A good day as any to remember that Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone as recently as 2023 said that he did not include any women in his book on masters of rock music because: "Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level"

One of the proudest moments of my career. Tape op on a David Bowie live session from BBC Maida Vale (circa 1992) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

22k and it still took an age to load on a BBC Micro.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates, 400 BC

In case it's of interest... www.pleasantgreen.co.uk/the-return-o...

Brought home a new family member today. Meet Nellie the border collie

This just in: Sun agrees to release infinity million barrels of sunshine every morning

Experimenting with getting some height into a sound effect that needs to sound large. This is effectively a 5.0.4 setup (double MS + 4 monos for height). No guarantees it’ll sound any good but might as well give it a go.

He’s responsible for covering up pollution across the country which has killed a child and put many more in hospital for his own financial and career gain. Signed.

Pretty sure my dad wrote this

“I have usernames older than you.”. Holy shit

Cabling for Dolby Atmos gets gnarly pretty quickly. Tried to start it when I was tired last night and it didn’t go well. Fresh start this morning though.

We lost our lovely Meg fairly suddenly a month ago after nearly 13 years. We all decided we can’t bear to be without a dog so we’re going to look at some puppies tomorrow. Feels weird to be doing it so soon but Spring does seem a good time to start training a Border Collie. Big job ahead.

When Scooby Doo is asked to name his favorite supermarket:

This photo makes it look as if we won Best Series or Serial at the BBC Audio Drama awards with “Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir” We didn’t win, but we were finalists. So that’s nice.

I’m upgrading the studio to Dolby Atmos over the next few weeks. I’m spending Sunday making the frames for the front ceiling speakers. (These speakers are PMC wafers). Woodwork is very much my happy place after a week running around and staring at screens.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus. “I am reading poetry to the insane.” www.gillianclarke.co.uk/gc2017/mirac...

We're putting your opinions into a LIVE SHOW. Catch the full show in Glasgow (17th March 2026) Come argue your bollocks opinion - live. https://sites.google.com/view/fesshole

What Ted Sarandos did not tell the listeners to the Today programme just now about the Britishness of Netflix shows is that eg Adolescence came from talent discovered and nurtured and funded by British public-service broadcasters, not just found lying on the ground by US streamers.

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

This is the Gov looking for your input on the BBC. It takes a while to complete (15/20 mins) but it’s pretty comprehensive and covers most aspects. Please share. I’m surprised many people haven’t seen it yet. www.gov.uk/government/c...

“I urge the government to back the World Service, to act decisively and confidently about what we can achieve in this space, and to act soon” - Tim Davie, BBC Director-General. A dire warning about the World Service running out of money in just 7 weeks time.

Just saw a post with George Clinton citing the Beatles as his favorite band, which reminded me of this quote he once gave me

This Super Bowl Sunday, I’d like to introduce you all to the magical curse bowls used in Upper Mesopotamia and Syria in late antiquity. Written in Mandaic (as here) or Syriac Aramaic, they trap demons who trespass on a household by sucking them in with spiraling spells to the center of the bowl.

Also, the chant of “Don’t trust the left with your children” at the immigration protest this morning suggests that some of them haven’t been reading the news.

I’m making a drama about people stuck in an immigration hotel next week. I forced myself to record an anti-immigration protest in Kent this morning. Super depressing but it will help me create the ever-present threat of violence in the edit, even if it’s just heard though a window in the distance.

I wandered through a very strange, mostly boarded up shopping mall today on the way back from a sound fx gathering session in Cambridge. So of course I grabbed 7 mins of room tone while I was there, something that usually gets me chucked out within 1 minute (not joking)

TV is 100! On Jan 26 1926 John Logie Baird gave the first public demo of a working television system in rooms above what is now Bar Italia on Frith St, London. Read John Wyver's book for more: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-ray... / cc @illuminations.bsky.social

I’ve never really seen the attraction of coin collecting but if I was a rich man I’d buy one of these King Harold coins from 1066, minted by hand in Lewes, Sussex just 1/4 mile from my home (the mint is thought to have been near Pells area). Known as a “Pax” coin this one sold for £1900 in 2009.

one of the more obscure pieces of Bowie's 1980s: his appearance in the Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary TV special (Jan 1986; now 40 years ago, & now Looney Tunes is 90). www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwpm...

The British Library put on an amazing day yesterday celebrating David Bowie for the 10th anniversary of his death. I nearly didn’t go because of train disruption into London but 61/2 hours of travelling to get 50 miles and back was still very worth it. Thanks BL and Arsalan Mohammad for organising

Thom Yorke’s notebook with a draft of the lyrics of Karma Police by Radiohead, from the This is What You Get exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

I was passing through Oxford on my way to Liverpool and thought I’d see if I could get into the Radiohead exhibition in the Ashmolean museum. Sold out but they let me in as it was just me!

A new addition to my studio: A classic Shure 55s mic. This one was manufactured in October 1954 and appears to be totally original. It sounds great too - as in it doesn’t sound great but it sounds exactly how you’d think it should sound. Known as The Elvis mic for obvious reasons.

Learning to fly a glider with the RAF cadets. The guy on the winch fell asleep on takeoff as we were 1000ft up. We stalled and just recovered control before we crashed, writing off a 2 week old glider. I was actually remarkably un-hurt. They sent me straight up in another glider to get over it

Nerves of steel Danny! Mastermind came to my school when I was 17. I was head of sound at the school theatre. I sat in that chair with the lights on me. Terrifying. It was my first interaction with the BBC and the OB sound guys told me who to write to to apply for a job. Six months later I was in.

Happy 100th birthday Dick Van Dyke!

That Julian Simpson is quite good actually.

Found the relevant pages, feels like an eyewitness account of the creation of the world, yeah that's hyperbole but holy shit

I can’t sum it up any better than this. Thanks Steve

Nine years ago Mike Fitzgerald wrote up an extraordinarily fascinating breakdown of the differences between the Tom Stoppard shooting script and the original Jeffrey Boam draft of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It's well worth your time: www.creativescreenwriting.com/indiana-jone...

I’ve only recently come to realise how much David Bowie and his work shaped who I wanted to be as an adult. Not to be like him, but to follow my own path. School career advisors said there was no point applying to BBC for their sound course but I got in as youngest ever. events.bl.uk/events/david...

I’ve been thinking all day about the amazing Radiohead gig at the o2 last night. I bumped into a few friends by chance and had the best time. I was still at the aftershow as the time ticked over into my birthday today.

On a way to a job in the Midlands and stopped off in Stratford. This is the room that William Shakespeare was born in.

Interesting bit of archive from 1979 for Kate Bush fans. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQoX...

My favourite photo from tonight’s bonfire celebrations in Lewes, taken half way up the high street.

Lewes castle from our garden. Just now

Family Christmas presents incoming…

Destroying some already broken laptops before taking for recycling. Recording interior and exterior drops, slides, fumbles and pick-ups. Recording at night to avoid birds and traffic.

I think he’s seen me.