Annette Peacock - "young," directed by Dale Hoyt

What a beautiful track....Annette Peaock - "Young"... fantastico....

Tonight's gig in Barnes cancelled - Hand Injury!

Last night whilst working with electronics cable and stuff I cut my hand very badly and will be unable to play guitar for a week or two....tonight's gig has had to be cancelled...Johnny Warman will stand in with a solo performance of some great tunes....

all right now.MTS

My band at Whetstone All Saints Arts Centre on 23 July 2011.

The Royston of Smith, the maniacal Johnny Warman, the rocker Ant Wellman and the mighty Jeff Rich.

I had played there back in the early 1980's with some pals...it was a nostaglic but brilliant gig...very good venue, atmospheric and vibey...and the sound in that place is fantastic, helped along by the brilliant sound team: Vince and Mark.

Birth of a Guitar Pedal

I just made a pedal over the last day or two..and here it is....

My new homemade pedal - "The Spitfire Returns"

Some of the wire used was taken from a 1940's GPO telephone switchboard, solid good copper conductor , in a waxy cloth insulation...compared to modern plastic cable it is just so much nicer to work with.....

A variation on the big muff....and I will do a youtube video soon to demonstrate the fantastical diabolicalicious fuzzysound this pedal makes...

Open House Art Exhibition

We opened up our house for two weekends starting today 2nd July. 4 artists show their work:-

Jane Townsend, Sue Czapska, Ann Froomberg and Karen Fraser.

Here we have Sue with her beautiful painting like photographs...

This is Karen's photographs with Ann's scarves.

Sue and Ann's work, left and right respectively...

Ann's cards and textiles

Sue and Karen's slideshow and films....

Jane Towsend's painting above the church pew...on which are Ann's lovely hand painted cushions...with Ann's paintings on the right hand wall....

Jane's paintings and Ann's textiles hanging on the cupboard....

Karen's photographs and films.....

Ann Froomberg.

Ann's paintings....

Sue's photographs....

Karen with her photographs and her beautiful cards.......

Ann's beautiful hand painted scarves.......

Ann's hand painted cushions....

Ann's miniature....

Ann's bow ties....

Karen's cards and the visitor's book....

ermmm, snack time.......

Vinyl - UK by UK

An LP made by a kind of supergroup in a way...all virtuoso musicians...

Allan Holdsworth providing beautiful fluid melodic solos and deep cello like rhythms...

Bill Bruford makes the album swing and never lose momentum...he really adds so much to this record....had a more standard thinking drummer played on ths record I don't think the album would have made it....essential drumming...great time signatures that really work, lots of rock groove.....

Great keyboards and violin...and heavy duty vocals...

An aggressive but compelling album......once on you have to listen to the whole thing.....

Vinyl - Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan

The first Steely Dan album, on vinyl...

Still sounds very nice, the opening track congas, unmistakable...

Lyrically excellent and a nice set of tales/ideas, you feel like your tapping into American culture at street level somehow...

Lots of nostalgia...great LP...nice guitar solos, a sitar solo...