Lights, camera, action!

Well, the Riverside Festival was good fun and Sam, the young ukulele player gave - as expected - a superb performance. He has a singing voice that can soar with energy when needed, but which can just as easily retreat into poetic yearning and softness as well. His own (sometimes anguished) lyrics are original and tender, and his interpretations of other classic songs are provocative. It was most excellent, and a good start to the festival. Later we moved on to watch other performances on the various stages there. This for me is the whole point of going to the festival – unfortunately, the majority of Nottingham's hoi-polloi seem to attend for different reasons (the flashing and screeching of the funfair; the queasy smell of the burger vans; the impatient cram of the beer tent). Later in the evening we watched the rhythmic pulse-beat that was Nuru Kane & Bayefall Gnawa from Senegal. Electrifying - and a sweaty, chaotic climax to the day's music. And yes, I am aware - before anyone points it out - that in the above photograph, Sam is not playing a ukulele. That is my fault.

Guess what? There's a picture of me appearing in this month's brochure from Broadway. A few weeks ago I wrote here about a photo session involving many of the creative people living and working in Nottingham. Well, one of the photos taken at that session is featured both in the magazine 'Left Lion', and in the Broadway brochure. True, you'd need a magnifying-glass worthy of the Hubble telescope to spot me, but I'm there; I'm on the map. So, even on those very infrequent occasions when I am not actually sitting in the Broadway bar, I'm still in the building!

Toodle pip, old loves.