I've been spending as much time as possible playing, writing and even doing some gigs.

The songs are getting better - a couple have been good enough that I was looking forward to playing them live at some open mics.

On my MySpace page http://myspace.com/imadethebbc there are 2 new songs

"Devil & The Deep Blue Sea" was started in mid-June while sitting in the sun out in our garden. The dictaphone has been a powerful tool in developing songs like this one.
It took a few days but I managed to craft a fully rounded song (well, in my opinion anyway). The song is about our eldest girl and how she needs me less and less as she grows. I don't want her to grow up too fast and with secondary school starting this week I'm really conscious of the fact that she's no longer our little girl.

"Man In The Moon" was a chord sequence I first played around with in 1998. I found the piece of paper with the chords and a half-thought-out lyric. It was one of those evenings when I promised myself I was going to write something, anything. Part of the advice I've been given is to make sure I set aside time every week to write and to make sure I produce something. To write a good song I need to write several crappy songs.
Imagining myself as Richard Hawley (look him up and buy some of his music) I tried to write something that could have a big twangy reverbed guitar solo in the middle straight out of the 50s complete with a big band behind me.
The lyric is about someone trapped in an bad relationship. It's not 100% finished but I've played it live twice now and I'm getting a feel for the tempo and where the lyrics need to be polished. The demo on myspace is slower than how it's played live.