Back when the Park Cafe was known as Cafe Cha it had music some evenings. The room was tuned to “D” I think as it had a great resonant frequency. Ocelot and The Well Known Thief Family has some memorable gigs there. Even the late great Modal Roberts (RIP) played there and also Fred and Al before Mark and I joined later to make the Experience. Al Ronald - A comedian I worked with, I also met there. A kind of cultural space we have lost. There was a meeting there of artists and think this picture of me dates from then and Rob is in the door behind me. For a laugh I put the picture next to one of my musical heroes, Eric Satie. I think I had one of my bonkers episodes where I composed a few piano tunes in the style of Satie which I am still fond of. The Cha Cha Cafe was one of the first places that semi-opened after lockdown and you could queue safely outside for a coffee and decent (not overpriced food). The people that ran it sold up a year or so after and moved out to run a cafe in Cornwall. It’s now run by a company that has a few park type cafes. The food is overpriced but they make a fine coffee and they still have dog biscuits on the counter for canine visitors which was something the previous owners started. Back then it was 20p for a bag of biscuits which are now free so the dogs are winning at inflation, not me. Sunday was my usual morning out - this time hastened by the double threat of Laura K**sberg and Nigel Fartrage on the TV so to avoid smashing it off the wall I left in good time. This morning I bumped into Rob (Ocelot) and Lucille. We both as grey as heck these days. They had a game of ping pong outside on the open air tables and I remarked that this is the only sport I have seen Rob partake in for the 25 years I have known him. We acknowledge that Watford and the world is not the same and then go our separate ways.

Thorpe Park has a rather tame ride called “Mr Money’s Banana Ride” which is basically a big gondola sing shaped like a banana. Fred, guitarist of The Fred and Al Experience was rather taken with it despite it’s lameness and he rode it three times in row on Al’s birthday outing. I thought the ride sounded lie a lost psychedelic single so it was born (very quickly) in one evening in my studio with my new work flow of.. just bugger it. So drums, bass and guitars are a noisy mess and it was put down whilst I didn’t lose momentum. For some reason I usually end up sounding like Syd Barrett or is that Syd Sarratt ?

“We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start,” says investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr. In a searing talk, she details a fast-moving technological coup and the rise of the “broligarchy”: an unprecedentedly powerful class of tech executives (like Elon Musk) who are complicit in dismantling democracy and enabling authoritarian control across the world. She shares a guide on how to digitally disobey in this age of runaway corporate power, data harvesting and mass surveillance — and reminds you that you have more power than you think. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 8, 2025)

In this historical video excerpt, David Vorhaus talks about two of his analogue inventions - the MANIAC analogue sequencer, and the Kaleidophon from 1979.

Colley’s Dog 5.2% ABV Yeast, hops, water and malt. Lots and lots of malt. Tasting notes This dark ruby premium ale is all about the malt, and we’ve packed a lot into this brew. It’s nutty, it’s malty and full of body. An old school strong English bitter.