Sport in the Context of Life

For my sins, I am a passionate English cricket fan. So, for the 3rd weekend in 4 my ability to function normally has been severely restricted by the remarkable goings-on in the test series between England and Australia. The Ashes...

Having dominated the game for 18 years or so, the Aussies are now being tested by a resurgent English side. As a result, the last 3 test matches have been absolutely remarkable. England have largely dominated; Australia have fought back incredibly hard, saving one of the matches and narrowly losing the other 2. It is impossible for me to describe the tensions and emotions that go with cricket to people who have not grown up loving the game. But, imagine if you will; a test match is unusual amongst sports as it goes on for up to 5 days. The drama unfolds just like real life. Some test matches are excruciatingly boring and largely ignorable. But, not this summer.

More real life drama

So, last thursday I was doing a gig with Pete (Morton) in Edinburgh. And Pete elected to phone his heavily pregnant (1 week overdue) wife to see how she was. To find that her water's had just broken. And Edinburgh is 250 miles away from where we live. We did a shortened set, packed our gear away, and hastened back down the A1 to Yorkshire.

Louis Morton was born almost 24 hours later as it happened with proud father in attendance.

You never can predict these things. Our 3rd son (Adam) caught us completely by surprise. He arrived much more quickly than we expected - and was infact delivered by my wife in the car as I drove like a demon towards the hospital...!

Ronnie (march 2002 - august 2005)

Music in the context of life (I said in my last post). And straight away life has thrown a curve-ball.

Today, I lost my best diving buddy. Ronnie, our black labrador, suddenly got ill over the weekend. To our horror it turned out to be some really severe liver disease and we had to have him put to sleep. Only 5 days ago we were romping along on our favourite local walks with years ahead of us. Now he's gone - only 3 years old - and only memories remain. I feel like the little fellah in "The Yearling". We are all gutted and our house seems much lonelier without him.

I didn't even think it worth mentioning on sunday - what a difference 2 days make...

Music in the Context of Life

For the 2nd sunday in a row, I have spent time writing and recording music. And it is good. I have done precious little in the way of new music this year. Just some long-distance collaboration with Michael Allison (Darshan Ambient) earlier in the year - which will hopefully see the light of day later in the year. Now, I am experimenting with Ableton Live 4.1 and finding it very inspiring. I often use a loop-based approach to creating music - so "Live" is perfect for me I think. Looking forward to lots of fun in the coming months.

Also, for the first time ever, I made some jam...! You know - sticky stuff, lives in a jar. We have a plum tree - lots of sweet little yellow plums. Usually the birds eat them - or the rabbit (when they have fallen off the tree of course). But not this year. I collected them up and made some plum jam. And it's really nice...!

So, I decided to start a weblog. To record the making of new music (and hopefully a new album) along with the life that goes with it - music in the context of life as always. I plan to make demos available as mp3's as I go along, both to illustrate the development process (at least I hope "development" is the right word) and to gain feedback on musical direction/scope etc...

That's done it. I've nailed my flag to the mast. Let's see how it pans out...