This was written just because I like the title “Rogation Sunday”– nothing more. I had the title and wrote a whole song around it.

Excellent stuff. Have to admit that the case of Stutty Northam isn’t one I knew about, so something to look into there, thanks! This week’s Culture Bunker podcast has a great review of the album. They play I’m Getting Buried In The Morning at 38:34Your game, your rules Doc, but I would just point out that the game only opened after we already knew that Garstang, Alabama and Suffolk get mentions on the album … which is more (real) places than got mentioned in ‘Awkward Sean’. I have pondered too long on which oblongular conurbation to select and have missed the bus. But, at a simple ceremony this afternoon in keeping with the times, I shall announce which has been chosen for this honour, from my shortlist out of: Let’s face it, though, even Big in Japan weren’t ever big in Japan. But their singer was number one when ‘Big in Japan’ was number two. Neither ‘Big in Japan’ nor Big in Japan ever played live, or was ever played live, in Japan. And not because I get quoted, although I’m gratified to see that for once I was on the right lines) I’ve also submitted an early stab at Rogation Sunday. There is nothing better in life than deciphering the lyrics to new HMHB songs.

That is a really special appetite whetter – thanks. Plenty spoilers in the review of course (just to warn those who dislike that sort of thing). I love what I heard about Suffolk Ditch and Oblong especially. Not come across Harrison or any of them before but some choice phrasing that certainly sums up the writing nicely and good to hear the influence on a new generation of bands discussed. The album review is about 44 to 50 mins into the programme. I always got my HMHB stuff from Probe and got Geoff to sign it. (He always obliged). How do I do that now? I have often thought of Seffy park while listening, basically cos there’s been a few notorious hit-and-runs there.Neil said to me recently “I didn’t know where you were coming from with his song, musically”– because it was all different bits (but while he was wondering where I was going at first, he was still playing a brilliant bass line from the start!) But I had it constructed and always knew that at the end I wanted strings. I know a bloke who used to be in the Philharmonic (the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, not the pub) – he played the timpani – and his daughter plays in it, so I thought “I could get strings here”, and that’s what I was planning. But then, me being me, once we got into the studio, I thought there’s all this hassle and faff, and Geoff (Davies) wasn’t there to do that sort of thing. I thought I’d just put a load of guitars on it. I was telling Chris the engineer about all this and asked him how much it would cost to get violins and cellos in – and he said “I’ve got a Mellotron!” He said “You give me the chords – what you’re playing at the end”, and so he set it up with the sound of cellos and violins on the Mellotron. I can’t remember who suggested it, but I really liked the theory that the repetition of, and potential double meaning in the phrase ‘in bloom’ implied that the victim in Big Man Up Front was in the family way. I thought it made perfect sense, added a further layer of sadness to a story which was already very moving. Slipping The Escort – something away fans did in the 1980s. Stoke City. 1985. A fair walk to the train station too.