“I stare out of my window at a grey southern sky on a Saturday”. Yes, it’s market day in Marquês and that means it’s an oddities and mermaid hunt, even though it’s dry land. But first I talked to Anekdoten Nicklas in Sweden and the conclusion was that I wouldn’t be going with Anekdoten to Canada in May. Lots of reasons, one is that they will be playing live anniversary versions of early albums Vemod and Nucleus which are all single guitar albums, plus we are all so busy, mega rehearsals would be tricky, pretty much starting from scratch with me and even for them, there are songs they have never played. Also, we have plans for May/June anyway, will keep you posted on that when it happens. For now, it’s moving, British tour and lots of organising The Archive in April. So we need more ticket sales in Leek, Leicester and Glasgow, ideas?
So the mermaid hunt began but first, there were ‘the pinks’, the water drop vase, the smooth lamp and the plate, two euros each, always buy anything if it’s pink (and two euros). Next the mermaids with legs. There’s nothing worse than a mermaid with legs, fake tails and the legs sticking out and five euros each, a travesty, then further along two mermaids with no legs, two euros each. We’ve got to know some of the stall holders who we chat with whenever we go there, Emanuel with the old Wire magazines, English Peter and his partner with the trinkets and Carolina and her partner with the amazing books (in Portuguese and French). They are going to help us move some stuff down on Tuesday with their car, oh Ariel.
Raquel Welch died this week, I read she had a daughter who was 61. Raquel was the seventies Brigitte Bardot, that is, the most famous beautiful woman in the world when I was a teenager. How could she ever have been 82? How could I be nearly 65? Looking forward to the free bus pass but then I don’t live in England, no percs, no state pension (haha) because I spent most of my life living outside my home country. That state pension is 140 quid a week but you need to have paid in for a few years, I think I was busking in Berlin when I really should have been keeping up the national insurance payments.
Saturday, football day, Liverpool won, Arsenal won, Everton won, Southampton won, Fulham won, Chelsea lost, Leeds lost, Villa lost, Newcastle lost, Brighton lost, Wolves lost, Bournemouth won, Palace, Brentford, Forest, Man City drew. Football and snooker take me away for a while.
Music today has been the other record Boydie listened to on Steeleye Span day (haha). We laughed because it was Dog Of Two Head by Status Quo, possibly to be considered to be extreme in the day but it’s 1971 so most anything was great anyone released in that year (don’t send me the list of the bad ones).