A slightly extended version of my review for the Nottingham Post. Nottingham has waited 35 years for Scritti Politti. None of the band’s previous incarnations, from do-it-yourself post-punk to neo-soul success, have toured heavily. Singer/songwriter Green Gartside suffers from crippling stage-fright. An approximation of the current line-up produced the excellent White Bread, Black Beer album in 2006.   Green’s already played Nottingham once this year, in the Sandy Denny tribute, where he seemed confident and sang wonderfully. Perhaps, at a youthful 57, he’s ready for us. Or perhaps not.   ‘Are you alright? Because I’m terrified. Thank you for coming,’ he begins. ‘Good night.’   The band kick off with classic ‘Sweetest Girl’. Five years ago, when I saw the new incarnation at Sheffield’s Leadmill,…

It’s fifteen years since I last attended a Crime festival. Why? I was spoiled, in that, for several years we had Shots On The Page here in Nottingham – in 1995, we had Bouchercon, too, a rare honour. In 1997, I MCed a huge launch for the anthology I’d edited, City Of Crime, in a Council House ballroom packed with crime writers. Hard to follow that. I stopped writing YA crime novels soon afterwards. The market had changed, thanks to Harry Potter, and I was ready for a change, too. But last year I published my first crime novel for adults, Bone and Cane, and this year Mark Billingham was kind enough to invite me to host a table at the Theakston’s Old Peculier crime writing festival. In…

This is a much extended version of my review for the Nottingham Post. After two hours forty fun-filled minutes with Elvis Costello’s Spectacular Singing Songbook at the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday night (highlight, the revived, relevant again, ‘Tramp The Dirt Down’), I was back for a show the same length. In the balcony this time, rather than my favourite spot – the middle of the fifth row – and with a twenty minute interval. The show started so promptly (7.30!), we missed the opening remarks. Each of the acts was introduced by Andrew Batt who put the tour together and also worked on all the recent sandy re-issues including compiling and mixing the 19cd boxset. All credit to him, but I’m not sure this…

My new novel, ‘What You Don’t Know’, was published this week and I’d like to thank everybody who came to the launch at Waterstones. The first ten minutes are above, including a rare chance to see my very talented editor Luke Brown introducing me. The second Bone & Cane novel is a standalone sequel. It’s about the war on drugs, at every level. There are several mysteries. Oh, and there’s a murder. Most people seem to think it’s the best thing I’ve written. Thanks to everyone who left the brilliant reviews on Amazon (and, please, keep them coming). I’d say more, only I’m just getting back to my desk after an over-extended bout of builders and am anxious to finish the third book in the…

  WHEN Laura Marling last visited Nottingham, a little over three years ago, she was a shy 18-year-old playing to a packed Rescue Room. Since then, she’s grown her hair, her band and her music, taking on new influences  and widening her sound. Aided by a Brit award, she’s also grown her audience. The packed Concert Hall reminded Laura of her Quaker school assembly hall, and made her nervous. The lovely Don’t Ask Me Why merged into Salinas, at the end of which she broke a string. Marling abandoned the song, apologising for her lack of suave repartee while she changed guitars. She turned out to have some patter, though, telling us that she nicked the idea for the title track of her first album…