Do you want to read this book I've written?

(It's really hard to write headlines that are also email subjects – or is that just me?)

A glimpse of the cover for a very silly book I have written (artwork: Alex Milway, photo by me. Wrapping of Generation X by Douglas Coupland because it’s a block colour also by me, photoshopping of the cover art on top of Gen X by Alex Milway. So that's how that sausage was made.

Happy Friday!

After the amazing response to my last newsletter (thank you so much for all your nice comments and messages, I ate them all up), I now feel immense pressure to do something equally well-received, but unfortunately, I don't have anything in me this week. I'm full of cold and trying to keep my head down, getting these projects finished and helping Alex launch an exciting new project, before the pressing need to find gainful employment overwhelms me.

Instead, I thought I would risk disappointing my new subscribers (welcome!) by simply telling you about my month in music and then ending with a brazen demand on your limited attention spans¹.

Yours in sneeze-based despondency,

Katie

PS Aforementioned well-received newsletter is linked below if you want to see what the fuss was about and missed it. And if you’re new here, the one below that explains what my game is.

My dad's final act was to become an anecdote

Let me tell you about my top secret pseudonymous book project

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Nineties legends look back

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Electric Palace in Hastings to watch Lush: A Far From Home Movie, a short documentary by Lush's ex-bassist Phil King.

Emma, Phil and David

Ex-Lush songwriter and guitarist (and my pal) Emma Anderson joined Phil on stage afterwards to talk to David Quantick about the movie, which documents the shoegaze legends’ tours during 1992-1996. Filmed on Super 8 and soundtracked with some beautiful Lush tunes, it's a compelling visual diary of a time before social media when bands could only really go from town to town trying to gain a following – all while looking extremely young and cool.

It was also a moving tribute to their lost drummer, Chris Acland, who sadly died back in 1996.

If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. I know they’re doing a screening in Bristol soon. And if you’re a fan of Emma’s brand of beautiful shoegazey pop, you can listen to her solo album, Pearlies² or pre-save the rearranged edit, Spiralée here.

Jeffrey Lewis in the house

The singer and comic book creator Jeffrey Lewis has a long-standing tradition of asking his fans for a bed or sofa to sleep in/on when he goes on tour. I've been on his mailing list for about 20 years now and this was the first time I'd ever spotted a request for somewhere near to where I live. So it was with great excitement that we invited Jeffrey and his band – The Voltage – to stay with us in Hastings when he played The Pig a few weeks ago.

It did however mean doing an enormous tidy up of our incredibly scruffy house. So in that regard it did us a favour since it’s not always easy to find the motivation to clear up after the endless DIY projects and building works going on in this financial sink hole we inhabit. The pressing need to get the place looking less like a squat for a bunch of very polite North Americans³ gave me a new focus.

It was great to see Jeffrey perform live again after what I realise now is TOO many years⁴. I say “see”, but actually I have never been to a gig with so many tall people. As always, the short people tend to gather together for warmth and support, often finding little pockets of visibility that last for about as long as it takes for tall people to think, “hmm, this looks like a good spot,” and come and stand in front of us all.

A rare glimpse of Jeffrey Lewis at The Pig

I found myself telling Jeffrey about his giant fans the morning after his gig. I also told him about the time I was at a venue that had plenty of space and I found a nice spot next to an elbow rest on the side wall and an excellent view of the stage and a very tall teen came and stood right in front of me, so I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to move. He and his whole family turned round and the dad laughed and agreed he should move and it was all very friendly and jovial. Afterwards, Alex told me the dad who’d laughed was Terry Hall. Obviously I didn't recognise him because I don’t recognise anyone, often including people I know very well.

Anyway, I told Jeffrey this and because Alex's brain now apparently works as an extension of my own memory, like some sort of back up hard drive, he pointed out that the gig in question was actually Jeffrey's as well. So maybe he just has really tall fans.

Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of our four guests because they were either always heading for bed or heading for a car/van and it felt weird to make them line up. I do, however, have this shot of them, which I took by holding my phone above the giants.

I didn’t, btw, tell Jeffrey about the man who did a massive wet stinky fart and then fled, with his family, to laugh at the enclave of short people all dying of asphyxiation from the clean air on the sidelines. Even I, a compulsive over-sharer, didn’t think Jeffrey needed to know about that. But now I’ve told you and you’re welcome.

Here’s another quick story. At the start of the gig (which was excellent, by the way, aside from the poor view and the rancid flatus), we met an excellent and funny wrestler called Heather who had just passed Jeffrey a fan letter about how important he had been to her over the past 20 years. She asked us to make sure he’d got it and we solemnly promised. Then she headed to the front of the stage where the tall people could not thwart her. Jeffrey then proceeded to open the gig with a song about how any gifts he gets he throws away and any letters people send he “burns them into ash.” I didn’t see Heather the wrestler again, but I hope she didn’t weep.

[Update: I asked her on Instagram⁵ and she said, “No thankfully. 15 year old Me would have been crushed but 35 year old Me sniggered audibly. GROWTH.” So that’s a happy ending to the tale.]

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Do you want to be an ARC reader?

It’s hard to believe it, but I might actually have a book almost ready to show to the public! Despite my Top Secret Plan, it’s not actually a crime fiction novel. See, what happened was, I gave myself a little break from trying to learn how to write a whole new genre and instead wrote a silly comedy sci-fi based on something I’d started years back, which was in turn inspired by something I’d written at school after reading too much Douglas Adams.

So yes, it’s very much a poor man’s Hitchhiker’s, but if you like that kind of nonsense, and you’d be willing to read an early copy (and then ideally leave a glowing review on Amazon⁶), please email me back or contact me via DM with your email address and I will add you to a list of favoured Advanced Reader Copy humans. Rest assured I will be asking this question a few more times in the coming weeks until we all feel a little uncomfortable with the situation.

See you next time! (Assuming no one tall is standing in between us.)

1. If you believe you really do have a limited attention span, this episode of the Studies Show might make you think maybe you’re actually fine.

2. Iggy Pop played TWO songs from Pearlies in a row on 6Music last year and said it reminded him of the “old English popular music values.” I was well excited.

3. Most exciting of all for my Juno soundtrack-loving teenage daughter, Jeffrey’s drummer was Brent Cole who was also the drummer for the Moldy Peaches.

4. The last time was after he’d released his 12 Crass Songs cover album.

5. Finding female wrestlers with uncommon names online is as easy as you’d imagine.

6. Obviously, there’s no obligation to be positive, but you can feel very free to just leave any negative reviews in your mental drafts folder. (And remember people: five star reviews help to neutralise all the one-star reviews left for bent front covers and unreliable couriers.)