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From The Desk Of Pete Astor: “You Better Dream” (Meetings)

Pete Astor has been a staple of the British indie scene since the early ’80s, fronting a diverse number of outfits including the Loft, the Weather Prophets, the Wisdom Of Harry and Ellis Island Sound. He launched a solo career in 1990, as well, and is also a senior lecturer in music at the University of Westminster. Astor’s latest release is One For The Ghost (Tapete). He’ll be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week, writing about the origins of these songs and how they relate to the LP’s theme of past and future, complete with illustrations he created with Susanne Ballhausen.

Astor: I’m thinking we all know that feeling when we’re stuck in a work room with someone who won’t stop talking—often a very male trait: talk as loud and long as possible, therefore dominating the room, whether or not that man has anything worthwhile to say. My friend Steve, who is American, once used the phrase “blow hard” to describe someone. I didn’t know what he was talking about, so he explained it to me. Now, whenever I’m really stuck in a work meeting with one of the characters described above, the fact that Steve has supplied me with a name for it is always a source of comfort.

Some of that two-chord magic: