Alison Chabloz

Some of you will know that, last year, my birthday was spent behind bars. This year, thanks to one immensely kind and generous friend, a far nicer birthday present arrived early – a digital piano.

It’s a Yamaha Piaggero 32 and has six and half octaves of semi-weighted keys, great speakers and a very decent range of sounds. I am over the moon.

If I could get my hands on the large repertoire of professional backing tracks still in police possession, I would be able to entertain until next year’s birthday.

Police haven’t bothered to respond to my request last month that they return the 40 kg-worth of devices seized during an horrendous raid of my home in April 2020.

Likewise, the CPS is refusing to disclose the two-hour long police interview I gave in presence of a solicitor, one month before my very first appearance in court for a private prosecution (later taken over by the Crown) in December 2016. The prosecution is claiming that the interview will neither damage their case nor help the defence. I disagree.

Anyway, enough unpleasantness about these unpleasant events. Those who wanted and still want me “destroyed” will have to wait.

I have a new piano!

I have been dreaming of such an instrument for a long time. It’s been almost seven years since I played something approaching a real piano, since evil forces tried to take away my life and my career.

As you can see in the photo, I created a comfortable, attractive set-up. ‘Proper’ recording of vocal and other tracks with my Yamaha PRS-750 will still take place in my little padded studio downstairs. This set-up is for practising, recording and livestreaming with more space, and with some natural light from the large window, giving better visuals during daytime filming.

(Luckily, I do have some staples, as far as sheet music goes, and of course I could always write out my own, either by hand or by using computer software such as MuseScore. Police also took some of my written lead-sheets and lyric sheets. Why would police need to keep this stuff for two years, especially after informing my solicitor 12 months ago that no evidence had been recovered. Is this a deliberate strategy to inconvenience people by seizing and holding on to their work tools, for years, without any explanation as to why?)

Over the next few days I am going to record and film as much as possible and will hopefully be able to publish a song or two, perhaps a medley, before next weekend.

This may depend slightly on the weather. Rediscovering the joys of tinkling the ivories could mean less time for gardening and baking, but I shall do my best to maintain all three activities, as well as posting updates here.

Finally, a word to some of you who may have sent a message and have yet to receive any reply. Apologies, there is a problem with my email inbox at the moment, but I will get round to replying as soon as I can.

Wishing everyone a pleasant week.