Before I had cancer treatment, I had retired from music. I wrote in my blog that it would be unlikely that I would ever play with PO! again; I was too old, nobody would want it and it just seemed a crappy thing to do.
But after having a whole body and hair reboot, the idea of making music with friends just seems like a fantastic idea, because making music IS fantastic. If nobody wants to listen then they don't have to, and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, because I could have died and not had this opportunity.
Strangely though, my interest seems to be coinciding with other people's interest in PO! Some are old fans whose names I know from the old mail order business; others are much younger people who have grown up with Japanese fanzines and Spanish vinyl and somehow know that PO! are part of the indie-pop furniture.
2016 got off to a good start when Mark Hibbett emailed and asked me to play a gig at Totally Acoustic in London. A few weeks later, Marianthi from Indietracks was also offering a slot for PO! at the July festival. The guitar came out, songs were considered and practised and, on April 7th, I played solo at Totally Acoustic - the King and Queen pub where Bob Dylan played his UK debut in 1962.
.
An amazing kind soul, Alan Hames, has also helped by plodding through all my tape reels and DATs to get the old recordings into this century's format. It means I can re-release the first album, Little Stones fairly soon and put some recordings up on the Internet. I feel like I'm a proper old woman of indie-pop and that's quite a fine thing to be!
The last step is starting rehearsals with Paul (drummer) and Gary (bass) to see if we make the right noise as a 3-piece. The requests from fans are influencing what we'll play at Indietracks (and at least one other gig as a warm-up). I will let you know soon.