See this? It's "First Circle" by the Pat Metheny Group. It came out in 1984. I was sent a copy at the time. I may have played a few bars of the opening track, which was one of those tunes that musicians only do to be provocative, but I certainly didn't get any further. Let's say I listened for 30 seconds. I know it sound brutal but sometimes it works like that. I'd never actually listened to it until just now, when I had the junk cleared off the top of the turntable and felt like hearing some Pat Metheny.

Here's the thing. It's twenty-eight years since that record came out. Twenty-eight years it has lain snuggled between "Bright Size Life" and "Travels". Twenty-eight years have gone by. Governments have come and gone. Twenty-eight Christmases have gone by. We've raised the best part of three children in this house during this time and the smooth ECM grooves of "First Circle" have remained shiny and unsullied. And do you know what? It's really good. I shall play it again this evening.

Anyone else ever had an unconsummated affair with a record?

GLW just found this picture. On the right is me. On the left is Paul Young in some abbreviated shorts such as were popular at the time. Over to you.

Found this in the office today. Bob Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde" on a single cassette. It seems like years since I've held a cassette of an actual album in my hand. Remember when cassettes were the foremost music carrier? How come they don't have any of the sentimental associations of vinyl or even CD?
Or do they?

This weekend I chucked away lots of music.

Of course, I won't be permanently parted from it. If I am seized by a longing to hear Kelly Willis's version of Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got To Memphis" or whatever, I shall dig out the CD from which I originally ripped it or find it on iTunes or Spotify or You Tube. Nothing is lost for long anymore. Sometimes I wish it was.

The point is this. I cleared about 10,000 tunes off my iTunes. Just doing this made me feel better.

Lots of it was stuff I'd added when I had things to review, stuff I'd never got round to chucking off because there didn't seem any point. Anyway, having flushed a load of it away, I immediately felt less crowded by the sheer bulk of the stuff that faced me whenever I turned it on. I was more inclined to focus on the stuff that was there.

Secondly, and here I'm encouraged by the example of others on this site, I've decided to keep what I keep in a "lossless" form. Not that I claim to know exactly what that means other than the fact that things just sound better and more proper.

One of the reasons I've done this is that since investing in an expensive pair of noise-cancelling headphones I've realised that the place I do my closest listening is while walking down the street or standing up in a tube train. The outside world is my "sounds room". (Yes, I had a friend who had one of those.)

I'm old enough to remember when that sacrament was only administered in the front room, in a chair carefully placed between two speakers, probably by the light of a single candle. My "lifestyle" simply doesn't allow that anymore and anyway there are just too many distractions in the home.

It already feels like a bit of a sea change. After ten years of iTunes I've decided that I'm over the thrill of having everything at my fingertips. It doesn't make you any happier. It just makes you more restless and shuffle-happy. What I'm trying to do is restore a bit of ceremonial. Anyone with me?

We're looking at making a Word iPad app and we're having a debate about which is the most appropriate way to go. We can do a basic "PDF under glass" version. This means that all the layouts of the magazine would be reproduced as they are. The finished product looks like the magazine but because of the limitations of the screen you have to pinch and expand pages to make them easier to read. This is the form you've probably read the majority of magazines in.

The other way is to do something more like The Economist or The Week where we re-format the magazine for the iPad. This is more laborious and expensive but the end result is something that's a lot easier to read.

To help us make decisions like this it would really help to hear from people who've tried other magazines on the iPad. We want to know whether you really use them or not. It's not so much a question of whether you like the idea of them. It's a question of whether you use them.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Well, can you?

Last year, Whitney spent the majority of the year on a world tour in support of her album "I LOOK TO YOU" which to date has sold two million copies worldwide. After the tour, she lent her support to her manager and sister in law, Patricia Houston, who has created and developed a line of beautiful organic scented candles, MARION P, named after the nickname Whitney gave to Patricia. There are five different scents, which were chosen based on a trip Whitney and Patricia took to Israel a few years ago. “I'm delighted to be a partner with Pat Houston and the creation of her beautiful candle line. It’s the essence of everything pure. It's not just a candle, it's an experience. I have never endorsed anything before this. These candles are truly inspiring - they are 100% soy and also made with shea butter so that when the candle melts down, you can use it as a body moisturizer. Also, you are doing a good deed as a portion of the sales goes to Patricia's teen mentoring program," said Whitney. The candles are available on MarionPCandles.com and also through Whitney's website, WhitneyHouston.com.

This is my favourite album cover. It was my favourite when I first saw it in WH Smith in Dewsbury in 1969 and it's still my favourite now.

I love the way it manages to combine hippy weirdness (I think that's Miss Christine of the GTOs posing in a mausoleum in some LA cemetery) with the kind of simple punchy typography you can read across a crowded room. (I had it in the background when I was interviewed via Skype on some BBC news programme this week and people tweeted 'Hey, you've got Hot Rats inthe background!')

This record wants to sell. It's vivid and colourful and not at all grotesque. It's not an in-joke which only the band gets. Taken together the title and the design make you inclined to like the music inside more than you otherwise would. That's the thing that great sleeve art does.

I've shown you mine. Now you can show me yours.

Very much enjoying listening to Little Feat doing Fat Man In The Bathtub on the way home last night when one line leapt out:

"Hey Mama, let me check your oil, all right
And she said, no, no honey, not tonight"

This sort of thing sounds oddly lyrical when it's delivered musically. I'd hate to think of any Little Feat fan being brave enough to actually launch into this kind of chat-up line in real life.

Any more nominations?

I caught Francis Rossi on Radio Four's Saturday Live the other day. They took him back to his old primary school. He was very good. He didn't say anything wildly memorable or witty but he entered into the spirit of the thing and reacted like a normal human being rather than in the way he felt a rock legend ought to.

It struck me that I've heard Francis Rossi interviewed hundreds of times over the years and he's never been boring. This makes him exceptional. Most rock stars, however interesting they are as artists, have very little to say on any subject other than themselves, their new album and a book they once read. They don't take part in a conversation. They deliver a monologue. In any other sphere of life this would mark them out as bores.

Who else can always be relied upon to just muck in and keep the bright red beach ball of conversation in the air?

The Silver Seas are my favourite group. Danny Baker says they're "the best group in the world". I've offered to give anyone who bought "Chateau Revenge" and didn't like it their money back. Simon Mayo and Bob Harris are among the others enthusing. (6Music think their single "Best Things In Life" is really good but "a bit mainstream" which is as good as a five star recommendation.) The whole thing's on Spotify if you want to hear for yourself.

And now they're coming to the UK! Even better they're coming to a venue just around the corner from our office deep in the heart of London's swinging Islington. The Silver Seas will be playing at the Islington Academy on Thursday, September 15th. You can get tickets here. You can hear them on Spotify here.

I'll be there. Fraser will be there. I'm starting to hear from other members of the Massive who'll be there. Who knows? Maybe Baker will be prised away from the Internet long enough to attend. So come one, come all and let's make a night of it.

We could even get up a drinking party beforehand. What do you say?