I see my memories and feel their warmth and know that they are good

Carol's 50th birthday! It was fantastic to find you have not forgotten us and to have so many cards and presents from friends and family was wonderful; thank you all very, very much and individual cards will be on their way. As you can see we had a lovely day in the sunshine.

We have spent some of the last eight months trying to listen to all of our music, reviewing it, enjoying the memories some of it holds and deciding what to ditch. This exercise has made us realise at least three things; just how many Waterboys tracks we have, how many songs we have that only Anthony knows and that there is no band that can hold a candle to Black Sabbath.

You may (or may not) have noticed that the last three blogs and this one have had a Black Sabbath lyric as the title. This has been deliberate, as we felt we weren't referring to the masters of rock often enough. Many people have a view on Black Sabbath based on their knowledge of Ozzy Osbourne and 'Paranoid'; from our experience at Sabbath concerts in the 70s, Ozzy was more likely to share rose petals and declarations of love with the crowd than the remains of a dead bat. Their concerts were exciting and inspiring events that we feel privileged to have experienced; the bass riffs of Geezer Butler still echo in rock music today, Bill Ward was inspired on the drums, Tony Iommi produced a glorious guitar sound and Ozzy was a star front-man; together they created magic; Green Day, Muse and many others would be nothing without the influence of this band.

Please indulge the rants of a 50 year old after a bottle of fizzy wine, normal service may be resumed on the next post!