All At Sea

January 31st, 2008 |

In a diversion last evening, and after a rather nice Italian meal, Granny Poad took me to the Carling Academy, in Newcastle, to see Steve Wold otherwise known as Seasick Steve (you may have caught him on the Jools Holland show ) and I was quite looking forward to it.

The Carling Academy is a former dance hall that became a bingo hall before its present usage. May I say that it is one of the most useless venues I have ever been in for music!

Perhaps if you were on the ‘dance floor’ the sound might have been okay but perched on a very uncomfortable bar stool on the back balcony it was next to useless. Have the folk that run it never heard of ‘delay’ speakers?

The support was a Swedish(?) seven-piece who’s name I didn’t quite catch - ‘“mumble” and the Dancers’ and their sound guy should have been shot.

As for Steve… great stuff on Three Stringed Trance Wonder guitar, and others, as Granny Poad described him: ‘Like the Martyn Bennett of blues.’ I tend to agree.

My only other problem with the evening? Spoilt by a bunch of ignorant bs to my left who talked, loudly, all the way through - why pay good money for a gig and talk?

Phew!

January 22nd, 2008 |

Well thats it.

Skriveners is now second edited and ready for the illustrations – 4 are done… 6 are not. Time to get out the inky fingers.

As readers of this (previous incarnation) site will know I was to write the next Stiofan McAtinney set in Spain during a summer of the 1990s. Change of plan. I shall bring Rob and Co into the 21st century and write another Christmas-time story… First off I’ve got to write a script.

Oh no he hasn’t!

Oh yes he flippin’ has!

:)

Briefly

January 20th, 2008 |

About this time last year slimpalmer.com got up and running and so history repeats itself.

The final part of last year was a bit of a b*gger in no uncertain terms but it did get better.

November saw our hosting provider’s server go KA_BLAM! and so we lost the last site – together with the databases for althought.com and several of our friends sites. Various other nasties included me having to attend hospital on several occasions as this ‘over 50’ thing seemed to kick in with a vengeance.

On the brighter side of things I did spend a week in Gran Canaria just soaking up sunshine, good food, cheap vino and cigars.

Good things come to an end as I was abruptly brought back to earth when stepping off the plane at Newcastle airport (no pun intended) to be greeted with sleet and three degrees as opposed to sunshine and twenty-seven degrees.

December started with my going back to work in theatre. Panto.

Slightly apprehensive about doing physical stuff after a lay of of seven-ish years I found that I just walked back into it (although by the fifth day my aches had aches and wearing an extra kilo on each foot by way of steel toe-caps took its toll).

So. January.

The next book ‘Skriveners’ is almost edited and due to hit the publisher mid-February and I have started on another Stiofan McAtinney novel – again set in a theatre environment.

I’ll keep you up to date with things (as per) and Vincent is going to sort out this site to its former glory when he gets a mo’ or two.

:)