Lockdown Diary - Sunday 17th January 2021

As I sit typing this, whilst drinking coffee and eating and eating an almond croissant, I'm finding the croissant especially enjoyable today. I don't know if that's because it does taste better (unlikely since it's from the same place I always get them from) or if I'm just noticing, being in the moment and savouring the taste.  I'm going for the latter and it feels good.

The day ahead is likely to be a mix of chores and time to focus on myself (God! I hate that phrase, it sounds so selfish and self-indulgent), which will most likely mean some reading, some music and maybe a few other things.  I do need to make some progress on the book club novel, 'All The Pretty Horses', though I am struggling with it a bit.  The writing is interesting but the subject, which concerns cowboys at the time when that lifestyle was disappearing, really doesn't interest me at all.  Apart from a few Clint Eastwood spaghetti-westerns, there is no room in my life for westerns or cowboys.

The morning is fairly quiet:  only one of my sons is up, I'm fairly certain one of them spent all night chirpsing (I believe that's the correct term for it amongst the youth) and so will be sleeping it off during the day. Carer visits happen. People to talk to, briefly. People. Actual people. 

During the second carer visit, during a moment of wakefulness, I managed to make my wife smile at me. Moments like these are few and far between, so they have to be locked away in the mind and treasured. Small things. 

I decide to make lunch as it's getting late and there's no point waiting for the emergence of the gemelli, they'll eat theirs when they're ready.  Son #3 joins me when I've almost finished making it - any help is always gratefully received.

It's quite difficult to eat salad while reading so I decide to watch something.  I choose to watch 'Nick Mason: Saucerful of Secrets' which I recorded via Sky Arts.

I must admit when I first heard Nick Mason (he being the drummer from Pink Floyd, for those who may not be familiar with him) had put together a band to go on the road and play early Pink Floyd songs (centred on the Syd Barrett-era, but taking in songs they generally didn't play live up to and including 1971's album 'Meddle') I was somewhat sceptical. Granted Nick is the only surviving original band member who was there in the UFO days, but he's the drummer and not generally noted for being a major contributor to the songs (though that may be grossly unfair - many early songs are attributed to them all). Not only that, the band includes Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet fame, which initially made me more dubious.  Trawling through the dusty recesses of my brain cell, I did have this vague notion that Gary Kemp had expressed admiration for Syd Barrett and his songs, so that objection started to wane.  Another major objection is the whole nostalgia thing, was this just going to be one of those money making excuses for a band with nothing new to say. I think I first heard about the idea in 2018 but thought nothing more of it.  During 2019 I started reading good reviews of the gigs the band played, suggesting they had brought new life to the songs and were having great fun playing together.  

In 2020 the band, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, released a double CD and DVD of one of the gigs at the Roundhouse in London (a very historic venue for early 'Floyd) and still I was keeping it at arms length. When I spotted that the gig was being broadcast on Sky Arts, I thought now's my chance to see what all the fuss was about. Well, blow me down with a feather! The sound was incredibly good. Old songs sounded new. The band were obviously having great fun playing the songs - throwing in their own lines to songs - and Nick Mason looked like he was on cloud nine. Gary Kemp seemed in his element: during the interviews which intercut the gig, he traced a line from the club culture of the UFO and early Pink Floyd through to the Blitz and new romantics to today.  I think the key thing is to think of this music as both Pink Floyd and not something new - it's easily recognisable if you know the songs already and if you don't then they can be taken at face value.  One key nerdy moment that I especially enjoyed is the moment where they have John Peel (in full hippy mode) introducing 'Let There Be More Light'. Priceless. The lighting and back projection also harks back to that era of psychedelia (if you've seen footage of Barrett's 'Floyd playing) as well as including footage of Nick Mason playing drums across the period.  If they get to play live again, I must go.

Change of scene.  Back to chores.

Time to finish the papers from Saturday and start on Sunday's.  I owe my father-in-law a call as he left a message on the answerphone earlier, so I call and have a chat with him and then my stepmother-in-law. Having discharged my duty I return to things that need doing.

In a brief period of quiet I decide to engage with the arcana, before I decide to listen to some music, in complete contrast to what's gone before, to Moses Sumney's album 'Grae'.  It's a strange album that occupies some outer reach of R 'n B, I guess, but with the strong influence of the producer, Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never.

Dinner tonight will be pasta, with a sauce made with a large amount vegetables, especially carrots and peppers.

Finally we are all together, for the first time today, to watch another episode of 'Mr. Robot', which continues to be both intriguing and enjoyable.

After All I've written above I really can't choose anything but Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets for today's tune.  Several tracks are available with the live footage from the Roundhouse, so it's just a matter of choosing the one that most takes my fancy.  It's decided.  I've chosen 'One Of These Days', which though it doesn't contain the band singing, of the available tracks on YouTube it is one of the best to capture the exuberance of the set.

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