Guitar Emporium

There is still loads to change in the way the West regards anyone who is not from a background they recognise. I've been following the World Cup and although it doesn't mirror society in anyway there are some parallels - the teams from Africa are closing the gap and their natural athleticism is setting them up beautifully - may be not this time - but soon.Support the show

We've just come out of one in the UK - goodness me do we complain about it. This tune came out of a heatwave in July 2023Support the show

I wrote a tune called You about inclusiveness - being aware of other people regardless of who or what they are - I didn't know about the #MeToo movement . But it seems relevant to turn the tune in a re-mixed way to that title as it has a whole lot of significance.I used the tune earlier this month in a different form following another awful stabbing case - this time in Southampton.#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which survivors (led by the voices of men and women, especially public figures) share their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment.The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media around 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke.The hashtag#MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" is meant to empower those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. Support the show

One for the day of rest.A colleague who strikes me as pretty uptight said " we all want an easy life" - well he doesn't seem to make it all that easy for himself - he's a complete workaholic.Take the day of rest...whenever it is.Support the show

Got Co-Pilot on this one - whether I like it or not:"Mercury rising" can refer to either a literal increase in temperature or atmospheric pressure, or in astrology, it indicates Mercury as the dominant planet in your birth chart, influencing communication and intellect. In everyday language, the phrase “mercury rising” is often used figuratively to indicate that the temperature is increasing. This comes from the traditional mercury thermometer, where rising mercury levels indicate higher temperatures. It can also refer to rising atmospheric pressure, as measured by a barometer, which generally signals calm weather conditions and the absence of precipitationMercury in astrology represents your communication style, thought processes, and how you perceive and express ideas. ( what a load of ...........s)In astrology, Mercury governs intellect, communication, and perception, acting as the planet of thought and expression. Its placement in your birth chart reveals how you process information, articulate ideas, and interact with others. Mercury influences mental agility, learning style, adaptability, and decision-making, making it a key factor in understanding both your inner dialogue and external communication patterns.This song is about how the west now seems to be moving away from concerns about global warming and suddenly seems to be more concerned about where the energy ic coming from. Good old Trumpy.Support the show

We all do it - but its not very pleasant. Teachers to pupils: Teachers to other teachers: parents to children: colleagues to colleagues.It achieves very little more than burning resentment.Support the show

Happy Birthday Sue - We don't get back to Bamburgh these days but this tune was written with Lindisfarne Avenue in mind - what a place and what a collection of memories . Support the show

From almost exactly 1 year ago when the weather was ivery similar - the old marketing slogan slip slop slap .The UK and parts of Europe are heating up - 38 degrees C later in this week.The Slip Slop Slap campaign is an iconic Australian public health initiative promoting sun safety to prevent skin cancer.The Slip Slop Slap campaign was launched in 1981 by Cancer Council Victoria (then the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria) in response to rising skin cancer rates in Australia Wikipedia. The campaign featured Sid the Seagull, an anthropomorphic mascot who danced and sang a catchy jingle on television, encouraging Australians to "Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat"Got to be good adviceSupport the show

Jam tomorrow (but never today) is an absurd dictum which first appeared in Lewis Carroll's story Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. It is based on a rule of Latin grammar in which the word iam is used only in the future or past tense but never in the present tense. It is now commonly used to signify a promise which will never be satisfied.Tha Labour Party in the UK which won a huge majority at the last election is busy tearing itself apart because. of the promise of a charismatic new leader Amdy Burnham to replace the rather boring Keir Starmer. Based on history I'd much rather having boring than charismatic. - Jam TomorrowSupport the show

To start the week with a bit of good news - Rob and Marri have found their new home-  the smile villa - as it translates from Italian - so I'm told .A happy ever after tune.Support the show

The group at school are rehearsing Vltava - Smetena's symphonic poem about the great river in former Bohemia = I'll put it up a bit later on. This is just "The River" - flowing relentlessly on to the ocean.Support the show

It was mentioned that this "quick way" could become very drawn out as Iran - who are tactically slaughtering Mr Trump - play the long game Support the show

The great panacea - in any relationship: love, friendship, work colleague, family Support the show

Happy Birthday Rob - a top percussion job on this one - we originally performed at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in....Ithink 2013.David Cameron * the British Prime Minister" of the time's great uniting call ??? He has a lot to answer for - unnecessary austerity following the banking crash in 2008/09, the Brexit referendum - why? - thats just for starters and some nice jobs for the boys.... Support the show

Living dangerously these days - a game of Perudo is about as wild as it gets - stakes of 1p at a timeSupport the show

I mt a man from St.Ives .... or so the story goes.Actually I did and he owned a holiday home in the now largely second home town of St Ives.This pre- school holiday time of year when the weather is good is the time for the newly married to visit the coastal resorts or the old timers enjoying their retirement. - The newly weds and the nearly dead - Support the show

My Dad would have been 100 today - he didn't make it - by a long way - but its nice  to think of him as he was, kind , patient and so very tolerant.Support the show

From July 2025 - the AI revolution continues- I can make it up as I go along - more significantly I can make YOU up as I go along Support the show

The great auk (Pinguinus impennis) was a large, flightless seabird of the North Atlantic that became extinct in the mid-19th century.( Oh god I'm using AI to research this ...)The great auk, also known as the penguin or garefowl, was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus and first appeared around 400,000 years ago Wikipedia. Standing about 75 centimeters (30 inches) tall and weighing roughly 5 kilograms (11 pounds), it was the largest alcid to survive into modern times Wikipedia+1. Its black back and head contrasted with a white belly, and during the breeding season, it had a distinctive white patch over each eye, which changed to a white band between the eyes in winterPictures show it looked a bit like a cross between a very large puffin ( without the colourful beak) and a penguin...Support the show

From August 2025 - a tune influenced by the great Philip Catherine. Trying to have that laid back jazz feel to it . The cry of all acoustic guitarists playing in a band- Don't drown me out...Support the show

After our section 21 eviction we're on the move - absolute chaos at the moment. Another weekend of van backwards and forwards and we should be close.And then we've got to find everything.Support the show

I am all over the place at the moment - having been evicted from our home we're just getting a new place sorted out - I didn't think it would upset us as much as it has..The derivation of this phrase is rather difficult to trace, not least because it has changed in both form and meaning over the nine centuries or so that it has been in use. The phrase was originally ‘to set on six and seven’ and is thought to have derived in the 14th century from the game of dice. The meaning then was ‘to carelessly risk one’s entire fortune’. The earliest citation in print is Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, 1374:‘Six and seven’ is probably a corruption of ‘cinque and six’, French for the numerals five and six. Some may feel that this is a step too far, and the theory does set the folk-etymology antennae twitching. The OED supports the idea though, which will be good enough authority for most people. If things had stayed that way the origin of the phrase would be fairly cut and dried and there would be little more to say. As we know though, it is now given as ‘at sixes and sevens’, having mutated via ‘at six and seven’, and the current meaning refers to a state of confusion, disorder or disagreement, not one of risk. There’s no question of these different versions arising independently; the movement from one to another was gradual and they overlap each other in time. The first appearance in print of ‘at six and seven’ is in 1535 and the last citation of ‘on six and seven’ in 1601. The first appearance of ‘at sixes and sevens’ was in 1670, in Leti’s Il cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa, translated or, as the subtitle of the work helpfully notes, ‘faithfully Englished’ by G. H., 1670:Support the show

To some music is a way of life - to others a means to an end. If you keep it going for more than a few years - you'll know.Support the show

From the time when Israel were attacking Gaza following the awful October 7th 2023 events. Now Hezbollah are under attack. The rights and wrongs I don't pretend to understand - but the innocents so often suffer.Support the show

Today we are all asked to think about how things are viewed from the perspective of others - the very sad case where a 17 year old was stabbed in Southampton and the perpetrator was able to ( initallly anyway) convince the police that he, the perpetrator, was the innocent party ended very tragically for the victim who uttered his last words under arrest and in handcuffs.You - you've got to be constantly aware that the world is not viewed from your perspective and others my have all kinds of takes on who you are and what you represent.Support the show

From March 2024 - Free Will - the downside of free will is that sometimes you wish you hadn't got it - it would much easier to accept what you've been told to do and get on with it. BUT - that wouldn't work - would it ?Support the show

The Day Has Come - from May 2024. I get appraised - like most of us I suppose - on an annual basis. Its usually the same - what do I think I do well?what do I think do could better? How do I interact with colleagues, pupils, my line manager ( what an awful expression that is ) - and of course that mighty question "Am I a good team player?" There's no " I"  in team - but there is the word "me" and "mate" and "tame" and "meat" and "at" and "ta" - what a load of b------s.Support the show

Watching the excruciating Nicola Sturgeon interview about her ex-husbands embezzlement of £400,000 from the Scottish National Party - ( purchases including 2 hairdryers for a very bald man) it was hard to comprehend that she knew nothing.It seems a pity - she was a pretty good spokeswomen for Scotland during Covid.Support the show

The slightly strange heatwave in the UK in recent days seemed to have taken me back to childhood ( not again ) - those endless days of summer looking up at the clouds - daydreaming. Nice way to spend your time - how frequently does that happen these days ? Support the show

The idea of undertaking something too quickly or too hastily without sufficient consideration or deliberation -What the hell - I'm all for it.Support the show

An instrumental re -mix of a 2024 song - much better without the vocals ! - there comes a time when you to step back and let them do their own thing !!Support the show

They used to our last refuge for some sort of authority on whats happening in the world. I'm not so sure they can respond quickly enough to events anymore.Support the show

They seem to come up with increasing frequency - time to make a choice - time to decide. Give it a go - there's nothing to lose.Support the show

So whats it like ? when you disappear off the scene, move on to greener pastures, sling your hook ( thats a great phrase !)Support the show

One of my interests - taking things apart and then putting them back together again to see how much better they can be. I'm quite good at the first bit - not so good at the putting them back together again..Support the show

From Novmber 2024 - Low on battery/ Low on charge - it happens to us all now and thenSupport the show

Time - is a great healerTime - will tell Time - is on your side Take your choiceSupport the show

Apparently a family run group of Chinese restaurants founded in 2010 - pretty damn good.Support the show

From November 2024 - the Twilight. Starts the fifth year of the Guitar EmporiumThanks for listening.Support the show

History is bunk - the Henry Ford quote - maybe - but if we studied it a bit I think we'd see that we so often make the same mistakes again and again. From 2023,Support the show

Everybody must have one - you gotta be "going forward " ( as they say) always looking for the next opportunity the next challenge - why ?Support the show

Going nowhere - if you're being pushed around and about - let them know - you're staying in situSupport the show

There are so many options out there and so often the advice is just to compare - ah thanks - that doesn't seem to help very much.Support the show

There was some discussion about this coming out from the US - China summit. A rising power inevitably comes into conflict with the long established power.But which way round was it ?China has the history - America is pretty new to the scene. Support the show

To the old civilisations - The Aztecs the Inca's .the Egyptians, the Greeks the Romans and all the others - here's to them !Support the show

Resistance - to a plan or proposal ; It seems to be a very trendy way of representing failure to get through a scheme.Pushback seems to be an easier way of saying "that just isn't going to happen"Support the show

The NATO alliance has been referred to as Paper Tigers by Donald Trump in relation to the conflict in Iran. He has a point although I'm not sure NATO signed up to take aggressive action - I thought it was a defensive alliance. Attack one - attack all. Support the show

From March 2024. Boat People - with a riff taken from the amazing Led Zeppelins Immigrant Song.Published 9 May 2026 BBC verify More than 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats since records began in 2018, new figures show.The Home Office recorded 70 people arriving in the UK on Friday, taking the total to 200,013 in the last nine years. Calm weather conditions meant 70 people on one boat were able to make the crossing.Successive governments have promised to reduce migrant arrivals through this route and halt the smuggling operations that facilitate the dangerous crossings, but the number of small boat arrivals has more than doubled in the last three years to reach this new milestone.At least eight migrants have died while trying to cross the Channel by boat this year, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration and French authorities. Last year 23 people were confirmed to have died.Support the show

The instrumental mix of yesterdays tune Support the show

Local elections in the UK - the rise and rise of populist politics is big here. Communicate through social media, influencers, and vague promises - there's nothing new about that it just seems to distort everything.Some would call this a very cynical tune - I think you're probably right Support the show