1978 was my first full year in Nottingham, the city where I’ve lived ever since. Most Tuesday nights, I’d head down to The Imperial, on St James St, to see Nottingham band, Gaffa. The place was always packed, even before they had a record out. Gaffa were a Nottingham band for Nottingham people. Listen to the download of ‘O.A.P. Sightings’ below to find the most authentic example of a Nottingham accent on record. In lyricist and vocalist Wayne Evans, they had a real original, perfectly complemented by guitarist John Maslen who wrote the music. Clive (“Myph”) Smith on second guitar and Mick Barratt on drums completed the picture (occasionally with Brendan Kidulis on keyboards). Their handful of records never really represented how good they were…

Next month sees the return of Five Leaves’ Crime Express series, which I edit. Those of you who have read earlier books in the series may notice that they have a new look. But most readers have never seen a Crime Express novelette, because we had great difficulty getting them into shops. The first eight books were beautiful, tiny A6 objects, with smart flaps, ideal for shoving into a pocket of almost any size. But hard to display. The authors loved them, but readers couldn’t find them. So, reluctantly, after much discussion, we’ve moved the series to normal size, where they will fit more easily onto bookstore shelves. Why should you buy then? Crime Express aims to present the best of Crime Writing today, from…

It’s stating the obvious, for a writer, but I love libraries. My partner and I are the sort of people who visit libraries on holiday, as the photo above, of Vancouver’s fantastic public library last August, illustrates. The other day, after reading an article in the New Yorker, I was trying to work out an excuse to get into the Vatican library, which is about to reopen. There weren’t many books in our house when I was growing up, yet all of the world’s literature was available to me in West Kirby library, then Colne library and Burnley library. When I was on the dole, trying to become a novelist, I spent an awful lot of time in Nottingham City library and Radford library. These…

The Richard Thompson show on Thursday was excellent. There aren’t many people who can get away with playing a gig the longest section of which is new material that the majority of the audience hasn’t heard, but Richard triumphed, as proved by the standing ovations at the end. You get less of your favourite songs in an RT band show, but instead you get a lot of great guitar solos, which are even stronger and longer than ever before, a point I was reminded of when I played the tour only live album from 1985 that I bought at the interval. I saw the ’85 tour (in Worksop, Nottingham, with Sue, John Harvey and the late Angus Wells) and recall it as being excellent. The…

Hard to believe that Michael Chapman turns 70 tomorrow. Although he’s a kind of elder statesman for the generation of singer/songwriters that I’ve been following since my teens (Nick Drake, John Martyn, Richard Thompson, Bridget St John, Kevin Ayers et al), I didn’t discover his music at the time.  I first met him a few years ago at a Cosmic American Music anniversary party. Or was it after a Steve Earle gig? Lovely guy, with no airs about him at all. Michael remains a big music fan, as well as a compelling live performer, with a superb blues style. For years, he seemed to only play Nottingham on nights when I was teaching, but I’ve managed to see him three times lately, once on his…