I was going to call this post ‘Three Lions Gigs’ but you can’t do strikethroughs in headings on WordPress, so I’ve gone for basic info. The purpose of this post is mainly to archive my Public Image review for the Post, who also did a nice piece about the Sex Pistols trial in Nottingham. I was editor of the university newspaper at the time, so we reported on it (indeed, my then head of department defended the use of the word ‘bollocks’ in court) though I didn’t attend. The Post had a good interview with Lydon too. Useful for PiL that there was no football that night. The following Tuesday I went to Stamford Bridge for a thirty year delayed encounter with John Hiatt, who…
Sheryl Crow forgets a singer’s surname*, then blurts it out mid-song. ‘Aging: you get all this great wisdom, but can’t remember any of it.’ She’s 56, she reminds us, yet looks fantastic, in a white ‘Give Love’ singlet and spangly jeans. It’s 25 years since Sheryl Crow’s hit debut album Tuesday Night Music Club and her first Nottingham visit, to Rock City. Tonight, we’re host to the last of three of shows before she plays the Isle of Wight festival on Sunday. Crow’s six-piece band hit the ground running with debut hit, All I Wanna Do, jumbo guitar strapped behind her back. A storming A Change Will Do You Good next, then, sans guitar, a terrific My Favourite Mistake. In case you had any doubts…
I only post occasional reviews that I write for the Nottingham Post – they have their own website, after all and it used to be easy to find everything I’d written for them. However, yesterday, when I checked to see what I’d said in my review of Belly at Rock City less than two years ago, I found that that review, along with loads of others, had gone. Nothing before October 17, which means nine years of reviews gone. I don’t know if this is connected with a recent change of policy, whereby only gigs likely to attract a high number of clicks get reviewed. Which also means that this is probably the last time I’ll review a Rescue Rooms gig*. Pity. Here’s what I…
A week’s break on a Greek island (escaping a kitchen refit) followed by a bank holiday weekend has meant that I could catch up on my reading, albeit with a stringent weight limit. And, unlike many of these blogs, where I read books I’ve saved up, most of the reading I did on Skiathos was guided by serendipity. One of my Children’s Literature student lent me The Hate You Give, which recently shared the Children’s Book Award at the Nibbies with The Lost Words. This longish YA novel, inspired by Black Lives Matter (& Tupac’s THUGLIFE tattoo) has won numerous other awards. I was a hundred pages in and polished off the rest of it on the flight and the following morning by the pool. This…
Bit late putting this up, but I think it’s worth preserving my Hollies review on this blog. A slightly extended take on April 25th’s show, originally for the Nottingham Post, whose Kevin Cooper took the photo above. Manchester’s Hollies are in their fifty-sixth year. They formed in 1962, around the same time Ringo Starr joined The Beatles. OK, their Paul (Graham Nash) left in 1968 (wonder what happened to him?), and their John (Allan Clarke) retired 18 years ago. But they still have two, very recognisable original members, drummer Bobby Elliott with Tony Hicks on lead guitar and backing vocals. They still have a catalogue of great pop songs most modern groups would kill for. And they still pack the Concert Hall. I first heard…