Our team has written 14 bonus pieces for all paid levels for Patreon Pledge Week & at the end of it there’s a big virtual standup show for our 2nd birthday party with @coherentcomedy.bsky.social running the show & @gracejarvisohno.bsky.social headlining.
Please sign up, we’re all half dead now!
In memory of Andy Kershaw, who introduced me to so much great music I'd never have heard otherwise. youtu.be/5oUnHKGiWE0?...
Today's Nice Thing
view from the train window at night. Liskard station in Cornwall. Dark except for a light over the sign and the waiting room lit up. No one there. It's 11.30. Everyone is in bed.
To mark #WorldPublicTransportDay here's an episode we recorded on the night train from Penzance.
Episode 175 - Night train sleeper (sleep safe)
Let the sound of the train travelling through the dark October night, lull you to sleep.
> radiolento.podbean.com/e/175-night-... <
I'm getting tired of the drip-drip of the "welfare budget" agenda. I was a child of the 60s and I grew up believing the welfare state was this country's greatest achievement.
The BBC is cutting up to 2,000 jobs, or 1 in 10, because of financial pressures. We will get a worse service, and the public sphere will be worse off as a result, which will be music to the ears of tech companies and billionaire press barons. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
50 quid! That's ridiculous.
Very interesting article. "How many readers know that prizes aren’t as purely meritocratic as they appear?" I was a bit shocked when I found out that you have to pay to be on the shortlist for certain prizes, so excluding any publishers that don't have massive budgets.
i was trying to write about the rock hall & went back to read what i wrote in previous years & " the fact that the MC5 were not first-ballot hall of famers completely disqualifies the entire body as a body of governance as to what is rock, what is influential, what is important, and what matters."
Phil Collins? Billy Idol? Oasis? I guess it's more about "fame" than "rock'n'roll".
ATYPICAL GIRL PENNY KILEY POLYGON For Penny Kiley, a shy introvert from Sittingbourne studying English in Liverpool and seeking “something badly” at the beginning of 1977, Eric’s – the city’s legendary live music hub for punks, misfits and outsiders – was a home from home and a place she could belong. Not just a simple backdrop to her coming-of-age story, Eric’s acts as a constant central thread that binds Atypical Girl neatly together. Punctuated with colourful encounters with Classic Pop luminaries and rock and roll royalty including Pete Wylie, Jonathan Richman, Pete Burns, The Cramps, The Teardrop Explodes and Paul McCartney, this is so much more than a perfectly executed exercise in well-chosen name-dropping. As we journey through the intimate highs and lows of a woman fighting for her place in the world, we’re presented with a compelling first-hand account of a true music lover making her voice heard while writing for both Melody Maker and Smash Hits before moving on to supporting her local scene at the Liverpool Echo. With warm wit and a cool critical eye, the reader relates as she navigates the varying trials and tribulations of adulthood – such as being diagnosed as autistic at the age of 60 – and also adapting to “normal” midlife living. However, age cannot wither the youthful punk spirit within. While we all grow old, we don’t necessarily need to grow up, as Penny Kiley vividly illustrates throughout. Dan Biggane
Nice review of my book (four stars) in Classic Pop magazine.
Liverpool music through the lens of recent book club guest @pennykiley.bsky.social and Paul Du Noyer on @rocksbackpages.bsky.social podcast.
open.spotify.com/episode/77ZF...
New podcast episode: Penny Kiley and Paul Du Noyer discuss Liverpool's rich musical history from Merseybeat to Cream and listen to (Sir) Paul McCartney speaking to Simon Garfield in 1999. www.rocksbackpages.com/Podcast/Epis... #Liverpool #Beatles #PaulMcCartney
It’s 1984 and I’m talking politics with The High Five, one of the best unknown Liverpool bands of the 80s. Latest Substack:
pennykiley.substack.com/p/the-high-f...
It's terrifying how quickly we've all got used to the idea that the most powerful man in the world is mad.
New on RBP: a Liverpool special featuring a Paul McCartney audio interview from 1999, plus 'Atypical Girl' author Penny Kiley on Eric's and the Teardrop Explodes. Plus Afrika Bambaataa RIP and Craig McLean meeting Jessie Ware in 2013.
www.rocksbackpages.com #Beatles #Liverpool #Eric's #Bambaataa
Thank you. I was a big fan. Such a talented bunch, and great fun. It was nice to see Dolman at my book launch, too.
And I shall check out George Cox too.
A pair of pink and black shoes next to a copy of my book Atypical Girl which has a black and pink cover.
Fave conversation today: "I like your shoes." "They match my book."
People say I look younger than my age (it's an autism thing). But Dorian Gray had a picture in his attic. I've got my bus pass photo.
Nope
This gives me hope for the future of journalism
The more publishers realise that clickbait ≠ long-term revenue, the better!
Interesting concept. Can't think of anyone else off the top of my head.
Eeek
It's starting to feel as if "Just ask Chat GPT" has become the new "You can get it on Amazon." Don't do it, kids.
As I say in my book: "Someone coined the phrase ‘dad rock’. Oh, I thought, aren’t mums allowed to listen to rock too?" (Or even non-parents like me.)
True, as I say in my book, the cultural expectation is that likng music is not for the likes of us (i.e. females), or at least once you get past a certain age. And most women probably do conform to that expectation. But I know plenty who don't; you just have to find your tribe.
The author outside BBC Radio Merseyside. She's standing next to a banner that says "United by music".
Fave pic from last month's book tour. Launch day, just after being interviewed at BBC Radio Merseyside. It's gone upmarket a bit since the days I used to hang out at the Paradise Street studios with Janice Long and others.
A long piece this week on the various kinds of AI foolishness I have seen lately. Tl;dr: in your professional life, do not use technologies in which you have no expertise and with which you have not engaged critically?! It’s not that complicated?!
open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...