SERENDIPITY! Just been woken by the bin collection at my digs here in Polmont near Edinburgh after another ace but exhausting day at the PBH Free Fringe, and the first thing I did was check the Clacton election result.

Binface got 9,000, Farage 23,000 which is just about what I expected. Farage spent loads of money arguing with a bin and the bin still got 40% of his vote. There are people posting “Loser” on social media to me after a result which is akin to Chelsea winning 2-1 against Lower Lichtenstein!

Great fun, the right confirmed its sense of humour bypass, Farage still faces an investigation into his financial affairs and I’m doing three different Free Fringe shows during the next week and a half so I’d better concentrate on them…

1.30pm on Saturday - the final performance for this run of our 35th anniversary revival of Cheryl - A Rock Opera with my buddy John Otway at Bannerman’s Bar. It’s an everyday story of Satanism, train-spotting, drug abuse and unrequited love and it has a goat in it. Come if you dare. We did it at Blackpool Opera House last week as part of Rebellion punk festival and it went down a storm, just as it is here: we’ll definitely be touring it round the country next year.

4pm tomorrow until Sunday 23 (not 4.30 as it erroneously states in the Fringe programme) my solo poetry show based on my new book Fiery Words For Hellish Times. The title says it all. Poems to make you laugh, cry and above all think, some of which have been printed in the Star.

And next Friday 21 is the second of two very special days for me. For the fifth year in a row I’ve been invited back to St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh’s early instrument museum and concert hall, to perform my Early Music Show - this year it’s part of their official Fringe as well, which is a great honour for a self taught early music punk!

I’m doing this one with talented young Scottish songwriter Calum Baird, my accompanist on guitar as well as host at his and partner Ellie’s home for the duration, for which much thanks. I’ll be doing songs from my 2018 album Restoration Tragedy about Cromwell’s crushing of the pioneering ideas of the Levellers, Diggers and Ranters after the English Revolution, playing the instruments of the time — crumhorn, five different recorders, rauschpfeife, cornamuse, violin — and my brand new Portuguese mandola, Alvaro, named after the Portuguese communist leader Alvaro Cunhal.

It’s always a Festival highlight for me, and the ancient, creaky door of the official Early Music fraternity has recently opened a chink for me with an interview in Continuo Connect magazine. Thank you. Early music has been a lifelong passion for me, and it means a lot.

Brief recap from Rebellion Punk Festival, which happened last weekend — absolutely wonderful time featuring my top three bands, the legendary Kids from Belgium, TV Smith and the Godfathers — and huge thanks to my crew Rachel and Mark (and Stu) for lugging gear and just providing wonderful support to a 68-year-old whose force of nature personality and physical body are starting to operate at different levels sometimes!