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Showing posts from October, 2011

I never met John Peel... but he did send me a postcard

Tomorrow night, Pete Townsend delivers the inaugural Peel lecture under the title: Can John Peelism survive the Internet? There's something disconcerting about Peel being suffixed to anything so conformist as an ism. Almost a 'Yes, we're all individuals' moment. But if time really has changed how we view music and culture to such an extent that those of us who value the individual, the leftfield or just plain odd need an ism to unite us, then it might as well be Peelism. You could call it downsizing, but that would imply an element of choice. Renting the box-room in a house in Elmstead Avenue, Wembley, October 1991 was entirely a financial necessity. By the time I’d wedged in a single bed and flimsily built wardrobe, that was it. Metropolitan and Jubilee Line trains clattered down the tracks at the bottom of the garden from around five in the morning to the last at gone midnight. There were few silent hours, even the small ones. I’d spent the bes

BOOK NEWS: Frank's Wild Years

Looking ahead to the March 2012 launch of Frank's Wild Years , here's a sneak preview of the book cover. An understated little number in matt black, it's the latest in a long line of great Caffeine Nights covers designed by the estimable Mr Mark (Wills) Williams. For further information about the book, the launch and a newly installed author profile, visit the Caffeine Nights website . 

BOOK NEWS: Frank's Wild Years

As some of you will be aware, publisher Caffeine Nights autumn publications have been re-scheduled for spring 2012. This means that we won't be seeing Frank's Wild Years  until next year. As with any delay, there's an upside: this one mainly in allowing more preparation to go into the marketing campaign and getting review copies out in good time. The unexpected haitus has also given me an opportunity to contribute shorter fiction to a couple of exciting projects: the Off the Record e-book collection put together by Guilty Conscience blogmeister Mr Luca Veste, and the redoubtable Mr Paul Brazill's Brit Grit 2. As well as the short stuff, I'm taking a saunter down Turnpike Lane N8 and into the scuzzy underworld of conspiracy with DI Mark Lomax on a re-write of my novel  The Paradise Man. I'll also be   working through a stack of research and new interviews and bringing together the threads of the Ted Lewis biography. Finding ways to make a living as a f