Tom Wiggins, Letter Carver & Writer

Having made several attempts to write a coherent/enjoyable/insightful piece about Slow Club's gig since they played Gloucester Guildhall on Thursday 26 February, I'm going to admit defeat and just spew out some thoughts that came to mind while I was there - otherwise referred to as a real music reviewer's first draft.  Here goes: 1.  It was very clear from the off that Rebecca and Charles really like and really enjoy performing their songs.  I get the impression that Complete Surrender was exactly the album they wanted to make.   2.  I read one review that said that Rebecca had "lungs like parachutes".  I'm not going to disagree - her voice is as raw and as emotive and as affecting as they come and it reaches heights that few contemporary singers can achieve.  She's one of the best vocalists out there, and I can say that having listened to an inordinate amount of mu sic by British female singer-songwriters over the past ten years.  Howev...

A very thought-provoking and insightful TED Talk.  Something to be practiced every day.  

I've never been a voracious reader.  I would love to be, but I find myself being distracted by too many other things to call myself a true bookworm.  I have an eclectic mix of interests, mostly artsy-based things like film and music, but my time is also taken up with anomalies such as boxing, stone masonry and vintage bicycles.  But books are important to me, and I resolved at the beginning of the year to read more literature.  If I took this resolution more seriously, I should be edging towards double figures by now.  But alas, I'm only at two.   The first of 2015 was 'The People of Providence', a fascinating social study of residents on a South London housing estate.  It was written in the 1980s by oral historian Tony Parker.  I began reading it about seven or eight years ago, having read 'Lighthouse', the equally intriguing study of several lighthouse keepers, but gave up on this one about half way through.  I managed to get through...

Excitement is steadily building for Slow Club's appearance at Gloucester Guildhall on Thursday 26th January.  I was introduced to them by a friend at stone masonry college last year, but it was only recently that I've started to listen to Complete Surrender, their latest album.   I bought a ticket for myself and my friend Simon (of Glass Walking Stick fame) even before I knew whether or not he could go. This post is in part an appetiser for him, although it might have the opposite effect if he doesn't like their sound.   Although it isn't even afforded a title on the album and is put at the end of it almost as an afterthought, it's sung with poignancy and real heart and I think it's close to the record's finest.  

Now, let's get this straight: I don't make a habit out of watching The Voice, but I did watch it on Saturday.  And I thought this cover of 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' by Daniel Duke was pretty special. Ostensibly, it's a bit of a novelty song, but it wasn't until I heard this cover that I realise that it's a really touching love song.  Hey, who knew!? I know I may lose all musical credibility when I say this, but the original song by The Proclaimers may actually be one of my favourites of all time.  It never fails to put a smile on my face!

If your working week is comprised of a series of weights all tied together and draped around you from joint to joint to joint, know that  there are  those of us  out there who would if they could magic those weights away.

Peugeot of France    If you want a strong, reliable and unfussy racing bike, a Peugeot is a really safe bet.  The company have a long history as a bicycle manufacturer (I once rode a Peugeot bicycle that dated back to 1906!) that even predates its long-established car-making division. With lugless tubing and no particular flourishes in terms of design, it might be a little too safe for some people's taste.  But I've bought and sold my fair share of racing bikes and I can very confidently say that what sets the Peugeots from every other 1980s racing bike is its paint job, which is nothing short of exceptional!  I don't know what the French did differently to their English counterparts, but they got it right.  I bought an absolutely filthy Peugeot racing bike last year and it took me at least two hours to clean it.   Like an obstinate Frenchman, the paintwork was impervious to everything that had been thrown at it - it had simply ...

I spent all of last night drawing an isometric projection (a three-dimensional drawing set at 30 degrees) for a column base as part of my stone masonry class.   Drawing and setting out the templates is easily as important as actually working a piece of stone, but it can be very time-consuming.  Before a hammer and chisel are even touched,  we're asked to draw the isometric plan,  the bed mould, the sections and reverses, as well as transferring them onto plastic and zinc.  Some of the other students have complained that too much emphasis is placed on the setting out, but I enjoy the process just as much as the work that follows.   I brought the isometric drawing home because I didn't want it to eat into my college time.  Anticipating that the isometric projection (arguably the most difficult drawing from the ones we're asked to do) would be more like a marathon rather than a sprint, I plugged into BBC 6Music.  Since I started listening to it ...

It’s hard to imagine a film pre-release period as problematic as the one that faced The Interview .   A hack might have at least proved manageable for Sony Pictures Entertainment, but that was just the tip of the iceberg in a much wider hack that spelled an utterly torrid 2014 for the company.   As for writer-director partnership of Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogan ("This is the End", "Superbad"), they could only sit and watch as a series of unfortunate events that would disrupt the film's release.   What followed were terrorist threats from a hacker group that had supposed links to North Korea, a pulled theatrical release, resulting condemnation from the President, and a collective silence of opinion from the Hollywood elite.   Sony’s withdrawal and Hollywood’s shuffling of feet was a sign that it found itself in uncertain territory.   Hollywood vs. Communist Russia used to be as simple and as inoffensive as a Rocky IV montage, but Hollywood vs. North...

Place yourself in front of a view  that has aided a past recovery.  Raise your hand to eye level,  and turn it over  like a word repeated,  until the image splits from  meaning. See your hand as  something else, until the only thing you can do is marvel at its sheer mechanical magnificence.  Consider the odds - evolved and yet evolving -   as you watch it work.   

(Published in The Guardian on 26.12.14) This year was a strange year.  The weeks seem blurred and indistinct to me now, though I remember the glimmers of it: Brazil, Bridgwater, Santa Fe; mimosa blossom, Heart of Gold, the sound of choughs on a warm Welsh morning.   I have not often chosen to write about my personal life in my journalistic career; rarely do I imagine readers' lives enriched by such detail and mundanity.  But sometimes it seems impossible to write of anything else, and the loss of a child is a deep and particular grief; a root that spreads beneath all of the days of a year and leaves them unearthed.   For a long time I do not look at it.  I cannot speak of it.  It sits in the dark place beneath deadlines and social events, gigs, emails, interviews, telephone calls, airports.  It lies under all happinesses and the bright days of summer.   But I am driving along the coast of California when my iPod suddenly plays a song that ...

The Tallest Man on Earth - 1904 Phox - 1936 MewithoutYou - January 1979

Two great songs with the same song title.

I've tried really hard to get into Arctic Monkeys since your recommendation.  I like the lyrics (I think) but I've never really liked Alex Turner's voice.  It's a shame because alongside the likes of fellow Mercury Prize winners Alt-J, they're one of the UK's most popular indie bands. But while i think Arctic Monkeys are deserving of the hype (at their best, they're brilliant storytellers:   this performance   of Fluorescent Adolescent is one of my all-time favourites), I don't think Alt-J are.  Their lyrics are, quite frankly, stupid and the band have been deeply overhyped.    I've been listening to a lot of songs by The National recently.  They've always been on my radar but it was only recently that I discovered songs like Don't Swallow the Cap and Bloodbuzz Ohio.  I don't highly rate them as songwriters; their songs lack coherence, but if you like taking lines on an individual basis, as I sometimes do, then they're definitely ...