Wednesday 16 June 2010

I'm up to the neck in funding application forms here (well, just one enormous online form actually, which is about a couple of weeks' work to complete). Meanwhile, Sean Rafferty on Radio 3 played a track from our new album last night - where did he get that from then!?

I grew up listening to this and this a lot (no, really, a LOT), so I was eagerly awaiting the reissues last week with remixes, old mixes, lost early versions and other bits and pieces. Quite amazing that Mr Oldfield recorded all this stuff mostly on his own, experimenting with texture by trial and error, aged 20-21. It feels like I know every note on both records: they were playing constantly here for days again last week and I never get tired of them.

But despite the fact that I even had the release date in my diary so that I could get my hands on copies as soon as possible, I haven't parted with a penny of my hard-earned cash yet. Why not? Because Mercury/UMG put the whole lot up on spotify on the day of release. How spectacularly stupid is that? Two lavish reissues I would happily shell out full price for, and I haven't, because I can listen to them all I want for free. 

It was the West End Festival parade in Kelvingrove Park last Sunday afternoon, which gave me an excuse to go on the dodgems. Special congratulations to the Glasgow University Centre for Molecular Parasitology, who had a huge purple parasite in the procession in amongst the samba bands and belly dancers, and gave out leaflets about parasitic diseases. Awesome.