Big Not Beautiful

We used to have a great independent health store in our neighbourhood. The arrival of a Whole Foods Market nearby helped to shut it down. The superstore had more stuff and it was cheaper – although it didn't have anyone with the wide-ranging expert knowledge that the guy who ran the health store had.

Today, what was once an independent health shop selling fresh organic vegetables and top-quality supplements is a national grocery chain store selling brightly coloured packets of processed food and sweets.

In the end, I gave in and became a Whole Foods customer.

It was disenchantment with the onward march of big business putting small businesses out of business that led me some time ago to stop buying anything from Amazon. That decision made it harder for me to buy music and films, but not impossible.

Now I hear that Amazon has bought up the Whole Foods chain. Big fish swallowed by even bigger fish. And so now I can't shop in Whole Foods any more.

How does this all end? Not well, I imagine.

Air On A G Harp

Strange things have been happening in the world of harmonicas...

I've been hard at work with Russ Payne and the Shark Dentists recording our second album – the first was more or less a 'live' album, but this one is the full all-original works, featuring guest musos, sort of 'Sgt Pepper's Rocking Blues Club Band'.

It's actually called 'In Love With Trouble' and should be up on iTunes, Amazon etc before too long... as well as appearing in traditional CD form.

Anyway, to start a long story that I may not be able to cut short... the final track was an acoustic number which seemed to be crying out for a violin solo. But as sessions went by and the violinist couldn't make any of the dates... it was decided that the song was actually asking for a blues harp solo.

I play occasional harmonica with the band, but of the six harps I had with me, not one of them was in the right key.

I just had the week between the penultimate session and the final one to buy (and play in) a Marine Band harmonica in the key of G.

Checking by phone to make sure I didn't have a wasted journey to a local music store, I found that they didn't have a G harp in Brighton, they didn't have a G harp in Eastbourne. Or Haywards Heath. Or Lewes. Oh well, it would have to be the Charing Cross Road in London.

I called Macari's, where I usually buy harps, and they didn't have one either. "There's a problem with Hohner sending over harmonicas in the key of G from Germany," I was told. "What kind of problem?" They didn't know.

Days were going by and I was getting desperate. I emailed Hohner in Germany to ask what had happened to the flow of G harps. More days went by and there was no word.

In the midst of this I had to attend my son's graduation ceremony at the Rose Theatre, Kingston. A quick googling revealed a music shop almost next door to the theatre: Hand's Music.

I phoned them, expecting the usual apology. But the man who answered said: "Yes, we've got three of them." "All in G?" "Yes."

Reader, I reserved a G harp and picked it up next day. And shortly after that I was in the studio, playing the last solo on the last track of the album, ready for the last mix. And it came out all right – probably because it had been such a long, hard road to get that damned harmonica there and in front of the microphone.

I still haven't heard from Hohner... But Hand's is my new favourite music shop.

Flower Shop

You can now read a fair chunk of my novel "Like A Flower" at Amazon.

You can even buy it there too...

Time Is Money

I've just received a most generous offer from Amazon of a £15 discount if I buy a watch priced at £75 or more. The only problem is that I don't wear a watch, I don't need a watch and I'm not convinced that many people need one.

Perhaps a watch says something about the wearer. But if you need a watch to say something about you, maybe that's all there is to say...

I stopped wearing a watch about 30 years ago. I was on a journey through Israel with a journalist from the Yorkshire Post and noticed his wrists were watch-free. I asked him why and he explained that you were almost always near a clock or some other means of telling the time — there was no point. I thought about it for a few days and decided he was right. The watch went. And the sky didn't fall in.

Now, with the ever-presence of mobile phones, laptops, iPads etc, who really needs a watch? Don't just save £15. Save £75 or more. Watches are a waste of time.