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Clip of the Week

When folk-pop singer-songwriter Bess Atwell performed my favourite song of 2024 at the Hare & Hounds, south Birmingham in October of that year, she paused midway, concerned for the welfare of an audience member. Thankfully, there was no emergency, and she went back to the beginning. I’d discovered Bess’ music at Moseley Folk & Arts Festival a few weeks earlier. I’ve therefore seen her perform ‘Crowds’ 2½ times; a bittersweet reflection on staying friends, it is gentle, warm, compassionate and quite beautiful. In a little over six weeks, I had gone from a faint recognition of Bess Atwell to becoming hooked on her music… (READ ON)

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This Week’s Book Choice

“Insomnia” by Robbie Robertson (Penguin 2025)

I had a dream that I was in New Orleans with Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Jake LaMotta. We all watched Muhammad Ali wear down Joe Frazier at the Superdome before heading off to a bar where we ran into Tony Curtis…

Wait a minute, that’s no dream, it’s the opening of Insomnia by Robbie Robertson, a sequel of sorts to his 2016 memoir, “Testimony”. The visit to New Orleans comes at the end of the actual story but opens the book, setting the tone for what follows. And make no mistake, a memoir that begins with Jake LaMotta threatening to crush Tony Curtis’ face is a book about blokes, a buddy story, the self-styled Rock and Roll odd couple. Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese’s adventures in the late 70s are no secret. In Peter Suskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”, Sandy Weintraub says, ‘It’s a shame that Marty wasn’t gay. The best relationship he ever had was with Robbie Robertson.’ Probably the most fun too.

“Insomnia” outlines the period when Robbie moved into Marty’s Mullholland house and the two partied with Jack Nicholson, watched old movies, caroused with starlets, hoovered industrial amounts of blow, and ate like kings, courtesy of Francis Ford Coppola’s chef, Dan.

You will hear Robbie’s voice while you read. He was a great storyteller and these bad boy adventures are served up in his usual wry manner. If you are looking for music content, there are only a few glimpses in between assignations with Jennifer O’Neill, Tuesday Weld, Geneviève Bujold, and many, many others. In the background is the end of The Band. His relationship with Levon is on life support and Richard Manuel’s drinking is getting even more serious. The story of how Out Of The Blue was written and recorded grabbed me – one of my favourite Band songs – and I wanted more. If you are a fan of The Last Waltz film (and who isn’t?), there is plenty here about how it was all put together.

As the notches on Robbie’s guitar strap mounted up, I kept asking myself why I was reading it. I guess the answer is obvious. It was just good to hear that voice again.

Tony Thompson

Read all our previous book reviews here.