‘Take a look around
  Seems we cast away the clouds
  To which we once were bound
  Take this day and run
  Our season has begun.’

The sky is grey above Oxfordshire. Dimitra had come over for the night and she too thought that Oxon is a lot more grey than Devon. Which just makes me happy our home, our real home, is in Devon and not here. And it makes me long for that same Devon, too. But right now I don’t mind the rain and the clouds. Right now I’m just dreamily sitting behind the computer and thinking of last night.

I always thought that, of all Rose Melberg’s bands, I liked Tiger Trap best. I’m not sure any more. I saw Rose in London on Friday and then again in Oxford last night (which, of course, is why Dimitra had come down) and I doubt if her other bands would have been able to outclass this week’s performances. Well, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to beat that moment last night, when she played Cast Away The Clouds, the title track of her solo album. Dimitra used to play the album a lot last summer, and I always thought it was a rather sad song, but that probably was mostly due to the personal mess I was in back then. Last night, in the attic of an Oxford pub, and the constant realisation that things in life are getting better, I decided it was the most beautiful song ever written. (Which, of course, I will say about another song, another day. But that’s just besides the point right now.)

Oh, Gregory Webster played too. Which was good, too, but then, he is Gregory Webster after all. Especially the two Razorcuts songs he played and the Carousel-song with Rose and her friend on vocals were quite stunning. It’s been more than five years since I’ve last seen his latest band Sportique and although I had kind of given up on seeing a lot of bands, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again.

But this is what matters now:

Rose Melberg – Cast Away The Clouds

(That link goes to box.net, which, I think, is the best place to host mp3s. Thanks to Dimitra for sending me the mp3, to TV Casualty for putting the lyrics online, to Spiral Scratch and Swiss Concrete for putting up the shows in London and Oxford respectively and to Double Agent and Where It’s At Is Where You Are for releasing Rose’s record. Which, I think, you should buy.)