Art Photography, Sheet Music Publication

A good day, starting with photography of paintings: 'All The Broken Hearted' and 'All Things Bright And Beautiful'. Then more work on publishing the sheet music on itch. Basic scores (generally at least one per track) are free, and extra ones are $2 each. Some albums only, or primarily, have these 'extra' scores, like the Salomé album, which has the music in print form.

I've also added the scores for a few single releases which have B-sides, for the Woman And Wives B-side, Fear Of The Thing Itself (pending), Excessive Consumption, AI And Celebrity. All apart from All Controlled By Someone (and it's B-side 'I Can Heal').

Most of the scores are way out of date regarding standardisation of various parts, but the standardisation will continue as I work on more albums. It's much more efficient to update them all when the last album is done (2027? 2028?).

Tomorrow I'll get to framing the two unframed works I've entered into Castle Park, as their acceptance (or not) of works is very close to the delivery date. Then on Thursday a full day of quarterly backups. In other news, it seems that the Fall in Green email problems have been fixed (pending testing).

I feel overworked but I'd much rather be exhausted than bored. There's always more to do, to document, to create, to discover. Onwards!

Burn Of God Scores Finalised

A full day finalising the Burn Of God scores, developing separate piano versions etc. For the most part I aim for a 'full' version of each track, with as many interesting or complex parts as possible, plus a 'piano version' with piano and main lead vocal, a 'piano melody' version which incorporates the vocal lead into the piano melody (something fun to play, not necessarily sing), and a basic version of the lead melody and chords (and non-lyrical elements if these will fit in a single stave).

Multiply these variations up and Burn Of God breaks down into 49 scores. Each album now seems to have more and more scores, but the crucial one is that 'full' one. I suspect that I'd get annoyed revisiting older scores and their few instruments, but I tended to aim for the full one and it's easy to make the lesser scores from that. This (and the final proofing and pdf conversion) is what I've done today.

There are a few single releases that have sheet music that is either unpublished (like 'Excessive Consumption Has Laxative Effects' and its B-side 'What Has Happened To My Dreams') or not notated at all yet (like 'The Games Played As Children, the B-side to 'Masculinity Two').

It's something of a mad obsession to work on these scores, but hopefully not quite the waste as the time and money that my father expended on his stamp collection or gambling, many thousands, probably tens of thousands, of pounds over the years. There are slight practical advantages to having the scores; there's no way I or anyone could perform this music live without them. It does help me learn the skills of music reading and writing, and it should add some layer of archival security to the music itself, especially if and when published in print. And, of course, it's the correct thing to do. From the dawn of records all music has had the sheet music published, and I must do this too if I am to act in a professional way. A week per album is not a vast amount. The time and work spent on an album makes each one a greater artwork.

Tomorrow, art photography.

Burn Of God Scores First Draft

Burn Of God scores finally complete in first draft - how long this takes! Also updated Prometheus with a slight improvement to a feature. Note events play a note, and 'tones' change the pitch without retriggering the note. Tones inherently lack an instrument, they change the pitch of whatever is playing. The option to covert Tones to Notes used to convert them to notes using the currently selected instrument, but really they should change to the currently playing instrument; so now this option does this.

I'll probably spend all of tomorrow finalising the scores. In the process of this I also update and refine the master Style Guide for scores, which means that many (most!) older scores are not as standard, not as polished as the later ones. It will take weeks of work to finalise and polish all of my existing scores one day.

Anyway, that's for the future. Once the B.O.G. scores are done I'll scan the last few finished paintings of the year, then it's quarterly back-up day on Thursday, then work on the next album remaster... and possibly a new Radioactive Soundtrack, and Tunnicliffe single.

Onwards we charge.

More Burn Of God Scoring

Yesterday's delivery went to plan.

A full day's work on the Burn Of God scores, 15 now done; 'Great Grandfather's Song', 'Confession', 'The Tree', and 'Lullaby' done today. Also changed the pricing on the scores on itch to $2 per score. Prior to this, most of the simple scores were free, with a charge for 'full' versions. A problem with this is that some albums only had one score, not simple/complex so the complete scores could be free. Some albums (like singles) had very few scores, some had lots, and some albums have complex and time consuming scores, for the more orchestral pieces. The simplest option is a fee per actual score supplied. Of course it may not be hard, one day, for others to work out these by ear, or using AI or in other ways, and perhaps today now nobody cares remotely about the scores whether free or not; but as the official publisher, my scores should be the definitive ones, and my work has value.

How this album needs new vocals! I can do so much better today; but I must wait.

Other jobs included filing and publishing the recent live events on my websites, memorising the early Roman emporers because I started to get them mixed up, reading about 'Melanie' who wrote the rollerskate-key song, and other planned distractions.

Wine, Women and Song, Prometheus v3.92

Day flown yesterday, dominated by the evening performance at the 'Wine, Women and Song' event at The Wonky Pear. Deb did a great performance of 'Harper Lee' by Suzanne Vega. My 'China in Your Hand' seemed to go down well but I think I could have done better.

Also did some chord notation for the Kyrie from Burn Of God. I updated Prometheus to v3.92. I added a feature to duplicate chord notes. If a chord, say CGE starts, then the G is later changed to A in the sequence, then we have an A-minor. It can sound prettier to 'glide' in the chord by only triggering the A, but it makes notation, seeing that as CAE, more difficult. The new feature would find that A and add the C and E in the track again, re-triggering the whole chord. This helps hugely when exporting to MIDI and viewing the chord.

I also added the inverse feature so that CGE then CAE would delete the latter C and E notes. In recent years I've started to trigger the whole chord every time, partly to make it easier to read and easier to transcribe, but with some sounds, like strings which flow and decay, it may sound better when single notes glide the sound from chord to chord. These options make it easy to switch between both.

Today, delivery of 'Punishment of the Sun' to Birmingham on the train. Only noticed at the last minute that white-painted mirror plates need to be fitted. It's nearly impossible to buy white-painted mirror plates. Fortunately, I have a small pack of some I've painted myself, although the paint work isn't brilliant. If I'm selected for the RBSA again I'll make new ones.

Lyric Book, China, and Other Jobs

Busy day yesterday. Managed to start the lyric book, made progress on the email problem. Visited the Crewe Create exhibition but spoke to nobody, a waste of my time, then some computer jobs for John. Practiced 'China in Your Hand', not too hard on the Microkorg, and printed and tried the chords on Deb's chosen song, 'Harper Lee' by Suzanne Vega. There's no music for it online but Google's AI suggested the chords, which appear correct.

I really need to make a 'Women and Wives' video. I've made a version of the song with a click track for more accurate lip-sync.

Now I have a bit of a raw throat, feels like the start of a cold. I hope not, this would be my first in years, and at the start of a busy few days; singing tomorrow, and the RBSA trip after that.

My to-do list is getting too small. Greater ambition needed.

Morecambe Poetry Festival 2026

Back, at last after a wonderful weekend and few days more at the Morecambe Poetry Festival 2026.

We left on Thursday at lunch time, arrived in Lancaster and took a taxi to Morecambe; a good way to travel by train as changing trains from Lancaster to Morecambe is a long wait and the place is only a few miles away. We arrived at The Kings Arms at 19:40 for our evening set, due at 22:30, but we already knew would be late... this is something of a theme for this fest, but the scheduled acts tend to run to time. Our pre-fest event was precluded by Janine Booth and Peter Buckley Hill, who had recently written a sonnet-a-day to match Shakespeare's count. We went on at 23:30 to a moderate but committed audience who remained at that late hour. Our set went to plan (and to plane, as our paper planes flew).

A casual open mic throughout the next morning led to the first official act of Robin Ince (and a packed out room), who we'd missed on previous years. Of all performers, Robin's interests and outlook were, are, perhaps closest to my own. He paid tribute to both Kenneth Williams and Elizabeth Sladen; something I'd also happily do. Perhaps Tom Baker's Dr Who runs deep as a cultural figure for those of my (our) generation. Even now he's in my dreams.

Well, I'll try cut a long story short, not let this blog-post become a boring holiday slide show. Let's think of highlights and unique moments...

Huge winds on the seafront causing ear-ache which lasted hours on Saturday, plus torrents of rain for a second year. Umbrellas useless, except for Deb's transparent dome, the only sort that works in a gale. My long leather coat and cagoule did a good job. Met many old friends, tenor and Newcastle giant Clark; Debra and her kin, Alan the metalworking stand-up in progress, Ryan the sound man. The 'word walk' was an organised event (by Anne of publisher Big White Shed, who was lovely; encouraging, an inspiration at our later meeting) that had different start times and placements in the programme to the website, but this error proved serendipitous as two groups met. We did our own word-free walk and met new friends in the process. It was nice to join Chris, who I met there, at a few events afterwards.

Each performer was inspiring in their own way. Henry Normal ever cosy. Kate Fox and Staithe performed poetry with (folky, acoustic) music, the only act close to ours. Although much simpler than us in words and music, both certainly improved the other and made it all much more engaging than it would have been. Nice to meet Rowland Crowland, a performer and poet less famous than John Cooper Clark, yet just as good in every respect. Brian Bilston was excellent, as was Nick Helm; a powerhouse. Katherine Ratzko and Deborah are two of the best poets I know; I could easily have become sexist otherwise as most of the female poets on the main stage were egregious.

This is, in a normal year, the few days where I become enthused by poetry, and for every act I thought 'I can do that!' - and 'I want to do that!' which is the essence of the fairy-candy-floss called inspiration. For me, it was also nice to escape the routine here, and stay with Deborah for few precious days. Our time when not there is so very fragmented, so very comb-toothed. In an average week we seem to share only a few hours together. Whenever we go to Morecambe, we think 'let's move here', 'let's live here', 'let's at last break free'. I love Morecambe and its people, and it's nice to see it slightly off-season. I expect such towns are very different in winter than summer, perhaps too busy for me in summer, perhaps too quiet in winter. I'm not even sure if there's a supermarket other than one Aldi (surely there must be!) and the precious internet and phone connections are apparently rubbish (noooo!).

Matt said that we, and Janine, and Peter Buckley Hill, can have full slots next year. That would be nice.

Now, back to reality. I want to finish my music notation. I want to make a book of Fall in Green lyrics. Ideally I'd make a music video for 'Women and Wives', but as you may discern, I'm already not feeling like it. The PRS seem to have rejected two prior performance payments; this worried me and I want to know why. The emails to Fall in Green, and all of my newly-server'd websites haven't worked in weeks and I've only just discovered this. I have to visit the Crewe Create exhibition, do a computer service for John, deliver 'Punishment of the Sun' to the RBSA gallery on Friday, perform 'China in Your Hand' on Thursday (oh, and learn to play it, I don't even know the music), frame 'Love And Fragility In The Age Of Perfection'... ideally all of this in 7 days.

Onwards.

Social Intelligence

Humans, as a species, are basically the same genetically as they were 100,000 years ago, yet we have changed massively in intelligence. We changed 20,000 years ago when nomads formed the first cities, and have changed, and become ever more intelligent in the last 200 years, and more-so last 100 years. There are far more geniuses alive today than in the time of Leonardo da Vinci. Each of us has far more capability, and at a pace far too quickly to be due to genetic evoloution. Why?

I posit that this is because intelligence is not personal but social, and specifically a factor of language and inter-communication. Our brain cells alone are not intelligent, it is their network which makes us so, and our human social network works in the same way to make society, not us individuals, intelligent. Today's animals and plants too are more intelligent than those of the past for this reason; they are part of our society. We can see that horses, for example, are trained by known and documented methods in a way that was not possible in ancient times.

Can we say that plants are today more 'intelligent' than before. In a way cultivation makes them so, even if they lack volition or much power over their environment, they are manipulated by us, by farmers and gardeners, because they give us something in return. It may be a stretch to describe this symbiosis as intelligence, but it is 'in a way', perhaps more of an intelligence than wild plants, those of 50,000 years ago.

Our electronic social media makes all of society yet more intelligent, for intelligence can also be measured by speed. Anyone can build a spacecraft with enough time, designed with pencils and paper, but speed grants us special abilities. Our speed of change and reaction is an essential part of the definition of intelligence, even in common parlance; 'quick witted' for example.

That intelligence is a factor of society, not of the individual is the ultimate retort to Nazism and intellectual elites. A small group of elites would, in isolation, literally be less intelligent than a larger mass.