BACK ON THE TRACK . . .

First, a large and appreciative thank you to everyone who came to my Bath International Music Festival event at the Little Theatre, and to those involved in organising and running it (except the jobsworth sound technician, who was just that sort of person). Everyone else worked hard to help it go well, and I think it did.

Second, an update on dates still to come over the next few months. They are:

BOB DYLAN & THE POETRY OF THE BLUES DATES
Sat Jun 9, 8pm Jersey Arts Centre
Phillips Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE2 4SW
£9 (students £5)
Box Office: 01534-700444

Sat Jul 7, 7.30pm Bristol Arnolfini
Arnolfini Arts Centre, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA
£6 (concessions £4.50)
Box Office: 0117 917 2300

And lastly, What I Did On Holiday: Sarah and I spent Bob Dylan's 66th birthday in Bath, with fabulously full-summer weather (which disappeared so mysteriously, in the normal British manner, the next day), not least meeting up with our daughter Magdalena for an afternoon of swimming in the terrific New Royal Bath Thermal Spa, mostly up in the open-air rooftop pool. We ended the day heading for the depths of rural Somerset, staying overnight with relatives of Sarah's before heading for Dorset and East Devon and several days by the seaside, mostly in inclement weather.

We drove home to North Yorkshire yesterday, listening, among other things, to the Dylan Live at the Gaslight CD, bought not in the version obtainable only from the evil empire of Starbucks but the funkier alternative version issued by Belgian magazine Humo with two of their October 2005 editions. Tremendous early Dylan, back when he really bothered to play the acoustic guitar - lots of picking, not just yer basic strum - and on most songs an exquisitely-judged voice that never stumbled or resorted to crowd-pleasing cheapness. A prime example: 'Barbara Allen'. Much as I love the early legs of the Never Ending Tour from 1988, I wouldn't like to play a 'Barbara Allen' from then straight after this 1962 Gaslight version, from the days when a Dylan of unfailing dignity and artistic grace was trying to sound so much older than 66 and was actually 21.