New Years Daze

It must be the champagne, that and the Italian film I just watched entitled The Consequences of Love. A body in concrete, a pretty waitress, suitcases of dodgy cash, a lapsed lost mafia man and his philosophical flights of fancy; I really enjoyed it. A sub titled sensation [it’s true…I’m always better with sub titles in the afternoon]. The central character, male, 50, falls for a waitress but ever so slowly, he says nothing to her for two years, she is aware he is burdened with secrets and seems to accept this.Their relationshiop doomed and quite beautifully so. The understated interiors of the hotel, where our hero resides and heroine works, work perfectly. ‘I’ve been lucky to have been loved in my life...but with love comes pain loss longing and delusion’ he cries… a man after my own heart. Sort of. On a more practical level it seems a long time since I was talking the tripe fantastic with Tim Browne [now known to all his friends as the mystic vicar]. We met up for recording last week but the computer wasn’t having any of it. We are still on schedule to finish the solo record by the end of Jan but I guess we might well be delayed a few weeks, which seems to have been par for the Vinny course all year. Then there’s a release schedule to finalise. In fact this last year has been so incredibly delayed it should by rights be discounted from memory. OK so I’m being a bit silly now but you know what I mean [which is what Jenny always says..hello Jen should you be visiting]. I watched Jools Holland last night, new years choice on the part of the party poop classes [most people I know seem to watch it…hmmm]. It was all in all as ever it was though to me it seems to be getting blander, a pretty woman with an acoustic guitar, over confident and altogether average seemed to have them dancing and a swaying…I forget her name, she was awful, then of course the bagpipes and the Big Band Sound. I suppose the Kaiser Kids are alright...aren't they? It's getting hard to tell nowerdays.I toured with Jools years ago playing supports, Tim and I as a duo, big theatres, I made the same joke every night about putting the beer on his piano. It was all very cheesy and cheerful and the joke always went down a storm without fail, funny what you remember. The other striking thing was the audience, lots of young people were there, when we asked why and did they like boogie woogie bluesy music they just said they were there because of TV. They were there because Jools is on TV which is all well and good and shouldn’t have come as a surprise but it did somehow. Still I’m not complaining...I did sell a lot of CDs on that tour. Another great moment on that dim and distant tour was meeting Rico the trombone player in Jools band and legend of many a ska classic. He was really sweet and very gentle. I looked out for him last night but must have missed him. I only ever met Jools once at the end of the tour show in Kirkcaldy [I think it was in 1999]. He was really nice, polite and encouraging and he liked the artwork on the GONE album. I’d had four cans of Boddingtons and a half a pint of champagne at the time then I did something really stupid…remind me to tell you about it sometime. The fireworks around our way seemed less deafening than last year or who knows it could be my hearing in decline and on that sombre note I bid you happy new year, lets hope we can move mountains in 2006…or failing that arrive at some conclusions that matter, take good care, VPx