iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Near the front of the queue and just had our tickets scanned, so getting pretty excited. Seeing Ms Badu at last. No photos allowed inside, which is cool.

Erykah Badu sold out intimate show at the Blue Note, London.

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Delighted to hear poet Anne Carson has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Gives me an excuse to open each of these again. www.theguardian.com/books/live/2...

Copies of Float and Nox by Anne Carson in their original boxes.

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I like Giles' Rubber Soul more than his Sgt P or Revolver but, as with them, I'll never play it again. Too smooth & clean. All the albums up to Revolver are best heard in mono, which is how I got the LPs. Disc two of the new set is great tho'. And it's nice to have the two alt versions on the US RS.

The contents of the very pricey deluxe Rubber Soul and no, I didn't fork out for it either, having got an original mono LP and the Beatles in mono CD box

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Things the younger me, a massive fan of The Godfather I&II, would never have believed, that I'd be upfront in Broadway cinema, interviewing the great film editor Walter Murch, alongside my old friend Taghi Amirani, about their wonderful film 'Coup 53', which, sadly, becomes more relevant every day.

Walter Murch with David Belbin, photo by David Everall

David Belbin with Taghi Amirani, photo by Walter Murch

Coup 53 poster featuring Ralph Fiennes as Norman Derbyshire.

011

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

For National Poetry Day, two early poems by my late partner, Sue Dymoke. It's the only appearance of 'Monster Lessons'. There's also 'Kid' by a guy called Simon Armitage, who Sue did her first ever reading with. It became the title poem of his first Faber collection. Anyone know what became of him?

Two pages from issue 7 of Scratch, edited by Mark Robinson in 1992. The poem not mentioned in the post is 'The Neighbour', which can also be found in the 'early poems' section of Sue's first Shoestring collection, The New Girls.

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm hosting a Q & A with Taghi Amirani & legendary film editor Walter Murch (The Godfather) about their fascinating film, Coup 53 at Broadway next week. How the UK & US brought down a left-wing Iranian president, a coup whose ramifications reverberate to this day. www.broadway.org.uk/whats-on/cou...

@broadwaycinema.bsky.social 6pm Wednesday September 30. Poster for Coup 53

033

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The wonderful St Etienne aka @bobpetesarah.bsky.social saying goodbye in Sheffield last night. The best of their 3 shows I've seen at the old Leadmill, with the most love in the room I've ever heard (and I've seen Arctic Monkeys there!) + super setlist full of favourites. Nothing can stop us indeed.

021

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Contrasting but cracking gigs. From a Dexys' instore at Rough Trade round the corner to Peggy's Skylight for The Necks, who played 2 hour-long improvisations. Mesmerising. Kevin in great voice. 3 oldies at the end, The Waltz, Jackie Wilson Said and Geno. Here's a new one one I relate to: 'Old Love'.

253

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Entertained by a Dutch lemon, carrot and orange at a rough trade instore tonight. Lovely stuff from the fruit and vegetables aka Personal Trainer.

Band on stage at start of encore, costumes partly discarded. Might be a banana in the middle rather than a lemon.

110

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

If you can get to Sheffield over the next fortnight, don’t miss Ian McDiarmud’s stupendous performance as King Lear (pretty much everything else about the Crucible production is bloody good too, but Ian’s fantastic).

000

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I found this underneath. So, no, I won't be concealing the cover with a Mylar sleeve after all. That'd be wrong. A great book, whatever the cover (and sorry Bluesky flagged the previous image because Gray put nipples on the cherubic breasts).

The word Lanark appear down the spine, the A and R being reused for the motto that runs across the whole cover 'Endure. You are not alone.'

021

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

41 years late, I've just finished reading the 'definitive' 1985 edition of Alasdair Gray's masterpiece, 'Lanark'. Given mine's a signed, numbered hardback, thought I'd treat the book to a mylar cover A friendly library sometimes helps me out in protecting rare books. Only when I took the jacket off

Dustjacket of 1985 'definitive' edition of Lanark

121

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A fond farewell to beautiful Dolly Parton, a wonderful singer & songwriter. Her Imagination Library, which has given countless books to young children in Nottingham & all over the world, will continue, I'm sure. The most inspired, imaginative, important example of selfless philanthropy I know of.

050

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Evan fans are thinner on the ground than they once were. However, I have just watched Strangers When We Meet (excellent) & started this, after you alerted me to Dean Hudson's real identity. Have to say that I may not finish it & can understand why, unlike Larry Block, Evan kept his porn name quiet.

Showcase For Sin by Dean Hudson. A man in an open shirt watches a woman in high heels take off her slip. 'An original bedside book.;

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I have every issue, yet stopped reading Love and Rockets in '23 after a bereavement, so only just got round to opening the three-year-old issue 14 of the new series. It shows Los Bros Hernandez ahead of the curve, as always.

Cover of L&R 14, with a boy in shorts wearing a red T-shirt with the large motto 'FUCK AI' in yellow.

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Oxfam shop find, a copy of the first LP by The Chieftains, from 1964, which I'd never heard before. It's lovely. Not especially rare and this VG copy had been steadily reduced from a silly opening sally of £20 to a more reasonable £3.99. Nice to have.

Album cover, with nice pencil drawing and Paddy Moloney's name first.

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

This hot afternoon my pal Ray Robinson and I visited the street where Kevin Coyne grew up in Normanton and the erstwhile Derby School of Art where he studied. There's a plaque, but he deserves so much more recognition. Here we are on our travels.

Robinson on Kitchener Avenue, Normanton.

The former Derby School of Art, owned by Derby University but seemingly abandoned.

The plaque reads: Kevin Coyne 1944-2004 Musician, lyricist, composer and painter Studied here 1961-1965 Awarded by BBC Radio Derby.

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Two years ago I took redundancy from my temporary (22 years, as it turned out) part-time Creative Writing gig in academia. This new New Yorker cartoon by Guy Richards Smith neatly sums up what has happened to the Arts & Humanities since.

Dark haired man in an armchair (seen from behind) faces three managers (two smart females, one male in a suit) who are set at a table in front of a fireplace in a book-lined, high ceiling room. One of them, probably the woman in the middle, is saying "Not only are we denying you tenure–we're closing your department and setting the entire university on fire just to be safe."

0194

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Graham Greene in Nottingham at Bromley House Library 2pm, September 12th. I'll be talking about four months in which Greene trained to be a journalist, adopted a dog, wooed the woman he married and - at breakneck pace - converted to Catholicism in our cathedral. www.eventim-light.com/uk/a/638cf86...

Text screen grabbed from https://www.eventim-light.com/uk/a/638cf86b7e8bfe52ae3fd363/e/6a61f158813a5caf8bbcb393

032

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

'He characterised the true soul of football.' Love this tribute to Kevin Keegan RIP (who I was lucky enough to see play at Anfield when I was a child) by @davidsquires.bsky.social at the end of his take-down of the Trump dominated world cup. Worth reading in full: www.theguardian.com/football/pic...

The day after the world cup the sad news broke that Keving Keegan had died - 'he characterised the true soul of football'.

042

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Tremendous tributes to Tom Stoppard from Mick Jagger and Richard Eyre at Sir Tom’s memorial service. Part of the luck we had, indeed.

021

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Radio 3 live broadcast this Saturday with a TV edit on July 24, for my prog adjacent mutuals eg @jonathancoe.bsky.social @whichdecadetops.bsky.social

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Nice to find myself quoted by @hutchie.bsky.social in the new Mojo. Won’t spoil the rest of the Ry Cooder top ten except to say that, for me, Paradise & Lunch should be one place higher. Oh, and, where’s the wonderful Bop ‘til You Drop?

140

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Great to see the original line up of Gaffa perform (for the first and possibly last time this year) at tiny Hedley Park's lovely outdoor festival on Saturday afternoon. In fine form, too, doing numbers new and old for a crowd full of faces from their (and my) past. fiveleaves.co.uk/product/dont...

Gaffa. Left to right: John Maslen, Mick Barrett, Wayne Evans, Clive Smith.

000

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

With the publication of Single Tangle Mine & Which Scarf Match, my J.H. Prynne collection is - sadly - complete. WSM is dated March 2026, a month before his death. STM's dated April 2.

Cover of Single Tangle Mine (Face Press 2026)

Cover of Which Scarf Match (Face Press 2026)

121

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The Onion keeps nailing it politically. Their culture takes are sharp too. Worth subscribing @theonion.com membership.theonion.com?campaign=701...

Attractive but fake looking young brunette in smart white blouse with caption 'Author wishes she hadn't blown personal tragedy on first book.'

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

The Great Work. Terrific new poem by Martin Stannard on Litter. www.littermagazine.org/2026/06/mart...

Full alt text of poem can be found on Litter

020

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Remembering my dear friend, John Lucas, poet, professor, publisher, essayist, memoirist, novelist, anthologist, critic & jazzman (not necessarily in that order), who died last September. He'd have been 89 today. davidbelbin.substack.com/p/rememberin...

033

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

How quickly we forget. But this is how he campaigned to the left. Or lied, if you want to kick a man when he's down.

Subtext: I will pledge whatever appeals to the left to get elected, then vacillate, suck up to Reform voters and post regularly on a fascist site.

210

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

A happy 81st birthday to the great jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist, Anthony Braxton, WKCR is running a birthday broadcast of Braxton's music all day today. 1440 minutes! www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/a...

Ad showing a young Braxton with an alto sax

110

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Browsing 1966 issues of The Beatles Book, as you do, I came across this interview with Paul McCartney, asking why the US LPs and UK ones still had different track listings. I hadn’t heard this answer before (everything changed after Revolver anyway). Is it true? (see third image, others for context)

cover of issue 40 of The Beatles Book, Nov 66

Paul with open neck shirt and untied tie, image facing first page of interview

Page one of interview in which Paul claims they would lose royalties and face other inconveniences if US LPs had 14 tracks like the UK ones

022

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Lovely launch @fiveleavesbooks.bsky.social for 'Devils in the Details', essays around Lincolnshire Folk Tales by @rorywaterman.bsky.social with short readings by two great Lincolnshire poets, Rob Etty & Kathryn Daszkiewicz. Well worth it for the packed house who braved a thunderstorm to get there.

Book cover. £12.99 from Five Leaves Publications.

263

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Congratulations, County. 11 years after dropping out of the league, Notts County are promoted to the first division after outplaying Salford and winning 3-0. Outstanding.

030

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Tonight on one of those tucked away freeview channels, what appears to be the full length version of one of the greatest films ever made, Sergio Leone's masterpiece Once Upon A Time in America. If it is (4+ hours I've only seen on a bootleg print) definitely worth setting your digi-device to record.

110

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Maria Taylor and Alan Baker reading at Five Leaves Bookshop at a lovely, packed launch for Alan's new 64 poem pamphlet, A Book of Psalms, from Shearsman Books. About to read it.

Taylor and Baker stood reading the different parts in one of her poems.

040

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

August 1, 2007, my late partner, Sue Dymoke, surrounded by poppies in Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where there’s a path with our names on it.

The poet Sue Dymoke (1962-2023) smiling. She is wearing sunglasses and a pale top.

050

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Glorious, exuberant opening night of the UK tour from The Lemon Twigs at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Their new album is so good, I would’ve happily heard them play it all. Those hooks, those harmonies and those crunchy, catchy riffs!

051

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

A rare appearance by Nottingham's finest, Gaffa (+ many others & a side project or two) at Hedley Villas, Forest Fields, on July 4th, in memory of Jenny Snell, 2-7pm. Free. And Pizza! My memoir, Don't Mention the Night, with a long chapter about Gaffa, still available from Five Leaves Publishing.

Poster for event with postcode NG77BN. Pizza available until 6.

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The early show at Peggy’s Skylight. Packed for ‘Dennis Rollins & Tony Kofi play Bob Brookmeyer & Gerry Mulligan’. Subtle swing & contrasting moods from fantastic musicians. What a treat. Such a diverse audience too, with great food and drink. How lucky we are to have this unique venue in Nottingham.

Full band, Paul Deats piano, Martyn on bass, Woody on drums

011

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

29.2.68. Ornette Coleman appears at the Royal Albert Hall with guest appearance by Yoko Ono. 'A Leap Year Special.' A friend who was at the gig kept the programme. Here it is (minus the 4 ad pages). Lovely photo on the cover. Very few people at the gig, Dave tells me, but a really memorable show.

cover with band plus Yoko standing in corner

195

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Update. Congratulations to my sister, Fran Belbin, reelected to Sheffield City Council in a close race. Here she is at the snooker, which she was instrumental in keeping at The Crucible.

Fran Belbin holding a glass of bubbly in front of a display reading 'CHAMP'

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Gwendoline Riley is flavour of the month with her new novel. It may be great - that shouldn't allow her to get away with the mean-spirited, petty reading of Beryl Bainbridge's oeuvre she published in the last issue of the TLS. Good to see this robust response from Jane Thomas in this week's letters.

Lengthy letter entitled 'Beryl Bainbridge's reputation'.

353

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

So sorry to hear of the death of J.H. Prynne, whose work I've followed closely for 48 years. He taught two of my friends at Caius, his poems provoking endless conversation & bemused stimulation. He was a friend of Stanley Middleton, from whom I inherited this dedicated book. 'Oh, the world.' R.I.P.

Copy of 1990's Word Order dedicated to Stanley Middleton 'with warm regards'. 'Oh, the world' is written below. 'Cambridge 25th April, 1990.'

1214

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Outstanding sold out show by @joshuaidehen.bsky.social at Nottingham's Rescue Rooms last night: part poetry & pure positivity, a charismatic preacher putting together his own church with discourse & dance. Go see. Here's a taste.

021

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Three years late but worth the wait, it's a lovely, airy space with flowing shelves and an outside terrace. Tardis-like, it does seem bigger on the inside. Great to meet so many old friends there. Here's a poem by Bridie Squires that you'll find on the staircase when you check it out for yourselves.

Poem reads 'How lucky am I to have fallen into this moment in time, to thrive on all discoveries that came before?' Bridie Squires.

031

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

After closing during Covid, Sherwood’s new library opens at last. Going in!

282

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Two years ago yesterday I saw Jon Dee Graham, RIP, for the 2nd & last time. He was in a chair but in great spirits (we chatted after). Here's my video of Something Wonderful, the song of his I first fell for, in his spiritual home, Austin's Continental Club, where he had a record breaking residency.

010

David Belbin @davidbelbin.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Who was Cecil Roberts? As popular & respected as Ian McEwan or William Boyd in his day, now remembered, if at all, as a Graham Greene footnote. And even then he was excised from 'A Sort of Life'. I explain why in this bonus post to serial novel, 'Greeneland'. davidbelbin.substack.com/p/cecil-robe...

Photo of author Cecil Roberts at the age he was when he met Greene (mid-thirties but always looked older),

010