Brilliant stuff from Mic Wright on the UK media's reaction to criticism of Trump's illegal action in Venezuela.

Right then. Year begins, work begins. Hit me up. Employ me. Writer, DJ, lecturer. I’m good.

For years, my answer to 'Greatest city on earth?' was San Francisco. Then I visited New Orleans and the answer changed. It's a weird feeling that I'll probably never set foot in either again. The millions of Americans who do not support fascism have my solidarity, but I cannot spend my money there.

Shame on Starmer. You could copy-paste this to a thousand contexts since he came to power, so - for the record - this particular time it’s about Venezuela. Shame on Starmer. I hope some tiny shard of what remains of your conscience haunts you to your grave. About this and countless other things.

Julia Donaldson film adaptations ranked. 1 The Snail And The Whale 2 Room On The Broom 3 The Gruffalo 4 Zog 5 Tiddler 6 Tabby McTat 7 Zog & The Flying Doctors 8 The Gruffalo’s Child 9 Stick Man 10 The Highway Rat 11 The Scarecrows’ Wedding 12 Superworm 13 The Smeds & The Smoos Have I missed any?

Rationale: drug trafficking + dodgy elections. Reality: left wing leader sitting on top of the world’s biggest oil reserves. Trump couldn’t point to Venezuela on a map. Guaranteed he’ll install that Nobel-winning Nazi next. And “free and fair elections” will mysteriously vanish from the agenda.

Not kidding - it is fucking going OFF!

HAPPY NEW YEAR from @spellboundclub.bsky.social! We're having an awesome time at Komedia Brighton, and a little bit of space has now opened up if you fancy joining us. Playing Goth, Post-Punk, New Romantic, Alternative Rock, New Wave, Indie, Synth & Ska 1979-89 (emphasis on party-friendly bangers).

Dancing With Myself not an option.

Counting down to @spellboundclub.bsky.social's New Year's Eve Party at Komedia! Advanc3 t!ck3t5 are 50ld 0ut, with none held back for walk-up. However, if you're out in Brighton and fancy adding some Alt-80s to your NYE mix, try us after midnight when space often opens up (watch our socials). HNY! x

I feel like it’s too late to give a shit about microplastics, if they’ve been as prevalent for decades as we’re suddenly being told they have. Anyone of my age is already riddled with the fuckers and there’s not a lot we can do about it, retrospectively. Any lifestyle changes will be of minimal use.

So sorry to hear of the death of The Cure's Perry Bamonte, a former guitar tech who stepped up to become a full member for 15 years, an invaluable Swiss Army knife multi-instrumentalist. Every fan loved seeing him back on board for the Lost World tour. R.I.P. 'Teddy'. Love to his family & friends. x

Michael Buble's version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) is a hate crime.

I'm not saying the Ostalgie is always strong, with me, but two of my Christmas presents (both asked for, and got) are Katja Hoyer's Beyond The Wall, and a 12-pack of Kofola (the Communist cola from Czechoslovakia, developed as an Eastern Bloc alternative to Pepsi and Coke). #Letitgosimonyourguyslost

This kind of Christmas weather - dazzling blue sky, but testicle-shrinkingly cold - is classic Christmas, for me. It's only snowed maybe twice in my life at Christmas. But this, today, is canon.

Tell you what I still haven’t had this year: anything mulled. What an oversight. Heading to a nearby sports club bar later. If they have anything mulled, I’m going to get mulled out of my tiny mind. I’m gonna be comedian turned TV executive Jimmy Mulville. Wrexham’s Paul Mullin. The Mull of Kintyre.

There’s an ad I keep hearing on podcasts where a woman is getting stressed out making Christmas dinner, and her teenage son says “Mum, I, er, made you a playlist on Amazon Music.” God, it is so unintentionally bleak. The whole interaction is so cold and joyless. Maybe it’s just poor acting, I dunno.

Chris Rea originally wanted to be a journalist, you know. I’ve just been asked to talk on air about his death, in a text with the sign-off “(LBC News unfortunately doesn’t have a budget for guests).” I like to imagine that, in my shoes, he’d have gruffly told them to get to absolute fuck. R.I.P.

Sometimes, at a certain hour, it turns out that Homosapien by Pete Shelley is hands-down the greatest record of the entire 80s and that’s all there is to it. youtu.be/lQa1dGk--xI?...

GOTH MUSIC FOR GOTH PEOPLE

Announcing the @spellboundclub.bsky.social GOTH SPECIAL! Sat 17 Jan at Komedia Brighton playing the 80s Gothic A-X from Alien Sex Fiend to Xmal Deutschland, via Sisters Bauhaus Cramps etc (plus videos, smoke, snakebite) Tickets www.komedia.co.uk/shows/spellb... Info www.facebook.com/events/83588...

Our Yuletide Throwdown. Full info: www.facebook.com/events/10108...

Alternative 80s lovers of Brighton! See you at @spellboundclub.bsky.social Christmas Party at Komedia TONIGHT! £7 cash at the door (if you don't already have an advance ticket, which are all gone). We'll get you in - we hold back plenty of places for walk-up. Info: www.facebook.com/events/10108...

Usual shizzle, but with added Waitresses, Pogues, mince pies and Christmas crackers...

Alternative 80s lovers of Brighton! See you at @spellboundclub.bsky.social Christmas Party at Komedia TOMORROW! £7 cash at the door (if you don't already have an advance ticket, which are all gone). We'll get you in - we hold back plenty of places for walk-up. Info: www.facebook.com/events/10108...

“A definitive band history.” Those aren't my words (or those of Top Gear magazine), but Alexis Petridis from The Guardian. The perfect Christmas gift for the Goth or Curehead in your life, CUREPEDIA is fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia A GUARDIAN MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR

How is it a night boat to Cairo if it’s just gone noon?

I remember enough about what it’s like to be a 15-year-old boy to appreciate the overwhelming temptation that these things, on bus windows, are laying out before the eyes of 15-year-old boys. I’m in my 50s now and I still felt an urge. This won’t end well, mark my words.

“Children of slain Hollywood director…” Not sure how I feel about ‘slain’ in a piece of sober BBC news journalism. Even without the modern usage of ‘slay’ in youth slang making things worse, it would feel droolingly hyperbolic and just the wrong tone for the subject. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“It will be hard to find a more all-encompassing repository of Cure wisdom than this one.” Those aren't my words (or those of Top Gear magazine), but Record Collector. The perfect Christmas gift for the Goth in your life, CUREPEDIA is fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia

I forgot to type 'T!ck3t5' etc on the Facebook version and the replies are an absolute bot binfire.

T!ck3t5 for @spellboundclub.bsky.social New Year's Eve Party are 50ld 0ut (thank you!). There are no places held back for walk-up. However, if you're out in Brighton on NYE anyway, do check our socials in case a bit of space has opened up (especially after midnight). www.facebook.com/events/14821...

The unfathomably bleak circumstances of Rob Reiner’s death put me off posting anything at first. But Donald Trump’s should-be-unbelievable-but-isn’t response has made it essential that we do. Flood the world with the good stuff. Remember him THIS way, not for this awful day. youtu.be/H7vk5keNbRc?...

“A goldmine of information” Those aren't my words (or those of Top Gear magazine), but the Irish Times. The perfect Christmas gift for the Curehead in your life, CUREPEDIA is fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR

R.I.P. Carl Carlton, best known for his randy disco-funk classic She's A Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked). What an absolute banger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRRt...

“An extraordinary piece of work.” Those aren't my words (or those of Top Gear magazine) but Elis James from BBC 5Live. The perfect Christmas gift for the Goth or Curehead in your life, CUREPEDIA is now fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia A GUARDIAN MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR

Just learned (via an episode of Miranda Sawyer's Talk Nineties To Me podcast featuring Simon Kuper) that The Sunday Times once described football as "a slum sport for slum people". This was in 1985.

A thousand years ago (well, 1992) Melody Maker did a Sex Issue. All mags used to do that, when stuck for ideas. I wrote an introductory essay about the inspirational, disruptive power of non-conforming sexuality in pop. I re-read it today through parted fingers, but it stands up. I'd just turned 25.

“An essential compendium of Cure-lore.” Those aren't my words (or those of Top Gear magazine), but Mojo. The perfect Christmas gift for the Goth or Curehead in your life, CUREPEDIA is now fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Well, it has "provoked debate", alright. Mainly along the lines of "Has Bobby Gillespie only just become a massive bell-end with a tin ear for racial sensitivity, or were the signs there as long ago as 1994 when he put a neon Confederate flag on an album sleeve?" www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Fitting in its way, because if Farage gets in, we’re all 1000 times fucked. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Tom Lehrer famously said that satire died when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. If so, giving it to Maria Corina Machado, rabid Trump supporter and cheerleader for Israel's genocide in Gaza who has called for foreign invasion of Venezuela and would "bury socialism forever", pisses on its grave.

In the midnight hour, babe...

Brighton! Heads up if you're considering an Alternative 80s New Year's Eve. We're selling ALL the tickets for @spellboundclub.bsky.social NYE (none held back for walk-up), and as we speak there are only 28 left. Box Office www.komedia.co.uk/shows/spellb... Full info www.facebook.com/events/14821...

“Simon's wonderful book taught me a lot about The Cure, and because I made 37 of their music videos, I know an awful lot already!” - Tim Pope (director). The perfect Christmas gift for the Goth or Curehead in your life, CUREPEDIA is now fully updated in a paperback second edition. geni.us/Curepedia

They're obsessed, aren't they? It can't be healthy. There's only one place that boat migrants are permanently living rent-free, and it's inside the Telegraph's collective head. Two consecutive front covers, here. Tomorrow: BOAT MIGRANT ATE MY HAMSTER.

One of pop's greatest rumours/debates has finally been settled by this page from a 1978 copy of Music Week. It's kind of disappointing - sorry to break the hearts of everyone who, like me, thought they'd snuck a swear under the radar - but let's face it, 'wang' is still pretty funny.

This is the happy house. We're happy here, in the happy house.

Announcing @spellboundclub.bsky.social's dates and themes for the first half of 2026, starting with the Goth Special on Sat 17 Jan and our first-ever Depeche Mode special on Sat 21 Feb! Tickets from Komedia Brighton: www.komedia.co.uk/shows/spellb... Full details: www.facebook.com/spellboundcl...

Bleakly fun fact for those interested in 80s pop and/or Provos history. When The Colour Field filmed the video to Thinking Of You on Brighton's Palace Pier, they stayed in The Grand Hotel. A few days later the bomb went off, and Terry Hall & co were questioned by CID. www.youtube.com/watch?v=178o...