Charles Donovan

I don’t think I cottoned on to her until I began to see her name crop up in more and more articles, from maybe 2008 onwards. And I might not have read those pieces if they’d led with a patronising “You’re quite basic and won’t have heard of this person” heading!

Of course we’ve “probably never heard of” Karen Dalton, whose work has been treated to a series of widely-reviewed reissues over the last 20 years. Grrr… when can we kill off the horribly high-handed “you’ve never heard of” headline? And why are some titles so eager to talk down to their readers?

A train station sign reading “iconic roof”

“Iconic roof” #everythingisiconic

LET IT GO NOW: THE DAVID FORMAN STORY The complete liner notes to the newly discovered 1977 album.

Wonderful that David Forman’s cancelled second Arista album is now imminent…

Album cover: Cat Dancer/Sandy Stewart. Portrait of the artist in B&W glancing over her shoulder and carrying ballet shoes. Modern Records, 1983

Album back cover: Cat Dancer/Sandy Stewart. Portrait of the artist in colour seated on the floor and striking a pose. Her collaborator David Monday is standing to the left

Inner sleeve with credits

Three images of Sandy Stewart’s brilliant Cat Dancer

Yes - never reissued (and she made lots of non-album singles for the same label, so a really good expanded version could be made). I know it’s not particularly well-liked by Catherine though.

Album: Catherine Howe - Harry (RCA, 1975). The cover is a portrait of Catherine near (or maybe in) Hebden Bridge

The second Catherine Howe album. Perhaps not as good as her first (or third and fourth) but still good.

Residential street with two rows of bare trees. The sky is clear and blue with what looks like an aeroplane trail in the middle

Avenue of bare trees, Kilburn, today.

Album: Electric Warrior/T.Rex. The album is upright on a pale carpet. Behind it is a red armchair and shelves

Gatefold Electric Warrior

Two baking trays containing cookie pies that have just emerged from an oven.

Bang at it again. I’m not ashamed. It’s who I am.

Pigeon on a chimney, London, mid-80s, by my father

Sitting On Top Of My World by Rita Jean Bodine on Apple Music Album · 1974 · 10 Songs

Look what’s come to streaming in high res and remastered form. Story to follow in January.

Deep dish cookies with Smarties

Deep dish cookies with Smarties

I love making these. I just love the anti-meanness of their proportions. This is the sort of biscuit I wanted as a child instead of the dry, impassive, emotionally withholding Rich Teas that were often cruelly brandished at me.

Hold On To This Feeling: TSD, Cherry Red Collect Leon Russell's Paradise Recordings on New Box Set - The Second Disc By 1976, Leon Russell was already an industry veteran.  The onetime Wrecking Crew pianist had already written and arranged hit singles for Gary Lewis and The Playboys, launched two record labels (Viva...

Delighted to have contributed to this booklet (with Joe Marchese). I’ve been a Mary (McCreary-Russell-Bridges-Rand) head for quite a long time.

Ah, yes - Stepney? I think as well as Come To My Garden he was involved in Hey Love by Rotary Connection, which has Minnie all over it (though sadly not soloing much!)

He has some really great ones in the mid-70s to early-80s part of his catalogue and also produced excellent albums by Syreeta, Marvin Gaye and Melissa Manchester

Indeed. And I think it was by looking at some of the credits on her albums that I ended up getting into the Leon Ware albums.

This plus Stay In Love are my favourite Minnie albums after Come To My Garden.

Album: The Shirts (1978)

Image of a lawn with flowerbeds, leading to a road with red phone box and view of the river and Southbank.

Somewhere near Embankment or The Temple, taken by my father, mid-late 70s

Beauty product advert claiming to improve radiance by 32 %

Does anyone know how radiance can be quantified in percentage points? I feel I should try to calculate my current radiance level before I attempt to improve it.

I went down a BA Robertson rabbit hole a few years ago and ended up with a couple of albums he made under different variants of his name in the early/mid 70s. They’re not that great but they’re quite interesting.

Insoles on a garden table, photographed from above. The table is on a paved area and is in dark green metal

Insoles on a garden table, London, c1990s, by my father.

Four comforts - a photograph, a painting, a candle and, out of focus, a Sandy Denny CD box set.

Isn’t it. It’s the kind of photo that’s making me increasingly consider getting a camera-camera instead of just using my phone-camera.

Billowing clouds, London rooftops and, in the top right corner, an aeroplane. 1992. Taken by my father from my bedroom window

First the flag. Now the poppy A sombre display of remembrance is being weaponised and policed by nationalists

Flags don’t mean what they used to just months ago. I’ve written about how I think the same is happening to the poppy.

One thing I noticed today on that topic: so many people are wearing poppies that look nothing like the various ones the Royal British Legion sells…

Front cover of three editions of Bare Trees - Fleetwood Mac

Back cover of three editions of Bare Trees - Fleetwood Mac

Editions: 2025 US vinyl; 2013 Japan paper-sleeve CD; 2020 US paper-sleeve CD from box set. The Japanese CD recreates the textured sleeve of the original American vinyl edition from 1971, but drops the border. The 2025 vinyl doesn’t recreate the textured sleeve but reinstates the border.

Two hardbacks by Audrey Erskine Lindop. 1958’s I Thank A Fool and 1972’s Journey Into Stone. The former’s cover is an illustration of a woman in a red dress in a rural setting. The latter’s is one of a man in a tie and overcoat standing in a graveyard.

I’m working my way through the Audrey Erskine Lindop bibliography. Next up, these two. This all began thanks to the Blu-ray reissue of I Start Counting, adapted from her novel of the same name. It piqued my curiosity to know more about this forgotten author.