Is this the future of music journalism, a good night out or both?

It's hard to get people to pay for music magazines nowadays but there's still an appetite for the things music magazines are about. Music is the most obvious one. The other is what Alan Partridge would call "music-based chat". We've been edging towards that with the Word In Your Ear shows Alex Gold and I have been putting on over the last few months, featuring people like Chris Difford, David Ford, Tracey Thorn and Danny Baker.

We're doing one on July 2nd at the Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell when we're putting on A Quiet Word With Daniel Tashian of the Silver Seas. They're one of my favourite groups and he's one of my favourite songwriters. Their new album Alaska is quietly fabulous. They're in the midst of a short tour of the UK and Ireland that week. They play the Lexington the following night. On the 2nd it's just Daniel. He'll be playing some songs and talking to me about whatever I can get him to talk about: what it's like writing songs in Nashville, why he made a solo album inspired by the Dudley Moore film Arthur, the stories behind songs like Kid, why he got interested in PG Wodehouse and how his dad came to play Shea Stadium with the Beatles.

The basement bar in The Slaughtered Lamb is one of London's more intimate and atmospheric spaces (pictured above) so I'm hoping it lends itself to a hybrid between a show, an interview, workshop, Q&A session, meet-and-greet, podcast, True Stories Told Live and evening down the pub. Please come, either to that or our show on July 8th at Lord's with the Duckworth Lewis Method. Early bird tickets are sold out but tickets are still available for £10.