Some More Plastic

First off, the mandatory comment on the weather... where is all this rain coming from? Thunder, lightning and deluge going on as I type. I don't understand it at all. Have I missed summer?

The Not So Silent Night Tour 2007

I know it's a bit early to be talking about Christmas but Slade have just announced their Christmas tour schedule and they're playing Croydon! That's close enough for me so I'll be booking tickets when they're on sale. Of course, I'm also seeing them at the end of July at Wimbledon so that should get me in the mood for more!

A few days earlier in December and I'll be seeing the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (regular readers will recall that I saw them supporting SLADE in 1973) so that's a bit of good karma. I've also recently come across Alex Harvey in Lulu's autobiography where she notes that she started singing 'Shout' after seeing Alex sing it on his return to Glasgow from singing in the bars of Hamburg. It's a small world, isn't it. Such a shame that Alex died many years ago, but his legacy carries on.

Siouxsie Sioux

Siouxsie will be releasing her new solo album on 10 September. It's called 'Mantaray' and a single will be released in August. More news to follow, no doubt.

Poly Styrene - Devotional

Do you remember my trip to the archives of the National Portrait Gallery to see the portrait of Poly Styrene by Pennie Smith? Back then the image of Poly wasn't on the NPG website for copyright reasons. If you look up the portrait you'll see that an image still isn't available.

But if you look at another section of the NPG site you can see the photo as part of the 'Devotional' exhibition. And here it is.

Devotional is an exhibition by Sonia Boyce based on black singers and Poly is included in the roster along with the likes of Shirley Bassey, Janet Kay, Neneh Cherry and Linda Lewis.

The Beard

The beard, you'll be pleased to hear, is still in place. Still white and still scruffy, but longer and thicker. I ought to trim it but, if I trim it, then there's the implication that I'm keeping it - after all, if I wasn't going to keep it why would I bother trimming it? It's not easy having a beard, y'know...

CDBaby

It's pretty dull just sitting here, doing a circuit of the flat for exercise before sitting down again as I get over the operation, so I've filled in some of my time with getting new records. The internet is useful for shopping for new records. One record is winging its way to me from the loving embrace of CDBaby in America. I like CDBaby, it's a warm, cuddlesome place filled with lovely people.

The email confirming dispatch reads:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, July 3rd. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sigh...

If you ever feel in need of some loving then all you have to do is buy a CD from these lovely people and they'll cover you in a warm blanket of lurve...