After an unusually long break, I have more shows coming up:

4 August at ACL Live: Howard Jones, Wang Chung, and Modern English

9 August at Dickie’s Arena, Fort Worth: The Guess Who (Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, and the Burton Cummings Band) and Don Felder of the Eagles

I’m excited about both. I’ve never seen the New Wave Trio, whose music I strongly associate with my undergraduate years and MTV, back when it actually aired music videos.

The Guess Who is a make-up date for me. Five genuine GW alumni (Burton, Randy, original drummer Gary Peterson, guitarist Donnie McDougall and bassist Bill Wallace) toured for three years 2000-2003 as The Guess Who under a licensing agreement with the then-owner of the brand, former bassist Jim Kale. After the agreement expired, Kale resumed touring (with Peterson) and a group of pick-up musicians. It took Burton and Randy over 20 years to wrest the name away from Kale, which led to the current tour. Peterson and Kale were obviously disqualified, but Donnie and Bill potentially could have come along for this tour. Instead, Burton just added Randy to his band and they call it The Guess Who. I’m thrilled to see them together again, but wistfully disappointed that I missed the 2000-2003 iteration. Needless to say, I avoided Kale’s Klones even though they played in Austin multiple times during the interim.

I've posted a review of last night's gig by The George Harrison Project on my blog.

The shortened version is that we got about a dozen Beatles songs, another dozen from his solo records and various misc including Ringo's Photograph, a Dylan song unknown to me, a couple of Wilburys songs and a bit of rock n roll at the end with Everybody's Trying to be my Baby and Roll over Beethoven.

The sound wasn't great in the first half with the lead guitarist lacking the subtleties of Harrison's slide guitar playing and the keyboards almost inaudible. But things improved after the interval and there was a nice ukulele section which included I'll See You in my Dreams.

Longer write-up at https://colinbertram.blogspot.com/2026/07/george-harrison-project-at-lancaster.html

Water levels ok on the canal rumour is it could be closed to navigation early next month though.
Lots of boaters already turning up preempting this I guess.
Will keep the board informed as and when I know more.

Teddy Thompson Never Be The Same. This sounds might fine, sort of reminds me of the great songwriters of the 60s/70s like Gene Clark and co. Fabulous songs and musically rich and varied. Came across it when browsing in my local music store and took a chance. This is going to get some repeat plays over next couple of weeks. Best thing I've heard him do.

Well, that wasn't on my 2026 bingo card... singing (well, la-la-ing) along to VDGG's Theme One being played by Italian proggers Osanna with guest David Jaxon. Great stuff!

Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraurdy tomorrow,  playing Rainbow Dome Musick, then Soft Machine with Gary Husband on keyboards,  Gong + Hillage on Saturday.

This all at the Moonjune festival in Teramo, Abruzzo.

I remember hearing The Bay City Rollers version and grudgingly thinking it wasn't bad. Not a patch on the original, though. I think I first heard the SDT version on a trailer album from Charisma. If my memory serves me right, the album also had VDGG's  'Theme One'.

The George Harrison Project at the Grand Theatre here in Lancaster tomorrow night.

They haven't sold a huge number of tickets which is a shame but I'm looking forward to it.

Great to have those two gigs at your school!

String Driven Thing were either the first or second band I ever saw.
There were two gigs put on at my school in 1973, the other was Tír na nÓg and I can never remember which came first!

Interesting fact, STD's excellent single Its A Game was covered by The Bay City Rollers.