The Worm Turns…

     Bonjour mon ami! And welcome to the show. I mean blog. A little bit of backtracking from last week’s mention of the new 2000black CD. Mr MM Black posted a blog on his Myspace to announce that the European release will be very soon and that we should all hold out and support the label by buying that one, not the Japanese one. I offer my full support by withdrawing any help in obtaining the Japanese issue and can only ask you all to do the same. I wasn’t aware they were going to release it here too, so now I know, I think we should all wait. It will only be another month or two, and the financial support  going straight to the label more than makes up for some impatient people having to have it first. So play the game and support your local musicians, especially those as talented as Messrs Mcfarlane and Tatham.

       So, into the now. It’s here! The summer is officially here! We have had the longest day, Euro 2008 and Wimbledon are firing through their sporting motions, and most importantly, the sun is coming out to play. I’m not sure I have felt so positive and happy for a while.

    Having had a good run of gigs this weekend in Belfast and Oslo, I have just sorted and completed a six month pile of personal admin, a remix for Nathan Haines, and all of my organisation for The Garden Festival in Croatia, which I leave for on Monday.  (This will result in a little summer blog break folkd. But I am sure you are busy too, what with all the festivals, sport and sunbathing.)

        Yep, sun up in they sky, you know how I feel?  I am feeling good. I even enjoyed watching some football over the weekend, Italy vs Spain, on my day off in Oslo with my wonderful host and friend, DJ Sunshine. In the faux Irish pub where we viewed the match, I actually found myself cheering along with the assortment of tourists as the Spanish eventually won on penalties. Now I am not a regular in sport pubs, but I was terribly impressed by the sheer amount of screens around the various rooms. It was incredible. One large wall had six screens on. You could sit facing your friends around the table, yet still be able to see a screen from three possible angles. Incredible. And the atmosphere was impressive too. Not the thuggish, drunken atmosphere of the English pub match, just a genuinely interested and excited buzz of football fans. I’m sure some of them were supporting Italy,  but I believed most to be supporting Spain, largely convinced by the hilariously loud Spaniards swearing in a particularly excited group. But it just goes to show how quickly I can forget how much an Italian influence there is prevalent in Bedford, how many of my friends are Italian and how much more I love Italy, it’s food, culture and cities, than Spain. I just forgot it all and wanted Spain to win, like everyone else it seemed. Maybe it was just the atmosphere, maybe I am just easily suggestible. Of course though, the most likely explanation is that sadly, I was drunk again.

     It is now just over three weeks until I am thirty years old. You may wonder if I am having any kind of crisis. Well I am currently on a diet and worrying about my increasingly bare scalp. So that’s a yes then. You may send your donations for my retirement fund to the treble o Ithink store. In return I will give you some MP3s. Sound fair? Then do it, you donut!  The Sub Ensemble ep will be available at the start of July. Who hoo!

     But anyway, keep it upbeat. I have had a few meetings about ideas for projects over the coming year, and I am feeling excited about making some new music. I think it’s important now to be as freestyle as possible, and take risks and generally opt for the road less travelled. Maybe that football incident proves I am not as unique as I think? But do I know this. In these hard times for us all in the specialist music business, we need to increase interest in us all to stay afloat. And the only way to do that is to make the music we put out really, really good. No more generic broken beat or copies of copies of copies. We need to make something truly unique to get attention now. I am focused and ready. And I hope any open-minded singers or musicians out there who want to work with me on this will get in touch. There is a war going on out there people, and we need to make a stand. Join me!

     So till whenever I get time to do this next, take care of yourselves, and each other.