Oxford PJ`s and Cockburn in Cardiff

ave done two gigs since the last entry. Sorry the diary is something short of consistent at the moment. Life has taken on something of an irregular shape recently, and I find myself being less than regular when it comes to certain tasks, plus the added excuse of the web site problems we had.Anyhow, played the Zodiac in Oxford last week, which was a club type venue. PJ Harvey was playing a show upstairs and it was interesting to see the two line ups of audience outside before the show, could you spot the difference? The demographics of an MJ audience is fairly wide, but I would like to think that the music would be of interest to a wide sweep of folk. Earlier in the day I gave an informal talk on the visit to Brazil and the MST. I was almost giving a lecture in Oxford! Sunday saw the Warchild benefit in Cardiff. Thanks to everyone who showed up at such short notice. I thought it was a great evening and was very grateful to Stewart Henderson, Ben Okafor and Bruce Cockburn for giving up their time fee of charge to come and play. Ben was great, I haven’t heard him for a few years and Stewart’s poetry always stops me in my tacks. It was great to have Bruce In Wales for the first time and I thought his performance was stunning: what a guitar player, and combined with his poetry of social and human commentary makes for a very special artist. I was also impressed that at the age of sixty he is still enthused about getting around the world and playing. I think I have had a long career until I compare it to his, and it is kind of inspirational in that respect. I have been a fan for years but Bruce has never seemed to be able to break through over here which again, in a strange sort of way, I find comforting for obvious reasons. Have the rest of the week to catch up and hopefully do a little writing and thinking before going to Ireland next week for the start of the Suzanne Vega tour.