Since my original book launch events in March, I’ve had a steady flow of other events around the country, met new people and reconnected with old friends. I’m still having fun. Well, most of the time. When not travelling by Cross Country trains.
Wallingford, May
This is probably the least rock’n’roll venue I’ve been to: Wallingford Methodist Church. It’s also the closest to home. The minister, Bruce Thompson, who is also the minister at the church I go to, is a writer and a keen reader. (And a music fan.) He does a monthly “in conversation” at the church and he invited me as part of the series.
Some of the audience would have been there because they come every month, for the free lunch. Some were there because they saw the poster in the window of the Wallingford Bookshop. Either way, they were a nice crowd and I was surprised how many people in this small Oxfordshire market town actually had connections to Liverpool. As I noted in my previous post, the Scouse diaspora is always going to be part of my tours.
Bruce asked me to choose a piece of music to start off with: Story of the Blues, of course. He also asked me to bring something for the “show and tell” part of the event. I brought my badges. I included an Eddie and the Hot Rods badge, because I knew he was a fan.
The lunch in the church hall next door included a 1970-style pineapple upside-down pudding. It could have been a tribute to the 1970s setting of my book, but it’s probably just that Methodists are good at traditional home baking.
Frome and Bridport, August
My West Country tour was in the middle of a heatwave. Fortunately it wasn’t as hot there as it was at home in landlocked Oxfordshire.
These two dates came about thanks to Graham “Vinyl revival” Jones, who I knew in Liverpool but hadn’t seen for decades. He seems to know everyone in every record shop in the country. Two of them were Raves from the Grave, the partner for the Frome event, and Clocktower Records in Bridport.
(Shout-out, too, to the partner bookshops: Winstone's Hunting Raven Books and The Bookshop, Bridport.)
The first gig was Frome in Somerset: we drove there and stopped off at Avebury en route. I love these ancient landscapes, which always make me think of Paul Nash paintings. Frome is slightly arty/alternative, slightly touristy and a bit “down from London”. I liked it. Our pub hotel, the George, was ancient and quaint with a huge bathroom. I liked it a lot.
It was good to see Graham again, and I was also pleased to meet up with a friend from Shepton Mallet who’d driven over for the evening.
The gig was in another pub (too expensive to stay in), the Archangel. The upstairs room was a modest size and full, so it was easy to communicate with the audience. This made it one of my favourite events so far.
There were lots of interesting questions, and people with interesting comments when I did the book signings. I’m starting to find out that people want to talk about the “trying to be normal” aspect of the book, but neurodivergent people and women wait until after the public Q&A and talk to me while I’m signing books instead.
I invited journalist/author John Harris, who lives in the town, because he’s written about autism and music. He asked a question during the Q&A and I quoted his book back at him. Well, a quote from Jah Wobble that he used: “the music industry is full of oddballs”. We’re all hiding in plain sight.
I felt very happy with how it went. After the interval Graham did a punk quiz and we didn't win.
The next day, Graham and I did it again in Bridport. This time, the venue was a new community arts space, Oxenburys Yard, in an old garage (Google still thinks it’s a garage). Johnny, who runs the venue, is from Merseyside. So is Roy from Clocktower Records.
The event was billed as part of the “Punk Bridport” festival, which included an exhibition of photos by Adrian Boot at Bridport Arts Centre: classic pictures of the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols etc. I was pleased to see that the arts centre is painted the same pink as my book cover. I thought perhaps they’d done it for the festival (it’s a very punk colour) but apparently it’s always like that.
Things to do in Bridport:
- Go to the café at the arts centre. The cake is excellent.
- Go to Clocktower Records. They’ve got an Addams Family pinball machine, and a lifesize David Bowie.
Afterwards, an audience member wrote a Substack post about the talk, so I had evidence that it struck a chord. I’ve been asked if the selling point for my book is the Liverpool punk scene but this proved that it’s wider than that: people identify with the experiences even if they were in other parts of the country.
"Riveting and truly inspirational," wrote Paul. I also liked this: "Penny is sitting on the sofa wearing drainpipe jeans, and a pair of creepers with a pink instep. These details are important."
The “Confident communication for authors” course I did last year really helped with my confidence doing these events. Despite this, I realised pretty quickly that I was never going to be slick. But what I could be was authentic, and people seem to like it.
Around this time, I saw a brilliant post on The Daily Tism, the comedy website written by and for autistic people. It’s titled FFS! Unmasking autistic person discovers they were cool all along. I decided I was going to own this.
Merseyside, September
The reason I was in Merseyside was to do the “in conversation” for Tony Fletcher’s book event. While I was there, I offered to do a talk at Wallasey Central Library: they’d asked me when I was up earlier in the year and I hadn’t been able to fit it in.
The library has been marking Band T-shirt Day all month, fundraising for the Teenage Cancer Trust. I wondered which I should wear myself, and posted two pictures on social media. Women said “the Slits”, men said “Wild Swans”. I went for the Wild Swans “Revolutionary Spirit” shirt in the end because I figured it would work best in the photos.
The library is a fabulous historic building (an original Carnegie library) and also does a wide range of community events but has, unbelievably, been under threat from the council. I had a quick tour before the talk, and loved it. Libraries are among my favourite places.
During the Q&A, someone reminded me that I reviewed Wayne/Jayne County twice and did I remember what they did for the encore? “If you don’t want to fuck me, fuck off,” I said. I think he felt amused that he’d made me say it. I wasn’t bothered. It’s a good title. It’s a pity the gigs weren’t very good.
In the audience were some ex-colleagues, some of whom I’d lost touch with, and someone I was at university with (and keep in touch with via Facebook/Substack). There was a quiz and we didn’t win. Do you remember who was minister for drought in 1976?
The next day it was Tony’s gig at the British Music Experience, where I'd had my book launch in March. We met (for the first time) for brunch before the afternoon event and had a good chat. The café, recommended by the friends I was staying with, is in Castle Street in what used to be the business district of the city – the area with the most impressive Victorian buildings. There didn’t seem to be any offices there any more. Just bars and restaurants aimed at tourists. The cruise ships stop at Liverpool now.
Tony’s been writing on Substack about his book tour, and is obviously good at travelling, meeting new people and exploring new places. On the other hand, I find the travel aspect of my book events the most stressful thing about them (the train journeys to Liverpool and back were awful). Maybe it’s an autism thing.
Tony had an open mind about Liverpool and seemed to have fun on this visit. It’s harder for me, because I used to live there and every time I come back it’s changed again.
When Tony asked me what I think of Liverpool now, I remarked about the old banks turning into restaurants. It’s like this everywhere in the country, he replied, and I’m sure he’s right. The problem for me is that Liverpool didn’t used to be like everywhere else.
I still remember the bolshy, bohemian city of the 1980s and 90s, and I miss it. I wrote about “regeneration” in my book because I could see those changes beginning to happen even then. It’s hard to argue with something that brings relative prosperity, but it comes at a cost.
As novelist Louise Kennedy said in a recent Guardian interview: “When you leave a place, it goes on about its business, but for me it’s frozen in time.”
Back at the BME, Tony’s event went well. And in the audience was an old friend of mine from university (who is mentioned in the first part of my book), who I’d lost touch with, and it was lovely to see him again.
I have three more book events organised this year (Brighton, Cheltenham and Manchester). They are going to be a bit different from the ones I’ve done so far. I’m looking forward to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment