Flower Shop

You can now read a fair chunk of my novel "Like A Flower" at Amazon.

You can even buy it there too...

Heavy Metal

I've been away. I'm back.

Drums can be heavy.

I still haven't quite recovered from trying to lift John Marshall's Sonor bass drum [see previous post], a piece of German engineering that even Keith Moon would have found difficult to kick over or explode.

Drum hardware can be even heavier. That's all the stands, the pedals, the shiny bits and pieces...

Last night a young drummer and I were putting up an old Premier kit for a music workshop at an arts centre off London's Brick Lane and were searching for the... well, neither of us knew what to call it... apart from "the thing that goes into the bass drum to hold the tom-toms".

The "post" is what I decided to call it... but we still couldn't find it for some time. When we did, it was huge and had not only attachments for two toms but also a central extension for holding a cymbal... right in front of the drummer's face and in between the two drums. Something that would only appeal to a drummer who preferred not to be identified... and who didn't mind playing a roll across the toms with an obstacle that would be near-impossible to avoid.

We finally found all the kit bits in the arts centre's music cupboard and got everything up and playing.

But the most important item of equipment for the drummer? It hardly weighs a thing. And it has to be the sticks... of which more soon...

The BBC? Don't Knock It...

If you thought the BBC was just too outdated and too unwieldy for anyone to manage it, a few moments inside the labyrinth of its Maida Vale studios in London would confirm your opinion.

People could go into this ancient maze of characterless corridors and rooms and never be seen again.

I was there last night because I had the honour of acting as roadie for drummer John Marshall, one of the legendary jazz musicians (along with Roy Babbington and Art Themen) playing with the BBC Big Band in a memorial concert for the late and great Graham Collier.

And once you were guided through the tangle of passageways and were inside the studio with some of the finest players in jazz, then you appreciated the fact that there are certain things the BBC does better than anyone else ever will. (As if to accentuate the timeless quality of the place, a plaque by the stage informed us that this was the studio where Bing Crosby made his last recording.)

Collier's music — especially in the hands of these master players — was absolutely stunning, running from dirty blues to sophisticated jazz, via grooves that could be (and have been) sampled by contemporary DJs and hip-hop musicians.

If you want to hear how good a night it was, the concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 11pm on Sunday November 25 and will also be on iPlayer.

Countricide

My brother recently introduced me to the concept of countricide... the killing of the country.

Do we need more houses and roads? Or fewer people?

Do we need more industrialised monoculture? Or a diverse environment supporting the natural web of life?

Which of these choices makes more money for the rich? You got it. Countricide. 

But the downside (for humanity) of countricide is likely to be suicide.

My World Tour

Yesterday I had a quick meeting in Kenya before early-evening drinks in Australia. And prior to that I'd managed to tour the Greek islands and make brief stops in Florida and Chile.

Only the World Travel Market, in London, can allow you to tour the world this quickly... and to meet countless old friends and contacts along the way.

But as with so many gatherings these days, the main topic of conversation was how tough it is for all of us: those starting out as travel writers, those who have been writing for decades, the big travel operators, the small travel operators...

However, there was plenty of good humour and optimism too, so maybe we're not all cruising on the Titanic... even though it sometimes feels like it.

Who Are The Trolls?

JK Rowling says she stopped looking at stuff written about her a long time ago. After she realised that she didn't actually have to read all the unpleasant things in the media.

I'm not anywhere near her stellar league, but I already understand this. A piece in the Brighton Argus (as I said, I'm not in the Rowling universe) about the writing of my novel, Like A Flower, later went up on its website and within minutes was drawing negative comments.

People were pointing out that anyone could get published online now, and that I was just "self-publishing". The first bit is true (but is that a bad thing?) and the second bit isn't.

I'm not self-publishing. The book is being published by a reputable online publisher. I am not paying a penny to be published and (in 40 years of writing) I never have done.

My first reaction was to want to reply to the trolls, but I couldn't register on the site and in the end gave up. My second reaction was to ask for the comments to be taken down, since they seemed libellous.

My reaction now is the Rowling one. Just forget about it. But I am left wondering who on earth takes time to go onto the website of a local paper and make negative, unpleasant comments about someone they have never met whose only crime appears to be to try to do something creative, entertaining and, hopefully, a little profitable?