Proud Mary: I don't get sentimental on here (very often) but when today arrived, I felt I had to do what I've been pondering over for a few days. You see, today my mother would have been 93, She died in 1997, having contracted Alzheimer's a few years earlier. She never encouraged me musically, it was all about a 'proper' job. No-one EVER called her Mary, she was always Polly. A schoolgirl nickname which stuck all her life! So would she have been proud of my collab. with Harry Edgar? I doubt it, but that won't stop me posting tonight in her memory.

Rallying call for S/C friend Dan Albury (aka 7beatstreet): Please add your comment here to support Dan, who is banned from commenting or blogging on this site after drumming up support for various causes of a political nature. Is this not over-the-top considering Dan's support for many S/C members, in particular his numerous fabulous collaborations?

Trouble?: I was in The Doghouse on Friday night - but it was a COOL night! The Coldplay cover band COOLPLAY were on and I thought it was a good chance to do a few numbers having done Talk a couple of times at karaoke and recorded The Scientist and Don't Panic. So I had a chat with the band (who did a great set) about the following night. Sadly, contractual arrangements did not permit my plan to go ahead - but it was a COOL idea while it lasted!

for Yanks only: ourstage.com is well worth a visit if you don't already know about it, but it's only for USA residents - there's competitions with prizes for all genres

NEW TRACK: Just finished 'Butterflies (Right off the Scale)' this afternoon.

Our Canada trip: I may add to this as time rolls on.
It was just 11 days but it was spectacular, if gruelling by virtue of the amount of travelling. Not to mention the stress of flying.
We flew Heathrow to Calgary after hopping down to London in the afternoon. We were shattered when we reached our hotel to be face with an early departure for Banff. So we had an 'early' night. (It was quite late for us!)
Highlights were whale-watching, the Rocky Mountaineer with bear-spotting and the lumberjack show on returning to Vancouver from Victoria. Granville island was quite nice as were some evenings out.
We flew home overnight with very little sleep after a delay and got back home early evening after panicking ...

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