Day 32. All previous dispatches are obsolete. (1/2/19)

(Soundtrack: The Waterboys. Their 'Dream Harder' album from the early nineties. They'd done the big music with This Is The Sea, got to the point that The Whole Of The Moon was going to make them U2 sized stars, gone "hold on, Ireland looks boss, doesn't it?" turned all acoustic and fiddly and then, as soon as people loved that, the entire band format changed on the eve of a major tour and went all rocky again. Track 1: The New Life. "Are you listening to fear or to your heart?" - it's been an anthem for us for years now and this morning its obvious. The New Life Starts Here.)

So, how are we the morning after? The morning of the start of everything else (with that start being a continuation, if we're honest)?

Pretty bloody phenomenal on the whole, thanks very much.

Dropped J's car at the garage for its MOT, ran back in temperatures that started with a minus sign, hoping to avoid the ice patches. The idea was to just run from Halfords to ours but it was so enjoyable, so brisk, so bracing, and I had The Bunnymen's masterpiece Heaven Up Here playing (and the only album in the history of music I love more than Heaven Up Here is Revolver by those other four scouse lads) so the 5k became 6k, became 7k. I ran past the Cash Generator in the square, the 80 quid cello I was tempted by last week is gone from the window, replaced by a nice white Strat and a lovely big bodied Washburn for £330 each.

I don't need more guitars. With the possible exception of the Epiphone in the window of Curlys in town; an Epiphone that looks exactly like the one I'd intended to buy from the same shop (in its previous premises) in 1983 but came out with an Ibanez acoustic instead. Thinking of seeing if I can trade that and the 12 string Fender acoustic for the Epi.

Sorry if that's a bit specific but that's where my mind goes. And halfway through the sentence my phone went. Ringtone is the beginning of Bowie's Absolute Beginners. The bit that goes 'Ba Ba Ba oooh' really loud. Every time it ring I shit myself.

Car's passed MOT but guess what? The garage has found £500 of work that could do with doing. Who saw that one coming? "Your car's got a stop start facility hasn't it?" "Not a clue mate, don't even know what that means. I can talk about guitars if you like?"

Anyway. What I meant to say. This is where we are. The new life has started and the new life doesn't include thinking about the daily grind anymore. The new life starts with (as I put my phone away and spot that it says 11:11, means something that) a note in the diary saying 'THE BIG TO DO LIST' (it's genuinely in capitals).

And 'THE BIG TO DO LIST' goes like this:

1. GDPG REWRITE (all still in caps)
2. SILVER MEADOWS - THEMES + SONG STRUCTURE
3. VENUS - 2nd ACT

And that's the next three months. That's scheduled for a month at a time. That's a musical on the 1960s all girl band The Liverbirds, a musical based on the album by Vinny Peculiar that me, the producer and the director met about last night and turning the one act play that we last did last summer with Hollyoaks' James Sutton in the lead because James and I had a WhatsApp discussion about what to do with it next.

All I have on that is a brief note to self: "break him, have him talk to the guys from the books, Gatsby"

Means nothing to you? Wait for it. It'll be great. I don't know what it'll be but it'll be great.

And that's why it's all Waterboys this morning, that's why it's an album that's about rebirth. Because it has lyrics like this:

I've got brilliant intentions
unthinkable plans
I've got sparks and electric shocks
just exploding from my hands
And this:  

I'm back in the saddle
I'm out in the clear
I got no regrets
I've got nothing to fear
I've battled my demons
come out on top
I'm gonna love you as hard as I can
never gonna stop

And this:

I'm preparing to fly
under my own steam
I'm preparing to fly
into a dream


Things to live your life by. Verses I've believed in for years. 

How do I feel? Wide open.

"Push now for a golden age."











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