Nine Feet Underground

We've had a busy week in Liverpool, starting with a gig in Manchester and then in Liverpool.  Let's start in Manchester.  We went to the new Co-Op Live Arena to see Crowded House.  They are at one extreme of the spectrum of music I usually enjoy, but I was going there with an open mind.  Q is a fan, and the next night we are going to a gig by someone I like, who Q has never heard of.  Back to Co-Op Live. I've got to say I wasn't impressed with the place. It's billed as having 32 restaurants, using local produce. How many does it have? None. Not a single one.  The place is still not finished. As it has no restaurants, it also has no loos unless you go inside. Which you can't do until they open up for the gig.  Manchester City to the rescue.  There are some portakabin-style loos a five to ten-minute walk from the venue. Not exactly what you imagine a fancy new-built venue to be like.  Food.  Manchester City to the rescue again.  There...

I've called these blogs 'lockdown diary' ever since the first national lockdown began. Technically we're now under the second national lockdown and yet these posts have been named as if there's been a continual lockdown.  There's a simple reason for that: I haven't really been out of lockdown properly since it began. I've worked from home since March, most of the social activities I was doing / would have been doing, haven't taken place and apart from a couple of meals out with family and a walk with friends, that has been my lot.  I'm not complaining, since many have had it worse, far worse, and as a general rule this has been reality for many.  That does not mean, however, that it isn't getting me down, because it is. Effectively this has been a wasted year when I should have been out meeting new people, forging new friendships and enjoying the company of existing friends. Not to mention all the gigs and meals out I would have had. Today is...

Monday. Someone should write a song about Mondays. What a rich vein of material there would be to tap in to. Done yoga. Or has yoga done me?  I know that come tomorrow morning my hips will feel like I've given birth to a hippo, though thankfully the feeling will be confined to that part of my anatomy. Seriously though, since I started yoga in August 2018, it has become a core part of my life: I always feel so much better for it and, though I still need WD40 to be applied to quite a few of my joints and have the balance of Twiggy in a hurricane, I am getting better at it with practice. (You tell yourself that mate!) I could probably do with another upper body massage, but that is currently impossible, sadly. Or a rack, maybe. There is still fallout from my wife's visit to A&E on Thursday and Friday to address: I've had a conversation with the Community Matron and, as a result, I need to have a conversation with a GP, a call which I await.  I've completed the...

Last time I saw Genesis - at Knebworth in 1978 - Steve Hackett had already left the band and they'd just released the aptly titled, 'And Then There Were Three'.  Looking back at the albums Genesis released after Steve Hackett left  - and I include 'And Then There Were Three' in that number - it's clear that, whatever the song credits may suggest, he had a big influence on the sound and songwriting and his departure coincided with the end of my interest in their albums.  I'd go further and say, lyrically at least, losing Peter Gabriel also negatively affected the songwriting, though that's one for another day... From Hillage to Hackett in twenty-four hours - and, a fter the magnificence of Gong and Steve Hillage's performance in Aylesbury the previous night, this was going to have to be good, though several sources had suggested we'd not be disappointed. Friends met, drinks in hand, we took to our seats in the circle, front row ...