Following my CD of the year marathon, and complaints about the terrible sound on the new Bruce Springsteen album, here’s an article that explains what’s going on with the bad sound on a lot of new recordings. Thanks to Mike for the link.

For the second time this year, a four hour plus journey to a gig with my brother, Paul (for Prince, the delay was motorway traffic, this time it was overcrowded, delayed Friday evening trains), but with a much happier result at the end. My pal Henry and his son George had saved us good seats in the small Greenfield Station folk club (a big room upstairs in the pub) for Bridget St John’s first tour in more than thirty years. I helped out at Bridget’s penultimate UK gig in 1976, when I was an 18 year old in his first month at university. Bridget played a benefit for Liquorice Magazine at Nottingham’s Victoria Centre, where she was second on the bill, followed by Kevin Coyne…

I was meant to be on gardening duty until the Liverpool game this Sunday afternoon but foul weather has intervened, which means I’m about to curl up with the second half of John Lucas’s 92 Acharnon St, a beautifully written, hugely entertaining account of the author’s love affair with Greece. From finding that his new flat is on a street full of brothels, to ludicrous encounters with bureaucracy (especially in Greek universities) and numerous encounters with Greek poets, this is a terrific, often very funny read. I’ve been rationing myself, so haven’t got to the sections about the island of Aegina, where we’ve been lucky enough to stay a couple of times. But soon. While I hope that Liverpool give a good account of themselves…

In the late 90’s, when I was researching a never published piece on writers in Nottingham, Stanley Middleton suggested I read his friend Philip Callow’s first novel, ‘The Hosanna Man’. I’d never heard of it, which is hardly surprising, since most copies were pulped shortly after it was published in 1956. Stanley had a copy because Philip had given him his mother’s copy after her death. It’s a remarkable novel about working class bohemians in a part of Nottingham I know well. Stanley introduced me to Philip on his next visit to Nottingham. I told him how much I liked his first novel, but he wasn’t inclined to discuss it in any detail. I went on to read a lot more of his work, including…

Just back from a great holiday in Greece, where we spent ten days on Aegina with our friends, John and Pauline, also visiting Athens, Poros and, for a couple of spendid days, Hydra. I photographed the red steps on the left while getting hopelessly lost wandering round the back lanes of this car-free island, looking for Leonard Cohen’s home. I eventually found the place – not the one where he lived in the sixties – with the kind help of Apostolos, a local artist, but, of course, didn’t knock on the famous front door – although I’m told that plenty of tourists do, to the annoyance of the current occupant. Aegina was devoted to swimming, eating, drinking and conversation. And books. My highlights: Robert Harris’s…