Pete Doherty - now and then

I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ve read some excellent reviews of Louis Theroux’s interview with Pete Doherty, broadcast on BBC2 last week.

The Telegraph gave it five stars, The Times four, while the Mail reported:

Pete Doherty wins praise from BBC viewers for his 'fascinating, authentic and unpretentious' interview with Louis Theroux as they praise the unlikely pair's connection: 'Just wonderful chemistry'.

I mention this because a few months ago I wrote about a short film, produced and directed in 2001 by Sharon Peng, who at the time was a student at Bournemouth University.

Smokers’ Corner featured several faces familiar to Forest supporters - including Forest researcher Judith Hatton, our patron Antony Worrall Thompson, and James Leavey, author of two Forest guides - but the star of the film was a young Peter Doherty.

As I wrote here, Doherty’s ‘contributions were (and still are) absolutely priceless - charming, amusing, pretentious, and often all three at once!’.

‘The film,’ I added, ‘is bittersweet because several participants are no longer alive, and in the intervening years Pete Doherty has had his demons but, watching this, you can't help but like him.’

Smokers’ Corner still exists on YouTube, albeit in very poor quality, but if you can overlook that it’s definitely worth watching.

Click here or on the image below.

New York and the Holy Grail

I see that Spamalot, the musical based on the 1976 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is enjoying its first revival on Broadway.

It’s had mixed reviews but I want to write about the original production because I was lucky enough to see it during a brief trip to New York in 2005.

It was my first visit to the Big Apple and to say it was a catalogue of woe is an understatement.

I flew from Toronto, where I had some business meetings, and that set the tone for the next few days.

If I remember, the scheduled flight was cancelled after we had checked in and we had to re-book on the next available flight.

However there was a technical problem with the second plane so, having taken our seats, we all had to get off.

Worse, we had to go to the baggage area, reclaim our luggage, and go through security all over again.

Hours later we eventually took off on the replacement aircraft and it was late, and dark, when we finally arrived in New York.

The hotel had been recommended by a top PR exec whose daughter lived nearby. In hindsight I wish I knew then what I know now because although the area was nice and quiet the hotel was … average.

On the first night, for example, the air conditioning didn’t work, which is not great when you’re staying in New York in the height of summer.

Talking of heat (this was in August), it was so hot during the day that even walking in Central Park was a no-no for most people, and the open air theatre was closed because even in the evening it was considered too uncomfortable.

The biggest disappointment though was my failed attempt to meet Audrey Silk of NYC Clash, a New York based smokers’ rights group.

Audrey had been fighting the New York smoking ban and I was keen to meet her. She lives in an apartment in Brooklyn where she grows her own tobacco.

She kindly invited me to lunch and I was looking forward to it.

I jumped in a taxi outside Macy’s, gave her address to the taxi driver, and within minutes we were driving over the famous Brooklyn Bridge. It was like being in a film.

Thirty minutes later, however, with the meter heading north of $50, it was clear the driver hadn’t got a clue where he was or where we were going.

His English wasn’t great and at one point he even rang his brother to ask for directions.

His brother couldn’t help and I couldn’t reach Audrey by phone because my Nokia mobile phone wouldn’t connect to the US network.

After 45 minutes of increasingly aimless driving, I gave the order to about turn and we retreated, defeated, to Manhattan.

I did meet Audrey eventually but not until 2017 when I invited her to speak at GTNF in New York.

Given this context, you can understand perhaps why Spamalot was the highlight of my visit.

Officially the show was sold out but the concierge at my hotel had ‘contacts’ and managed to get me a ticket, albeit well in excess of the advertised price.

Nevertheless, I desperately needed a laugh and Spamalot delivered so it was money well spent and I look back fondly at that evening and the gales of laughter that swept the theatre.

It made me proud to be British!

Done roaming

I have some sympathy for Michael Matheson, the Scottish health secretary who clocked up an £11,000 data roaming charge on his iPad when abroad.

It’s easily done - especially if children are involved - and the reason I know this is because something similar happened to a friend of mine a few years ago.

His daughter went on a school trip to Europe and a few weeks after returning home the monthly bill for her iPad had an excess charge of €20,000.

A brief investigation revealed that it was the result of the daughter using her iPad to watch a film, with all the excess data and roaming charges that involved.

My friend naturally took this up with the network provider, arguing that a 16-year-old couldn’t be expected to know the financial implications of using the iPad in exactly the same way that she used it at home.

If I remember, the company pointed out that she would have received warnings, but they had been ignored.

Nevertheless, my friend (who is quite well off) threatened the company with m’learned friends and they dropped the additional charge as a ‘goodwill’ gesture, but it shows how easy it is to rack up roaming charges when abroad.

Funnily enough, I was thinking about this even before I read the Matheson story because as soon as I landed in Cork on Monday and turned on my phone and iPad I received messages from Vodafone and Three on this very subject.

According to Three:

Love staying connected? We recommend our Data Passport. It’s just GBP5.00 for unlimited data which you can use for up to 24 hours, as Data Passports are valid until midnight GMT+1 (BST) on the day of purchase …

Significantly, it added:

In order to avoid incurring roaming charges before purchasing a Data Passport, we suggest using a local WiFi connection instead of your roaming data.

Vodafone, meanwhile, welcomed me to Ireland with the news that:

It’s one of our inclusive Zone A destinations - so you can use the calls, texts and up to 25GB of data (including Extras) from your plan here at no extra cost. If your data runs out, it's 0.31p per MB (£3.13 per GB) for any more data you use.

A second message read:

One more quick thing... if you've set a spending limit with Vodafone Spend Manager, relax - it's still working hard to protect you against unexpected charges on your travels. Just like it does at home.

Needless to say I ignored all these messages, which is why I have some sympathy with Matheson (although I did ensure I was on wifi for most of the time I was in Ireland).

His biggest mistake, however, was hoping the taxpayer would pick up the bill.

Ultimately the excess charges were his responsibility so he would have been better advised to accept culpability immediately and take it up with his network provider, as my friend did.

Had he done that he would have had many people’s sympathy, mine included. Instead, his efforts to ‘protect’ his family have made things ten times worse.

Still, if this episode highlights the danger of unexpected roaming charges, he may have done everyone a favour.

There but for the grace of God etc.

Plane speaking

Just back from Cork.

I popped over to catch up with John Mallon who has been Forest’s spokesman in Ireland for 14 years.

Having led the world with the smoking ban in 2004 - something Irish politicians are insanely proud of - the country is now playing catch up on a number of regulations, including a ban on tobacco vending machines and age restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes.

Incredibly, the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill began its long journey in 2014.

Four years ago it was called the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2019, but this year it became the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2023.

Now there are plans to add further regulations to the Bill - specifically restrictions on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes - that threaten to delay it even further.

Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any desire (yet) to follow in the footsteps of New Zealand or Rishi Sunak and introduce a generational ban on the sale of tobacco, but you know how quickly these things can change.

Anyway, I always enjoy my visits to Ireland, although I was a bit apprehensive on Sunday when I saw the weather forecast for Monday morning, when I was due to fly to Cork from Stansted.

Storm Debi was predicted to hit Ireland before continuing its journey across the Irish Sea and then the UK, with wind speeds of 50-60mph and gusts significantly more than that.

The weather warning for Cork was upgraded from yellow to orange and being a nervous flyer, even in good weather, I wasn’t best pleased.

My flight was due to depart Stansted at 7.55am but when I woke at 4.00 and heard the rain lashing down outside I thought better of it and booked a seat on an evening flight when the forecast was better.

As it happens, the early morning flight on which I was originally booked landed in Cork on schedule, but by the time I got to Stansted for the later flight it was blowing a gale right across Cambridgeshire and Essex.

Sod’s Law.

Thankfully, apart from a slightly bumpy take off and landing, plus some mild turbulence mid flight, it wasn’t too bad. (Sorry to disappoint.)

The (irrational?) unease I feel when flying (I wouldn’t call it fear) harks back to my honeymoon 31 years ago when a small plane we were on in America dived up and down like a rollercoaster as the pilot battled to navigate our way around a thunderstorm.

It was probably no more than 30 seconds, although it felt much longer, but that - and another turbulent flight to the Cayman Islands on the same holiday - has influenced my dislike of flying ever since.

To be fair, I didn’t experience anything like that again until a few years ago when I flew out of Dublin.

The wind was around 40mph (the limit, apparently, for a ‘safe’ take-off) and the plane shook and ‘bounced’ so badly on take-off, and for several minutes as it climbed to cruising height, that I had to hold on grimly to the seat in front as we were thrown around.

Not pleasant.

In contrast to this feeble flyer, my mother, who will be 93 next month, told me recently that she would love to go into space, and she wasn’t joking.

I can understand the appeal of being weightless and looking down on Earth, but it’s the few minutes it takes to get there I don’t fancy, and the re-entry.

Apparently, in the days when you could book a flight on Concorde, my father suggested they book seats on one of those flights that took passengers on a round trip to and from Heathrow and over the Bay of Biscay.

They didn’t do it in the end, not because my mother didn’t want to, but because she felt it was too expensive. I think she regrets that decision now.

Anyway, I’m pleased to report that my return flight from Cork this morning was about as smooth as you could hope for. If only flying was like this all the time!

Above: Returning from Cork this morning. Below: Terrace at the Montenotte Hotel overlooking Cork harbour

Nanny state of the nation

The King's Speech on Tuesday confirmed that the Prime Minister intends to press ahead with legislation to raise the age of sale of tobacco by one year every year until no-one can legally purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products.

In response to a policy that threatens to treat future generations of adults like children (see ‘King’s Speech: Activists decry generational ban’), Forest is inviting opponents of the proposed legislation to join us in London on Monday November 20.

The event, at Old Queen Street Cafe in Westminster, features me, Claire Fox (aka Baroness Fox of Buckley), Henry Hill (ConservativeHome), Reem Ibrahim (Institute of Economic Affairs), and Ella Whelan (Academy of Ideas), but we also want to hear from you.

As well as highlighting the absurd nature of the proposed legislation, the event will also mark the recent publication of a short essay I wrote for the Academy of Ideas’ Letters on Liberty strand. By coincidence (it was written in July), the title is ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?’.

If you're unfamiliar with Old Queen Street Cafe, it was opened last year by the same people who run the online magazine UnHerd, whose office is next door.

The cafe is open from 8.00am to 11.00pm for breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, or events such as this and having visited it for the first time only a few weeks ago I can report that it's rather wonderful and definitely worth a visit.

You'll find us on the first floor where we've booked the Library and Club Bar for drinks and canapés from 6.15pm followed by what should be lively discussion at 7.00.

Places are limited so if you’d like to join us please reserve your place now. RSVP events@forestonline.org or register via Eventbrite.

The Institute of Economic Affairs will also be discussing the issue on Wednesday November 29 when the free market think tank hosts ‘Prohibition 2.0: the future of UK tobacco policy'.

Chaired by Reem Ibrahim, speakers include the IEA’s Chris Snowdon, Madeline Grant (Telegraph), Paul North (Volteface), and retailer Paul Cheema (Association of Convenience Stores). For details click here.

Happy birthday, Andy Partridge

I don't normally mention birthdays here, but I read that XTC’s Andy Partridge is 70 today.

Two years ago, at a rate of one a week, I featured my favourite XTC songs, most of them written by Partridge.

It culminated with this post, XTC – an appreciation, that concluded as follows:

Finally, a word about the sometimes maligned Andy Partridge, the band’s principal singer/songwriter, whose feud with producer Todd Rundgren during the recording of Skylarking in 1986 is still being written and talked about by XTC obsessives decades later.

Ironically Skylarking is many people’s favourite XTC album and the consensus seems to be that Partridge needed a strong producer to curb his excesses and in Rundgren he met his match. Or, as Partridge himself said, it was “like having two Hitlers in the same bunker.”

What cannot be denied is that for all his alleged bossiness in the studio which clearly drove band mates and several producers to distraction, Partridge can be irresistibly engaging and humorous. The evidence, if you want to look for it, is on the Internet – from appearances on the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop with Noel Edmunds, presenting a guided tour of Swindon, his home town, to more recent podcasts and interviews in which he is happy to talk at length about XTC and the process of songwriting. (Listen to him describe the making of 'Easter Theatre' from Apple Venus.)

Arguably the most evocative of the 30 songs listed above is a simple live acoustic version of ‘Train Running Low On Soul Coal’ that was recorded as part of a documentary (XTC - Play At Home) broadcast on Channel 4 in 1984. In my view it's far superior to the longer, over-produced version that appeared on The Big Express and even ends with a knowing, self-deprecating nod to XTC’s legendary ‘popularity’, even in their home town. Available only on YouTube, you can watch it here.

Since the final XTC album was issued 23 years ago, Partridge has kept himself busy releasing demos (the 8-CD Fuzzy Warbles collection), overseeing the release of remastered versions of XTC’s back catalogue, and (occasionally) writing with or for other musicians.

His recent projects include a 4-track EP written and recorded with Jen Olive and Stu Rowe and released as The 3 Clubmen. The lead track, Aviatrix, is worth a listen even if you have no interest in XTC.

A few weeks ago The Big Express, ‘the seventh in a series of expanded XTC album reissues’, was re-released and although it’s still far from my favourite XTC album you can’t fault the ambition of a track like the aforementioned ‘Train Running Low On Soul Coal’.

Meanwhile, I have bought myself an advance Christmas present - ‘Pop Artery’, a ‘deluxe 122 page book collecting 56 unique paintings by Andy Partridge that offer visual interpretations of XTC songs’.

It will go nicely, I think, with the ‘Dig For XTC’ print that’s on the wall of my office (below).

The serious point I wish to make, though, is this. Sometimes, when I read interviews with Partridge, you can sense frustration that XTC never enjoyed prolonged commercial success or greater recognition.

To most people XTC and Andy Partridge are at best a footnote in pop history, if that.

It’s regrettable, certainly, but thousands of talented musicians have fared much worse, and nothing can diminish the pleasure Partridge has brought to people like me (and I’m not even what you might call an uber fan), or the body of work he has created.

He may not be a household name (even in Swindon!) but most people would, and should, be extremely proud of such a legacy.

So happy 70th birthday, Andy Partridge. You’ve earned it.

Instagram? No thanks!

I stumbled on this Instagram post last night.

I have an account but it’s not a platform I ever use and looking at some of the comments (eg ‘What a stinking pile of raw poo coming out of his mouth’) I don’t think I ever will!

The sound of musicals - from Carousel to The Little Big Things

I’m not a huge fan of musicals, but who doesn’t love The Sound of Music?

Film wise, that would probably be my favourite musical, followed closely by Mary Poppins, based largely on childhood memories of watching them in the cinema.

I wasn’t born when the classic Hollywood musicals came out in the Fifties, but Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel had a big impact on me the first time I saw it, but that was on television and in my opinion musicals really need to be seen on the big screen, or on stage.

Many years later I saw Carousel at the Savoy Theatre in London. I enjoyed it but I can’t remember any of the music apart from ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ which I would be happy never to hear again.

For sheer unpretentious fun the best musical I’ve seen on stage would be Me and My Girl starring Robert Lindsay.

Originally written in the Thirties, the book was updated by Stephen Fry in the Eighties and I enjoyed it so much I also saw a later revival starring Gary Wilmot, a wonderful stage performer who should be far better known than he is.

Talking of Robert Lindsay, has anyone seen Bert Rigsby, You’re A Fool? It was written, I believe, specially for Lindsay following the success of Me and My Girl but I’ve never seen it, not even on television.

Rewind to 1981 and in a single month I saw three of the most successful musicals of all time - Les Miserables, Evita, and Cats. How did that happen?

Well, my tickets were paid for by the father of a friend who wanted his son to experience some culture now he was living in London.

I’m not sure if popular West End musicals were what he had in mind, but Peter decided that, since his father was paying, he would purchase the very best seats in the house and he invited me to join him.

Of the three, Les Miserables was my favourite. It gets criticised, but that fate befalls most long-running shows because familiarity breeds contempt - amongst critics, if not the paying public.

Even at the time some critics panned it, but I thought it was great - rousing and emotional but with some nice comic interludes.

Evita was OK, and Cats - well, I couldn’t make head nor tail of it (no pun intended) because there was no story to speak of and only one big song (‘Memory’) which I didn’t particularly like.

If I remember, we were seated very close to the stage (even on the stage) so we were surrounded by lithe figures in skimpy catsuits which was unnerving and a little bit uncomfortable.

After that I gave stage musicals a miss for a few years until I was invited to see the Jonathan Miller production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado at the English National Opera with Eric Idle as Ko-Ko and Lesley Garrett as Yum-Yum.

Technically it’s an operetta or comic opera but, ignoring that, I went with a friend who was a huge Gilbert and Sullivan fan and I enjoyed it so much I went again when it returned to the ENO a few years later. Without Idle, though, who stole the show, it wasn’t quite so funny.

I subsequently saw Pirates of the Penzance and another G&S operetta - both of them at the Savoy Theatre - but neither was a patch on The Mikado.

Some musicals age better than others. When I was young I loved the film of Half A Sixpence with Tommy Steele and Julia Foster. Today, it’s a bit cringeworthy but I still have a crush on the character played by Julia Foster (who was 80 in August).

More recently (ie 15 years ago) I quite enjoyed Mama Mia: The Musical, which I first saw on stage in London, although the hen-night vibe in the theatre was a bit disconcerting and when some people stood up and danced I felt well out of my comfort zone.

The singing in the subsequent film is so bad it’s good, if you know what I mean, but I still came out of the cinema with a smile on my face.

I even liked Mama Mia: Here We Go Again.

And so to The Little Big Things which I saw yesterday and whose co-lyricist just happens to be my godson, Tom Ling.

I’m not going to review it (although the lyrics are great!), but I’ll say this. If an energetic, feelgood musical performed by a young, talented cast appeals to you, I thoroughly recommend it.

It’s based on a book by Henry Fraser, a promising young rugby player who was paralysed from the neck down following a swimming accident when he was 17.

The lead role is played by two actors who represent Henry before and after the accident. One is therefore played by a disabled actor in a wheelchair, and he’s not the only disabled actor on stage.

In other hands this could be rather mawkish material, high on confected emotion, and extremely syrupy, even preachy. But it’s not.

It’s not without emotion, but it’s also laugh out loud funny at times, with some great lines that had the audience roaring with laughter.

The comic timing of the actor who played Henry Fraser’s physiotherapist, also disabled and in a wheelchair, was brilliant.

I should add that the wheelchairs weren’t heavy or cumbersome but zipped about the stage, and in the expert hands of their users they complemented the vibrant pace of the show.

The staging in this brand new theatre was extremely well done. For example, there were run-off ramps on all four corners of the stage that allowed for super quick entrances and exits.

The underfloor lighting was another integral part of the show, with waves of colour washing across the stage.

Sohoplace, the first new build theatre in the West End for 50 years, can accommodate almost 600 people and the audience sit on all four sides of the stage, rather like a basketball match.

We were on the front row on the first of two balconies looking directly down on to the stage, which felt very close. Those on the front row of the stalls were so close they could touch the stage, so it was quite an immersive experience.

The Little Big Things has been well reviewed and the initial run, which was due to end this month, has been extended to March 2 (my birthday!) so I may go back and see it again.

The audience clearly loved it (it got a standing ovation) so I’d definitely recommend it.

Sohoplace is worth a visit too. With an almost full house there were areas when it felt a bit cramped and crowded, but overall they’ve done wonders with the available space.

There’s even a small restaurant on the ground floor that I would also recommend (the Korean spiced chicken wings were especially nice), but pre-booking is advisable.

The price of tickets for The Little Big Things range from £30 to £70 which, in West End terms, isn’t bad compared to some.

I note though that tickets for this year’s panto at the London Palladium appear significantly cheaper than they were a few years ago when I paid £339 for two tickets to see Snow White.

The top price for Peter Pan on the Palladium website is currently £95, while the lowest is £30. Perhaps the more expensive tickets have sold out, or is this a sign of the times?

See also: West End guys (and girls)

Above: The set of The Little Big Things from my seat at sohoplace, the first new built theatre in the West End for 50 years