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I think I've got all the images, track lists and sleeve notes for 'Auditoria' finished and sent over to Martin now, so he should be able to do a complete assembly of the triple album for me to look at so that I can make any last minute adjustments. Always difficult to judge until I see the total package laid out. Took the afternoon off and went to Castle Howard with Emiko where we had lunch. A very nice man who manages the cafe in the main house there always makes a fuss of us when we visit, which I have to admit is quite often. It's one of my favourite Yorkshire locations, as readers of this journal know. Much colder today though, really felt the drop in temperature, but as I type these words, the sun has come out and it's quite a bit brighter than previously. The days are growing shorter now and the leaves are starting to turn colour and gradually fall from the trees. Nothing too dramatic yet but soon the Autumn season will kick in and all will be golden, red and brown. There's a melancholy and tender feel to Autumn that I like. Suits my age and my mood. I still have ten albums waiting in the wings for release. None of them mastered yet and none with sleeve designs, though I've been creating and stockpiling images for two or three of them. Not sure if I'll find the time to get another one released this year, but it would be good to get one ready for Christmas alongside 'Auditoria', perhaps a digital download only release which would bypass the manufacturing process. (The pressing plant gets extremely busy in the run up to Christmas.) But which album to choose for release first? I've got a fairly abrasive, avant-garde album titled 'Phantom Fuzzbox' and, at the other end of the sonic scale, a mellow, introspective one titled 'Aqua Moon.' Plus others that sit somewhere between these two extremes... The presentation of my honary Arts doctorate degree coming up next month. Feeling very nervous about it, I have to admit. I've got several problems to solve with regard to this, not least how best to get to Winchester from York, (which is a very long way,) but also how to take care of Django the cat whilst we're away from home. Unfortunately I don't think it will be possible to go to Winchester and then return back home in one day, we'll need to stay overnight, which creates a problem for our beloved cat. Will try to see if Elle or Elliot can come and stay here to take care of him during our absence but that might not be possible. Must sort something out soon, but have been so busy with other stuff that it's all getting a bit last minute and chaotic. One piece of info I've just gleaned about the degree ceremony is that fans, unfortunately, won't be allowed to attend. It's only for degree students and their families. Apologies to any fans who might have intended to be there to support me. I'll miss you... Could do to start looking into my solo set and the 'Orchestra Futura' set for the 'Plectronica' event next. Important to choose which backing tracks to play to, also need to create some brand new ones for both myself and the 'Orchestra Futura' section of the performance, then get everything mastered at Fairview so that the backing tracks can be cued up in the correct order at the event. I've managed to create some new video backdrops for 'Plectronica' too, all of which are looking good. Once the backing tracks are sorted out, I then need to choose which guitars will fit best with each track. I think last year I used 16 different guitars for the 16 tracks that I performed. Will try to cut down on the number of guitars and tracks this year, though I'm sure to be tempted to take on more than I can chew again. Far more work goes into these one-off events than most people realise. Each event is unique and tailored to a particular mood or concept, (or a combination of moods.) Every year I decide I'm not going to do another one of them, then, once the event is over and I've had time to recover, I decide I'll maybe do just one more, then end up getting stressed out and exhausted the closer it comes. I'm much happier working quietly in my home studio where my various heath issues can be carefully managed and I can relax, hidden from the pressure of audience scrutiny. I guess I've gradually become an old recluse. Maybe I'm heading for official hermit status... I'm sure I loved the spotlight at one time, the razzle-dazzle and superficial glitz of it all, but now I find it sort of uncomfortable, not quite real. Whether this is because of the aforementioned health issues or simply just a general lack of confidence, (or a combination of the two,) is hard to say, but there you go...and there, regardless, go I... A flyer for the 'Studio Cadet' album, just one of several unreleased projects in my archives. 'Dark Room' is an album or EP concept I've had for quite a while. It could be a six track EP or a six extended tracks album depending on how well the material, er, materialises. The concept is, as the title suggests, to produce some dark, brooding, melancholy, atmospheric music. Will it ever get made? We'll see...

Took a welcome break from the relentless work on the 'Auditoria' album packaging to spend a few hours with friends of ours at the very excellent 'foodie' pub in the nearby village. Colin and Caroline are long time fans of my music who we have come to know over the years. I'm quite guarded about my privacy and don't like to mix my private life up too much with my professional life, but this lovely couple have become firm friends of ours and it's always a pleasure to spend time with them. Paul Gilby contacted me today to inform me that the 'Auditoria' artwork needs to be completed and sent to the pressing plant by the end of this month if it is to be manufactured in time for the December release. Consequently I've spent most of the day trying out different graphic design possibilities to complete what is required for Martin Bostock to lay out and place the typography on top of. It's always hard to judge the final result until it's all put in place and seen in context. But creating and manipulating the images is time consuming, despite the enjoyment I get from immersing myself in it all. Martin has sent me a rough draft but I felt that it needed some image changes here and there and so the process continues. It's a constant back and forth until I feel it looks more or less right. Being a triple album, this project is rather more involved and complex than usual, (though my idea with the design is to make something simple and direct.) This can open up an infinite range of solutions though. Time is needed to try different things out to see what rings my bell the most harmoniously. We'll get there in the end... I'm hyper aware of time passing, a regular concern these days. Still so much work to prepare for the 'Plectronica' event. Sometimes it seems like a mountain looming in front of me, a mountain that I'm finding it increasingly hard to climb. Whether the struggle is down to time, or age or infirmity, I can't say. Probably a combination of all three factors. So what? Just do whatever you can, (though it's never really enough.) Can't remember when was the last time I took a holiday. Emiko mentions it now and again, (with a certain amount of frustration,) but I just keep on working regardless, simply because working with music feels like playing. I'm in love with the process of making music, the tangible, hands on experience of creating something from nothing. It's a pure joy and I'm so very fortunate to have been able to do this for the biggest part of my life. For how much longer though? My hands are becoming more blighted by arthritis, my left hand suffering from pain and stiffness for a while but now my right hand becoming even more problematic. My late father had to give up playing the saxophone because of athritic fingers, and at a younger age than myself too...but it seems I'm headed for the same fate. Don't want to contemplate that, but have to accept the seemingly inevitable. It's a bugger and no mistake... I know that some people will say that I've managed to create more than enough music to last several lifetimes, but, truth is, I don't feel I've really got to grips with any of it yet. I'm still in the apprentice stage, still feeling my way forward, a man in the dark with no torch. But perhaps with a vague hope of reaching the light. Damn rum stuff this music making business....

Such a lot going on right now. Feeling dizzy with it all... Regular readers of this journal may have noticed a slight difference to its layout. This, I think, is all to the better and has created a simpler but clearer look. It has also made it easier for me to type new entries, taking into consideration my rapidly deteriorating eyesight. But, as I said, there's a lot going on. Jon Wallinger, (the man who helps keep my website in order,) called over today to explain how the new journal entries look and work. A slight learning curve needed from me, but nothing too difficult or too steep. Whist Jon was here, I copied several videos I've made to a memory stick for him to take home and upload to the website for my fans to enjoy. Some good stuff amongst them. One of these is an hour long video showing old and rare photographs of the history of my birthplace, (Wakefield,) which is accompanied by various, (and many,) tracks from my albums. It's a fascinating glimpse into the past and titled 'Wakefield Via Time Machine.' I continue to work on creating the images that will form the packaging for the epic 'Auditoria' triple album which will be released in December. This is a slow, careful process, even though the images are quite simple. The subtleties of it are important: colours, layout, text, etc, need to match and harmonise. It's not quite there yet and there may be changes and additions but I'm sure we'll end up with something that works eventually. All these things really matter to me. Sometimes it's hard to achieve my vision within the constraints that are available. My 'infrastructure', as it were, is very much 'cottage industry' and dictated by budget and available resources. But, with perseverance and the generous help of friends, things materialise. One recent obstacle was the possible, and probable, unavailability of my sound engineer, John Spence, being unable to mix the live sound at the 'Plectronica' event on December 1st due to a medical procedure . This was a serious worry as John has mixed the live sound for me over several years now and knows my music intimately and how the various components should be balanced. Finding someone to 'dep' for him was never going to be easy. But I know that John has been struggling with a knee problem for a long while now and desperately needs surgery to sort it out. I wish him well and hope that the operation makes life more bearable for him. As a first choice substitute we thought of Ian Thorpe as being the right man for the job. Ian has mixed some of my 'Nelsonica' events in the past and took good care of my 2004 'Be Bop Deluxe And Beyond' tour back then. But enquiries to Ian's availability revealed that he was on the road touring at that time and couldn't do it. Which left us with a quandary. Thankfully, a solution has been found in that one of the tech people at the venue has been enlisted to take over the mixing duties should John be incapacited at the time of the event. One of the plus points of this is that he is totally conversant with the venue's digital mixing desk, which is far better than a sound engineer coming in with no prior experience of the technology. There is, of course, the fact that my material is somewhat idiosyncratic and needs a lot of careful attention in terms of its finer balance and tonality, etc...but, fingers crossed, if it comes down to this alternative approach, I may have a better chance of achieving the sound I need than bringing in a total stranger. Now, I think I need a break. It's getting late and I've been sitting here in front of this computer far too long today. Not healthy. Time to switch off.

I hope that readers of this journal will forgive me for sharing a melancholy moment or two with them. I'm feeling the burden of the years a little more than usual at this point in time for some reason or another. There's an element of my being that has never aged, or, at least, never completely grown up. Yes, I forget things that I'm supposed to be dealing with this week, but remember, with astonishing clarity, things I did 50 years ago. The vagaries of the brain/mind interface are deep and mysterious. The impermanence of life is something that we all have to accept. And accepting it is one of the basic tenets of Buddhism. I've often said that I'm the world's laziest Buddhist. In fact, I don't truly know if I'm a Buddhist at all. But, I find that Buddhism provides me with the most pragmatic and satisfying way to deal with the problem of existence. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, who knows? It's all speculation and degrees of belief and 'faith.' We choose our path according to our individual lights. Realism is not, in general terms, one of our strong points. I'm surrounded here by guitars, the tools of my 'trade', such as it is. These instruments hold memories, and implications, of past times. They take me back to my beginnings as a guitarist, and in a wider sense as a musician. Those stumbling, fumbling days when I wrestled with my old Zenith archtop acoustic guitar are still vivid in my mind. The Zenith was the instrument that my father had bought for me, second hand, with the hope that my earlier interest in playing a toy plastic guitar might spark a more committed interest. It was quite a big guitar, a beautiful dark sunburst archtop if I remember correctly. It had a label inside the 'F' hole that acted as a certification that the guitar was approved by Ivor Mairantz, a well respected session and jazz guitarist in the late '40s/early '50s. I found it difficult to play after the toy Elvis Presley guitar I'd received as a Christmas present. But I did my best with it, though I became frustrated with the physical difficulty of holding down its thick, heavy strings. But later, on meeting a school friend who was equally struggling with the vagaries of learning to play guitar, I found a shared cause, another nacent guitarist on the path to somewhere or other... This school chum was Ian Parkin, and we bonded on the subject of guitars, and, step by step, with the help of records by Duane Eddy, The Ventures, The Shadows and other, less well known names such as 'The Spotniks' and 'The Fireballs,' found the inspiration to continue along the path to a musical future. And here I am now. Still besotted with music, with guitars, with the look and sound of them, but also wide open to so much more... My infatuation with guitars has led to a broadening of music in general. Guitars only play a small part of the journey, albeit a very important one. They're my initial trigger in some ways, but just the starting point perhaps. Music, in all its varieties, all its colours, textures and styles is right at the heart of what I attempt to do creatively. Now I've wandered far away from what I originally intended to write about in this journal entry. Perhaps I'll elaborate further in a later journal. But for now, that's enough... Here is a photograph of Wakefield's Kirkgate area in the early '60s. You can just see 'Websters' music shop where, every lunch time, escaping from Ings Road Secondary Modern School, Ian Parkin and myself would walk to stand and stare in Webster's window at the guitars that were on display there. No Fenders or Gibsons, just British and European guitars, Burns, Fenton Weill, Eko, Hagstrom, Broadway, Watkins, Vox and other now obscure brands. But that window seemed like magic...

Today saw the reissue of one of my favourite albums, an album which has been out of print for some time now. 'Quiet Bells' is a gentle and beautiful album of dreamy guitar instrumentals, a delicate and poetic listen to chill out with after a busy, stressful day. It's part of the ongoing reissue series of out of print recordings from the last 15 years or so. Had conversations this morning about the packaging for the 'AUDITORIA' triple album. After some debate it has been decided to now package the three discs in individual digipacks, one for each disc, and then sit the three digipacks inside a nice slipcase to keep them all together. I think this will provide an elegant packaging solution for the album. Still working on the graphics for this project, taking a simple, classy, minimalistic route that will hopefully unify the whole three disc set. Can't wait to see the finished product! Need to try and work on more potential backing tracks for the 'Plectronica' event, especially for the 'Orchestra Futura' set. Also have videos still in progress to project behind the live performance. We had a confirmation that my guitar tech Andy Newlove will be available to take care of my equipment and guitars on the day, which is one thing less to worry about. Andy is familiar with my set-up, (which is far from orthodox,) and will, as usual, provide me with much appreciated and valued support. More of concern is the very likely possibility that John Spence won't be available to mix the live sound due to a knee operation which looks like it may well coincide with the event. If John can't do it, we will try to get Ian Thorpe in the driving seat. Ian did the live mix for the 'Be Bop Deluxe And Beyond' tour that I undertook in 2004. He's also mixed the sound at some of the 'Nelsonica' events in the past. But, failing that, I'm not sure what we will do....it's a bit of a worry, I must admit. Got my Eastwood 'Doral' guitar out from the store room last night. It's a model which Eastwood have discontinued but it sounds really nice and I'm going to use it on one of the new backing tracks I intend to record for 'Plectronica.' When I was a youngster, I became infatuated with guitars and every Saturday would travel from Wakefield to Leeds on the train with my school chum Ian Parkin to gaze in awe at the guitars in 'Kitchens' music shop window. I dreamed of owning some of those guitars. By some strange magic, now I do and I still can't quite believe my luck! Now it's time for my blood sugar levels test and insulin injection so I'll end here.

Yesterday, Emi and I were over in Wakefield visiting my mother and taking her to the supermarket for her weekly shop. Bumped into Malcolm Place in the supermarket, one of the few people still around from my childhood on Conistone Crescent on Eastmoor's estate, one of several council estates in Wakefield. Malcolm is six years older than me so was thought of as one of the 'bigger boys' by those of us a little younger. But I remember Malcolm well. He lived with his parents in the next small block of flats to us. These were not high rise flats, just two story, house-sized, each block containing four families, two on the ground floor, two on the upstairs floor. I was three, I think, when my parents and I moved there from my grandma's Marriot's Buildings address. (Which would make it 1951.) We were the first family to live at 28 Conistone Crescent. The flat was brand spanking new and smelled of fresh emulsion paint and freshly sawed and prepared woodwork. After the Victorian gloom of Marriot's Buildings, with no bathroom or inside toilet, it was like walking into a bright, shiny future. I was very happy there, playing out 'till dusk with the neighbourhood kids, particularly with Bronwyn Jackson, a girl who lived upstairs from us with her parents. Bronwyn was a little older than me but somewhere in the middle of the age difference between Malcolm and myself. It was good to see Malcolm, albeit briefly. It's fairly rare to bump into him like that, but he always makes a fuss of my mother and seemed genuinely astonished when she told him she'd just celebrated her 90th birthday. Today I finally found time to check the mastered 'Auditoria' album. My engineer buddy John Spence had sent me copy master discs to approve at the start of last week but I didn't find time to listen through to them until now. Despite the problems we experienced with the faulty DAT machine the mastering turned out well and the triple album sounds really good. It's strange listening to it all back as a single entity now. Previously it was a 'bit at a time,' but hearing it in its completed form and in an unbroken flow is a revelation. I'm always super critical and will find lots of things, (once an album is completed,) that I'd like to change. To a certain extent, that is the case here, but I think the plus points far outweigh the minus ones and I was pleasantly surprised by my positive reaction to the whole thing. It's a very rich feast though...I would recommend that listeners don't attempt to take the entire three discs in in one listening session. Just enjoy one disc at a time, allowing it to sink in. It's one of those albums that will grow with repeated listenings, some of it is easy, some of it challenging, but all of it will be satisfying, over time. And now back to some video creation for the 'Plectronica' event...

September 6 already. Time is flying by and there is so much work to be done to prepare for the 'Plectronica' event in December. Already beginning to feel frazzled and worn out and I'm nowhere near having everything in place. Currently working on more images for the 'Auditoria' album package. Also creating new background videos to project during my solo set and Orchestra Futura set at the event. A slow process. Still need to complete some new backing tracks for both these sets too. Received the 'Auditoria' test master CDs from John Spence. These are the mastered versions of the triple album which I will need to listen to and approve before they can go to the manufacturing stage. Also have to get Martin Bostock to lay out the packaging artwork. before the whole thing can be sent away. (The packaging art has to accompany the masters to the pressing plant.) Hoping to get finished copies back in time to sign a couple of hundred of them for attendees of 'Plectronica.' Any copies left unsold from the event will go into the Dreamsville store's stock, so some mail order customers may end up with a signed copy. Have been somewhat distracted from these important tasks by the upcoming reissue of Be Bop Deluxe's 'Sunburst Finish' album that Cherry Red are putting out in November. I've had various emails from the company requesting me to help set up a Spotify page for the Be Bop back catalogue. I don't like Spotify at all as the royalty rate from streaming is unbelievably poor, but I don't own the Be Bop recordings so I'm trying to help Cherry Red as best I can. The company have also asked if I can be available for any press interviews they might get enquiries about. I've said yes to that provided I don't have to travel to London to do them. Too busy for that. There's also the ongoing possibility of me being involved in a 'Sunburst Finish' documentary film. Talk of filming it in Abbey Road studios where the album was recorded but the fee for using the studios is astronomically high so an alternative solution may be sought. I've suggested doing it here in my home studio but that might not be suitable. Another request came from Cherry Red asking me if I would license the Cocteau Records 'Fiat Lux' single to them to be part of a reissue of the band's recordings. The band are apparently involved with the reissue, (though the band's third member, my brother Ian Nelson, is sadly no longer around to take part in the re-rlease.) Have completed the video showcasing two tracks from my 'Model Village' album. The two tracks are 'Windmill Interlude' and 'Cross Country.' I plan to feature them at the event in December. Still need to find time to create some original artwork for the merchandise stall at 'Plectronica.' How good these will be with my failing eyesight is a moot point. Speaking of which, I finally got my hospital appointment for my eye injections done on Tuesday. As I've mentioned in a previous journal entry, I missed my last appointment due to catching a nasty cold and not feeling well. I'm supposed to be back on the four week cycle of injections but this last time the gap between procedures was over eight weeks. My eyesight has noticeably deteriorated in the interim. Anyway, Tuesday saw me go through the usual routine of eye tests, blood pressure checks, a scan to both eyes, a consultation with the doctor and finally the injection procedure, this time in both my eyes. 'Double the fun', I said to the nurse and doctor administering the needles into my eyeballs. Oh how they laughed! Sadists... Actually I didn't have the black blobs floating in front of my eyes after the deed was done this time, which was quite unusual. Doesn't seem to have improved my vision though...I've wasted a lot of time trying to correct the typing of this journal entry, having to keep holding a magnifying glass up to the screen. That's all for now...I need a break.

Thankfully received an email from my pal and studio engineer John Spence to say that the DAT cassette that had been chewed up and trapped in Fairview's DAT machine has finally been freed from its confines by studio owner and boffin Keith Hurd. The cassette has suffered a certain amount of damage but it appears that only two tracks have been lost beyond repair, which, considering what might have happened, is a minor blessing. Therefore, the 'AUDITORIA' album has now been pieced together from a combination of my CDR backup discs and the surviving sections of the DAT tapes and the album is now intact and awaiting manufacture. Next task is to come up with suitable artwork for the packaging. Another job ahead of me is to create some new backing tracks for the 'Orchestra Futura' set at December's 'Plectronica' event. I also need to consider which of my solo set tracks to put in place and how many new tracks I'd feel confident enough to include. Sorting these things out is as convoluted as deciding upon an album's running order. It takes time and care to get it right. Tomorrow is the beginning of September, and also Autumn, to a certain degree. Time is flying by and what once seemed an eternity to sit back and let things happen has now become an intense panic to get things done. The sense of time running out, of a mysterious deadline ahead, fills me with anxiety. No time to waste, no time to lose, just hands to the pumps and the hope of something coming down the pipe that will satisfy my dreams. Never satisfied though, never happy with what I've done. A permanent state of disappointment. On a lighter note: Emiko and I drove to Harrogate this afternoon to call at 'Ramus' the fish emporium on the Kings Road. Bought some good quality seafood to put in our freezer but ate some of it tonight for dinner. (Is this sort of information of any interest to fans? It may be of interest to my much loved offspring in years to come, when I'm no longer here to relate these stories.) Happy times Emiko and I have managed to grab from my intense musical work, which, in its obsessive nature, intrudes dramatically on more ordinary pursuits. I guess I'm a difficult man to live with in some ways, but Emi loves and appreciates me despite the cantankerous and pre-occupied nature of my life and work. Tonight I've completed a video for the track 'Cross Country' from the album 'Model Village.' Nothing spectacular, just a pleasant amble through some areas of North Yorkshire captured on my camcorder recently. It adds to the previous video I've made for the track 'Windmill Interlude' from the same album. These videos are made quickly and without artifice. No slickness or what some people might consider as 'professionalism.' They're nothing more than a camera pointing at my world, as narrow and limited as it is, and reporting it back to the viewer with a soundtrack that hopefully helps illuminate the subject matter a little. Snapshots of moments... Absolutely inundated with Facebook notifications and emails, private messages from this website and domestic mail. Finding it so hard to keep up with everything. All I want to do is to concentrate on the work, the music. But all this other stuff continually flows in, unasked to some degree, but an inevitable by-product of what I do. Things could be worse and I'm lucky to have found a place that resonates with some people...

A frustrating day. Drove over to Fairview studio near Hull to transfer tracks from my various digital tapes to Fairview's computer for the purpose of assembling the triple album 'Auditoria' for mastering prior to manufacture. As always, mastering engineer John Spence was present, despite him nursing a terribly painful knee, (waiting for a knee replacement operation,) to deal with the material I was taking for him to master. Everything went well for the first few tracks. Copying from my DAT tapes to Fairview's mastering computer went without a hitch. Then the gremlins struck. Fairview's DAT machine decided to chew up one of my DAT cassettes, jamming it in the machine and unspooling the tape inside it. Attempts to remove the DAT cassette from the machine's tray proved futile and we had to abandon further attempts to copy tracks from the tape to Fairview's computer. Luckily, I had burned the tracks for the album to three CDRs when I was preparing a draft assembly to decide the final running order of the album. I'd taken these CDRs with me to Fairview as a backup, just in case there might be any problems with the DAT tapes. So, we then continued to transfer the tracks from the CDRs, one by one, to Fairview's computer. Until, in the middle of the second CDR, we encountered another gremlin. Two of the tracks destined for the second disc in the set wouldn't play back. Trying the disc in different CD players didn't improve matters either. The situation at the moment is this: John is going to drop the malfunctioning DAT machine off with Keith, the owner of the studio and its resident boffin, to take the player apart and hopefully free the DAT cassette from its locked confines. It may, of course, have been damaged beyond repair, in which case an entire DAT tape of my mixes will be lost forever. But, fingers crossed, perhaps some tracks at least, may be saved. As for the two tracks from my CDR that are not responding to attempts to play back...well, we'll have to see if there is any way to recreate them. I may have to make two brand new recordings to take the place of the two that we appear to have lost. In which case, more work for me...A very frustrating day, in more ways than one... Technology isn't always what it's cracked up to be...

Finally managed to get a haircut today when Steve Cook came over to do the snippy stuff on Emi's hair and mine too. A fairly close crop for me, but much tidier and sharper. A bit of a panic though due to getting an email from mastering engineer John Spence outline his commitments over the next few months. I was hoping to get the triple 'Auditoria' album mastered over at Fairview with John in the next few weeks but it seems he's booked solid recording an album with a band right through into October, which will be too late to master my album and get it to the pressing plant and back in time for the December event. I called John this morning and have managed to book a few hours tomorrow with him to attempt to get as much of my mixes transferred to Fairview's mastering computer as possible. There's also a possibility of grabbing a few more hours on Thursday, but not definite at this stage. John's away on holiday from Friday and when he returns he's booked solid with the 'Mostly Autumn' band for many weeks. This means that it may be difficult for me to get another album mastered in time for a release before the 'Auditoria' album comes out. I was thinking of putting one of the 'awaiting for release' albums up on Bandcamp as a digital download. Maybe I'll still try and do this by issuing the unmastered version... The bigger worry is that John is scheduled for a much needed knee operation which looks like it might occur in November. John's doctor has told him it will require a long recuperation period which, unfortunately, may infringe on the December 1st 'Plectronica' event when John is booked to mix the live sound. I know John has been suffering terribly with pain recently due to his knee problem and desperately needs to get it sorted out. If everything works out well enough for him to take command of the live mix at 'Plectronica', I'll be very grateful, not to mention relieved, but I have to accept that this might not be the case. So, what to do? John has worked with me in the studio and on live events so often over the years that he's come to know the subtle 'ins and outs' of my sound requirements like no one else. He's totally sympathetic to my needs in this respect and always delivers the best for me, for which I'm extremely grateful. I'm already nervous about this sold out 70th birthday event, partly due to my own health concerns and lack of confidence, but to embark on it without John at the mixing desk, (if it comes to that,) will be an even greater worry. But make no mistake, I'm fully aware that John's knee operation is of greater import, a priority and so I will have to figure out an alternative solution, (though I'm not sure what that might be at this point in time.) I'll place that concern aside for the moment and concentrate on getting my DAT tapes and mastering done tomorrow, at least as much as is possible. An early rise...

As so often these days, I've been gathering my thoughts about the journey from there to here. 'There' being sometime and somewhere in the distant past and 'here' being something surprisingly foggy, undefined and in a state of flux. I'd imagined that at this point in my life I'd have a clearer picture of who I am and where I'm headed, but the picture, when I attempt to tune it in, is blurred and slipping like the black and white images on my father's home made TV set that he built for the Nelson family in the 1950s. It's a day to day existence in many ways now. A kind of soft-focus blur. Information coming in from different directions in time and space, a bombardment of accumulated experience, a miasma of memories, recollections, dreams and stuff. All the way from there to here. How to make sense of it all? How to frame it in some tangible form through the medium of music? I think this is what I've been trying to do for many years, even from before I could play an instrument. My instinct has been, from a very young age, to understand the clockwork of life. The windings and unwindings of personal experience, and how that might relate to the wider scheme of things. But, is there a 'wider scheme of things'? Or nothing but random juxtapositions, happy (or unhappy,) accidents? Fortuitous coincidences or Karmic fates? How far do our personal choices, our individual temperaments, go towards each of our ultimate destinies? Luck? Privilege? Education? Intellect? Social status? Or none of these? Is it possible that, regardless of birth, regardless of social and cultural background, that we can find our way ahead, by instinct, intuition and some kind of vision that holds true, regardless of the chaos and immorality that seems to curse our world at the moment? How do we keep our decency and freedom in the face of adversity and ignorance? All questions that I can't answer, at least here and not in any absolute sense. Buzz, buzz, buzz goes the brain and short circuits the path of thought. Rationality only goes part way to answering these questions. Mind, not brain, is needed to understand. A clear, unburdened mind, a pure, untainted, focused mirror of reflection. But how few of us attain that in its purer sense? Not I, for one. Anyway, I really didn't intend to embark on this course of thought tonight. I just wanted to talk about how Emi and I are finally getting haircuts tomorrow when our friend Steve Cook will be coming over to do the hairdressing stuff at our house. He was supposed to do this last week but, due to train strikes, couldn't make it. Both of us desperately need Steve's expert attention to our 'coiffure' at the moment. I'm beginning to look like Wurzel Gummidge,' Also wanted to bring attention to the great children's book illustrators of the past...particularly Alfred Bestall and Frank Hampson. The work they put into their illustrations was phenomenal. All hand drawn and coloured, no computer help, just painstaking handiwork and careful observation. Amazing now, more than ever...

Weather suddenly deteriorated. Much colder today and raining almost non-stop. Felt more like the middle of autumn rather than late August. But, as always, time seems to move faster than light or thought and the year is already speeding towards its conclusion...and carrying us all with it towards our dim, unknown destination as we feverishly try to achieve something to cement our time here in the manifest world. Not always welcome thoughts, these. We generally prefer to pass over them quickly, to not dwell on the implications of our condition, our being. Nevertheless, being and not being is the axis on which we revolve. Enough of that... Mum's 90th birthday party went well, though I could have kicked myself for not photographing the event. I'd taken a camera over to Wakefield with the exact intention of recording the evening in some way, but, in the scramble to get everyone seated and comfortable, left the camera in the car. Too nervous with such a large number of family I guess, or maybe just a senior moment. Too late now. I'm never completely relaxed in these situations and social events with more than one or two people always present me with a challenge. I'm afraid I'm a shy, hopeless loner sometimes, despite appearances to the opposite. Read an article about Marianne Faithful in the latest issue of Mojo magazine. She's working on a new album with the help of several other artists, though she's hampered by the curses of health that afflict our generation. Seems she's suffering from the pains of arthritis, which I can totally empathise with, having it in both my hands. She also is missing old friends and contemporaries who have passed away. I know that sad feeling too. I'm at an age where mortality is no longer an impossible notion in the mind of a callow youth, a young man who erroneously thinks eternity stretches out infinitely in front of him. Now, for those of us of a certain generation and a certain age, life is something that stretches out infinitely behind us. We're constantly unravelling, like an old pullover that has been worn and washed too many times. On a more positive note, I'm trying to decide which way to jump with the next album release. I'd like to get one more out there before the major event of the triple 'AUDITORIA' album in December. There are still a dozen albums queuing up for release from my archives and it's frustrating to see them sitting there unheard. I need to choose just one to take to Fairview for John Spence to master, then put some artwork together with the help of Martin Bostock. I'm torn between 'Magnetic Travels,' 'Studio Cadet' and 'Elektra' at the moment. Will need to decide very soon if it is to hit the release window. I think maybe this next one will be a digital download only though. It will take too long to manufacture as a CD. The house's heating is on now. First time since the start of summer. Django finally went out when the rain slowed to a faint drizzle. He's been stuck in the house all day, and not very happy about it. Poor Django. He and I have a very special relationship, a spiritual bond of sorts. We understand and empathise with each other. He's a wonderful creature and a close companion.

In a couple of hours time Emi and I will be driving over to Wakefield to join members of the Nelson clan to celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. My eldest daughter Julia and grandson Luke have come up from London and my younger daughter Elle and my son Elliot will be there too, as will my late brother's wife Diane and Ian's son and daughter Louis and Lucy. Unfortunately, Ian's eldest son Julian and his wife Lyndsey can't make it but they visited mum yesterday instead. I can't quite believe mum is 90 years old. She's remarkably sharp mentally though somewhat frail physically. But she remembers some things, (like people's names,) far better than I do. We are all going out for dinner together in Wakefield, ten of us in total. I've packed my blood test kit and insulin injection stuff so that I can do my usual diabetic routine at mum's before heading off to the restaurant. Weather has changed today, much cooler and grey rainclouds everywhere. Apparently it will deteriorate further on Sunday. I've changed one of the track titles on the AUDITORIA album again. The track that was originally titled 'Wonder Street' was briefly renamed as 'Wonder Street Again' due to another track on a different album being also called 'Wonder Street.'  Now, to completely avoid any confusion, I've changed it again. It's now called 'Contrary Wise.' These things are always in a state of flux until the components go off for manufacture. I'm also continuing work on making images for the album packaging. Some nice things emerging at the moment. Completed a video for 'Windmill Interlude' from the 'Model Village' album...some nice footage of Castle Howard and Knaresborough. I'm planning to make another video to accompany one more track from 'Model Village,' possibly the track titled 'Cross Country.' And, talking about crossing the country, it's now time for me to get changed ready to make the trip to Wakefield....

Exactly one week ago today, the tickets for the 'Plectronica' event at The Clothworker's Hall' in Leeds went on sale. They were announced on the internet mid-morning and by tea-time of the same day had completely sold out. This was totally unexpected as tickets for these events normally take a couple of months to reach capacity or somewhere close to it, but this time they went in less than a day. Astonishing! The downside of this was that a great number of avid fans didn't manage to reserve their tickers in time, probably thinking, like me, that they would have at least a month to do so. Unfortunately this time was different and the rapid sell-out left many fans disappointed. I've been feeling bad about this and so tried to see whether it would be possible to add a few more seats to the auditorium, but the venue management said that this would not be possible due to fire regulations. Seems we're right up against the limit. So...what to do? The only solution would be to stream the performance over the internet on a 'pay per view' website and we're currently looking into this possibility. I've always refused to do this for past performances as there's no guarantee of the quality of sound, vision and playing. I preferred to look at footage after the event and decide what was up to scratch or not and edit accordingly. However, in this case, due to the number of people being upset about not being unable to obtain tickets, I'm prepared to let it go out live, warts and all. I may live to rue the day! Meanwhile, work has continued with the triple album set 'AUDITORIA'. I've now sorted the tracks into the individual running orders for the three discs, a big task as there was so much material to listen through to and choose. 'AUDITORIA' will be the overall title of the set but each CD will have an individual title. The first two discs are titled 'These Stars Are Fire' and 'Mysterium' respectively, but I've changed the title of the third disc from 'Secret Knowledge' to 'Plus Ultra', (which I believe is Latin for 'further beyond.') There are 15 tracks on each of the first two discs and 16 tracks on the third disc, which leaves 9 tracks over from the sessions for the album. These 9 tracks will form the basis of another, totally different album which I plan to put together at a later date. Here are the track lists for each disc in the set: DISC ONE: 'THESE STARS ARE FIRE.' 1:'WHAT FURNACE IS THY BRAIN?'  (INSTRO.) 2:'MY DREAMY LIFE'  (VOCAL.) 3:'THE LATEST DELAY.'  (INSTRO.) 4:'ICING ON THE CAKE.'  (VOCAL.) 5:'SUMMER COMES IN COLOUR.'  (VOCAL.) 6:'RAINDROPS.'  (INSTRO.) 7:'WEATHERPROOF.'  (VOCAL.) 8:'THESE STARS ARE FIRE.'  (VOCAL.) 9:'AURAVILLE.'  (INSTRO.) 10:'A SONG OF HEART AND MIND.'  (VOCAL.) 11:'BUGGING ME.'  (VOCAL.) 12:'WONDER STREET AGAIN.'  (INSTRO.) 13:'LET ME DREAM YOU FROM AFAR.  (VOCAL.) 14:'WIDEAWAKE/HALF ASLEEP.'  (VOCAL.) 15:'ALL HAIL THE DREAMER. (MISS FUTURAMA SMILES.)'  (VOCAL.) DISC TWO: 'MYSTERIUM.' 1:'BEYOND YONDER.'  (INSTRO.) 2:'WHEN MIDNIGHT FALLS.'  (VOCAL.) 3:'FOREVERTRON.'  (INSTRO.) 4:'HOLY OF HOLIES. (WAITING FOR THE NIGHT.)'  (VOCAL.) 5:'MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIUM.'  (VOCAL.) 6:'ORSON'S GHOST.'  (VOCAL.) 7:'BACK OF BEYOND.'  (INSTRO.) 8:'WHO'S THAT FLOATING ABOVE THE TREES.?'  (VOCAL.) 9:'MYSTERE.'  (INSTRO.) 10:'ASTRA.'  (INSTRO.) 11:'LUNA ROSA.'  (INSTRO.) 12:'GHOSTS OF ANCIENT ORCHESTRAS.'  (VOCAL.) 13:'ONLY ONE BLUE MOON.'  (VOCAL.) 14:'A LONG TIME AGO.'  (INSTRO.) 15:'ALONE IN LUNAR LIGHT.'  (INSTRO.) DISC THREE: 'PLUS ULTRA.' 1:'DALI'S DREAM OF VENUS.'  (VOCAL.) 2:'MARCH OF THE METAPHYSICIANS.'  (INSTRO.) 3:'THE SCIENCE OF EXTRORDINAIRY THINGS.'  (VOCAL.) 4:'IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF NORMAL. (MY STYLE OF WRITING.)'  (INSTRO.) 5:'AQUA CELESTE.'  (INSTRO.) 6:'THERE IS A MOMENT.'  (VOCAL.) 7:'WHIRLAWAY.'  (VOCAL.) 8:'FROM ANOTHER PLACE.'  (VOCAL.) 9:'THE EYE OF HEAVEN SHINES.'  (INSTRO.) 10:'IN THE LAND OF FAR BEYOND.'  (VOCAL.) 11:'SUPER-HYPER HOCUS POCUS.'  (INSTRO.) 12:'WAITING FOR THE MIDNIGHT FLYER.'  (VOCAL.) 13:'PLECTRICITY.'  (INSTRO.) 14:'ROCKERS OF THE ROSY CROSS.'  (VOCAL.) 15:'AN ORDINAIRY MAN.'  (VOCAL.) 16:'THE LAST TRANSMISSION.'  (INSTRO.) So that, barring any last minute changes, will be the running order that listeners will encounter on the album. It's not a perfectly honed, tightly arranged album. It has many rough edges and spontaneously improvised components, but it is, nevertheless, an interesting amalgam of many facets of my music, a kind of cornucopia of styles...maybe something for everyone? End of summer approaching fast. Already the nights are drawing in. Darkness seems to come earlier each night, as is to be expected I suppose. Every year it's the same, the cycle rolls around, unsurprising but always fresh. Time moves inexorably on. My mother's 90th birthday this coming Friday, and a gathering of the Nelson clan to celebrate it. My mother has been a staunch supporter of my guitar playing since I first took up the instrument in the late '50s, and has equally been a stern critic of any deviation from it over the years..Synth excursions didn't go down well with Mum, I'm afraid! Time inevitably moves on and even the young fall old before they know it. Life is, (a cliche I know,) so short, and sometimes not as sweet as we'd like it. But it's what it is, and what we do with it that counts. Spirits are lifted by Art and Music and some kind of gentle consolation is felt....

And another week draws to a close. Seems that one week hardly begins before it's over. The year rushes on with so much still to do, especially with regard to my 70th birthday event in Leeds on the 1st of December. I'm in a kind of panic about it already when I contemplate all the detailed content that has to be put in place to create the appropriate atmosphere. Videos to make, artwork to create, a three disc album to put together, two live sets to sort out, etc, etc... I'm definitely making a rod for my own back by still continuing the process of writing and recording more material for the triple disc 'Auditoria' album than I actually need. Working on track 53 at the moment: A song entitled 'My Shadow Cast By Midnight Moon.' It's very simple in its chord structure but complex in its layers of sound and rich textural twists and turns. Will try to mix the song tomorrow, though I think it will prove challenging to balance all its elements to create the right perspective. Went to Gear4Music today to buy the new TC Electronic company's 'Aeon' sustainer for guitar. It works on the same principle as an E-bow but has a different shape and claims to be more powerful. I was curious to see what the differences might be. Well, it's too late to take it back now, but I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed with it. Ergonomically, it's a little more ungainly to apply to the strings than an E-bow (because of its vertical shape). The sound also seems harsher and doesn't always kick in as quickly as the E-bow. It's trickier to get it started. Nor does it sound as smooth and sweet as the E-bow does, so, as I said, I'm somewhat disappointed and perhaps I've wasted the £60 odd pounds that I paid for it...I don't like dismissing companies who try to improve on things, but I'm afraid this endeavour doesn't really do it for me. Amazingly, I'm still using one of the very first E-Bows I bought, back in the 1970s when I was with Be Bop Deluxe. I bought it in the USA before they were available in Britain. These are the old chrome finished ones without the more recent on and off switch, (which I find less satisfactory because you have to engage the switch before using the device.) The old chrome ones are literally 'pick up and go', no need to think about switches, just put it to the strings and it kicks in and sustains automatically. The TC 'Aeon' has an on and off switch too, and I feel this impedes a quick and spontaneous use of the device. In many ways, Greg Heet, (the E-Bow's inventor,) got it right first time around. I'm astonished that the 1970s version I'm using on my recordings and live performances still continues to work perfectly, despite the 40 odd years that have flown by since I first used it. I'm sorry to seem so dismissive of the TC Electronic version, but at least I gave it a try. Going over to Wakefield tomorrow to visit my mum. The usual shopping duties. Emi and I ate out at a pub in the village tonight. Good to get a break from the house routine now and then. Now I'm going to take a moment or two to assess the new track...

And still this hot summer rolls on, though the weathermen are predicting a change over the next few days. Emi and I rode out to Knaresborough this afternoon and spent a gentle hour sitting in the Marigold Cafe on the riverside, watching people rowing up and down in the small wooden boats that are for hire there. A beautiful, tranquil setting which provided me with some useful subject matter for my camcorder, (which I'd taken with me.) I've been gathering footage of local villages and scenes from Castle Howard which I'm planning to use in a video which will accompany one of the tracks from my 'Model Village' album. A kind of English country pastoral reverie... The river which flows through Knaresborough is called the River Nidd. An unusual name which I ought to look up to discover its roots. In the Marigold Cafe there were some old photographs showing the cafe's history through various periods of time, one of which appeared to be Victorian and portrayed the river frozen solid with ice and the local inhabitants skating on it. Looking out at the river today, with bright sunlight sparkling on its surface and the happy boaters cutting through the sparkles, it was hard to imagine the river ever being frozen solid enough to support skaters. The tall, arched railway bridge that spanned the river in those Victorian days still looms over it today, and a beautiful construction it is too. The river is not wide, it's nothing like the Humber, just a narrow, canal-like waterway, winding its way between trees and the ancient cottages and houses of Knaresborough. A very unique and special place which Emi and I treasure. Back at home, a man called to fix a new 'smart meter' to our electricity supply. This meter automatically sends, via a built in 'phone connection, our daily energy usage to our provider. No more estimated bills, meter readers calling 'round, or self read usage required. It's all done automatically and we now have a gadget in the kitchen which shows us exactly how much electricity we're using and therefore when to switch off lights and electrical equipment that might be costing us more than we actually need. Seems like a very good idea, especially as there has been a lot of worrying news today from scientists about global warming and the impact our use of energy and fossil fuels is having on the deterioration of our ecology. The scientists say that we have only ten years left to turn things around before it becomes so irreversible that we're likely to see our species actually die out over the next thousand years... And still, the man who has assumed the mantle of 'President' of the USA denies climate change and actually wants to empower the fossil fuel industry more than ever. Words fail me, but disgust, anger, and frustration spring to mind. I believe that Donald Trump will go down in history as the most corrupt, bigoted and ignorant man ever to be voted in as president of the USA. And I hope his reprehensible time in power won't last long. Here in my studio, my idea of stopping at track 50 of the 'Auditoria' album seems to have fallen by the wayside. I'm now working on track 52, titled, (tentatively,) 'The March Of The Metaphysicians.' A rather dark, brooding track. Will try a mix of this tomorrow. My lovely son and daughter, (Elliot and Elle,) came round for dinner last night. Always a delight to spend time with them. I know fathers always praise  their offspring, but Elle and Elliot are truly gifted with creative talent and I'm very proud of them both. Elliot has been working on a soundtrack to accompany Lotte Rheineger's animated film of Cinderella whilst Elle has been building an independent career as a website designer. She has a unique visual sense and her company 'Elle Nelson designs' should be checked out by anyone looking for something special for their website design. Yes, I know that it looks like nepotism, but she really is very good at this stuff! Here's a link to her website : www.ellenelsondesign.com And her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ellenelsondesign Today I launched the re-issue of the 'WAH WAH GALAXY' album. This album was initially made as a limited edition CD for attendees of the 2004 Nelsonica fan convention, then the remaining copies were offered for sale through the usual channels. The album has long since sold out and second hand copies have been selling for crazy amounts on eBay and the like. Well, now it is available as a digital download reissue from my Bandcamp page, and for FAR less money than that being asked on internet sites. The album has been enjoyed and praised by those who have heard it, and now it is available for even more fans to dig into. I've almost settled on the three titles for the three discs in the 'Auditoria'  triple album set. First disc will be titled 'These Stars Are Fire.' The second disc will be 'Mysterium.' And the third disc looks like it will be titled 'Secret Knowledge.' All this could change when I start to assemble the three disc's running orders of course, but this is the state of play right now...

Woke early this morning and as I laid in bed hoping to fall asleep again, my mind drifted back in time to when I was in my early teens living in a council house on Eastmoor Estate with my mother and father. The guitar had entered my life in pre-teen times but I'd really only just begun to get to grips with it. The walls of my small bedroom, which I shared with my brother Ian, were covered with photographs of pop musicians that I'd cut out of various magazines. I'd started by pinning up images of Duane Eddy with his Gretsch 6120 guitar. Then Duane's pictures were joined by photographs of Hank Marvin with his Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster and other musicians...just as long as they held a gleaming electric guitar in their hands. Then the girls arrived, on my bedroom wall and sometimes in real life. Photographs of Marianne Faithful who I swooned over, also Jean Shrimpton and other 'dolly birds' of that time. The Rolling Stones were added to the wall, pictures of Brian Jones with his white Vox Phantom guitar, and later, The Beatles when they began to set foot in the freak-beat beginnings of psychedelia. My world was small, as was my circle of friends. I was a fairly shy boy, skinny and introverted. More interested in science-fiction comics than sport, but the guitar was already helping me to 'come out of my shell'. I'd joined a local group known as 'Group 66' who played cover versions of early Rolling Stones numbers along with some Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley material. Looking back now, I don't think we were too bad at it either. I can remember us rehearsing 'Little Red Rooster' in Wrenthorpe Village Hall, one Sunday afternoon. Wrenthorpe was on the outskirts of Wakefield and it was where the group's bass player, Steve Barton, lived. We also had to have a couple of early Beatles numbers in our repertoire because they were popular and we were expected to reflect that in our gigs in Working Men's Clubs around Wakefield. To be honest, at that time I was a little dismissive of the Beatles. I think I preferred The Stones, perhaps because they leaned more towards the Blues. But later of course, I woke up to the Beatles around the time of 'Rubber Soul' and then 'Revolver', albums that, for me, seemed innovative and musically interesting. Nowadays I appreciate The Beatles music from all eras, but back then, perhaps I was a a bit of a snob. My confidence as a guitarist grew, though I was still a quiet boy socially. Life didn't appear to hold many opportunities for me outside of Wakefield's stereotypical job options. I'd enrolled at Art School and vaguely taken a path that might lead towards a teaching profession. Art School was a very positive and inspirational place and expanded the way I viewed things, both visually and metaphorically. It was a time of awakening. There was a girl at Art School called Linda Salmons. Amazingly, she resembled Marianne Faithful and I developed a crush on her. She would flirt with me but she had a boyfriend who attended the Technical College next door and he made sure other boys kept their distance, at least when he was with her. But this was my world and all I knew. There was no hope of ever entering the glamorous world of pop or rock music. The best I could hope for was an occasional gig at a local tavern. So, how on Earth did this happen? I recorded 'Northern Dream,' my first serious attempt at songwriting. A locally produced album, pressed in small quantities which found its way to John Peel who played it in its entirety on his radio show. That led to EMI contacting me with the offer of a solo deal. By then I'd formed Be Bop Deluxe and insisted that was the thing I wanted to pursue. After a year or so of being uncertain, EMI finally agreed and a corner was turned. The rest of the story, you probably know, line-up changes, changes of direction, a solo career and so on. But other stuff happened, strange stuff... I got to meet Hank Marvin and The Shadows at Abbey Road studios, and chatted with him on several occasions, which seemed like a miracle to me. Then, one late night, very early morning, when leaving Abbey Road to get in a taxi to my hotel in London, I passed a Mini in the car park of the studio. As I walked by it, carrying my guitar, the Mini's window rolled down and a voice said, "how's it going?" I turned to see who was speaking and there, in the driver's seat, sat Paul McCartney. I was somewhat speechless and he said, "We've been listening to you outside your studio door...sounds great!" I stammered thanks and then Paul said, "Good fun, this recording lark isn't it?" Well, I never imagined I'd exchange words with Hank Marvin and Paul McCartney, but there it was. Later, another one of the pictures on my teenage bedroom wall came to life: I was asked to have a meeting with Marianne Faithful who was interested in me producing her. The meeting was arranged at our mutual publicist's office in London, the night before I was due to fly out to San Francisco to produce The Units. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. This was the woman I had swooned over as a teenager, who I had fantasised about in the way that teenage boys do. It was a cold night and Marianne and I were given the use of publicist Tony Brainsby's front room, a cosy affair with a blazing fire. I couldn't believe I was sitting alone in this room with someone who I'd once considered an absolute jewel of beauty. I explained my ideas for the album she was planning. I wanted to use Sakamoto and Takahashi from YMO on the recording, plus Mick Karn on bass and myself on guitar. I explained that it would be a fusion of techno and more organic elements. Marianne seemed to go for it and, after the meeting ended and I was about to return to my hotel, she said her husband was away on tour and would I like to come to her house for dinner. She said "I like to get to know my producers better..." I had a very early flight to San Francisco the next morning and needed to pack so had to explain that, whilst I'd love to take up the invitation, I'd also have to decline. Marianne looked a little disappointed but, out of the blue, kissed me warmly on the lips as I left. I was, well, you can imagine... As it happened, Marianne's manager nixed my idea, steering her instead towards the American market and she did the album with someone else who tried to 'funk' it up with a brass section and a more orthodox approach. But, what the hell, I'd kissed Marianne Faithful! Later still, I was given the opportunity to present Duane Eddy with an 'Icon' award from Mojo Magazine. Another nerve wracking but mind blowing moment when I came face to face with my first guitar hero. Duane was kind and gracious and we still exchange emails from time to time. But what this journal entry is about is the mystery of how all this stuff happened. Magic? Destiny? Or just luck? There have been other similar meetings with people I've admired over the years, and I still can't figure out how a kid from Eastmoor Estate got to make those connections...

August first already...my how time flies... Have added a vocal to track number 50 of the recordings made for the 'AUDITORIA' album, and sung it complete with the effects of my cold. My voice sounds darker and more husky, almost on the edge of breaking up, but I rather like it. It's fragile and intimate, an interesting experiment that adds a slightly different texture to the track. I'll try to mix this one down this evening and then, at last, will begin the job of deciding a running order for each of the three discs in the set. Here's a list of all the song titles. These are not in any order, it's simply a list of possible inclusions. 'LUNA ROSA.' 'RAINDROPS.' 'THE EYE OF HEAVEN SHINES.' 'A LONG TIME AGO.' 'THE CLOCK THAT TELLS THE TIME.' 'FOREVERTRON.' 'AURAVILLE.' 'WHAT FURNACE IS THY BRAIN?' 'MYSTERE.' 'DRIFTING THROUGH YOUR DREAMS.' 'SUMMER COMES IN COLOUR.' 'THESE STARS ARE FIRE.' 'THE ICING ON THE CAKE.' 'ALL HAIL THE DREAMER. (MISS FUTURAMA SMILES.)' 'THERE IS A MOMENT.' 'WEATHERPROOF.' 'WHIRLAWAY.' 'ASTRA.' 'THE WOMAN OF TOMORROW. (HI-LO HEAVEN.)' 'AQUA CELESTE.' 'ORSON'S GHOST' 'THE DRIVING FORCE.' 'LET ME DREAM YOU FROM AFAR.' 'DALI'S DREAM OF VENUS.' 'GHOSTS OF ANCIENT ORCHESTRAS.' 'MIDNIGHT FALLS.' 'ROCKERS OF THE ROSY CROSS.' 'THE LATEST DELAY.' 'BUGGING ME.' 'PLECTRICITY.' 'ONLY ONE BLUE MOON.' 'WONDER STREET.' 'WAITING FOR THE MIDNIGHT FLYER.' 'MY DREAMY LIFE' 'THROUGH THESE WINDOWS WONDER COMES.' 'BEYOND YONDER.' 'SOME OTHER PLACE.' 'BILLY'S BLUES.' 'BACK OF BEYOND.' 'HALF AWAKE/HALF ASLEEP.' 'EVERYCAT.' 'THE SCIENCE OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS.' 'A SONG OF HEART AND MIND.' 'WHO'S THAT FLOATING ABOVE THE TREES?' 'MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIUM.' 'HOLY OF HOLIES. (WAITING FOR THE NIGHT.)' 'IN THE LAND OF FAR BEYOND.' 'SUPER-HYPER HOCUS POCUS.' 'IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF NORMAL. (MY STYLE OF WRITING.)' 'AN ORDINAIRY MAN.' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not sure if I'll use all 50 tracks for the album...they may not all fit on it, (even though it's a 3 disc set,) plus when I start the process of listening back to each track, I may decide some tracks might better suit a different project. I may even choose to drop some tracks altogether and record something new to replace them. It's impossible to say at this stage. The album only starts to take shape when decisions are made as to how it should begin and flow from one track and disc to the next. It's like a journey on which the listener embarks. The terrain needs to be kept interesting and sometimes challenging along the way. We'll see... The poster for the Chuck Berry concert mentioned in yesterday's journal entry. This was the one I attended at the Leeds Odeon in 1965. The newspaper advert for the 1965 concert at the Odeon in Leeds. (Apologies for poor quality.) Another fun flyer for the 'Magnetic Travels' album which may be released later in the year or early next year.

Started with a very sore throat a couple of days ago but now feeling unwell and appear to be suffering from a summer cold. Chesty and clammy. As a result I called the hospital this morning and asked if I could change today's appointment for my regular eye injection. I've now been given another date but the earliest they could fit me in is 4th of September, which means I'll have gone just over twice my allotted break between treatments, which is more than a little worrying. I'm supposed to have the injections every four weeks, but September will mean that I will have gone without treatment for over 8 weeks. Not good. However, it's also not good to risk coughing or sneezing when a needle is being plunged into your eyes. Plus the 'flatness' and low energy I feel doesn't help the ordeal, (or the 24 hours of obstructed vision that comes after each injection.)  It's what it is, I guess. I have to admit that a part of me is slightly relieved that the ordeal has been postponed for a while. I certainly was not looking forward to it. My mind has been drifting back in time and I've been remembering a couple of concerts I attended in the early 1960s. One was on the 25th of June 1961 when I attended a package show at 'The Playhouse Cinema' in Wakefield. I was still a schoolboy and went to the show with my pal Ian Parkin. The show featured The Red Price Combo and Billy Fury but the headline act was The Shadows. I hardly recall Billy Fury's set and only a little of The Red Price Combo's, but The Shadows headline spot is etched firmly in my mind. It was, for me, a game changer and one of the most memorable and exciting moments of my young life. To watch Hank and Bruce and Jet and Tony perform live was, not just thrilling, but inspirational. Here was a band in matching blue mohair suits with three equally matching Vox AC 30 amps, (each amp carrying 'The Shadows' logo in silver on the amp's speaker cloth.) Hank and Bruce had matching red Fender Stratocasters and Jet had a red Fender Precision bass. The whole thing looked and sounded fantastic. It led to me trying even harder to get to grips with my own nascent playing. The other concert I've been remembering was on the 26th January 1965 and was at The Odeon Cinema in Leeds. Again, I went with Ian Parkin but this time it was a rhythm n' blues package tour featuring Long John Baldry And The Hoochie Coochie Men, The Graham Bond Organisation, The Moody Blues and headliner Chuck Berry. I can't recall The Moody Blues set at all and it must have been before their much later commercial success but I remember Long John Baldry and The Graham Bond Organisation's set, and of course, headliner Chuck Berry who was the main reason for Ian and I going there in the first place. The Graham Bond set was interesting though because the band's drummer was Ginger Baker and the bassist was Jack Bruce, quite sometime before their involvement with Cream. And the band's guitarist was none other than John McLaughlin. They were very good but were yet to achieve 'fame.' Chuck Berry ended his set prematurely. I think he performed three or four numbers and then walked off the stage and didn't return. Apparently some disagreement with the show's promoter over him wanting to be paid in cash upfront. It was disappointing and the audience had to leave early, grumbling about the shortness of Chuck's set, but Ian and I were just glad to have seen him, even though it was cut short. I'm now working on track number 50 for the 'Auditoria' album. I think this may be a good place to call a halt to the album's recording and try to make a start on sifting through all the material and sorting it into running orders for the three discs. It's going to be a richly varied album and should provide a deep and intense listening experience. It will take me a couple of weeks of constant work to come up with the final track listing but I might post the list of 50 unsorted track titles in tomorrow's journal entry to give fans an idea of the scope of the project. The Playhouse Cinema in Wakefield, pictured here after its demise as a cinema, probably sometime in the early or mid 1970s. It had become the 'Classic' cinema and was then used as a 'skate centre.'  In more recent years it became a rather sleazy nightclub. However, back in 1961, this was the venue where I saw The Shadows perform live. By the way, the shop unit to the right of the 'To Let' sign was the original location of 'The Record Bar.' The Leeds Odeon Cinema, in the 1950s. It still looked like this when I attended the Chuck Berry package show on January 26th, 1965. It hasn't been a cinema for many years now and is currently a 'Primark' store.

More eye injections coming up on the 31st of July, in both eyes. Not looking forward to it at all. Trying to find ways of taking my mind of the rapidly approaching ordeal. Luckily I've had the distraction of digging out some old photographs of Be Bop Deluxe to email to Mark Powell of Esoteric/Cherry Red Records for their re-issue of the 'Sunburst Finish' album. Hopefully the photo's will be useful for the book that will be included in the three disc set. Currently working on a new track for the 'Auditoria' album, (also destined to be a three disc set.) The track is tentatively titled 'In The Neighbourhood Of Normal,' though the track is not 'normal' at all. Searching through voice samples to use on it at the moment. Was hoping to finish it tonight but we're invited to a friend's barbecue in town so will be out most of the evening. Narrowing my choice of titles for album 3 in the 'Auditoria' set. It might be titled 'State Of Play' or 'This Way And That', but there are other ones I've got in mind too. Will live with these for a few days before finally deciding. Had a meeting with Ian Haydock on Sunday to outline the schedule for the 'Plectronica' event on the 1st of December. Need to provide Ian with an image for the tickets. We talked about the actual live set and where to incorporate 'Orchestra Futura' in it. I think I'll probably do three numbers solo, then one with Theo, then expand that with Dave to fulfil maybe five or six 'Orchestra Futura' numbers, then finish off with three or four solo numbers. That should easily take up an hour or more. Then we'll take a break for me to have my insulin injection and then continue with an on-stage interview and a playback of a handful of tracks from 'Auditoria.' I've also got to create some original art for the merchandise stall. I've bought two white ceramic plates which I'll hand decorate too. I've also got some modelling clay and may try to create some small sculptural pieces. I'll also need to assemble some new videos to show, especially to project behind two or three new numbers I'll be playing in my solo set. As always, a lot of work goes into preparing for these events. Hopefully, all of this goes towards making it an enjoyable day for attendees.

Quite a few things occupying my time this last week or so. One of the main concerns being Django. He'd recovered from his head wound inflicted by one of our new neighbour's cats and seemed ok, then just over a week ago became ill again. He looked very poorly and was vomiting at regular intervals. We were up most of the night with him. Next morning I made an emergency appointment to take him to the vet and he was given an injection to stop the nausea and an antibiotic. We took him home and were instructed to bring him back the next day. He didn't seem to improve much but at least stopped vomiting. Next morning he seemed a little better and tried to eat. We returned to the vet who checked him out and gave another injection and told us to keep an eye on him and if he deteriorated to bring him straight back. Thankfully he continued to recover and now seems to be his usual busy self again. The vet said it could be a delayed reaction to the attack he'd suffered from the cats next door. She said stress from the attack could easily have caused the problem. Anyway, fingers crossed it doesn't happen again. It's not stopped him wanting to go out into the garden and the fields beyond. He's out as I write these words. Spent a couple of days writing an essay for the Cherry Red re-issue of Be Bop Deluxe's 'Sunburst Finish' album. It's going to be a three disc set containing the original album, a new remix of the album by one of Kate Bush's engineers and some alternative takes and so on. Plus a 68 page book which will contain my essay plus some unseen photographs. Should be an attractive package. The essay is basically my memories of recording the album with some observations on certain tracks. Exchanged emails with Richard Ford, (Rick 'Pinky' Ford) who was Red Noise's bass player. Rick now lives in America and produces film soundtracks in Hollywood. He's always been a brilliant musician and I'm pleased that he's found success in the 'States. Rick told me that he'd discovered an old demo cassette I'd made for the Red Noise project. On it was a song titled 'My Light.'  I couldn't recall the song at all and asked him if he could send me a copy of it. Rick duly obliged and an MP3 arrived in a following email. When I heard it, it vaguely came back to me. It's a kind of ballad and I can understand why it didn't make the Red Noise album as it's not edgy enough, but neither is it 'soft.' Uncannily, it sounds like one of the more 'ballady' tracks on 'Tin Machine's' first album, though, of course, at that time, 'Tin Machine' didn't exist and would only materialise many years later. The demo is quite rough but it's an interesting song. It was primitively recorded on a basic four-track machine at home and I'm playing all the instruments on the track, including bass and drums. (Real drums rather than drum machine.) The vocal is not very good, I'd certainly sing it differently today, but, despite that, it might be worth making it available to fans on this website. I'll see if it's possible for it to be streamed. Work is continuing on triple album 'Auditoria.'  Disc one will carry the 'These Stars Are Fire' title, disc two will have the title 'Mysterium,' and disc three is, at this point in time, untitled though I have several potential titles for it. I'll make a decision on that soon. Have been using my new Akai MPC X drum machine on a couple of the album's tracks. Slowly getting to grips with it though I'm only scratching the surface so far. Much more to learn. Forty something tracks recorded for the album so far but, as I've mentioned before, will continue recording more until I've exhausted it, then choose the best for the album. There will be at least fourteen tracks on each of the three discs. It's going to be a very rich, eclectic treasure trove of music, a hopefully fitting tribute to my upcoming 70th birthday. Speaking of which, Ian Haydock, who is organising the 70th birthday 'Plectronica' event, is at this moment driving over to visit me for a planning meeting. Once we've had that meeting, it shouldn't be too long before we can get the tickets on sale. I've also had confirmation from Theo Travis and Dave Sturt that they will definitely be available for an 'Orchestra Futura' set at the event, which is good news for fans. I intend to do a solo set and then aim at six numbers with 'Orchestra Futura.'  I've no idea how well my health issues will hold up to all this. Aside from the diabetes, my hearing and eyesight problems will make difficulties for me, plus the painful arthritis in my hands, but, what the hell, it will be what it will be. The hot weather continues. No rain for weeks now and the grass is parched and yellow. Looks set to continue for a while longer too. A 'New Northern Dream' flyer using an image of Leeds, Yorkshire in the 1950s. I remember Leeds and its trams well from this time. Photograph of Red Noise members taken at a soundcheck by Rick Ford. Left to right: Ian Nelson, Bill Nelson, (goofing it up with a pair of rubber werewolf hands,) Steve Peer and guitar tech Stuart Monks.

Another blazing hot day and a memory of long ago... Today is Sunday the 15th of July and, approximately 45 years ago today, the circumstances that caused me to write Be Bop Deluxe's '15th Of July (Invisibles,)' song were enacted in the village of North Ferriby near Hull. Be Bop Deluxe had only recently formed but we'd already established a regular monthly gig at 'The Duke Of Cumberland' pub in North Ferriby. This was the first line up and we were still an unsigned band playing local gigs around Yorkshire. The gigs at 'The Duke' were a big part of our development at that time. We'd built up quite an enthusiastic following in the area and our monthly gigs at 'The Duke' were always packed. It was a great atmosphere and we always looked forward to those gigs. I had a special reason to look forward to them because I'd fallen in love with a girl from the area. I was, (unhappily,) married to my first wife at that time but hadn't yet divorced. One night at 'The Duke' whilst in the middle of a guitar solo, I looked out from the stage into the small hall built onto the back of the pub where we performed and there, in the packed crowd, I saw a pair of the most beautiful, seductive eyes looking directly at me. The eyes belonged to an equally beautiful girl and I was instantly smitten by her. She held my gaze and smiled the sweetest smile and I knew I had to meet her. In the interval between sets, when records were played, I sought her out and danced with her and a relationship began which lasted several months, maybe a year. The relationship sadly ended when her father discovered I was married and forbade her to see me again, but my feelings for her had inspired a number of songs. The first was 'Teenage Archangel' which the original line up of Be Bop recorded as an independent single on my 'Smile' label, sometime before we were signed to EMI's 'Harvest' records. A couple of other songs ended up on the 'Axe Victim' album..One was the album's title track which mentions this particular girl in the line, "smiling with bright eyes". Then there's the song 'Love Is Swift Arrows' which contains a coded reference to her name and features the lyric, "Oh God in some heaven whose number is seventeen dressed you in blue jeans this year, to torment my soul..."' Which is a reference to the fact that she was 17 years old at that time. I was a little older, in my early 20s, but none of that seemed to matter. She was thoughtful, intelligent, mature beyond her years, sophisticated...and I fell for her in a big way. But this doesn't explain the song '15th Of July.' That particular song tells the true story of Sunday the 15th of July, 45 years or more ago, when the first line up of Be Bop Deluxe travelled to North Ferriby from Wakefield for one of our monthly gigs at the 'Duke.' It was a hot and humid July day, but when we got there a thunderstorm had taken out the pub's electric power supply and with no power, we couldn't perform. Other members of the band had made friends with members of the audience so they went off with these friends to various locations in the village of North Ferriby. I, on the other hand, was invited back to the home of the beautiful girl mentioned above. Her parents were wealthy and had, what seemed to me back then, a huge and lovely house in the nearby picturesque village of Kirkella. She drove me there in her mother's Austin Mini and made me some lunch. Maybe it was eggs and ham. Outside it rained all the while, a warm, gentle summer rain, hence the line in the '15th Of July' song: "It rained all day across the world..." Some of her friends visited as we sat in her parent's lounge that July afternoon.. They complained about the rainy weather, but she squeezed my hand, looked at me and said that, as far as she was concerned, 'it couldn't be better.' (Again inspiring another line of lyric in the song.) Later, before the band had to drive back home to Wakefield, she and I sat in her mother's Mini in the 'Duke Of Cumberland's' car park as it continued to gently rain, cool and soft in the summer air. She said to me that she thought 'rain was the most passionate element.' And I thought, at the time, that was such a perfectly poetic summation of the day... So, 45 (or maybe more,) years later, I still remember that day fondly. Such a lot of water under the bridge since then of course, so many changes and ups and downs, highs and lows, people coming and going, but the 15th of July stays fixed in my memory as one of the most tender and magical moments of my younger years... Nick Dew, Be Bop Deluxe's first drummer, on the Duke Of Cumberland's small stage in 2004 when 'The Lost Satellites' did a warm up gig for our subsequent 2004 'Be Bop Deluxe And Beyond' UK tour. The view from the car park of the 'Duke Of Cumberland' pub, (the roof of which can be glimpsed with the tall chimney behind the white van in the photo'.) This was the spot where the words "I think rain is the most passionate element" were spoken. (This photo' isn't from that time, however, but was taken in the early 2000's.)

Well, got the new MPC X drum machine all wired up to the studio system after a problem with the power supply being only fitted with a European moulded mains plug. (Went to Gear4Music who supplied me with the adaptor which, apparently, should have been included with the package but wasn't.) And now the big beast switches on and all kinds of coloured lights and so on are glowing brightly in my studio. The problem is that there is no manual to take you through the process of how to program drum patterns and chain them into songs. There's a quick start guide that basically explains where various buttons are but doesn't tell you how you might apply them in a more practical sense. I've looked up some MPC X tutorials on line but they rush through stuff and don't seem to acknowledge that some of us have never worked with such a machine before. And it's a very powerful, complex and sophisticated piece of kit, far more convoluted to use than my previous MPC's. No doubt I'll slowly figure out the basics but, to be honest, my own approach to this stuff is more organic than just setting up 'clips' or loops of drum patterns, (as seems to be what most of the tutorials are set to deal with.) Always deeply frustrating when having to take on board equipment that involves convoluted technological manipulation rather than straightforward, intuitive, musical inspiration. I get bored when  machines inadvertently slow down the musical flow of ideas...but, I guess that's the way many people make music now, just mixing patterns on a computer screen, assembling pre-made loops and phrases, rather than heartfelt, spontaneous visions and dreams from their heads to their hands. I'm happy though that I can still actually play an instrument. And that isn't meant to denigrate technology or the use of pre-made loops, etc. These things can beneficially exist side by side, (and I'm more than pleased to use them,) but, somehow digging into an electric guitar's strings has a visceral, gut level thing going for it that, for me, hits the spot and connects me to the music without having to push buttons, mouse things about on a screen or stop to think about which buttons to push to get a warm result...It just feels more immediate and natural. Hey ho...I guess it's 'horses for courses.'

I've been a fan of Akai's MPC drum machines/sequencers since I bought the very first MPC unit they released in the '80s. That MPC-50 lasted me right through into the 21st Century, albeit with a slowly increasing number of faults due to age and constant use. It eventually broke down beyond sensible repair a few years back and I replaced it with a second-hand MPC 2500, bought from eBay, which I've used ever since. Akai had stopped making stand alone drum machines and instead went down the computer software route, making hardware 'controllers' to operate software drum sequencing and sounds stored on a computer or laptop. Not being a fan of making music this way, this system didn't suit me, hence having to buy a second-hand MPC 2500, which was one of the last 'stand alone' drum machines they'd made. Unfortunately, as my eyesight has deteriorated so much recently, I'm finding it very hard to use the machine's onboard LCD screen which is quite small. Programming drum patterns is proving more and more difficult due to the small screen and text size. However, in recent months Akai have gone back to the stand-alone concept and introduced the MPC-X, an outrageously powerful drum machine, sampler and sequencer with probably more bells and whistles than I'll ever need. It has a large 10" colour screen to monitor what you're doing with it. It's also very expensive. I've been sorely tempted to buy one but have hesitated due to the financial outlay required but, yesterday I got so fed up with trying to programme the MPC 2500 whilst holding a magnifying glass up to its small dim monochrome screen that I decided to bite the bullet and order an MPC-X from the Gear4Music store. Delivery is scheduled for tomorrow and I'm excited about getting some new sounds to work with and a screen that will hopefully improve programming. Trouble is, once I get my head around the inevitable learning curve, I'll be wanting to record even more new stuff with it....

The very warm weather continues and a kind of lethargy sets in. Working in my studio during the day can be uncomfortably hot with the combination of sun through the skylight and ambient heat generated by the electrical equipment. I usually try and deal with emails and website duties in the morning and leave the recording of new music until around 6pm when I work through to 10 or 11 pm with a short break for dinner and the second of my daily calls to my mother to check that she's ok. During the afternoons I try to get out and walk, either around town of drive out to Harrogate, Knaresborough or Leeds for a stroll around the shops. It's a fairly unchanging routine but helps keep my blood sugar levels under control. Having said that, my blood test before lunch yesterday revealed a 13.3 high, which I haven't had since being first diagnosed with diabetes. There was no reason I could fathom why the level had shot up so high. Before breakfast it was only 5.1, which is good. I ate exactly the same breakfast as always, so there was no intake of 'wrong' food to bring into account. Nevertheless, in the space of a few hours the sugar levels had risen to 13.3, which is definitely not good. Perhaps my morning insulin injection didn't 'take' or something. The doctor at the diabetes clinic had told me that I should avoid my levels getting into double figures, so yesterday's lunchtime reading was a bit worrying. However, when I did my pre-dinner blood test in the evening, the level had come down to 5.7, so I could breathe easy again. Took Django back to the vet yesterday for another antibiotic injection. The vet squeezed some infected pus out of the wound on the top of his head and checked his temperature. It had come back down to normal so he just needed the antibiotic shot and not the anti-inflammatory injection that he'd been given on Saturday. We have to take him back again on Thursday morning for a check up and a possible third injection. Poor Django, there's a patch of missing fur on the top of his head that reveals the wound. He looks a sorry sight but seems to be reasonably ok otherwise. I'm having a re-think about the title of the triple album planned for release to coincide with my 70th birthday celebration event. I've decided to give each of the three discs its own individual title and will title the whole package 'AUDITORIA.' Disc 1 will have the title 'These Stars Are Fire' and I'll come up with suitable titles for discs 2 and 3. Work is still in progress with recording tracks for the album. I'll be mixing another new track tonight titled 'Who's That Floating Above The Trees?' And now it's time for my pre-lunch blood test so I must go downstairs and prime the finger-pricker. Let's hope the levels are more favourable today.

Django, (our cat,) has been spending a lot of time outdoors lately due to the prolonged spell of warm weather. We've provided him with a little 'cat house', or shelter, beneath a bush in the garden where he can get some shade and rest from the sun. At night time though, he usually comes in our house and sleeps on the end of the bed with us, (often waking me at five thirty am to be fed and let outside again. But he's seemed a little 'off colour' the last couple of nights, hasn't been eating much and stayed out in his cat house, and not wanting to leave it much. Yesterday morning he definitely seemed quite poorly and I made an appointment to take him to the vet. We'd noticed that there was a kind of scab or wound on the top of his head. The vet cleared the fur from the area revealing a very sore looking puncture. He said that it looked like Django had been fighting and had been bitten on the top of his head..."you can see where the tooth's gone in" he said. Some new neighbours recently moved in next door and they have four cats. It seems that Django had been involved in a fight with them over his territorial rights and got the worst of it. The wound on his head had become infected and he was running a high temperature. The vet gave him an antibiotic injection and another type of injection and made an appointment for us to take him back on Monday for the vet to administer a further injection. So we took Django home and he went to sleep upstairs on our bed whilst Emi and I drove to Wakefield to help my mother with her weekly shopping. We came home a little earlier than usual as I was concerned about Django's condition and didn't want to leave him alone too long. As it happened, he seemed much better and had something to eat so the injections seemed to have helped. Hopefully, he's going to be ok but we'll see what the vet thinks when we take him for tomorrow's injection. Meanwhile, the hot, uncomfortable weather continues and it's proving to be difficult to sleep at night. I suppose we shouldn't complain as it's been the longest hot spell for some years, a proper British summer like the ones I remember from my childhood in the 1950s. The school summer holidays seemed to stretch on forever back then and each day I'd play outside with the neighbourhood kids beneath a clear blue sunny sky. My main pal in those long ago days was a girl called Bronwyn Jackson who lived with her parents in the flat above ours on Conistone Crescent which was in a nice area of Eastmoor Estate. It wasn't a block of flats, just a two-story semi with a flat at ground level and one above. This arrangement was mirrored at the other side of the semi. (See the attached picture I took of the old place a few years ago.) The back garden was where we played together, sometimes making an improvised tent from an old wooden clothes horse laid on its side with a blanket draped over it. Bronwyn and I would crawl inside and eat sandwiches that our mothers had made for us. Bronwyn was a couple of years older than me and a real tomboy. We were great chums and rode our bikes together around Conistone Crescent where we lived. Something of a cliche, I know, but as they say...'Happy Days.' The flat on Conistone Crescent, Eastmoor Estate, referred to in this journal entry. I lived with my parents at No 28 which is the lower right hand side flat. Bronwyn Jackson lived in the flat above accessed by the exterior stairs at the side of the building. This photo was taken in 2004 and the original art-deco window frames and doors had unfortunately been replaced. In the back garden of No 28 Conistone Crescent. Left to right: Bronwyn Jackson, my younger brother Ian and myself, (with ball.) The houses at the back of the photo'were on a different street but our back garden ran down to the end of their back gardens, Photo taken in the 1950s by my mother or father.

Another very hot day...This heatwave doesn't seem to be letting up and we've had no rain for several weeks now. The garden is looking parched and the grass yellow. Took a ride to Castle Howard this afternoon but the traffic on the A64 was at a standstill in places. With the top down on the car, Emiko and I got the full brunt of the afternoon sun. Somewhat uncomfortable. Castle Howard was surprisingly quiet. Maybe most people were heading off to the coast for the weekend. We sat in the Castle's cafe and I indulged in a glass of strawberries and cream, which I really shouldn't do with my diabetes problem but, once in a while... Anyway, I didn't eat the whole glass, only half of it and Emi polished off the rest. Did enjoy a glass of red wine with it though... Stopped off at Waitrose on the way back home and bought some clams and scallops which Emi prepared along with a Carpaccio Tuna steak for dinner, plus a salad and some garlic bread. Very nice! Made my usual phone contact with my mother at 8pm and then switched on the studio. Listened back to the track I mixed last night but wasn't convinced I'd got it right so did a complete re-mix which I've just finished before writing this journal entry. Still not sure it's right. My mixing desk is behaving very strangely and there are several faults and odd things going on with it, (as I've noted before in this journal.) I don't know, maybe the roughness of some of these mixes works to advantage. But there's not much I can do about it. Either way. It gets to the point where I tire of chasing my tail around the desk, trying to correct things that have slipped from my initial grasp for no apparent reason. Digital malfunctions are mysterious and defy logic. But, it's what it is and I'll just have to live with the imperfections, as will my audience, (should they notice them.) To some degree, it's not worth beating myself up about...Then again... The track I remixed is titled 'The Science Of Extraodinairy Things.' It's a vocal piece in an almost '70s country waltz style but mutates into a jazzy coda which then mutates again into a kind of abstract sonic assault. A track that, on one level, is quite straight but, on another level, utterly bizarre. Don't know whether to love it or hate it. Emi, it seems, loves it for some reason. Says it reminds her of Be Bop Deluxe. (She hasn't heard the chaotic racket on the end though!) The heat up here in the studio is oppressive, especially with all the equipment turned on, so I think I'll call it a day for now. Visiting mum tomorrow to do her supermarket shopping, then, once back home, will start another new track. Despite over 40 completed tracks for the album so far, I feel the need to keep going...Always looking forward to tomorrow.

A rather nice surprise yesterday...Jon Wallinger had forwarded, (some days ago now,) a message saying that Winchester University wanted to award me an honorary degree. My immediate reaction was that someone was having me on and I wasn't sure whether to respond or ignore it. Then yesterday a letter was forwarded, (by Jon,) from the Vice-Chancellor of Winchester University, explaining that the University's governors had extended an offer to award me a 'Doctor Of The Arts (Honoris Causa)' degree and wondered if I would accept it. I quickly checked out Winchester University on the internet and discovered that it is a venerable place of study dating back to the 1800s. The award ceremony will take place in Winchester Cathedral on the 19th of October this year. Winchester is a very long way from where I live, so plans will need to be made for a probable two day absence, which means arranging someone to take care of feeding Django the cat, plus I'll need to take my insulin and diabetic paraphernalia with me. I don't stray too far from Yorkshire these days but perhaps this should be an exception. Family members and friends are allowed to attend the ceremony so I hope that some of my fans living in the Winchester area will come along to lend a little support. Emi, of course, will be with me and perhaps my eldest daughter Julia and grandson Luke, who live in London,) might be able to make the journey further south to be with me. Anyway, a few things to work out yet but I have to admit to being extremely flattered by this very nice surprise and will keep readers informed of progress via this journal. Meanwhile, 'Dynamos And Tremolos' seems to be doing well and orders have been very positive so far. I've been informed today though that the cost of the special digi-pack sleeve has gone up considerably per unit so the profit margin on sales is going to be much less. But, once in a while, it's good to push the boat out, even though it costs me far more in terms of manufacturing costs. As  for 'These Stars Are Fire'...' a triple album with appropriate packaging will cost even more to manufacture, but I now have over 40 tracks completed for the album and, as it's my special 70th birthday recording project, I'll just have to bite the bullet. Emi at her Flower Guild meeting tonight so I'm having a Marks and Spencer 'ready meal.' It will do the job no doubt...

First of July today and the hot, sunny weather of last month continues and looks set to continue for all of this coming week, if not beyond. Have taken advantage of it by taking the convertible out for a spin each day. Emi has been busy making flower arrangements for a customer's birthday celebration party and also for a special flower festival display in Fairfax House, she's taking the flowers and vases to the latter this afternoon but creating the arrangement tomorrow. I've continued to work on 'These Stars Are Fire' in the evenings when it's a bit cooler in my studio, 39 tracks completed at this point. Enjoyed a visit from John Spence last week. He was in the area on studio business and called in for a cup of tea and a chat. Nice to see him. Speaking of John, I'll need to take another album over to Fairview for mastering soon, especially as 'Dynamos And Tremolos' is very close to release. Must keep the release flow going. There are still lots of albums finished and awaiting mastering and artwork preparation. Right, I'm about to help Emi deliver the flowers to Fairfax House so I'll sign off for now.

Thirty seven tracks now completed for the 'These Stars Are Fire' triple album. Just mixed a new instrumental track tonight titled 'Back Of Beyond' which is a kind of dark cousin to another track on the album titled 'Beyond Yonder.' Feeling very positive about everything on the sessions so far, though I've yet to call a halt and sort through all the finished material to choose the album's final running order. I'm really enjoying the process though and feel completely at one with my guitars which, in their various guises, are providing me with lots of inspiration. Every day I look at whatever selection of instruments I've chosen for that day's recording session and marvel at their colours and designs as if I'm seeing them for the first time.  Despite being almost 70 years old I still get the same thrill from guitars as I did when I was a kid standing outside the windows of Webster's Music Shop in Wakefield or Kitchen's in Leeds. Music and guitars have never failed me, I'm glad to say... The album will cover a lot of the musical territory I've traversed over the years. There's rock, pop-rock, left-field jazz, ambient, experimental, a touch of acoustic, some synth based stuff and plenty of vocals and instrumentals. I intend to mix it all up and not divide the three discs into separate generic categories...a surprise on every track for every listener. An early Podiatrist appointment this morning. Nothing out of order though the nerves in my feet remain somewhat 'dead' due to the diabetes. Makes walking feel strange and I tread gingerly sometimes, but hopefully things won't deteriorate too far. I bought a new camcorder the other day from the local John Lewis store. It was a 'clearance' item, so reduced in price. However, the salesman couldn't locate the box and the extra items that should come with the camcorder, (lens hood, lens cap, battery, and battery charger, mains power supply unit, various cables to connect it to a computer,  software discs and instruction manual, etc.) As a result, he knocked a further £100 off the already reduced clearance price. How could I resist such a bargain? Well, I couldn't... What I didn't realise is that the camcorder is a now discontinued model and finding the missing parts on the internet has proved to be something of a challenge. Nevertheless, I've managed to get the correct battery and battery charger and a lens cap from on-line suppliers. I've downloaded the instruction manual and software from the internet too, (hopefully the software will work ok.) The cable needed to connect the camera to the computer is due for delivery next Tuesday. If that happens to be the correct one and will do the job, I can manage without the rest and will be able to use the camcorder to create some new videos. Feeling quite excited about this! Bedtime...Tired and struggling to see what I'm typing so, goodnight for now.