Just back from Dublin where Sue and I watched the first two nights in the Olympia (you can see us in the picture David Bell took left if you use a magnifying glass – we’re fourth and fifth from the right in the third row of the balcony on the first night – the other picture is one Sue took of the band). Terrific little theatre, where we met up with the UK’s biggest REM fan, Henry, and his son George before and after the show. Despite the ‘rehearsal’ nature, it was exciting stuff. The band’s new material is nothing like ‘Around The Sun’, but often harks back to the glam rock end of ‘Monster’ and ‘New Adventures In Hi-Fi’. The new song setlist was…
By the time I get back from Dublin, the Lowdham Book Festival will be over. John Lucas’s launch and party last weekend were great fun and Wednesday night’s MA sponsored event with Daljit Nagra and Gautam Malkani was both interesting and entertaining. Good to put a poet and a novelist with a lot to say to each other together on one bill. Thanks to everyone who came. However, I won’t be at Lowdham Book Festival‘s final, free Saturday for the MA students’ anthology launch (10.30AM), my friend Mike’s talk on blogging and various other talks by friends and colleagues. Anyhow, seeing my favourite band in a tiny theatre for two nights tops all other calls on my time. Congratulations to Jane and Ross on their…
Time to talk about three new books. My students on the MA in Creative Writing at NTU have just published their new anthology 3D/07 which they launch at Nottingham Waterstones tonight (7-9PM, admission by free ticket, brief readings at 7.30). It’s a really handsome looking book (I don’t have a cover image to hand, but it looks very classy) and features outstanding work by current students together with contributions from visiting professor David Almond (‘Finding Jesus’, an exclusive extract from an adult novel in progress), veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling (‘Words…’ a memoir), prize winning MA graduate Nicola Monaghan, new work from course tutors Georgina Lock, Graham Joyce and yours truly (a new short story which follows the one that appeared in last year’s ‘In The…
The venerable novelist and poet Barry Cole turned 70 last year, and I wrote a very short story for John Lucas to include in a celebratory sheath of work from friends which was given to Barry on his birthday. Martin Stannard has published my story for Barry, ‘Bravo Books: a brief publishing history’, in his literary webzine Exultations And Difficulties and you can read it here.
It’s the things you don’t do that won’t go away. In the third year at Grammar School they streamed us into two half years. My on-off mate Phil went into the bottom group. I went in the top one, where I tentatively established a friendship with the coolest kids in the year. They spent their lunch hours smoking and listening to sounds at the home of Chris (who spelt it ‘Kris’) nearby. I was always on the edge of this group, though, the new kid. Taking Kris as my fourteenth birthday guest to our first gig, the Pink Floyd at Liverpool Empire, seemed like a smart move on my part. Then the ground shifted again. For the fourth year, a middle group was created –…