Forgive me please …
Half terms come and go at speed but this one has been a memorable one for many things. Walks with friends, recording a Mixcast broadcast and driving a battlefields tour to Ypres being the some of the highlights. And after having such a busy time of it I headed back into school completely refreshed having not thought about it at all for days. The Mixcast broadcast is for a local record shop previously mentioned in these dispatches and is purely Americana and hopefully we’ll put a link up on the site for all of you to enjoy an hour in my company – don’t worry there is no meaningless chat or frivolity just an hour of brilliant songs. Mixcast is an interesting thing as you essentially put a show together upload it and they sort out the PRS stuff so legally you’re watertight as I understand it.
The trip to Ypres was with a small party of adults and was, as ever, both moving and enraging in equal measure. A generation decimated on the bayonets of nationalism and autocracy, how times have changed.
We travelled by minibus with myself driving and as we queued for the tunnel a German plated van in front of us disgorged its weary passengers in front of my delighted eyes. A real fanboy moment as The Delines staggered into the milky sunlight, bleary-eyed from the tour schedule they were enduring on their way to Paris ( just check out the dates – not a night off for nearly three weeks and not travelling in particular comfort either) I leapt out and told them their album was the best of the year and that Nottingham had been a wonderful gig and that the RF gigs in Bedford were also treasured memories. Dave Little was on bass duties with them so a brief acknowledgement of several Bruntnell gigs was had before we were called to drive onto the train. As the tunnel journey commenced, I waited for their door to open so I could record the meeting with my phone……didn’t happen. We burst into the daylight of France, and I did the unforgiveable. I knocked on the door and asked for a quick photo. I am still ashamed. Slowly it slid open to reveal the whole band in various states of sleep, sleep that I had disturbed …but there was no going back. A garbled request was… gawd bless em all… received with genuine friendliness and the evidence is above (notice my singular inability to actually take a selfie with others… just shit really but I was panicking). Lovely people and I count myself lucky to have seen them live this year, they are wonderful and should be riding around in luxury coaches! Which I would be happy to drive for naught.
And so, the tracks are as follows Richmond Fontaine, The Delines, a new duets video, and some Pete Bruntnell featuring Dave Little filmed at this year’s Maverick fest. Apologies once again folks, unforgivable. As ever take what you want or need.
