Search Results for life

There was a certain man I used to see almost every weekday night in the pub. This man was a builder and worked for another man here in the village, and at the weekends he would travel back to the Kent coast where he ‘lived properly’, as he called it, with his wife. One night, … Continued

Back in April last year I was on Dobbins Lane in ‘the village’ where I live when I chanced upon Will Burns out walking. I think he was coming back from the allotment which isn’t remarkable in itself except I hadn’t seen him in almost six weeks. We instinctively made space for each other, he … Continued

If you were walking near Tottenham Court Road underground in the late 1970’s – and if you were lucky – you may have heard a haunting, hypnotic sound reverberating through the tunnels and surrounding streets, merging with that peculiarly Soho scent: cigarette smoke, unsettled fresh beer, sweat, strong Italian coffee and the acrid residue of … Continued

First things first: if this is the first time you are hearing about Gamestop, in relation to Stocks, or – and I can’t believe I’d ever have to type this – Elon Musk, please understand: you are already too late. You’re worse than a spectator: You’re watching a re-run of the match, mate. You’re playing … Continued

Boredom was having a night of it.  He stood alone in front of the bar. Dead in the centre. Legs spread like a flightless sparrow, sweated tight into his one good pair of skinny jeans. Bone-thin arms ready to burst into flames if they ever met sunlight. Gripping the surface. Palms staking a claim in … Continued

There’s a Sleaford Mods song called Elocution on which Jason Williamson announces, in the kind of mock-posh voice the hard kids at school used to put on when they were about to duff in a Walter The Softy type: “I’m secretly hoping that by agreeing to talk about independent venues, I will then be in a position … Continued

SHINY AND NEW, is a completely new take on the Eighties, a book which not only shines a light into the decade’s dark crevices, but which also used ten moments of pop perfection to illustrate the extraordinary musical variety that decade encouraged. The Eighties will never die, they just keep mutating! The Eighties is often … Continued

FOOLS! LUNATICS! NUTJOBS! How dare The Social Gathering ask me to write this – what is it – thingy thing blog whatsit – here, when I am finally here, amongst such meagre refuge as is this desk, this IKEA shelving, this door – only just secured against those bitter whinnying voices that seep through every … Continued

New Year = Groundhog Year. Having barely made it out of my lounging clothes for most of the holidays, I find that the New Year only requires a top half change for the obligatory Zoom calls meaning that I can save precious minutes getting back into my favourite hoodie for long nights in front of … Continued

We asked our correspondent in Pennsylvania, Lenny Kaye to write some words about his friend and fellow mid-70s rock n roll genius, Sylvain Sylvain. Proud to be presenting this tribute to him here. Sylvain Sylvain, the heart and soul of the New York Dolls, bearer of the Teenage News, passed into his next astral incarnation … Continued

I lived in an ancient tenement building decades ago, that was so creepy and weird I knew it would one day form the basis of a novel. It takes a long time before we are ready to write certain books and others will always be a small act of madness at any time, Luckenbooth was … Continued

Our story starts in the jungle. The man who whistles is the harbinger of chaos. But we don’t see him at first, we only hear his shrill call-to-arms. Instead, our attention is on another young man, shirtless and wearing a black balaclava. He’s climbing down a rope into a steep red ravine. A third man, … Continued

‘How did it come to this?’ The commentators wailed. Lemme help you out…  As I watched the mob rampaging through the Capitol, numb on the sofa along with the rest of the world, I thought back to when I first began to worry about America.    It was twelve years ago, early in 2009, not … Continued

There’s a big Sainsbury’s in Stockport and I go there all the time. I walk there from my house; it takes about twenty-five minutes. It’s not a giant superstore but it’s bigger than your average. It has some size on it. It’s sizeable. Stockport Sainsbury’s is closing and I’m sad. 31st January 2021 is D-Day. … Continued

How much time have you spent daydreaming about going out dancing? In the past few months, in your kitchen, in the shower, walking along the pavement with your headphones on. Where will it be, who will be there? In your daydream maybe everyone is there, like you’ve arrived in heaven, although that would probably freak … Continued

It is traditional between Christmas and New Year for The Social (the real one on Little Portland St) to shut its doors after closing time on the Dec 23. By that point only Graeme, Simon and a few of the staunchest West End drinkers would remain in the Upstairs Bar after weeks of madness. The … Continued

“I don’t want to go blind,” That’s what you said. You just came out with it. “I don’t want to go blind,” I was knackered from the drive, with a mouthful of tea, savouring the moment, you and me, perfect no wind, nothing, you picked your moment and launched. We’re in your garden, sunny Worcestershire, … Continued

For Z. In Slavoj Žižek’s documentary A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema there is an analysis of the famous opening scene from Blue Velvet, in which the protagonist’s father is peacefully watering his perfect garden in his perfect home, beneath a perfect sun in the idyllic town of Lumberton, North Carolina, where everything glimmers with innocence … Continued

Welcoming Nuggets legend, Mr Lenny Kaye to The Social Gathering for reflections on the photographs of David Godlis and the fabled streets of Manhattan. I run into Godlis on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village.  As I have for over forty years.  I’ve never called him by his first name.  We exchange pleasantries, whatcha … Continued

The foghorn sounds.  Its abrupt and terrific interjection comes from a square black mouth, a colossal metallic holler that is stupefyingly loud. It floods my ears and shakes my guts. I am overwhelmed. I freeze. Tiny hairs rise on my covered arms. Its moaning blast ends in a gruff grunt that jolts me from my … Continued

In keeping with the wider-held traditions of Macclesfield, my longsuffering girlfriend Gillian had been working at Halle Models’ lingerie mill as a machinist while continuing to sell children’s clothes on her parents’ Wythenshawe market stall at the weekend. The Gilbert family had moved to Macclesfield from Whalley Range in 1964. Dad Leslie, mother Florence, and … Continued

It was ages since I’d read a treatise on something. Too, too long. So I was holding one in either hand, weighing up what to get: the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume’s 1739 A Treatise of Human Nature, or the one by the Grammy-winning, Canadian musician Chilly Gonzales: Enya: A Treatise On Unguilty Pleasures. I … Continued

I’ve spent the past week engrossed in Erik Davis’ incredible High Weirdness (recently published by Strange Attractor).  A depth charge exploration of the weirder corners of 1970’s counter- culture, Davis paints a kaleidoscopic picture that homes in on the strange – often life changing – visionary experiences of some of the 1970’s most infamous psyconauts: … Continued

Having been sober for almost five years – sober through the death of my Mum and the grief of my Dad, through the brutal, public murder of a friend; sober through the Bre and the Cov words, through Johnson and Trump and the death of shame; sober through raising daughters, honouring a marriage, earning my … Continued

God, I miss the pub. With two harsh lockdowns, a fleeting partial respite and one period of baffling regulation apparently drawn up by a mandarin left over from when the temperance movement was still gaining traction, this year has presented something of a challenge to those of us whose social life revolves almost entirely around … Continued

Double figures! I have to say I am a little surprised to still be writing this, ten episodes in. What started as a way to justify my voluminous TV watching to a sceptical family has now become a highlight of the fortnight for me and, it seems, rather popular with at least a few people.  … Continued

Today Katy issuch a motherfucken bitch.I hate her guts somuch that she belongsin hell. She theUglyest, trashest, stupidest, fuckestmother fuckenassole damnhell AssFucken bitch,  I’m sat, Indian-style, on the beige shag carpet behind Katy’s parents’ black leather sofa from Finger’s Furniture, hunched over, furiously writing the most hateful words I can think of with a No. 2 … Continued

The vehicle is a huge grey pickup. A farmer’s car, a hillbilly tank. Over the course of the last few summers it has taken a wild and varied cast across the country. Poets, musicians, svengalis, writers. Texans with big blonde hair and high heels, visionary writers with a tarot deck in their shirt pocket and … Continued

In a conversation with Michael Barbaro for the New York Times’ podcast ‘The Daily’, journalist Wesley Morris says “You know, there’s always a moment whenever I’m watching or listening or reading anything — you’re waiting for this moment for something in you to change”. When I heard this, a year and a half ago, I … Continued

Yesterday saw the publication of Robin Turner’s book …Believe In Magic: the First 30 Years of Heavenly Recordings. As you probably know, our bricks and mortar home The Social was set up by the people behind Heavenly Recordings. And, as you probably also know, that venue was an attempt to build a permanent home for … Continued

I’ve just moved to Hove, in East Sussex, a part of the country I know almost not at all, having spent most of my life up until now in either Merseyside, Madrid or London. I’ve been down this way only once before, for the TWT festival, running alongside the Labour Party Conference, a couple of … Continued

This is a reflection on time, a train and some presidents of the United States. It’s about the non-linear eddies created by people moving through time, and maybe it’s about the idea that our innate need to define life in a linear way defeats our understanding of how some things happen and are connected. It’s … Continued

This morning I was yearning for the umpteenth time for things to go back to normal- only to realise I can no longer remember what normal is. Office banter; conferences; flights; classes; bars; literary festivals…. all that was my normal, but I struggle to recall what that pre-Covid life was actually like. I have pictures … Continued

A friend suggested I call it a musical meta-biography, but until that catches on, here’s me trying to explain what William The Conqueror is by way of a story. I’d had eight years of breaking even as a non-offensive, red bearded, singer-songwriter. I wasn’t a failure as such, but I was creatively empty, skint and … Continued

Turquoise eyes, cherry lips, jelly bracelets, twist-a-beads untwisted, lace leggings, black heels, slick clip-on plastic hundred dollar bills; a nice touch that we used a cut piece from my homemade yellow crop top for the bandana, I was stoked on that for sure. We, is my mom and I. We always made my Halloween costumes. … Continued

Running The Light is the first novel by Denver stand-up comedian Sam Tallent. Electrifying the wider comedy community since its self-publication this year, Doug Stanhope recently called it “the best fictional representation of comedy in any medium”. The story follows the washed-up, thoroughly ruined but occasionally-brilliant aging comic Billy Ray Schafer across a string of … Continued

Like it or loathe it, Halloween is here to stay. It is a night of contradictions: a night of glitter and gravedust. But is it Pagan or Christian, ancient or modern, spiritual or commercial? Is it a time of diabolic fiends and scary ghosts or a sombre time to commune with the ancestors? Is it … Continued

In a past life I travelled for work. I stayed in hotel rooms with starched sheets that smelled like industrial fabric softener. I washed with soap in plastic wrappers. I would have one last drink at the hotel bar with people on my press trip, and stumble in at the last minute to the morning … Continued

We first met Steve and Kavus at Glastonbury in 2016 when they played to the biggest crowd we have ever seen at our tent (Stonebridge). It was quite the sight, inside and out. Actually as far as the eye could see pretty much. When they started, people really didn’t have a clue what to expect. … Continued

According to John Higgs, we gave up on the future in the 1980s. Before then our shining vision of a utopia free from disease, work and the laws of gravity was ingrained in our culture. We were always only a decade away from a world of economic equality, total sexual liberation and better waterslides. But … Continued

Tuesday’s tuna sandwich was pretty bloody meagre; a scant serving of pulped, anaemic meat pressed between two slices of bread which better resembled sheets of foam, crushed by the tight vacuum of its plastic packet. She inched forward on the wheels of her chair and checked the counter on the right-hand side of her screen. … Continued

The final part of our extracts from the new collection of work from 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE. All 4 pieces can be found in the excellent new publication from Rough Trade Books. Today we bring you the poem Pariah by Sharan Hunjan from her pamphlet Hatch. In Hatch, Sharan Hunjan presents an utterly compelling … Continued

There follows, in the life of Muntu, a peaceful interlude, a brief snatching at bliss, as he moves into Vlada’s shabby apartment in Kraków and takes a job as a receptionist in an art gallery. Peaceful, that is, aside from the shady characters that would appear at the flat at all hours of the night … Continued

This is Part 2 of our posts from the excellent new set of pamphlets from 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE. Today we’re delighted to share a poem from Roshni Goyate’s collection Shadow Work. The publisher Rough Trade Books explain more about the work below . . We all have shadow selves—the sides to us that … Continued

Purely coincidental but its all gone a bit ‘hygge’ at Wasted Towers of late. A preponderance of new and rediscovered Danish / Swedish TV brilliance means that this episode of the guide leads with three dramas from the lands of Andersen, Bergman, longboats, and shock European Championship wins (ask your parents).  Starting with the new, … Continued

Sweet Dreams: The Story Of The New Romantics, the newly published book by Dylan Jones, has sent me back down the psychedelic wormhole of my enduring obsession with Hot Gossip. There’s something to love about all of the UK television dance troupes of the late 1960s to early 1980s: the gleaming angels in The Go-Jos; … Continued

We received the latest release from Rough Trade Books the other day, actually boxes of them because Nina uses my little summer house thing in the garden as her official RTB store cupboard. Anyway, I opened a box and borrowed a set of the 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE edition to have a read. Picked … Continued

Hi Dad.  Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote to you. There’s a lot going on. I’ve not been walking in the mornings, and it shows. Drift-time has fallen off the priority list. I’ve been putting other stuff in front, and I’ve forgetten how you showed me to walk and switch the head … Continued

I don’t know what you believe about the nature or existence of luck, but whether you think a person makes their own luck, or it’s just a random thing, the fact remains that I am a lucky, lucky bastard. I haven’t won the lottery or anything but it has to be said, things in my … Continued

Make Some Space by Emma Warren was my favourite book of 2019. Ostensibly about a single space – the Total Refreshment Centre, located in a warehouse in Hackney – the real story is one of building communities, and making things happen amongst the people you chose to do that building with. I came away from … Continued

The big question with any super deluxe edition of a legendary album is whether it’s better than the myth.  Often when you hear all the outtakes or additional tracks from a record it can demystify a beloved album in a disappointing way.  It’s also hard to know where to draw the line and who to … Continued

During the pandemic I saw for the first time Jim Jarmusch’s epic film Only Lovers Left Alive, in which the vampire couple brilliantly played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston try to deny their true nature during the entire film, partly by procuring blood through sophisticated means such as purchasing it from hospitals. Then of … Continued

One thing that I have noticed whilst writing this guide over the last few months is how much TV output is reliant on crime. The detective story is by far and away the winner of the TV drama stakes and ubiquitous across all providers. Mostly, the stories themselves are replicants: washed up detectives, oddball detectives, … Continued

Yesterday I went to visit an old friend. I’d heard that he was unwell, and I was concerned. We had known each other for years, though we had never met or even spoken, I considered him to be a close friend and thought a visit would be nice. Being close to him always made things … Continued

Introducing our second piece from writer Patrick Ofosu. Going by the name Epytion he describes himself as ‘a learner expressing thoughts and feelings in words through poetry, monologues and short stories’. In this piece we find ourselves in another place, perhaps at some point in the future, the offices appear to be back in full … Continued

I first saw The Snork, I used to pass him regularly, when I was de-mobbed to Greece, and I maintain it was him, even though the timeline is improbable and he denies it himself, but who could forget that face, every day, in a square in Plaka, I think it was, stood there, motionless, that … Continued

And so we reach our 23rd and final weekly Broadsheet. 23 weeks ago Robin declared that we would put together a Sunday edition of all the greatest hits from the Social Gathering plus some stuff that was (almost) keeping us sane in the heart of the lockdown. As things slowly return to something like normal … Continued

Today, September 3rd 2020, is perhaps the most demented day in British publishing history with over 650 titles released. I doubt there will be many titles from figures as righteous and influential as Annie Nightingale, the First Lady of Radio One, acid house pioneer, broadcasting legend of five decades. Hey Hi Hello is her story and it is, … Continued

“A clock spends its life marking time, but does it understand mortality?” goes the Chain and The Gang lyric, “Music’s not for everyone, keep it away from them”.  It’s the first track Andrew Weatherall played on his eponymous Music’s Not for Everyone NTS shows that ran monthly for nearly six years, and the last on … Continued

Like many of you I have spent way too much time on social media over the past 6 months. Occasionally, like yesterday morning, you trip over something that makes all the time wasted worthwhile. Almost. Ten years ago, working as an editor at Faber on a music list that was still very much in its … Continued

Out of the dozens of colourfully-named selectors which fill the daily programming of Palestinian internet radio station Radio Al-Hara, the one which caught my attention immediately was Felonious Funk. With a deliciously ludicrous nom de plume, her presence looms large, hosting her Funky Fresh Morning show twice weekly. When the 70-hour Fil Mishmish protest began on July … Continued

Back in January I cycled from Blackfriars to Little Portland Street on a gloomy evening to celebrate the 20thbirthday party of The Social. An hour or so before festivities started I met with Jeff and Danny from Heavenly to discuss the book we were all working on written by Heavenly stalwart Robin Turner, marking another … Continued

We asked publisher Julian Vinuales (Libros de Kultrum) to report back from his home in Barcelona, only to discover he had spent all of lockdown in Roses, several miles up the Catalan coast … The village of Roses, where we lay our (obscene) scene, and the territory known as Alt Empordà, stretching north to Portbou … Continued

My grandparents were almost in retirement when they bought the camp. I knew my nan wanted to be by the sea and I knew that my grandad bought the camp for her but I had never really considered that it was a slightly odd thing to have done at their age. My nan had always … Continued

Today, White Rabbit Books announces publication of Harry Sword’s debut Monolithic Undertow: In Search of Sonic Oblivion (February 2021), a colossal history of ‘the drone’ as it manifests itself in music, ritual and the universe. Monolithic Undertow alights a crooked path across musical, religious and subcultural frontiers. It traces the line from ancient traditions to the … Continued

As the weeks drag on and everything apart from the things I care about seems to open – no gigs, no theatres, cinemas replaying stuff I’ve seen a million times – I find myself getting pulled back to earlier times and, indeed, imagined times.  There has always been something irresistible to me about the late … Continued

Sit down, I’ve got some bad news. I hate to be the one to break it you, but we’re currently in the middle of World War 3, and we’re losing. I know that you can’t see any war, and yeah you think I’m the wrong’un, but the thing is the game has changed; the weapons, targets … Continued

In deepest darkest Cornwall, within the enchanting fishing harbour of Boscastle you’ll find a museum with a difference—the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. This museum explores magical practice, making comparisons with other systems of belief, from ancient times to the present day and is home to the world’s oldest and largest collection of items relating … Continued

Other than what we’ve published on the website I’ve found reading anything other than Twitter near impossible for 3 months. I didn’t read a single book for most of lockdown, that was until Sophie gave me her copy of Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting. She hadn’t even read it herself but was … Continued

(Social x Pete Fowler slipmat pictured above available now) On Saturday night myself and Jeff O’Toole – our good friend from Manchester – hosted the 101st edition of The Social’s Afterwork Drinks online. We reached the 100 night milestone the day before with Pete Fowler playing his twelfth set on Twitter, clocking up over 35 … Continued

1945/1961 My family moved from Newcastle upon Tyne when I was six months old – to Oak House, number 5 Wildwood Rise, London, NW11, just by the extension to Hampstead Heath, and built in about 1907. Dark oak panelling, parquet floors, golden oak staircase surrounding the hall with a window seat half-way, a large grassy … Continued

My 2 by 4 Inglish, bare grammatical errors. I man, result to broken English. Deh propa name be pidgin, mix am wit our local dialect, code switching. Boarding school initiated, adding its own rules n ting, strengthening a language tool. Come back to London Town with a heavy accent. By the time one realises, in … Continued

X Inn-dependence Day. Super Saturday. The end of the lockdown brought to you by the marketing department of England. A week or so ago, the government announced they were to re-open the pubs and to market the fact like a televised sporting event—the ultimate cultural-capitalistic signifier of the age. Viewed critically they could be said … Continued

On a classic midwinter deep-freeze evening on the 21st January 2015, I first saw Savages perform at Bowery Ballroom in New York. I knew the music. I had read about them. But I didn’t feel the real energy and attitude of Jehnny Beth until that night. Skip forward four years and I am introduced to Jehnny … Continued

Catch One Leaf, Lake District, 1968 It was becoming autumnal and wet, cold even by now. No stove in the wagon – nowhere to dry our clothes, shivering dogs. John James and his 1930s Austin 12 – Happiness Runs – were with us. We heard of a caravan park where we might be able to … Continued

Inspired by Une sale histoire by Jean Eustache 1 My story is the kind of story that women will scorn to read. I should tell my readers now that the actions of the episode that follows are less important than the philosophy hidden inside of them. In fact, the study of the tale, in which … Continued

Although lots of pubs and restaurants across the country reopened this weekend for most live music venues and clubs the choice to open or not doesn’t exist yet. Some may have bars and can start to think about it but many like us with no real outdoor space for drinkers can’t make things work with … Continued

In a move akin to giving the role of brewery tour guide to an alcoholic, last week I was given six months free NOW TV whilst buying some insurance. Appropriate thanks to Confused.com (other comparison sites are available) and I now hope for a similar deal from an opticians as more viewing time has been … Continued

IX I wake to a dawn chorus of pure wood pigeon. From somewhere far off, in an instantly-forgotten dream I hear five, six, a dozen birds close to the window, calling. When I wake the birds are still there, still sounding themselves. A link from the dream world to the here and now of the … Continued

Austin Collings (author, filmmaker and Creative Director of The White Hotel venue in Salford) has been following our Social Gathering and got in touch to hand over two short films as evidence of his spell in lockdown. Today we present Empire of the Plague (‘a Union Jack-black comedy’) and Season of the Virus – an arresting … Continued

Between 1985 and 2003 I went to Glastonbury loads of times. Some weekends I remember like it was yesterday; others I have no memory of at all. I went with my wife, friends, various bands and I always had the best of times. I was free to do whatever I wanted to do without any … Continued

Me and Robin were chatting the other morning about how the festival this year has been stolen from us. We’ve done fallow years before but I don’t remember them feeling like this. No doubt the sense of loss is definitely magnified by every fucker having been stuck inside for three months not seeing anyone. And … Continued

VIII. If you were to mark its position on a map of the country, the village would be just about dead centre, depending, to a certain extent, on your definition. In fact, a tiny little hamlet just to the east along the ridge of hills was always held, around here at least, to be the … Continued

11 years ago Mathew Clayton and his friend Simon Benham set up the Free University of Glastonbury, a programme of talks from authors, musicians and other full-time dreamers that takes place each year in the Crow’s Nest in the Park. ‘What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the Fairy Queen’ … Continued

It’s been such a long, long time… The last original material we heard from Bob was 2012’s Tempest. The next eight years were a long stretch of covers from the Great American Songbook, first Shadows in the Night, then Fallen Angels, culminating in the three-album Tin Pan Alley extravaganza Triplicate. Even the most sycophantic Bob … Continued

One of the staunchest people in lockdown has without doubt been Pete Fowler, not least for his 9 (!) Social Friday night drinks sessions, each with its own sublime soundtrack. Here Pete joins us for our ‘Glastonbury Week’ with some memories of his life in The Park, up on the hill . . and beyond. … Continued

July 1968.  London Garden Our first stop in London was in Islington where Robert’s one-time tutor and now friend Anthony Benjamin had a large home and studio. We parked the wagon on the side of the street, walked Betsy the horse through to the back garden and let her loose on the grass.  Anthony and … Continued

Wendine escapes to Dallas with Jerry Lee: a flash fiction homage to Nick Tosches by Wendy Erskine. With artwork by Babak Ganjei My mamma said if you gonna lift that skirt an paint that face an run round with the unholy, then we gonna send you to a place where they will put the righteousness back … Continued

On 14th of March, we threw what was planned to be the last party in the bar we have next to our record shop for a very old friends 50th. Some people didn’t come as they were scared of this virus, others were refusing to shake hands, instead touching elbows and doing a kind of … Continued

VII Mid-June and the weather has given in. Finally, rain. Storms have begun to appear as if from nowhere in the afternoons, rolling in over the hills, dragging their dark nimbus over the plantation conifers and squatting over the village for a few hours until the evening. The parties on the cricket pitch have dissipated, … Continued

Why the UK is failing the music industry. This Saturday is the first Love Record Stores day. We’ll be marking the 24 hour online festival on the day both on this site and on Twitter (where the phenomenally brilliant Georgia is hosting drinks around the time the shops – the actual ones manned by human … Continued

In 1968 Vashti Bunyan set out on a journey that still resonates five decades later. Today we’re publishing the first in a series of regular posts by Vashti at The Social Gathering, beautifully illustrated by the author herself. I needed a way to keep my dog and not lose my mind. I left home – … Continued

VI There are two fields, one to the north, one to the south, intersected by the road that runs through the middle of the village, a road that is both the high street, the locus of all commerce, the façade of our place, and a section of the Ridgeway—the ancient track that also once meant … Continued

I was born and raised in a house of cars and maps. The cars went over my head, sometimes through our garden fence and once upside down with me in it. It took a long time for me to get into cars, but maps had me hooked from the second we met. Dad – like … Continued

So much can change in a short space of time. I started writing this before we were all talking about Barnard’s Castle and replacing eye tests with Wacky Racers style day trips and losing whatever sense of ‘all in this together’ we had to start with. It was always a fragile idea at best anyhow, … Continued

As every fan knows, Prince recorded far more songs than he ever released.  Most years he put out less than ten percent of the work he completed.  The mythology around his music depends as much on what he squirreled away in his famous Vault as the songs he officially released.  Over the years fans and … Continued

Four years ago I was contacted by a writer whose work I knew from The Wire and other publications on Twitter called David Keenan. He had, a few months previously, written a scabrous review of a book I was proud of publishing and here he was (the cheeky bastard), petitioning me to read a novel which I … Continued

V Lonely, fraught, strange days. I am up at four with the sun and the birdsong. My days have taken on the rhythm of these non-human things, beginning in dim light and settling into the long lull of the afternoon before a brief flare of energy as the evening turns into the night. My walks … Continued

Today on The Social Gathering, we’re pleased to bring you an extract from an interview with artist Junior Tomlin. It’s taken from a new book – Junior Tomlin: Flyer & Cover Art – an amazing retrospective of his work in the ’80s and ’90s. Junior’s artwork was a vital and unmistakable part of the burgeoning … Continued