Getting Away With It

Jon and Simon discuss lockdown anxiety, international affairs, personal scars and of course, great music.

Wanted to get this up there quick, or it might fester in some back corridor and get forgotten. So here it is, no headers or footers, enjoy. 

Jon finally manages to drag Simon to The Barn Theatre, for a bit of culture in the shape of a throughly modern production of Shakespeare.  To the surprise of absolutely nobody, he loves it. 

The morning after the night before... Sitting in the sun... headlining in the beer tent... strange campers... barfing waltzers and strange phrases... Huawei and Google... scanning for skeletons in concrete... tech giants breaking industries... and a poem from Simon. 

Manflu and weak tea… Squeaky doors… Alien Station… Ukulele cases and piano passions… Shooting Dom… Perfectionism and 10,000 hours… Yousician and tricky chords… Simon’s words… Skye and piano pedals… Apple Watch, Google Home and Arkansas… Jumpers, comparatibility, Mario and Zelda… Caymans and Uber… Philips Hue and Raspberry Pi… Intel bugs and iPhone batteries and other rambling chat

The antiques emporium… brass… Simon finds an unwanted Jack Vettriano… string pictures… mirrors, frame making and mural taste choices… marbles and burning holes… Captain Mainwaring and ashtrays… the smallest guitar case in the world… early plastic globes… trains and shut churches… markets… Poundland… and back into Waterstones… idiot drivers… books… games… crap games and other rambles about being sorted for Christmas

Hardware store… corkscrews and dollies… e-cloths… crap lighting… bedding… a veritable cornucopia of tat… black slippers, rat poison and plastic dinosaurs… broken arrow… drones, wooden mushrooms and weed burners… algorithmic retail and store layouts… wine coolers… tools… chainsaws and teasmades… paint names… almost sage and naughty step… plumbing nightmares and a real plumber… home-made wine, knobs and knockers… health, safety and fireworks… a Santa toilet seat and an apology. And a flat cap. 

Pre-Christmas edition: Bitcoin update (and does money exist anyway)… Branson, Sugar, Trump and the illuminati… real cream, imaginary milk, Dale Vince and dreadlocks… Eden and Venus Projects, Dom Joly and ringtones… experiences vs possessions… last-minute present shopping… better-organised better halves… Bristol vs Cheltenham… elves, robots and Tesco home deliveries… stamp collecting and painting Airfix models, puzzles, dry stone walling and the aesthetics of painting by numbers, meccano, mousetrap and spirograph, broken LED watches and stapling thumbs on Christmas morning… and a jingle!

A journey through the vagaries of what it means to lose a pound, how heavy drinking is a great way to give up smoking, and other adventures in the journey to immortality. Or something. 

The fantastic relaunch episode... was unfortunately lost due to operator error. So here we have - a relaunch episode. Covering Bitcoin and other tech, War On Drugs, High Flying Birds, Yes and some other music, the tarmac outside Ed O'Brien's house, dry stone walling, the screams of baby rabbits and a smorgasbord of bits and bobs, in one carefully packaged conversation. Or something. Well, at least it's here. 

Jon and Si take refuge in a coffee shop to talk about the new features of the iPhone, and go on a bit of a ramble about mobile and music history.