The Bottom End

Typing into the machine and thinking of Bukowski and how I listened to Fire Station again the other day and how it made me feel humble and sort of tragic…like watching The Ice Storm again which I did this week and thinking about mortality and worth. Still I won’t bore with my ideological procrastinations. We have a new bass player, her name is Karen Leatham and her arrival has sprung our collective steps and added to the possibilities and the potentials of what is to come. She’s really rather good. We started rehearsals proper last week and all went swimmingly well which was nice. We are booking UK shows in Oct/Nov. We were also pleased to discover upon returning to our Salford Lads Club attic that Archie, who’s been at the lads Club since the year dot has been awarded an MBE for youth work; we just need to remember to salute him next time we see him and offer our most sincere congratulations. On the personal front there are a few bits of media type things coming off, I guest once more on BBC6 music’s Rocket Science with Rob Hughes in a parallel universe on 19th August around 4pm on the first day of the football season but don’t let that put you off. We’ll be discussing the past and how it compares to future from the template of the music press though from which year I’m not sure as yet. A week later on Sun 27th August I’m standing in for the seminal Mike Joyce on his Revolution show 4-7pm and you can listen online if you like. It’s the perfect excuse to play favourite records and talk about anything that steals the fancy. I haven’t done a radio show for some time so it will be a bit of a challenge but one I’m looking forward to. I’ll be playing tracks from the new HELENE record ROUTINES which is currently monopolising my in car iPod. Try and have a listen. I have become captivated by the record which happens so infrequently I feel I just have to sing it’s praises whenever the opportunity presents. Today we’re off to see a friends play, it’s one of those walk about from scene to scene type happenings, you know the type, where you arrive late head for the bar and realise the bar is part of the the set and actors are improvising upon your innocence. That kind of thing happened to me once though I like to think I rose to the occasion; still I like to think a lot of things. Time for bed, VPx