Gardening can be very therapeutic. It’s been depressing not being able to get out into the garden lately, but today I bought a few early potatoes and got them chitting; then I headed out to the shed and extracted a fork. Rolling back the carpet mulch, I began to attack the soil, not knowing how much I’d be able to do. But instead of getting tired I became more energised and managed to dig a square patch which felt like a good start. I’ll do some more tomorrow and bit by bit I’ll get the garden dug.
After that I headed indoors to watch the Old Grey Whistle Test (or Old Grey String Vest, as we used to call it) – a special 30th-anniversary edition hosted by none other than Whispering Bob himself and featuring Annie Lennox, Andy Kershaw and many, many more. It is impossible to list all the artists they had on; from Alex Harvey to an amazingly young-looking Peter Frampton; from Kiki Dee to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and featuring the competition winner, Bob Marley and the Wailers.
You never know what you’re going to get with OGWT. Literally anybody could be on it; from the New York Dolls to Led Zeppelin, from John Otway (and Wild Willy Barrett) to Gary Numan; from Joan Armatrading to Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) – and the commentary was neither bland nor fawning but serious and minimal, allowing the music to speak for itself. The programme was a great mixture of old clips, live performances and chats on the sofa: if you like rock music at all I urge you to watch:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09scfnb/the-old-grey-whistle-test-for-one-night-only
They’ve also made this retrospective available from 2011:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014vzy3/the-old-grey-whistle-test-70s-gold
Aaaand – what about the Archers, eh? Didn’t see that one coming:
Sarada Gray 