The big mistake people who’ve never had writer’s block usually make in their assumptions about writer's block is thinking that it must be about having no ideas.
The one time I saw Edwin Starr live was at a one day festival in summer 1984 in the shadow of Clitheroe Castle. Edwin wasn’t even the headline act, which was my then-favourite band Climax Blues Band, who were in the process of imploding and had already lost two key members. Weirdly, there was no publicity whatsoever for this festival, and we only heard about it on local radio the morning of the event. It seemed strange to haul a US soul star to the north west of England and not tell anyone. But a rumour abounded that Edwin Starr had actually moved to England, so his commute pre- and post-gig wouldn’t be quite as long. No one really believed it, though. It was a rumour in the same mould as the one that insisted that the cool bald guy from Hot Chocolate lived on a 1970s housing estate in Wigan. That turned out to be false, so I’m glad to hear that Edwin Starr really WAS a resident of a working class town. He and his band were excellent live, by the way.
Edwin! Here in the West Mids, everyone will tell you that he lived in Wolverhampton. Maybe he did for a while before swapping the West Mids for the East Mids? Or maybe the West Mids wanted to claim him (even though Wolvers already had Slade, ffs).
I saw one of his gigs in the late 90s at the Que Club in Birmingham - a cavernous red-brick old Methodist hall. He was AMAZING. He played "War" and everbody. Lost. Their. Shit. Brilliant! Apparently he was a staple at a lot of the Northern Soul nights.
Oh, and Blow Up - I did go once, and it was really cool. But I had trouble staying awake because I'd gone out the night before with my friend in Colchester and we had to wait for two hours for a taxi, then I woke up really early the next morning thanks to bedroom curtains that were about as light-defeating as a Kleenex. I was so bloody tired!
And... You should definitely write that ghost story! They are far creepier on a summer's day, and I once had a very odd MR James-like experience on a very hot, sunny day. I visited my mum one summer and decided to walk across the parched fields to a church to look at the headstones. On the way, I had to pass by the charred, skeletal remains of a burnt-out tree. I went round the churchyard and saw an interesting headstone dedicated to two young men killed there by a sudden bolt of lightning one summer in the 1800s. At some point, I suddenly got the feeling that *something* was following me. I could see a dark shadow from the corner of my eye. How could there be a shadow in the middle of a scorching summer day? I headed back to my mum's, heading past the charred tree, and could still feel it following me. In the end, I decided to ignore it and told myself that my grandad, who had been a Methodist lay preacher with a fascination for Borley Rectory, would look after me.
I didn't tell my mum about it. The next morning she asked me, "Did someone follow you home from the churchyard yesterday? Only this morning, I went into the lounge and had a feeling there was some there, staring at the patio doors like they wanted to go outside. So I opened the doors and the feeling went away."
Definitely. It was so bloody weird! I haven't had anything like that happen to me before. Also - I used to go to that church on Sundays with my mum, my brothers were baptised there and my mum and my stepdad had their blessing there. It had never seemed creepy before!
As spooky/creepy as they can be, I do love these sorts of stories, and totally believe that these things can happen (and that some people are especially sensitive to them!).
I haven't read it for years! Must look it up again 😃
And re what you said in your comment below, the house I lived in as a child was haunted by an elderly lady who called me by name when I was a toddler and freaked my parents right out (I was blissfully asleep at the time 😄). She stopped visiting after my second sister was born and I've always wondered about that... 🤔
Your poltergeist experiences must have really been something! 😱 I have read somewhere that they tend to occur when there are young people about.
Whaaaaaaatttt that's so creepy about the elderly lady!
And yes, when poltergeists occur, there tends to be a teenager around, often female. So of course, a lot of people think it's pranking. But my friend and I never made up anything we reported. We both independently saw a white, see-through figure of a girl in different parts of the house. Things like that. Both heard violent crashes and bangs from the loft when there was no one up there. Her mum wouldn't believe us, until she was washing up at the kitchen sink one day and heard a scraping noise. She turned and watched the cat's bowl slide across the floor, then it lifted slowly into the air about a metre, then hovered, before suddenly turning upside down and crashing back to the floor. Strangely enough, she believed us after that!
Oh, they can, yes! I should say, it's the only time I've been followed home by something (a shadow person is the best way I can describe it). But I've had plenty of other weird experiences. When I was a teenager, for instance, a friend of mine had a poltergeist in her house. That was properly terrifying at times, and at other times just a bit silly.
She could sense something in the lounge, and because I'd been to the churchyard, she thought that's where it came from! My family is a bit strange like that - me, my mum, and my aunt have all shared that we've sensed family members around us sometimes who've passed on and things like that.
Thinking about where something is supposed to be going ("the journey") seems like getting ahead of the game. First you have to find out what's happening *now*, and then you'll find out whether there's a journey to make or not. And you can't be too wedded to the journey (if there's one to make) or you miss out on the jellyfish. Never miss out on the jellyfish.
The most exciting journeys are unplanned ones. Instinct and just enjoying discovering where the writing leads is one of the best parts of writing in my opinion. Trying to plan stifles any creativity for me.
"Nobody knows anything about what will work. Some of them will tell you they do. But they don’t." Oh, how true. And not just in publishing. This is a statement to live by, for almost every facet of life. And at the zenith, are the marketing and advertising "suits".
War... love the Edwin Starr version, but one of my favourite covers of all time is FGTH's version on "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" - cleverly setting up "Two Tribes". By the way, if I was making a list of albums I could listen to end-to-end, (without any urge to skip a track), "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" would be close to the top. Maybe just below Abbey Road, but above Mansun's "Little Kix". Of course... that list will be completely different tomorrow!
I'm compelled to add, "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" boasts one of the most eclectic sprinkling of covers you are likely to encounter on an album that is not a covers album. For instance, in addition to "War", there's a brilliant version of "Born To Run", immediately followed by "San Jose". The mind boggles at how they got to that.
I guess you have to be of a certain age to fully appreciate the Edwin Starr version....and have lived through the uneasiness and uncertainty of the times.
Synth pop just doesn't cut it. FGTH has their own place in time, however.
My musical journey started with The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Small Faces, (the real) Fleetwood Mac, etc. I moved on to The Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zep, Deep Purple, Santana, et al. Always looking for new and interesting, I found Soft Machine, Mahavishnu, Gong, Hatfield & The North, Henry Cow, Frank Zappa, and a whole bunch of other weird and wonderful.
My musical journey has only really faltered in the last decade. Is that me - or are we all out of new and interesting stuff to listen to? Dunno.
What I do know is: we are now back to living in very uneasy and uncertain times. And I don't know if we have the "poets" and musicians to respond to it. Forty years ago we had Bob and Midge giving us Live Aid. Where are today's fighters for a better world? Bob Vylan and Kneecap, I guess.
P.S. I've never had FGTH in the "synth pop" category. The throbbing bass and drums, and the wailing guitar on Two Tribes never struck me as that.
“Has anybody done a cover version of their own book?” Interesting. I’ve just finished a book by Murakami (the city and its uncertain walls) which he calls a “response” to something he wrote in his late teens/early twenties which is what originally became hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. For me it’s more like a new remix than a cover, very different. Feels unusual, brave? for an author to do that - I’m going to have another go at that earlier one, I think I can make it better or say something different this time round now I’m older and different myself. It is to be encouraged I think if people feel inclined to give it a go
I really enjoyed Nice Jumper. I am glad it found a publisher, as it was such an offhand topic; I am equally glad you have other options as it is clear your work deserves to be shared and it only seems right you benefit from it as labor.
Thank you for including the photo of the album cover! When I was reading the description, I really, really wanted to see it.
I’ve been thinking lately about the conundrum of writing for an “audience” and wanting to reach a great number of people while being true to yourself. I think the majority of people who read books do want an easy story that involves a “journey” because it meets an emotional need in their lives and it takes them along for the ride, hence the scramble to convince writers to write them in hopes of a big score. I much prefer a book that challenges my expectations and invites me to enter a portal where I go on my own journey discovering the world of the characters (I’m looking at you “Everything Will Swallow You”). I have no doubt you will always have a band of devoted, discerning readers all through your life as long as you care to write. Fingers crossed there are enough of us for you to have a comfortable life! I have faith there will be.
That was a great piece of writing, fantastic! I really hope you write the miss mash of your youth and the music, all of it. Many short stories in there, at least!
I remember "Agent Double O Soul" from the Detroit music scene where I grew up. It was the summer of 1965 as the song has been bouncing around in my head for the last two weeks. Sixty years long gone...the British Invasion gave Motown quite a run in the mid 1960's for air time but I think Motown won in the Detroit area anyway. But we could listen to CKLW from Windsor Canada and escape the constant Motown vibrations.
Strange but I think I like more songs from the "Invasion" than I do from Motown after all the decades. Many of the early Stone's songs are still my favorites.
Glad you at least have more time; coming on top of everything else it must have been sooo stressful. I hope you can enjoy the summer now. I think I know the nudist beach...
Hi Tom what happens if I switch to a subscription on your website? Can I still access your writing on here or will the paid content go behind the paywall?
While I'm here, I'd like to warn you that it looks as if there's a clumsy attempt at impersonating you here on Substack. Forgive me for cluttering up the <Comments> here, but I have no other way of letting you know
This morning there was a Substack message in my inbox telling me that Tom Cox is now following me. Naturally, this delighted me, but it also surprised me greatly.
When I clicked on 'Tom Cox' in the message, it brought me to this:
I'm enamored of your writing, and feel I should seek out your books. Maybe one day...right now I'm still struggling to read normally. Was a proofreader for years and I still, sadly and automatically, find myself reading for typos and grammar correction! I don't know how to let go. Help.
P.S. I am not implying your work needs such scrutiny; I'm being truthful in that it makes my pleasure reading take far longer than it should.
The one time I saw Edwin Starr live was at a one day festival in summer 1984 in the shadow of Clitheroe Castle. Edwin wasn’t even the headline act, which was my then-favourite band Climax Blues Band, who were in the process of imploding and had already lost two key members. Weirdly, there was no publicity whatsoever for this festival, and we only heard about it on local radio the morning of the event. It seemed strange to haul a US soul star to the north west of England and not tell anyone. But a rumour abounded that Edwin Starr had actually moved to England, so his commute pre- and post-gig wouldn’t be quite as long. No one really believed it, though. It was a rumour in the same mould as the one that insisted that the cool bald guy from Hot Chocolate lived on a 1970s housing estate in Wigan. That turned out to be false, so I’m glad to hear that Edwin Starr really WAS a resident of a working class town. He and his band were excellent live, by the way.
Edwin! Here in the West Mids, everyone will tell you that he lived in Wolverhampton. Maybe he did for a while before swapping the West Mids for the East Mids? Or maybe the West Mids wanted to claim him (even though Wolvers already had Slade, ffs).
I saw one of his gigs in the late 90s at the Que Club in Birmingham - a cavernous red-brick old Methodist hall. He was AMAZING. He played "War" and everbody. Lost. Their. Shit. Brilliant! Apparently he was a staple at a lot of the Northern Soul nights.
Oh, and Blow Up - I did go once, and it was really cool. But I had trouble staying awake because I'd gone out the night before with my friend in Colchester and we had to wait for two hours for a taxi, then I woke up really early the next morning thanks to bedroom curtains that were about as light-defeating as a Kleenex. I was so bloody tired!
And... You should definitely write that ghost story! They are far creepier on a summer's day, and I once had a very odd MR James-like experience on a very hot, sunny day. I visited my mum one summer and decided to walk across the parched fields to a church to look at the headstones. On the way, I had to pass by the charred, skeletal remains of a burnt-out tree. I went round the churchyard and saw an interesting headstone dedicated to two young men killed there by a sudden bolt of lightning one summer in the 1800s. At some point, I suddenly got the feeling that *something* was following me. I could see a dark shadow from the corner of my eye. How could there be a shadow in the middle of a scorching summer day? I headed back to my mum's, heading past the charred tree, and could still feel it following me. In the end, I decided to ignore it and told myself that my grandad, who had been a Methodist lay preacher with a fascination for Borley Rectory, would look after me.
I didn't tell my mum about it. The next morning she asked me, "Did someone follow you home from the churchyard yesterday? Only this morning, I went into the lounge and had a feeling there was some there, staring at the patio doors like they wanted to go outside. So I opened the doors and the feeling went away."
What. The. Heck.
Crikey. Am sitting here with massive goosebumps on rather a warm Dutch afternoon. What the heck indeed!
Definitely. It was so bloody weird! I haven't had anything like that happen to me before. Also - I used to go to that church on Sundays with my mum, my brothers were baptised there and my mum and my stepdad had their blessing there. It had never seemed creepy before!
As spooky/creepy as they can be, I do love these sorts of stories, and totally believe that these things can happen (and that some people are especially sensitive to them!).
Have you ever read Fortean Times magazine? They have reader-submitted stories about all kinds of weirdness.
I haven't read it for years! Must look it up again 😃
And re what you said in your comment below, the house I lived in as a child was haunted by an elderly lady who called me by name when I was a toddler and freaked my parents right out (I was blissfully asleep at the time 😄). She stopped visiting after my second sister was born and I've always wondered about that... 🤔
Your poltergeist experiences must have really been something! 😱 I have read somewhere that they tend to occur when there are young people about.
Whaaaaaaatttt that's so creepy about the elderly lady!
And yes, when poltergeists occur, there tends to be a teenager around, often female. So of course, a lot of people think it's pranking. But my friend and I never made up anything we reported. We both independently saw a white, see-through figure of a girl in different parts of the house. Things like that. Both heard violent crashes and bangs from the loft when there was no one up there. Her mum wouldn't believe us, until she was washing up at the kitchen sink one day and heard a scraping noise. She turned and watched the cat's bowl slide across the floor, then it lifted slowly into the air about a metre, then hovered, before suddenly turning upside down and crashing back to the floor. Strangely enough, she believed us after that!
Oh, they can, yes! I should say, it's the only time I've been followed home by something (a shadow person is the best way I can describe it). But I've had plenty of other weird experiences. When I was a teenager, for instance, a friend of mine had a poltergeist in her house. That was properly terrifying at times, and at other times just a bit silly.
What prompted your mum to ask if you'd been followed? I'm not quite following...😏, sorry.
Or was it a 'thing' that frequently happened to anyone going that way?
She could sense something in the lounge, and because I'd been to the churchyard, she thought that's where it came from! My family is a bit strange like that - me, my mum, and my aunt have all shared that we've sensed family members around us sometimes who've passed on and things like that.
Thinking about where something is supposed to be going ("the journey") seems like getting ahead of the game. First you have to find out what's happening *now*, and then you'll find out whether there's a journey to make or not. And you can't be too wedded to the journey (if there's one to make) or you miss out on the jellyfish. Never miss out on the jellyfish.
The most exciting journeys are unplanned ones. Instinct and just enjoying discovering where the writing leads is one of the best parts of writing in my opinion. Trying to plan stifles any creativity for me.
I'd read the deeply tanned old people story, the Edwin Starr afterlife story, and also the Cafe in My Pocket story. All highly alluring.
"Nobody knows anything about what will work. Some of them will tell you they do. But they don’t." Oh, how true. And not just in publishing. This is a statement to live by, for almost every facet of life. And at the zenith, are the marketing and advertising "suits".
War... love the Edwin Starr version, but one of my favourite covers of all time is FGTH's version on "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" - cleverly setting up "Two Tribes". By the way, if I was making a list of albums I could listen to end-to-end, (without any urge to skip a track), "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" would be close to the top. Maybe just below Abbey Road, but above Mansun's "Little Kix". Of course... that list will be completely different tomorrow!
I'm compelled to add, "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome" boasts one of the most eclectic sprinkling of covers you are likely to encounter on an album that is not a covers album. For instance, in addition to "War", there's a brilliant version of "Born To Run", immediately followed by "San Jose". The mind boggles at how they got to that.
Maybe the musical equivalent of a Tom Cox story?
I guess you have to be of a certain age to fully appreciate the Edwin Starr version....and have lived through the uneasiness and uncertainty of the times.
Synth pop just doesn't cut it. FGTH has their own place in time, however.
I think I qualify on "the certain age" front.
My musical journey started with The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Small Faces, (the real) Fleetwood Mac, etc. I moved on to The Yardbirds, Cream, Led Zep, Deep Purple, Santana, et al. Always looking for new and interesting, I found Soft Machine, Mahavishnu, Gong, Hatfield & The North, Henry Cow, Frank Zappa, and a whole bunch of other weird and wonderful.
My musical journey has only really faltered in the last decade. Is that me - or are we all out of new and interesting stuff to listen to? Dunno.
What I do know is: we are now back to living in very uneasy and uncertain times. And I don't know if we have the "poets" and musicians to respond to it. Forty years ago we had Bob and Midge giving us Live Aid. Where are today's fighters for a better world? Bob Vylan and Kneecap, I guess.
P.S. I've never had FGTH in the "synth pop" category. The throbbing bass and drums, and the wailing guitar on Two Tribes never struck me as that.
“Has anybody done a cover version of their own book?” Interesting. I’ve just finished a book by Murakami (the city and its uncertain walls) which he calls a “response” to something he wrote in his late teens/early twenties which is what originally became hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. For me it’s more like a new remix than a cover, very different. Feels unusual, brave? for an author to do that - I’m going to have another go at that earlier one, I think I can make it better or say something different this time round now I’m older and different myself. It is to be encouraged I think if people feel inclined to give it a go
I really enjoyed Nice Jumper. I am glad it found a publisher, as it was such an offhand topic; I am equally glad you have other options as it is clear your work deserves to be shared and it only seems right you benefit from it as labor.
Thank you for including the photo of the album cover! When I was reading the description, I really, really wanted to see it.
I’ve been thinking lately about the conundrum of writing for an “audience” and wanting to reach a great number of people while being true to yourself. I think the majority of people who read books do want an easy story that involves a “journey” because it meets an emotional need in their lives and it takes them along for the ride, hence the scramble to convince writers to write them in hopes of a big score. I much prefer a book that challenges my expectations and invites me to enter a portal where I go on my own journey discovering the world of the characters (I’m looking at you “Everything Will Swallow You”). I have no doubt you will always have a band of devoted, discerning readers all through your life as long as you care to write. Fingers crossed there are enough of us for you to have a comfortable life! I have faith there will be.
That was a great piece of writing, fantastic! I really hope you write the miss mash of your youth and the music, all of it. Many short stories in there, at least!
Thanks Lorrie! Maybe I will…
I remember "Agent Double O Soul" from the Detroit music scene where I grew up. It was the summer of 1965 as the song has been bouncing around in my head for the last two weeks. Sixty years long gone...the British Invasion gave Motown quite a run in the mid 1960's for air time but I think Motown won in the Detroit area anyway. But we could listen to CKLW from Windsor Canada and escape the constant Motown vibrations.
Strange but I think I like more songs from the "Invasion" than I do from Motown after all the decades. Many of the early Stone's songs are still my favorites.
I love it when you wander off like this. I could read this stuff for hours.
Hope you've found a new place...
Thanks June! Fortunately we have managed to get some more time here (albeit at a newly eye-watering rent). Greatly relieved.
Glad you at least have more time; coming on top of everything else it must have been sooo stressful. I hope you can enjoy the summer now. I think I know the nudist beach...
It still blows my mind that Edwin Starr lived in Nottingham
Hi Tom what happens if I switch to a subscription on your website? Can I still access your writing on here or will the paid content go behind the paywall?
As always, thank you!
While I'm here, I'd like to warn you that it looks as if there's a clumsy attempt at impersonating you here on Substack. Forgive me for cluttering up the <Comments> here, but I have no other way of letting you know
This morning there was a Substack message in my inbox telling me that Tom Cox is now following me. Naturally, this delighted me, but it also surprised me greatly.
When I clicked on 'Tom Cox' in the message, it brought me to this:
https://substack.com/@tomcoxn?utm_source=new-follower-email
and not to your page. I've reported it, of course, but who knows what the outcome will be, so I thought you might like to know about it.
Thank you again for another wonderful piece!
Update: the impersonator has now sent me a direct message. It's a lead-in to data extraction and flogging cryto.
(By the way, the reason I haven't blocked it yet is because it's impersonating you, which royally infuriaes me, so I wabt to monitor what it's up to)
I'm enamored of your writing, and feel I should seek out your books. Maybe one day...right now I'm still struggling to read normally. Was a proofreader for years and I still, sadly and automatically, find myself reading for typos and grammar correction! I don't know how to let go. Help.
P.S. I am not implying your work needs such scrutiny; I'm being truthful in that it makes my pleasure reading take far longer than it should.