John Harvey started it, back in ’86 or ’87. He made these end of year compilations (we didn’t call them mix tapes then) of his favourite songs of the year. They were usually titled with some wry quotation from a song lyric. In ’87 I made him a tape in return. In ’88 I made copies of the tape for a few friends. Mike made one back, using C120 tapes from the start (a bit too long at times, plus the tape’s too thin to risk in the car stereo) – Mike always likes to cram in as much music as possible. In the mid-nineties, my tapes crept up to 100 minutes in length. Come the millenium, everybody bought CD recorders or computer burners and…

We get to the pub just after eight. We’re only stopping for a quick half before having dinner with old friends. In my local’s upstairs room is a celebration party for a new friend who’s just won a city council byelection. It’s early, so there are less than a dozen people there. We’re sitting at a table with the new councillor, the local MP and his wife. The MP gets up to greet somebody. I recognise the new arrival, although for a moment I can’t place him. An ex-county councillor, I think, someone I knew back when I was a party activist, twenty years ago. No, he’s too young. A university lecturer, maybe. He’s dressed in a somewhat bizarre combination of old jeans, pink shirt…

Comic books hooked me on reading. My grandparents in Sheffield used to post my brother Paul and me a bunch of comics every week. They were The Beano, The Dandy, Hotspur and TV Comic. I got through loads of novels by Enid Blyton but comics were my big love. At eight I discovered Superman and Batman. I spent all my pocket money on them. A little later, I found Marvel Comics. They were still in their Golden Age of fantastic art and stories. I became an addict. Spiderman was my favourite. Then X-Men, The Fantastic Four and The Silver Surfer. But Marvel comics were hard to find. Nowhere in West Kirby had a regular supply.  I found the issue of Spiderman featuring the death of…

Aldeburgh is the first whole weekend poetry festival I’ve been to. It was also my fourth festival of the year – readers may get the impression I’m addicted to the things, but it’s happenstance. General reader, hold on. Yes, I know, it’s poetry – I can hear the yawns, but stick around for a while… Aldeburgh is the biggest poetry festival in the UK. Most of the events take place in the Jubilee Hall, which seats 250. Every event is sold out. The only time I’ve been part of such a huge, enthusiastic poetry crowd was when I saw Ginsberg read in Cambridge, back in ’78. What took us there this year? I live with a poet, and, for the first time, her work pattern…

I didn’t take to Elliott Smith’s music at first. I checked him out because reviews described the sort of act I normally like. I found the singles I bought a bit wimpy, lacking in substance. Then I saw him on the first night of Glastonbury 2000. He was following the highly touted (and hugely overrated) Badly Drawn Boy in the New Bands Tent. I was knocked out. He had a full band and a sound reminiscent of late period McCartney Beatles. A lot of the songs were about heartache and the meaninglessness of life. They were beautiful pop constructions whose beauty and zest offset the mournfulness of the lyrics. I bought his latest (and, as I’ve since discovered, best) album Figure Eight from a festival…