Human on the Outside, with a Wooden Heart

Sometimes it's like the postman never stops stuffing parcels through the letterbox - and very welcome these deliveries are as well!

I was delighted to receive a package from Hawkwind's Alan Davey containing not only a copy of his wonderful new solo album, Human on the Outside, but also his Bedouin side-project's studio album As Above, So Below and Voiceprint Records' recent release of the Bedouin live album Extremely Live - 2003. It's really great to see so much of Alan's solo work being made available at the moment. Aside from the live Bedouin, Voiceprint have also reissued his earlier solo offerings Captured Rotation and Bedouin - but the icing on the cake is really the new album, which Alan has taken the plunge and released himself. It's an extremely well-presented fold-out package, with suitably psychedelic by long-time Hawkwind fan Kevin Sommers and the music contain within is some of Alan's finest work. In fact, it's not unfair to say that this album has really elevated his work to a new standard - a wide ranging vista of spacerock and cinematic boldness that is imaginative and intentive. I talked to Alan recently for an interview for the excellent website Aural Innovations which principally focused on his work outside of Hawkwind, and hopefully this'll be appearing sometime in May.

Next postal visit and I was chuffed to have been sent a copy of my old mate Martin Day's latest Doctor Who novel, Wooden Heart. I've really loved his earlier Who work, his novels with Keith Topping (Devil Goblins from Neptune and Hollow Men) and his solo books, particularly Bunker Soldiers from a few years back and I'd love to be able to comment right now on his new one. Unfortunately, unlike the old days when Doctor Who was, let's be honest, a little bit of a joke to the public en-masse, Who is everyone's favourite show and my three boys are absolutely no exception ... so as far as Marty's book, and anything else Who related, is concerned, it's take a ticket and await your turn. So I'm fourth in the queue and cannot possibly pass on my own comments on the text just yet!

On the writing front, I was really pleased to hear from my colleague Jon at work (where I continue to beaver away in the 9-5 until 31st August, but that's another story) that his partner Lisa Glass has just sold her first novel, Prince Rupert's Teardrop. It's described as a striking piece of literary fiction telling the story of a damaged middle-aged woman's troubled relationship with her mother, a nonagernerian Armenian haunted by the genocide of the Christians by the Turkish army early in the 20th Century. Lisa's posted an extract of this beautifully written work on her website as a taster of the finished novel and has another work-in-progress in hand.

On the Waterboys front, I've been provisionally asked to appear on BBC Radio Scotland's afternoon arts programme Radio Cafe, on Tuesday 1st May sometime between 13.15pm and 2pm for about 10 - 12 minutes, subject to Radio Scotland booking studio time with Radio Cornwall. And it's live this time. Yikes!