My birthday bash went so well that we’ve been booked back at the Squirrel again. I’d like to thank everyone who turned up and hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. The Band line-up was Alan Vincent and Jon T-bone Taylor on guitars, Steve Taylor on Bass and Mel Wright on drums. I’d had a flu jab a few days before and was expecting to be bothered with a bout of coughing every time I played harp or sang, but was relieved that it didn’t happen. Steve’s wife Bonny sat in on a couple of songs and Brian Diprose did a spot on Bass. Dave Noall was over from America where he has recently been granted American citizenship, so he sat in on a couple of numbers, one just with me on harp and the other with the whole band.

Chris Youlden had intended coming but he phoned me on the day and sounded terrible with a really bad cough. .As I’m going down to meet him for a drink and a catch-up on the coming Friday I hope that he has got over it by then. We were hoping that Mel Wright might make it too but he’s got a prior engagement so it will have to be another time for him. He’ll be playing at the squirrel gig anyway on the 14th 0f November so if we don’t get together before then, then so be it. I’ll use the same line-up for the gig. Incidentally, the Squirrel is now doing regular Friday night live music, so I won’t have to do much travelling to hear some.

Finally, for all those poor politicians who don’t know what to do about UKIP, given that party’s foreign policy is to stop all aid to third world countries, may I suggest a slogan for the main parties: VOTE UKIP – GET EBOLA.