I'm off down to Cambridge on Tuesday for a nostalgic wander round old Passages and Cloisters and Meadows. I've just seen next week's weather forecast so it might be a bit of a damp bucolica. I'll go and sit in the library and read Gormenghast. It will be just like old times.

Sad to see this had slipped out of the Fab40. The Mojos were the best Liverpool group never to have hits. This was typical of that late Merseybeat sound I love. Rhythmically sophisticated and a whole lot of big boys don't cry in the subtext. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyMy...

I seem to recall a little promo film for Trains & Boats & Planes they used to show on TOTP. Just stock footage I guess of some trains and boats and aeroplanes. I used to like it when TOTP did that. There was one for Remember (Walking In the Sand) too.

Eleanor Rigby. Early draft.

Nice to see McCartney finally essaying some tentative steps in this genre

New entry in the Fab40 this week. I have an original Decca pressing with great production. The Moodies made some great records after Go Now. With a bit of Gregorian and tabla this could be the Yardbirds except the Yardbirds don't even sound like this yet. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQdL...

I was a relatively late convert to no mow May but I've just given the lawns their first partial shave for a month and you can see the benefits. Lots of buttercups and clover.

Listened to the first BOC album while doing bendy stretching. It has that pleasantly eerie UK techno melancholy that the Richard D James album does from a couple of years earlier. Like theme idents for an imaginary Cornish tv station which I think is was I said of the Aphex in my review at the time

My Beat Books purchase has arrived. Carefully packaged to within an inch of its life. I don't think I've ever unwrapped anything so carefully. Now I hardly dare turn the pages. Worth every penny though. One off only issue from 1965. Full details in alt text.

Jasper of course has celebrated our (not his) moving anniversary by puking up huge dollops of fur ball gloop not just once but twice, overnight in the living room and just now where I didn't quite manage to steer him outside. Thank you Jasper.

Some of you may have spotted one hell of a clanger in something I posted a few minutes ago, where I described me and C as ardent monarchists! Just corrected it.

We moved to the beautiful Calder Valley 14 yrs ago today, a Wednesday. We had a one year old baby and were glad to get out of Stretford. We thought this place might be a stopgap for a bit and then the south facing and west facing views from the kitchen windows began to grow on me. x

Not to dwell but I remember on one of my rare visits to the Uncut office the ed trying to convince me that Spanners was Black Dogs 1st LP. I remember the features ed telling me when I did my 'I thought you were dead feature' on Lou Christie that UC readers wouldn't know who he was>

Inspired by the centenary I've been listening to lots of live electric Miles, Live Evil, In Concert (Philharmonic my least favourite) and best of all this. If there is as @andrewmale.bsky.social says in that excellent Mojo piece 'fatigue within the artistry' then it's of a most elegantly wasted kind

When I did that early 90s R2 arts show thing on still touring bands like the Tremeloes and Marmalade I discovered that as long as they did the hits competently and sounded pretty much like they used 20 years ago the audience was happy with that. I see Boards of Canada have a new record out then.

Not a great photo. Shot through the window and with annoying security light glare but that folks perched on our step apple is an owl.

Important jazz news. Just heard on WKCR that when they end the current 3 day Miles centenary broadcast at midnight they are beginning a 48 hour Sonny Rollins tribute special. Spread the word. And thank you WKCR.

If you were playing a drinking game every time guest critic on COTW said 'y'know' they 'd have had the autopsy by now. Someone on the production side should have had a word during recording. It's gone full tic endemic as the week has gone on.

Confession. I've never been a massive fan of In A Silent Way. I recognise its importance of course, only a fool wouldn't. But for me its a gateway into a field that yields far bigger riches

Someone just badmouthed Mick Hucknall on here - in a tribute post of all places. I find this really tiresome and tedious. I met the man a few times bitd and don't know anyone who has who has a bad word to say about him. Is is just because he got laid more times than you ever will mate?

I make that three bees I've rescued and released today. One in the bedroom. Two from the living room. Sort it out you dozy non plate glass avoiding dronetards.

I miss going to the match. I let my MUFC membership lapse after cancer. Only been back on the occasional guestie. I miss the lack of analysis other than by the people around you. I miss walking to the ground, esp the glow of the floodlights for an evening match. I miss buying a copy of Red Issue.

True story. My mother-in-law when they first got Freeview and unused to the concept of rolling news phoned C one day and said 'there's been 7 house fires in Kent today'.

(the Stott Brothers, for those unware. One of the finest deployments of absolutely basic toilet/itchy bum humour ever seen on the telly) www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Zo...

"Great art has a long tail, mostly invisible to its creators." Zadie Smith in the new NYRB.

More COTW shite where we're told that even at the height of his classic quintet Miles had his health problems and was self medicating. This is one of the most shamelessly down market jazz appraisals I've ever heard on R3. Back to WKCR I go.

Playing Sketches of Spain (preceded by the Rodrigo original) a day and a half into this Miles marathon on a hot afternoon is a rather lovely touch.

One last thought on that stupendous Beat Books auction list y/day. I wonder if Miles is selling off artefacts and whether Macca's estate will have bought certain items, or even been offered first dibs.

Just had my summer baldy crop. Setting number nought on the clippers. Scowly septuagenarian shaven zen punk good to go.

Surfing YT last night I chanced upon this. Been up 2 yrs but new to me. Spellbinding the myriad ways he finds to stride past the melody without stopping. Genius at work. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWtc...

WKCR are having a Miles day today. Should have mentioned that this morning but i was too busy scanning the living **** out of rare historical artefacts in the Beat Books catalogue. They're playing In A Silent Way atm. Perfect shimmering hot evening music. 3 hours of electric Miles after that.

Someone kindly left last month's Mojo at the station free library and I've just been reading @andrewmale.bsky.social excellent piece on electric era Miles so rather than listen to any more of that woeful COTW on R3 I'm going to listen to Agharta instead.

I remember when the US and Iran had that famous ceasefire - troops emerged from the trenches, and a US marine said “let’s play soccer”, the Iranians replied “it’s football you prick” and they started shooting at one another again.

I can't think of anybody more qualified to write this book and get it right. I'm really looking forward to this.

One last one. Gold dust this. "An Autograph Postcard Signed from Paul McCartney to “Ian Sommerville & Partners c/o Indica Books and Gallery”, postmarked Klosters, Switzerland, March 7, 1966". Entire catalogue entry in alt-text. "Carry on looping".

Dive in. There's more vital 60s information in these catalogue entries than there are in some entire books. www.beatbooks.com/searchResult...

Among the many other riches in the latest Beat Books catalogue, this photo (already sold) by Graham Keen of Peter & Jane Asher stocking the shelves of Indica in January 1966. Graham provided several Floyd photos for AVIH and has a fantastic archive. More info in the alt-text

Hoppy was such a lovely man. Met him a few times and he had no airs and graces and I am the big 60s I am about him. Even though he was. Miles is the same. That genial talking head you see in docs. That's Miles in the flesh too. I've met some real up themselves counter-culture 'legends'. Not those 2

Beat Books catalogue e mail arrived this morning. And there was actually an item still available which I decided I could afford. So I bought it! As a treat to myself for still being here. This from December 1964. Full contents details in the alt-text.

RIP Sonny Rollins. Colossus.

These itemised items on the Murrell SNP embezzlement list. I'm getting a strong Sale of the Century vibe. #designerbreadbin

Just finished watching Legends. Cut above. Best thing I've seen on Netflix since Top Boy.

If you're suffering in the heat, spare a thought for our Jasper whose main method of transportation today has been the exhausted forward flop.

This is exceeding Syd Barrett levels of ignore the artist, emphasize the affliction. KM actually just said 'can you hear him in recovery in this music?'

This week's edition of Composer of the Week features Miles Drugs and is brought to you by National Enquirer magazine.

A mere 23 minutes before they got onto drugs. You tabloid scumbags posing as music critics. Fuck you. Fuck you all.

And now Kate Molleson explores the music of iconic icon Miles Davis with a critic who will say stuff you could glean off some reasonably erudite box set sleeve notes.

115 in the greenhouse. That's with the door and the roof vents fully open.

Lunchtime listening. One of the greatest LPs ever made. Peaches en Regalia sounds bloody fabulous when you haven't played it in ages.

Got a bit 'something in my eye' when the BBC interviewer gave Pep a hug on MOTD. Evoked Barry Davies and Cloughie when men didn't hug. (Men should.) I'm really glad Pep is going so I can get back to proper Manc factionalism but I'm going to miss him. The man was sheer class.