A few years back, my friends Eve and Anthony published an original writing handbook called The Accidental Memoir. However, if you bought their book and used its pointers as the basis for writing your own memoir, there was little accidental about it. The new book that Five Leaves are about to publish is, by contrast, happened almost entirely by accident. Some time pre-pandemic (that other world whose contours blurs more each day), Ross Bradshaw asked me to contribute an essay to one of his occasional series of themed essays, entitled ‘Rock’. I’d contributed to two of the previous three (‘Maps’ and ‘Crime’) and was happy to do so, until he told me the proviso. He wanted me to write about Nick Drake. I’d already written about…

It was never my intention to write a memoir, and I’ll explain how it came about nearer the time, but I’m pleased to announce that my next book will be Don’t Mention the Night: a memoir from Five Leaves Publications. It covers how writing about Nick Drake led me to Nottingham in the 1970s, studying Law at university and writing for Liquorice magazine, through which I discovered Kevin Coyne, the formidable singer/songwriter from Derby. Most weeks I’d go to The Imperial pub, to see local legends, Gaffa. The book weaves the three acts’ stories in with mine, from teenage depression to life as a writer. No cover to show you yet, but we do have a launch date: October 19th at Metronome, where the BBC’s John Holmes…

The great guitarist and singer/songwriter Michael Chapman has been gone for the best part of a year now. I’ve written about him a few times on here, but just realised that I never posted this review. I wrote it for the Nottingham Post back in the day, when he performed at The Running Horse on Alfreton Road with Steve Tilston. The review below is exactly as it appeared in The Post but is no longer on their website. I didn’t take any photos at the gig, so I nicked the great photo above from Michael’s website. With Michael is Bridget St John, who was performing with Michael the first time I saw him. I first met Bridget in 1976 but that’s a story for another…