Another show out and what a pleasure it was talking gaming again, this time in the fine company of Ralph Lovegrove.  I have another one in the can looking more closely at the seeds of Moorcock planted deep into the early iterations of Dungeons and Dragons with another fine guest, but that one will be in a couple of shows time.

Phil will be back soon too, although we made the decision to postpone our original next foray for her which should have been The Warhound and the World’s Pain.  Ralph made a couple of observations that it makes numerous call-backs to previous stories that we haven’t covered so I’ve reconsidered the schedule, but more on that later.

We’ll also dig into music again.  I was supposed to be recording with Dave Waschman aka SÖNUS a day or two ago but technical issues threw a spanner in the works. We’ll get that back on track though.

Right now I’m heading into the editing booth (aka my study aka the box room) to assemble the drunken mess that is the return of Tash as we probe some 70s paperbacks in search of a potential one-shit book.  Yes… finally we settle down to discuss another of the well-thumbed old paperbacks I received from the stacks next to Pops’s rocking chair…

DANNUS – THE DARK STRAITS OF REGLATHIUM

It may take a while.

Due to that trauma Tash has demanded that we cover something less chancey next time so she has her next assignment in hand… Nine Princes in Amber will be coming in the next couple of months.

In other news the radio station had now been active for a couple of weeks and it’s been getting a few listens from around the globe.  As I’m typing this someone in Germany has had it playing for 18 hours.  

Weird.

It’s an eclectic mix on there with blues, electronica, drone, metal, goth, prog, space rock, experimental…  at some point as we get more content I’ll probably start programming it a little more consistently. But then again I might not.  I kind of like hearing the late 80s Driffield/Bridlington goth stylings of Stiff Kittens immediately followed up by a 17 minute drone mind-fuck courtesy of Apkallu of Enmerkar.

Just need some sea shanties on there too, but I may have that covered…

Last thing for today… it was my Dad’s birthday a few days ago and when I was talking to him I asked if he had any old photos of Pops kicking around and you can see above what he sent me. 

Miss you Pops.

It’s been a productive few weeks here at Derry & Toms.

The chapbook version of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly Volume 01 is nearing completion, with some fabulous art arriving c/o Neil Burton to accompany the superb portrait and design work of Simon Perrins. Hopefully not too long now before it can be shared with patrons.

Staying with Lieutenant Connelly for a moment, N Λ N D and I are also revisiting the earlier episodes of the Journal to re-record and re-score them to drag the quality of my earlier efforts up and into line with episodes 8 – 10.  Along with some cracking N Λ N D compositions inspired by the Journal we may, at some point, put it all out on Bandcamp as free/pay-what-you-want WOTW style ‘story album’ (is that how you’d describe it…? I dunno).

Meanwhile, a friend of mine pointed out a radio app called Radio Garden. It’s a terrific way to spend time roaming the globe discovering stations and learning a thing or two about tastes around the globe (I for example had no idea that the remote sub-arctic Russian city of Arkhangelsk was so firmly committed to hard core techno).  The interface is also excellent and it led me to thinking about how one would go about setting up an internet radio station.  Anyway, long story short, I set up BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio and this morning Phil found it on Radio Garden. What a buzz!

As well as using it as another outlet for the show, I’m delighted that some fellow Moorcock enthusiasts and patrons of this show are happy to have their cracking tunes gracing the station too, so Corum, SÖNUS, N Λ N D, Apkallu of Enmerkar and Giantkind are all on there and we’ll be doing some additional bits n bobs to drop into the schedule.  

In show-related news, we have some more material in the can awaiting editing including Tash’s next appearance as we try to dredge our way through a potential one-shit book, and a great discussion with a new guest around Moorcock and gaming for part two of our look at Moorcock in RPGs.

It appears we will also soon conclude our deep dive into The Final Programme with Hussein.

Right, that’s it from me for now.

Take care, stay safe, and I’ll see you soon… on the moonbeam roads.