An extended version of my review for the Nottingham Post. Lambchop are a melancholy, mesmerising band. The Nashville group rarely tour, even in tonight’s stripped down trio version. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person there who’d waited over twenty years to see them. Indeed, they’re my main reason for buying a ticket for Green Man this year (not that I needed much encouragement), before this tour was announced. Frontman Kurt Wagner sets up the laptop which will supply synths and drums. ‘I’ll be checking my email throughout the performance.’ Before opening with Writer, he tells the crowd, ‘It’s just us now, we can’t rely on governments’. The set mixes songs from delicious recent album – possibly their best – Flotus, with its mild Krautrock…

Stuart Cosgrove’s 2016 Detroit 67: the year that changed soul is primarily about Motown (the label was based in Detroit until 72) and, as such, complements Nelson George’s classic history of Motown, Where Did Our Love Go? the rise and fall of the Motown sound. Like that book, there’s a lot about The Supremes (this was the year that Florence Ballard left the group). There’s also plenty about my favourite Motown group, The Temptations, although, curiously, he doesn’t mention that the classic five line-up recorded and released one of the (possibly the) best Motown live albums that year, Temptations Live! Another odd omission is that, according to the introductory essay in the 1967 box of the Complete Motown Singles (my companion listening while reading this),…

This is an extended version of the review that appeared in Saturday’s Nottingham Post with a few added comments about the election. Quite a coup for Glee and promoters Cosmic American Music to get Bruce Springsteen’s bass player on election night. Tallent is the only remaining original member of the E Street Band (unless you count the boss himself). A youthful 67, Garry might seem old to be launching a solo career, but Bruce isn’t touring. And no expense is spared. The Tennessee Terror has brought along renowned singer/songwriter Kevin Montgomery to open for him. Montgomery, whose dad used to partner Buddy Holly, pays tribute to Holly with ‘Heartbeat’ (especially touching for my companion, who used to write for the series) and a lovely ‘Flower…

It was World Book Day last week and I meant to spend the evening in a bookshop, celebrating the life of my friend, the writer Derrick Buttress, who died in December, aged 84. But hospital duties prevailed so I was represented by the video I took of one of his readings. Derrick was the last of the generation of Nottingham writers that included Stanley Middleton and Alan Sillitoe. Derrick, a modest man, would never have put himself in their company. He was, however, just three years younger than Alan (he was born in Broxtowe in 1932) and, though he got his start in writing even later than Stan did, his work was as much infused with Nottingham working class life as Sillitoe’s. He studied English…