sometimes a good weekend can feel more like a mini holiday than just 2 days of work. This weekend was one of those occasions; it started on Friday evening when we found ourselves at “The North” for the second Friday in a row. This time we hooked up with our old friend Ian + Maria for some simple but hearty food (sausage + mash for me, pie, mash and mushy peas for Orynthia), before taking the short walk to Café Bar Unlimited for the latest evening of entertainment from those splendidly misnamed Grumpy men.

On Saturday and Sunday the area around the industrial museum was turned into a bizarre 1940’s zone. Loads of old army vehicles, some fantastic clothing and jitterbug lessons were the highlight of Saturday afternoon. We had a couple of goes and I have to say that my two left feet were up to their normal standard, it was good fun if a trifle confusing for a simple champ like me. Then on Saturday evening a rouge hot air balloon from the balloon festival flew very low over our back garden, whilst I was watering the tomato plants, before floating gracefully off into the sunset over Bishopston, it's burner lighting up the sky in dramatic fashion.

On Sunday we returned to 1940’s land for a fascinating talk by Margueritte Patten, an amazing lady. 83 years of age, she stood and talked for an hour without any notes about food rationing in Britain during the second world war (and after). It was amazing to hear about the inventiveness (mock banana, made from parsnip!) and to hear that it was ILLEGAL to sell cream until 1953! Following the talk, we made our way to the small art space near Redclffe caves to see the “Tom, Dick and Harry” installation by our friend John Pym. It’s another amazing and unsettling piece involving crawling through tiny dimly lit tunnels attached to a very average looking sitting room. He really does incrediable things with “space” and never fails to provoke and amazing series of thoughts and reactions with his work. We wandered home looking very dusty, which must have confused people.

Oh and one small thing on Friday lunch time I was with Orynthia in M&S, and I think I saw the writer of was of linked blogs “Open Secrets” in the queue. She is not someone I know but she is a local journalist who occasionally has her picture in the paper. The thing is, should I go and say “Hello, I enjoy reading your stuff” or would that make me look like some mad stalker? Anyway maybe it wasn’t her, which would have been worse – “Hi I really like your blog” “Blog? What are you talking about? Security! Security!”

We almost had an interesting additional feature in the shop yesterday. The monumental downpour, which hit Bristol at around 1pm, briefly gave us a couple of waterfall features. Luckily all the action took place in the back room rather that on the shop floor, the storm also meant that the people who were in the shop had to hang around waiting for it to stop, consequently we took a bit more money than we had done on the previous days of the week. By the way I should mention that we have started to mark some stuff down in preparation for our closure at the end of September, so if you are looking for some bargains pop down to Imperial Music.

Talking of music, I had the spookiest dream experience the other night. Whilst in work on Wednesday RLF and I were discussing the exciting news that Tom Waits will be releasing a new album in October. Several years ago a few friends and I decided that should the great man ever deign to play in the UK again (his last visit was in 1987), we would do everything we could to catch one of the shows.

On Wednesday evening, I had a really vivid dream, which consisted of my friends and I dashing around Europe, only to discover that we had just missed him every time. I woke up feeling tired (wouldn’t you be if your sleeping hours had been spent zipping from Paris to London to Berlin to Rome.....) and yet intrigued. So imagine my amazement when I checked on his record company website and discovered that earlier in the week, three dates in Berlin had been announced (and sold out) and that further dates were going to be added, including dates in the UK!!!

I’ve spoken to all my Waits pals and we have agreed to keep our eyes and ears open in an effort to track down some of these tickets, as they are sure to be in short supply. So anyway I’m taking it as a sign of good fortune that I had the dream, lets hope that the reality is slightly different and we do actually manage to catch a show!

Fame at last! If you look very hard, and you know what I look like, you will be able to find a picture of me on the Bristol City website!! Go to this page and look at the picture of Paul Heffernan being tripped, those of you with eagle eyes will find me in the crowd. Sad to say it was a bit of a dull start to the season, a very average performance giving us a 1-1 draw,the only way is up.

BBC radio gives more coverage to music made in this fine city of ours, this time it's on radio 4!        
Tue 10 Aug, 13:30 - 14:00  30 mins   Hip Hop Central    
Music journalist Nige Tassell investigates how the global phenomenon of hip hop found a particularly welcoming home in the city of Bristol, where bands like Massive Attack and Portishead reinvented the music and exported it back to the world and where contemporary bands and DJs continue to refresh the insistent rhythms and verbal dexterity of this distinctive urban soundtrack.

It’s been an interesting week in the shop, I reckon at least 50% of our customers have been from overseas. Loads of French people, plus plenty of Spanish, Greeks, Germans, Italians and a Dutch women who visited on several occasions, listened to loads of stuff but did not actually buy anything in the end. I always enjoy chatting to these people, as I am curious to find out how they ended up in Bristol.

Much as I love our wonderful city, I have to admit that it does not have the highest profile in the world, so when you are from say Paris, how do you end up here? Often people come here on a work related trip, sometimes for a couple of days often for longer projects. We do get some who are on the tourist trail, so they have been to Stonehenge and Bath and may be stopping in Bristol before heading over to Cardiff. I’ve spoken to quite a few people who are on a general trip around the UK and wanted to come to Bristol due to the success of people like Massive Attack, Portishead and Roni Size. Undoubtedly the additional airline services, which Easyjet and others have bought to town, also have an impact. A few years ago it would have outrageous to think that so many of the major cities in Europe could be within such easy reach and at such affordable prices. I really like the diversity and excitement that these tourists bring to the place. I just wish that we had a transport system, which was as affordable and efficient as many of those which we encounter whilst on our travels. I also hope that we don’t get too carried away with the idea that every retail place has to be a bar or restaurant, we need to keep small, quirky, independent shops otherwise we lose our identity.

Obviously my time working on Park Street has exposed me to the problems, which small shopkeepers encounter. I just hope that the people who run the city realise that creativity and individuality does attract people to Bristol and help the ambience of the whole area; it feels as though we are currently going through a phase when the highest bidder gets all. Sometimes that’s not the best solution in the long term, we have so many creative people in this place sometimes it would be nice if they were given a bit more encouragement from above.

Enough whinging! Talking of overseas visitors, we shall once again be grabbing the phrase book and the maps, as we are heading to Bilbao in October. We had to squeeze in a visit before Easyjet switched the route from Bilbao to Madrid, so we thought we would link it in with the Magnetic Fields + The Real Tuesday Weld tour. It’s always good fun seeing bands when on holiday and this should be no exception.

Tomorrow sees the start of the football season, Bristol City start off with a home match against newly promoted Torquay United. The team has a new manager and several new faces competing for places (including a couple of young lads who have come through the junior ranks) and I can almost start to feel myself getting optimistic about the next 10 months, which is very different from the dreadful, hollow feeling which we were all left with after our shocking capitulation in Cardiff in May.

When I was chatting to Mr Ng my physio guy last Friday, it emerged that he is from Malaysia. By the way, he said that it’s good to get the patients chatting as it stops them moaning about the pain as he pushes them into ever more awkward positions, not that I ever moan of course!

Anyway, we have been to Malaysia on a couple of occasions and were mightily impressed with the fantastic thunder and lightening storms, which we encountered, on a couple of occasions. Firstly whilst sitting on the veranda of tiny wooden restaurant, we marvelled at the storm taking place somewhere out in the south China sea and then back in Kuala Lumpur we got caught in the middle of a huge storm which cancelled any plans we may have had for going back to our hotel, as the whole of that enormous city ground to a spectacular halt. Mr Ng told me that Malaysia has more thunderstorms than anywhere else in the world and the world’s foremost expert on these amazing feats of nature and particularly the impact they have on the built environment is a Malaysian guy. It seems that for several years people have been trying to tempt him over the USA to carry on his work, but he is quite happy to stay in the place that he loves (which is the best place for him to work) surrounded by friends and family rather than take the bucket load of cash which is being waved at him.

I thought that this was a lovely thing to hear, as a football fan, I get really fed up hearing about players who earn a fantastic salary, demanding that they are allowed to move to a bigger team (for an even more obscene wage), whatever happened to those great days of player loyalty? Wouldn’t it be great to hear of more players who were prepared to follow the example of that fine Malaysian fellow? The superstars of the game could be spread around, rather than the top clubs having huge groups of players who hardly ever get to kick a ball in anger, because their team already has 20 international players.

The other day I bumped into an acquaintance of ours who has turned his back on a highly lucrative career for a while to try his hand at some journalistic work. He has the safety net of new job on the horizon in the winter, but thought that he would use this time to fulfil a long held ambition, which seams to be working rather nicely. He has already had a couple of features (complete with his own splendid camera work) printed. I think we were both slightly amazed to find our selves doing the sort of job that we dreamt of as schoolboys, although for both of us it will be a fairly short lived period of employment.

I’ve always fancied the idea of doing some sort of semi serious writing, indeed one of the motivations for my foray into the world of blogging, was to write something (anything!) on a regular basis, with the hope that this could provoke some latent talent to emerge. Well so far that remains a dream, still in the past year one dream has come true, who knows what could happen in the next twelve months?

We were both very excited last night, when we discovered that the really rather wonderful Magnetic Fields are coming to England in the autumn! Luckily Orynthia has managed to get us some tickets for the gig in Manchester on October 30th, so we get to see one of our favourite bands, in one of England’s most interesting cities and catch up with one of Orynthia’s relatives who currently studying in Manchester. Top news all round.

I spent quite a lot of today and this evening listening to the extraordinary new album from The Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat. It’s due out here in early September and it may well take me that long to get used to it. Amazing lyrics combine with a clunky sound, which veers from lo-fi electro to 1970’s piano led singer songwriter stuff. At over 76 minutes it is probably too long, but they obviously wanted to give their imagination free reign on this one.

News of an important radio show for all lovers of British cakes ( that's me then!) can be found here.

Now that Orynthia’s mum and brother are safely ensconced in their new homes, we seem to have a bit more time to do some spur of the moment things, so yesterday morning whilst finishing off a leisurely breakfast, I noticed a small piece in The Guardian describing a new exhibition in Cheltenham featuring art from the private collection of Osbert Sitwell, it seamed like to good a chance to miss. The exhibition included work by many of our favourite artists – William Roberts, C R W Nevinson, Paul Nash and Wyndham Lewis, so an hour later we were in the car and starting the 40 odd mile journey up the M5. How lucky we were to be heading north rather than south, at the this time of year the holiday makers heading south to Devon and Cornwall often turn the M5 around Bristol into a huge car park and yesterday was no exception, fortunately the northward traffic was light.

As well as enjoying the small (approx 30 pieces) exhibition and the rest of the gallery, we had a lovely time in this very grand town. We both managed to pick up some bargains in the sales and had a lovely relaxed walk around the place, stopping briefly in a small café where I had a huge and delicious piece of home made egg custard tart.

After heading home we had an hour or so to relax before taking the short walk to Geoff and Emma’s for the now traditional summer barbecue. Once again they provided us with lots of lovely food and company, even if the pleasant summer day turned into a rather nippy evening, luckily we could all gather around their recently acquired Chimera, which was throwing out copious amount of heat.

Today we adopted our traditional roles in the garden, Orynthia the cultivator, me the destroyer. I had great fun hacking away at a massively overgrown winter jasmine plant, whilst Orynthia planted a purchase from yesterdays trip to “Nam”. It’s been great to have the chance to spend some time doing things on the spur of the moment rather than constantly having to dash off around Bristol.

Sometime last October or November I managed to injure my shoulder in the midst of one of our Monday night football matches. For a few weeks, I would flinch whenever anyone bumped into me, then it reached a point where without Orynthia’s help I was struggling to put on shirts, jackets of coats. As is common with most people, especially those that play any sport, I decided not to trouble my doctor with my self-inflicted problem, which would surely ease in the next week or so.

Well by April the problem was much less marked but was still hanging around and Orynthia persuaded me to go to see our local doctor, he agreed that I had much less mobility in my left shoulder than my right, consequently this morning I found myself at Southmead Hospital for an appointment with a physio in an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem. After much poking and prodding it was decided that I had actually sprained my collarbone at the joint with the shoulder, which had then fussed in a position, which restricted my movement. I have been given a small range of easy to follow exercises, which will hopefully ease the discomfort over the following weeks.

Everyone always moans about the NHS, but I have to say that as always I was dealt with in a very efficient, friendly and professional manner. If only I had listened to Orynthia and gone to my doctor last year, maybe then this (admittedly) minor discomfort would be behind me.

At last we have a few gigs to look forward to over the next few weeks. On Friday evening my colleague RLF is doing his splendid “Godzilla” set at The Cube, in support of Biosphere, in August the 5,6,7,8’s are playing at The Thekla then a couple of days later we have the unusual pairing of Paul Burch and Joanna Newsome at St Bonaventure’s. Finally in September P J Harvey pays a visit to Bristol.

Well after a quick sleep on Friday afternoon my energy levels did return to normal, allowing me to enjoy Ashton Court. In truth the highlights were more social than musical, we managed to catch up with loads of friends and the time really flew past. Musical highlights were provided by the Blackout tent on Saturday, with the vastly contrasting styles of Freeze Puppy and Gonga coming up trumps. Sunday saw some pleasant Jazzy sounds emanating from the WKD Big Top, before we sat through the unrelenting barrage of atonal blast, which Fuzz Against Junk decided to offer festival goers this year. However I can’t understand why this celebration of local music needs to suffer from the curse of the covers band, Bristol is full of people making original and interesting music, we don’t need bands that wish they were AC/DC, Madness or The Red Hot Chilli Peppers please take them all away.

Well Orynthia's mum has finally moved out of her old house. The only problem is that her new place is absolutly full to bursting with stuff. I still see a few more trips to the dump coming our way.

This weekend will be spent an the Ashton Court Festival, although I must admit that at the moment I'd rather just stay in bed, I hope my energy returns on Saturday.

I realised today, that I have not written much about the music I have been listening to lately. So first mention needs to go to an album, which has been around for a few months and has finally wormed it’s way into brain, it’s by the enigmatic Devendra Banhart and is called Rejoicing In The Hands. It’s a deceptively simple album, which combines mesmeric song writing and singing with hypnotic acoustic guitar melodies. As described by RLF in our shop it’s part Nick Drake, part early Marc Bolan with a bit of John Fahey thrown in for good measure, it’s unlike anything else that is around at the moment and is really wonderful.

Next something that was released in USA last year, but has only recently emerged over here, Michigan by Sufjan Stevens. I have mentioned before how much I enjoyed his Seven Swans album, by way of contrast the arrangements on Michigan are much more expansive, however the intensity of his writing is just the same. Apparently he plans to record an album about every state in the union, can’t really see that happening but this is a brilliant start to the project and is well worth your time.

Something a bit newer now, released this Monday is a mini album by Sigur Ros called Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do, it’s 3 instrumental tracks take around 20 minutes to slip past you and very wonderful minutes they are too. I went for the vinyl option as it comes with all the tracks on one side, whilst the other side has some lovely artwork etched into the vinyl. They are band whose previous albums have made little impact on me, but these is a fine piece of work, if you like people like Boards Of Canada, then this is one for you.

Finally a couple of Jazz things, the 2nd part of Giles Peterson’s Impressed series came out recently and once again throws the spotlight of some overlooked British Jazz treats from the 1960’s and 70’s and proves that we can play jazz in this country despite what some people say. To confirm the point a wonderful live recording of the Charlie Watts “tentet” recorded at Ronnie Scott’s a few years ago had finally emerged. It’s full of joyous and brilliant playing. And yes it is THAT Charlie Watts, moonlighting from his day job as drummer with a band who may well be past their sell by date.

So it’s been another day of endless trips to the dump, in a desperate effort to clear Orynthia’s mothers house before Friday’s moving out deadline. How can anyone acquire so many receipts, envelopes and generally useless bits of paper? It really is quite astounding.

What else have we been up to? Well last week we went to see the really rather splendid Hot Club of Cowtown. They were doing their marvellous version of western swing, that strange style of music where Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly somehow collide with Hank Williams to produce something, which can teeter on the precipice of parody, luckily in this case the astounding musicianship, and general bonhomie of the Cowtown gang meant that this was never likely to happen.

We have also been indulging ourselves in what may well be the greatest TV channel in the world BBC4. Last Thursday being a case in point, when we watched a wonderfully funny and informative show on Ikea narrated by the marvellous Paul Morley, this was followed by the 2nd part of an excellent series on UK art in the 1960’s, finishing up with a double helping of episodes from the wonderful series on the art of the 20th century The shock of the new narrated by a bizarrely coiffured Robert Hughes, then again in was made back in the time when lapels where as wide a 6 lane highway. Anyway it was all captivating stuff, not a bit of reality TV to be seen, fantastic! Why do we have to see shows about daft people doing dumb things, when could be exposed to wit, imagination and invention?

I guess the years are catching up with me. As a young lad, I could quite happily play football all day long, tonight after 75 minutes of 5-a-side, mine was the 1st voice shouting the famous slogan of over the hill footballers everywhere – “Next goal wins”. I guess that it’s pretty hard work because of the lack of games recently because of holidays and Euro 2004(well done to the Greeks by the way - fantastic to see team spirit overcome everything else). I still enjoyed the game but my legs had gone by that stage, still our band of Monday night kick about kings have taken the bold decision to join a local casual league. It sound just right for us – 1 game a month, average age of the team should be around 35, rolling subs and any team that take it too seriously can be thrown out of the league, should be fun.

Things are starting to get a bit strange in the shop; generally the word is out that we will be closing so most people know the score. However today I seamed to spend lots of team telling people that by the end of September Imperial Music would be gone. The reactions are amazing, people seem to be genuinely upset and although it’s sad it has been really amazing to work in such a well-loved establishment. When I leave I’ll be able to look back with great fondness at a very special time in my life.

Well Ashton has moved into his new place, although we still have quite a bit of his stuff to transfer the abode. He has an amazing collection of Hi-Fi, Video and computer equipment from recent and not so recent decades. Some of it even works! Anyway it all went pretty well on Sunday, we only got caught in the rain when we were unloading his stuff, so we could not really complain.

I still remember the strange feeling that moving into our house gave me. The house had been rented out for a while before we moved in, consequently it had a slightly unloved and unkempt feel to it for quite a while. Gradually we were able to put our own slightly confused stamp on the place, famously described as “hotchpotch” by Orynthia’s sister. 10 years on we still have one room, which has not been decorated, and have things stored in completely the wrong room because we thought at one time that the room would be used for a purpose which it is not used for now. I’m always really torn by a love of the brilliant clean and modernist look of The Bauhaus style houses and the knowledge that we keep buying books, magazines, pictures and records which constantly threatens to overwhelm the place. Today I’ve been trying to put away some of the CD’s, which are scattered, around the house and also looking to thin out some of the undoubted dead wood in the collection, the trouble is I hate chucking anything out. I managed to get about 15 things ready to either give to charity shops or sell in the shop, time to work on the books now, it really feels like a good time to simplify the stuff that surrounds us.

So a year ago we were down at the Glastonbury festival dodging those 1st day rain showers and hoping for a good time. Well we were really lucky with the weather and had an absolute blast, not enough though to tempt us back into a tent for this year’s festival. Loads of our friends have gone, so we hope that the promised storms for tomorrow don’t drop their load over the festival site. We will be watching it from the comfort of our front room, with the joy of having a nice bed to climb into at the end of the evening.

Talking of music, Wednesday evening on BBC radio 2 saw the start of what sounds like an excellent 4 part series on the Bristol music scene. Rather than start with Massive Attack and Portishead as most of this type of thing normally does, the show took the uber cool club funk scene of the mid 70’s as starting point. It then went on to show how many of these people got involved in the punk and post punk movements, which laid the foundations for the success of bands from this region later in the decade. The show is called “Way Out West: The Bristol Underground” and you can still catch the 1st show on the BBC radio player via the web.

I was sad to read yesterday about the death of Joel Dean, one of the founders of the amazing Dean & DeLuca food store in New York. It is always a favourite destination for Orynthia and I when we are lucky enough to be in that wonderful city.

So England are out of Euro 2004, of course it had to be via a penalty shoot-out, the fourth time we have been knocked out that way since 1990. Have to say that on the night Portugal were the better team. Oh well, I’m still looking forward to the rest of the competition, especially the chance to see the wonderful Czech side in action again.

It’s been a big day for Orynthia’s brother Ashton, after months and months of having around he has finally completed on the purchase of his first flat. I sometimes think that we are more excited about it than he is, anyway Sunday is going to be spent moving his stuff into his new place. Once again I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.

Sorry about the lack of updates, blame it on the ever more exciting Euro 2004. Some great games this weekend kept us fully involved. More soon.

So Euro 2004 is well underway, necessitating an early dash home from work in order to catch the 1st game each evening. With every team having played one game, the tournament now starts to get interesting, many teams England amongst them, know that they can’t afford any more slip-up’s if they wish to stay in the competition.

The two games a night schedule for the 1st week does not leave much time for anything, but we did manage to nip over to Bath on Saturday evening to see the really rather wonderful Divine Comedy in action. This time they played as a 3 piece – Guitar, Piano and Cello and it all worked very well indeed.

Interesting comment from my blog friend Kelpie from Washington USA for the entry below, regarding Mrs Thatcher. To my mind she was one of the most damaging and divisive political figures this country has seen. Leading us into an unnecessary war with Argentina, setting the British people against themselves twice (The miners strike and the poll tax riots), starting the crazy inflation of house prices by insisting the council housing be sold off, without letting the money be used to build more homes for poorer families, the whole “No such thing as society” attitude which she fostered and just her complete disregard for the fact that sometimes people and communities need help and support, rather than being left to “market forces”. Still it is easy to look at political figures from afar and think that they are wonderful, I well remember going to Russia when Mikael Gorbachev was the leader. At the time everyone in the west thought that he was fantastic (indeed I still that hold that opinion), so it was a real shock to discover that he was loathed by millions of his own people. So I don’t criticize Kelpie when I disagree with her, I just think that it’s an interesting observation. Interesting to wonder what the world perception of Tony Blair is at the moment, when his popularity levels in England has fallen through the floor.

Berlin, well worth a visit for anyone I’d suggest. Lads to see and do, given the incredible history of the city, how could it fail to provide a fascinating and thought provoking experience? Once again we were lucky enough to find superb accommodation, we went with Jon and Katja, each couple had large rooms with kitchen facilities and private bathrooms plus use of the lovely garden (which you can see via the photo link in my last entry) where we had breakfast every morning. There was an underground stop at the end of the road and a supermarket across the road from that, so really nothing could wrong. Amazingly this fantastic place only cost us £33 pounds a night (Jon + Katja paid a little less as they had no cooker in their room), an absolutely bargain.

Berlin keeps on hitting you with hammer blows reminders of the relatively recent past, and also leaves you amazed at the amount of construction work going on all over the town as it attempts to make up for all those “lost” years. The contrasts between the old East and West are disappearing rapidly, but can still be found if you look hard enough. Loads of amazing architecture is spread around the huge city, which meant that we had to give the public transport a pretty vigorous workout, still at only £16 each for a week of unlimited travel on the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, Bus and Tram links that proved to be no problem at all.

A few highlights – The day in Potsdam, including the wonderful Einsteinturm and the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci. The amazing views of The Olympic Stadium and surrounding areas from The Glockenturm. The meal in the revolving restaurant of the huge TV tower, which dominates the city. The wonderful little Art Deco splendour of the Brohan Museum. A great meal at Monsieur Vuongs Indochinna Caffe. Best of all the stunning trip to the roof of The Richstag at night, what a wonderful reconstruction of this building, absolutely spellbinding.

Well we had a fine time. I will write more about the trip soon, for now you can see some pictures here.

Delighted to to come back to find Mark Radcliffe back in his correct late evening timeslot thanks to those nice people at BBC Radio 2. Heard his show last night, fantastic!

OK we are off to Berlin now. See you all in about a week.

Well we missed out on promotion again! Sadly City never got close to top gear in a very tight game, the fact that we only had 1 shot on target in the whole game, despite dominating for about 20 minutes of the 2nd half tells it’s own storey.

Despite the outcome we had a really nice day, having arrived in Cardiff some 6 hours before kick off, we had plenty of time to enjoy the occasion. We spent an hour or so in the wonderful museum, checking out the fantastic collection of art and chatting to the friendly staff and fellow fans of City and Brighton. Have to say that we chatted to lots of very nice Brighton fans both before and after the match, they were suitably modest about their success, hopefully we were graceful in defeat. The stadium and the noise generated by the 65,000 fans was fantastic, it was just a shame that we did not got get the chance to hear the 35,000 City fans in full voice as we surely would have done had we managed to score. Still next August I guess it will be back to the 11,000 regulars for another season of 2nd division football.

We are off to Berlin on Wednesday, so thanks to today’s bank holiday we both only have to work 1 day this week, how civilised is that. Still I better make the most of Imperial whilst I can, sadly the shop is going to close at the end of September, and so my dream job will come to an end. Although I’m sad for myself, I’m feel more for Mark and Babs, whose baby it has been and RLF, Jay Chris and Gaz who have given such brilliant service to the shop. Most of all I feel sorry for Bristol, which is losing a vital part of its music heritage. The landlord has accepted a much higher offer for the rent from someone who wants to open a bar in our location, I can’t really see that Bristol really needs another bar, but hey that’s business I guess.

What an incredible night we had at Ashton Gate. 1-0 behind with only 2 minutes to play, we amazingly managed to win 2-1 sparking euphoric scenes all around the ground. So we now head off to Cardiff at the end of the month for one final match in this roller coaster season. If we win that it will be division 1 football for us next season.

I just have to say bad luck to Hartlepool, they really pushed us all the way, giving us a tougher match than both Plymouth and QPR did recently, it must have been a very long journey back to the north east for their fans after those final few minutes.

So yesterday I had to slip into a suit and attend a funeral for the 2nd time this year. Sheila my mum’s friend of nearly 50 years passed away last week. As is often the way with funerals the initial sadness of the event turned into a very pleasant if occasionally sombre occasion as old friends were reunited to share their memories of this lovely lady.

When I was born our family had 2 floors of 4-story house in Redland, Sheila and the rest of her family occupied the other 2 floors. When I was only 18 months old, we left the beauty of Redland for our own house in Fishponds, however we still made very regular visits to see Sheila and family in Redland. These visits obviously made a deep impression on me, as soon Orynthia and I decided to get married and therefore needed to find somewhere to live Redland was always at the top of my shopping list. Luckily we found a lovely flat on Chandos Road (still one of my favourite roads), where I could observe my first home from the kitchen window. When we finally outgrew the flat we moved across Redland Green to other side of Redland, I still love it here, so in addition to the other benefits of knowing Sheila and her family – the fantastic dry sense of humour, complete lack personal vanity, innate common sense and the willingness to do what you want to do rather than what other people think you should do – I’ll always be grateful to them for showing me what brilliant place this is to live in.

Last night we went to St Bonaventure’s to see Sufjan Stevens, Rosie Thomas and Iron and Wine. This was a rather odd quirk of fate as Sheila’s last job in Bristol was working at St Bon’s. My main interest in the gig was the chance to Sufjan Stevens whose Seven Swans album is one of my favourites of the year so far. Before the gig their was lots of discussion about the running order, it turned out that Sufjan was first up, playing a delightful set which was augmented with his entertaining drawings and discussions as he took us on a virtual trip around his home state of Michigan. Next up was Rosie Thomas a hugely entertaining character best described as kookie, her songs were not really to my liking but you could hardly fail to impressed by her witty and warm personality. Finally along came Iron and Wine, now the 2 albums released by Iron and Wine had mainly struck me as pleasant but had not prepared me for the beauty of their performance. A particular highlight of the evening was a great cover version of the Flaming Lips gem “Waiting for Superman” which was just marvellous. Time to listen to the albums a bit more closely I think.

The Newcastle trip turned out to be a very “arty” experience. As hoped, the William Roberts exhibition at the Hatton Gallery was both comprehensive and exhilarating. Thursday evening was spent in Art Deco splendour of The Tyneside Cinema watching the confusing but spellbinding “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” On Friday we crossed the Tyne to Gateshead, pausing to look at emerging silver slug (we liked it honest) which is Sage, the new concert hall, before heading onto the sweeping Millennium bridge and the huge Baltic gallery. Then on Friday evening we went to the preview opening night of the splendidly irreverent Fluxus show at The Waygood Gallery. All sorts of crazy fun to be had here, the highlight of which was a performance by Alison Knowles, which you had to see to understand. On Saturday morning we spent our last few hours checking out the gallery at The Biscuit Factory. So all in all our artistic hunger was pretty well served.

Thanks to the super efficient metro system we even managed to get out to the coast for an hour or so for a brief visit to Tynemouth. Also managed to grab a cup of tea at the amazing home of Newcastle United, what a stadium! Newcastle reminded me a lot of Glasgow, especially in the way that you can move from a very nice area into a slightly dodgy one, simply by crossing the street. Overall though, we really enjoyed our trip to this vibrant city. The only downside was the stag weekend party, which took place on the landing outside our hotel room during most of the early hours of Saturday morning!

Managed to get back to the West Country in time to watch Bristol City’s lamentable performance in the 1st leg of our play off match against Hartlepool. Somehow we escaped with a draw. We will have to play an awful lot better on Wednesday evening, to have any hope of getting to the play off final.

OK we are off here for a few days. Will let you know how we got on next week.

Anyone who is at a loose end in Bristol over the next few days should check out the Venn Festival. Lot’s of interesting music at various venues around Stokes Croft.

So the football did not work out quite the way we hoped. City did their bit by beating Blackpool, however QPR managed to win at Sheffield Wednesday, clinching their promotion and condemning us to the uncertainty of the play off’s yet again. Although all City fan’s can look back on many occasions this season where we allowed points to slip away, I don’t think that we can begrudge QPR their success. In particular we have to give due respect to the brilliant job done by Ian Holloway. Now Mr Holloway is a much derided figure in the red half of Bristol because of his connection with our city rivals, but when you look at the financial mess that QPR have been in during his time in charge, it would be churlish in the extreme not to acknowledge the fantastic job that he has done for his team.

The match itself was a slightly surreal experience, as soon as city established a 2-0 lead midway through the first half, our job was done, so for the next hour myself and 19,000 close friends spent our time reacting to the various rumours and factual updates coming to us regarding the Sheffield Wednesday – QPR game. As always on theses occasions the misinformation was much more fun that the facts, but for the final 20 minutes or so we all knew that we were destined for 2 games against Hartlepool rather than the fast train to division 1.

In amongst bouts of work in the garden this weekend, I finally managed to finish the sprawling Jonathan Lethem epic “The Fortress of Solitude”. Much like Bristol City’s season, this was a partial success. Lot’s of brilliant interludes, but I found it rather disjointed and lacking a convincing conclusion.

I also read a couple of fascinating articles on the contrasting fortunes of two brilliant women connected with the arts in America. Firstly Saturday’s review section in The Guardian featured a absorbing piece on Maeve Brennan. Apparently a striking and brilliant figure on the Irish American literary scene, she suffered a prolonged and painful decline into mental illness and obscurity, whilst the staff of the New Yorker magazine attempted to support her as best they could. Then in that very magazine I read a marvellous piece on the effervescent Dorothea Tanning, born 10 years earlier than Maeve Brennan in 1910, she has enjoyed a very different life storey. Orynthia and I were only aware of her intoxicating picture “A Little Night Music” from 1946, which we came across by chance in Edinburgh several years ago. What an amazing character, she now describes herself as an emerging poet, not bad for someone who is in her 90’s.

Managed to avoid the bank holiday showers at Redland Fair, and picked up a very intriguing item. It is a portfolio of approximately 30 pieces by someone called Joanne Makepeace dating back to the early 1940’s. The work is a combination of still life’s and what looks like either wallpaper or fabric designs, but the main think which caught our eye is the collection of great interior design pieces, which look almost like architectural drawings. We don’t know anything about the artist, other than the fact that the work was created when she was studying the west of England academy. The chap that sold them to us said that he discovered them whilst doing a house clearance. So now we need to sort out some frames, to put the best pieces up in our house. Who knows, it could be here first exhibition, 60 years after the work was made!

I went to the Zutons and the very impressive Dead 60’s last night. The Dead 60’s sound just like The Clash when they played their punky version of Reggae, it’s the 2nd time that I’ve seen them and have to say that they are a great live band, they have a single out a couple of weeks, hope that they can capture the energy of the live sound.

Big, big match coming up for Bristol City this weekend. If we can beat Blackpool and QPR fail to win their match we will gain promotion to division 1. The way the season has gone so far, I’m sure that something dramatic will happen in the last minute of the match to decide our fate one way or another. My friend Steve is even coming home from Madrid to watch the match, that’s dedication!

So after Thursday evening Orynthia really is convinced that Derren Brown is the devil. He put on a hugely enjoyable and unsettling show, which left us open mouthed on occasions. His magnificent stage presence and showmanship create the perfect environment for him to spin his magical craft. He can be both charming and disarming, the perfect combination for an act which relies on the audience allowing itself to be manipulated into seeing or believing only what HE wants us to believe. Since seeing the show, I’ve spoken to a few friends who take the world of magic and mind control pretty seriously (they do a few mean tricks themselves), and they have explained how some of the things would have been done. However they were both very impressed with the stagecraft of this extraordinary man.

As expected Friday was a pretty manic day, I caught some of the slightly chaotic free lunchtime performance from Joy Zipper, and then nipped home before returning to town via my former commuter train to meet Orynthia and Helen for the walk to Spike Island. We managed to grab some free wine and food, before making our rounds of the 100 plus studio’s. As usual the huge array of styles on offer makes the whole experience a fascinating one. I really feel that we are so lucky to have this sort of facility in Bristol. The place is open until Monday tea time, if you live in Bristol you really should take a look, it’s free! After leaving Spike Island we took the short but interesting walk along Cumberland Road to The Louisiana for the Joy Zipper gig. Got there in time to catch most of the set by support act Lucky Jim, which was not very lucky for us as they were pretty uninspired. The Joy Zipper set hit some real highs but also had a few meandering moments.

Yesterday we had a wandering around sort of day in town, the highlight of which was a visit to the magnificently named Pieminister on Stokes Croft. Fantastic pies at great prices, if only they were open in the evening. Also went to one of my favourite mooching around shops, the confusingly named Here, also on Stokes Croft. It’s full of quirky and inventive things, a great collection of comics and graphic books, interesting art and all manner of strangeness, I feel it’s a bit neglected by most people in Bristol which is a shame, it deserves our support.

Saturday evening was spent with Teresa and Steve, so we finally had a chance to see their gorgeous new kitchen, and catch up with each other. Today the sun is shining, so time for some work to be done in the garden, let’s hope it can stay dry for Redland Fair tomorrow.

Well today is a pretty big day for Orynthia’s mum, she is moving into a delightful flat, within a warden controlled old peoples care unit. It’s going to be quite a shock, moving from a 4 bedroom house to this 1 bedroom place, but hopefully it will make her life a lot easier. No stairs to climb, much, much less housework, shops and church literally just across the road, lovely garden area to relax in and no worries about maintaining the property. Hopefully all these things will combine to help her enjoy this new phase of her life.

It’s amazing to think that after reaching the age of 70, this will be the first time that she has ever lived on her own (Orynthia’s brother Ashton currently lives in the house with his mum), so this is bound to be a major change. I have never lived on my own either, I stayed at home with my mum until just before we got married, when I moved into our newly acquired flat. Although I was the only one sleeping in the flat until we got married, Orynthia came over every day after work, so I never spent any time on my own. One of the guys in the shop is about to have a new housemate move in and oddly it’s someone he has never met. As I’ve never shared a house with anyone other than family, I’ve always been really intrigued by the whole idea of sharing your home with someone that you don’t really know and may not even like. Choosing the person you are going to live with must be such a huge decision, how can make the right choice after a quick meeting or two?

So upcoming things to look forward to, on Thursday night we are off to see the king of mind control Derren Brown for what will hopefully be a strange, confusing and entertaining evening. It ‘s the first time that we have seen him in the flesh since his humble days working in Byzantium restaurant many years ago. He did some astounding things, whilst sitting with us that evening, will it work so well in the huge space of the hippodrome? I’ll let you know. On Friday lunchtime Joy Zipper are doing a free instore show at Fopp, which I hope to catch, then on Friday evening it’s the first night of Spike Island open weekend, so a chance to see lots of weird and wonderful work from masses of local artists, hopefully after that we will be able to get into the actual Joy Zipper gig at The Louisiana. Then on Monday it’s time for the fantastic Redland Fair, the perfect place to pick up lots of brilliant bargains from the vast array of stalls selling all sorts of second hand treats.

I'm not going to say anything about football. Only 2 games left and it's all very tense, promotion could still be ours but I think it's going to go to the last kick of the last match.

Well it’s been pretty busy since I last wrote. Two gigs, two cinema visits, a celebrity visit to the shop, and we managed to book our Berlin flights as well!

Starting with the gigs, last Friday we both really enjoyed the Matthew Herbert Big Band gig at the Colston Hall. A brilliant mix big band jazz and electronic wizardry, topped off with the superb vocals of Dani Siciliano. Matthew Herbert was sampling sounds from the band, plus assorted oddities like wind leaving a balloon and crockery being knocked together, to create a constantly evolving sound. The surprise was the amount of visual playfulness, which also kept us entertained from the stage, a top show, just a shame that more people did not witness it.

On Saturday evening Katja and Jon came over, so that we could book our flights and start looking at accommodation for our trip to Berlin in June. Katja used to live in Berlin and Jon has visited on a couple of occasions, so it should be great to have a couple of people who really know the city showing us around. They also have friends and family to catch up with, so it should leave us with time to explore on our own as well, should be a perfect combination. After they left we went to The Watershed to see The Station Agent. One of those nice little films, where not much happens except the shifting dynamic between 3 very different people. I enjoyed it, but the ending did appear rather rushed.

On Monday lunchtime we had a mass visit from The Coral in the shop. They are spending some time recording in Bristol and it was great to see the eclectic selection of music that they purchased, truly a band with very open ears, although it did seem slightly incongruous to be selling one of them a second hand version of the first Echo & The Bunnymen LP!

On Monday evening we both finished work and made our way to Petunia’s place for some food, before the 3 of us set off to Bath to Lambchop. We were a bit shocked to the normally empty floor space of Bath Pavilion covered with chairs, but managed to find some good seats right at the front and enjoyed another wonderfully laconic gem of a show from this lovely band. People actually surged to the front for the encores and a mini mosh pit formed when they surprised us with a cover of the old Stranglers gem (get a) Grip (on yourself), most unexpected!

Last night we went to see Shaun Of The Dead with Mark and Babs and although I had my doubts before hand, I really enjoyed it. Lots of brilliant observational humour (particularly about music), we did a lot of laughing and even managed to forget that we were sitting so near to the screen that we almost got splattered by the huge amount of blood which was flying around.

Things are starting to come together with some travel plans of ours. Everything is arranged for our few days in Newcastle in May. Now we are turning our attention to a trip to Berlin. Neither of us has ever been to Germany before, but thanks to the wonders of Easyjet we can now get cheap flight direct to Berlin from Bristol Airport. Looking to go sometime in June or July but avoiding the European Championships if we can.

A couple of good gigs coming up over the next few days. Tonight we are off to the Colston Hall for the Matthew Herbert gig. Should be an intriguing mixture of Jazz and Electronica, which I am really looking forward to. On Monday we are going Bath to see the mighty Lambchop.

Well Jonathan Richman provided he usual mixture of the poignant and the playfully absurd to entertain the capacity crowd at The Fleece. Now The Fleece always had a bit of a reputation for being very uncomfortable at sold out gigs, recently however things seemed to have improved, sadly this weekends gig was a return to the bad old days, very overcrowded.

Then again is it the fault of the venue? It’s fair to say that Jonathan Richman attracts fans of a certain age (which includes us!), some of the more recent sold out shows, such as The Bees have attracted a younger crowd. Now we all know that as people advance in years, we tend to add the odd pound or two of padding, when this is multiplied by a factor of 400 that must decrease the amount of space, which is available in the venue. A couple of years ago a similar thing happened at the Elvis Costello gig at The Academy. Although the capacity had been greatly reduced from nights such as Blowpop, the place received many complaints from fans that they could not see the gig because the place was oversold.

Maybe someone needs to work out a formula, to calculate the average size of a prospective gig goer for every performer. This could then be factored into the ticket sales for each standing venue.

The next gig for us is Lambchop at Bath Pavilion, now we saw Belle & Sebastian play a sold out, but very comfortable gig there before Xmas. My guess is that that the average Lambchop fan is somewhat more substantial than those indie kids, so let’s see how we get on with that one!

You can see pictures of the Charlie Parr in-store show by going to the Imperial Music web site.

Can’t stop we are just off to see Jonathan Richman for the 1st time since the early 90’s.

Hey where did that week go? Well we went to see the engrossing 21 grams at The Orpheus last week. It’s a very clever film with brilliant editing and is well worth catching if you have a chance. Saturday saw Bristol City return to winning ways, with a hard fought win over 2nd placed QPR. It’s puts us back in with a chance of automatic promotion, just 6 games to go. I reckon that if we can win 4 of them we will go up.

Saturday evening was spent at a small party at Ceri and Simons. During the course of the evening, a friend asked if we wanted to sell our much loved but seldom used 1961 Fiat 500. The answer is yes, but now we have to try and work out how much the car is worth.

Sunday was Orynthia’s birthday, and we celebrated by spending all afternoon in Boston Tea Party. Loads of friends came out and despite the showers we managed to sit outside and stay mainly dry, before sneaking inside at around 4pm. Lots of coffee, tea and cakes helped to speed the time along during a very sociable afternoon.

Monday was a big day in the shop as Charlie Parr did the 1st ever instore appearance at Imperial Music. What a lovely man! Charlie played and sang for about 30 minutes in front of a shop full of admiring fans. You can’t quite tell how these things are going to go and everyone has a story about going to one of these things and the proverbial one man and his dog turn up. Luckily that was not the case here and everyone enjoyed the show. In the evening Orynthia and Babs went to The Rutles, before joining Mark and I at the Charlie Parr gig. It all ended a bit later than anticipated but everyone went home with a big smile on their face.

Easter weekend coming up, not too sure of our plans yet, other than a rare Saturday in the shop for me, as a couple of the chaps will be away.

Talking of which, I better get off to the shop now.

I and the rest of the gang at Imperial Music are getting very excited about our first ever in-store show! On Monday afternoon top blues/country man Charlie Parr will be playing live in the shop from about 4pm. Then in the evening he’s playing a gig at Marlows. If you live in Bristol try to catch one of the shows.

I am also really excited that the amazing Sufjan Stevens is going to be playing at St Bonaventures with Iron and Wine plus Rosie Thomas in May.WOW.

I went to see The Bees last night and have to say that it was a pretty disappointing gig. Messy and self-indulgent would be the words, which spring to mind. It’s a shame, I really loved their 1st album (they only played 1 song from that last night), but the new one does not sound half as interesting.

It’s been a weekend to bring the memories flooding back for me. On Friday evening, it was short-term memory as I joined up with many of my former colleagues from BT. The whole team that I used to be part of is being closed down, so many of the old crowd have decided to do what I did 5 months ago – take the money and run! It was good to see so many old friends again and better still to feel the crackle of excitement in the air, as so many of them were excitedly looking forward to their new life. It was though sad to hear that BT is handling the whole situation in their usual haphazard and unsympathetic way. Why do big companies forget that they are dealing with individuals, who need to be told what the future holds in clear and simple terms, rather than the constantly shifting morass of conflicting information that they foist upon their people?

Late on Saturday morning we set off for a trip into the rather more distant past. As I have mentioned here in the past we have managed to see my cousin Robert a couple of times in recent months after a gap of at least 20 years. Well the time had come for us to head off to West Wales to see him on home territory, whilst also looking to revive a few distant holiday memories of my own.

Robert, like my mother is originally from Pontypridd, however he has to moved further west to the town of Carmarthen. So by mid afternoon we found ourselves trawling the charity shops of this bustling small town before heading to Roberts’s very compact (!) flat. As the afternoon started to disappear into the evening, Robert suggested that we head off to Llanstephan, to see the sunset in the lovely surroundings of the River Towey estuary, with it’s huge ruined 11th century castle dominating the proceedings from spectacular hilltop setting. Sadly the murky cloud cover meant, that the sunset was a gradual decent from grey to black, with none of the oranges and reds we were hoping for, still well worth a visit though.

This morning we took the short drive to small town of Laugharne, where I enjoyed a family holiday in 1970, however the major event in the towns history was not the arrival of the already dysfunctional Thomas family from Bristol, but the fact that several decades earlier it had been home to famous Welsh writer Dylan Thomas (no relation!). It was a strange holiday for us, the simmering tension between my sister and my parents was starting and come to the fore and even more upsetting for me at the time, I sat with my dad and watch England lose to Brazil in the world cup. It was an emotional time all round!

Whilst we were on holiday my parents got chatting to a man who held the key for the then deserted boat house which was the former home of the great writer and I well remember the nervous way we crept around the then unloved and dusty house. How things have changed, the house is now a small museum to his work with a large collection of artefacts telling the story of his rumbustious life. We stopped for brief drink in Browns Hotel, one of the favourite drinking haunts of the man who would eventually drink himself to death in New York. The place is pleasantly shabby at the moment and just ripe for some entrepreneur to sanitise the place and make a fortune from the literary tourists. Then it was back in the car to head further west, eventually ending up in Tenby, a partially walled city with huge beaches, which strangely brought back absolutely no memories for me whatsoever. We also spent a while trying to piece together memories of one of Orynthia’s old family holidays in the Saundersfoot / Tenby area without much success. Then it was time to head back east past lots of now, newly familiar place names.

Managed to pick up a full-blown cold after all, so I’m on a sicky at home today. Last night we went to see Zatoichi with Mark and Babs. It’s certainly not as intense as most of Kitano’s previous work. In fact a lot of it was really funny. Some great use of sound as well, culminating in an amazing final scene, which is like a crazy mixture of 1940’s Hollywood musical and a pop video set in 18th century Japan.

After seeing the movie we had an excellent meal at Bocanova. My Squid and Pancetta starter was lovely; the main course of Sea Bass with Fennel and prawn was absolutely delicious. The only slight disappointment was the baked cheesecake dessert, somehow the texture was not quite right and lacked flavour. All in all though I would certainly recommend this really pleasant restaurant.

Whilst snuffling my way through the day I’ve started to read The Fortress Of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem and it’s hooked me in straight away. Some very evocative pieces of on the politics of playing with other kids started me thinking about my own childhood. I never really did the playing in the street with other kids thing. I used to play lots of football with friends in our back garden, which I fondly recall as being absolutely huge; when in reality it’s a pretty average size. Occasionally I would wander up the road to play with a some kids who lived up there and we would play in the lane behind their house, but I never really felt like they were people that I really wanted to spend lots of time with. I never really saw the point of hanging around with nothing specific to do, even as a child I spent a lot of time reading and I always loved listening to the radio.

I would spend hours trying to pick up BBC world service or strange European stations, which always seemed wonderfully exciting and exotic. Later when my interest in cricket kicked in I would happily spend virtually the whole summer holiday period watching England taking a pounding from Australia or the West Indies. When we went away on family holidays, I would walk around with my radio and earpiece avidly putting myself in the strange middle-aged world of those marvellous old cricket commentators.

I think that I must have been a terribly snooty child, I always thought that most kids of my age were really just a bit dull and boring, I needed to be entertained by being taken to a world where everything was new and interesting and importantly for me, had a history. My friends and I all knew the same stuff whereas adults had lived a life, seen and done things. Consequently, as many of my fiends will know, when I was young (and having a fine time, despite the fact that all this may make me sound like some solitary kid), I really wanted to be middle aged. I longed for the tweed jacket, with the patches on the elbows and the contentment that comes with finding your niche in life. Of course now that I am middle aged, I know that things are not that simple and that life is constantly changing all around you. I suppose the first time that that fact hit me was when my parents suddenly divorced when I was about 18. Life was different after that, but no less interesting or rewarding. It was only then that I really discovered the joy of live music and suddenly I was hardly ever at home. Recent events within our family have shown me how little control we really have over our life, but long ago I decided that you really couldn’t waste time and energy worrying about things, which you can’t control. Sometimes. I fear that this may make look a little unsympathetic, but I don’t have much patience for people that wallow in their own or others misfortune.

My word, what a lot of waffle the first 30 pages of the book has prompted!

Anyway, would like to point out a couple of additions to list of recommended blogs. 1st up my old friend Mr P. has taken the plunge and will be entertaining us with his stories of guitars and Japanese cars, we share a mutual obsession with all things Japanese. Talking of which another interesting site, which I’ve been reading lately, is Apricot Says, which looks at life in the UK from a Japanese perspective. Finally the excellent Lady Lucy site keeps me informed of all sorts of interesting artistic things going on in Bristol and at The Cube in particular. All of them of worthy of your time.

In an effort to put paid to various cold bugs, which have been lurking around us, we decided to have a pretty lazy stay at home this weekend. Apart from my wasted journey to Ashton Gate, to watch a shockingly inept City team lose to Oldham, we enjoyed a lovely homely weekend.

Over the past few days we have spent a lot of time listening to BBC radio’s excellent coverage of SXSW from Austin, Texas. Having done a few festivals based in towns in the past (Edinburgh and Hay On Wye), it certainly wetted our appetite and got us talking about making the trip ourselves one year. Marks and Bab’s did it a couple of years ago and had a pretty amazing time, my only worry is that with so many bands playing at the same time a lot of tough decisions would have to be made about who to see and who to miss. Everyone seems to think that Austin is a wonderful place, so it does look very tempting. We will just have to see how we feel next year.

During our determined batch of staying in, I finally managed to complete the excellent “Kavalier & Clay” book by Michael Chabon. At well over 600 pages it’s a daunting but rewarding read. I thought the climax of the book was particularly well handled; something that could easily have been overwrought was dealt with in a very subtle and moving fashion. Recommended.

This week we are hoping to see the latest Takeshi Kitano film Zatoichi, with the possible exception of Brother all his films have really involved and moved me. I not a fan of violent films normally but something about the way that Kitano handles his films takes them to another level.

This afternoon with had both our mothers over for lunch to celebrate mother’s day. We also had a surprise visit from some other members of Orynthia’s family, so pretty soon the conversation turned in a VERY loud conversation about food, which left my mum rather dazed and confused, but happy, I hope.

On a musical front I have really been enjoying the following: Nostalgia 77 – Songs For My Funeral, The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow, Charlie Parr – Criminals and Sinners and his brilliant new album King Earl. Also been enjoying a couple of great 12" singles, RSL - Wesley Music and The Free Design - Redsigned, The Remix EP (including remixes by Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf and Chris Geddes from Belle & Sebastian!).

I just spoke to a very excited friend of ours, who went to Kraftwerk in London yesterday. They were of course fantastic.

The last week has summed up the craziness of the English weather. Last Thursday, heavy snow was falling and it was cold enough to prompt some visitors from Norway (yes up on the edge of the Arctic circle, Norway) that our friend Mark had, to complain about the coldness of the English weather. By Tuesday it was glorious sunshine, people eating outside and wearing shorts. Then this morning, it was absolutely throwing down the rain in the midst of gale force winds, talk about contrasts!

I have to say that I love these variations in climate, although it can cause great frustration and annoyance, when it rains at just the wrong moment, it really makes us enjoy the good weather when it comes. I well remember returning to England from a trip to Australia years ago, and the delight of waking up to a fantastic glistening frost of a December morning. It really made me glad to be home.

Last night we finally managed to catch up with Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers. To make things even better the gig was only a 10 minute walk from our house. Why can’t everyone play at St Bon’s? It was really packed in the small room and consequently really, really warm. Poor little Joe was almost lost in a pool of perspiration. As with the Pernice Brothers records, it was very enjoyable, without being particularly earth shattering.

On my morning walk through Redland Green, I’m ever more intrigued by the mass ranks of dog walkers that gather there. It’s increasing bizarre that on some days they all appear to be wearing red, then the next day it’s blue. Normally one lone walker can be spotted in the wrong colour jacket, of course they are banished to another section of the park. Are dog walking groups the new singles bars?

Looks like we could be going to Newcastle in May. The university is having a William Roberts exhibition, the first in this country for 40 years. Thanks to Easyjet, the Bristol – Newcastle journey is now very easily and cheaply accomplished.

Well as expected Friday was really kind of fab. Before our lovely lunchtime meal at Red Snapper, I had my first look at the flat which Orynthia’s mum is hopping to move to and it perfect for our needs. We then had a great meal with Crescentia, Petunia and Orynthia’s mum before driving to London for the gig. Managed to park within 2 minutes walk of Bush Hall and after sitting in a very entertaining local pub, made the short journey to the surprisingly lovely rococo surroundings of Bush Hall for the gig. The Contra Band were funny and cute, Camera Obscura were wonderful and Trashcan Sinatra’s had some moments of astounding beauty. The journey home in the alternating thick fog and driving rain was less than pleasant.

A lazy Saturday was crowned with a gathering at our place for the “Stars in Their Eyes” grand final. Several friends came round for a lovely evening of camp performance and Whisky Mac’s. We had a sweepstake for the winner and Matt went home £10 ponds richer after “Paul Robesons” startling winning performance.

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.