Read Stonemouth (Iain Banks)

It’s hard to believe that it’s already six years now since Iain Banks died, so vivid does his voice remain. Stonemouth was his second last book, published in 2012 and adapted for television in 2015. Like The Crow Road and The Steep Approach to Garbadale this is the story of a homecoming as Stewart Gilmour, a twentysomething lighting designer, returns to his home town five years after he had to leave in a hurry. Now the paterfamilias of the local gangster family has passed away, and Stewart has come back to pay his respects and (he hopes) to right some wrongs. Cocksure yet introspective, Stewart is a classic Banks narrator; the book is at its best when it explores his mixed feelings towards his hometown: nostalgic and affectionate yet also deeply frustrated at the stasis he encounters. Yet as we learn, while in some respects he has moved on he too still carries the burdens of the past.

Listened to The Stooges

In this midst of the nostalgia for the 50-year anniversary of Woodstock, it’s extraordinary to think that the eponymous debut by The Stooges was released just two weeks before the ultimate festival of Peace and Love. There’s not much sign of either here – The Stooges is dirty and scuzzy and barrels along on the charisma of Iggy Pop. Fresh from leaving the Velvet Underground John Cale produced – his trick seems to have been to turn everything up as loud as possible. I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun and Real Cool Time stand out; the curio is the demented love song Ann, where Iggy sounds like he is crooning from the bottom of a swimming pool.

Watched The Cure (live at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow)

The passage of time is a theme this week. The last time The Cure played live in Scotland was an extraordinary 27 years ago. The band was then at the tail end of what now looks like an imperial period which included their masterpiece, 1989’s Disintegration. During that period, as Bob Stanley describes in Yeah Yeah Yeah, they added a portfolio of rainbow-hued pop songs to their trademark post-punk miserabilism. Today their status as national treasures seems assured, as evidenced by their Saturday night Glastonbury headline slot and this mega-gig in a very muddy park on the south side of Glasgow. It was a special evening – a road-tested setlist featuring plenty of light and shade but making sure to end with more of the former, and Robert Smith a surprisingly avuncular presence throughout.