Today’s archive review (no longer available online with the Nottingham Post, where it first appeared) is one of the handful I’ve done at the Playhouse, which is a great venue for music. I write about plays for the Post occasionally, but never at the Playhouse, as I’m one if its trustees. However, gigs are put on by outside promoters, so I feel free to write about them. Georgie Fame, 73, is having a welcome resurgence. 6CD set ‘Survival’ provoked positive reassessments of his key 60s work. He was a Nottingham regular back then, playing the Dungeon, Beachcomber and elsewhere. Younger fans will have seen him play with Van Morrison in the late 80s. He still tours extensively. A visit to the Playhouse eighteen months ago…
Not only has the Post stopped reviewing ‘minor’ gigs (ie anything smaller than Rock City) but most of the old reviews have gone from their website, so, in the summer doldrums, I’m going to post a few of the older reviews that I didn’t get round to posting at the time, unaltered (bar the odd corrected typo). Call it vanity, if you like, but this website (one of the UK’s first author blogs) is collected by the British Library’s UK Web Archive which means that the posts won’t disappear, and some may, in future, be of interest to fans of the artists reviewed. They’re not in any particular order. What happens when jazz meets folk? It’s not a common crossover. Last time I saw jazz guitarist…
This is an extended version of my Royal Concert Hall review for the Nottingham Post. It isn’t online, so I can’t nick their photos or link to it here. David Sedaris isn’t a household name unless your house is constantly tuned to Radio Four, but the 62-year-old humourist’s ascent is remarkable. He writes essays and diaries for the New Yorker and public radio. I’ve been reading his stuff for twenty odd years but hadn’t taken in how successful he’s become. His latest book has been number one on the New York Times bestseller list for six weeks and counting. From North Carolina, he now lives, with his husband, Hugh, in the South Downs, where his hobby is collecting litter (he has a refuse truck…
I was going to call this post ‘Three Lions Gigs’ but you can’t do strikethroughs in headings on WordPress, so I’ve gone for basic info. The purpose of this post is mainly to archive my Public Image review for the Post, who also did a nice piece about the Sex Pistols trial in Nottingham. I was editor of the university newspaper at the time, so we reported on it (indeed, my then head of department defended the use of the word ‘bollocks’ in court) though I didn’t attend. The Post had a good interview with Lydon too. Useful for PiL that there was no football that night. The following Tuesday I went to Stamford Bridge for a thirty year delayed encounter with John Hiatt, who…
Sheryl Crow forgets a singer’s surname*, then blurts it out mid-song. ‘Aging: you get all this great wisdom, but can’t remember any of it.’ She’s 56, she reminds us, yet looks fantastic, in a white ‘Give Love’ singlet and spangly jeans. It’s 25 years since Sheryl Crow’s hit debut album Tuesday Night Music Club and her first Nottingham visit, to Rock City. Tonight, we’re host to the last of three of shows before she plays the Isle of Wight festival on Sunday. Crow’s six-piece band hit the ground running with debut hit, All I Wanna Do, jumbo guitar strapped behind her back. A storming A Change Will Do You Good next, then, sans guitar, a terrific My Favourite Mistake. In case you had any doubts…