Prawny Too Bad



Dont know where that title came from. Oh no now I remember, I was wolfing an Asda prawn cocktail & thinking about the recent exposure to John Martyn on BBC4.


I had seen him live many times & 'Soild Air' takes you to a faraway place & he did write so many memorable songs.

We miss you.

Freaking the Freaks with the Utmost Freakiness


Ok my next door neighbour want to listen to my J.Tillman albums, you know that wonderful drummer with Fleet Foxes & then my 4 other players in my 5-a-side team let me carry them for the 2nd half of the game.


My neighbour then asks for me to bring 2 dvds home & then he goes out!


Gregor at work assumes (he is correct of course) that I know who Mort Garson is & could I get him : Ataraxia. Done mate you owe me big stylee.

To top it all you put the TV on & there is a programme called 'Grow Your Own Drugs' by James Wong...........I think it is very very wrong pal........you will end up with a very confused life, unlike mine.

An Avant Gardener Looks at Life in the Fast Lane with the Compost Accelerator




And we all shine on, like the moon & the stars & the sun

And we al shine On & On & on & on

Radio Mountaineering




I know what you are saying, Radio Scotland does not set out to be wierd. It just is.


That is not having a go at them it is excellent radio that pushes the boudaries more than the 'Wire' favourite Resonance FM.

Take the gardening programme on the radio. It is ok, you can get by without the visuals, by using your imagination & that's a good thing.

However the other night (Oops I forgot to mention, I only listen in the car, so I get bitesize chunks only, they are not joined up...perhaps this accounts for some of the oddity?), where was I ........ok.....


......A climbing programme, now you have to remember, I am driving a hunk of metal down narrow roads & this requires more than half of my brain, the other half was trying to understand the instructions concerning movement & holds on a cliff face, step by step, hand by hand.


My wife was also talking to me in a diabetic speed rush.............I thought to myself, maybe I have heard enough of this to summon my old sherpa team from Katmandu (they might be past their sell by date by now, I fear) & head up Mount Everest.


I only saw this from below now is the time for the view from the top??

Master Musicians of Hop-Frog


If I do not renew my 'Wire' subscription soon, I will miss out on artists like the one above. So not cool!


As I was falling behind on my listening to the 'Wire Tappers' so I stuck them all onto mp3 cds to try & catch up.


I mean what is a 'wire tapper' someone who listens in to the hum of electical currents or the wind in the wires?

Anyway my endevours got me listening to Hanne Hukkelberg again. Outasight!

Mad March

Okay where's we at. Too many funerals this month not enough births. Too many painful anniversaries of father/father-in-law's births/deaths.

Too late to register on the witness protection programme, so I will deal with it.

I am not going to mention the Hoops epic victory as I do not want to upset our rivals. Talking of that glorious game, today although I did manage to score one exceptional goal (hardly worth getting up out of bed for 1 goal...ed), I did play a killer miller, type of upfront supporting role to set up others, much younger to supply the final touch.


It's a team game remember! Although I suspect I will have to run this past one of my team mates, who must need glasses or contacts, to miss me hovering yards from a sure goal scoring opportunity.


On the musical front I cannot get enough Tango to satisfy my needs.

Scranky Black Farmer


Reading Graham Hood's 'Empty Pocket Blues: Life & Music of Clive Palmer.

I was really looking for more details on his trip through Afghanistan in 1966. Chapter 4's title breaks me up : Balmore Bamiyan Barlinnie. This is reference to the Afghan town where the giant Buddahs used to reside for centuries before the Taliban destroyed them. A black mark on the tolerant side of Islam!

Balmore is that area north of Glasgow where many of the folkies rested up. See also the ISB bootleg named after this area.

Barlinnie was home to Clive when he became the first person charged with the illegal possession of acid.


I had forgotten he was on my vinyl copy of the Liberty sampler 'Son of Gutbucket'. I have been catching up on all the Famous Jug Band albums & I have mentioned C.O.B.'s 'Moyshe McStiff & the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart' already on this blog!.

It is a good read & well recommended by this librarian who is now reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'. I believe this novel is also being made into a movie like 'No Country for Old Men'.



I am enjoying it, but it is so so bleak & depressing & dark.

Letter (Hats Off to Larry)


There now follows a letter that my ancient friend Larry has kept since 1974. Sweet, but please excuse the childishness & rampant psychedelia

The Trees Grew Emotions and Died


Album cover above just in case you think I make these titles up.

Strange though we just got the nod that the Council are coming next week to dig up the old trees in our street that are lifting up the pavements & stopping disabled access.

R.I.P. Ian Carr (Nucleus)


You funked & rocked my jazz right up from 1970. Peace.