For RT geeks, here’s an extended version of my review in the Nottingham Post, whose Kevin Cooper took the photo above. He’s our greatest living guitarist and one of our very finest songwriters, yet it’s easy to take Richard Thompson for granted. He tours most years, puts out strong albums as frequently and never charges a fortune for tickets. Last year I travelled to Buxton, where he did a terrific solo show in support of Acoustic Classics at the intimate Opera House – it’s a long while since Nottingham got an acoustic show. Strong new album, Still, has a title that mocks this consistency. The audience arrives never knowing quite what to expect. The first three snappy songs, All Buttoned Up, Sally B and Broken Doll…
‘Was that the sound of an exploding amp?’ Perky lead singer Molly Rankin asks, two numbers into the show. Thankfully, it isn’t, and the band launch into their breakthrough song, Next of Kin, with its jingle-jangle intro and incredibly catchy chorus. This young Toronto five piece have a name that sounds Scandinavian, but Alvvays is pronounced ‘always’. Their songs sound a little Scandinavian too, a slight accent suggesting that English isn’t their first language. Not necessarily a bad thing. Their sound is hard to pin down. Some songs are droney, a little tuneless, but full of energy. Others sound like pop classics. There are elements of bands who peaked before they were born: Belly, 10,000 Maniacs, The Sundays. Most of all, they remind me of…
As I’m typing this, Nottingham’s bid to become a UNESCO City of Literature is being electronically submitted to UNESCO UK, who, if they decide to support it, will send the bid to UNESCO’s director-general next week. On our City of Literature website we’ve published a long letter from the city’s great and good (University Vice-Chancellors, MPs, a rich array of civic and business leaders), demonstrating their support of the bid. It’s been a busy year, and a particularly hectic last few days, in which we rewrote the bid in the light of a helpful review of the initial draft from UNESCO UK. I’m proud of the the bid we’ve written, which, I believe, represents the city’s thriving literature scene and creative infrastructure in an…
Burt Bacharach is a legend, with over fifty UK top forty hits. His ensemble’s performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage last Saturday received raves. No surprise that he drew a packed house for his first visit to Nottingham. Only question is, with over 600 songs to his name, how many could he fit in? Answer: just about all the ones you’d want to hear – excluding only his 1999 collaboration with Elvis Costello, Painted From Memory. He enters to a standing ovation, a frail figure in the trademark that seems too big for him. He plays a single note on his piano. Each of his three singers sings a line of What The World Needs Now (is Love). Bacharach plays delicate piano with jazz progressions while…
Nottingham’s free monthly listings and culture magazine, Leftlion, has been unfailingly supportive of the city’s UNESCO City of Literature bid, and this month’s issue carries a long interview with me about the bid. If you live in Nottingham, you can pick up a copy all over the place, from my local greengrocer, Thompsons, through to Broadway, Five Leaves Bookshop and Rough Trade. But if you’re not, and want to read it online, click here. Oh, and, the online version has an extra question, towards the end, where I talk about the next Bone and Cane novel, due this autumn. More on that anon. A week tonight, I’m off to see Elvis Costello for the umpteenth time over the last 35 years. Solo, for, I think,…