Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Pshaw! Drops of rain? Didn't put me off!
Armed with coffee and Portugese custard tarts, Gina, Caroline and myself went to listen to Lucy O'Brien on a panel with Simon Reynolds, Charles Shaar Murray and Paul Morley, chaired by Richard Boon, who used to manage The Buzzcocks and Magazine and who is now a librarian at the Stoke Newington Library.
the idea was thet each person played the inspirational track that set them off journalising.
Charles Shaar Murray played My Generation (The Who), Simon Reynolds played Bodies (The Sex Pistols), Paul Morley played Boredom (The Buzzcocks) and Lucy played Planet Claire (by The B52s).
ut of the four, Lucy is the only one who was actually in a band (maybe Charles Shaar Murray was: I don't know much about him). She told us how the B52s represented the 'fluorescent side of punk', like X-Ray Spex, and she told us about her kit-synthesiser, a Transcender 2000; she had chosen Planet Claire as an example of 'the keyboards showing off', which I thought was a wonderful reason.
Richard Boon was an amiable host and I forgave him for not letting me ask my question ('I subscribe to Mojo. Why do they assume that I'm a bloke?').
It was an interesting afternoon.
I came back out into the torrents of rain only to find that I had lost my car. I soaked up the rain like a sponge because it has been so dry recently. I expect my hair to grow luxuriantly as a result of the increased precipitation and have therefore booked a hair appointment for next week.
No I haven't, of course, thats nonsense.
Oh yes- Dec Hickey was there, with a proof copy of his labour-of-love book on New Order. He made 100 copies and sold the lot for £95 each apart from one that he put on eBay and got over £300 for. That's what I like to see: a bit of loving enterprise.
Tomorrow I will tell you about Martin's online gig this evening!