The Verve have announced a string of four dates just before Christmas at some of our larger arenas.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday (5th October) morning at 10am at £32.50, but those on the Verve’s mailing list can get them from 9am on Thursday (4th October). Catch them at:

Thursday 13th December – London O2 Arena
Saturday 15th December – Glasgow SECC Centre
Monday 17th December – Belfast Odyssey Arena
Thursday 20th December – Manchester Central

The Verve have announced that they’ll be reforming for a new tour and album in November this year. The band split acromoniously in 1999 when Richard Ashcroft and Nick McCabe fell out.

If only I was in the country I’d be there. A bit gutted that I’m not, as they’ll be awesome shows (if they’re still all on talking terms by then). It’ll be interesting to see what their new album is like, and if they can come out with anything anywhere near as good as Urban Hymns. They’ll play:

Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd November – Glasgow Academy
Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th November – Blackpool Empress Ballroom
Thursday 8th, Friday 9th November – London Roundhouse

Tickets are on sale NEXT Friday, July 6th at 9am.

Last night I finished reading one of this year’s summer bestsellers, “This book will save your life”. It’s one of Richard and Judy’s reads for the summer, and is definitely a book to polarise opinions.

It follows reclusive Richard Novak through a break-down of sorts and then watches as he re-discovers the dysfunctional Los Angeles area, making friends with Anhil, the local donut shop owner and getting to grips with getting his life back on track. During this time Richard goes through a series of pretty unbelievable events one after another, making for an interesting read.

There were quite a few parallels to the film “Garden State” here for me, as Homes manages to take Richard on a voyage of discovery about himself and the people around him that both captivates and intrigues.

However, it does have its slower moments when I was tempted to put it down and not continue. Little things like the switches from first to third person (often mid paragraph) and the lack of chapters made it difficult to get on with, however it was quite a rewarding read come the end of it, even if most of it was pretty unbelievable and a bit slow to develop.