Had a great time as a guest on Calendar News, way back in June. Honoured in a weird way that the interview - very brief interview - is on YouTube too haha! Really enjoyed meeting Christine Talbot and Duncan Woods who filmed the little Don Revie article and then asked me a few questions.

Also had some excellent radio spots recently - I was the guest for BBC Radio Leeds’ excellent One To One show, hosted by Liz Green. A bit like Desert Island Discs. What a buzz of an experience, being asked to play a few of my favourite records while being asked some very deep questions about myself! The Stranglers’ ‘5 Minutes’ was played, quite an achievement apparently, the Beeb playing any old Stranglers tracks!

Also guested on Thom Kirwin’s Yorkshire Radio show, talking about ‘Disrepute - Revie’s England’… always a privilege to be invited on radio shows. Hope I did a good job, I might sound quite relaxed and blase on air but I genuinely try to contribute good chatter to each and every show.

And I’m on LUTV this very afternoon. It’s funny seeing yourself on screen, I never realised before how many teeth I’ve got

The Friday

saw

Editors - the Paul Madeley of indie rock, very good as always.
Delphic - a watered down New Order imho, the gig started badly with technical problems but got better. Not my cup of (weak) tea but fair play, they’re popular and don’t exactly hurt my ears.
Hot Chip - should be ‘Insipid Chip’, their good tunes are very good, just not many of them.
Muse - not my fave band of all time but blimey they put on one hell of a show. Wish they’d play Muscle Museum though.

Saturday

Diana Vickers - she’s a nice kid who can sing quite well. and her red dress was appealing.
Broken Social Scene - first time ever heard these, very impressed.
The Sunshine Underground - first time ever seen these as well, and very very impressed I was too, Possibly my fave gig of the whole fest.
Proclaimers - 3 or 4 good songs but the rest of the gig was spent talking with a couple of mad Scots who appreciated my Leeds anorak (it was raining and v cold most of today) and just wanted to talk about the Super Leeds team and all of its Scottish players!  One of these fellas, older than me, told me to Fawk Awff! loads of times because I told him it’s always been Club Over Country with me, especially because most of the present-day England players are overrated primadonna tarts who care more about their lifestyles than they do playing for their country.  This Scotsman was a bit mad you know, I think he might have been drinking, can you believe it?!
Shed Seven - yep, very good.
The Boy Who Trapped the Sun - not sure why I watched these, they seemed alright though. I think.
The Courteeners - wasn’t expecting much here but twas a great gig.
Stereophonics (a bit of) - these are Mr Consistents too, good gig as always I’d say, some nice sentiments by Kelly too over the death of the band’s original drummer Mr Cable.  Kelly Jones is a bit of a god anyway, for being a Leeds fan
Eminem (less of a bit of) - 45 minutes late, lost interest by the time he came on, and that’s a shame.
Laura Marling - this was earlier on. I know she’s very popular but I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Pleasant enough gig though and she seems a nice lass
Prodigy - I’m not too keen on their cannon (sorry, pretentious word of the day) of work but this was a great gig, they know how to put on a good show.

Sunday

The Stranglers - horrible day, a 30 minute wait after sludging a mile through piss/vomit stenching mud, and I suspect that you needed to be near the stagefront to get a good sound due to the very windy er wind. We did and luckily the sound was magnificent, with JJ Burnel’s bass sounding brilliant, dangerous and very very loud. A great 45 minute set by the lads, much better than Glastonbury I thought, though the band would probably disagree, apparently it was freezing on stage and Baz Warne was struggling to complete longer tracks due to cold fingers!  Also one of the very few (if any) gigs Jet Black has played without the need for an electric fan to keep him cool.
Detroit Social Club - pretty good.
The Drums - very good but my mate Kev was greatly put off them due to the singer and I think bass player ballet dancing and the like. Surprised at the jibe ’gayest band ever!’ because they make some good sounds.
Corinne Bailey Rae - lovely, a bit too laid back for my liking but still, great gig, her voice is lovely.
Ellie Goulding (well, listened to her from outside the tent) - good sound and a decent gig, not my scene though.
Goldfrapp - very good, and surprisingly very loud as well.
Babyshambles - never had much time for Doherty but this was a really good performance and yes he did turn up, on form too - ‘Will you stop throwing coins, you lot are supposed to be tight aren’t you?’

Cribs - my first time for these too, but knew what to expect and wasn’t disappointed.
The View (part of) - I wasn’t expecting these to be as rocky as they were, I thought it was going to be ‘I’ve got the same jeans on’ blah blah shite throughout, but it was a lot better than that.
Dizzee Rascal (less a part of) - I like the bloke a lot but not too keen on watching him in concert.
and Madness, 20 minutes of. A bit ropey, if I’m honest, but not as ropey as I was feeling by this stage. And near our tents there was some stuff nicked, and yes it was almost definitely by some Scouse wankers on the rob who were camping not far (enough) away from our little spot.

Got there at about 3am Thursday morning, I managed to schmooz my way into the festival despite not looking anything like my mate whose photo is on the ticket. The people on the entrance gates were I think all students and not locals either, but they were all so welcoming and cheerful, I forgot all my worries about getting turned away and just steamed in there. Funny thing is, one of the lads in our group got searched, just after me It really was a lovely welcome and those people were a credit to Glastonbury.

Put tents up, got about three hours’ kip and then just mulled around the place, drinking, wandering and watching a bit of the footie for a short time. Absolutely knackered I was though and went back to the tent for 8, had a nap and then rejoined whoever had made it back to our ‘plot’ as well, for wine and beer.

Gigs - Friday (times definitely vary but this is how I think it all panned out)

On the John Peel Srage - Detroit Social Club. First time seen, quite impressed.
BBC ‘intro’ tent - special guests Mumford and Sons, live on Radio 1, played two songs but I quite like these. Jo Wylie interviewed them in brilliantly bad style - ‘Is that a double bass or a cello? It’s great’. We’d have got another song if she’d have kept quiet.

The Other Stage - The Stranglers, about 1.30. By now it was absolutely searing hot. Huge crowd, the band played well even if JJ had his slapped arse look on his face. Before the gig I’d arranged to meet up with someone ‘in’ with the band so I was all talked out about the band tbh. Anyway, the huge crowd seemed to really enjoy the gig, even if you won’t have seen any of it on the Beeb because, despite there being a crowd of over 70,000 to watch them (and that’s a conservative estimate) The Stranglers aren’t what the television-viewing public want to watch, obviously!

The Queen’s Head stage - Detroit Social Club again (not sure why) and they again were good.

The Park Stage - ’special guests’ on the night - by now we’d all gone our separate ways. I walked miles to this venue, and what a pleasantly weird trek it was - and got there and could only hear the band, there was no way of seeing them. The special guest was Thom Yorke and I heard about 5 songs from him, mainly Radiohead. Very good even if I couldn’t get a view   NME later said it was Radiohead appearing, but that’s not officially the case, even I knew that and I couldn’t see the feckers!

Didn’t have time to stay long as wanted to see, on the Leftfield stage, Reverend and the Makers who were great as expected, because they always are, even if there were no surprises or new material. And then back to The Other Stage for the best ever opening to a gig I probably will ever see, with The Flaming Lips. Their music’s not the best imho and this gig wasn’t totally ace but the beginning certainly was and made it all worthwhile, even if I missed the Gorillaz with Mark E Smith, Shaun Ryder et al because of it!

Saturday

Lightning Seeds, Jackson Browne, a bit of Two Door Cinema Club (I wished they’d been shut them doors ), Editors, Pet Shop Boys, special guests Biffy Clyro (again in the Park and again no chance of a view), plus an excellent gig from Nick Lowe.  Saw a bit of Christy Moore but it doesn’t rev my engine tbh, a bit too Irish rebel music near enough.

Sunday

Unfortunately I forewent Slash and a bit of Ray Davies to watch those tossers in England shirts get slashed on by Germany. But anyway, the gigs for today were Davies, a bit of Frightened Rabbit (they should be), MGMT (why I know not) and Dan Mangan who was on in the John Peel tent/stage, and pretty good. The Gang of 4 were okay too, tho I reckon they only did three good singles in their career. The Bees a bit later, not heard them for ages and have discovered that they’re ‘white reggae’ now , plus Toots and the Maytals a bit later on who are definitely not white but definitely more reggae.

In the Glade area I watched Arthur Brown for a while, then went to see LCD Soundsystem who were good but disappointlingly not brilliant, then to the Glade again to see Alabama 3 who WERE brilliant and possibly my best gig of the festival.  Even taking into account The Stranglers’ who are always fantastic even when they’re not.  Then on to see Stevie Wonder for half an hour - only on the big screens though as that whole area/county/country was absolutely rammed. His voice sounded bloody immaculate and the first song I watched was my all time SW fave - MasterBlaster. Matt Smith (Dr Who) brushed by me too, I later realised he joined Orbital on stage.  Says it all really.  I’d seen Vince Vaughan the day before as well as Lembit Opik or however you spell it.  I’m sure they were only slightly less thrilled to see me as I was to see them haha!  Finished the evening with the Levellers who were a bit of a let down too, again a bit too fiddly diddly or rebel Irish songs on the whole.

Loved the whole festival, chuffed to have been there and met a lot of good people with very few negative aspects to it all.  The sleep deprivation is hard work though, and I genuinely do not recall ever being in England when it has been as hot as it was during those afternoons.  I was a Shade Worshipper and proud of it. 

T in the Park to look forward to now, next week, hope I can recover in time

Edited to ADD - sat outside whichever tent, drinking beer and and shade-worshipping again, listenting to the surprisingly really good Ade Edmondson and his band who play folk versions of ‘punk’ classics, ie The Stranglers, Clash, Pistols. Really really good.

Writing the book has been great fun but not all easy work, especially as the Editor(s) have made some great observations as to where I needed to strengthen it so that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks.  That’s what good editors do, as far as I know anyway, they ‘buy in’ to the concept of the writer’s ideas and then try and stand back and be objective. One day, one day, I might actually write a book the ‘right way’ but I wouldn’t bet on it!  Editors are there to make constructive criticism and help the writer take the book to the best outcome possible.  It’s not always easy to accept criticism, but when it’s made in the right manner and the correct context, any writer worth anything needs to abandon being ‘precious’ about it.  The overall aim is the same - writers and editors want to produce the best book possible.

DisRepute has lots of originality to it, I believe, but I think I was at risk of letting the original material outshine the ‘personal’ story of Jimmy O’Rourke. I hadn’t really intended this novel to be a sequel to Dirty Leeds but in effect, it is exactly that. The other matter I needed to get clearer in my head (and on the page) is that the novel IS about Don Revie as England manager, and even if it’s Jimmy talking about Revie, it is still about Revie AND Jimmy, not just Jimmy on his own.

I’m privately praying that people will enjoy the book - as possibly always, I became too immersed in the whole story and so I’m not really sure if I can trust my own judgement anymore! I THINK it’s a great story and I BELIEVE it has been massively helped by some great research and interesting material. But we shall we!

And THANK YOU Simon Grayson and the boys for making this a season one we’re not likely to forget for a long time!  It had everything. Good, Bad and at times blooming Ugly as well! But we got there and will be playing Championship football next season as a result. Looking forward to it, after the World Cup of course. And maybe I am a bit mad tipping England to win it but I do think we have the best manager and it will be very interesting to see if he can get the primadonnas of England playing to their full potential. If he does, then they can beat anyone as a team, I believe it!

I would love for Jermain Beckford to stay on at Elland Road, but I doubt it will happen.  It’s only my opinion for what it’s worth, but if a player doesn’t want to play for Leeds United then I don’t want him there.  That’s NOT a criticism of Beckford, it’s just how I see it, and if he wants to leave because he wants to play in the Prem league next season then personally, I respect that.  I don’t know the lad but I do not think that it’s more money making him look to play elsewhere.  31 goals this season he scored for us, and yet he still has things to learn and areas of his game to improve!

Cheers!

Robert Endeacott, 16th May 2010

Thank you for looking in, I promise to communicate a bit better on here in the new year.

Watch out 2010 - DisRepute is the next book wot I is writing : - )

The Dirty Leeds book is reportedly selling very well and there has been some brilliant feedback, for which I’m very grateful obviously as well as proud as a peacock. Here’s a couple of press articles which are also online too, they might be of interest. The Times one is more about David Peace and the ‘movement’ he has created, but I am mentioned a few times. Would have LOVED a photo of the book cover too but beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

The Times article.

The Yorkshire Post

The Bookseller

‘EVENTS’

I’ve done a fair few launches, signings, interviews and so on of late. The events at places like Borders and Waterstone’s haven’t exactly seen people queueing outside to get in but I’m reliably informed Dirty Leeds is selling well and that the shops are v pleased. It’s always a genuine pleasure to see people attending these events anyway - and it is, after all, more about the quality of people than the quantity! I was lucky enough to be invited to do a reading and Q&A event last Sunday morning at Morley Town Hall, as part of the excellent Morley Lit Festival. I predicted 10 people at the most would attend but a few more actually made it. I had a great time, hope the audience thinks the same!

QUESTION TIME

I don’t understand all this fuss about the deluded, extremist, Simpson-eyed, closet-nazi/gay, ‘patriotic’ chap appearing on Question Time - very sorry but I’ve forgotten his name - I think it’s a great sign of the times that a white man can lead the Black ‘N’ Proud party, I really do.

LUFC

In Simon Grayson we trust, the League season is going very nicely so far thank you.

LEEDS UNITED UNPLUGGED

The best show on radio, presented by Adam Pope, Gareth Jones and usually Andy ‘Stitch’ Ritchie. Okay so I’m biased as it’s about Leeds but still, there can’t be many programmes as good as this about any football team. Thursday evenings, 7pm til 10.30.

There was a great one page article on DL and me in the Yorkshire Post’s Culture supplement on September 4th (I was interviewed over the phone by Nick Ahad) as well as a grand little feature in Phil Hay’s Evening Post column that night. Top fellas both of them!

This Wednesday, 16 September, I’ve been invited to be interviewed on LUTV at Elland Road, which promises to be something new for me (don’t they know that I’ve a face for radio???) and on Thursday morning I’ll be appearing on Radio Leeds again, this time on the brilliant Graham Liver’s show from 9.30am.

The Book Launch

For anyone who isn’t aware, the launch of Dirty Leeds is being held on Thursday 24th September at the Northern Monkey Bar on Headrow, Leeds, from 7pm. I’ll be there, along with the maestro Micky P Kerr who will be doing a reading from the book plus with luck, playing us all a couple of his own superb songs. The book will be available on sale, as supplied by Waterstone’s, and I’ll be very happy to sign any copies that are sold. My signature might one day be worth the paper it’s written on! PLEASE NOTE that it is a ticket only event, though they are FREE. Tickets available from the Northern Monkey bar itself or from Waterstone’s bookshop on Albion Street. Micky P Kerr has a gig later on that night at Joseph’s Well so it is going to be pretty strict timings - please don’t be late.

All set for 24th September release, final edit been done and if there’s any mistakes within it then they are there to bloody stay!

NEXT BOOK

Am currently working my proverbials off researching two ideas for books, one involves England and DR, while the other one is related to music and specifically HC.

Also, am currently involved with compiling a ‘Fans’ alternative history’ book on The Stranglers via the Burning Up Time forum and it’s going really well. Hoping for a publication by late next year - by whom, with what funding etc remains to be seen but I’m not worrying about it. Get the book finished and ‘they will come’! He says, hopefully!

LUFC

Fine start to the season, couldn’t ask for more really, except maybe more proper goal attempts so we can bury teams rather than let them back into it.

EYES

The operation or ‘procedure’ as the surgeon and doctors prefer to term it, went brilliantly well and I’m still wearing shades whenever watching pc or TV screens. No, really!

MUSIC

Great gigs recently include Micky P Kerr at the Cockpit, with Rebel Yell in support too. Both were bloody great and I’m chuffed that MPK is going to be involved at the book launch. Or one of the book launches should I say. (He says, again, hopefully!)

The Stranglers were magnificent at Holmfirth last week, but that’s no surprise, while the Buzzcocks at the Garforth Festival a few weeks back were also spot on. Shame about folk’n’shite Chumbawamba!