Well it's been a bit of a palaver this week, trying to get TCD (sorry, Lucy) ready for the outside world.

The recording seemed to go well, but when I was putting it together it became apparent that Ant had forgotten his trademark 'and we're back' after the diary reading, so I had to crowbar one in from a previous episode. Actually on that point, the first person who can correctly identify which of the previous 209 episodes it came from can have a bag of Starmix.

So I got around that little faux-pas, only for Ant to message me and break the news that the diary section which I recorded on Tuesday, has actually been used in a previous episode. So not only does that mean I have read and recorded it twice, it also means you will be getting a definite sense of deja vu.

After a high-level executive discussion, we have decided to leave it as is, because it's a good bit of diary and you’ve all had several sleeps since you heard it last. Hopefully you will enjoy the refresher.

Oh, and did I mention that Tim Sidwell was in attendance? No, well he was and as usual he was an absolute poppet and not a bit “Hollywood” except for occasionally calling us “darlings”. How wonderful!

Love'n'rama

h

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I am properly losing track of what I am reading every week in the diary section.

Even since we finished Volume II of The Invisible Man (1998-2014) I have been scrabbling around on my hands and knees (figuratively speaking of course) under the lid of my MacBook trying to locate odd bits of stuff to read out.

And because I keep stumbling on stuff, we have lost all sense of chronology in terms of what we have included and what can still be used. Which is why I sent Ant an email on Wednesday and asked him to look at a couple of pages to try and ascertain if we had used them already. I couldn't be sure, and as it turned out neither could he, but we both plumped for the 'travelling to Lille' extract as being the safer option - so that is what you are getting.

And as far as the rest of the episode is concerned, well it's just the other Mr.H being brilliant.

Nuff said.

Love'n'railcards

h

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We don't very often about the technical side of producing The Corona Diaries (see what I did there Lucy) mainly because we don't want to be seen to be blowing our collective trumpet, and partly because it isn't that interesting. But it is slightly relevant this week so here we go.

Most weeks, usually on a Tuesday, Ant sets up a Zoom call and we congregate - rarely on time, and never before ten - to ease ourselves into the process. In short order we hit the record button, and away we go, but because the audio quality on Zoom is a little sketchy we choose to capture our individual tracks on separate software at either end. Then either Ant or myself will take those tracks, along with the intro/outro beds and the piano noodles and build what will ultimately be the finished episode.

With me so far? Cracking!

Now one of the little tricks of the trade is that we both have to wear headphones or earphones, because if you monitor via headphones the sound of the zoom call would be rerecorded through the microphone and create a kind of echo. Seems obvious right, but the reason I am telling you is that we have a perfect example of that this week when our guest joined us and did that very thing...

So while you listen to #208 see if you can spot that little moment, because it is a little peek behind the “tech curtain”.

Mind you, it’s probably because his volume goes up to eleven.

Love'n'Leonard

h

It doesn’t really matter which of the many metaphors you choose, win or lose, the ups and the downs, the peaks or the troughs.

The fact is that when we started this run of AHBID themed episodes we kinda hoped by roping in members of the band we would be able to provide a broader collective on the making of that particular record.

Alas it hasn’t really worked out that way, so although we have managed to tease out a few nuggets so far, this particular aspiration is heading for the bucket. (N.B we do still have Rothers to go, but on current form it ain’t that promising…)

But with every near miss comes a full-on hit, and the one thing we didn’t expect was how each of these chapters have been imbued with the quirkiness of the particular invited guest.

And so it is with the arrival of The Count, as we delve into clicks, debate marmalade and grill Ant over some frankly bizarre behaviour around eggs.

h

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There is something about being in a room (or indeed on a Zoom call) with Trousers that is one of life's great pleasures.

Let me clarify that, because it is all about the capitalisation. Being in a room with trousers is a fairly mundane occurrence for many of us, but being in a room with Trousers is a joy.

The fact is, he is really funny. Mike Hunter thinks so, Ant thinks so, and I am sure after listening to #206 of TCD (sorry Lucy) you will think so as well. So as much as there are so really insights into the creation of Reprogram The Gene in todays pod, and believe me there are, if you are anything like me they will now be forever intertwined with tales of practical food containers and the purveyors thereof.

Life is better when you take the Pete way.

Love'n'knitwear

h

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Well we have only gone and ruddy well done it...

It might have evolved slowly as an idea, but you can't say that we haven't upped our game a little and actually delivered. Assuming that you are up-to-date with your TCD listening (sorry Lucy) you will know that instead of recoding a load of episodes about FEAR (which as it turns out we have already done...) we are moving onto some chat about AHBID.

And this idea, which in itself is perfectly solid, became turbo-charged when we decided to talk about each of the tracks in turn, and invite a different member of the beat combo to join us and pad out the discussion.

So this week we begin at the beginning, with recollections of the process of writing and recording Be Hard on Yourself in the company of Mad Jack himself, Mark Kelly.

Strap in, get ready, push the button...

Hugs,

h

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It runs out the best way to throw your fellow podcast host off his axis, is to turn up to his house and proclaim “I’m here” with outstretched hands.

After a couple of hundred of these over Zoom, there are consequences in jumping in the car and heading up to Heckmondwike for a face-to-face. Firstly there is no obvious improvement in the depth or quality of the content, and all that happened is that, basically, we buggered off out for lunch.

Secondly in a strange, body-switch-kind-of-moment, I became the sane one as Ant had a bit of a wobble and not only got his albums in the wrong order, but pretty much forgot a whole load of TCD episodes (sorry Lucy) that we had recorded about FEAR.

But being the old pros that we are, we powered on through and managed to start a bit of a chat about An Hour Before It’s Dark. Ant then usefully came up with a plan for the next few weeks which I pondered whilst helpfully locating not 3, but 4 pieces in Ant's unfeasibly difficult jigsaw.

After that I stuck some yellow stars on my face and went home.

Love and Mott the Hoople,

h x

What can I tell you about this this week's TCD (sorry Lucy)...

Well if it is randomness you are after, then we have it in the kind of quantity that would require a sturdy barrow to transport it about the place. In fact we start in a random place and then we proceed to meander, seemingly unchecked by social convention or common decency.

Which is why we go from football, to snooker, to Warren Close, to the Mr Men to Stephens (and indeed Stevens) and then back to football.

I also found another bit of diary from 2021, just in case you were wondering about the alliterative episode title, and it really is bloody illuminating on the subject of public transport and low-level milk pilfering.

Love'n'the nutter pheromone

h

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The Invisible Man Volume 1: 1991-1997

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