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Podcasts 2010

From January to July 2010, I released a song a week as a podcast, both as a discipline to develop my songwriting, and help me deal with the delays to my album, which was finally recorded in January and February 2011.

Although the songs are no longer available on iTunes as a podcast, you can listen to them here, or download them all for £10;


Week 26 - Song 26 - Tuesday 7th July


So yes, folks - it's been SIX MONTHS since I started this ridiculous process. 
I can't believe it. 26 songs and just under 5,000 downloads of the podcast...

Apologies for taking an extra day to post this up, but I had a few technical difficulties (in that I hadn't finished the song) ...

There are definitely a lot of songs here that would never have seen the light of day had it not been for my weekly routine, and a handful have become real favourites of mine. 

However, I'm tempted to stop for the time being, simply because this has kick-started a lot of other changes in my life over the last 6 months, and I think I should spend the second half of this year focusing on them:
  1. I think I may have finally got a band together. This means I'm a little closer to getting my solo album tied up, and I want to start thinking about writing for a band again, which is a completely different process to writing my solo songs. I have a pretty clear idea of  how I want the album to work, but there are several songs that I can only finish writing with a band, and I'm worried that the weekly process wouldn't work for this.
  2. The last 6 months have drawn me back into playing music in more ways than I've hoped. One off-shoot of this has been my growing collaboration with other musicians - such as The Golden Retrievers and the beautiful Nia Lynn. I hope to spend a lot more time doing this, and I'm worried I'd have less and less time to devote to the weekly podcast.
  3. The last 26 songs have been a pleasure to work on, but I don't want this process to become a grim marathon to complete a full year - I'd always said I was gonna do this for as long as it felt right.
I dunno - saying all that, part of me is really going to miss this.

Here are the Top 5 as they stand right now (in terms of highest downloads of the podcast):
  • Week 12 - Butterfly
  • Week 8 - End begins before the start
  • Week 1 - Northern Lights
  • Week 9 - On the banks of the Ohio
  • Week 7 - Morning Calls
I found this week's song incredibly hard to write, as it felt so sad, but it was actually sparked by a little act of kindness by one of my mates, and this is basically dedicated to all the truly awesome friends I have. Thank you so much for supporting me with these songs. I'm going to leave the podcasts up there for the time being, so do tell me which ones you like the most. 

Happy listening.

xL

There you were

I guess you’re right, to be fair, 
I don’t mind the passing of this year. 
But at the brink I’m freezing up, 
Panic at the moment I should jump 

I guess I’m weak. Is it my pride? 
I shudder at the old familiar fears 
the light of day, that leaves me cold 
If I can’t have the thing I’m dreamin of 

But there you were, waiting there, 
an easy smile to break the glare, 
A spot of shade and confidence 
was everything I needed then 

I’ll never grasp the starry breadth - 
the endless reach of a hidden web - , 
of all the good a few can bring, 
the ones you trust until the end



Week 25 - Song 25 - Monday 28th June


This is another oldie, but only a handful of you will have heard this song, and it's one of my favourites. Actually, you may have heard me playing it live - you can hear the mighty Martin Goodfellow on the drums. 
I play this on my telecaster through a Marshall JCM2000DSL, with the low E tuned down to A. 

I wrote these lyrics very much the way I wrote most of my songs - by recording a few sessions, and just singing any old nonsense over the top of em. Gradually, the weirdest themes come through, and this turned out to be one of the darkest songs I've ever written. 

I've noticed that as this weekly writing process has progressed, I've started writing words before a melody, and I'm trying to let the lyrics dictate the mood and structure of the song - which despite how unintuitive it feels, has had some interesting results. The last two songs as well as Week 4, Coal Black, were written this way, and I'm pretty happy with them.

However, this week that process seems to have pretty much back-fired. Although I wrote a whole song lyrically, I just couldn't find the right melody to put the words to - which is an entirely new dilemma... Thus this week's oldie release. I'm not sure what's gonna happen when I run out of oldies to save me from these issues, but anyway - 
happy listening.

xL

PS>>>Hats off to Jimbo Hoskins who produced this. One of those classic moments where we got one of our best drum sounds by just pointing about 5 cheap mikes in various directions in the vicinity of the kit, and it just worked. I don't think we ever got a better sound in our studio....

PPS>>>Yes, folks. It's official. I cut my hair. About time, really...


Week 24 - Song 24 - Monday 21st June


Right then and there

Slipped out of bed 
as she slept 
so silently. 
On my way out, 
right then and there, 
I took a knife 
and cut my hair. 

As I got dressed, 
soon I felt 
that I could see 
through every cloud. 
Right then and there 
I saw my life 
as through a lens 

And though I wept 
for what I’d shed 
so violently 
I had no doubt. 
Right then and there 
I drew a line, 
right then and there.
Week 23 - Song 23 - Monday 14th June


I often make little notes during the day, as I try to keep track of random thoughts that might come together for a song. My singular note from this week was "messages on bank notes", as 

I was strongly moved by an article about Iranian protestors leaving messages on bank notes. To say any more would just feel unbearably pompous, but this was the spark, so I thought I'd share it with you. 

Hope you like it. 

xL

To my love I sent a note, 
Sent a crisp unfolded note. 
We have slipped into a state 
Where we only speak this way 
From afar… 

First each week, and then each day 
I would spend my time this way, 
I would craft each word I wrote 
Down upon each thin bank note 
That I’d earnt. 

At every market, every store, 
It was you I was searching for, 
And every note that I could spend 
Brought you closer here my friend, 
My friend, here my friend 

There’s a wall here with a thousand notes 
Written out for a thousand souls 
And each night they’d come and they’d rip them down 
But by the morning there’s a thousand more 

And our love must surely last, 
If each note can cross a thousand palms, 
And if only one could reach the target that I seek, 
We’d be home, 
We’d be home. 

Slaughtered Lamb Pub, London - MAP HERE
Doors - 7.30pm
On stage - 9.30pm
Tickets - £5


Week 22 - Song 22 - Monday 7th June


A lot to write about with this tune, but a little spaced as I've been recording for about 14 hours...
I've got a little carried away with myself this week, and tried to take on a traditional welsh folk song - admittedly I've totally failed to sing it in it's native Gwentian.

Basically, my father-in-law Gregg Lynn is in a band called Yr Hwntws, who have just come back from a recording session in Sain Studios up in North-West Wales, and I thought it'd be as good a time as any to have a stab at one of their songs, which has been stuck in my head for the last 2-3 years.

This song is one of many traditional Welsh folk songs that have been revived by Yr Hwntws over the last 30 years, and is believed to have originated from the early 18th century, under the title Cwd Cardotyn, which loosely translates as The Beggar's Pack. With the help of my beautiful wife, we've used a certain degree of artistic license to translate this into English...

Basically, I have a minidisc recording from one mic of Yr Hwntws playing this song, and I absolutely fell in love with it. However, once I recorded my little version, it felt pretty bare.  I thought it could really do with a bit of banjo, so I picked up the phone and called Mr Dunn, who's only just started to be able to pick up an instrument again, but the man is clearly on the mend, as I love the take.

I then gave my pesky little sister a call to see if she wouldn't mind putting a few backing vocals down. In fact, I think this is the first time we've ever recorded together, so very exciting...

Where would I be without my wonderful friends and family?
Aaaaanyway, I hope you like it.

I also have a headline gig next Wednesday 16th June, so you should come along if you fancy it.

xL

Week 21 - Song 21 - Monday 31st May


Another week spent pinning this most ancient of riffs down into a form. It started from a little frilly riff in B minor which I've been playing for the last 5 years or so. This song has always made me feel nostalgic, with all the strangely bittersweet emotions that come from looking back - I suppose it's a way of measuring yourself up. I have no idea why, but it makes me think back to the happiest days of my childhood, and the friends I've lost touch with - for now, at least.

Anyway, it's a pretty rough take, but I think the guitar sounds great considering I've got one pretty cheap mic pointing at it, and then mixing that with the DI from the guitar's pickup. I've been very happy with my pretty little Maton, ever since I bought it in beautiful Bendigo last year...

Hope you've all had an awesome bank holiday. I've spent a lot of it playing, which is how it should be...

ps. I've got a headline gig coming up on Wednesday 16th June, at the Slaughtered Lamb, so don't say I didn't give you lots of notice.


Week 20 - Song 20 - Monday 24th May


This song really gets to me. I recorded it with Sevenball years ago, and I love it. However, like so many other tracks, it never really saw the light of day. My abiding memory of playing this song live is from the stage of Blakey Festival, watching the Turbo brothers samba through the crowd to it... 

I'd always meant to write an Intro section, so here it is. I would love to record this song with a full band for the album, but I think it would probably be the hardest song to pull off, as it's pretty goddam long, and I want it to sound fucking massive by the end. I spend a lot of time thinking about the tracks I would put together on an album, and worrying about how they would contrast and flow as a whole. I have a pretty good idea of the track-list already, but ultimately it will always be dictated by how they would come together in the performance and the production. I would aim to record around 15/16 tracks and whittle them down to 10 -12 for the final master. 

Coming Home is one of those songs that would have to be performed and produced just right for it to fit within the album. With Sevenball, I was always worried that I hadn't written the chorus quite right, and we re-recorded that section at least 3 times (sorry, Bobdog!), but I feel it's a little closer here. I can almost here a fiddle playing the opening melody of the chorus, but God knows if that would work...

In fact, this song really makes me miss being in a band; there's only so much noise one man can make in his room. 
Talking of which, I've just started jamming with a seriously kickass band coming to a town near you. If you want to hear a truly beautiful song - check out Four Track Tapes by The Golden Retrievers. Been singin it all week (which is lucky, as we have a gig on the 21st June!).

xL


Week 19 - Song 19 - Monday 17th May


Just got back from a last-minute gig at the Slaughtered Lamb with the lovely Jenny McCormick. Can't believe we've been mates for nearly 10 years, and that's the first time I've heard her sing live - it was beautiful.

This is a pretty rough take of this week's song, but I liked it so I kept it. The main riff has been around for so long, I can't even remember where or when it first came to me. It feels like a song that's always been there, and I'm glad to have finally put it down in a fixed form. Lyrics very much inspired by yesterday afternoon, watching the rain sweep in...

Oh - I'd also like to mention how much I love my £50 guitar that I've used in this recording. It's the same one I used on Northern Lights (Week 1), and it's still got the same strings that came with it when I bought it about 2 years ago. It was a present from the lovely people at the Philharmonia where I used to work, and was the cheapest guitar in the shop. It's probably one of my favourite guitars, as I find Nylon strings hugely expressive. Particularly good for late night noodling when you're half-asleep.

xL


Week 18 - Song 18 - Monday 10th May


This is an old song of mine, although I've only ever 'released' this recording to a few friends. When I wrote it, I wanted to keep both the verses and choruses to the same chord progression, as it felt hypnotic, and I liked the idea of keeping it simple.

The lyrics also came to me very easily. As so many songs do, it started from personal experience, but became something else. In a way, this is one of the songs I'm most proud of. One of the things I like the most about it is the fact that several of my friends thought it was written for them. I suppose that in a way it was.

The world is what you make of it.

xL

It took a lonely second,
and in a moment it was done.
Left her crying by the bus stop, 
and he made his way back.
And as he’s almost faithless,
as he’s almost home,
I see those fears rise up again,
same old fears rise up again.

Don’t throw your love away,
it’s not your fault there are things you believe in,
and you can’t let go.
Because its there that they catch you,
it’s there that you fail, 
and I can’t bear to lose you to the hours, days and weeks.

I count the times you’ve almost been here,
I count the times you almost left.
I wonder when you found the future 
turned from a promise to a threat.
But if you only knew, boy,
just how free you are
to turn from ash and rise again, 
to turn from ash and rise again

So don’t throw your love away,
it’s not your fault there are things you believe in,
and you can’t let go.
Because its there that they catch you,
it’s there that you fail, 
and I can’t bear to lose you to the hours, days and weeks.

Funny – look who’s talking – 
I watch the weeks slip past like days.
But I won’t wait to be saved, no – 
the light you find, you find within.
The world is what you make of it,
the world is what you make of it,
the world is what you make of it

So don’t throw your love away,
it’s not your fault there are things you believe in,
and you can’t let go.
Because its there that they catch you,
it’s there that you fail, 
and I can’t bear to lose you – I can’t bear it.
Don’t throw your love away,
it’s not your fault you can’t make her happy,
you’ve just got to let go.
Cos if you only know boy how free you are
to turn from ash and rise again,
turn from ash and rise again.

Week 17 - Song 17 - Monday 3rd May
 



It's been a long week, and I think that shows in this week's song. Only just finished this about half an hour ago, so no time to think about it...

xL
Week 16 - Monday 26th April - For the Koala
 


This song is dedicated to Tim...


Week 15 - Song 15 - Monday 19th April


This one's an oldie, and one of my favourites. If I ever get to make my album, this would be the opening track. 

I've been wanting to try a different ending for a while, and I finally managed to get the wonderful Nia Lynn round to sing backing vocals for me. 

Look forward to seeing some of you at the gig this Wednesday:

GIG - Wednesday 21st April at The Slaughtered Lamb - MAP
Supporting Kris Drever 
Doors 7.30pm - on stage 8pm

xL


Week 14 - Song 14 - Monday 12 April

Kept the 12-string in Nashville tuning this week, and didn't get this recorded until the very last minute. I kept waiting for a missing piece, which came to me about 5 this afternoon. So, no time to think about it, but I think I like it....



Week 13 - Song 13 - Monday 5th April


Dunnoir and I wrote this song with Sevenball a few years ago, but this week's recording is dedicated to Sam and Weasel who got married on Saturday. Mr Weas has been the best of friends to me over more than ten years, and has supported my music throughout - from bouncy castles in Heslington to European festivals. Hats off to the Weasel. 

Thanks to everyone who got in touch about last week's song - it means a huge amount to me when people like the tunes and take the time to let me know. It would never have got written if it wasn't for this weird weekly routine.
GIG - Wednesday 21st April at The Slaughtered Lamb
Supporting Kris Drever 
Doors 7pm - on stage 8pm

I am extremely flattered to have been offered a support slot for Kris Drever on Wednesday 21st April at the Slaughtered Lamb. His debut album Black Water has been a firm favourite on my ipod for the last year and a half, as well as his other musical project LAU, who blew me away when I saw them at the Lamb a few years ago. Should be a great night.

Hope you had a good Easter.

xL

Week 12 - Song 12 - Monday 29th March


(Photo courtesy of Martin d'Orgeval)

So I've just realised at this very minute what inspired the song I wrote this week. I was supposed to work on polishing last week's track, but this one just landed on me, and got stuck in my head. I have to admit I really like it.

Usually that's an ominous sign. A bit like waking up after drinking a bottle of tequila and thinking, "Hey I was on FIRE last night!".

But anyway, the inspiration was blatantly from the Jonsi show I went to see on Friday night. Absolutely beautiful. Congratulations to all at 59 for pulling off the impossible. 

For any Sigur Ros fans, you really have to go see it when it comes to the UK in May.

Happy listening!

xL


Week 11 - Song 11 - Monday 22nd March


Well technically, I think it's now Tuesday, but never mind. 

I spent a long time on the song this week, and I still feel as though there's a lot of directions this song could go in. It started from some meaningless nonsense I scribbled down a few moths ago, "Thick wet breath, in the thick wet woods". I have no idea what I was on about at the time, but it seemed an interesting place to start. 

The acoustic is down-tuned to A (ADADAD), as I love the tone of strings that are practically hanging off the guitar. I probably tried about 50 takes of this over the last few days, and I still don't think it's finished. 

As much as I'm loving this process, I don't want to end up with songs that are just going to frustrate me when I listen back to them, so I reckon I might spend next week pushing on with this one, and trying out some different structures. There were a lot of riffs I played around with on earlier takes that I'd love to incorporate into it, but it has to work without sounding forced. Then I suppose you can compare the two and tell me what you think.

Thank you to all who came to the gig last week - it was weird to air so many new songs in one go, but great to find they went down so well.

Anyway, happy listening, and please do forward it on...

xL


Week 10 - Song 10 - Monday 15th March


This is a weird one I recorded with Jonny Turbo. One of those crazy dreams I couldn't shake, and ended up splicing with a very old sample I put together on Cubase about 10 years ago. I would love to find someone to write the music for me, and arrange it with a chamber orchestra to re-record - think it would sound beautiful. Any takers??

The painting is by a very distant relative, Joseph Gandy, who died in the windowless cell of an asylum. In one of his letters to the famous architect John Soane, he wrote ""If Genius ... is placed in the lowest sink of vice and depravity, its sensibility is wounded to the utmost and with death it can only pass away." Soane paid Gandy's debts, and advised him to take a job in an office. 
Gandy replied
, "I should conceive myself a slave and debased below the character of man ... a non-entity."

Hmm... not sure he would have approved of my day job - or in fact my quest for patronage. 

Anyway, happy listening, and maybe see some of you tomorrow night.

xL


Gig - Tuesday 16th March @ Slaughtered Lamb, London

Yes, I've finally got a gig sorted. Well at the moment, I've been quite happy sitting in my room noodling, but the lovely people at the electroacoustic club have offered me a last-minute slot next Tuesday, and I love playing at the Slaughtered Lamb.

Looks like an interesting headline, with a set of John Martyn songs to finish off the night, which will suit me just fine.

These are the times:

8:00 – 8:30pm LUKE RITCHIE
8.45 – 9:10pm PHILLIP HENRY
9.30 – 10.30pm THE SONGS OF JOHN MARTYN 

Doors 7.30-11pm
£6 door / advance
Buy tickets here


Week 9 - Song 9 - Monday 8th March


I felt like recording a cover this week. I first came across this song on a compilation lent to me by my talented friend, Todd (who I might try to get on one of these recordings soon), and I remember finding the performance by the Blue Sky Boys chilling. 

I'm interested in music's capacity for horror, and how it can challenge or manipulate the preconceptions we bring to a musical style or form. I wrote a song with Sevenball (see below) - which I'd love to re-record with a demented horn section - and which couldn't really sound more different to today's song, despite sharing exactly the same theme. The Sevenball song seemed to create a visual scene in my head that I tried to describe with the lyrics. However, what's so eery about the Banks of the Ohio is the way the Bolick Brothers' beautiful harmonies are subverted by the song's lyrical content. 

The perfectly matched vocals reminded me of one of my favourite lyricists, Gillian Welch, and her musical partnership with Dave Rawlings. She was one of the first songwriters to introduce me to proper Country and Bluegrass, defying pretty much all of my assumptions about the genres. I know a lot of bands and songwriters in the UK who were hugely influenced by the resurgence of Country music, from the awesome Phantom Limb (who you HAVE to see live) and the mighty Boss Caine. 

The author of On the banks of the Ohio is unknown, although Wikipedia describes the song as a "19th century murder ballad", which sounds infinitely superior to a power ballad.  

I promise I won't kill anyone in next week's song.

xL



Week 8 - Song 8 - Monday 1st March


Although I might be getting a bit carried away, it felt like Spring today. Some of you may already know this song, as I've played it at gigs before, but I thought I'd record it this evening and put it up.


Week 7 - Song 7 - Monday 22nd Feb


Go on, take a sickie tomorrow. You know you want to.
(That's the general theme of this week's song.)

***

In other news, I've decided to try something new. I've registered my songs as Podcasts, so from now on you can subscribe to them via iTunes or whatever confounded technological gimmickery you favour. I will also continue to post them on here.

This means that from now on they will be free. In return, I only ask that if you like these tracks, please forward them on. Preferably to someone wealthy who wants to fund an album or two.

I will also be in contact with all of the awesome folks who bought tracks, and offering them a refund in gold, beer or whatever else I can muster. One of the reasons I've moved to Podcasting is that my friends aren't allowed to buy songs off me - just buy me booze or feed me, and I'll play for free. Seriously though, thank you.


Week 6 - Song 6 - Monday 15th Feb


A late one this week. In fact, this has been the hardest one to finish by far.

After taking such personal turns with songs over the last few weeks, I really struggled with the more abstract direction this song seemed to lead me in. The main refrain - Sailing Now - has been with me for years, and I couldn't get away from it. Although it seems to sparkle, the overwhelming sense I got from the song was sadness, and a sense of loss. 

I find it harder to write less personal songs, but I feel a song so often conjures a theme or narrative that I just have to go with. I also think that having had a refrain with me for so long, it's impossible to hear it with fresh ears. I think I could have wrestled with this song for ever...


Well anyway, hope you like it.

(Some of you early nocturnal birds may have noticed a few edits in this entry overnight. That's what happens after sleeping off a few late night doubts!)

Week 5 - Song 5 - Sunday 7th Feb


Stop thinking on these things and cut
A mark upon the day
A cross upon the bark to show
just where you were today.


Week 4 - Song 4 - Monday 1st Feb

Got home late last night, after a weekend in which I met the babies of not one, but two of my bestest friends. If you can't try to write a lullaby now, when can you? (Well, that was the intention. As usual, went a bit off-course, but anyway....)

This one's for Bill and Ben.



Week 3 - Song 3 - Sunday 24th Jan


Although we wrote this song a couple of years ago, it’s never seen the light of day. Dunny wrote a beautiful melody, (which you can hear him noodling on the beginning of Jimmy Two Times, if any of you know that one), and I wrote the lyrics to it just after the funeral for my old neighbour Vi. She was a truly wonderful woman, and one of the few neighbours my family ever became close to. I grew up deliberately throwing frisbees into her garden, as I knew she’d welcome me in with a broad smile, and kilos of chocolate eclairs. 

One of the few links with the past, she described walking in silence as a girl alongside the grand 19th century manor houses of Kings Avenue. Nearly all of these houses were destroyed in the war, to be replaced in the 1950s by the largest council estate in London. 

She faced the heartbreak of not only losing a beloved husband early (I never met him), but outliving her son Ian, who had suffered from Friedreich's Ataxia almost from birth. When he was first diagnosed as a baby, her doctor told her to just keep him in bed, saying he had very little chance of reaching adulthood. Ignoring that advice, she insisted on sending him to 'normal' school, and started a job at a bar in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, planning to work for a year to support her son. 

She ended up staying there for 30 years, and earning the nickname “Maxi” as the Theatre’s Bar Manager. Regularly meeting the Royals, the Queen Mum was her firm favourite, as she always provided “good banter”. Ian grew up to become a highly successful businessman in the City, and carried an easy charm and sense of humour that far outshone his physical afflictions. 

The true optimist, if you bumped into her on the street, she’d usually ask, “So babe, how’s your luck?” 

This is the story of my neighbour 
Well she passed two weeks ago 
She was the Queen of the West End 
She was the Star of Drury Lane 

Solemn notes, but a happy heart 

She’d been here since the forties 
She used to walk King’s Avenue 
And she’d tell me of the children 
who were seen but not heard 

Solemn notes, but a happy heart 

She met John and it was first love 
Kept her shining to the end 
And together they raised a son so strong 
If in spirit, not in flesh. 

Solemn notes, but a happy heart.

ps. Saw Fyfe Dangerfield at the Scala last Thursday, with the mighty Jonny Turbo turning nobs and dials and wotnot. He were bloody brilliant - my hot tip of the week. Oh, and I now need a Gibson E335. 

 

Week 2  - Song 2
Sunday 17th January 2010 - 22:44


Right - just finished the new song. 

I'm pretty nervous about putting this out so soon, however I have to admit I've enjoyed getting it done.

This is one of those songs that keeps pestering me. I find myself playing the main riff a lot, and the melody sticks with me on the tube. 

If I'm honest, I had to fight back fears of it being too saccharine sweet, but I've learnt to stop worrying about such things. Same goes for the lyrics. I find that if you fight too hard to challenge a song as you write it, you can lose the essence from which it started. If that's how it comes out - and it's honest - then just let it flow, man. Like yeah.

ps. You might have noticed I changed music players. That's cos Soundcloud stopped working, and now with Bandcamp you can buy any of these tracks from as little as 50p. I'm going to be rich, you hear me?! RICH!!


Week 1 - 2010 - Song 1. 
Monday 11th January 2010

Happy New Year, my friends!
Welcome to the new site, and hope you all had a good one.

Last year had its ups and downs. On the upside, I managed to record my first solo EP in a real grown-up studio, with a fantastic producer, and some ridiculously talented musicians. Since then, there's been an immense amount of work taking place behind the scenes, and I've spent a lot of time trying to be patient while we try to get the funding for a full album.


At the moment, I genuinely have no idea what's going to happen over the next couple of months, but I've decided to focus on the few elements I can actually control at the moment.

So, it's time for resolutions.

On average, I reckon it takes me anywhere between 1 and 3 years to finish a song. As much as I'd like to believe that this is the inevitable mental and spiritual journey of a tortured artist, I think the main problem is that I procrastinate, and ultimately I'm scared I'm not going to like the end result.

But I'm now more scared that if I keep on waiting for something to happen, I'm never going to finish anything. A lot of last year - actually, the last decade - has been spent waiting. 

So, I think the best thing I can do is get back to that well-worn catalogue of unfinished songs, and force myself to finish them. I'm going to try to produce a song a week, and put it on this web site. At the moment, I have to say I find that a terrifying idea.

I've played the above song in an half-finished state quite a few times at gigs, and I'm going to dedicate it to the new flat we've just moved into. We've moved from number 19 to number 18. And now I have a room for all my guitars and cables. This song's to Insomnia - and Balham High Road.

Speak soon,

xL