Because my bedtime book, The Ink Black Heart, weighs 14.7 Kg, I won’t take it on the tube. So I need a tube ‘read’. And if I read another novel I’ll get the two confused in my head. It happens. What’s Jack Reacher doing at Hogwarts FFS?? Why, when Harry met Sally in a deli in New York, did he disembowel her with a tyre iron in an alleyway in Peckham? And I had no non-fiction on my kindle. But I did have another book. A real one. Which someone gave me… a year ago? 2 years, maybe? Been on my bedside table for a long time, holding up my box of tissues. A valuable job, but not its real purpose in life. Its The Storyteller, the autobiography of Dave Grohl. So if its yours, do send me a message, so I’ll know exactly who is never going to get it back.

Because its wonderful. We all know Dave Grohl, except people who don’t. Who were never into Nirvana, who don’t head-bang to Foo Fighters. Oh, that Dave Grohl. And if you’ve ever seen him on tv programs, you’ll know he’s absolutely the nicest man in the world. Just lovely, funny, super. And thus his book. Which is wonderful. I wholly recommend it, but not necessarily to the person who lent it to me, cos he/she has already read it. Its a very easy read. And interesting because it dispels a lot of those silly ‘rock-n-roll lifestyle’ preconceptions. It takes up to about page 150 before our Dave is even eating proper meals every day. Because you make fuck-all with a small-time band, on the road, sleeping in the group’s van and struggling to make enough to pay for the petrol to the next venue.

Now, I don’t want any spoilers but I’m up to page 185 and he’s been sharing a flat with Kurt Kobain for 5 months in Seattle, Nirvana have just gone MASSSSSIVE and our Dave’s just noticed that Kurt has a bit of heroin problem. I give him about 5 pages but DON’T TELL ME!!!

The book’s great (so far), the man’s wonderful, charming, delightful. But will be forever immortalised in my mind for the incredible drumming on Smells Like Teen Spirit, which is possibly The Definitive rock song of all time.

Arsenal lost at Everton, you could hear Frank Lampard cheering for Sean Dyche all the way up there. I’m sure.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx