Where was I? Oh yes, in Brighton giving a reading ...

Where was I? Oh yes, in Brighton giving a reading at the launch of Charlie McQuakers fine pulp novel, Die Hard Mod. I have known Charlie for quite a few years now (hold the jokes) met him when he and chap named Bosie shot a four minute doc for TV about mod which featured yours truly with much shorter hair. 


He contacted me recently about his book which features a Northern Ireland Mod named Steve who is forced to flee Belfast and so heads for Brighton where the love of his life lives. Naturally, there are loads of Quadrophenia tugs - scooters flying over cliffs, Ace Faces stalking the narrative etc. Refreshingly, the book does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a good pulp experience right down to its cover. At the launch I read the intro from my book The Sharper Word, met some good people, had a few drinks, then off to hotel Pelirocco to meet my friend and writer Cathi Unsworth of whom I am a great fan. 


Check her and her books at this site -http://cathiunsworth.weebly.com/. She is my idea of a treasure. Found her in the bar with several others, including a Howard Gunnell who gave me his book Marine Boy and some very nice compliments. Ended up putting the world to rights in Cathis' room until one in the morning with Cathi, her man Mike, Brian,, his colourful publisher and partner and maybe a few others but who knows? 


Stayed at Brian's who in the morning made me coffee and a fantastic Scott Walker CD, a collection of his songs where the great man actually sings and does not go for the Jacques Brel doom laden vocal sound he applies to so much of his music and which has always put me off him. Have been playing nothing else since. God Bless you Scott and God bless all the England fans who in the midst of a terrible recession somehow found the cash to travel thousands of miles only to be sneered at by Wayne Rooney, a man whose right to be considered one of the best players in the world has surely run thin now. 


His contempt for those who pay his wages and would actually dare to criticise his lacklustre performance sums up the arrogance that runs right through that squad and would convince me at least to put him on the first plane home. That won't happen although when Italy lost in the 1966 World Cup to Korea the Italian players flew home to be greeted at the airport by an angry vegetable throwing mob at the airport. 


Heaven forbid that should ever happen to such a committed and talented England squad..............