Monthly Archives: October 2009

As You Like It — in Newcastle

Posted on October 24, 2009 by John

Sub­si­di­ary delights of going to New­castle are the excel­lent Roots Music, which always has a good selec­tion of jazz and a suberb sec­tion of Brit­ish folk albums,  and the ever-expanding Eldon centre which gets less attract­ive and more con­fus­ing and … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Whereas Tord Gustavsen does it very well

Posted on October 21, 2009 by John

You’d think a band that come on look­ing like a set of undertaker’s coffin bear­ers, with a pian­ist that crouches over the piano like someone was going to steal it and a bass player who looks like his day job … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Jackie Oates Doesn’t Quite Do It For Me

Posted on October 21, 2009 by John

Sorry about that, Jackie.  But you don’t actu­ally need my approval. The con­cert was com­pet­ent, very nice, had some inter­est­ing songs and excel­lent musi­cians but some­how there was a spark miss­ing.  Nearly but not quite. Some little extra pizzazz needed … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Pete Morgan again

Posted on October 9, 2009 by John

Turn­ing 70 has obvi­ously been stim­u­lat­ing for Pete Mor­gan.  He gave a superb, witty and mov­ing read­ing at the Bar Con­vent — start­ing with his back cata­logue and fin­ish­ing with read­ings from his recent volume “August Light”.  He seemed more … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Filey Sands

Posted on October 5, 2009 by John

How pleas­ant to stroll along Filey’s wide sands on a sunny Septem­ber day.  Enough breeze off the sea to keep the tem­per­at­ure pleas­ant for walk­ing.  A retreat­ing tide, few waves in the shel­ter of the Brig, a few more as … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Larsson is almost as good as they say he is.

Posted on October 5, 2009 by John

So far, I’ve only read “The Girl with the Dragon Tat­too” by Stieg Larsson so am not fully qual­i­fied to pon­ti­fic­ate, but this Swedish thriller is bril­liantly plot­ted, the char­ac­ters sat­is­fy­ingly bizarre, though not one-dimensional, and the detail con­vin­cing.  A … Con­tinue read­ing →

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Tarjei Vesaas:Spring Night

Posted on October 5, 2009 by John

I’m always aston­ished at how Vesaas gets inside the thoughts and feel­ings of his char­ac­ters– usu­ally young people, adoles­cents. In Spring Night the main char­ac­ter, a boy, is on the brink of sexu­al­ity, without know­ing it him­self.  His older sis­ter … Con­tinue read­ing →

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