Since the turn of Spring life has not been my own, I have mostly been in my car driving here there and everywhere. I have been in Squeeze world making a new record, and with ten new songs under our belts another corner is being turned, both in the car and in the studio. I think we have the makings of a great new album, its refreshing to have songs that sound cool and new, and not leaning in the past too much. Glenn has been at the helm and working all hours making sure it all melds together cohesively.

Some days I’m stopping in lonely car parks to re write lyrics for these new songs and observing the comings and goings of life at Cobham services, or at various other establishments up and down the the joyful motorways of Britain. Thats how glamorous my day has become. Our new songs remain under construction, like building sites with scaffolding everywhere. I can see the shape of things to come from the exterior, I can sort of visualise the rest. It will be.

And then there have been shows with Jools, they have been keeping me mostly in dressing rooms waiting for the curtain call to stage, 9.20pm each night for four songs. Its great fun and being with his Orchestra is a wonderful thing. Jools is ever the entertainer and its amazing to watch the show from side of stage, Gilson’s drum solos are poetic and musical. Unlike drum solos of old, say Carl Palmer in ELP who seemed to bash the shit out of everything in site and then take his tee shirt off as a finale. None of that with Gilson. Just posture and grace.

To add to the weight of the season a few more edits to my book, coming out in August, its already up there on Amazon! Legals and then some internal personal feelings about the way it might be read have lead me to keep going back to the typewriter, however the portcullis is now down I’m told. I have to leave it alone. Slapped wrists. Im so nervous about this book, some nights its so hard to sleep, I would hate to upset anyone or tell a story out of context. Its done now. The real meat and potatoes story can wait until retirement day. I never thought my first book on this universe would be about me, its a start.

Home has been fleeting, a bag down and look into the garden and I’m back in the car, how I’m missing my darling Mrs D. For the first time in may life I have to find the mortgage payments like most normal people, so both hands are at the pump, and then what. I don’t mind the hard work its refreshing and sometimes inspiring to be racing between so many aspects of my life. No time to be enigmatic or moody thankfully. Home looks as ever wonderful, the Sussex Downs and the wide open inspiration of sky. It comes at a price, its the journey, its the traveling.

Amazingly there are dates with Glenn this summer, we are pounding through our hits at a severe rate of knots and then dissolving back into the now. Unlike my solo shows, a gentle meander though the old grape vine, a space and time all of my own in which to drift back and forth telling stories and spinning yarns, with a few songs in there for good measure. But not to forget the famous dressing room curry.

I’m in the car, and the stereo is my friend. I love sound of my car and the big listen up this month has been Justin Curries new record, its a feast of words and emotions. I love my life, I would like a day off and a long sleep in but that will come in time. In time there will be that moment when I sit down, crash down, and catch my breath telling myself it was all worth while. It has to be. I have a library of over 200 books I have to read before dementia sets in.