Jack had a spare for J. Lydon’s book chat event at Whitley Bay’s Playhouse last week. (Book chat? Book shat, more like, I didn’t say.) It was kind of him to think of me. The show had been postponed from last year. The queue winds three sides of the theatre, beach front, side street, back … Continue reading Swastika Décor.
April 12 2016 (North Shields) The tide is low and it is a bright morning. Photograph the seals and some rocks and come home. Play guitar all morning. I wonder if I have reached a plateau with my playing. 6pm. Pack and walk to The Quarry. Set up on the little makeshift stage. A McC, … Continue reading Notes From a Fragile Island. 20
October 9 2004 The Ship: Magic, Fashion & Ronnie are sat around one of the barrels in the front window. Magic nods, smiles through a beer froth beard. His teeth are small. Fashion & Ronnie are sharing a giant Yorkshire pudding. "A hat," says Ronnie. And, I suppose, it is rather like a hat - … Continue reading Notes from a fragile island 1
October 29th 2019. Noon. Schöneberg. Sat at the bar in the Café Nostalgie at Crellestrasse 22 with the locals at noon, drinking Berliner Kindls, Monika's little hound, Shirley, listens to the scraps of German, scraps of English being passed between us. A Jimi Hendrix bootleg plays over the old system. After sometime I ask for directions … Continue reading Run As Fast As You Can, Bear.
Kreuzberg. 08:00 Monday October 28th 2019. Soft electric light illuminates the calm room. Thirty-five tables. Each table set simply: some for lone diners, some for couples, a few for family; cutlery, white crockery, triangle of napkin, heavy, cool folds of cotton. Some settings will remain empty and some will be filled. I cross the wooden floor … Continue reading Run As Fast As You Can, Bear.
Tegel Airport, Berlin. October 27th 2019. Tegel must have left a strong impression on me last year because I pass through the arrival gate, through the crowds, through the airport gleam with barely a thought or care for direction and, with the sliding doors shushing behind me, I am, once again, giddy with the almost … Continue reading Run As Fast As You Can, Bear.
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