101 "favourite" tracks - No 21-30

21. Captain Beefheart, Sheriff of Hong Kong

I had assumed that I would only have one entry per artist / band, but here is the one exception. With Big-eyed beans from Venus already chosen, I have found it impossible to put this track just as an alternate. Everything the Magic band was about is in this track, clearly focused on the various crossing rythmns. Quite breathtaking in my view

Alternates: Any one of 20 others

22. Cat Powers, Wild is the Wind

I first came across Cat Power about five or six years ago when the album What would the Community think? came out. I was hugely impressed by this as I was by the earlier albums that I picked up soon after. Then there were all the stories about wierd concert performances, which I was able to see for myself on the tour promoting You are free. I am actually not that big a fan of the two Covers records, yet my all time favorite Cat Power track is from the first covers cd, a version of an old Nina Simone song. That she has removed almost all the notes and slowed it down to a fraction of the original speed, is what makes it so special.

I am also a big fan of her ultra-rare DVD, Speaking for Trees. This has a couple of great videos of early tracks. I was not keen on the recent Memphis Blues albums (except for Love and Communication), but maybe there are hints in the most recent performances of a move back to the stripped down shows of old.

Alternates: Evolution, Love and Communication, You are free, Nude as the news, Keep on runnin', etc.

23. Charalambides, Naked on our Deathskins

A band about whom I know virtually nothing, other than that Christina Carter is on a Thurston Moore solo cd. This track comes from a compilation Cd called Harmony of the Spheres, that also features the great guitarist, Loren Mazzacane Connors. I always like tracks that open with long instrumental sections, and this features around 10 minutes of a beautiful guitar solo before the brief verse of vocals and the long drone that ends it the track after 19:40

This is not the longest single track in this list though



24. Cinerama, London

A mark of a great cover version is that, firstly, it stands on its own and expands the original, and, second, that it makes you hear the original in some new way. Both these features apply to this track, a cover of a track by The Smiths, by David Gedge of The Wedding Present. It was the B-side of the Manhattan single and I totally love the radio interference that features through the middle break of the track.

The rare event - a cover version that is better than the original

25. Les Claypool, Rumble of the Diesel

Someone I mainly picked up on from live concert downloads, I really loved the version of Claypool's Fancy Band with Gabby La La on sitar. Many of the tracks that I had come to love before her appearance were dramatically improved by her contributions. But she seems to not be in the current version of the band, which is rather disappointing. What has happened to her?

Some years back, I bought a ticket to the Bonaroo festival in the USA in part because of Claypool being on the bill. I still have plans to go to an American festival, just not sure which one and not sure when.



26: Cocteau Twins, Musette and Drums

For a brief period in 1983 and 1984 I thought that Cocteau Twins were the peak of what it would ever be possible to achieve in music. The two stupendous Peel Sessions of 1983 were my most-listened to cassettes, Garlands was a great debut while Head over Heels was my favourite cd of all time for a couple of years. I saw them a dozen times in concert with time they totally blew away OMD at Hammersmith, the Sadlers' Wells residency and the Royal Festival Hall as obvious highpoints. I even drove back twice from a work job in Windsor so I could see all the Sadlers Wells shows

But then it all went so wrong. Treasure was ok, but after that they moved into this fluffy, lullaby sort of sound which I really hated. They should have stuck to their Siouxsie and the Banshee roots in my view. Indeed I don't even knwo anything about releases after Victorialand. And clearly Musette and Drums is not fluffy at all

Alternates: Tinderbox of the Heart, Dear Heart, Hearsay Please

27: Loren Mazzacone Connors, In cushman's row

Someone I know through Wire Magazine and whose guitar work has continued to marvel me for the last few years. And for some while I thought he was female! This track comes from the cd,9th Avenue, and is a semi-live recording. If I could play guitar, I would like to be able to play like this

Alternates: More or less anything!

28: The Cure, All cats are grey

From my depressed late-teenager years, released when I was 18 and a firm favourite among the more alternative music people at school. Why listen to Judas Priest or The Scorpions, when there was this available. Of course you eventually grow out of this phase, though it stayed a while I must say. The follow up, Pornography, was also one of my favourites for some while and I loved the show from that tour that I saw at Hammersmith Odeon - the show when the support was the film, Carnage Visors, which the superb track that you got on the cassette version of the Faith album.

I hated the "whimsical" Cure that came soon after, but clearly Bloodflower and Disintegration from years later are stupendous records.

Alternates: Cold, Siamese Twins, The same deep water as you

29: Current 93, Neimandswasser

I was surprised to discover the other week that I have over 20 Current 93 cds. Yet I would guess that virtually no one has heard of them. A prime example of a musician (David Tibet) who has been able to create a large body of fine work with basically little or no media exposure. My favourite cd is Sleep has its house, which is actually quite distinct from the usual material, based around arrangements for the harmonium, and from which this track comes.

I'm always keen to find out what he does next and have just purchased Nature Unveiled and Honeysuckle aons, neither of which I know anything about, but which I am already excited to here.

One of my most listened to recordings this last year has been a relatively poor quality bookleg of the Current 93 at the Forum in London. Extremely simple song arrangements, gradually building in intensity for each of the 14 tracks. A fine performance, if not a great recording.



30: Danielle Dax, Pariah

I saw Danielle Dax perform in the band The lemon Kittens just after I came to London and it was pretty odd. A friend of mine that I used to exchange bootleg tapes with was the drummer in Shockheaded Peters, formed by one of the members of Lemon Kittens after the breakup, and of whom John Peel once said their first single had "no redeeming qualities whatsoever".

Pariah is from Danielle Dax's very odd album, Jesus egg that wept. The video is really low quality, but that somehow makes it so good - see youtube for details

From the extraordinary video for Pariah

101 "favourite" tracks - Nos 11-20

More accurately, 101 tracks by my favourite bands

11. Blonde Redhead, U.F.O.

I first came across Blonde Redhead via the emusic.com website where they were listed as being similar to early Sonic Youth. This is true, or at least it was then, the band having adopted a far more melodic sound for the last three albums. And while it is true that they did sound virtually identical to early Sonic Youth, I don't see this as a bad thing. As always, I am very taken by the idea of Japanese female vocalists in rocks bands

U.F.O is from the album La Mia Vita Violenta and is one of the albums I got from emusic.com. Soon after, a new album, Misery is a Butterfly, saw a radical departure from the earlier sound. That said, I thought the track Melody was exceptional and I nearly picked that. I do quite like the new style of the band, but I really love the raw, older sound.

I saw Blonde Redhead in concert at the tiny club next door to the Astoria in London on their tour for the Misery album - and very good it was too. Recent bootleg recordings have also contained a track called (We are a real team) Harry and I which I don't think has been recorded and which features a long droning last few minutes which I really like


Alternates: Melody, (We are a real team) Harry and I

12. Boards of Canada, Amo Bishop Roden

I know relatively little about Boards of Canada, other than that they are Scottish duo and there were stories of them living on some sort of commune, or is that someone else.

I have most of their cds, but this is the one outstanding track for me, from their e.p In a beautiful place out in the country. It is a repeating electronic melody made from a really dense sound, coupled with a light rythmn track. No doubt it is the repetition that attracted me - 6:16 of the same repeating loops. Quite beautiful

Years ago, a female radio one DJ (Mary Ann Hobbs perhaps) played a track that she said was called Poppy fields by Boards of Canada. This was quite breathtaking, but I have never been able to find it as a recording. So maybe it wasn't them at all

Alternate: Poppy Fields (if it is by them)

13. Bongwater, Celebrity Compass

What is there to not like about Bongwater - postmodernism meets music. Their crowning glory is their last album before they broke up in acrimony. Strange stories from Ann Magnusson, weird music from Kramer, the overriding obsession with celebrity and fame. And a photo of Ann Magnusson's cleavage on the back of the cd which John Peel famously described as being ok because it was being done in an ironic way.

There are four or five other Bongwater CDs, all of which I have and which also have many fine moments, but none have the internal coherance of this entire cd. I was quite upset when they broke up feeling there was still something great to come from them.

And who can resist a track that starts "Someone gave me a celebrity compass / its just like a regular compass but instead of pointing north, it points the direction of the nearest celebrity / a friend and I used it to find the way to the Zeppelin party".

I saw them once in concert, at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. A very odd show I remember.

Alternates: The Big Sell Out, and perhaps two dozen others from their various albums

14. Boris, Feedbacker

Boris have been the band I have listened to most over the last few years. An amazing body of work, summarized in some sense by the way my ipod describes their tracks as either alternate, metal, drone, doom, ambient, noise, sludge, experimental, stoner rock, metal rock or psychedelic rock - that does just about sum them up I suppose.

Feedbacker has just about all of these in one glorious 35 minute long track. Part 2 is the crux of the piece, Wata's superb wah-wah guitar track getting more and more out of control as the volume is cranked up, but remaining a quite beautiful piece.

Part 4 is just feedback and I once read a comment on it that it was not needed, but without Part 4, Part 5 wouldn't make sense.

I have a DVD of them performing Feedbacker at a concert in New York. Stupendous.

The band I most want to see live

Alternates: Just abandoned, Untitled (from Smile)

15. Bulgarian Voices, Pilentze sings

Another Peel show find after 4AD release Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. What an odd release that was - something you could not even imagine would exist. Of course you never really know what they are singing about and there is always the suspicion that it might be something really silly rather than the deep and profound spiritual truths that the sound seems to communicate. As Peel said, for all we know, it could be "I am yearning for you, dancing pool, my arms, my arms" But it probably isn't this

Alternates: The Wedding

16. Kate Bush, Get out of my House

From her "mad" cd, The Dreaming, comes this strange, wild and totally out of control track. A huge rythmn pounds away throughout (the joys of the Fairlight?), odd lyrics and an ending featuring donkey noises.

I have always considered this CD her best, though I once read that it only sold about 60,000 copies compared to the 1m+ of the previous albums. That is very possible. I have a vinyl copy signed "To Jonathan, Lots of love, Kate x x x" Why I have this is a secret!

Alternates: A Coral Room, Mrs Bartolozzi, Hello Earth, The Kick Inside, Symphony in Blue, The Infant Kiss, Breathing, The Sensual World, etc

17. Cabaret Voltaire, Three Mantras

I was never a great fan of Cabaret Voltaire, but this is exceptional in my view. A pounding electronic beat, fuzzy amped keyboards, a repeating main motive, indistinct vocals. I first heard it when my friend Jude played it to me at her house one summers day at extreme volume when her parents were out.

I did go and see them a few times in concert as I rather liked the backing films and light show. Best show was at the time of Just Fascination - a more commercial cd and not bad in my view.


18. Calexico, Gero Canelo

Another band I first heard on Peel. Though I have most of their CDs, I have tended to mostly listen to Calexico via live recordings, for which there are a lot in existence. Linda and me saw them at the Zodiac in Oxford a couple of years ago and there were everything I had hoped for.

I just love the Mariachi themes they have incorporated into their alt.country music. A few years ago they toured with a full Mariachi band (as per the video of them at the London Barbican).

There are loads of great version of this track live, in contrast to the rather low-key version of it on the Feast of Wire CD. My favourite is from a German radio show where they have several guests including some Maricahi musicians and an amazing female vocalist. It is the final track from the show and is just wonderful

Alternates: Minas de Cobre

19. Can, Oh Yeah

I also tend to listen to Can via live recordings, especially those featuring long improvisations. But Tago Mago, from which this track comes, is perhaps the most improvised of their albums. It is the sort of record that if I don't hear it for a while, I am really stunned by when I do hear it again.

I started listening to Can when I lived in Leytonstone and one of my friends nearby had half a dozen of their records - Steve Cleary had very good taste, also liking The Fall and John Cale's solo albums. But he wasn't keen on this record for some reason, instead prefering Soon over Babaluma, and it was some years later before I heard it.

My favourite live recordings of Can contain some tracks which are long improvisations based on tiny bits of other tracks. I remember one that was about 15 minutes long and based on just 10 or 15 seconds of the track Quantum Physics. Amazing virtuosity.


Alternates: Quantum Physics

20. Captain Beefheart, Big eyed beans from Venus

Another Peel favourite - the only artist who Peel has ever played an album of one track a night for several weeks (Trout Mask replica, of course). A track that often featured in Peel's all-time festive fifty (when he did them) and I always used to think that perhaps he cheated to include it each time, especially when it came 14th one time. But it is most remarkable track

I saw the Magic Band play in Oxford a few years ago - not bad I thought. Their version of this was extremely good (as their live cd showed). I shook Gary Lucas's hand at the end of the set as they finished this track. Never thought I'd ever do that.

Alternate: Moonlight on Vermont

Fishing trip to Bushyleaze

It has been at least two years since I last went fishing at Bushyleaze, my favourite of the local trout fly fisheries. Indeed the last couple of years have been marked by the distinct absence of fishing - odd since it remains an activity that I really enjoy doing.

The last week or two have been incredibly hot and sunny in the UK - the hottest Easter since records began . . . With Linda and Emma away in Spain for the week, I have a chance to do a few different things, but Jerome's child-related timings are not great and so I was somewhat restricted in which days I could go this week. So with the change of weather to overcast and cloudy, I figured this might be the best chance to get out.

There were about 20 other fisherman who had the same idea as me. Though the lady in the ticket office said it had been fishing ok in the sunny weather, fisherman numbers were sharply up with the cloud cover. But at the lake itself, things were mixed. On the one hand, people were generally catching a few fish each, but on the other, there was virtually no surface activity. One angler suggested the cool northly wind was keeping fly activity down. As I had intended to fish near the surface, this was a bit disappointing.

So I settled initially in the big bay at the southern tip of the lake, fishing two nymphs - a dawl bach and a buzzer. One problem immediately was that the fly line was rather grubby and was neither casting well nor floating clearly - time for a new one I think. Changing to a different line had the problem that the line-leader attachment had given way and the leader had to be attached via a standard know, which then kept snagging when I cast. I really should have checked the kit better before deciding on the trip!

Nonetheless, I was encouraged by the two fish caught in quick succession by the guy next to me (fishing suspended buzzer) and after about 45 minutes fishing a fish showed on the surface near me, I covered it well and two seconds later had hooked it - a nice opener of about 3lbs.

Things go a bit quiet and I moved round to the west side of the bay where one or two fish are showing. In response, I have switched to a red hopper on the top dropper just in case I can persuade a fish to rise to a dry. But instead the second fish comes to the Dawl Bach on the point, a very nice take which is indicated by the hopper disappearing quickly.

A break for drinks and some chocolate and then a concentrated attempt at the three or four fish that seem to be regularly showing near me (with breaks for tackle untangling which I gradually find more and more annoying - and which I find that my deteriorating eye sight doesn't help either!).

Perhaps around 5:30 (I have no watch with me) I get my third fish, a much better fish of around 4lbs which also takes the nymph. So three fish and still the chance of an evening rise. However this doesn't happen, indeed the little fish activity there had been dies away and though I fished on till 8:00, no other fish are caught.

I could perhaps have gone fishing again this Friday, but the tackle repairs I need to make might stop this. I will have to root through all the old tackle and see if I can find a line-leader attachment, or maybe I have some high breaking strain line and could do a needle knot (like we used to do in the 70s). Either way, I do need to be prepared better for next time.

I have also become better at gutting fish - taking just 10 mins to do all three tonight and get them in the freezer. Not a bad size for cooking either.

101 "favourite" tracks - Numbers 1-10

Recently I have been looking at quite a few music-related lists on the internet - things like the 50 greatest psychedelic tracks of all time, the 1001 albums you must hear before you die, that sort of thing. And I have begun to wonder what my list of all-time favourite tracks might look like.

But on reviewing my ipod and cd collection, etc, I was struck by the fact that I probably had more than 100 favourite bands. So instead of my all-time favourite tracks, I have been composing a list based on favourite bands. In most cases, this gives a maximum of 1 track per band so my list is not really my favourite songs as such - more a list of my favourite track by that favourite band. And one or two bands / artists do get two

I had thought of compiling the list in terms of the order I heard the tracks, or maybe strict chronological, or as an actual favourites list. but in the end I have settled on alphabetical, to emphasize that the list itself is not in order

So here goes

1. Abba, The Name of the Game

I remember Abba winning Eurovision! And then the sequence of hits singles that followed. But gradually there seemed to be a growing seriousness in their music, an underlying existential angst hidden under the near perfect pop sensibility. And this is best seen on The Name of the Game, a track that embodied for me, the bewilderment of growing up.

Abba went out of fashion in the early 1980s and I remember taking rather a lot of stick from acquaintances to whom I would expound my Abba theories. But of course it has all rather swung the other way now, with Abba perhaps more popular that ever.

Us teenage boys in the late 1970s spent much time arguing about who was the most attractive of the Abba girls. I usually prefer brunettes, but in the case of Abba, it was Agnetta who gets my vote.

An I am one of the few people to have seen Abba in concert, seeing a show in 1979 on the "Abba: the album" tour. Magnificent versions of Eagle and I'm a marionette I remember

And as the band broke up in the early 1980s, there is the horrow of The day before you came, one of the most extraordinary pop songs ever. And a bleak video to go with it. I continue to maintain that the pure-pop interpretation of Abba is deficient. They rival Camus and Sartre in my view!

Alternates: Knowing me, Knowing you, The Day before you came

2. Amina, Blaskjar

Iceland has produced some amazing music. Bjork of course, her earlier band, The Sugarcubes, the very odd band mum, and, most recently, Sigur Ros and their close associates, Amina. I'm not ure when I first heard them, but it was probably from an article in Wire magazine. As with much Icelandic music, this really does come from a totally different world. Bizarre percussion effects (bells, wine glasses filed with water, metal pipes, etc) combined with a string quartet. Now that is precisely the sort of thing I go for.

I have seen them once in concert, supporting Sigur Ros at Somerset House in London. While most of the audience chatted away as they played, I was totally transfixed. Amazing sounds. This track is from the Animamina e.p. Their two albums are also great. Now this is how a band sound look it seems to me!

Alternates: Skakka

3. Bardo Pond, Every Man

I feel like I have been listening to Bardo Pond for years without really having them leap into my absolute favourites. I have always had a soft spot for blissed out psychedelia and I tended to view Bardo Pond in this light, contrasting them slightly unfavourably with Spacemen 3, Loop, The Telescopes, and other bands I listened to a lot in the early 1980s.

This has changed quite a lot over the last few years, especially since the CD On the Elipse came out. That cd is where this track comes from, but I could have just as easily picked Jd or Night of Frogs. Or perhaps the extraordinary Montana Sacra II from Ticket Crystals or even Cracker Wrist from the recent CD in late 2010. But the blissed out flute and droning guitars is what gets this track selected.

I have never seen Bardo Pond live - one of the few bands I like that I have never seen

Alternates: JD, Montana Sacra II, Cracker Wrist

4. Bats for Lashes, Glass

Not many very recent bands in my list, but I was totally captivated by their performance at Glastonbury a couple of years ago - one of my most-watched music videos

I am greatly impressed by the drumming on this track (as I was on the video). Hence the picture chosen to accompany this entry.

Alternates: Prescilla, Daniel

5. The B-52s, The Devil's in my car

A firm favourite for 30 years now. What is there not to like about the ludicrousness of this band? One of the few bands for whom I have every cd they have issued.

Recently I was watching a video of them at a recent concert and though they are all in their 50s now, it was still great.

The greatest of this track for me is the switch towards the end from feeling it is bad that the devil is in their car, to feeling it is actually pretty good.

Alternates: Give me back my man, Roam, Hot pants explosion

6. The Bhundu Boys, My foolish heart

Clearly my listening to music has been totally dominated by the John Peel show and this is a prime example of a band that I could never have heard without his show. The interplay of the guitars on this track is quite unbelievable - the longer Peel Session version exaggerating this even further.

I saw them in concert in the mid 1980s (?) One of the most fun concerts I have attended. I have no idea what happened to them later on.

7. Big Black, Bazooka Joe.

My American hardcore phase lasted from around 1986 to 1989, during which I first heard Husker Du, the Minutemen, Sonic Youth, The Butthole surfers, and, of course, Big Black.I still have their early vinyl records, though it is years since we had a record player to play them on. What a racket! And I remain a great fan of Steve Albini, being prepared to listen to almost any record he has produced, plus the one Rapeman cd, and Shellac. I even have some old fanzines from the early 1980s that Albini wrote for (Forced Exposure, etc).

I saw their last concert at the Hammersmith Palais in 1987. Stupendous stuff. I saw Rapeman as support for Sonic Youth at the Astoria in 1988 and have seen Shellac several times, most recently at the Scala in King's Cross.

Alternates: lots

8. The Birthday Party, Junkyard

Soon after I moved to London in 1981, I came across music paper reports of The Birthday Party. I went to see them at the Venue in Victoria and then again at the Electric ballroom. Two amazing live shows. The combination of complex literary lyrics and the sheer noise of the band was totally amazing. I could pick a dozen favourite Birthday Party tracks - always the sign of a great band.

Alternates: King Ink, Loose (a cover of the Stooges song on the Drunk on the Pope's Blood ep)


9. Bjork, Pagan Poetry.

I actually don't really have a favourite Bjork track. It is more the manner in which she has developed her career that continues to really interest me. She asks a great deal of her audience to follow her where she is heading, and it is a great testimony to her that she seems to reatain their support.

Her box set of live shows is one of my favourite live albums, as are the associated videos of the live shows. I saw a recent live show of hers on tv and this programme has been my most played tv show of the last couple of years.

Alternates: Probably at least a couple of dozen others

10. Black Sabbath, Snowblind

Growing up in the 70s, it was hard to avoid heavy metal music, though it was not my favourite. By the time I started to go to concerts, the earliest bands had pretty much finished and there ws the next generation - bands like Judas Priest, the Scorpions, and so on.

But the first four Black Sabbath albums have remained firm favorites over the years. No one was heavier! I saw a post-Ozzy Black Sabbath show once. It was definitely not the same without him.

Alternates: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, NIB

Kristin Hersh and Throwing Muses

My main non-work related reading recently has been Kristin Hersh's biography Paradoxical Undressing. I had thought this was going to be the entire story of the Throwing Muses, but actually it only covers about 15 months when they were first starting out. It focuses on her bi-polar condition and the many this tied in with the music they were producing at the time.

I first heard the Muses on Peel in about 1986 when the first album came out and there have been part of the soundtrack to my life ever since. I saw them live on the tour they did with the Pixies (when they were supposed to be the headliners, but switched mid tour). I associate dozens of events with TM songs! Our holiday in the Lake District when Emma was a baby is always associated with the track Dizzy for instance. University and Limbo are two of my favourite overall albums.

When they seemed to call it a day in 1996, citing financial difficulties in keeping the band going, I was actually really quite upset. So when they toured again in 2003, I was really pleased and perhaps have never enjoyed a live show as much as that one. Another album then appeared in 2009 and they did some more shows, including a great show that appeared on tv from the Primavera festival in Spain

The version of "Pearl" from the last show I saw is one of the highlights of my musical life!

The lovely Kristin and her unique fashion sense (below)

Throwing Muses - the classic line up. Tanya, Leslie, Kristin and David

Emma's visit home and off to Spain

Emma is back for a flying visit before she and Linda depart from Spain for their week together at a fitness retreat. We haven't seen much of her recently, and it is nice to have her around the house again.

I find myself rather jealous of Linda for having a week away with Emma. There have been the odd mention of perhaps she and I having a trip to, maybe, the Lake District, but I suspect that might not happen. Oddly enough, it seems that as Emma gets older, my role in her life drops more and more away

And such thoughts inevitably lead to a sense of melancholy - which will no doubt continue while they are away.

To London, for daughter's birthday

Emma's birthday is a normal working day for her, so we are off to London for the evening.

Pre-meal, we spend some time in Fortnum and Mason's, firstly in the downstair's bar for Linda and Emma to have cocktails, then to the chocolate counter where we buy a selection for the moderately reasonable price of £1 each.

Then off to Quaglino's, which Emma discovered on a work's event and really likes. I have been there a couple of times before, but not for over 10 years. It looks pretty much the same to me, though I didn't see any cigarette girls who were a feature of it when I was there in the distant past.

The meal seems fine to me, but Linda and Emma both send their starters back for having an un-advertised rather odd cheese topping. Emma seems to have a nice time and things seem to be going well at work, so that's all good.

Quite a contrast to last year's week away in New York.

3 days in the Lakes - not a success

Wednesday

A switch round of work responsibilities enabled me to depart one day early for my short trip to the Lakes. I wish it hadn't!

This trip was to be the next step in assessing my fitness levels after all the sessions in the gym this year. I would park at Dungeon Ghyll, carry a heavy pack up to Stickle Tarn, camp there, ascending Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle, then make my way across to Sty head Tarn for two more nights camping and ascents of various summits in the vicinity. none of this actually happened.

A good journey past Birmingham, but then the first smatterings of rain, which increases in intensity as I make my way into the Lakes. A quick stop off in Ambleside and a weather forecast at the outdoor shop does not make for good reading. Parked at the National Trust car park, the summits of Harrison Stickle and Pavey Ark have disappeared into thick cloud. I decide to have a short nap in the car while I wait to see if an ascent and camp will be possible tonight. But it is actually raining harder and I settle in the Sticklebarn Tavern for a couple of beers, some scampi and chips, and a read of the first 100 pages of Ivars Peterson's The Jungles of Randomness in which the discussion of Ramsey theory leads to some doubts about the entire trading programme.

There are not many customers this evening - maybe a dozen or so. A couple of family groups and some climbers. One of the mothers was the sort of person that some people would refer to with the charmless phrase as a "Milf".

There are two fantastic photos of the Langdale Pikes on the wall - one, a winter panorama, is quite exceptional. All the while, the rain pours down. And so, night one is spent in the car, attempting to sleep across the back seat.

The Langdale Pikes - the winter panorama from the wall of the Sticklebarn Tavern

Thursday

A mixed night's sleep. Awake on a couple of occasions, in part from the sound of rain on the Land Rover roof. The Langdales are still shrounded in thick cloud, but I hatch a new plan to travel round to Borrowdale and, if the wearther clears, ascend to Sty Head from that side and use that as my base for the next two nights as per the original plan.

This seems to have something going for it initally as the drive up towards Keswick reveals some summits are clear of cloud - but a lot aren't!

A typical scene this morning - low cloud higging the hills

Parked at Seathwaite, there seems some grounds for optimism with the nearby hills clear of low cloud and even some blue sky. But the area I am planning to walk into still looks pretty poor. Nonetheless, I decide to carry to heavy pack with all my stuff in it. Perhaps 15-20 kgs in total, and a good fitness test on the 2000ft of ascent to Sty Head Tarn

Lots of other climbers about as well. An arrival much later would have made it hard to park at Seathwaite. Progress is slow of course - I am taking it pretty easy at the start. But actually the carry goes quite well. One rest after the step bit above Stockley Bridge and then on to Sty Head.

The best photo from my trip - taking photos at your feet does avoid the cloud

But things take a turn for the worse as I approach Sty Head as I hit the heavy cloud. Visibility is down to about 5m and the air is heavy with dampness. This is not good at all. A brief stop at Sty Head tarn to assess the situation, and a new plan. Iwill retreat back to the car and drive through Honister down to Buttermere. There are some lower mountains there - perhaps I can do something there instead. The three miles back to the car with the heavy pack are quite hard work, it must be said. And the cafe at the Honister Slate mine is very disappointing.

My best photo of Sty Head Tarn!

The clear view back to Seathwaite - the other way is thick cloud

At Buttermere I notice several things. Firstly, there is quite a nice campsite where I can stay tonight. Secondly, one of the pubs is still serving toasted sandwiches. And thirdly, the summits of Pillar and High Stile are clear. So I am soon back on the hills, but not with the heavy pack, and I am able to get to the top of Pillar in a couple of hours. By now the effect of the morning's walk with the heavy pack is beginning to really kick in and the descent back to camp is not fast. But at least I have now done a mountain, even if it is not the one I intended to do.

I spend the evening stretched out by my tent with views of Lake Buttermere. All very nice. Reading is Tom Hodgkinson's How to be Idle and a bit of Grumbach's 50 days of Solitude by the light of my head torch. Probably asleep by about 8:30. But I did resist spending the night in the pub

Friday

The cloud seems heavier this morning and the forecast is worse. Low cloud to stay most of the day. My chosen mountain today is Haystacks - Wainwright's favourite and supposedly where his ashes are scattered (by Innominate Tarn). I am suprised to be asked directions as I start the walk up, from three ladies who want to follow in the footsteps of Julia Bradbury, who climbed Haystacks on a tv show apparently.

How Haystacks might have looked

And how it did look - the summit crags from the approach to Scarpe Gap - towards the right edge of the nice picture above

It is raining in the cloud near the top which is not pleasant but at least I get a second summit. And with this I have decided to return to Oxford. The weather forecast is slightly better for tomorrow, but I have been thinking lots about work stuff and am keen to get back to look at some of this

The view towards Green Crag from below Haystacks. Oddly enough, this summit was free of cloud throughout my ascent of Haystacks. Clearly I should have done this one instead

The M6 has a huge traffic jam just south of Crewe - 22 miles of slow moving traffic and a 90 minute delay. I am home by around 8:00

A big disappointment this trip. Very few bright spots. But at least I was fit enough to the walks, so that's something I suppose.

Preparations for another trip to the Lake District

A possible window has opened for another quick trip up to the Lake District. Just me this time and two nights camping. I would leave on the Thursday, return on the Saturday. With Jerome's various children related things and his forthcoming operation, I have worked out that this is only possible gap that I could do this in until some time in June.

I am very keen to test whether I can carry a large pack and all the various things I need to stay out for a couple of days. This is the next stage in my very distant planning for a major climbing trip in, perhaps, 2013. Progress towards this far-off goal has been good so far. The gym is going well and our recent Lake District walking went ok, once I was past the first hour (and started burning fat)

So I reckon it is essential to take this opportunity and I am now actively planning possible routes and meal schedules.

Two hard sessions at the gym

Sunday

A 7:30 start at the gym. No food beforehand, so the chance of fatigue early, but actually things go very well. This week's target is 200 lengths of the pool across 4 visits. Today I planned to utilize the psychological trick of breaking the target down. 40 lengths would be fine, after whick I would work in blocks of 10, then 6, then 4 and see how far I could go. In the end, I managed the astounding figure of 80 lengths, a new record.

Moreover, I then followed that up with burning 500 calories in 30m 30s on the cross trainer. Far and away the best gym session since I restarted six weeks ago
Then, this afternoon, as Linda and Emma (back for Mother's day) shopped, I did a 90 min walk round Oxford (perhaps 4 to 5 miles). So even more exercise

Monday

The pool is closed from Wednesday for maintenance, so my 200 length target depended on doing 60 lengths today. For whatever reason, it didn't feel so good today and I was going really slowly by 40 lengths. But after a Snickers bar, I was then able to burn 750 calories on the cross trainer taking 47 mins, helped on by playing PJ Harvey on my ipod.

A possible second Lake District trip

There is a chance that I might be able to go camping for a couple of nights in the Lake District in a couple of weeks time. The current plan:

Thursday. Drive to Langdale. Carry kit to Stickle Tarn and set up camp. Ascend Pavey Ark by Jakes Rake and Harrison Stickle that evening.

Friday. Either descend to Dungeon Ghyll for breakfast and return to Stickle tran, or have breakfast at tarn. Break camp. Cross over to Sty head tarn for second night's camp. Sunset ascent of Great Gable.

Saturday. Cross to Esk Hause and Sprinkling tarn. Ascent of Bowfell and descent via the Band. Depart and home late afternoon So need to carry camping stuff plus food and drink for 3/4 meals. Hopefully less that 20kg pack. But a good test of how my fitness is progressing

Sprinkling Tarn - perhaps my favourite place in the Lake District - with Great Gable behind

Laura Nyro

The wonders of the random shuffle feature on my ipod threw up a record I hadn't heard for ages today - Lyra Nyro's Christmas and the Beads of sweat cd. This is loaded down with great tracks such as Up on the roof, Upstairs by a Chinese lamp, Map to the Treasure, Christmas in my soul - a truly amazing record which I have loved listening to the last couple of days.

I remember reading a really good biography about her 5 or 6 years ago. In many ways, she had a really poignant life what with the inability to have a hit record of her own while dozens of others had hits with her songs, and then the cancer she suffered from. I am surprised to discover that I have 9 cds of her music - they are sure to be listened to carefully over the next few days

One of the all-time great records

My other favourite of her records

A relatively late photo - she was a most striking looking person I always thought

Growing up in Kenilworth

I have been thinking a lot these past few days about growing up in Kenilworth. I generally look back on it pretty well - it certainly wasn't the worst place to grow up. But like perhaps all people looking back on their teenage years, there are plenty of moments of some embarrassment. For instance, the other day, I heard a recording of a song I sang in the 1977 gang show - now it would be pretty awful to see a video of that!

But I do look back with some regrets about things. Mostly this is the common teenage sense of bewilderment about social things, the lack of confidence, etc. I am pretty sure I was quite an odd teenager, even in comparison with the general view of odd teenagers.

One area that I feel excruciating embarrassment about relates to girls. I was such an idiot in this respect! I seemed to feel that it was always going to be an uphill battle to persuade a girl to go out with me. It is only in the last ten years or so - as my own daughter has passed through her teenage years - that I have realised that girls probably put far more effort into trying to get a boy than boys do, a girl.

So I think back now to Alison Griffith's efforts to hook me up with Rachel Sharman in the summer of 1978. I was reminded of this last weekend by having driven past the outward bound centre near Lakeside in the Lake District where we all went that July. I had little idea what was going on through that period and am really embarrassed to this day by the thought of what Rachel went through to attract my attention!

But I suspect most people have some regrets about this sort of thing looking back 30 years later!

One other area that I look back rather fondly on is the time I worked at the Bear and Ragged Staff Pub / restaurant. This came about quite by accident. At our first physics lesson of the lower sixth, I happened to sit next to Kevin Bornstein. Our teacher was late (indeed he didn't arrive at all) and Kevin and I talked about music for much of the lesson. This continued as we finished school and set off home, during which Kevin said that he worked at the Bear as a kitchen assistant, but wanted to move to bar work. He had been told to find a replacement and would I like to be it. I would only need to stay a few weeks so Kevin was established behind the bar, but I then stayed 16 months. Kevin left after a few months as he was under 18 and too young to serve behind the bar.

here were some great people working at the Bear. The old chef, George, who made the delicious pate we served and who died of a heart attack one day at work. The two younger chefs, Dean and Rob. I became really good friends with Dean before he left to join the RAF. I knew Rob from scouts already - he was only a couple of years older than me and we had both starred in this one routine in the Gang Show when I dressed as a jockey and he was a football referee. He was a typical "bad boy", referred to several of the waitresses as "piss flaps", which resulted in them all thinking he was wonderful.

Then, of course, there were the waitresses. Several younger than me - Debbie, Heather, Jane and Cheryl - one or two of my age and slightly older - Sarah, Sue - and one or two older ones - who, for some reason, their names have now slipped my mind.

Of the younger ones, I thought Heather Mouselle was totally gorgeous, but sadly she was one of the girls who was totally captivated by Rob. I also liked Jane Woodward a lot, but she seemed to be teased by the others the whole time. I had two "romantic evenings" with Sarah Buchan, who seemed to like me more than perhaps I liked her, and I was rather mean to her. And then there was Sue Steven - possibly the most gorgeous girl I have ever been friends with. She stared in the film I made one Easter and is still the person with whom I have had the longest telephone conversation - 3 3/4 hours. She went off to study at RADA with the aim of becoming an actress and I have no idea what happened to her after that.

And so many amazing times there. The night the restaurant burnt down while I was working (!), the two Christmas parties, the night we were nearly snowed in, Royal Show week, when average weekday numbers shot up from 15-20 to 150 a night and we were paid double time. And I was so rich as a six former earning £20 a week from my 3 shifts (the equivalent of around £100 a week now).

Finally about Kenilworth, I have been reading Barry Miles' book Hippies recently and have been reminded of Kenilworth's very own hippy, the extraordinarily-named Humphrey Omashire. He and I were in the scouts together (he was a couple of years older than me) and he is the person who first introduced me to drugs - an evening of LSD and way-out music at his house So Kenilworth was quite an interesting place after all!
Kenilworth Castle - our town's main cultural feature. In 1975, I dressed up as a Yoeman of the Guard to commemorate Elizabeth I's visit, 400 years earlier (as noted in the Walter Scott novel) The Bear and Ragged Staff - where I worked for 15 months in 1979 to 1981. Scene of many of my happiest memories of growing up

Gill Jowers - photographer??

After posting the entry about Gill Jowers, I found myself wondering what might be on the internet about her. This threw up her Facebook page (which I had already found from my own Facebook account) and also a possible Flickr page. This noted that "photographer Gill" lives in Warwick and worked in local government, so it could be the same Gill Jowers. Either way, the photos are superb, so much better than my own efforts recently. Clearly a serious bird photographer, long lens (500mm?), wide aperture so small depth of field, very good focusing. Yes, a very nice set of pictures

Examples of Gill Jowers' photography - but is it the same Gill Jowers?

Comments on my Blog

For the first time in ages I have reviewed some of the comments people have made on my blog. I tend to assume that no one actually reads my blog but it is clear than some people do stumble across it from time to time - mainly by doing various web searches it would seem.

Most recently, a brief "thank you" from the musician Jarboe who I mentioned a few week's ago in connection with the Swans tour that was then taking place. This brief comment prompts me to listen to her albums Sacrificial Cake, Thirteen Masks, A Mystery of Faith and Men today. Her work is a thing of great beauty and is something I return to again and again.

And with some surprise, I come across three comments on the post I made year's ago after I had a look on Friends Reunited - I hadn't seen any of these before today. My favourite is the one from Gill Jowers. I am really surprised to have heard from her. And as I said in my original post (and the reply to the comments), I have nothing but fond memories of Gill. I remember once persuading my parents to go for a meal at the Portofino restaurant where Gill worked, but she wasn't working that night! And what about the time she overdid it on a sunbed and was a deep red colour for many days. But in the main, I just remember the two of us trying to do physics and maths A level together, paired up for physics practicals, comparing answers to homework and so on. They were very happy days. I hope things have worked out well for her in the 30 years since then - amazing, 30 years!

(Addendum - some time later. And it turns out there is a Gill Fletcher (nee Jowers) on Facebook who was at Kenilworth school in 1981 so it is definitely her! There is a photo of her which I might just about have recognised her from. Nice to put a picture to the name after all these years. I did ponder on it, but I don't think I am going to contact her via Facebook. She is doing an MSc at Uni - good for her!)

The other comments are from Ian Tebby, who seems not to know who I am at all though I knew him quite well, and Chris Deakin, who I don't remember well at all. And I do wonder what happened to Huw Davies who I exchanged some photos with and had a 3 hour phone call with soon after the original blog appeared in 2008 but silence since then.

I really must try and find out what my blog readership has actually been. I use the blog now instead of writing a diary (which I did fairly consistently from about 1977 to 2006 - hence perhaps why I remember the past so well) but I have no aspirations to acquire an actual readership. Perhaps I will post a random diary entry from 1980 or so - or would that be too embarrassing?

The very last "Two and a half Men" - No more Rose?

The last two episodes of Two and a Half Men were screened last night. It was not intended that these would be the last, but Charlie Sheen's problems have seen filming curtailed, perhaps for good. Indeed, as we have watched the last half dozen shows, it has been apparent that Charlie has been featuring less and less in them. Perhaps it will continue without him? The highlight of the show for me was always the character Rose. She was not in many of the episodes - perhaps a third - but always had the best lines. I have always enjoyed bonkers women characters in TV shows, and she is perhaps the most bonkers of them all. .ttt . . .

What a star - perhaps Rose would become the main character in place of Charlie?

Jan Garbarek's Music

The other night I was watching a climbing video - the rather intense On Sight - which featured some great music, including one exceptionally haunting piece for male voices and what has turned out to be a saxophone. Unusually for documentaries these days, there is a full list of the music and I concluded that the piece was probably Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble and a work called Officium.

A quick search of the internet uncovers the usual mass of information about Garbarek himself and 30 years of his works. Some samples are available on various sources. I picked up one or two live shows, and can tell already that this will be someone whose work I will want to hear in some detail.

. . ttt

Nice album artwork I thought