It’s a funny old world. Everybody wants to share a little too much information it seems. But that’s life I guess. It’s yet another achy day and I have been mixing a live recording I did for a friends project. A little bit difficult as its a blend of narration and music recorded in a very reverberant church. I think I nailed it though.
I seem to be musing on mortality again a lot lately as one does. As I write it is more wintery than Autumnal and we put the clocks back later on tonight. I hate doing that to be honest. The season of gloom is upon us it seems. Lots of heavy rain recently too which we very much need but it means a lot of grey skies. As I typed these words the sun returned ☀
25 years ago on an outing in London with mates we did the classic Eros statue shot. A right dodgy crew we were I reckon looking at us. Are you working tonight ladies? No we weren’t honestly. But so long ago. I would have been about 43 in that picture I guess. Time’s winged chariot seem to have been travelling at something close to light speed I feel on some days.
Well, right now I feel as if we have hit peak nothing makes sense any more. I have had a few better nights sleep recently in terms of not waking up to much which is good. I do feel in a very odd mood. Not depressed but puzzled rather. That’s life I guess. I think I still need to try and find a really local music buddie for open mics and stuff, but I can’t get my head in the right place for it to be honest at present.
Grace Will Lead Me Home
Sunday was a little different doing sound for ‘Grace Will Lead Me Home’ at St Saviours in St Albans. It’s been years since I have done live sound for another act. Think I got away with it. I also recorded the gig on multitrack too. I haven’t checked that out yet though. Its a project that Jon Bickley is part off.
Angeline, Cohen and Jon
The heart of the project is the creation of new music. Angeline Morrison, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Jon Bickley got together in Dartmouth House in Olney to research and respond to the writing of Amazing Grace, Newton’s life and times. It was a time when slavery was an accepted part of the trading economy of the world. Earlier in his life Newton had been the captain of a slave trading ship and then later he was an abolitionist.
The house was once owned by the Earl of Dartmouth and he gave John Newton his first clerical posting as Curate in Charge at St.Peter and St.Paul’s in Olney.
The Cowper and Newton Museum showed us where Newton preached and where he wrote, we played Cowper’s harpsichord and we saw the manacles that kept kidnapped Africans incarcerated in the cargo hold of British trading ships.
I always tried to do no harm. But when I am feeling good it shows somehow and my light comes on and people are drawn to me… Funny as I am totally a gloom and doom merchant, living a life day to day always expecting deaths boney finger on my shoulder.
The most recent figures on songs of mine played on the that I can verify on Internet streams in the last 10 years is (actually the majority of that is in the last 5/8 years) 289,215 plays as of date of writing this. It really started to take off during lockdown it seems. Its trending upwards. That doesn’t include Delta Ladies tracks as I can’t get the metrics for those. So it’s not all just blasting into the void unheard. I wonder if can get to a million streams if I am spared.
Factually yes its pretty good going and not to be sneezed at its true. On a bad day looking at it I don’t feel quite so useless for a while. But cliche or no I do feel “not enough” or an underachiever often enough. I am getting a lot of my usual pains again in the morning. Its fairly typical with my flavour of ankylosing spondylitis. Its not just a back ache as related pains radiate to very odd parts of the body. So yesterday I started proper exercises again. Its lightly it will make me hurt a bit more for a while at first. A lot of the reason the pain travels seems to be tight fascia as movement makes it go 🚶♀️ But keeping active once its late Autumn to Winter takes a little effort. My gigs were almost like doing physio on one level in the old days. No wonder things have got worse. I suspect its not just aging though that’s a big deal. It’s 6 years since I have been working full on gigwise.
A friend asked recently “How do you keep cucumbers from going horrible in the fridge?” Sadly this is beyond my paygrade. I do however send hopes and prayers.
In other news:
After six months of confusion and delay, the EHRC has taken down interim guidance rushed out in April. But the damage has already been done. S The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has taken down its controversial interim guidance, which was rushed out in April, days after the Supreme Court’s decision on the meaning of “sex” under the Equality Act 2010. The guidance, which faces an ongoing legal challenge from Good Law Project, told employers and service providers that they must exclude trans people from accessing gendered spaces and services, such as toilets. A number of employers and service providers have already implemented this interim guidance, with a devastating impact on trans people.
These actions may be against the law.
Help us challenge the Supreme Court’s judgment on trans rights Chip in After six months of delay, the EHRC has now withdrawn its interim guidance, telling employers and service providers that, until a new code of practice is in place, they must take specialist legal advice that reflects their particular situation. Good Law Project is supporting a number of trans and intersex individuals who have been affected by the interim guidance, including three claimants in our case against the EHRC, which will be heard in November. For Good Law Project’s executive director, Jo Maugham, the commission’s decision to remove the interim guidance comes far too late. “I’ve spent six months talking to trans people who are afraid to go out because of the climate of fear the EHRC’s interim guidance created,” Maugham said. “Some are suicidal – and I am aware of people who have sought to take their own lives. The EHRC has finally taken it down – and my question to them is: if the High Court finds the guidance unlawful, will you apologise to those whose lives you have so profoundly harmed?” According to Good Law Project trans rights lead, Jess O’Thomson, the guidance hasn’t only had a “devastating impact on trans people’s lives”, but may also have encouraged organisations to act unlawfully. “Now the guidance has been withdrawn,” O’Thomson said, “so should the exclusionary policies that organisations rashly implemented in its aftermath. If not, they could find themselves in hot water.” Good Law Project’s challenge to the interim guidance will begin at the High Court on 12 November 2025. https://goodlawproject.org/ehrc-withdraws-interim-guidance-encouraging-trans-exclusion/
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