'my mother, perch and I sat up last night to watch the old year out and the new year in. the wind was in the north and the sound of the bells came faintly and muffled over the snow from chippenham and kington. we opened the dining room window to 'loose in' the sound of the chimes and 'the new year' as they say in wales. it was bitter cold, but we went to the door, perch and I, to hear better...' - kilvert recounts his new year january 1st 1871.
horsemouth has survived another year. huzzah!
here he offers you a bonus mixcloud mix of his 31st may 2021 as a continuation of the christmas garland of mixes. again it has a photo of horsemouth from the pre-production of the film the fall of the house of fitzgerald.
what happened in 2020(4)?
horsemouth is still one of those economically inactive 50plus retirees destroying the economy you have been warned about. he is living (just) on his savings and on his small works pension. he is spending hardly any money at all (except on rent still). he will have to check exactly how much he has left.
2024 was his third full year of retirement. (following on from his redundancy nearly three and a half years ago). he continues to be a lazy, morally compromised, lacto-vegetarian.
the music
horsemouth played only one gig in 2024, a duo gig with howard at waterintobeer (thanks martin) on a bill with lou. thanks to the people from waterintobeer for taking photographs. musicians of bremen added eyepennies by sparklehorse to their set, played versions of amarach, am I born to die, and broadbury down from volume four. horsemouth sang a version of go your way (my love) based on the anne briggs version. howard sang a version of waiting around to die. horsemouth and howard sang a version of pastures of plenty.
go your way (my love), eyepennies and waiting for the times to get better are his successes for the year.
horsemouth did no filming or recording in 2024 (some recordings from 2022 languish unfinished on soundcloud). horsemouth played some guitar with pete (but no gigs were played or sessions recorded). he bought (or found) no new musical instruments (that he can remember). the fall of the house of fitzgerald vanished from youtube (horsemouth hopes it exists elsewhere).
horsemouth was involved in no golden glow (or similar) mixes in 2024.
he listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, and the music of robert lawson.
robert, dave, lou, triple negative, alula down, jacken and martin all released albums.
he saw alula down play in malvern and (backing jacken elswyth) play in camden. he saw charlie parr and two white cranes in hackney (thanks mike), lou and leo and the water chorus at waterintobeer (thanks martin), ruth crawford-seeger 'three chants for women's chorus' at the QEH foyer (thanks festival of britain), minny pops (thanks iona), triple negative, evan parker and bill nace at cafe OTO (thank you triple negative), the renaissance music festival in crystal palace (killercorp, concrete age, die|kur etc. thanks enza), stick in the wheel and laura cannell at cafe OTO (thanks howard),
there was no leigh folk festival this year (so he didn't go to that).
all in all a surprisingly good year for music.
he kept on writing this blog (and scribbling in his physical diaries). he expanded out onto substack and goodreads.
he bought far fewer second hand books and fewer CDs than he would have in previous years (because he was out of town).
he has endeavoured to get himself photographed whenever possible and to share these with you.
he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years). he watched a lot of clips on youtube. he didn't listen to much recorded music (he did not get around to replacing his amplifier).
he thanks howard and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced (thank you people, horsemouth is very grateful).
he did a fair amount of walking. over to ewyas harold, back from the forge. up on the common. down by the abbey, over to sylvia's, up the cat's back with his brother and family, and around generally during his visits to the wen.
his homestead (the gaff) definitely took a further dive while he was away. once again it is fucked. there is stuff in the corridors. the back garden remains fucked. horsemouth no longer gives a shit.
meanwhile back in the wilds he is trying to learn bell-ringing and has enjoyed meeting the bell-ringers. he chats to the local bus driver about guitar playing (blues and rockabilly). at the bell-ringing he chats to paul about prog and joe about garage rock.
he grew some vegetables (moderate success) and undertook some repairs.
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and 2020(5) comes in
what will happen then? find out tomorrow.
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