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…
For once, this month’s post is, literally, a song of the week, one I discovered on Sunday. It’s become such an earworm since then that I felt bound to investigate it. Thanks to a review on excellent The Second Disc reissue review site, I decided to check out the complete singles and B sides of Harpers Bizarre, a US ’60s group who still get played a fair bit and recorded plenty of interesting songs. I’ve grudgingly enjoyed their stuff, much of which seemed to veer rather too close to easy listening, until recently a rather despised genre. The best example of this is their hit version of Feelin’ Groovy which, I now find, features instrumentation from the legendary LA Wrecking Crew. I played through the…
The sleevenotes start a day early this year, as there are 21 tracks (one only a minute long – but you’ll have to wait a fortnight to find out what it is). This is our 28th best of year compilation, copies of which are sent or given to friends. For the last few years, I’ve been writing these sleevenotes and posting MP3s of the songs online (briefly, for promotional purposes, if any copyright holders object the song will be removed) which spreads the word and saves sending out ever more CDs. I tend to post one sleevenote a day but this year is tricky, so they may go up in batches, finishing on New Year’s Eve. Sue has a right of veto and chooses the…
Shoestring is a brilliant publisher, but it doesn’t do eBooks and many of my readers prefer them. Therefore, I’ve published the Kindle edition of Provenance, my new and collected stories with East Lane Books, the ePublisher named after the location of the allotment at the back of our house. Many thanks to Nat and Rachael at Narrator typesetters and designers for converting the book, which is exactly the same as the printed edition except for the absence of an author photo (since there’s no back cover) and the addition of several laudatory quotes from reviews at the front of the book. I’m too modest to include them here, but shorter versions can be found by clicking ‘Read More’ on the book’s Amazon page. Or you…
This is a slightly revised and extended version of my original review in the Nottingham Post with setlist. Interesting to see this joint tour in the 700 seater Playhouse (where it sold out at lightning speed) rather than Billy Bragg’s usual haunt, Rock City. It suggests that this is a sit-down show, suited to a contemplative audience. And so it proves. Bragg is accompanied by old friend Joe Henry. He’s best known here as a producer (Aimee Mann, Allen Toussaint), but is primarily a prolific singer/songwriter. The duo have made a concept album, Shine a Light, mostly recorded in railway stations. The pair fit well together. They’d need to, in close proximity on those notoriously empty US trains. ‘65 hours, 3,000 miles.’ Two sets of…