Don't Wake the Scarecrow

Published on Wed 31 Jul 2013

I'm on a Ryanair flight to lanzarote currently somewhere over Spain I think. Stansted is not a fun place in the morning but I'm looking forward to a week of doing nothing. Life is incredibly hectic at the moment, as you can probably tell from the recent frequency of these things. The trouble is if I leave too long in between them is that all the detail that made them good gets lost. Or I miss out some stuff I've done. I would love some time to write in general. Maybe I can do a bit by the pool. Unlikely.

So... Saw Beck at the Corn Exchange the other week. It was billed as acoustic but there were 3 of them and a crappy drum machine (and occasional cameos by his children on out of time tambourine and interpretive dance - got the feeling he wasn't taking it so seriously). I'm not terribly aware of his stuff, and, on the basis of this, a lot of this is pretty tedious gospel/country harmonica based ranting, but the highlights were fantastic. Specifically "Lost Cause". Goose bumps all the way. That one about how there are two turntables and a microphone was great as well.

Annie and I did a fun gig supporting Simone Felice. It's the first time I've been on stage at the "new" Portland. It's good, but I don't think I'm ever going to be as comfortable playing anywhere as I was at the old Portland. Though as it's nearly 6 months since I've done a solo gig of any kind and more than 9 since I played in Cambridge I may not actually have to be. I don't really feel like someone who does that any more. Which is probably progress. I told the Front Bottoms' cheese joke again, and once again it went down well. I think I'll have to retire it soon, but I have another cheese joke ready. Also, I had my favourite piano chair ever I think.

Simone Felice was absolutely excellent, if a slight caricature of an intense artist. And it's not totally obvious how to say his name (though I think I've ruled out Essex girl style Simown). I bought his novel last time I saw him and was going to mention it until I realised I never got round to reading it and don't know where it is. The sound was great - this was a 3 piece rather than solo and much more rocking. Try and find a video of him drumming - it's brilliant to watch. His guitarist had an electric resonator guitar which is something I've not seen before and sounded absolutely immense. If music was still something I was really doing then I would definitely think about getting one. Here's a video of my favourite Simone Felice song, from an earlier date on the same tour I think. Certainly the same out of place looking bass player.

We visited the house where they film Downton Abbey last week (it's called Highclere Castle in real life and is in Hampshire, not far from Newbury, which is much less horrible than I thought it would be). They've struck a good balance between being somewhere that people visit because of a (shark jumped) TV show and an actual place that's probably more interesting in its own right, in that there are little signs saying whose room is whose and where the Turkish army officer died in flagrante, but also lots of real family photos.

I didn't realise before we got there that it was the home of Lord Carnarvon who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, even though we had tickets for the Egyptian exhibition. I love seeing mummies. When I open a museum there will be mummies, dinosaurs and not much else. Maybe some diamond encrusted firearms. I also enjoyed the catalogue of Carnarvon's speeding offences. He was summonsed for going 13 miles an hour in Epping Forest. I get the feeling Julian Fellowes just hung around reading the exhibition placards when he was coming up with ideas for the show.

Here's me in front of the castle. I'm getting a bit fat again. It's because Sam smileys on Kings Parade does the worlds greatest brownie. It's comfortably twice as good as its nearest rival. I don't understand how they do it. The all inclusive nature of this holiday I'm about to have probably won't help matters either... 

The grounds are amazing too - they don't look real.

The secret garden is surprisingly well signposted.