I did some digging into the theology of the Book of Job � especially the Hebrew interpretation � I mailed Paul W about this. Roughly the idea is that God created evil as well as good but that he sets limits to evil in the world. This doctrine must have come under a lot of strain in the last 60 years � I wonder if its been superceded by something more sophisticated � possibly not. Anyway Jobs trials are an indicator of what might be expected from a sovereign creator who wants his creatures to develop.

I woke up pretty early this morning � and survived the day not too badly considering

Oh � I made a mistake in that reference in Married to the Muse � its in the second sentence � the one where the muse actually turns up � it is a reaching up to the seventh of the fundamental but not over a tonic harmony.

I am just now listening to a version of Ghosts � this is the song which gave its name to the band which had Paul Wheeler, Paul Bell and myself � and all kinds of bassplayers � Colin Vallance who played with that other Marlboro songwriter whose name I can never remember � the one who wrote Woman in Red, Paul Martinez from Elmer Gantry�s Velvet Opera and Peter Giles was on the cards at one stage. There�s one really important tape from this band with a song on it that Gavin quite rates. Oh yes that�s the session the supplied Track 2 of Serious Music.

There�s a version of Ghosts on this MD that I kind of tarted up to make it sound like its from something like the Rolling Thunder Review � and then another one I did for myself with an electric violin on it (well that�s a bit RTR I suppose). I put some vocals on in the style of Lee Marvin � for my own entertainment

�Now I may be easily led � but I am easily bled�

I think Totton had a hand in this.

Oh yes now there�s my arrangement of I Can Feel It which is a song on �Over the Island� � I still think this song is miraculous after thirty years.

�Waking up to confusion its so hard to face the day / You couldn�t stop it coming there must be fusion on the way/ Looking round to see who gets hurt in the most peculiar way/ Makes you see - its only love that can take your breath away�

The arrangement Paul has on Over the Island is better than mine � there is a great female vocal line. I like my arrangement of Scream Across the Water, though, which relates to a Wells/Wheeler episode � I think I pack more menace in � as the song requires.

Anyway I was reflecting on �Mingus Mellow Fantastic� and the time the Scotsman accused Steve of doing Mingus rock at the Edinbugh Festival � it was the first Stoney Ground � the same summer as the Drake-Kirby May Ball where Steve and I were in the band.l I was thinking what an astonishing collection of people it was at Edinburgh. Paul W was the singer songwriter, the drummer was a Sufi from the acidrock band I joined in 1967 (Tintagel) � a guy called Chris Easty, the pianist was Geoff Castle who is now a major figure on the London jazz scene, the poets were Totton and Ian Patterson who has edited J H Prynne and taught Cathie practical criticism, the technician was Derek was was being educated alongside Freddie Mercury at Ealing and was going to document punk when it happened. I know I have left some people out. It was my idea to get Derek involved because it seemed to me that his take on the US art scene and some related musical things was a bit of a missing ingredient.

This was an echo, I suppose, of the way things were in 66 and 67 � when poets did just get mixed up in things � think of Pink Brown and the Cream � and following on (say) the Graham Bond Organisation the thing was to take Mingus and avant garde into rock � in fact the Edinburgh event was probably a month after I jammed with GB. Strange Days. I suppose as one gets older this is the kind of detail that surfaces.

When Steve died and my neighbour Peter Buckle organised an event at the Senate House in London University and by way of reflection, Paul Bell and I gave an account alongside the professional/legal stuff. Paul teaches communication and so of course his delivery was a masterpiece - reflecting his professional skills � he started the story after that Edinburgh event . As he tells it he returned to Cambridge and the whole town had been bannered leafleted and generally hyped up about Wild Oats by Steve � the world was expecting something that was allegedly Cambridge�s first �Jazz-Rock supergroup�. To his surprise Paul found that he was in it. (Actually the first GBO has better claim to that title � but we were young and self important)

Steve and I had had the band Horn the previous term and a half � and then Steve had tried a jazz-rock hybrid at Edinburgh and had decided (I suppose) that that was going to be the second year project � encouraged by the Scotsman�s reaction. The bass player was Richard Jones of Climax Chicago who was from these parts and thought he knew about electric music. Steve and I were the horns � especially two soprano saxes � I guess that was what rang the bell with that double tracking on Saturday � we also did two flutes on the pretty bits � and alto and flute for the jazz lines etc.

(RJ and I had only played together once in a strange trio with Tim Hodgkinson of Henry Cow � one of the weirdest experiences of my whole musical life � and the only time I have played an SG in public � it was like being parachuted into downtown NYC completely unprepared. I suppose I said unguardedly to someone that I always wanted to play an SG and so they stuck one in my hands and pushed me on stage � I think it must have been a Hodgkinson ploy on reflection � a wierd post LMY algorithm.)

In many ways the mainstay of Wild Oats was the guitar/vocalist � Jon Cole � who went on to form The Movies and play with Joan Armatrading as she emerged � he was also the MD of the first Footlights revue to have a rockband and was collaborating with Sandy Denny when she died. He had a Gibson 335 and 50 watt Marshall plexi and is the guitarist I know who is most obsessive about controlling bends and vibrato. Paul and Jon went to the same school � were in the same year as Andy Powell who later produced the first K Bush album and has just released a CD.

Purely for dating purposes you can say Wild Oats started pretty well as 5 Leaves Left was being recorded. It lasted a year and had a brilliant Edinburgh Festival the next year � just too bloody good for everyone to stick together � but that�s the way with bands I suppose.

It was doing the talk with Paul Bell that made me start asking the question � well what was that all about � made me start searching for clues. I decided that my job for the Senate House thing was to try to explain how utterly outrageous Steve had been as a sax player. We reconvened the White Hart Band for the event � and played Better Get It Into Your Soul. Geoffery was always very into Mingus � in fact I put on the Black Saint and think � oh that sounds like Geoffery.