It was great to receive an invitation to Kev and Carrie's annual BBQ at their farm cottage just outside Basingstoke. Last year's gig was unfortunately cancelled for various reasons and when I heard it was back on this year, I was chuffed.

By the time I arrived around 2pm there were already a dozen or nmore tents pitched in the back yard and FuZeD were just tuning up and by the time I had popped the top of a cold beer and greeted a few pals, they were off and rockin!

Subsequent performances by "Old Dogs, New Tricks", FuZeD and others were excellent and included old favourites such as the Pretender's "Brass in Pocket", Steely Dan's "Reelin' in the years", Free's "All right now" and the Rolling Stone's "Honky Tonk Woman" to name but a few.

As the bands played and the BBQ sizzled, a few dark clouds gathered overhead and then the rain fell...but only for about 20 minutes (long enough for us to throw a tarp over the bonfire). Then the sun came out and an hour later things were bone dry again.

Around 11pm, the amps were switched off, the bonfire was roaring and we were settled down for an unplugged set which finally wound up around 4am.

Another great gig...and thanks to Kevin and Carrie for all their hard work and effort.

Gonna miss it next year...

Video clips now available

Well - it's offical. I'm back at the NPIA again...and it look's like I'll be with them for a little while...

As always, I had to hit the ground running and already I'm looking at some tight deadlines for a couple of key website launches. Still, it's nice to be back at the old familiar places and see the old familiar faces.

Looks like I'll be based in London for at least a week (probably 2) before I return to my old desk at Bramshill. That should work out OK as 2 weeks in London is about all I can handle at any one time.

Interesting that there seems to be real demand for RedDot work, since the OpenText takeover - in the last month I have been approached about no less than 5 contract roles; all paying very well and most the agents seem desparate to fill the requirements.

It's been kinda nice to be in demand again, after years of putting up with the normal levels of agency bullshit that most contractors experience (not returning calls, screwing up the contracts, lying about the requirements, stuffing up payments etc). It was also very pleasing to be able to dispense with the most useless agencies and focus on the few that employ staff with brains larger than a grape.

Anyhoo, it looks like it's going to be a busy few months.

Better get a drink or two under my belt before I get back into it...