A very slightly extended version of my review for today’s Nottingham Post. On kd lang’s first visit to the Royal Concert Hall, nearly twenty years ago, the audience was dominated by screaming young women. Tonight the top tier is empty and there are notably more males, of the middle aged variety. The Canadian singer is touring with a permanent band who give her a more relaxed onstage presence. They launches into ‘I Confess’, followed by a boomy ‘Summer Fling’. The sound settles down for a delicate ‘Water’s Edge’. Then it’s a lovely ‘Miss Chatelaine’ from her breakthrough, still most successful album, ‘Ingenue’. The intro is coquettish, her stage dancing joyful. The title track of new album, ‘Sing It Loud’, is dedicated to ‘all the freaks.…
The third Arctic Monkeys album, ‘Humbug’, was a disappointment, and the gigs accompanying them were too. Unless, perhaps, you were stood at the very front. The band seemed unable to adapt to playing in arenas. The set was badly structured, with too many plodding rockers. Sheffield’s finest seemed determined to eliminate a large part of the audience they’d built up. After seeing this brilliant gig in 2007, I’d dragged my partner along to see them at Nottingham Arena. She was severely underwhelmed, as was I. So why am I going to see them again, in my hometown, in a huge tent, a week tonight? Because it’s a big Sheffield event, sure, but also because their new album Suck It And See, out on Monday, is…
Yesterday, Amazon sent out an email to Kindle users that featured my Bone & Cane, a recent high climber on their charts, as the lead item. I’d heard that Amazon helped promote Kindle books that were doing well, but had forgotten until that email landed in my inbox. An hour later, the book had shot from number seven to number two. An hour after that, it was number one. Where it still is, with sales up 600% yesterday according to the Amazon ‘Movers and Shakers’ chart. This is my debut adult crime novel and my brilliant publishers, Tindal Street Press, are selling it at a special introductory rate in order to build an audience for the series it begins. I was very happy when it…
Great event at Antenna the other night, ‘Contact’, a Word Of Mouth evening organised by Robin Vaughan Williams featuring local writers alternating with international ones, skyping from all over the world. Well done to all involved. The evening concluded with Kelly Malone reading from New Zealand where, because of the international date line it was (almost) time for The Rapture. Here’s some video I shot of it, first with Sue Dymoke’s set. and here’s Kelly Finally, a couple of songs of the week and a little preview of the new Arctic Monkeys album. Oh, and if the world does end at 6pm tonight, thanks for tuning in, it’s been nice knowing you and here’s a couple more songs (No REM – too obvious). The Arctic…
For the last day, the Kindle edition of Bone and Cane has been just outside the paid for in Kindle top 20. My mate Scott says he saw it at number 19 yesterday, but it can’t have been there long, as I checked every couple of hours and the highest it got was 21. I like chartwatching and working out how charts work. eBook charts are a very different thing to music charts, where most artists (other than Adele) tend to peak in the first week or two of release, then drop like a stone. When my publisher, Tindal St Press, told me that they wanted to make the Kindle edition of my debut adult crime novel only £1 for a limited period, I said…