A rare daytime visit to the city centre to do something at the office, so I had a chance to do some shopping. Got Karen Armstrong’s biography of the prophet Mohammed, and used some HMV vouchers on the reissue of Byrne and Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and, out of curiosity, the new Flaming Lips album. I haven’t heard any of it but I liked the Soft Bulletin (one of those rare ‘Heard it playing in the shop and bought it there and then’ moments) despite it sounding like it was recorded from inside the drumkit.
In the evening a most interesting rehearsal of The Band With a Shortlist of Names. We couldn’t go to the rehearsal room so we sat in Sean and Tricia’s kitchen and listened critically to the recording of the last rehearsal, making spot changes to arrangements on notepads and one guitar. Turned out to be a good way of working. We auditioned some demo songs of mine for the band, and it looks like we’ll be trying OK’s Not Enough and the new ballad I started last week. Probably also The Desert Was Better too.