7x7th birthday

8th June 2019
Steve Hillage Band at Shepherds Bush Empire
Shared this with Tall Pete and Dom Om. My birthday present to myself turned out to be one of the truly greatest things I've experienced in my 7x7 years. Total psychedelic mastery, the pinnacle of the artform. Steve and Miquette on top form, backed by the most enthusiastic and perfectly suited bands imaginable (the current Gong lineup). Cosmic lightshow, amazing setlist, the audience totally there with the band. It was like Hillage was channeling pure cosmic love through his guitar, and cheerfully showering this succession of jewel-like gifts on us all. Heavy-duty wizardry! Thankyou Steve, Miquette et al.!!

"Talking to the Sun"; "It's All Too Much"; "Aftaglid" (Part 7: "The Golden Vibe"); "The Salmon Song"; "Sea Nature"; "Ether Ships"; "Lunar Musick Suite"; "Palm Trees (Love Guitar)"; "The Fire Inside"; "Motivation"; "Solar Musick Suite (Part 2: "Canterbury Sunrise" > Part 3: "Hiram Afterglid Meets the Dervish"); "Hurdy Gurdy Man" E: "Light in the Sky"; "The Glorious Om Riff" E2: "Not Fade Away" (interpolating "I Never Glid Before")

9th June 2019
The Selkies and Charlie Hannah live in the woods
Yes, a secret location! The Selkies were backed by Charlie (Nord Electro) and Luke from Lapis (bass played through converted jerrycan busking amp), also joined by Flo's sister Ottilie for a surprising cover of a Pearl Jam song. Singing bowls were handed out to audience members for "Woodlouse" which was beautifully transformed by Luke's bass. Charlie wasn't able to bring his entire band (The Hausplants), so his set was backed by Luke and the Selkies (vocals/percussion/etc.) which worked wonderfully. They encored with a Dr.-John-inspired number called "Signor Olivio's" off his 2016 album Who's In Charge Here?

10th June 2019
Leonie's birthday! She was visiting, had caught the Charlie Hannah set the night before, just back from a gig in Picardy. Lazy communal breakfast and dogwalk before the rains came in. Chocolate and wine was secured for the birthday girl, and silly conversation and drawing/writing games with Adam from Lapis kept us amused through the evenign.

11th June 2019
My birthday! Banging woodland disco party in the evening with my DJing 5-6 hours via a lovely little 12v portable DJ station thing built by "Magic" James. The usual mix of funk/soul/Afro/Ethio/reggae/dub/ska/house/disco, with a bit of Steely Dan and "Soul Kitchen" thrown in for good measure. Turned the volume down and went into Hillage/Gaudy's Rainbow Dome Music (the intro music at their gig in London on Saturday) for chillout purposes around 2am.