Some posh #shops give off this vibe of overt #exclusivity don't they? (Well, they do to me anyway!) #windowshopping #fashion #retail #hautecouture Unpublished #cartoon

Of course the real tragedy is that the previous drummer in The Cavern Club Beatles was Pete Best's son

Lonnie Donegan was famously Samuel Beckett's favourite pop star

Ironically if Franz Ferdinand had gone round Sarajevo like this, it might have protected him and World War 1 would never have happened

John Gorman from the Scaffold, Grimms, Tiswas etc - born 4 January 1936. 90 years old today!

The Beatles' list of engagements in January/February 1963. Quite busy but they've missed off "11 February - record album". Their third single From Me To You would be written on the tour bus heading towards Shrewsbury for the Helen Shapiro tour on 28 Feb

The word is that I’ve a 'movie' out shortly. It's true. My 2022 theatre show The Beatles / Evolver:62 was filmed, and selections from that + new material shot in Liverpool and London comprise a feature that'll be streaming from Feb 2026. More details to follow, sample here vimeo.com/1023543808?f...

Mrs H sent me to do a quick trip to the tip at 8.15am. The queue was already so long I managed to listent to this entire pod during the visit. But fantastic fun and such a brilliant pair of guests. I think every one of my nominations for this poll failed to make the top 20. So that's an achievement!

This was a hoot!! Have a listen if ya fancy....

Approaching the statue of William Rathbone in St John's Gardens in Liverpool from this angle makes it look like he's wearing a rather ostentatious hat

It's the ball boys I feel sorry for

If only I'd agreed to pay them that 50p to look after my car

Europe can no longer rely on the US as an ally. The UK should rejoin the EU as a matter of urgency.

While walking from his car to pay for his petrol at this the Fiveways Petrol Station in Norwich, Stephen Fry exchanged a look with my Golden Retriever who was sitting in the back of my car

Always an excellent and fun podcast. Sad to see it bowing out. But a fab pair of final episodes with lots of great guests and here's to the new venture next year!

Thanks so much to Tyler for having me on his excellent Goon Pod Film Club podcast talking about an Ealing Comedy classic Whisky Galore. But how did this film help bring the world Frank Zappa and The Doors?!!! Tune in and find out!

Christmas day 1947 John Lennon is gifted a harmonica by Harold Phillips, a former serviceman now student at Liverpool University who was renting a room from John's Aunt Mimi and Uncle George at their home Mendips. From Mark Lewisohn's Tune In:

Two Angus McBean cover photos for Parlophone albums produced by George Martin - Milligan Preserved in late 1961 and Please Please Me in March 1963

Here's my other #cartoon from the previous @privateeyenews.bsky.social - new, bumper #christmas edition is out now and I'm delighted to be in that too. #pirates #shadowpuppets #onboardentertainment

And may every day be another wonderful secret.

AI used to recreate all the Beatles album covers. I knew they worked quick but this is ridiculous 👨🏻👨🏻👨🏻👨🏻

This week on Goon Pod - These Are Your Lives!

A great playwright and comedy writer and a very inspiring and lovely man - John Antrobus, who I had the great pleasure of working with on a couple of series for Radio 4 back in the day

Here's the link to the show on John we put out earlier this year - with @mikehaskins.bsky.social. Although we couldn't cover his entire career I think we did alright by him and John was "happy about it" open.spotify.com/episode/4axP...

All it needs is a damn good wrapping! 🎁 Purchased in Liverpool, now in line to become a quiz prize at my local Beatles' club Christmas party on Saturday. (A Beatles quiz, ofc 😉) •Highly• recommend this beautiful little book about "The Beatles' Liverpool"! @mikehaskins.bsky.social 🎄🕺🕺🕺🕺🎄

Feverishly working on this

Listened while out with the doggies in the rain this morning which made it a very pleasant if damp stroll. At last they've found a chart where Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane got to number one.

I loved doing this.

...which was Reich.

Fantastic hearing about N F Simpson and his work from Tyler and David Quantick this week

Goon Show star Ray Ellington on the Cavern Wall of Fame on Mathew Street, Liverpool which celebrates many of the performers and bands who have played at the venue over the years. Ellington played at the Cavern on 11 December 1960 and parked his Ford Consul right outside the club - number plate: RE1

56,000 people - so, as many as would into a football stadium - have three times as much wealth as 50% of the entire world's population www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

Roll over beethoven From Liverpool they came Singing songs for everyone Opening up the doors Shrieking fans Screaming police vans Working eight days a week To get to the toppermost Of the poppermost Those were the days my friend Days in the life When all you needed Was love Yeah Yeah Yeah

Great episode with Tyler on Back and Forth. Very sad this excellent pod is coming to an end but good to hear it will be re-born in a different guise looking at a totally different series which rather more episodes!

10 December 1961 The Beatles played Hambleton Hall, St Davids Road, Huyton, Liverpool arriving late and not happy following a long drive back from their disastrous first live show in the south of England at Aldershot where they had played to just 18 people

8 December 1960 John Lennon arrived home in Liverpool after The Beatles' first trip to Hamburg and had to throw stones up at his Aunt Mimi's bedroom window to wake her up. 8 December 1970 the band having now split up, John did his interview with Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone. 8 December 1980.....

The French have developed the world's first organic TV aerial

Good to see Mr Rumbold from Are You Being Served there on piano

Saturday 7 December 1957 The Quarrymen played Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool. Some say this was the night George Harrison first saw the band and some say also on the bill was the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group featuring Richy Starkey. John, Paul, George and Ringo all together for the first time?

Griff and a friend about to go on stage at the Ipswich Regent the other night at Griff's annual star studded charity show to raise money for East Anglia Children's Hospices. I can now add to my CV that I have written some supposedly funny jokes for Anneka Rice!

A Readers Digest #cartoon #caturday #catsatchristmas #christmastime #christmastree #christmasdecorations🎄

It’s really simple… - Cap all political donations - Ban foreign donations - Strict conflict‑of‑interest & anti‑corruption laws with penalties - No titles, honours or peerages for donors - No govt contracts for donors - Publish every donation/lobby meeting …that’ll do it.

John Lennon's Aunt Mimi (24 April 1903 to 6 December 1991) who brought John up from 1946 at her home on Menlove Avenue, Liverpool. John bought her a house in Poole, Dorset in 1965.. According to the nurse with her when she died, her final words were "Hello, John" www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y07...

The Beatles looking out from the Empire Theatre 5 December 1965. Presumably not only the final day they played in Liverpool but also the final time all four of them were ever together in Liverpool

NEMS' first Liverpool city centre store opened 5 December 1957 on Great Charlotte Street opposite Blacklers department store. An advert for the opening appeared in the Liverpool Echo on the same page as an ad for a forthcoming appearance by local skiffle group The Quarrymen

The bottom 90% lost a collective $79 trillion in wages over the past 50 years. Why? Because the top 1% ate up an increasingly larger share of the national income — so that $79 trillion flowed to them instead of the working class. The greatest trick of all is trickle-down economics.