Summers seem to race by as you get older, one minute its May and the next its almost September and then the rain. Its been so great being on so many different stages with the band, Squeeze are gelling very well with the shorter sets, i think they suit us much better than the longer, as a punter i prefer a punch rather than a study. But thats me. I have already written about Glastonbury but the other festivals were great too, in different ways. Latitude was special, i got to meet John Grant back stage. We played brilliantly and our audience seemed in the mood for our set. Camp Bestival was difficult in some ways, the younger crowd were clearly waiting for Jess Glynn, but their parents were at the back willing us on, Glenn seemed elsewhere yet completely in the pocket. Carfest North was a shorter set and it felt like a Radio One Road Show of old. Chris Evans has a good brand and a charitable one. I enjoyed it. Summer festivals are easy for us to do, we turn up in various buses and cars with our families and we plug in and play. Tits and teeth. We have a great crew so we never fall far from the perch. A few solo shows passed by the ship this summer, Melvin helped me scoot through these, with his love and musicianship. A few with Glenn too, duo shows even, also wonderful but from a different place. A summer for strumming, and now strimming in the garden. 

The summer has seen me secure a book publisher for my book, and our first meeting was relaxed and i felt very excited about its publication next year. There is so much still to write and to change, to better and to unravel. I have time on tour in the bus driving through America to review. Summer has been not too hot and not too cold, i remember summers being much more balanced than this in the past, i even had sandals at one point. With socks. This summer i have enjoyed my trips to the garden centre where people of my age seem to gather and eat backed potatoes with beans and then fill up trollies with slightly average plants. The garden looks better for my visits. Garden centres come at the same time as back problems, which i have had all Summer, in fact for four months, its been a painful time. I succumbed to acupuncture and things eased off, i even like the needles now, and my chap and i talk running and playing live at festivals while the pricks do their thing. He the marathon runner and me the festival purveyor, he who finds it hard to run a bath. My leg is still not right on one side, i lean to the left even more than usual. Lou and i have been house hunting recently but only to be disappointed when our sealed bid was rejected on a house that could have been our home, Lou seems more in the day then me as we bare the sadness, and we regroup for another day. Home is.

It was March when i last wrote a blog i think, and in the passing months i have delivered the hobby horse which is Fancy Pants, sadly there is no time to promote the album so it resides in the cheap racks for a few months while i concentrate on the up and coming Squeeze tour of the UK and America. I hope Edinburgh next year will see its full feathers of potential, in the meantime its released on Pledge, who i think have done a great job of burying it to the back pages. 500 copies have been printed and 69 have been earmarked for postage. I ended up singing the part of ‘Alan’ after David Essex turned the part down. Future versions will be sung by a host of wonderful people, to be revealed. So these 500 will be rare copies indeed. I feel lucky that Peter Bradley who financed the whole project is being patient and open minded about how the release is unfolding. What can i do but do my best and i think i have done that thus far. Check out the teaser page. http://www.hellofancypants.com. Life is a play sometimes, the script often hard to follow but we all know the outcome and the conclusion to our footsteps wherever we may want them to lead. Glenn and i are also hoping to work on a play, we have had talks and all fingers are crossed. Its a passion for us both i think, but a gentle one that may take its time to evolve, it has to be right it has to be different from all the rest. However the new album for 2017 takes priority over all. 

Lou and i saw Groundhog Day last month at the Old Vic, and i have to say i was emotionally blown away by the story, which i had never seen, and the acting it was so great so thrilling to watch, although I’m not sure i could whistle one of the songs if you asked me to. I felt the story and the repeats and how one can make life better with a little thought and a little love. So, when i walked back on stage this month after seeing the show i thought, how can i do things better than last time, because playing is like a Groundhog day, the set, the songs, the vibes! its a fixed repeating 45 minutes to and hour of us. So, i walked on stage and i focused on myself and how i could give more than i had the show before. It was an interesting feeling to observe and I’m not sure i maxed out on the delivery but i did learn lots about the notion of Groundhog.