Saturday 5/8/00: Got up had breakfast, then sat at my computer to work.

Decided I'd put on some music namely the essential Micheal Nyman.
First track "The Draughtman's contract: Chasing sheep is best left to
shepherds".  It struck me just how much a lot of the material on this disc
has in common with Philip Glass.  Both composers seem to produce stuff with
a chug a chug quality to it.

But is it really classical music.  Sure there's some structure and it's in
sonata form but so are the beatles songs.  An open verdict I think.

After lunch I decided to go for a walk and headed for a forest only to
change my mind en route and dart into a wildlife park instead.  A flottilla
of barges drew up and 4 musicians got off (plus audience) and started to
perform in the park.  There were 2 battery powered electric guitars double
bass acoustic guitar and two harmonicas.

I sat and watch and was entranced.  There was a lot in common with the
Beatles here.  It turned out to be someone I'd never heard of; Robyn
Hitchcock.  Checking out his web site (www.robynhitchcock.com) reveals
he's been performing for 25 years and made many albums.

I enjoyed his music a lot and came the conclusion that not all pop is bad.
In fact it struck me that I enjoyed this as much as a CD of Mahler "Das
Lied Von der Erde" Baker/Haitink/Philips that I'd listened to the day
before.

It is great that some musicians are prepared to come down off their high
horse and perform like this for their fans.  And it is nice to know that
there is still some listenable pop music around.  Perhaps if this attitude
were displayed by a few more classical musicians then classical music would
be more popular.

I slept well that night.

Have you had any interesting days recently?

Bob Draper