Has anybody found a large yellow television set ,it's a stage prop for the Nonsense show with Michael Rosen and The Homemade Orchestra, and I lost it somewhere on a four day jaunt to York ,Cleethorpes ,Farnham and Birmingham?My money is on Farnham at the moment but we can't raise anyone to find out.

On Sunday I had a gig with said M Rosen and The Homemade Orchestra , so that morning, the whereabouts of the tele still not known despite exhaustive enquiries, I had to go out and buy an 8ft by 4ft piece of ply wood which I then had to saw into enough pieces so it would fit in the car, in Wickes'car park on a shopping trolley, because although they let you buy the wood off them, they won't cut it for you or let you cut it using their facilities.It was a moment of high farce reaching up to the top of the piece of wood with the saw and laying in to it whilst watching the clock and the amused DIY shoppers (by this time it was 1.00pm and the sound check for the Nonsense gig was 5.00pm in town).By 3.35 I had just about finished the replacement tele, not quite as elegant as the one we commissioned Maisie to make, but OK.

Sonny and me made the gig by 4.40pm, avoiding speed cameras, and the gig was good . The tele was suspended from the ceiling of the marquee and Michael could stick his head in it every time he had to announce the next news bulletin, and scare the hell out of everyone.

Interestingly, York was a women's open prison where we played the Colour Beginnings music with the quartet, which went down pretty well.Cleethorpes was the Jazz Festival where we (Homemade Orchestra and Michael Rosen) achieved the distinction of probably the earliest sound check in touring history (8 am).
Then Nick France and me (with Liam Noble on board) drove south to Farnham, where I found myself playing to an audience which included several members of the ConDem cabinet , which I had been protesting to outside Parliament the previous wednesday, about their recent green paper ,which wants to "reverse the bias towards inclusion"in education , with assorted noble inclusionists the previous wednesday.At one point we serenaded Michael Gove's office from the street for 20 minutes or so.The Green Paper wants to "reverse the bias towards inclusion"in education (which is a fiction anyway).
Personally I'd be happier if they set about reversing the bias towards corruption in government, so delightfully etched out in the current News International debacle.The Guardian claims they were after Gordon Brown for 10 years.I wonder why?

Two weeks till the Southbank Colour Beginnings gig with Kenny Wheeler , and three days till we play it at Sage Centre in Gateshead(thursday).Trying to finish "Dunstanburgh Castle "in time to play it there (its on the north east coast).Strange stuff is happening with it.
11days till we play Turner Contemporary in Margate(22nd)