The End of (the Outside) World...

A huge thank you to everybody that made Port Eliot such a great time. John Andrews and all the Arcadian crew, and also Jeff, Carl, Danny and all in the Caught By The River bar for creating what genuinely feels like a tiny haven from the world for a few days.

It is a truly jarring experience to come back to news of a startlingly shrinking economy, RVP's impending choice between Utd or City, South African cricketing celebrations and London bathed in sunshine.


Such a shame the festival is having a year off next year. But I'm not one to dwell in sentimental reverie.

As the man said, the past is a foreign country... and Lovejoy doesn't live there anymore.

Port Eliot Festival...

I'll be getting in the van down to Cornwall tomorrow morning for what is a genuine highlight of my year. I only wish the weather could see its way to acting just a little less "end of the world", and maybe a little more "end of the pier".

I'll be reading on the Saturday, at 12.30 on the Five Dials stage, and then at 2.30 in the Andrews Of Arcadia installation in the Caught By the River area. Which is down by the river, funnily enough.

See a few of you there, I hope.

Please Plant These Songs...

The Brautigan Book Club have put together this beautiful little collection of songs to play alongside their re-imagining of Brautigan's Please Plant This Book at the Dinefwr Festival recently.

All the songs on there are great, and the whole project is the work of some truly dedicated and brilliant people. It's an honour to be on there.

A New Poem...

...  up on Caught By The River, if anyone fancies a read.

Jubilation Time Has Come...

I'm already sick of the jubilee. Every magazine full of penile sausages, pork pies and red white and blue.
£3000 Union Flag high heels and female columnists cooing over the Queen's effortless wardrobe.
Well done Your Majesty. Here's to another 60 years of benign exploitation. It's heartbreaking to see
the country bowing its collective head in servitude to the pinnacle, the seed, the beating heart of the unfair class system that has allowed capitalism in Europe to run amok both morally and practically.

But who cares if we get a couple of days off work to eat Asda sausage rolls and look at the rich people's pretty clothes?
Every photo of a street party that I've seen in the press is full of white people. Is anyone else invited?

Cut out your Rob Ryan Jubilee Bunting and enjoy the sun.

Smile while you drown at their party. You'll drown in cheap cava while they drink champagne
in the gardens that they've built upon your country. That they've walled off and de-marked.
That they've labelled property and that they value higher than human life.

You're allowed in. For one day only.

Telegraph Review...

... A nice piece here about the Caught By The River Variety Show at The South Bank in the Telegraph's culture section.

Long Division Festival

Big thanks to anybody who came and listened at The South Bank on Friday. It was a beautiful evening.
The band will be re-convening this weekend for Long Division in Wakefield.

The line-up looks great, and it's our last show of the summer while we finish the new record.

Hope to see some familiar faces up there.

Cheers.