This is an extended version of my Royal Concert Hall review for the Nottingham Post. It isn’t online, so I can’t nick their photos or link to it here. David Sedaris isn’t a household name unless your house is constantly tuned to Radio Four, but the 62-year-old humourist’s ascent is remarkable. He writes essays and diaries for the New Yorker and public radio. I’ve been reading his stuff for twenty odd years but hadn’t taken in how successful he’s become. His latest book has been number one on the New York Times bestseller list for six weeks and counting. From North Carolina, he now lives, with his husband, Hugh, in the South Downs, where his hobby is collecting litter (he has a refuse truck…

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…