As ever at this time of year, a bit of a reading blog. Quiz for you: look at the pile above and guess which one I didn’t finish and which one I dumped in Croatia, or, to be more precise, left in the small select library in our apartment on the island of Hvar. I left the first book I read, a chunky ex-library copy of Sue Grafton’s last but one novel, at our hotel in Split (fantastic city, visit highly recommended). Having enjoyed its predecessor so much, earlier this year, I was really looking forward to this one so – you guessed it – I was a bit disappointed. It was up to her usual standard and thoroughly readable, but not as intricately…
A modified version of this review appears in today’s Nottingham Post. It’s four days before The Libertines’ huge Hyde Park reunion gig, which is rumoured to be making Pete Doherty and Carl Barat a cool half a million each. So what does Pete Doherty do? He announces a trio of tiny solo gigs, kicking off in Nottingham. The Libertines have form at the Bodega Social. They supported The Vines here in their early days, and headlined just before the release of their first single, the fantastic ‘What A Waster’. So punters can be forgiven for thinking tonight could be a low-key, final set of tune-ups for the big money show. But no. There’s a single mike stand on the stage, picked out by two green…
I just heard that Bobby Womack died yesterday. So sorry to hear this and so glad that I finally got to see him perform, at Liverpool Philharmonic earlier this year. A wonderful show that had me in tears by the end. On Tuesday night, my oldest friend Mike and I had a late night session after the Elton John gig. At about 2AM, I played ‘I Can Understand It’ and remarked that Liverpool was still my gig of the year. ‘Even better than Prince?” Mike asked, before choosing ‘I’m Through Trying To Prove My Love To You’. Yes, better than Prince. This was the show closer, as filmed a year earlier at the Forum in London, with Damon Albarn (who produced his terrific final album)…
Two years ago, when my partner had a new collection of poetry coming out, I took the publisher, John Lucas to The Guitar Bar (part of Bar Deux, near The Forest) and suggested that we had the launch there. The night was a roaring success and led to the Jazz and Poetry series that runs for ten months of the year, on the second Wednesday of every month, from 8 until late. Admission is currently free, with donations for the poets’ travelling expenses, and the evening always features at least an hour of classic jazz from Four In The Bar (with John Lucas on trumpet; Tony Elwell on clarinet; Ian Wheatley on guitar and Ken Eatch on bass). Here they are: The first season featured…
If Jenny Diski has got it right (and she usually does), the ban on UK prisoners being sent books in the post actually happened back in November 13, but has only gone viral this month. That was because of an article by Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League For Penal Reform, to which I belong. Good for her. The Howard League are taking legal action (donate), with Geoffrey Robertson QC, to challenge the government’s perverse decision to treat books as some kind of luxury to be denied to prisoners as part of their ongoing commitment to retribution rather than rehabilitation. There were a bunch of very good letters about this in last Thursday’s Guardian (including an excellent one at the top by…