Drum machine demo porn for any Prince fan. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWIh...

TONIGHT!

Say hello on a night like this, if it's the last thing you ever do... TONIGHT at Komedia Brighton: @spellboundclub.bsky.social CURE SPECIAL! 9pm-10pm: Pure Cure (deep cuts). 10pm-3am: Cure hits & Alt-80s anthems. Plus chance to win Curepedia! Entry £7 (cash only). www.facebook.com/events/11782...

Still in the afterglow of an extraordinary show by @suedehq.bsky.social with Paraorchestra & Charles Hazlewood last night to end their South Bank residency. Life Is Golden, The 2 Of Us, Flytipping and Still Life, in particular, just killed me. (And yet, here I still am.) Best Old Band In Britain.

POV: Your favourite punk poet turns out to be a manhole millionaire.

Cure fans of Brighton and beyond! This is tomorrow...

By 10.15 Saturday Night the @spellboundclub.bsky.social CURE SPECIAL at Komedia Brighton will be 75 minutes in! First hour: Pure Cure (deep cuts). Rest of night: Cure hits & Alt-80s anthems. Plus chance to win Curepedia! 9pm-3am, admission £7 (cash only) at door. www.facebook.com/events/11782...

Political Commentators and Columnists particularly notable. It explains why talking about private education as a huge obstacle to meritocracy and social mobility is such a taboo subject, and rarely gets any serious discussion in the media. Nothing to see here, sweep it under the carpet. #shutemdown

Just learned via @msmirandasawyer.bsky.social amd @nndroid.bsky.social on the @talk90stome.bsky.social podcast that Firestarter by The Prodigy originally went "I'm the muckspreader...". Not only has this made my day, but it's provided me with a retort next time I'm Keith-heckled in the street.

The song I can't stop playing at the moment is Bright Side Of The Road by Van Morrison (1979). Here's a live version from New Jersey with Katie Kissoon on BVs and Pete Wingfield on piano. Both would go on to work with Dexys (who are, of course, hugely Van-influenced). www.youtube.com/watch?v=VINa...

I think it ends up being a Cure song every third song for most of the night, something like that. At least, it did last time.

CURE FANS of Brighton! THIS SATURDAY at Komedia: @spellboundclub.bsky.social CURE SPECIAL! First hour: Pure Cure (deep cuts). Rest of night: Cure hits among Alt-80s anthems. Plus chance to win Curepedia! Advanc3 t!ck3t5 50ld 0ut, but you can still pay cash at door. www.facebook.com/events/11782...

Now that the UN has officially declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, I wonder how much longer Keir Starmer will keep telling us that “she” has the right to do what “she” is doing. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Of the three acts who spent the most time in the UK Top 10 in 1978, the top two were John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, and Boney M. Tonight in London I’m going to see the third. And I cannot wait.

Outfit for Saturday’s @chartmusictotp.bsky.social gig at London Pod Festival. I’ll have copies of the ‘TOTP: A Zombie Whodunnit zine’ available, ft. bits from Chart Music’s @simonprice.bsky.social + Al Needham. On the merch table, or look for my stupid jacket in the pub after. #totp #topofthepops

“It is not jolly old bunting…” Important, and necessarily anonymous, despatch from the Far Right frontline in Faversham. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

They say the limit of free speech is shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre. But how is Arthur Brown supposed to make a living?

I honestly believe everyone needs to stop and consider how far @suedehq.bsky.social have raised the bar for older bands in their second existence. Antidepressants is a 10/10, and so were their three albums before it. Suede sound like they're winding UP, not down. And you won't see a better live act.

Itching powder that was fiber glass insulation. Was probably asbestos before that…!

I’ve been thinking about the golden age of the joke shop. I bloody loved a joke shop, as a kid. Do they even exist any more? But I’ve also been thinking about how mental it is that stinkbombs were on sale to young kids. Phials (vials?) of thin glass, full of sulphur. What could possibly go wrong?

Two weeks tomorrow. We've barely started pushing this one, but already two thirds of advance tickets have gone. So, if you want one, don't leave it too long...

CURE FANS of Brighton! Komedia SAT 20 SEP: @spellboundclub.bsky.social CURE SPECIAL! First hour: Pure Cure (deep cuts/fan faves). Rest of night: Cure hits scattered among Alt-80s anthems. Plus chance to win Curepedia! Info www.facebook.com/events/11782... Tickets www.komedia.co.uk/shows/spellbound

On the afternoon of Sat 13 Sep, as part of London Podcast Festival, CHART MUSIC – the Top Of The Pops podcast – looks at a classic episode of that show, LIVE at @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social. See you there, Pop-Crazed Youngsters! Last few tickets available here: www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/wor...

I would have voted for Angela Rayner as leader, had she stood. I did vote for her as deputy. And this stamp duty issue is minor stuff compared to countless other politicians’ unpunished misdemeanours. If Labour hadn’t lost me already, then Rayner’s jump-or-pushed ‘resignation’ would have done it.

In the week that Morrissey has basically washed his hands of The Smiths, here's a playlist. Personal faves, order of release, avoiding whimsical bullshit. (Two or three tracks already facing the chop, few others on probation.) Greatest rock'n'roll band of all time. open.spotify.com/playlist/6tA...

There must be someone out there, a journalist or photographer, who’s done an At Home With Yvette Cooper And Ed Balls piece and can verify whether they have a Union Jack table cloth. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing: that they do have one, or that she’d lie about having one to look more gammon.

Borat Sagdiyev! YOUR BOYS…

You know the bit in I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish by The Smiths where Morrissey goes “I grabbed you by the guilded beams…”? You know that weird noise he makes next? Make that noise. Out loud. It will give you a laugh and put a spring in your step. Go on.

Worth reading this article by Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social about the media's disingenuous silence regarding the role of the Far Right in Operation Raise The Colours. Do we need to commandeer the word 'flagwashing' to describe this coy mendacity? open.substack.com/pub/brokenbo...

Sad to hear of the death of Ray Mayhew. One half of Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Ants/Glitter-style dual drum attack, and the band's media-designated Bad Boy after a bottle-throwing incident. 'Horror Of Sputnik Maniac', screamed the News Of The World. Cue Sid-style 'Ray Mayhew Is Innocent' T-shirts. R.I.P.

Here you go, Cure fans! The new CUREPEDIA has got more stuff in it than the acclaimed original hardback, and it's approx a tenner cheaper too. Getting yourself - or someone else - a copy is a no-brainer.

Big exciting day: the paperback second edition of CUREPEDIA, my book about The Cure @thecure.com, now fully updated to include Songs Of A Lost World (and related singles, gigs etc), is out NOW! Available from usual stockists, or order via the @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social website: geni.us/Curepedia

I’ve never used the phrase “chef’s kiss” before - it’s not part of my vocabulary and feels a bit young for me - but I’m going to try it on for size. That Grimsby v Man Utd penalty shootout was *chef’s kiss*. Probably the most enjoyable bit of football I’ve seen all year.

The paperback second edition of CUREPEDIA, my book about The Cure @thecure.com - now fully updated to include Songs Of A Lost World (and related singles, gigs etc) - is out TOMORROW! (28 Aug) Available from usual stockists, or order via the @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social‬ website: geni.us/Curepedia

"It's a holiday in the middle of the week"

A little gift from @spellboundclub.bsky.social: SEMI-PRECIOUS SYNTH. These aren't super-obscure (one is by Paul McCartney, FFS). Just slightly deeper cuts from our Synth Special that people ask "What's this?”, hence 'semi-precious'. Order is only alphabetical. Enjoy! open.spotify.com/playlist/24v...

And he dances on the sand.

This is a whole other aspect of the current shitshow, of course.

Hang on, since when has Reading & Leeds been like THIS? All kettled into neat fenced-off sections, like an outdoor megachurch? Absolutely fuck that. Glad I bailed out when I did. (28 years in a row, and we somehow managed without this patrolled, segregated shite.) www.instagram.com/reel/DNq5E5w...

Every now and then, to cheer yourself up, you just need to hear Alan Brazil saying "I heard two different versions" about whether Bob Monkhouse was alive or dead. It's not a deep cut - it's one of the most famous things that's ever happened - but it hits the spot. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC2v...

These fucking England flags going up everywhere. (There’s one at the entrance to our estate.) I hate this country. I’ve always felt at war with it, but it’s intensified. I’d leave if I could. But where can you go? A liberal Northern European democracy, I guess, but they could all be the next UK.

I have a whole mixture of feelings about The Who, and even specifically about the song Substitute, but I will never not think that “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth” is a great, great pop lyric. One of the very greatest.

THREAD: v niche sport-based plea! The N.U.T.S. (National Union of Track Statisticians) Athletics & Olympic Archive & Library will be evicted from its current premises in ten days, and urgently needs either a) a permanent home or b) temp storage. Croydon area preferred but all offers welcome. (1/4)

In 1975, The Miami Showband - 'the Irish Beatles' - were ambushed by a fake army checkpoint staged by the UVF in collusion with the UDR and British intelligence. Three members were murdered. I've interviewed bandleader/saxophonist Des Lee for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

R.I.P.

In forty years as a writer, I've never met a musician with a story as astonishing as Des Lee's. In 1975, The Miami Showband - 'the Irish Beatles' - were ambushed by a fake army checkpoint. Three members were murdered. I've interviewed Des for @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

Ein, zwei, drei, vier...

Brighton! TONIGHT at Komedia: @spellboundclub.bsky.social SYNTH SPECIAL! 9pm-3am, admission £7 (cash at door). Synth, drum machine & electronic-led bangers from Depeche Mode, Human League, New Order, Soft Cell, Kraftwerk, Numan, Sparks and zillions more. Full info www.facebook.com/events/13051...

Yes we are waving underpants about. Every John Foxx fan will understand (if not necessarily approve).

These Were The Things That Dreams Were Made Of... The @spellboundclub.bsky.social team DJed for The Human League and Marc Almond at the On The Beach festival in Brighton. The perfect way to gear up for this weekend's Synth Special at Komedia. Full recap and setlist here: tinyurl.com/onthebeachre...