Read the music press that is designed for men of a certain age (some of whom stroke their beards) there has been a lot of excitement this last few weeks on the first three Led Zeppelin albums being remastered and reupholstered and sent out into the world again.

I was tempted. I have all the albums in the attic and haven’t listened to them for years. Here would be a great opportunity to reinvest in them and this time round there would be a some sonic clarity to clear away the 1970’s murk.

But I resisted that temptation. Instead I bought myself a pre-amp for the record deck. I had been promising myself one of these for years.

I have known for a long time that the sound of the record deck needed some boosting but somewhere along the way I had stopped listening to records in the way that I had in the past. The ease of CDs had got the better of me.

So I got the pre-amp and I plugged it in and Galen and me did a test. The nearest test subject was Dexy’s Don’t Stand Me Down. So we started it on vinyl and then tried it on CD. Vinyl won hands down. It still wasn’t as loud but there was a physicality from the sound.

This evening I moved the testing on to Led Zeppelin and took an opportunity to try out Dazed & Confused  as loud as it would go (and I thought the neighbours would tolerate – not, of course, necessarily the same thing). Five minutes in I found myself with an air guitar in my hands, on my knees puling out Jimmy Page moves in a purple Japanese jump suit.

So all I need to now is try find a way to sort out my life so I can spend my days moving to and from a turntable turning over and changing records preferably eating good food as I do so.

We spent some time touching on that this afternoon with a long brunch with friends in the sun that finished about 6.00 in the evening. Very little cooking for me until I got home and put a beer can up a chicken’s backside to cook on the barbeque. I find that sort of thing relaxing.

A long time ago we lived just off Cowley Road in Oxford about four minutes walk from a pub called The Bullingdon Arms.

The pub, or a version of it, is still there but it is no longer the place it used to be.

Twenty years ago it was run by Joe Ryan who made sure that each pint was served with a shamrock shaped into its creamy top, there were no cushions on the stools, fluid opening hours, a music system that only played old Irish Rebel songs and a Jack Russell called Misty. There was a yard at the back the roof of which was made out of pieces of corrugated plastic sheeting and a small back bar where I watched Germany beat England on penalties in Italy in 1990.

I was reminded of all this this evening listening to the first Dexys Midnight Runners album and the first song in which Kevin Rowland runs through a list of his favourite Irish writers; Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, Sean O’Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Eugene O’Neill, Edna O’Brien andLawrence Stern. One of the walls in the back room of The Bullingdon had a black and white picture of them all.

Joe Ryan had to give up the pub when the brewery tried to tidy the place up and when they couldn’t do that just put the rent up so he couldn’t afford to keep it on. It was a good local.

I was listening to Dexys as I have been trying out some improvements I have been trying to make to the playing of records in the house.They seem to be working. I tried Galen out playing a record and then the same music on CD. He came out in favour of the record. It had a more natural sound. Good lad!

There were only two kids to feed this evening so I gave them chicken and chips. I fed myself a bulgar wheat salad and lamb meatballs made with dried barberries taking more or less based on a recipe from  Sabrina Ghayour’s Persiana.

Still listening to Dexys now late in the evening. On vinyl. But feeling a bit of a fraud not having bought the records first time round. They still get me though.

The man is a fuckin’ genius. They should have nailed his picture to the wall in The Bullingdon.