Joy!

I have a record player once again! It came out of the blue really, my girlfriend called to tell me she had something for me when she came through on Saturday. I was mildly curious, but didn't push for any info as she seemed to want to keep it a surprise. Anyway, as surprises go, it takes a bit of beating. It belonged to her late father, but had been gathering dust for some time. I'd actually seen it at her house, but thought it was just a radio, so thought nothing else of it until I opened the box on Saturday. Let's just say that the importance of being able to play my Flying Saucer Attack albums again cannot be underplayed, and I was rather overjoyed. It might not be state of the art, it might be a glorified dansette, it might sound a bit tinny, but fuck it! Most of the music I own is 'a bit tinny'. It works and I can hear stuff again that I will never track down on CD without bankrupting myself. The downside of this development is that I now have around twenty albums duplicated on CD. I just hate the thought of paying twice for anything.................. Bah! Anyway, Hallelujah! I can now assault the 2nd hand record shops of Glasgow & Leith Walk with impunity and rejoin the legions of vinyl nerds, leafing & sneezing their way through the racks of grimy dust jackets once more..................

My Record Player Works! Just!.........And Other Assorted Prayers

It's rolling along just now..........Give it five minutes and it'll fuck up, but it's nice to hear the old songs anyway.

Listening to 'Beach Boys Love You' just now. It's Brian Wilson's post therapy work out that probably never would have been released if the band weren't such a bunch of desperate shills. Then again, if it hadn't been released, the world would have been a sadder place, so fuck it!

I'm 32 sometime today. No fanfare, no big deal..........Just the basic recognition that I've survived another year. Hurray for me!

I am so going to get a Dansette and have done with it. I went into Maplins the other day and asked for a cartridge for a record player and the guy looked at me like I had just landed from another planet. He then pointed to a catalogue with some styluses, at which point I bade him good-day and decided it was best not to leave anything in the hands of such people . I wouldn't leave them in charge of a packet of crisps, let alone a chain of technical retail shops.

Ok, I'm too drunk to blog now.

Big shout to all my friends. You all know who you are. Even I don't........... Thankyou.

The iLL Man