| 2 |
Pete Atkin / Members / Re: New members |
09.12.25 at 14:19 |
| Started by S J Birkill | Newest post by Jubal Barca |
I'm not a new member but as I last posted in about 2010, at which point I was fifteen and didn't have a beard yet let alone one with grey streaks in it, I felt I should say hello again somewhere. I was tinkering with trying out a folksy version of Tenderfoot while trying to play a mandolin recently and remembered that MV existed and that I had an account here, so thought I'd poke my nose back in and say hello, as I'm still very fond of web forums (I run a small independent creative projects board myself) and of course of the subject matter. Thanks to our excellent admin for getting my account back up and running. 
With the intervening decade and a half having disappeared dow the maw of inexorable time, I'm now an academic historian based in Vienna - left the UK in circa 2017 to go do a doctorate, rather slowly what with the pandemic etc, and since then I'm still here working as a digital projects coordinator for an institute specialising in western & central Asian history and cultures. I still listen to a fairly eclectic range of music, Pete's included, and I do quite a lot of songwriting when I get time though often more in a folksy/fantasy range than Clive and Pete's work (I got to do some tavern songs for a small forthcoming computer game as a little side-contract job this year which was very good fun).
So, hello again! |
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
| 3 |
Pete Atkin / News / Facebook PA/CJ Group |
29.11.25 at 21:55 |
| Started by S J Birkill | Newest post by S J Birkill |
Dear Facebook user, you might be wondering why I'm boycotting you by not announcing Pete's new Pheasantry gig in January. Well, fact is it's Facebook that's boycotting me.
I posted a message yesterday with full details of the gig. Nothing controversial there. Today I discovered it hadn't appeared, and found a note saying "Pending admin approval". What is this nonsense? It's a private group and shouldn't need anything like that. I posted again, briefly, to that effect, with the date of the gig, and the same thing occurred. Now there are 2 messages pending. You may or may not see them in due course.
Ho hum, fiddle-de-dee. I suggest you do not depend on Facebook for anything important or time-sensitive. I shan't be doing. If you can't remember to keep checking MV or the Gig Guide for yourself, set up an MV email notification ("Notify" at lower right of each message and in the MV menu bar). You should also ensure your notification email address is up to date ("Profile" in the MV menu bar).
Steve
|
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
| 4 |
Pete Atkin / Newsletter / Newsletter MV2507, today |
29.11.25 at 02:54 |
| Started by S J Birkill | Newest post by S J Birkill |
Pete's latest Newsletter went out today... or should have. It appears our hosting service, Dreamhost, may have had a hissy fit and chewed up Pete's message before it hit the wires. I'm investigating, but for now, and just in case any of our email-only (and possibly Web-phobic) newsletter subscribers might find their way here, here is Pete's message:
Quote:
From: Pete Atkin News
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2025
Subject: PETE ATKIN NEWSLETTER MV2507
PETE ATKIN NEWSLETTER - MV2507 - 28th November 2025
If you were expecting a whole slew of Christmassy stuff from me, forget it.
No no, my sights are set well into 2026, for the admirable team at
PizzaExpressLive have blessed me with another date at the Pheasantry (as
those of you who are wise and astute enough to keep an eye on the Midnight
Voices Forum will already know). Mr Simon Wallace and I will have the
pleasure of returning there - indeed returning there again - on THURSDAY
29TH JANUARY 2026.
I’m pleased to say that tickets are already available at -
www.pizzaexpresslive.com/whats-on/pete-atkin
I shall naturally - or indeed unnaturally - do my usual damnedest to come up
with a newly concocted programme of James and Atkin goodies and curiosities,
so I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us (and each
other) in our latest attempt to effectuate the breakthrough we’ve been
striving for for so long. For So Long is not what we wish to be saying.
(Having reached my ninth decade, I’d rather be getting on with it.) So long
lives this... you know how it goes.
By then, of course, we shall all have passed through and, I hope, survived
the realm of Yuledom, during the course of which, who knows?, you may have
further enriched the cultural lives not only of your nearest but also of
your dearest with gifts from the Hillside Shop. But that’s another matter
entirely.
If, for whatever genuine but nevertheless regrettable reason, you’re unable
to be there on January 29th, do please spread the word anyway; and meanwhile
please do your usual damnedest to be exactly as merry as you would wish to
be in the coming season, while accepting the genuine and hopefully not
regrettable good wishes of him who is now, and who always has been, your
faithful
Pete
|
|
PS (29th) : Newsletter was delivered after about six hours delay -- SJB
|
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
| 5 |
Pete Atkin / Words / Shakespeare in Perspective |
02.11.25 at 18:45 |
| Started by S J Birkill | Newest post by S J Birkill |
Yes, it has been a while since I added anything to my Clive James Website Archive. Lots to be done, but here's something I couldn't keep back.
In 1980 Clive contributed to the BBC TV series Shakespeare in Perspective, an adjunct to the epic "BBC Television Shakespeare" series produced by Cedric Messina. Each 25-minute episode featured a writer or television personality airing his or her personal view of the play to be broadcast the following night. Clive's play was Hamlet, and he delivered what must be one of the finest ever essays on the great bard's genius. The film, directed by David Wilson, features some atmospheric location shooting, at Pembroke College (Cambridge), Berkeley Castle (Gloucestershire), the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and at Clive's then London home in the Barbican.
The film survives, but unfortunately for us and indeed for all of Clive's admirers, it is heavily copyright-protected and blocked by YouTube. I can't imagine who might benefit from this. The best I could do right now was to make the soundtrack available on our site.
In 1982, transcriptions of the texts of the Shakespeare in Perspective series were published by Ariel Books, an imprint of BBC Publications, and Clive's text from that source is reproduced here in our Essays section, at:
archive.clivejames.com/essays/hamlet.htm
This is a direct link, as I haven't yet integrated the page into our fast track/menu system -- this will await completion of a bunch of other essays I still have in my mountainous to-do stack, including columns Clive wrote for The Listener.
Steve
|
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
| 7 |
Pete Atkin / Gigs / The Mermaid, Exeter - Wednesday 24th Sep 2025 |
29.09.25 at 12:00 |
| Started by Pete Atkin | Newest post by Pete Atkin |
Downstairs at the Mermaid turned out to be an excellent spot for a bit of troubadouring, so many a thank to Steve Brown for having the idea in the first place, for setting the whole thing up, and for organising and running it all so helpfully and well with the help of his team.
I’m guessing that by now there may not be any further audience reports (clearly everyone was emotionally exhausted) so I’m presuming to post my own self-regarding version of the setlist in case anyone who wasn’t there is interested. My list wasn’t quite as carefully laid out as when I’m working with that nice Mr Wallace, so I’m not entirely sure I’ve got the running order correct, especially for the second half when I was making some changes as I went along , but I think I’ve remembered everything I did. Please feel free to correct me if you remember it differently.
The Way You Are With Me gtr
Ice Cream Man gtr
Practical Man gtr
Dancing master kbd
Faded mansion kbd
Touch has a memory kbd
National Steel NS
Beware of the Beautiful Stranger gtr
—-
Screen-Freak kbd
History and Geography kbd
Commercial Traveller kbd
Girl on the Train gtr
Colours of the Night gtr
Luck of the draw (1 cho only) gtr
Have You Got A Biro I Can Borrow? gtr
Canoe kbd
Thirty Year Man kbd
Master of the Revels kbd (1cho only)
Enc: Payday Evening gtr
I hope my occasional fumbles didn’t impinge too badly on the spirit of the song; at least I hope they prove my performance wasn’t created by AI. (But then again, I suppose AI is clever enough to build them in, so watch out.) Special thanks to whoever it was who requested I bring along the National Steel, and apologies for my less than impeccable performance on it; I hope the novelty value made up for it at least a bit.
Big thanks yet again to everyone who came along and made up such a tolerant and generous audience.
|
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
| 8 |
Pete Atkin / Gigs / Re: Lost Gig: Intimate Theatre 1971? |
22.09.25 at 21:09 |
| Started by Derek Wright | Newest post by S J Birkill |
Hi Derek
Interesting. The only mention of the Intimate Theatre I can find in the MV archive is in MV5566, a post from Bob Kingston on 7th February 2001. Bob writes:
Quote:| Think of my excitement when I discovered that PA was playing at The Intimate Theatre in Palmers Green, London, supported by Mama Flyer (whoever they were) and if I remember correctly Dave Edmonds? (Another senior moment!) I still have half the ticket tucked inside the album sleeve of AKAN (Vinyl) but, unfortunately, the date was on the other half. Any helpers? I have no doubt that it was a wonderful evening but my only clear recollection is the support band on stage playing to (putting it politely) a select audience commenting: "The Intimate? This place is about as intimate as an aircraft hanger!" |
|
Bob states that the date must have been between 1972 (when he first heard Pete on the radio) and 1978 (A&R at the Donmar). Which of course fits with our listing (28th June 1974) for the Palmers Green venue. Was there an earlier one?
As for the Shaw Theatre on 5th May that year, I have no information on any support act (Mama Flyer was Pete's own backing band for the 'Road of Silk' tour), and I can find no mention of Soft Machine (or Matching Mole for that matter) ever having played that venue.
Can anyone help?
Steve
|
|
Reply | Quote | Notify of replies
|
Return to the board index.
|
