December 2008

…This is the track listing and sleevenotes for a wee best-of-2008 mix-tape/CD I’ve put together for family and friends. I know, I know: Some tracks are from 2007 or earlier, and there should be some Hello Saferide. But on the whole I think it’s pretty good stuff. Elbow and Ry Cooder really shine for me.…

The news that Robertson’s Jam is to disappear from our shelves means that an icon of my childhood will vanish forever. The Robertson’s Golly has, of course, already gone amid much controversy, but somehow Hartley’s, which Premier Foods will concentrate on when Robertson’s disappears, has always been an English jam to me. Something to do…

Working with the editor Jennie Renton today on the manuscript, which I think she’s improved manyfold…publication date is 4 June next year, but if you want a sneak preview, click here.

…read all about it here.

…Tour just announced. Tickets are on sale NOW for the SECC gig, but there’s some delay regarding the really hot one, the Playhouse in Edinburgh. Tomorrow or the day after, according to Ticketmaster. The chance to see Dylan (as previously with Waits and Young) in a small, seated venue is too good to miss. Meanwhile,…

Picked up the Volvo 240 this morning, all decked out in its new exhaust system, battery and brakes. The Torslanda is back just in time to cope with some truly nasty weather! Just getting sorted for today’s show…looking at the music presented to Barack Obama by David Cameron (The Smiths, Lily Allen, Radiohead and Gorillaz)…

The Radiocroft now has a Christmas tree (I’ll take a snap after it gets dark) and it is pretty scabby….but with the people of Peterlee claiming theirs is the worst civic Christmas tree in the UK, where is Scotland’s most appalling? And as for Brad Pitt’s attempt ‘to rehabilitate the moustache’, well…

Phone snap from Findlin’s Farm, looking north-north east. 60 seconds after this, it was snowing heavily. On me.