I had an intriguing conversation on Facebook messenger in the early hours of Saturday morning. A musician friend of mine, we’ll call him Clark, commented on my ‘feud’ with a particular person. My response was that I was unaware that I was taking part in a feud. Clark told me that this person had posted a link to my blog from last Sunday (about the Future Sound of Nottingham competition) with a sarcastic comment about how people can embrace all that is good about the Nottingham music scene or be all negative like I am.

Before I go further, this was the same person who came out against my comments in my resignation from the American radio show newsletter. It is worth pointing out at this juncture that a lot of musicians from Nottingham agreed with what I said. It is also worth pointing out that this person wrote a response blog that I shared online commenting on how well written is was, because I play nice.

Checking this person’s Facebook page, whatever it was that I had written had been removed, so I don’t fully know what was said. My notifications informed me that a singer from Nottingham, let’s call her Becky Royal, had shared the same blog with the simple addition of ‘love this’. She replied to my direct message of thanks (by which I mean I thanked her in a direct message rather than sending a direct message in the getting-straight-to-the-point sense) by saying that her and her manager had been thinking this for ages but nobody else had ever spoken out. Incidentally, Clark also told me that I was spot on with what I had said, and that people in this city are too scared to speak up with honesty for fear of rocking the boat. Clark is the lead singer of my favourite Nottingham band, a band that I think should be playing arenas by now and I have been one of their only media supporters in recent times. However, Clark is man enough to realise that I would be honest and tell him if I thought he had written a shit song, and he’d respect my opinion because that is the thing with opinions, they belong to you and you only and nobody can take them away from you. Clark and Becky Royal are both immensely talented musicians who have been ignored by this city’s music scene. This is the same music scene that believes in spreading a positive message and all holding hands and dancing round the maypole of the wonder that it Nottingham music before sticking our tongues up each other’s bums in celebration of how fantastic everything is, yet these two people can’t get a look in.

In order to get my head around this latest attack I read last Sunday’s blog again. I have to admit that I struggled to see what I had done wrong (not the first time a campaign against me has been instigated thanks to a blog being misunderstood) as what I wrote was positive in tone. I stated that Mark Del was a positive champion of the Nottingham music scene, which I believe him to be, and I also said (more importantly) that I didn’t know him and have never met him so therefore I can’t say anything about him either way. Outside Rock City last week, several people were quite vocal in their distaste for Del, I reported on that because it was fact. Something I didn’t write at the time because I was so shocked by it was that someone made derogatory remarks (in some quite graphic detail) concerning his sexuality, which is something I can’t believe is used against someone as part of a character assassination in 2014. Still think I’m the baddie in all this? Regarding the acts in the final I wrote what a tough call it was due to the high quality on display, and was very complimentary towards the always brilliant Georgie (Rose). The other opinion I divulged was that the judging panel was made up of more appropriate people this year, given that it included someone who actually goes to gigs. Okay so I said that Del should get out more to the smaller events rather than just showing his face at the bigger shows, but I stand by that and invite him to join me at Notts In A Nutshell (to give one example of a smaller gig) to see a band that hasn’t been mentioned by the NME.

How the fuck was I being negative?

Are we now in a situation where we can’t say anything other than glowing compliments to someone or something simply because it happens to originate from Nottingham? Because if that is the case, why is this detractor criticising me? I was born in Nottingham so by default according to this person’s rules I am brilliant and whatever I do is brilliant. It works both ways doesn’t it?

I am pro-Nottingham and will defend it until the cows come home, but anyone who lives here must surely be aware of its flaws? The council still hasn’t learned the lessons of the 1960s when the wrecking balls smashed Victorian beauty and replaced it with Lego buildings with no atheistic charm. The tram company have messed up the system by spending a fortune on ticket machines and inspectors (who also work on Sundays costing them twice as much) rendering conductors out of a job, while at the same time making fare-dodging a whole lot easier. John Inman’s tree is still unaccounted for. The (and I mean the) mushy pea stall was allowed to dispense mint sauce in a squirty bottle instead of the traditional bowl and ladle method, threatening the future of Goose Fair. The Old General, one of Nottingham’s most iconic pubs, is allowed to crumble with the statue not being dressed as Santa for the first time in over one hundred years. The Emmet Clock in Victoria Shopping Centre has been removed (permanently is the suspicion) while they turn Vic Centre into Broadmarsh. Children are now allowed to swim in the top part of the water feature in the Market Square meaning that Ayup the Duck doesn’t return, depriving the city of its unofficial mascot and possibly reducing tourist money.

I’m sure there are other things, but I point out that the above paragraph contains things that affect Nottingham and everyone who lives here. Not everything is brilliant is it?

This is the same mentality that prevented people from pointing out that Jake Bugg is not the new messiah that everyone thinks he is, and that most of his songs sound like they are being performed by a Stars in Their Eyes Bob Dylan. It’s The Emperor’s New Clothes in musical form; if it comes from Nottingham then there cannot be any questioning its brilliance. To that I say simply, bollocks.

Doctor Harold Shipman came from Nottingham, and I don’t hear any of the love spreaders going on about how great he was. Why don’t we campaign to get a tram named after him because he’s from Nottingham so therefore he is unquestionably great. The media referred to him as ‘Britain’s worst serial killer’. Rubbish old London only had Jack the Ripper with his meager estimation of one hundred victims, and as for crappy old Yorkshire man Peter Sutcliffe, seven of his victims didn’t even die. Shipman had the blood of more than 250 people on his hands; worst serial killer? My arse was he the worst; with all those bodies littering his surgery surely he was Britain’s best serial killer? Of course he was the best, he came from Nottingham and Nottingham is brilliant.

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