These musings are to serve as an update for May 2025. Sales for the Triton Run continue to be strong. It’s a slow process but bit by bit I am getting it into new stores and to a wider market. It’s hard at times because we all want to be million sellers and frankly that’s not possible. However, I am pleased and proud and while there are authors selling a lot more than me there are others selling less – and that applies to both my publisher and generally. James from Northodox said something wise that a lot of us creatives can learn from – ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’
What wise words! So I am determined to enjoy and take advantage of every minute of this writing journey and do all I can to keep selling and keep getting published.
The sequel to the Triton Run is now 90% plus done, after a long edit I am now writing the last few chapters and will hand it in soon. Northodox have been fantastic with me, despite being late. This is definitely the difficult second album syndrome. I had 5 or more years to write the Triton Run and then committed to do the sequel in just over a year.
In other news, being at Anfield to see Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy was an incredible moment. I had seen us win the league lots as a child but was never in the stadium when we got it. This time it was different. I am grateful and relieved I wasn’t able to make the parade the next day. I won’t say any more about the parade than what happened at the end was a tragedy for all involved, and at least nobody was killed.
So the photo for this post isn’t Piers Morgan on guitar, but Glenn Tillbrook. He played a one man show at the Live Rooms in Chester, a small 300 capacity venue. For those who don’t know he is the singer and write for Squeeze (Chris Difford writes their brilliant lyrics) who I would now love to see. I saw them with some friends and he was absolutely fantastic, taking requests and jamming through a whole load of material.
Then, it was Bruce. You might be forgiven because June will also see me talk about Springsteen. He’s a musical hero, and the E Street Band are the greatest live band there has ever been. But this tour is different.
Bruce has always been political, has always talked about current events going back to the 70s and 80s when he talked about Vietnam and Born In The USA is a very political song. Its a pity it was adopted by those who didn’t understand it!
With Donald Trump in the White House he has had a new target and the Land of Hope and Dreams tour hit hard. The first show I saw this year was at the new Co-Op arena. It’s a great venue, good sound and I had seats behind the stage. An unusual proposition but it worked, really well and I felt close to the action.
He gave many speeches during the set, however before City of Ruins this hit hard:
“Now, there’s some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now.
In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.
In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.
In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they’re rolling back historic Civil Rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society, they’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.
They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.
A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.
They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people.
So we’ll survive this moment.
Now, I have hope because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, in this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like. But there’s enough.”
So he ends on an optimistic note, and the message went down well. It also travelled around the world, with news outlets getting hold of it and a selection from the show being rushed onto Youtube – see below.
It was interesting to see that while a majority of fans praised his message, many also said he should ‘shut up and sing.’ It’s hard when politics and art collide, and artists (musicians and writers) are often criticised for interfering. I disagree with all that though.
Often it’s only via art that we understand exactly what is going on, with messages being distilled into messages that the public can understand.
Some writers write in a political way, that sets out to deliver a message. I am not sure I am clever enough to do that. Getting a story and characters that interest is hard enough, however when I look back I can see that there are issues that are / were current and the behaviour of politicians is certainly recognisable, though President Zander is better than most!
