TNEWS, PLANS & GENERAL PRATTLE, 2024

24  - 2 - 2024

Well, it's been a pretty eventful start to the new year.  First off was a rare face-to-face interview with   https://billryderjones.co.uk/ before his in-store appeaerance at Rough Trade East. The man was utterly without airs, friendly as can be, and a great raconteur. A joy - just as his new album, "Iechyd Da". 

fA few days later came my "homegame" at  http://www.ellokal.ch/ in Zurich - simply my favourite venue anywhere - with my own evening of "story-telling and anecdotes" (including a brilliant new walk-on video, even if I say so myself). I can't tell you, kind reader, how much I enjoyed this evening! And then, in February, another "performance" at the glorious  https://www.militaerkantine.ch/en/ . This was just rewarding as the El Lokal night, firstly, because I felt I was really getting on top of material and timing, and, secondly, because I knew virtually noone in this town in the East of Switzerland. It was good to see that I could draw a good crowd in a town where I thought I had no friends.

The next time I'll be performing this program is on 9 May 2024 at Neubad in Lucerne (  https://neubad.org/event/d-si-calling-die-verr-ckte-reise-eines-musikfans ). More dates are being discussed as I type. However, if anyone knows of anybody or any venue who would like to offer me their stage, please do get in touch!

                                     El Lokal, Zurich - photo Markus Ernst

24  - 10 - 2024

Once again, a shocking amount of time has passed since my last entry on this page. I 've come to the conclusion that it takes a special combination of talent and discipline to be a good and reliable homepage updater. And I have neither. So, another synopsis will have to do.

To the right, for starters, is the view from the bolthole in Cornwall we are lucky enough to have access to every once in a while. Perfect for walking, writing, swimming - and the occasional bevvy at the pub. 'nough said.

Another highlight after El Lokal and Militärkantine (see last entry) was the performance at the Neubad in Lucerne. It took place in a fantastically dark engine room under the old indoor swimming pool. An extraordinary venue, once again with great hospitality from the hosts and a lovely audience (thanks fm for travelling all the way from France, and thanks Nadine Schnyder for your splendidly funny and warm-hearted Lucerne thriller "Zelle 10" (Pro Libro Verlag, Lucerne).

In contrast, I didn't much enjoy the Lee Perry exhibition at the  https://www.cabaretvoltaire.ch/  It basically consisted of a reconstruction  of the surfaces of Perry's working and living environment, with every inch covered with mysterious runes, images, collages and  pronouncements. I felt like a voyeur at the edge of a mind whose workings would remain utterly remote to mine. And I'm not sure the exhibition led me to a better understanding of the man's bizarre ramblings. The music, of course, remains a wonder (by the way, I once interviewed Perry and got on well with him - the trick seemed to be to try and follow his logic, verbally; alas, the "logic" lost  all sense of logic the moment I left the room). 

Then came the long-planned trip to the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. Inspired several years ago by an interview with Johnny Lynch aka Pictish Trail who lives there and runs his excellent record label  https://www.lostmap.com/ from there, too. The island has one road which is about 4 miles long, with the one pub/shop/port at one and of it, our B&B at the other, and the micro brewery in the middle. Idyllic is, I believe, the word.  The place has history and a rough sort of charm. Sheep and rabbits everywhere (see pic below, far right), and even the odd eagle. I'm not sure I could live there for any length of time, though. There's only about 100 residents, and everyone knows everything about everyone else, I'm sure. Extraordinarily, having a beer on one of the four stools in the brewery, I was approached by a German journalist who was there with a photographer, preparing a story for Mare Magazine,  https://www.mare.de/ , "die Zeitschrift der Meere". It turned out to be Martina Wimmer  who worked with me at Musik Express several decades ago.

The book festival Sprachsalz  - https://www.sprachsalz.com/programm/  - had to find a new host city this year after the original hosts, Hall nr. Innsbruck, ran into financial difficulties. The move turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Kufstein welcomed the festival with open arms, advertising flags and posters leading from the train station all the way to the new venue  https://kulturquartier.kufstein.at/ . I had the fabulous task this year to have a talk with the lovely  https://www.douglasdstuart.com/  , author of the Booker-winning "Shuggie Bain", and the similarly excellent follow-up, "Young Mungo". I had a whale of a time. And the programme was terrific all round, with Hiroko Oyamada, Vladimir Sorokin and John M. Coetzee also present and ready to sign their books. 

The weather was awful in  Austria. I still managed to go for a walk, discovering a) the "monument" celebrating the author of the "Kufstein Lied", a song everyone living anywhere near the Alps is  well familiar with, and b) the hugely entertaining art exhibition by Götz Bury who combined "found objects" with indepth knowledge of local history to produce an often very funny and yet thoughtful and visually gripping comment on the passing of time.

Photo: Daniel Homolka

Back to London via Munich where I made a return visit to the  https://www.museum-brandhorst.de/en/# with its superb Twombly collection. The basement, meanwhile, hosted a Haring/Warhol exhibition . I went down the stairs with a sense of duty more than interest - what more can we find out about these two, I thought. But I was very pleasantly surprised, especially by the way the political dimension of their work was presented.

On a whim, I also wandered into the Geologisches Museum München   https://bspg.snsb.de/december-2023/?lang=en , a charmingly old-fashioned museum of rocks, complete with an audience participation comp to find the "favourite mineral of the month". And a window showing us the relationship between the minerals of the soil and the wine produced from it.

 

...and then off to holidays in Italy, a place in the countryside near Siena.