Do you ever watch Jules Holland? You should do. Its the safe way to keep up with music. Safe because Jules is pretty old and therefore shares my value system when it comes to what sounds good. He’s also funny, likeable, rather charming and the most brilliant pianist of his, or many other generations. And he plucks unknown superstars out of the ether and simply ‘makes them’. So many wonderful artists achieved their ‘break’ on his show. He has a knack for finding brilliance and show-casing it. As you would if you had your own tv show that’s run for 20 years and must be the most widely respected of its kind in the whole wide world.

He does pop. He was pop. With Squeeze, back in the day. But his heart is in the Blues, in jazz and he’s no stranger to both rock and roll. I first saw Taylor Swift on Jules show. When she was about 9. Ok, 18-ish but ‘young’. Very young. KT Tunstall exploded onto the music scene on Jules show too as have so many others. And he does country music and a capello music and heavy metal and punk and ragtime and hip-hop and (on last Friday) tribal music from the Faroe Islands.

He also had Jain. New French bird. Bit like the last one, Christina and the Queens, in that she’s more ‘performance artist’ than ‘merely’ a singer. And talented. Not sure about her music, whereas Christina’s is brilliant, but the total effect is somewhat unique and unusual. I loved the whole Bowie thing, back yonder, the physical artistry of producing music. Same with Talking Heads and Velvet Underground. Art-school makes music. Brilliant music.

Then on Friday night there came a band called ‘The Amazon’. Not ‘the AmazonSs’ then they’d have been gels. These were boys. Even though they had long hair. The long hair was because they woz ‘heavy’, man. And metal. And FUCKING LOUD. Yet they produced a neat, tight sound that merged rock with something a bit more jazz-ish. But what made it for me was the drums. I love heavy rock drums. And they simply have to be played by fat, long-haired geezers with beards using heavyweight drumsticks. Fantastic sounds. As soon as Mel looks up from her Su Doku and says: ‘I don’t like this much’, I just know its gonna be great. And loud.

All this as a distraction. From the main event of the day, the weekend, the year, the season, THE LIFETIME!!!! Spurs playing Arsenal this afternoon. Biggest match of all time, EVERRRRRR. ‘6 points’ barely covers the pre-match warm-up. I’m feeling confident but hysterical. Shitting myself in a really positive way. Seriously conflicted. Seriously. Need help.

Happy Sunday… or will it be?

A xxxx