First rehearsal of the two first albums is behind us. Five months, to the day. Spent Saturday with the band, eight of us in all, including the lovely Larteys, running through each track, in sequence, and learning some of them for the first time in ages. Several haven’t been played Live since the beginning of it all, and it felt good.

Tumbling Down, back to the original arrangement, was a thrill to perform. We all know the orchestral arrangements will make a huge impact at Symphony Hall, and maybe that was in some of the players’ minds as we played through them. I didn’t stop imagining the track with the orchestra and choral arrangements, not for a moment. I was signing the lyrics with one half of my brain, and conducting the parts with the other half. Had to imagine the sax parts, too, as Steve Norman couldn’t come to this one. The band all know what a lift that will give, too. And the percussion was missing mostly. Ashleigh shook things and keeps perfect time, but we will have a full-time percussionist on the night, and that might actually be Mr Norman, whose first instrument was drums, before he ever picked up a sax.

EMI have re-discovered the Between The Lines film, from Hammersmith Odeon, 1975. We’ve got a 30-minute edited version to add, possibly, to their proposed 5-CD package due in the autumn. They ask if I’d like the surviving Top Of The Pops and other 70s tv footage added to it, making a one-hour DVD to complete it. Boy, I look young.