That would be brilliant orchestrated. Do it!

Perhaps Benjamin has a substantial piece that could be arranged for the concert?

Wind machine solo from Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles

And a dramatic solo in Messiaen, with an entertaining graphic

A page of score for John White's Photo-Finish Machine for two sets of woodblocks

We'll be partying like it's 1972 - off to rehearse John White's Photo-Finish Machine for two sets of woodblocks for a concert of White duets (mostly piano) for Music We'd Like To Hear this Saturday 18th. www.musicwedliketohear.com/2026a.html Certainly music the local woodpecker likes to hear.

I'll dig it out for you Jason

Not a complete score, but Steve's own publishing company released a score of the first seven sections that I used for my Masters dissertation in early 80s. Dave Smith transcribed it (!) for a performance by Leicester Poly students in early 90s.

This was my favourite Glen Baxter

“A delight… something between a documentary jukebox and an audio seance” - pick of the day, @radiotimes.bsky.social

In tonight’s Archive on 4, Eleanor McDowall listens to the spirits of radio’s past and asks how our memory of radio might shape its future.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Into the Ether Unearthing audio treasures from the radiophonic past.

A fascinating programme for radiophiles and audiophiles everywhere:

‘Into the Ether’

Archive on 4, BBC Radio 4, Saturday 8pm

Produced by Eleanor McDowall for @fallingtreeprod.bsky.social

David Gentleman's artwork for Charing Cross tube station

David Gentleman, who is COOL, is 96 today.

Royal Iris of the Mersey set for final sailing The Royal Iris of the Mersey will set sail at the end of the month for the final time as a ferry on the river it has served for more…

Royal Iris of the Mersey set for final sailing www.birkenhead.news/royal-iris-o...

IMAX in London! 🤯🤯🤯

Some great harp-centric library discs for KPM also. Here he is playing a chorus of Donna Lee with the Johnny Scott Quintet on Jazz 625 - youtu.be/PTuARrlMJ6M?...

Carla

Earth and Other Planets review – fusion joy at Barbican’s Milton Court Britten Sinfonia are joined by folk duo Stevens & Pound and members of Sinfonia Smith Square for a programme of music by Britten, Grainger and Holst

Earth & Other Planets review – fusion joy at Barbican’s Milton Court | Britten Sinfonia are joined by folk duo Stevens & Pound and members of Sinfonia Smith Square for a programme of music by Britten, Grainger and Holst

Ah, LinkedIn's top job offer for me this morning, based on my profile and preferences, is 1st soprano with the BBC Singers. Well my sight-reading is not bad, but I only have a range of about a minor third

Well hello Kenny, already the toast of BlueSky. Congratulations!

What a great cover design. I’ve never read this, but that’s certainly my approach to playing percussion

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record.
@independentsage.bsky.social

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Newmarket MP Matt Hancock gave a £37bn Covid testing contract to Jockey Club director Dido Harding, who subcontracted it to Grand National sponsor Randox, employer of Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose late wife chaired Aintree racecourse. That's how the Tories handled the pandemic.

Beautiful film

‘Two more broomsticks please!’ Was Robin Blades the greatest percussionist ever? He played china mugs, bells, rattles and car horns for everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Benjamin Britten – and once got Laurence Olivier to bang a broomstick. We go behind the scenes of a Radio 3 cel...

In this article about James Blades (not Robin . . . nor Ruben) comes this sentence: ‘You will still find people of a certain age who very fondly remember as children attending a lecture by Blades.’ Still find? The one I attended was only 50 years ago chum. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

86) Percussionist James Holland was principal percussionist at the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Boulez, performed with the London Sinfonietta from its start, and assisted Britten, Henze, Knussen, Stockhausen and others with their percussion problems (10/24) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H... #jawiki

He looks like a rum cove

What a great picture of the two of you! One (well, two . . .) of my heroes - Tanglewood 63, Apocalypse, Paprika Plains, Seven Songs, Only Chrome Waterfall Orchestra, Big Music, et al. Wonderful wonderful composer and arranger, and kudos to Birmingham Conservatoire

Your occasional reminder, if you’re in the UK, that it is shaping up to be a hideous bird flu season, with many wildlife casualties (including resident birds, not just winter migrants), and, however soft your heart, it is a Really Bad Idea to handle sick or ‘injured’ birds or bring them inside.

Michael Gibbs receives an honorary doctorate at Birmingham Conservatoire, 13 November 2025. 📷 JLW

Big band at the Eastside Jazz Club at Birmingham Conservatoire playing Mike Gibbs’s chart ‘Knees Up’. 📷 JLW

One of several wall displays celebrating the life and work of jazz composer, arranger and bandleader Mike Gibbs.

Photo of me (John L. Walters) and Mike Gibbs at Birmingham Conservatoire by Mike’s daughter Nikki. Thu 13 November 2025. I have known Mike since I was a student, and produced his 1988 album Big Music for Virgin / Venture. At the time it was his first album for 13 years. Not yet available via streaming, you can hear the album on YouTube, https://youtu.be/ojvmI0XOybk

Great day in celebration of Michael Gibbs’s honorary doctorate at Birmingham Conservatoire.
Friends, family, staff, students and lots of music inc. a terrific student big band at the Eastside Jazz Club.
Big thanks to Ed Puddick.
#doctorhonoriscausa #jazz #jazzcomposition #michaelgibbs #mikegibbs

A grid of 12 squares of containing photos of me expressing various degrees of exasperation.

I find that the existing emojis don't cover the full range of emotions I need to express how I feel about some replies to my jokes. So I've decided to make my own.

"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975

“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975

Congratulations to the fabulous composer Mike Gibbs who today, aged 89, received an honorary degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. On display, delighted to see artefacts from his collaboration with Bill Forsyth on Housekeeping, plus the score of a tune that is very close to my heart.