If you receive parcels (or any
item of mail too big for your letterbox) while you aren’t at home then you will
be familiar with the red and white card (known as a P739 to postal workers, or
a ‘slip left’, and known to the public as a pain in the arse) that the postman,
(or woman) puts through the door. When I was a postman I discovered that the
system was fairly basic; you have a bundle of letters in your hand with the
addresses all facing up, and when you come to a letter facing the opposite way
it tells you there’s a packet in your bag for that address. If there was no
reply at the door, you filled in and posted the card telling the householder to
either come and collect the packet, or arrange for it to be redelivered. These
days the postman (or woman) doesn’t even bother taking the packet out of the
office, preferring instead to just post the card to save a lot of time, or so
it seems.
Today I had such a card
summoning me to my local Royal Mail sorting office to collect what turned out
to be two parcels. Luckily I don’t live too far away so took Jack for a walk at
the same time to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. When I got home I opened them to
find two lots of competition prizes for The Sunday Alternative
when it returns as a podcast. I have five DVDs of the new film Svengali to give away on the first show which is pretty
cool. The film stars Vicky McClure, an actress who was born in Nottingham and
is now enjoyed all over the world, just like The Sunday
Alternative. One of the DVDs will have the cellophane removed
because I want to watch the film, which has been made from an original series
on YouTube. There’s hope for us all who use the Internet as a broadcast medium.
The other package contained a
new hardback book, the biography of Jake Bugg. I was contacted by the author
David Nolan to see if I would be interested in interviewing him when he comes
to Nottingham on his promotional junket. He’s booked to talk to BBC Nottingham
and The Nottingham Evening Post (as I still
call it) and a few others, and I’ll be taking my turn in the evening. I assume
he knows that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the boy Bugg, but as one of
the Nottingham music scene’s media flag wavers it makes sense that I was
approached. I’ve only just started to read my preview copy to prepare for the
interview, and although the subject matter isn’t my cup of tea, the book is
well written by a music biographer with an impressive pedigree, here’s a list of books and television credits. The interview from my point of view will focus
on the city as a whole with mention of Bugg and the part he has played putting
Nottingham on the map. I’m flattered to be asked, as I am still sometimes
ignored when it comes to this sort of thing, (I’m still pissed off about not
being invited to the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises
in Nottingham despite my connection to it). The weird thing is that here is a
book about a Nottingham musician that doesn’t mention me at all, which I
suppose is fair enough given my comments when his first album came out. If a
book is ever written about another Nottingham musician or band then the chances
are that I’ll get some recognition in the thank-you list. That of course
depends on the artist, because there are some pricks about. Perhaps I should
start knocking out books about the bands and musicians that I like so that I’m
in on the ground floor?
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