The photo is by Dave Randell at a rehearsal at the weekend. Dave also designed and made the ONE T-shirt I am wearing. It is a one off and a morph of Luke and me. I think we were rehearsing Apache Drop Out at the time this photo was taken. When we recorded Apache Drop Out our engineer Pete Mew arranged for Hank Marvin, also an EMI artist, to drop by. I was delighted to meet Hank and terrified he would hate it. I'll always remember his face when the " Beefheart " part came in. He cracked up. He said that he would have lent me his tape echo machine for it if he'd known. My hero. Later Jerry Lordan, who penned Apache insisted that the single be called Apache Drop Out as opposed to Drop out Apache as we first intended. I think he probably hated it. Any way we like it and so does MOJO ( see last month's cover CD ). We will be including it in the new shows in September. Full details of the shows will soon be available but I can tell you one of the gigs is in Twickenham and there will be no admission charge.
The weekends rehearsals were primarily about the scheduled show at Burg Hertzburg Festival towards the end of this month and they went like clock work. Our previous couple of rehearsals were all about new songs and they went very well. It was fun for Luke and I to try out songs with the band that we have been living with for some time. In the case of some songs it has been years. It feels as though we have written some potentially special material with which to make a new album. It has been a long time coming but it will be worth the wait.

Thank you to all of the people who have offered to help with the Mohammed project. We have received offers of transport, accomodation and enough cash to keep M afloat for a while which is wonderful. Thanks to all for your support. We may be a very small ( active) community but perhaps we can begin to make a small but vital and positive difference that flies in the face of apathy and statutory incompetence.

The weather has conspired to prevent me from doing much fishing and there has been little or no time at the weekends as this is when the EBB rehearse and develop ideas. As much as I like being by water I do feel so very sorry for the people flooded out in the past days. I have estimated that during the worst global warming made London flooding my home should be just about left high and dry. A quality flat bottomed aluminium boat will be just the job for local travel as the water laps half way up the hill I live on in Battersea. This scenario will become actual if the Thames Barrier breaks down during a high flood tide. Experts think this is quite likely to happen at some point in the not too distant future.

It was clear from the expression on Gordon Browns face after the recent London and Glasgow bomb incidents that he is has faced a baptism of fire from day one. It is early days but it will be interesting to see just where he is really going with some of his thinking around the big issues.

Brian Ferry and Will Young unlikely high lights of Princess Di Wembley bash ? What a strange mix that was. I couldn't bare to watch it all. Doesn't Sir Elton go on a bit? You could read an entire First Supper post and make a comment in the comments section during one of his refrains. I drift off after a couple of songs.

Fags in public? No more smoking in public places is a good thing in my opinion and the opinion of most people I know but is it possible we are contriving more laws that can be enforced? I cite driving and drinking, cycling on the pavement, driving while using a mobile phone as extremely dangerous practices which are still epedemic. People will not comply with laws they don't support if they cannot be adequately enforced.


copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2007