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…
This review first appeared in the Nottingham Post SINCE leaving family band The Felice Brothers, Simone Felice has recorded with The Duke and the King, undergone a heart bypass and become a father. Life-changing stuff, and tonight’s triumphant show was both as dark and as affirmative as they come. Kicking off with new album highlight New York Times, Felice took us on an intense journey that included a song for his daughter, classics from his old bands and a mighty trio of cover versions, the best of which was a delicate version of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (with a few added lyrics). The loudest applause of recognition came for a sublime Union Street and the lovely If You Ever Get Famous. Other…
I’m in the middle of a very busy time and my partner has jetlag from a conference abroad, so it took a bunch of very good reviews and word of mouth for us to give up our one free night to go and see ‘Mary Shelley’ at Nottingham Playhouse. I didn’t know Helen Edmundson‘s work and don’t have a strong interest in the Romantics, but you don’t need to know anything about the period or the literature before going to see this terrific play. It’s absorbing and historically lucid in a manner that reminded me of Stoppard at his best. But rather than the huge cast you tend to get in Stoppard’s historical plays, this has just six actors, playing William Godwin (the excellent William Chubb,…
Most mornings these days, I have a session on my exercise bike before breakfast – gets my metabolism going, stops my knees from seizing up and lets me catch up on radio programmes or podcasts I’ve missed. I sometimes watch TV shows, but rarely first thing in the morning: it just feels wrong somehow. Yesterday’s exercise bike listen also felt wrong, as it was all about people who work in the night. Jarvis Cocker hasn’t always been a national treasure. As a Sheffield born writer and Pulp fan, I wrote a letter defending him when The Guardian (and just about every other organ) condemned his mooning Michael Jackson at the Brits in 1996. This is now seen as the gesture that cemented his reputation as…