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Event: Punk, Porn and Performance with Dorothy ‘Max’ Prior and Dave ‘Barbarossa’ Barbe, Tuesday 15th November, doors 6.30 pm, The Century Club, 61-63 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 6LQ
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Books: The Writer’s Journey Book of the Month at the Battersea Bookshop
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News: Ian Jack
Very sad to hear the news of Ian Jack’s death, he commissioned and edited The Bus We Loved so I owe him a great deal. My thoughts are with his family, friends and former colleagues, he was a great writer and real editor – he went through the first draft of Bus like a locust, improving it immeasurably but also encouraged my use of footnotes in that book to give it more playful tone than was usual in transport books then and probably since.
I learnt a lot about what not to do from him and have always tried to heed much of his advice ever since. It must have worked to some extent because he later commissioned me to do a cover story for The Oldie on parks and told me he’d enjoyed A Walk in the Park.
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Event: Memorex: Words, pictures, music and magnetic reels with The Pathfinders, Cathi Unsworth and Opal X hosted by Travis Elborough, 4 November, 7pm, The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD
Hosted by Travis Elborough
The Pathfinders’ Roger Cleghorn and Malcolm Garrett met in the late 70s when studying art and design at Manchester Polytechnic. Moving to London they shared a flat on the 15th floor of a tower block in the Isle of Dogs. Here they recorded a series of experiments, captured directly on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The Pathfinders could hardly be described as being musicians who jammed together and with almost 40 years having elapsed since recording, memories are sketchy with regard to who made what noise where. Travis Elborough will interview Cleghorn and Garrett to see what can be recalled and The Pathfinders will share unheard archive material in their live debut.
Cathi Unsworth’s Johnny Remember Me was originally commissioned by Brighton’s Literary Loogster Jay Clifton for his Peripheral Vision series of live screen talks, in which authors were requested to pick a movie and spin off a character or situation from the film into an original short story. Cathi writes:
“I have always been somewhat obsessed with the John Leyton song, and while researching the life and times of its producer and co-writer Joe Meek for Bad Penny Blues, had pause to wonder why it was that he ended up with Johnny Kidd‘s band as The Tornados – but without Johnny. The song being so evocative of curses and ghosts, I wove a little urban myth of my own.“
To close the evening, to shoot us into the future: a live performance by Opal X.
Opal X is the latest project of London based electronic musician Astrud Steehouder, fusing a sound that is equally inspired by early Mute, Sähkö & American noise metal. Recent projects include the Twister album for The Tapeworm described by Boomkat as “a sort of dank hypnagogic sound mulched from zonked electronics, gynoid vox and graveyard atmospheres” & as one third of the NONEXISTENT drone project released by legendary UK industrial label Downwards in 2020. The show at The Horse Hospital will be the London live debut of the Opal X project and promises to engulf the evening in a crushing cold wave of Goth ASMR Hardcore.
Remember, remember – the 4th of November…
https://www.thehorsehospital.com/events/tapeworm
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Picture: Interviewing Mike Batt and Will Hodgkinson at Foyles
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Pictures: Launching The Writer’s Journey at Stanfords
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Books: Review of The Writer’s Journey by Mark Bibby Jackson on Travel Begins at 40
https://www.travelbeginsat40.com/2022/10/the-writers-journey-review/
Event: Velvet Tinmine: A Celebration of the 1970s with Will Hodgkinson and Mike Batt (of Wombles fame) 25th October 6.30pm, Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road
Join them both on a journey back to the era of nylon fabrics, space hoppers and Golden Nuggets in a very special evening of conversation, film and live music, hosted by the author Travis Elborough.
Will Hodgkinson is the author of the music books Guitar Man, Song Man, The Ballad of Britain, and the childhood memoir The House is Full of Yogis. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Mojo and Vogue, and presented the Sky Arts television series Songbook. Since 2010, he has been chief rock and pop critic for The Times.
Self-trained classical auteur Mike Batt released four gold-certified albums with The Wombles, setting the template for kid-friendly singalong pop. Batt consolidated this success by reshaping the English folk-rock band Steeleye Span into a singles act with his production of their 1975 hit ‘All Around My Hat’ before writing Art Garfunkel’s 1979 number one ‘Bright Eyes’, featured on the soundtrack to the film Watership Down.
Doors will open from 6:30pm.
Book here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heavenly-films-presents-velvet-tinmine-with-will-hodgkinson-and-mike-batt-tickets-439944424617
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Books: The Writer’s Journey – Named a Wanderlust best travel book of 2022 (so far).
Order via bookshop.org here:
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Picture: The Writer’s Journey – out now – here in the window of the Stoke Newington Bookshop, N16
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Travis Elborough 