We had some of the boys around over Christmas. Always good fun. The conversations go everywhere. And back again.

Inevitably ours talks together turn at times to the future of technology. The boys have a lot more knowledge and expertise about all of that than I do, because they have grown up during times when lots of the modern technology that will influence all of our futures was establishing itself. Particularly the influences of the internet, social media, and the wee pocket computers that we all now carry round with us everywhere we go.

I’m very positive about a lot of that technology and it’s potential for making our lives better. In many ways it already has. But I also come from The Before Generation. The fogies who were around when a digital world was mostly Sci-fi fantasy, and when physical contact and activities were so much more important and prevalent.

Having the boys here was a great reminder of the two ways we now have of interacting. We played physical board games with the boys in the room, and online digital games with the boys who happened to be in other parts of the universe. It was good to be able to do that.

And I believe we need both the physical and the digital. But particularly at this time I think we need to learn to nurture and maintain the part of us that comes from a physical, mud, blood and bones planet Earth.

It is that which keeps us grounded and human, and helps us to stay sane. And it is our physical connections that are most vulnerable. Because of a certain apathy, the “convenience” of life in front of a screen, and the recent fears rooted in a combination of realistic safety precautions and generalised paranoia.

I’ll go on flying the flag for live music. Particularly the kind of live music that happens right where we live.

We need to be with each other. And we need Homesongs.