In between my daughter Samantha doing some work experience at the Times Educational Supplement (another budding Lewis scribe in the making!), the Lewis hols have consisted of some enjoyable days out including a trip to Brighton last Saturday where at last it was a case of sea,sand and shopping – the highlight of the shopping was the visit to Borderline Records a very fine outlet where I picked up the CD reissue of Sandie Shaw’s 1969 album Reviewing The Situation which is notable for the inclusion of her version of Your Time Is Gonna Come – the first ever Led Zep cover version and the new Stephen Stills archive find Just Roll Tape.
Elsewhere there’s been the not inconsiderable task of signing off the 32 pages that makes up the contents of TBL 18 which is now at the printers and scheduled to go out at the end of the month. Two issues in the space of 12 months for the first time since 1994 and a third to get working on.
Readers of this weeks edition of the aforementioned Times Educational Supplement can actually see where all this Tight But Loose activity has unfolded from for there on page 7 is a photo of our Samantha in the doorway of the TBL office in the hallowed confines of Totnes Towers (if you look closely you can see a couple of Fillmore posters and my framed five Earls Court tickets on the wall). The pic accompanies a piece the young budding journo has written about the new online method of receiving exam results. Proud? You betcha!

Before I hit the road back to work at MK on Monday, I need to upload onto my i-pod the contents of the two striking CDR’s that came my way a few days back. They contain the entire performance of Led Zeppelin’s appearance at Southampton University on January 22 1973. The emergence of this soundboard tape captures perhaps the last days of Zep as a real grafting working band on what would be their final UK tour. When they got to America in the summer it all went global and beyond.
Now I’m as guilty as anyone at constantly playing up the Earls Court/USA77/Knebworth era – this Southampton performance is a stark reminder of how impressive they were back in the days before as Plant once said ‘’They went to Saturn’’
Southampton ‘73 is the sound of the band I fell in love with. The affair continues….