September Days & Chianti nights!
21/09/2026
It’s a balmy September afternoon, around twenty-two degrees, and I’m sitting out in the garden with the cat. Next door, my neighbour Lluís, is broadcasting his regular show on Catalan Radio. He’s playing a cool mix of breezy pop tunes that soundtrack the moment perfectly as I sit and read Baudelaire.
18/09/2026
Had a great time at our Satellite fundraiser, celebrating fifty years of St Albans punk & new-wave. It was lovely to catch up with some folks that I hadn’t seen in a while including my old friend Ray who had travelled up from Newport. Ray runs the wonderful Country Mile record label down there and was wearing the ‘Suicide in St Albans’ t-shirt that I got him for his retirement a couple of years ago. Suicide in St Albans was a compilation cassette we put together of local bands (including our own), some forty-seven years ago. Seems crazy and somewhat incredible that fifty years has passed since I first heard New Rose, Blank Generation and Sheena is a Punk Rocker, and determined that I was gonna put a band together, put on some gigs, be part of this thing.
The night was a blast, with three great bands and two wonderful DJs. Many Bats are a great local band fronted by David Hopper (originally from over the pond) along with Em who shares vocal duties. I jumped up and joined them for the second chorus of their run round ‘Now I Wanna Be Your Dog’. Tetsu are the reformed hardcore outfit of my old friend Kevee and they really rocked up a storm. I first booked one of Kevee’s bands – The Palaminos - back in the early eighties when I was co-running The Upstairs Room nights at The Adelaide in St Albans. Kevee had a show on our local radio station for a while, and we often have him along to compere the music stage at the big street events we have in town – great fella. The Imitation Zone is fronted by another old mate - Pete Langford – and they play a fine mix of classic (and lesser known) punk and new-wave classics including a wonderful take on Holiday in Cambodia. On the decks we had the always joyful Eddie from our local Empire Records Shop along with the irrepressible Kev Saunders who is very much a kindred spirit.
It’s been great for us (St Albans Arts Team CIC) to collaborate with Jon and the crew at The Pioneer Club – this is the second fundraising gig we have hosted there. They are very much like-minded and very supportive and encouraging.
16/09/2026
Got together with my Los Chicos Muertos comrades for an outdoor rehearsal on Nomansland Common. We met up early evening and played through until the autumn sun was disappearing behind the trees. These sessions have become an annual thing since our first al fresco session during covid lockdown (when we could only meet up outdoors). It was such a lovely spot to get together and rehearse that we decided to keep going back. The only audience are the birds and the rabbits and the occasional dog walker (and this time a pony rider) who all seem to enjoy stumbling upon a little skiffle-punk outfit knocking out folk-punk in the great outdoors. We ran round a bunch of material, including one new song - Time to Drown - and recent set addition, our take on Dolly’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ which we dropped into our set at the wonderful Mudlarks Community Café for ‘Not the Musical Mystery Tour 26’ a few weeks ago in honour of the great lady. Losing Dolly and Cheetah Crome in the space of a few weeks is a sad thing – very different but ultimately incredible artists and influences.
14/09/2026
I went down to London to be part of (and take some photos of) the Extinction Rebellion ‘Tell the Truth’ protest march. On my way there I stopped off to say well done to the amazing Michelle Farnham, a relatively local young Animal Rights campaigner who is spending 21 days living in a cramped pig crate in Trafalgar Square as a protest against intensive factory farming. She was sleeping when I arrived, so I had a chat with one of her support team, but I stopped by again later and did manage to say hello and congratulate her. Her protest has caught the attention of many across mainstream and social media, highlighting the cruelty within that industry, which I think many are unaware of – inspirational courage!
Before the Extinction Rebellion march there were performances from a few great activist-poets that were engaging and motivational. I walked with the march from St James’s Park round past Trafalgar Square then down past Downing Street (where we stopped for a while), then on to Parliament Square. There were plenty of great costumes, banners and artworks illustrating the plight of our burning planet along with singing, chanting, drums and pot-bashing, and following another summer of record temperatures, destructive wildfires and the terrible scenes from Tibet and Nepal of the disaster-movie floods it feels more imperative than ever not to loose sight of this most acute crisis.
I’m not really sure why XR decided on a Monday to hold the protest as that obviously
excluded the involvement of most young or working folks, but there was still a good turnout considering.
Whilst I was in the area, I also checked out the new artwork on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square - Lady in Blue by artist Tschabalala Self. I have seen a surprising amount of quite offensive and small-minded criticism of the work across social media which has genuinely surprised me. I love the piece, a bold, beautiful and positive artistic statement that very much suits the setting of the fourth plinth. Check it out for yourself if you are in the area.
O2/09/2026
Following a delicious gluten-free pizza at an alleyway pizzeria just yards from our Bologna hotel, we found a table outside a bar in the majestic Piazza Maggiore, listening to a local busker playing some cool gritty alt-blues. Then, from the opening chords, I recognise that he is going for a take on Nirvana’s ‘On a Plain’. The moment is magical, all street-lit and dreamy and perfect. I turn to Justine and smile and just know that those few minutes will remain with me forever.
This is ahead of attending the most gorgeous of weddings in a chateaux and vineyard in the Tuscan Hills. Justine’s nephew Orson and his new bride Christine have chosen the most beautiful spot for a three-day wedding with great company, fine wine & dining and a host of excellent musicians. Over these days we stay in a secluded hotel apartment a few miles away, and at night sit out with a final glass of the local red listening only to the music of the many cicadas in the undergrowth around. We pop for breakfast coffee and juice to the local village of Gaiole in Chianti, a sweet endearing little hamlet, and starting point for the legendary L’Eroica cycle trail. Before our flight back we spend a few more hours mooching around Bologna, and lunching at the same pizzeria, I think we’ll return here at some point for sure – a cool city with a cosmopolitan vibe where we felt quite at home.
September is not yet done and whilst the unseasonably clear blue skies and warm days are an undeniable pleasure we must continue to pressure those in power and those with sway to pay more immediate heed to the obvious impacts of global warming, that are with us even now. Much respect to Michelle as she nears the end of her month-long protest ordeal – let’s hope it awakens more eyes to the cruelty of intensive factory farming and helps to bring about change in what is deemed permissible in that industry.
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