Enjoyed John�s analysis of the prospects for young composers and the way that their music might be performed - the importance of location and performance in generating sales.

It made a connection with an article I read today on contemporary poetry which has in the England over the last 25 years fragmented into a million small cells and ad hoc publications. Critics have a hard time staying up with what may or may not be the best.

Occasionally groupings become more salient or arguments develop eg Cambridge vs London or Oxford. Or a later generation/gender comments on an earlier. Here is one such retro comment:

Gents in a landscape hang above their lands.

Their long keen shadows trace peninsulas on fields.

Englishness, Welshness, flow blankly out around them.

Hawks in good jackets lean into the wind, shriek �lonely I:

This sight is mine, but I can�t think I am.

Those pale blue floods of watered silk have flounced indoors, I hear

their flick of vicious fans. I�ll land and stow my feathered legs

and walk to find a sweet interior of beer� - These men are right.

You don�t need me to point out the connections - these men are right. This is Denise Riley who I think shared a house with Totton and Bell at the time of the Careless Love band.

Talking of which general area BBCR2 are trailing their BradPitt coup relentlessly and they obviously have an advance copy of Magic - the title track was played about 11-15pm last night - more dry string artfulness than the other arrangement - a hawk in a good jacket leaning into the strings - actually I thought the voice was placed nicely in the mix.

Or another one of the girls

Spring surprised us, running through the market square

And we stopped in Prynne�s room in a shower of pain

And went on in sunlight into the University Library

And ate yogurt and talked for an hour.

You, You, grab the reins.

Drink as much as you can and love as much as you can

And work as much as you can

For you can�t do anything when you are dead.

(�Cordelia�

Veronica Forrest-Thomson

I spent some time last Summer on the previous generation - especially Larkin and Amis who launched - more or less - something which became the Movement with a media offshoot called Angry Young Men. The point of contact with the hawks is the incorporation of early US recordings of jazz and blues particularly the latter. By the way Mice-Beefheart Jordan tells me that he has a vid of the new Scorcese bluesfest. Very much something to look forward to. I have been listening a lot to the magnificent Hot Spot CD - Miles and JL Hooker - with Roy Rogers on slide -no Trigger.

Some think that the elegant hawks packed it all in around 1975 - funny date to chose - I wonder what came next. Their stuff tends to turn into philosophy.

There is a new section on the Highveld site - see button at the top of this page or go direct to

http://www.kwase-kwaza.org/recentactivities.htm . Also some new links off the Spaceward introductory page and a Les Paul quote. Bob Geldorf was on the Andrew Marr show yesterday as convincing as ever.

I was thinking about the time that Derek Ridgers insisted that we go to Ronnie Scott�s to hear the then Mrs Miles Davis� band - maybe her maiden name was Betty Mabry - who they say was instrumental in getting Miles into Hendrix. She had a three piece with her and I suppose that must have been the first time that I got full on both barrels the emerging 7Os funk genre from the USA. It should be quite easy to date because her link to Miles didn�t last long - neither did her musical career. It would be unfair at this distance to comment on the fairness of that. But the Westbound collection brought the episode back to me. As usual DR was more than right.

I need to do some work for a Lullabyes project meeting on Friday in London. It was touch and go whether I would have to reschedule but a complex set of dependencies means the meeting is still on. I am wondering whether I can leverage the event through the Tanworth fest on 21 August?