DIY Songs #2: Taking The Kitchen To The Tip

Over the last week, our new kitchen has been fitted. No, I didn't do it. We got a man in.

However, last weekend I did remove all the cupboard doors (a bigger job than you'd think) and stash them in the shed because apparently people will buy old cupboard doors. We haven't got a buyer yet, but we live in hope.

Because we couldn't afford a skip, the kitchen fitter then ripped out our old kitchen (quite a big bigger than the doorless photo above would suggest) and dumped it in our front garden. Although Louise took a few bits to the tip last week, the rest was down to me this weekend. And so, on Saturday afternoon, following Sam's 5th birthday party at a packed local venue which seemed to be holding six other kids' parties at the same time (you can imagine), I returned home to fill my tiny little Nissan Micra with as much of the old kitchen as I could... and then drove it to the tip. It took 8 journeys. Most of it done in the pouring rain. And I did it just in time... the guys at the tip closed the gate just as I'd finished emptying my last load.

I didn't listen to anything while loading the car and transporting the kitchen to the tip... but I did listen to something while removing the doors last weekend. An album I hadn't listened to in years, and I'd forgotten how good it was. I remember buying this record when it was re-issued 15 or so years ago after it received glowing reviews in the music mags. Two albums on one reissue CD, though it's the first one - produced by Phil Spector - which stands out. I tell you what, Spector may be a murdering lunatic, but he knew his was round a recording studio. And Dion, who'd already been making records for nearly two decades by the time this was released in 1975, rarely sounded better. If you've never heard Born To Be With You, I seriously suggest giving it a listen. It is majestic...



Yet Dion himself hated it. And Spector shelved it. At the time of its release, it sank without a trace.

Twenty years later, it was rediscovered... among many others, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie loved it. You can hear why...



Hopefully there won't be any more DIY songs for a long, long time... but I guess we''ll wait and see.