S is for Stirling University, which crops up in Dead Man Singing as part of the Dave ReMastered Band’s string of Scottish dates. I was a student at Stirling in the period covered by the book, and went to numerous gigs at the on-campus McRobert Theatre (the ‘McBob’), as well as othe...

Good things come in threes, and this week I had three musical outings. First off was my regular Monday trip to Conrad Barr’s Solid Air night at Chaplin’s in Boscombe. Two of the three acts were people I’ve seen before and enjoyed – Louis Massey, going from strength to strengt...

R is for the Road. Tour bus conversations between Dave and his band-mates play a big part in Dead Man Singing. They offered the opportunity to shoe-horn in additional musical references which, as I’ve said before, were always carefully and deliberately chosen. Some of them – mostly Dink&...

The Oscars took place last weekend, an awards ceremony which always has a special place for me. My grandad, Lionel Couch, was an art director and – as you can see from the accompanying photo – was twice nominated for Oscars, for Sons and Lovers (1960) and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)...

I was saddened to hear of the recent death of Karl Wallinger, a musician whose work plays a huge part in the story of Dead Man Singing.

I first encountered Karl Wallinger as a member of the Waterboys in their ‘big music’ phase, which remains my favourite incarnation of their varied caree...