4th July reading on the train

Neuromancer is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed

1) Bono’s leather-waistcoat-no-shirt look. 2) The sanctification of Freddie Mercury as ‘the perfect showman’ when he died.

Delighted to report that the real Belgium away shirts do not have the Magritte legend featured on the social media representation of said shirt, which means that the promo image was even more appropriate than it first appeared.

Went to a gig on Wednesday. Yes, Wednesday. Outside. It was a furnace but a very joyful one cos it was seeing Super Furry Animals for the first time in 10 years. My review for @bristol247.bsky.social has just gone up. www.bristol247.com/culture/musi...

Little piece from me for @bristol247.bsky.social based on an interview with Guto from the Super Furry Animals, ahead of their Bristol show next week. We talk band democracy, being forward-facing and a love of experimentation. A lovely man in a great band. www.bristol247.com/culture/musi...

It starts today!!!

This morning’s @bristol247.bsky.social article and something kind of similar.

“Sunday, in the afternoon, what have you got to lose…?”

“On the one hand it’s an England that’s hardly changed. On the other hand it changes every day, every hour. It’s always now. It’s the now that’s eternal, actually.” David Hockney

Canada looking helpless, helpless, helpless…

Did not know this. How brilliant.

Newk’s Time is over. What a life.

On Dylan’s 85th birthday, here’s a playlist of some of my favourite Dylan covers open.spotify.com/playlist/3q8...

I Wanna Testify Good Old Music Everybody’s Going To Make It This Time Mothership Connection One Nation Under A Groove

introduce yourself with 10 bands/artists you've seen live Gil Scott-Heron Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Dexys PJ Harvey Rolling Stones Calexico Stone Roses Herbie Hancock Brian Wilson Hot Chip

I understand they could never have called it Batman Legocy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also be disappointed

Finally watched When Harry Met Sally for the first time last night (I know). Obliged to use my commute to re-listen to this sensational unpacking of what makes it so good. Brilliant insights from @lucyprebblish.bsky.social and the Rule Of Three chaps. Glorious. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r...

The Young Mods’ Forgotten Story Keep On Keeping On Freddie’s Dead Right On (For The Darkness) Billy Jack

Finally saw Sweet Smell Of Success - what a dark-hearted film it is. Dialogue so dense and poetic it’s hard to follow whats going on. But it sure lingers. Grateful to my film buff friend for immediately lending me the director’s book so I can work out why…

🎶 let’s get together and eat minced beef🎶

The Amorous Humphrey Plugg It’s Raining Today The Old Man’s Back Again The Electrician Track Three

Grease. Nothing cute or fun or cool about it. Toxic sexual politics, horrible songs - ‘did she put up a fight’? Ugh. Everyone a cartoon (except for Stockard Channing, and what happens to her character is grim.) Sandy’s transformation is 70s male gaze nonsense.

Tin Soldier - Small Faces Racing In The Street - Springsteen River Man - Nick Drake Edith & The Kingpin - Joni I Want You (She’s So Heavy) - Beatles Make Me Believe In You - Patti Jo Promised Land - Joe Smooth Controversy - Prince Finders Keepers - Chairmen of the Board Lady Grinning Soul - Bowie

Sail on, sailor! Delighted to see Allison morphing into a 1970s Beach Boy.

This weather, this time of year - it just sounds like this to me. It is Small Faces season, and this just sounds amazing, still.

Ian Penman on the Beach Boys - impeccable. My word, he’s good at this. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Found a Mad Men box set in a charity shop. £2 - couldn’t not. (Some sense is kicking in I should be prepping for streamer collapse.) The media outlet calling depictions (S1 alone) of brutal misogyny, blatant racism, forced adoption and workplace bullying “sheer joy”? That’ll be the Mail On Sunday.

Finished this over the weekend. It’s very good. There’s a recurring line that defines America as “an adolescence without end“ and I keep thinking about that.

Happy April 5th, everyone. Here she comes… medium.com/a-longing-lo...

🎶 *bryan ferry voice* “Disposable darling You’ve made so much money My new hobby is flags It’s a national emergency”

👌

Yes it’s the most Partridge moment ever but also, having just read the book thanks to @iammilliam.bsky.social and @andrewmale.bsky.social, I can’ see Goodwin as a akin to Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel - brittle, self-regarding, impervious to reflection, a laughing stock who will never realise it.

As a radio DJ Craig Charles is a great reader-out of words other people have written for him to say, other than he also sounds totally wooden doing that.

My friend fields sometimes 6 calls a day from people demanding he collect his cat. The cat goes missing for days and has been found in pubs, schools, people’s homes. He‘s been in the cathedral, the zoo, followed a guy home from the Thekla once.

New McCartney is just lovely. Feels somewhere between Rubin-produced Johnny Cash and Sufjan’s Carrie And Lowell. Hazy, melancholy, voice soft and occasionally cracking

#nowplaying, special weather turning/refressing edition

Jimmy Webb producing the Supremes doing a motorik sprint through a Joni Mitchell song. Just takes it somewhere else. A whole new energy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Bi...

My gratitude to @andrewwasylyk.bsky.social for his magical ensemble show the other night, and to @bristol247.bsky.social for letting me write a review. A case of place transposed to music which I have attempted to capture in words. www.bristol247.com/culture/musi...

I didn’t march against the Criminal Justice Bill for this.

The last time a Tudor got this badly embarrassed by the Spanish, England schismed christianity.

👀

It would have been Lou Reed’s 86th birthday today. Here’s something I wrote the day he died, back in 2013. jamescaig.medium.com/sunday-mourn...

Watched Total Recall last night. Something familiar about the car driven by the stooge of the mindvirus-wielding authorian bad guy...

Also brilliantly put

Brilliantly put