Good noodling last night, very enjoyable.

I rarely get the chance to just play for playing sake, I'm out of practice if I'm honest and the dayjob's frantic deadline ridden tempo these days makes me feel like if I'm in the studio at all, then there's probably something more important and work related that I should be doing with a greater financial imperative than trying to make an egotistical niche genre artisan musical statement that, ultimately, won't even make the mortgage blink when I throw the profits at it. Despite my love for aforementioned egotistical niche genre artisan musical statement.

Metaphorically speaking, in an ideal world I'm a manipulative agent for exsanguinous materials dha'aling, but on my mortgage application, it says "Plasterer".

In many ways, this sums up the state of play for the majority of musicians and bands working hard to make a living these days. It's very easy to blame downloading and there's no denying that it has done some of the damage, however I think everybody also tends to forget that making a living in the arts has always been nigh on impossible - reduced royalty payments for radio and TV (still ongoing by the way), the invention of sampling if you were a session musician, the never ending reduction of repeat fees for actors, TV composers and voice overs, "Pay To Play", bent management, home taping, just not actually being very good, 50% publishing deals... these kinds of career threatening events have buffeted the industry since it began, give or take.

Tens of thousands of creative livelihoods have bitten the dust over the years because they couldn't make ends meet. It's always been the way, it's just that back in the day there wasn't an internet full of blogs and forums for the world's entire population of failed actors, singers, DJs, dancers, writers and musicians to gang together in and moan constantly about how unfair it all is to anyone who'll listen. That's what all those gloriously private and catty afternoons in Soho pubs were for...

In case you think I'm being harsh or speaking from inexperience, you should know that I'm also a failed musician.

I gave it my all when I hit 16 (including dropping out of college, working full time in a high street chain of stationers for £2.77 an hour to try and fund my "career", followed by 2 pretty dehumanising years on the dole) and so by the time I got to 22, I took a look at the utter ruin that was my young life and thought "Completely and utterly fuck this for a lark!"

I made a couple of calls to some people I'd met over the years who knew some other people and managed to blag (for that read lie) my way into a job at a radio station in London. That was it for me and music as far as I was concerned, I even sold my keyboards. I was absolutely done.

Epic fail for the music career.

For the record, I adored my new career in radio and had it not been for a move to Radio 1 and a couple of chance meetings, I'd still be there. Somehow though I've ended back up in a music studio nearly 20 years later playing the piano again in exchange for cash and for that I go to work every day with one hand in the air thanking the Lord for the lucky break, the other behind my back with a big shitty stick ready to take on the next problem.

One should go into the arts knowing it's a massive risk and nothing should ever be taken for granted today let alone tomorrow. And I say that with the greatest of respect for everyone who either does, has or will attempt this as a career.

Anyway, I've taught myself some new chord sequences that are bearing interesting fruit, I'm actively trying to avoid the "reactionary frost chords" again. It's good to set oneself new musical limitations I reckon, although Blunders will be pleased to hear that the no tom toms rule has been lifted for the new album.

God, I remember I got an startling amount of flak from some unusually angry musicians about the tom toms thing when we announced it. I think they must have been under 25 because the older I get, the more I realise that most of the anger in the world about utterly harmless things (like a 1 album ban on tom toms) seems to come from the under 25's. They've got so much rage knocking about that it seems to spill out of them with very little provocation. I think one bloke even swore he'd not buy the record when I came out as it was an affront to Andy's drum skills. You'd think I'd cut TBE's arm off or something.

Mind you, I was no certainly no exception to bouts of shoutiness I must say, and my brother had a Doctorate in shouty for what felt like decades. I remember he threw a glass of Coca Cola over  me once just because I didn't like an a cappella jazz record he was listening to.

He's much much calmer now though I should point out. As am I. Getting on a bit does have it's advantages...

So, I noodled a bit on the guitar last night too and I've learnt some new shapey chord things. No idea what those chords are, but that's entirely irrelevant at this point. I suspect it'll still be irrelevant when I record them to be honest.

On that note, apologies again to the few kind and friendly folk who frequently get in touch to ask me for the scores/tabs to Frost songs, particularly Hyperventilate. Sorry to say that because I can't read music, I cannot oblige you with said. It's all just shapes to me, so for Hyper, it's a kind of skew whiff pentagon with a big flat arse for the intro that goes into some triangle shapes during the piano section after which it all goes a bit echasketch. I can tell you that it's mainly in E though.

It's absolutely beautiful here today (see snowdrops above). The killer easterly gale has finally abated and although it's ice cold, the air smells strangely, but tantalisingly of mown lawns. There is also a woodpecker hammering the hell out of some poor tree over the wall, but I like him being here all the same.

It won't last though, the weather forecast for my little plot of East Sussexshire is for snow tonight and then snow tomorrow night possibly resulting in 15cm by the end of it all.

For my family, this also means internment. We live down a wee lane in a valley, my car is a  rear wheel drive German sports car which, I realised as I 180'd it into a hedge, doesn't like going up or down hills covered in snow a great deal. Similarly, myne Wyfe seems to have bought the only Ford people carrier that can't be fitted with snow chains as there isn't enough clearance under the wheel arches according to the garage.

Neither of us want a 4x4 particularly and so when the weather takes a turn for the worse each year, we simply sigh, make sure the chest freezer is full of food and the garage is full of logs, crack open a bottle of red and get the Scrabble out.

I can't wait actually.