Listening to NOW: London By Night - Frank Sinatra on Live 365 internet radio. Very soothing, love his voice of the 50's.

I dissapeared again. There is a pressure to keeping a blog as when there is no time to post to it, there's a voice in your head saying 'must blog, must blog'! It's just work and this is the pressure time of my year.

In between work, gym and hospital radio I have still managed the sorting our of my rather large CD collection. ITunes now have over 2,000 tracks on it and I have sold, chucked out or donated over 100 CD's. Also still working through my vinyl [fear I will be doing this until my retirement]. Came across Grace Jone's CD Nightclubbing, an 80's classic and it's still fab. So now have this on CD.

Bought a lot of new stuff, Seth Lakeman among others but no time to sit and really listen plus I snapped 2 banjo strings. have restrung and retuned in G. Have spent 3 months learning stuff in C!! Have read so much that G is easier and better and I have to say that the banjo sounds more like a banjo in G so am starting all over again.

Easter soon and 4 days off!!!!!!!

Well, on holiday for a start in Sharm El Sheike in Egypt. Just to get some sunshine really. It was fun especially the 2 hour Quad Bike ride through the Sunia Desert.
Then, as usual, work mounted up and I've been clearing email after email!

Read Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume 1 whilst away. It was a quick, easy and very evocative [mainly of New York in the mid 60's] read and the message it really carries is that it's OK to be inspired by other music, songs etc. His real big inspriation being Woody Guthrie.

Listened to some new stuff through the ipod as I melted in the Eastern sun: Artic Monkeys [excellent didn't think I was going to like this ], same goes for James Morrison's Undiscovered. Madelaine Peroux's 2nd CD is also very good.

Transferred some Diana Ross from vinyl to Ipod, crackers like Love Hangover and Aint No Mountain High Enough and just listening to George Bensons Give Me The Night to do same.

Thank god it's Friday as they say as it's been an odd week [lost a day travelling, got yet another cold so working through fog] so tonight it's pasta, red wine and DVD. Don't let anyone tell you there is anything better!

Saw this icon at Warwick University last night. It was such a refreshing concert, probably due to my own age but it was so good to see someone so at ease with herself and with the plus of such a magnetic personality.

I was somewhat in awe of someone who has addressed every war, civil rights and whatever issue through the turbulent 60's and onward, yet she was so available to the whole audience who shouted the song they wanted to hear and even 'Joan still rocks!', she was so unflappable and with no trace of ego.

She still sounds etheral and haunting even though she admits she can no longer sing in such a high register, and her guitar playing is phenominal. As I currently learning to play the banjo I just could not keep my eyes of her and her 2 support musicians as they fretted with the greatest of ease!

She also is very, very funny. As she was re-tuning and apologising about it saying 'it comes with the territory', someone shouted 'tell us about the Grammys' which she did with much humour ending on, 'the greatest acheiveent [she got a Lifetime Acheivement Award] of the evening was to get on the stage in high heels'. When introduing her next track she said that when playing it to young people she realised that they had no frame of reference so she would say, 'I sang this at Woodstock'. The audience went wild.

She did an encore and then at the very end, on the stage alone and the with her fans wanting Amazing Grace, she said she would only sing it if we did to, and so we did with her conducting and guiding us. So in March 2007 I got to sing with the marvellous Joan Baez!