Guitar Emporium

Sakura - a Japanese folk tune inspired this piece. What I have produced is nothing like Sakura - listen to it sometime. But the time of year is finally coming around when the blossom starts to display itself . Lovely Support the show

 The timing of the Amazon TV series "Fallout" couldn't be better. The wonderfully black violent humour is excellent and so relevant to our current crazy world. My youngest son introduced the programme to me - I wouldn't have watched it on my own - but its very good.  Slightly alarming to know he was playing the games when quite young - so much for parental control ! Support the...

Its that feeling when you've left something behind and you ain't never going back.  Support the show

I'm indebted to the website Techradar for the following explanation of NPU. I'm an occasional watcher of a tech programme on the BBC aimed at the layman - nice simple explanations of complicated things. Todays explanation of NPU got me though so I went on Google to find out more : An NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, is a dedicated processor or processing unit on a larger SoC designed spec...

Today I've ended 2 years 49 weeks and 6 days of work in the current turmoil . It has ended and , surprisingly, I have survived this ordeal by firing . I have never experienced so many colleagues being fired in such a short period of time. I think the only reason I missed out on the sacking experience was that the boss man couldn't get anyone else to do my job in my part of the country. ...

With apologies to that great songwriter Ray Davies of the Kinks. I used to watch them on Top of the Pops in the 60's and 70's  and finally got to see them in the early 1980's  - the time that lovely song " Come Dancing " was doing the rounds. Kirsty MacColls version of Days on the album Kite I really enjoyed as a softer version of the same tune and this is really based on...

The safe bet - take a chance on picking one of the placed horses. When the choice is win or lose - its still losing .. Support the show

The money or other means needed for a particular purpose.  Yup -  knowing what it means doesn't make it any easier to achieve Support the show

Getting brought down by a fever or a virus seems to be hitting everyone much harder since the pandemic. The natural instinct is to get up and get going as soon as you can. I'm not so sure that works in quite the same way anymore.  Support the show

Billy Connelly and Gerry Rafferty started out as part of a folk/rock band the Humblebums, with the  guitarist Tam Harvey in Glasgow in the 1960's. Worth a listen if you can find any of their old albums. Alot of my reading in the late 60's was footballer biographies - ghost written and hyped up no doubt to impress upon all us mortals the rags to riches tales of their success. But I loved...

I didn't mean to appear quite so preachy in the lyrics of this piece. As part of the generation which voted for selling off the stock of council houses, credit cards, quite a lot of wars and famines and encouraged social media we have quite a lot to answer for... Support the show

A couple of weeks after the Easter holiday - an Easter tune ( I'm on a bit of a time lag on the tunes that go up) The mixed messages of the Easter egg hunt we used to do when the children were young and the Easter Festival itself. Support the show

Todays instrumental tune is for Rob, Marri and their assorted pets including Ozzy the huge reformed and rescued hunting dog. To keep Ozzy fit they undertake long, long walks - one of the most arduous must be at the end of the day coming up from Sassetta to Bagnioli.  Support the show

The conspiracy part of our modern lives means that there are millions of us not having a clue whether what we're being presented to us is the truth, a complete fabrication or maybe something in between..Lots of layers  Support the show

About November 2024 this will all happen . Exciting stuff... Support the show

  Over the Easter weekend some very serious people were talking to try and move the Israel/Palestine war to a form of truce/cease fire. Its going to take a while. Support the show

The first Spanish, flamenco style guitar I heard of - I think on the BBC TV. .  Ricardo Baliardo (7 August 1921 – 5 November 2014), better known as Manitas de Plata, was a Spanish flamenco guitarist of Catalan Gitano descent, born in southern France.  Despite achieving worldwide fame, he was criticized for not following certain rhythmic rules (compas)that are traditional in flamenco. Nicknamed Man...

I remember finding the lyric to this song in an anthology of lyrics in the drama room at school and a couple of us put it to a simple chord sequence. I found the lyrics again recently and I can remember the chord sequences and the tune ( it was that simple) What I didn't realise is that the song has such an illustrious history. My source tells me it comes from the singing of the Carter Family...

If you've got one - good on yer... This has nothing to do with the vehicle. The piece has four short ( and very similar) themes that meander along coming together at the end of the song. Support the show

Two intentions in the song put up today. Stand back and look at stuff dispassionately ( I think thats the right word ) . View it from a distance - the terraces. Also I've experimented with the baroque stye of terraced dynamics - sudden changes of volume. Support the show

Springboards onto greater things - lots of opportunities awaiting. Support the show

A song about enjoying the natural things all around us and sharing your time with those important to you. A positive tune -a bit of a rarity.. Support the show

One of the issues I'm currently dealing with is an employer who is less than helpful as soon as notice is given that you're on your way ..... The lyrics speak for themselves. What century are we living in - the Victorian age is back with us - thanks Mrs Thatcher for all those sympathetic anti - union laws - Marvellous Support the show

in the covid lockdown ( that seems a very long time ago ) I was stuck In Madrid - lovely city - with our dog. Jake and our cat itchy ( or was it scratchy ) for company. I tried to improve my melody writing . Every so often I try again. The main theme is my latest attempt - surrounded by other stuff . Support the show

A China Crisis album of about 1985 I think. Walter Becker produced the album - I really enjoyed it . The opening track of side 2 off my tape cassette ( I was behind the times even then !) was the Gift of Freedom - I've taken the bass line and used it as the theme for the piece. Support the show