Apparently we in Nottingham have done something to upset AA Gill.
In the last thirty years (according to an article he wrote after Christmas) he has visited us twice – the first time to see Goose Fair – although from his description I wonder if he was dreaming – he saw a Miners Spitting Contest? Funny – I have been to Goose Fair for probably 45 years – and have never seen such a spectacle? The second was recently where he ate at Hart’s. thats his “job” – he’s paid to eat the very best restaurants.
He was with a mysterious luvvie – who had a cadged Rolls Royce for the weekend. His mate had been worried that they “would be made to squeal like pigs and stomped with ultra-violence” in Nottingham.
We have apparently been hit with an “ugly stick and got a bad dose of the Detroits”. There is then the historic roll out of crime statistics and some cheap jibes about them disguising the (cadged) Roller as a skip in Hart’s car park.
We then move on to Lunch – which is what he is paid (a lot) to write about. There seems to be an issue with him being served by an English Rose waitress – from Lithuania. And apparently people around him were dressed in their best track-suits bottoms and t-shirts… I think not!
When I read the article – I just wondered if the real issue was that no-one recognised this little man. Apart from Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) who was playing a gig in Nottingham. Apparently Norman had asked the luvvie if he was AA Gill. They thought they were going to be a crime statistic because someone came up to them …
So, once again, the article is more about sensationalist journalism – if you can actually call it that. Most of it is outdated clap-trap which just makes for entertaining reading for some Sunday Times readers. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago since I was blogging about Daisy Waugh – on a similar subject.
Clearly we have done something terribly wrong to these people. I don’t know what it is. What I do suggest though is that they leave us alone if all they can do is write this sort of rubbish. Quite honestly we don’t need them. The Home Counties do – where they can ride around in their Rolls Royce’s wrapped in cotton wool to their hearts content.
Personally I would be suspicious of anyone who can’t write their own name (first or second)…
Too true
The problem is that strand of journalism where fact and fiction are melded together in the name of a columnist consistently meeting his readers’ expectations. Everyday life doesn’t always serve up material which meets those expectations, which is where the, ahem, inventive and interpretive style of some columnists comes from. I’m not sure readers take the likes of AA Gill or Jeremy Clarkson (the pair are as thick as thieves) too seriously, but I’d have thought someone of Gill’s talents could come up with cultural observations which didn’t have cobwebs all over them. It was Daisy Waugh who irritated me – her piece was a threadbare parade of lazy condescension which bore all the hallmarks of a national newspaper regional bombing raid – insult the proles and return to London. Not worth getting out of bed for, really.
Richard – that’s a good point. Perhaps his life really is quite dull and he needs to spice things up a bit – but a Miners Spitting Contest?!
And when you get to the end of the article you actually realise he has had a good meal!
The man is an utter penis and should be added to the centre of the t-shirt design shown here:
http://www.redmolotov.com/catalogue/tshirts/all/venn-diagram-tshirt.html
I just hate this sort of condescending rubbish that anyone who lives outside of London is a hick. Perhaps some of us who are from in and around London have chosen to live here because of the far higher quality of life it offers us and our families.
Being a southerner myself, I seem to have spent half my life defending the fact that not all of us are hateful bigots, but this sort of tripe, make me wonder whether I have gone native, or the south has changed beyond recognition.
I like it when you get off the fence. I don’t really know what we do about this sort of appalling ‘journalism’ – perhaps we just have to blog to remind people that this is not a real story – it is just sensationalist clap-trap to amuse the South…
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Did a Google search on “AA GILL REVIEW HARTS NOTTINGHAM” because my brother-in-law (a journalist / sub-editor down that smart, posh London place…) told us about the article – love the fact that your blog post showed up in the search!!
Nottingham rocks…
Thanks David – yes the power of Google!!
I was hoping Ack Ack Gill might do us the great service of explaining his diatribe, but I’m not holding my breath…
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