The Vaselines, Kurt Cobain, Van Gogh, Don McLean. Kickstarter, Roberta Flack, Katie's got a hurty back

🎶 We didn't start the fire...

Hello! Trying to be quick this week because the end of my book edits are so close I can almost smell them, and they no longer smell so strongly of despair and self-loathing. Hurray! (Remember, if you would like to be an early reader for either the comedy one or the crime one, hit reply or message me to let me know.)

I promised my mate Sue¹ that I’d have the crime edits done by today so wish me luck because I have been titting about on Bluesky and Substack all morning and signing off the prelaunch page for a very exciting Kickstarter campaign from best-selling children’s author-illustrator (and my husband), Alex Milway.

Please sign up immediately for the Kickstarter. You don’t have to pay for anything, don’t worry – it’s just to be notified when it launches. The more early sign ups we get, the better because algorithm or something. Love you, thanks.

Sign up for the prelaunch! You’ll be helping to keep our children fed and watered! And you’ll get to hear about this amazing new children’s book by the best-selling author-illustrator of Hotel Flamingo!

No brains were eaten

This week I went to see The Vaselines at the Piper in St. Leonards. We're lucky to have so many amazing small venues here in Hastings and St. Leonards. Seeing them in a 200-person venue was just great.

There was a queue up the stairs to get in at the start. I heard two Scottish people queuing behind us for a while before the woman very politely appeared next to us and said, "Excuse me, is there any chance we could get past? It's just that we're in the band." I probably should have said, "Frances, you ARE the band," but instead, I just said, "Yes, I think you probably better had,” and off they went.

The compere introduced them by saying that the Piper had a lot of bands playing over the years, but they’d never had one that had got into Kurt Cobain's head before. This sounded strangely terrifying. Thankfully, once they started playing, they were just as you’d expect: a great poppy punky group. They didn’t devour any brains or anything. What I didn’t know to expect was stage patter so hilarious it was like watching a comedy double act in between the songs. They obliged everyone by doing all their best-known songs, including (of course) “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” and “Molly’s Lips.”

Comedy duo Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly

No breasts were exposed

On Saturday, we saw the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery. What a thing of beauty that exhibition is. I can’t really do it justice (as we’ve established, I find positive reviews really hard to write). Please try to see it if you can. I spent most of my time there feeling extremely weepy about how much talent and beauty there was in every painting and how much we lost when he died so young, and hoping he was somewhere in the exhibition listening to Bill Nighy explain how marvellous he was. I was also humming Vincent by Don McLean all the way round, so apologies to anyone at the exhibition that day.

Look at this corker

Afterwards, Alex (did I mention he has a Kickstarter launching?) pointed out how nice it is to see an artist from that era who wasn’t just painting loads of naked women. And he was right! Walking around with my daughters, it was lovely to see so many pictures of women just being normal humans with all their clothes on and everything. Afterwards, of course, the internet spoiled it for me by informing me that Vincent painted so few nudes because he didn’t have the cash to pay for models, so thanks for that, Google. (Also, somehow I am now representing the prude community, and that wasn’t my intention. I don’t mind the female form, it’s nice isn’t it. I’m just saying it was a wholesome exhibition, OK?)

Some sofas were harmed

By the way, speaking of Don McLean, he came up during one of my internet meanders yesterday as well. Apparently, “Killing Me Softly With His Song” is about Don. Did you know that? I didn’t. A young musician called Lori Lieberman saw him performing a song called “Empty Chairs²” and started sketching out ideas for lyrics on a napkin.

Lori never received a co-writing credit for “Killing Me Softly” and the writing duo (two much older men, one of whom was having an affair with her) later tried to pretend the whole thing had never happened. In fairness, the bit about the napkin does make it sound apocryphal, but still. Screw those guys.

(Also, given how Don likes to write songs about other people, it feels like someone should now write a song about Killing Me Softly and we can just keep going from there.)

If you’re wondering, this was all brought about by seeing Roberta Flack singing “Killing Me Softly” on the 40 Hidden Music Treasures at the BBC, which also features that amazing Jeff Buckley performance – the only one he did for the BBC shortly before he went for a stupid swim in a dangerous river (oh Jeff, don’t do it) The whole thing is worth watching if only to see the Pointer Sisters dressed as 80s sofas.

Brain eating, slight return

I went to another gig on Wednesday, also at the Piper. What can I say? Moving to a town outside of London is the BEST IDEA we ever had. You can go to a mid-week gig, park almost outside for free and then be home well before 11pm bedtime. And if you’re reading this and you have small children, please be advised that the day the eldest one can babysit the youngest is life-changing. We just piss off out whenever we feel like it. Imagine that!

We saw Gwenifer Raymond, who did actually come across like she might eat some brains if given the opportunity. I’m kidding. I think she was just very shy (she adds hastily in case Gwenifer sees this somehow and comes for her in the night). Anyway, she’s an amazing guitarist and it’s not her fault that my back hurt so badly the whole way through. My back hurt all the way through the Vaselines too. By the end of the Vaselines I had to go and crouch in the corner on the floor. This is why I so often forget gigs I’ve been to but remember how much my back hurt. Having hypermobility is stupid.

Virtuoso guitaring

This track below reminds me of Vashti Bunyen’s Train Song:

Which reminded me of Patriot, one of my favourite TV shows (if Sizemore recommends something, pay attention) and which not enough people have watched. It’s a show about an off-books US Spy who is also a folk singer and who consistently has the worst day of his life. Every day. What’s not to like? (Although Lucy Mangan didn’t like it, so maybe there are some things. But given how often I disagree with Lucy Mangan, I take all her negative reviews as an endorsement).

Yes, it got cancelled, but they were able to wrap up the story, which is great. Plus, there are only two seasons so you don’t have to give it your entire life, which is double-great.³

Some related links:

Ted Gioa’s very heartening piece about the resurgence of live music.

I wrote about how people are fed up with the Algorithm over on LinkedIn. Feel free to help boost it in the algorithm by liking it (and then just kill me already).

Charles Arthur’s newsletter often makes me stare off into space for a few minutes afterwards wondering what hellscape we’re building for ourselves. This week’s features a politician who cba with basic fact checking and isn’t afraid to share an obviously Ai image.⁴

Further to last week’s email about our unhealthy mobile phone/social media habits, this essay by August Lamm about her extremely destructive relationship with her smartphone is written with such breathless urgency that I was surprised when it ended.

Award-winning children’s author and illustrator Alex Milway has a new book coming out, along with limited edition art prints. Please sign up for the Kickstarter launch notification. Yes I will be mentioning this a lot.

PS. I can’t believe I referenced Billy Joel in my subject header, the man whose ex-wife totally ruined all my google results back in 2007, along with a ginger baby.

1. She’s a subscriber, too. Sorry Sue! It’s nearly done I promise!

2. Which sounds almost identical to Vincent, top work Don.

3. Yes that is a reference to something in the show.

4. Note to editors: I will be writing Ai from now on without apologies. Being married to a person called Al is causing too much text-based confusion.