So, I’m in the midst of a rather pleasant weekend in Liverpool, doing a bunch of gigs at the Bluecoat. On Friday evening, I got to host an evening with Vic Reeves, where we introduced a sold-out crowd to his new book, Vic Reeves’ Vast Book Of World Knowledge. As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely essential to keeping the otherwise meek and audience-shy Senor Reeves buoyed up and confident over the course of the show. A well-deserved pat on the back and an egg sarnie for me.

If you’re around Liverpool and its environs, Saturday 17th sees me and Ross Sutherland (who I interviewed here) doing our show Infinite Lives, about retreating from the shitty, complicated miasma of real life into the clearly defined score tables and unlimited retries of video games. Also we do poems and some music. It’s free, in the Bluecoat bar, so come, get soused, and appreciate us with your massive praise-beaming faces. On Sunday the 18th, me, Ross and Nathan Jones (who I interviewed here) plus a whole host of other musicians and artists are doing a gig at the Bluecoat called Revolutions In Form. There’ll be a slew of non-wanky experiments in being interesting and entertaining with spoken word and its many mutant cousins – I can’t speak for the other artists, but for my part, I’ll be doing a brand new performance poem and a brand new uke piece. Hopefully I won’t rot the ears off my audience through sheer incompetence. It starts at 8pm. If you’re in Liverpool, come, or I’ll silently resent you.

Finally, Issue 9 of Mercy’s online magazine Flatline has just come out. Click here to read it. On page 6 you can read a new poem from me – I hate to be a gushy pranny but I love the illustration, done by a chap called Kenn Goodall. I’m proper chuffed with it. I think it’s wonderful, and I’m usually a fussy twat. Go have a look, and let me know what you think.