Time Out from the daily grind is a must for all of us, without a little R&R some people tend to get a little fractious and usually don’t function very well. Despite being semi-retired I’m no different, much to the annoyance of my wife who often asks; “what the hell have you been doing all day?”

Sometimes I have to admit and/or be a little ashamed; often I can’t really give a satisfactory account of myself. I can’t say I’ve done anything productive and I’ve probably forgotten to do some (or all) the jobs my wife asked me to do.  But I simply got lost, I wandered off into a land of thought, it’s a kind of conscious unconsciousness I suppose.

Apart from a lifelong love of the outdoors and my passion for fishing, my other great source of relaxation has always been music. I have very eclectic musical taste but as I’ve aged my favourite bands and artists haven’t really changed that much, they’ve just changed position in my order of preference, a choice that can be dependent on so many things. 

The Old Grey Whistle Test (OGWT), presented by Whispering Bob Harris, was one of those places and I used to get lost in, before we reached the realms of the iPod age. The dawn of now widespread personal portable music ensures that more than ever, people can cut themselves off from the outside world and immerse themselves in music.

The major problem with that is; so much of it appears to be inane boom boom bollocks, the drum & bass type noise that is interspersed with foul-mouthed explicatives, promoting a loose lifestyle of drink, drugs and violence. It appears to do little more than pummel their brains, perhaps that’s a reason why we have so many airheads?

And now for a little self-indulgence with a small selection from musical tastes…

Bob Marley & The Wailers – Stir It Up (OGWT 1973)

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird (OGWT 1975)

The Specials – Too Much Too Young (OGWT 1979)

And as for the title of this post?

If there’s no music there is always fishing…

“The solution to any problem – work, love, money, whatever – is to go fishing, and the bigger the problem, the longer the trip should be.” – Angling Times