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Just finished warming up for today's iTunes show with Soweto Kinch, am very excited about it cause musically it's going to rock. Soweto is a great muscian and has an amazing band which i'm really looking forward to hearing. Also, me and Luke wrote two rough sketches of music with Soweto which somehow we're going to put together on the mic tonight.

Also, just been playing dolls houses just to put it all in perspective.

Have caught two great films this week: Juno which i really enjoyed (loved the soundtrack and thoughbt it handled teenage pregnancy with respect and humour, very rarely done), and also I caught La Vie En Rose, a film about the tragic life of Edith Piaf. A wonderful film which left me close to tears, that woman suffered and had such an immense gift, just loved that she went at life regardless of all the shit that was thrown at her.

Nizlopi played a great gig in Leominster organised by Emily Davis for a meningitis charity. Really enjoyed the gig which saw us playing with Gary Dunne, had been a long time since we'd both played together he's on form and was definatly rocking out. Gary has a new album coming out soon and has an interesting video idea which he'd like people to get involved with, check out his website www.garydunne.com for more details.

We played really well and I have to say it was the first gig where i felt really comfortable on the bass, sometimes in can take quite a while to warm up when you're not gigging as much as you normally do. Yesterday sounded great and thanks to a couple from Glasgow i learnt Disarm which i'd forgotten how much i liked.

Two albums i'm listening to and enjoying very much: The Blessing - All Is Yes, the band is made up of the Portishead rhythm section and feels quite like a band from the seventies called Backdoor where the bass takes the centre stage and plays chords and melodies, well worth checking out. The second CD is on the same label as The Blessing (Candid), its the Tom Richards Jazz Orchestra, the album Smoke and Mirrors, which has a guest appearence by Jamie Cullum. This is a well crafted and beautifully arranged big band record and it's great to hear a modern big band. We're very lucky to have them play the Union Chapel gig with us in April and Tom is hopefully going to be putting together an arrangment or two of a nizlopi track which will be amazing. Although also a little nerve wracking having 1) such a great band and 2) possibly having Richard Pryce playing double bass. Check out www.tomrichards.com, album artwork is great too.

Just quickly, was very kindly taken to a gig at the Warwick Arts Centre as a birthday present from Ryan to see African Soul Rebels. Was a great night out and i especially loved Awadi who rocked the show and Salif Keita who has a sublime voice.

Cool well i best get myself ready for iTunes.

All the best

Jpx