A day off ! Gardening ! I'm just back from Inverness, where I joined a Free Church singing psalms on Sunday morning, which was unexpectedly moving. Besides the modern versions of the psalms, they were still singing the 17th century words and music unaccompanied, and it sounded fresh and vital rather than archaic.

We're moving towards the final stages - I hope - of the next two albums.  By the end of the week I expect to have the first edit of the Delphian CD, and Mr Greenberg's editing notes for our duo album.  So I'd better get writing some liner notes. I've already taken some photos for the covers.

I still don't know whether our September tour will go ahead in its full form, as the Scottish Arts Council won't be meeting to consider International Working applications until 1 July. These are applications for the year April 2003 - March 2004.  Can you spot the flaw in this system ?  To be fair, they're very apologetic and doing all they can to help, but ...

I Trawl the Megahertz comes out on EMI next week - there's a nice screensaver and audio available at www.prefabsprout.com . 

It was sheer joy to see Alf Poier performing in the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria, and do credibly in the points too.  Of course the British entry was embarrassing garbage, plus, if you have a singer who is somewhat lacking in talent and experience, and a potentially dodgy monitoring situation, it's a good idea to have more than just a bassline for her to pitch the first verse from.  Duh!

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting (and paying homage to) sound engineer Dave Dade, who as well as being Beard of the Year 2001, and doing the sound at Live Aid for Radio 1, engineered many of the classic John Peel sessions in the late 1970s, and in many cases got a better sound in no time flat in the BBC's trusty Maida Vale studios, than the bands did on their records with a huge budget, the most expensive knob-twiddlers, and the Town House or the Manor or wherever.  He was recording a jazz gig in Glasgow for Radio 3 and it sounded fantastic.