Procrastination

There are so many things on my to-do list that I need to not do anything.
What can I not do?
I'm waiting for Bargain Hunt on BBC1 so I'll write the sleeve notes for my new album that there won't be room for on the sleeve, because it's a CD and will have a very simple format for budgetary reasons.

Here are the notes about the songs (but they might not be in this order):

A Rainbow of the Colour Green

This is a hymn to the city of Porto, where I would love to live if I could. The Crystal Palace Gardens are perfect scruffy beauty and are populated by peacocks, peahens that lose their chicks in the heather, and eccentric bantams who club together in matching sets. And the view over the river is breathtaking. If there is such a thing as rebirth, then it happened to me last July in that beautiful city.
But I can't live there, for various reasons.

These Streets

I recorded this as the 'B' side to the vinyl single of Saturday Night with the London Set but wanted to put a version on this CD. It's about mismatched memories.

New York

This was a surprise. It was so frightening going to New York on my own, but it felt like such a comfortable place to be and there was so much to explore, hardly any of it recommended by anyone. I went to Queens to record with Tom and visit Lisa and their baby Elizabeth, went to the Fire Museum because I love fire engines and wanted to be a firefighter when I was six, went to the Native American Museum because Granny used to work with Native Americans, and just generally wandered around. I visited Jane and her baby in Brooklyn, went to the Village Vanguard Big Band show in Greenwich Village, and travelled up the coast to see my dear friend Laura in New Hampshire. I stayed at the YMCA (well, wouldn't you, if you were a Village People fan?) which was right next to Central Park, and had a view right across the park. You had to fight to get in the showers in the morning. Facilities were 'simple' to say the least!
Why did I do this? Because I broke my elbow very badly in February last year and was shocked not even to be able to get dressed for a week, and to feel such pain that I didn't sleep for three months.
I had to see what I could do, so I went to New York on my own and realised that I could do that.

21st Century Blues

Lying is the dark art of the 21st Century. What does everyone do it? Truthful people are more rare and valuable than the Dodo, it seems. Honesty takes bravery; the world is full of cowards.

A Good Life With A Bad Apple

This song isn't about anyone in particular, which makes it all the more fun to sing it. Lots of younger women at the gigs I play really seem to like this song. I wonder why? Features Gill Wood on cello.

So Long Elon (So Long Branson)

A pet hate is the excitement about space travel, when there are people starving on our streets. There's something wrong with the end of the telescope we are looking through. I hope they do all go to Mars, and then maybe the human race will stand a chance of survival. Grrrrr! Gill Wood on cello.

Where is Home

I wrote this before Grenfell, and after seeing Paul Sng's film Dispossession, which is a wonderful, evocative and ultimately very sad film. I know the song sounds a bit 'Disney' but that's just the way it came out. Features Karina Townsend on Tenor Sax and Ian Button on Mellotron Accordion Sample.

Danse Macabre

This is a love song to my tutor Stuart Morgan. He used to get annoyed with me for knitting in class but it helped me to concentrate on all the amazing things he told us. He had a brilliant imagination and was also kind and flawed in equal measure, which made him huge fun to be around. He loved my baldy-baby daughter and she loved him too, grabbing his mouth with her fat fist in delight when she met him. I used to bump into him regularly with his selection of different boyfriends, and I do know that he really enjoyed his life, even though it ended far too soon.

Soldier Joe

War in the field or war in the streets, it doesn't bloody matter where. There's always a charismatic leader invading people's souls and selling them evil under the guise of camaraderie. I have been a pacifist ever since I watched a soldier on TV training a flamethrower on to an 'enemy' soldier.
No, not your enemy: a person just like you. Life is sacred, mate.

Quic Fitte

This was originally recorded for Richard Sanderson's 'two minutes project'. I'll put a link to the first version later on when I'm more organised. It's about speed dating, which I've never done, although I have done real dating, which is probably much worse.

Bathing Pond

Hampstead Ladies Bathing Pond: what a great place! Offsprog One told me about the kingfishers, that's her story. But when I went with Katy, that's when we saw this man, and that part of the story is real-life, unfortunately. Karina Townsend on Tenor Sax again, making noises too.

Change the DJ

The tour manager Willie offered to change the dismal weather at his mixing desk when I was on tour with The Daintees. This song started life ages ago, and makes it's début now.
Hello Willie, wherever you are!

Saturday Night With The London Set

This has Vic Godard on guitar, Ruth Tidmarsh on bass and Dave Morgan on drums, and has been mixed by Ian Button. It was recorded by Dave Morgan. It's about the London Set, still out there in the back boxes loving music and playing it too, regardless of their comrades falling like skittles.
What else is there in life?

All songs vocals, guitar, bass, melodica, H McC produced/arranged.
Album recorded and mixed by Ian Button. Thank you Ian.