27th March 2000

Well regular visitors to the guestbook will no doubt know by now that the lack of wise words in the last week was because I was lying in a hospital bed in Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield waiting for my newly acquired broken leg to be mended. Thank you for all you e-mails which I will get around to replying in the next week but as you can imagine I do not wish to re-tell this sorry tale of football tragedy 1000 times so for the benefit of anyone who is interested here is what happened. I was playing centre half (defence for our US readers) last Sunday and during the early part of the second half I went into a sliding tackle and got the heel of my boot stuck in what was an unusually dry pitch and the momentum of my slide carried me over my ankle and broke both my tibia and fibula a couple of inches above the ankle. I lay on the floor and knew I had broken something because I heard the tell-tale "pencil crack" of bone in my lower leg. To make matters worse the geezer who I had tackled went on and scored to put his team 2-1 up. I looked at my leg and tried to lift it off the floor and when my foot stayed limply on the grass I knew something serious had happened. An ambulance was called and I was dispatched to the hospital where I was told I would need an operation but would have to wait until Monday as the one theatre that was operating on the Sunday was for extreme emergencies. By the following morning my leg had swollen somewhat and the surgeon informed me that I would have to wait until the swelling went down before they could operate. I had the operation on Thursday and had nine screws and a metal plate inserted into my bones and eventually got out today. This is the first time I have had to stay in hospital overnight and I can honestly say that opening my front door today has never given me more pleasure. This enforced "break" meant that this week's recording was postponed until I can play and hop at the same time which is the biggest bummer of all as it had been arranged for some time. I will be in plaster for at least four weeks and will ensure to get some pictures of "Johnny Raspberry" in all his glory and will post them on the site when it is overhauled in the next couple of weeks. This is all I feel like writing at the moment but will give you another episode of "ER" tomorrow and tell you of my adventures in the land of morphine and hospital food. Bye 4 now.

11th March 2000

Sorry for the lack of wise words in the recent days but I have been a little busy on the gig organising front this week. I am trying to sort out gigs in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Cambridge and a few other places and it is very difficult when you are doing it yourself. I spent a good few days in the studio this week and did a bit of recording on a couple of tracks for the next album. The track I have concentrating on this week is a tune called "Onjerry" which is an ode to the host and audience of the Jerry Springer Show. Although I am not a great fan of the show's format I cannot resist watching it on TV to see what lengths these people go to. When I wrote the song I tried to use the tag lines they have at the bottom of the screen as lyrics and started taking notes while I was watching. I have booked time in Kidwelly to record the rest of the second album at the end of March and cannot wait to get in the studio with the Welsh Fusiliers and put down some of the new tracks. Nigey Nige is in Nashville and has promised to bring me back a lap steel, or did he say lap dancer, you never get a good reception on mobile phones!!! After rehearsing with them I have felt the need to get my electric guitar out as opposed to the acoustic that I have been using for the last couple of years. All the guitars I have are in need of a service so I got my favourite out of the cupboard and took it to the guitar doctors near my studio. The transition between acoustic and electric will not be a s drastic as Bob Dylan's in the 60's but I think it may mean the next album is a bit rowdier than "Ripe". I have had a couple of notes in the guestbook saying how enjoyable the gig in Liverpool was and if any of those in attendance or attending future gigs would like to do a review then I will include it in the "wise words". I am planning an overhaul at the end of March with lots of new pics and maybe some video clips so I will let you know when it happens.