...but busy and tiring.
Actually we've taken to grabbing an hour's kip in the afternoon when the kids have their afternoon nap. It helps. Our Health Visitor, erm, visited for the first time today, she seems lovely, and seems to think J and M are fine - I was pleased she witnessed a minor J tantrum too though.

Yesterday I took M along to Lewisham Library for the "Baby Bounce" which was nice. She was a bit scared at first as about 30 under-twos started shaking rattles and singing songs led by two cheery deep voiced blokes, but she was soon giggling and rattling withthe best of them. I was one of 3 dads there, so that felt OK. I took her in the sling thing which means she protudes from my chest facing fowards and waving her arms in the air. She loves it. It also allows me to walk through Lewisham High Street as an insufferable New Dad.

At home I'm really enjoying the new Portishead LP, well perhaps not "enjoying" but "being fascinated by"...it is very good.

Tomorrow I have a day away from the kids as I go to Westcliffe-on-sea for the wedding of tycho_b and sham9, which promises to be a right blast. I'm leaving Ruth to cope solo. She'll deserve a big treat when I get back.

Meme - tagged by loveandgarbage

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

At first I thought that this would be impossible as recently the only songs I seem to hear are "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and songs from the CBeebies Bedtime Hour.

However there have been a few things on the Sanderson stereo which I've heard above the sound of children, and they are

1. Can - "Pinch" (from "Ege Bamyasi") - I've been loving this for 33 years now - incredible, weightless funk - a swirling mist of sounds underpinned by a hard rhythm section which is contradictorally somehow more suggested than actual. Damo on best "what's he on about?" form...

2. Steeleye Span - "Female Drummer" (from "Please To See The King") - with a title that sounds very post modern, it's your proper EngFolk gem about women dressing as men and joining the army etc, over the sort of drone rock that nobody does properly anymore. Most ironic of all, despite rocking like a mutha, (with Martin Carthy on electric) there was no drummer in this, the best, version of the Span.

3. Chic - "Everybody Dance" sinister, minor key minimalist classic. The instruction to dance and clap yopur hands sounds positively menacing - still smooth as hell too...

4. Danny Kaye "Inchworm" (from "Hans Christian Anderson" soundtrack) - David Bowie once played this next to Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach", which was pretty clever of him actually. It's just a lovely tune that you can get away with being for kids too. Coltrane did a good version as well...

5. Chet Baker "Alone Together" (from "Chet") - a trumpet one rather than a vocal one. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm using this as chill out muzak....

6. Petula Clark - "Sailor" (from "Downtown- the Pye Anthology") - I started off digging the amazingly cool mid sixties Hatch/Trent tracks, but lately I've been hooked on the more corny pre-beat stuff like this and "Romeo" - just great words, tunes and singing. Also it was compiled, and the sleevenotes are by, Ruth's cousin Richard, who bought our kids some nice bath toys.

7.Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - "Mali Sadid" - this CD was recommended to me ages ago by 30milesormore, and he didn't let me down, every track is an astonishing syncopated cracker. Being played on repeat...

OK I'll tag, erm spoombung, Andrew, steviecat, ednawatley (natch), bad_cb, counsell skitster and strictlytrue....no obligation of course.

This time next week I'll have been back at work for a day - now there's a thought...

Wow, Little Atoms' own Neil Denny was on Richard Bacon's show on Radio Five last night with arch paranoid loon Alex Jones (as featured, hilariously, in Jon Ronson's "Them").

And yes it's on Listen Again, (just over one hour in)

I'm listening while the kids are having an afternoon nap.

Two days into being a brand new parent of two.

Just in case you thought I'd run off screaming for the hills.
No, having a lovely time (first night completely uninterrupted...it can't last), but I have also discovered new levels of knackeredness I previously thought impossible.

St George's Day was great - I've got a few pix. Great to see LiveJournalers publicansdecoy, mitzimaybe, obsessive_katy and jurawatchmaker too!

But, jeezus I'm tired...

EDIT- I will return to regular blogging soon - this just takes some getting used to.
I'm currently thinking of two great things a day, todays were M cackling maniacally (for a 10 month old) when I took her on a swing in the park - and 45 minutes with J as he scribbled on a bit of paper - I would draw a (very poor) cat, and he suddenly would start meowing....
..this kind of thing gets you through the, currently quite numerous, but entirely understandable, tantrums.

Tomorrow I introduce them to Morris Dancing, when I take them to see Dacre Morris at the nearby Woodman pub on Lee High Road - details here

Did I mention I was tired?

EDIT 2 - thanks also to spoombung for the phone call...

Yesterday was great.

Spent the afternoon in Manor House Gardens feeding the ducks, blowing bubbles and playing with a ball. M played on the grass and pulled daisies to bits, or clambered about on my chest. Both meals prepared were eaten, and J gets into the car himself without any fuss.

Today we have a truncated 5 hours with them, then we take them back to the Foster Carer for the last time.

Tomorrow the adventure really begins!

And I get to do some Morris Dancing tonight - details here. Although all things considered, I'll be going easy on the beer, and playing my melodeon more...

Happy St George's Day.

First - thanks again for all the comments. They really are helpful and encouraging...

Cor, I'm exhausted - still having anxious sleepless nights - I'm telling myself it'll be fine when they're sleeping in the room next door.

The actual placement has moved ahead one day - the official handover will be on Thursday morning. This is due to social worker availability rather than our fantastic ability as adopters, but anything which makes the constant to-and-foring between foster carer and us less is a good idea. And we're ready! (crosses fingers)

Our last eveing without kids is therefore tomorrow, which nicely happens to coincide with St Georges Day, so I'll be dancing outside the Jolly Farmers in Lewisham from 6pm. See you there..

We meet our children for the first time this afternoon.




of course I'll write something about it afterwards, but adoption stuff will be friends only from now on...

Padraig drew my attention to this excellent piece on the increasingly odd world of "We Are Change", on the splendid "Cedar Lounge Revolution" blog.
Very interesting.

The interview Pangloss refers to is, of course this gem (MP3, skip forward 28 minutes).
It just keeps on giving.

hurrah! I'm at home and I don't go back to work for the best part of a month.

I would be feeling a bit more cheerful, but I've just finished On Chesil Beach*, which is the second saddest book I've read in the last six month (the saddest was undoubtably Jonathan Coe's "The Rain before It Falls" which actually had me weeping uncontrollably - what a wus)

I think it's time for some knockabout Space Opera or something...

*Actually, it's really beautiful too - and has some amazing descriptions of music, and the difficulties of understanding it. McEwan really is astonishly good.

I've always tried to dress smart. It's important. There's no need to look like a demick: Primark sells some all right stuff at a fair price. Go and shop there; you don't want to be walking around like an urban scarecrow. Nobody takes a scruff seriously.

More Mark E Smith there.

1. Ruth just rang to say we've recieved the rather daft-named "Decision Maker's Letter", this confirms that we are now responsible (with Newham Social Services) for the welfare of J and M - have to sort out doctors for them, feed them, house them etc. No turning back now! Also got a invite to the wedding of my good friends Rob Flint and Lucy in July - which is marvellous news!

2. I'm off to see an exhibition by Cornelia Parker this lunchtime. I like Cornelia Parker - she once proposed a piece in which a meteorite was sent back into space, which I thought was lovely idea. I'll report on this one later.

3. I thought my previous post this morning had a few commentable points on it, but nobody else seems to think so....Sorry readers, am I boring you?

1. Tomorrow is my last day at work. When I return on the 12th May I'll be a father of two. Sobering, that is.

2. I'm having a pint with spoombung in Deptford's Dog and Bell tonight. Join us if you want. I promise to be in a better state than I was a week last Friday!

3. A 30 foot high "Banksy" (as his style is now a generic anti-establishment grafitti style, who can actually be sure?) muriel has appeared right next to my office. It's complaining about CCTV. Sadly CCTV seems to have been incapable of preventing somebody making a thirty foot high piece of agitprop, which in it's way way will look as tired and naff in a few years time as those mid 80s ones with skeletons and cruise missiles.

4. Regular commenter danieldavies announces the demise of the Euston Manifesto project in Comment is Free. Alan Johnson writes a reasonable reasonable rebuttal of some of it. Irritatingly I have to concede a couple of Daniel's points, although I still think the EM is worth supporting, and I agree with Johnson that if nothing else Euston has helped the "slow erosion of the 'enemy's enemy is my friend' reactionary left". I also think there's nothing in the entire Manifesto I don't still agree with. I am however very tired with arguing about it, which is why you find little on here about it these days. The badge proudly remains on my profile though.

5. Almost certainly the last one on the block to discover this, but Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone is a pretty good listen. I've heard his Radio 2 shows where he tended to enthuse about various examples of rock-ordinaire, and was never especially impressed - but this is good. The most recent one started with Stump and included a whole side of Mike Oldfield's "Incantations" - a playlist that would keep spoombung happy, if nobody else. His book about the North is pretty good too - and he says nice things about morris dancers.

6. I'm getting a cold.

7. The PRS Foundation New Music Award shortlist has been announced. My support goes to the Carousel Commission a collaboration between David (Pere Ubu) Thomas, Eliza Carthy, Adam Bushell and Ed Baxter. And not just because Ed is good friend of mine, I love Eliza Carthy and David Thomas is pictured playing a Hohner Pokerwork melodeon like my own.

There's a sizeable excerpt from the forthcoming Mark E Smith biography in the Guardian today.

It certainly looks like it's going to be an entertaining read, although I was a little disappointed that it reads like a transcription of a conversation. Having seen MES's play "Hey!Luciani" many moons ago, I know that Smith can be a very good writer indeed. I think I was expecting something a bit more fractured and literary...

Still, it has some great bits, and of course, Middlesbrough gets mentioned-

"We played all sorts of places, but used to get a better reception in youth clubs - kids' clubs. You go to a punk club in Middlesbrough and there'd be 20 strapping guys with their hair all stuck up - weekend punks, we used to call them - spitting at you all the time"

Hmmmm, that sounds very much like the late lamented Rock Garden in Middlesbrough. The Fall played there twice, the first time was just great, (and I was recently sent a recording which proves it) but by the second a harder element had moved in, and (as anybody who was there can testify) the gig was a bloodbath, with several of my mates getting thumped and braz1 hiding behind the mixing desk. Lord, that was tense gig. As Marc Riley reminisced in an email "heavy gig..skinhead central...nearly got battered..."

Elsewhere - Charlie Brooker on the London Mayoral Elections-

"I'm genetically predisposed to hate the Tories. It's my default, hard-wired position. If Boris wins, their simpering pudge-faced smuggery is going to be unbearable. Picture the expression Piers Morgan makes when he's especially pleased with himself, then multiply it by 10 million, and imagine it looming overhead like a Death Star. That's what it's going be like. Therefore I don't care who wins provided Johnson loses, and loses hard, preferably in close-up, on the telly."

I rather enjoy records made for kids, and have been looking forward to actually trying some out on our forthcoming children.
One rather nice one is this collection (of which I have several other volumes) of French Songs and Rounds, sung in French, but rather wonderfully orchestrated with lots of chimes and bells-



Some of the illustrations are delightful- there's a great one for "Jean de la Lune" which shows a pixie being pulled along by two mice in harnesses in a basket with daisies for wheels...awww.

however, I think I'll avoid "la Legende de Saint Nicolas", which is illustrated by the blood-curding picture below-



Three golden haired preraphaelite children play gaily in a field, whilst, unbeknown to them, a grotesque red haired figure in blood stained clothes bears down on them brandishing a huge knife?

I thought Saint Nicolas was basically Father Christmas, not some character from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre...

Yesterday afternoon was the Rick Lewis Memorial Day at the Ashburnham Arms. Rick Lewis, you may remember, was the longstanding member of Blackheath Morris, and highly accomplished dancer who died suddenly last year whilst we were away at a weekend of dance. He was just 54.

It was a small, informal gathering, not in morris kit, taking over two of the smaller rooms in the pub for the afternoon. Remeniscences were swapped, old photographs were passed around, and some video footage was shown. It was all rather lovely.

The video footage was amazing - back in 1984 the side were filmed for a section on Thames TV's "6 o'clock show" (with Danny Baker), and although the news item itself was short - about how morris dancing was becoming fashionable again - we'd also obtained a copy of all the footage taken, about half an hour's worth - with the team dancing, drinking and joking - with several familiar members looking preposterously young -pre-bald, pre-grey.

Unfortunately there was no way to get the sound working on the telly, so we had to watch the video in silence, until Rick's brother came up with an inspired idea. We could see what the dances were, so why didn't the musicians in the room play along? So the melodeons came out and we joined in - trying to sync up to the video - it was very funny. When one of our rival teams appeared it was greeted with a barrage of discordant oom-pahs and the Laurel and Hardy theme...

Once again I was impressed by the comradeship and good humour of the morris world - and the friendships that have lasted in many cases for over 30 years...

I think Rick would have enjoyed it.

This morning Ruth and I wandered down to Blackheath to watch the start of the London Marathon.
I have to admit, that although it's extremely unlikely that I'll ever run it myself, the sight of thousands of people all running together was an awesome sight - as was the sight of the collection of huge hot air balloons wobbling serenely in the typical April weather-



Unsurprisingly we never spotted the person we knew who was actually running (hello Louisa!), however we did spot these nutters-

Last night Blackheath Morris Men were employed for the launch of the latest model of a famous personal stereo in Hoxton.

We had assumed that we were there mainly to do a bit of dancing, but it turned out we actually there to provide a bit of character and colour- ie, we were employed as people in funny fancy dress rather than dancers. As part of our contract we were expected to mingle amongst the invited crowd with the machines, and demonstrate how easy they were to use to anybody who looked vaguely interested - presumably the thinking being that if somebody as square and uncool as a morris dancer can get to grips with it, anybody could. To be fair, there's some truth in that- after all, the personal stereo I use still takes cassettes. So we wandered around the venue wearing the machine, while very loud music boomed about us, completely drowning out our bells, and basically chatted up anybody who looked interested...



The machines themselves were quite impressive, not much bigger than a credit card and with groovy bluetooth headphones. The question I was asked most was "can I have a free one?" (answer - no), and "are you a real morris dancer?" My favourite conversation was one Stuart had with a young punter-

Punter - Are you a real morris dancer?
Stu - Yes
Punter - What are you when you're not a morris dancer?
Stu - I'm the head of the Government Radiological Protection and Irradiation Science Emergency Planning, Radiation and Incidents Division

Backstage there was the extraordinary spectacle of John Offord playing his fiddle while Jodie Harsh fixed her make-up behind him. I had a nice chat with the charmingly jolly Ian Damaged of Damaged Goods records, and we watched The Horrors wander in and out.

There was lots of loud music - DJ sets from the inexplicably popular Horrors, and Jodie Harsh living up to her surname by playing abrasive rackets by DAF and Metal Urbain (about the last thing I expected to be honest). Live there was an enthusiastic and noisy set by SoKo, Holly Golightly, Bill Oddie's daughter Rosie, and the singer from Razorlight (replacing the singer from Babyshambles who's currently behind bars). I've never knowingly heard Razorlight, (or Babyshambles for that matter) but was aware of the fact that the singer reckons he's a genius or something. After hearing the brain-numbingly ordinary music he produced, I won't be investigating further.

We managed to get a few dances in, playing in the cramped alley leading to the venue, and this was probably the highlight of the night for me - especially the absurd spectacle of us dancing the Bampton Sidestep in headphones whilst simultaneously listening to the music of "Hot Chip".

Morris Dancing, eh? You never know where it'll lead you...


Morris Dancers enthuse about fancy personal stereo/there are some famous people in this photograph, and Mick the Pole

The reality of the approaching adoption hit me again today as I booked a combination of holiday and statutory paternity leave that sees me finishing work next Wednesday, and not returning until the 12th of May (at least)

Meanwhile Ruth, who's already on leave, has been to Mothercare again and bought a baby monitor and some more kid's clothes. We've also received a few cast-off toys (all brilliant) and various high-chairs, stair-gates and the like from friends, and the double buggy should arrive soon.

It's a "Phil and Ted" -



a preposterous name that neither of us can remember - Ruth calling it a "Ralph and Ted", and me calling it a "Ben and Jerry" or more simply, if completely inaccurately, a "trolley".

Sorry, you're probably going to get a few posts like the above for a bit...

I was thinking about doing a post about people who reject "classic" albums, you know, the sort of Robert Elms-like twerps that think that "Holland" is a better Beach Boys album than "Pet Sounds", or that "Slow Train Coming" is a better Dylan album than "Highway 61 Revisited", or that that the bloated Las Vegas Elvis was more interesting than the 1957 "heartbreak Hotel"... you recognise the schtick. I've even entertained a few perversities like that myself in the past, for example at one point I used to claim that "Revolution No 9" was my favourite Beatles song, and that "Metal Machine Music" was the best Lou Reed LP (...actually, I probably still think that...)

Readers, it's not big, it's not clever and it's certainly not "avant garde", people don't admire your wit and contrariness. No, they look at you pityingly, because you're just wrong.

elvislives77 has meticulously typed out and scanned an article by Rob Nichols from the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette. Rob (of terrific bouncy Fall-esque band "Shrug") has a column in the paper, and has done for a while I think. In it he talks about the recent visit to Middlesbrough by Resonance FM, and in particular elvislives77's programme about the Teesside Punk and Post-Punk scene. Which you can still listen to here (mp3), if you missed it.

Anyway, I went to source - it's here.

Rob was a bit younger than us, so his memory of some of the groups is a bit sketchy, but it's great to see those names in the Gazette again, even if he does spell Tick Tick wrong.

I bought Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica" again yesterday, in a lovely new vinyl edition.

I used to have it of course, in fact it's my third copy. My first went missing sometime around the mid 90s. I then bought the CD, but it was never the same. I like to think of the work as four suites, not one long piece. That was how I got into it at first, devouring it one side at a time (for this reason, to this day side one is much more familiar to me than side four).

I first heard it on John Peel's show, sometime around 1979. He played the first side in it's entirety, commenting "...and if you ever wondered what your older brother was listening to on headphones, whilst staring at the ceiling and giggling, the chances are it was probably this..."

The record made me aware of free/noisy reeds, blues hollerin', weirdly sycopated rhythm sections, the possibilities of the slide guitar, and that a squid eating dough in a polyethyline bag is "fast and bulbous". I even learnt (I'm ashamed to say) about Dachau from it.

Although, much as I love the record, it has had absolutely zero influence on my own music, being far too American and maximalist to get through to an English minimalist like myself....

Anyway
Poll #1168221
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Trout Mask Replica?

And can anybody tell me why John "Drumbo" French, whose work on the record is frankly astonishing, doesn't even get a credit on the sleeve?

Blackheath Morris Men do get some odd gigs.

This Thursday we're in Hoxton (a place I loathe with a vengeance, I'm afraid) to provide entertainment for the launch of a new model of a famous personal stereo range.

As well as doing a few dances for the assembled throng, we're also expected to mingle amongst the crowd with the machines and demonstrate how easy they are to work. The thought of which I find inexplicably hilarious...

Nothing as simple as village fetes these days.

Our next appearance in front of riff raff the General Public will be on the 23rd of April, in Lewisham at the Jolly Farmers as part of their St George's Day celebrations.