There’s a new @mojomagazine.bsky.social in the shops today. No spoilers, but Joni is on the cover and I talk Musical Youth, Françoise Hardy, Brother Wallace, Tamikrest, Analog Africa … and here’s a pic of Hutchie with Dutchie.

Remarkably, it’s the 30th anniversary of me joining the @mojomagazine.bsky.social team (I’m not just for Christmas), so this month I got busy with Musical Youth, Brother Wallace, Tamikrest, Analog Africa and Françoise Hardy - and that’s only about 2% of an extremely packed issue …

Am I missing a joke here by not being from Liverpool? Feel free to point at me and laugh ...

Happy birthday to the one and only. Any excuse to get the records out and immerse myself in...

It’s Oor Wullie’s 90th birthday today. Wonder what that makes PC Murdoch …

Tell you what I'm really, really excited about right now youtu.be/sa4_o4r9nq0?...

Epic lives up to its name and, lawdy, are Ronnie Tutt and James Burton just phenomenal in the TCB Band. Not often you can say “worth seeing for the drumming” about a film

Just a note to say that if you're ever approached by a @mojomagazine.bsky.social writer on Facebook/X promising to cover your music/band/record label for "a modest fee" THIS IS A SCAM. MOJO and its writers would never do this but many a clever scam account does.

@mojomagazine.bsky.social is compiling a guide to buying Analog Africa albums. I don’t want to get the result wrong, and only one vote currently separates first and second places - so send me your what and a few words why and let’s make this definitive …

The Analog Africa label has spent 20 years bringing us African scream contests, cosmic sounds of Cape Verde, Brazilian western soundtracks and Beninese vodou, now @mojomagazine.bsky.social wants to know your pick of their releases. Hit me with the what and the why and let's make this definitive.

Went to see Annie & The Caldwells last night, they are on fire - Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol to come this week; Deborah C says you’d be a fool to miss them

A guid new year to all. Here’s hoping there’s a load of good stuff coming your way. Hx

But definitely worth it for the songs.

It was the last big weekend of the year, but it was the best and this was a highlight. I’m not going to say Bob Dylan is as good as Scott McTominay, that would be crazy - but he could definitely lob Schmeichel from the halfway line.

The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, The Best Albums Of 2025 & More In The New MOJO! The latest issue of MOJO features the essential best of the year roundup, the full story of The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Pulp, Van Morrison, Dion and more. Plus, a CD of 2025’s best tracks! ORDER HERE:

Mavis doing what Mavis has always done, on perhaps her greatest album. The message is simple: Be more like Mavis and we may just make it

Sex Pistols On Trial: “The powers that be wanted to crush them…” Stabbings, spunk and the Anglo-Saxon for testicles: As Never Mind The Bollocks turns 48, MOJO’s own punk Boswell, Pat Gilbert, recalls how the Sex Pistols fought the law... and won.

Mavis Staples gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ lead album feature in new @mojomagazine.bsky.social. “Be more like Mavis,” writes @hutchie.bsky.social. Amen.

The current @mojomagazine.bsky.social is a good one. I see you Lennon, Springsteen and Hendrix and raise you @andrewmale.bsky.social on Brigitte Fontaine, Patti Smith in Paris, soul searching with Lucinda Williams, @steviechick.bsky.social on Prince’s coming of age and, sorry, me on Mavis Staples

Patti Smith’s Horses was supposed to be released 50 years ago today, on the anniversary of Arthur Rimbaud’s birth. Due to oil shortages, it didn’t get released until November 10, 1975, the anniversary of his death

Annie & The Caldwells are touring next year - Ronnie Scott's at the end of January, then Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol. Don't hesitate. Now all we need are some Scottish dates.

“I’m as meek as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Danny Thompson RIP. Played with Roy Orbison, Blues Incorporated, Pentangle, John Lee Hooker, Cliff, Rod, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Tim Buckley, Tubby Hayes ... I do have a few records he's not on.

The Suede / Miss Annie & The Caldwells summit - coming to a telly near you next month

I'm delighted to share the finished cover of my new book, Upon A White Horse: Journeys in Ancient Britain and Ireland. It will be published on September 11, by @headlinebooks.bsky.social. I hope you like it. Spot the wee fox!

Michael knows that @mojomagazine.bsky.social will be the best read you’ll hear all month

Rotten way to start the week, but RIP to my first musical hero and the man behind the best album my parents owned youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...

Glastonbury 2025: all the essential, authoritative reviews are here courtesy of MOJO www.mojo4music.com/articles/sto...

I feel this is important.

10 days of dogsitting ahead of me. We’re not in Tottenham anymore

A Friday morning singles session at the end of seven days the likes of which ...

Well, this looks timely ...

I think about Jacques Brel a lot. It would have been his 96th birthday today. I wish he'd had more than 49. youtu.be/Bkjw-sGAbkg?...

So proud that @brookecombe.bsky.social knows my name!

Tonight’s entertainment - @brookecombe.bsky.social in Norwich

Oh, he’s working for President Puffin! We thought you meant Putin. No, it makes perfect sense now

New music for Wednesday. Park Jiha last night at Cafe Oto. Traditional Korean instruments, loops and melancholy electronica. The album is called All Living Things

There will be another song for me ... or perhaps not. Just discovered 33 versions of MacArthur Park, as compiled by @andrewmale.bsky.social and I'm in absolute heaven. Speaking as the repentant wayward son of a baking family, you can't have too much cake: open.spotify.com/playlist/0GP...

That @andrewmale.bsky.social dragged me round the scurviest, most dangerous streets of olde London. Spending this sunny Sunday discovering if I picked up anything you need to know about

40 years ago today, my girlfriend did a telly

Why don’t you turn off your television and go do something better instead, like this:

We’ve been together now for 40 years, and it don’t seem a day too much. Happy anniversary, lugh and stuff to Jac, the one who got me this far. If you see her, say hello Hx

The sun’s out, and I’ve got time to do all the sights in Athens before coming home

There’s a new @mojomagazine.bsky.social in the shops next week, and I’d say it looks like the most packed issue ever. It includes me having a blether with the wonderful @dionnewarwick.bsky.social and going deep into the new Annie & The Caldwells LP.

The album gets five stars, and just wait until you see them live - this year will belong to the Caldwells, trust me

Disco is a French invention - today started at the Philharmonie exhibition - possibly Paris’s most joyous exhibition ever (considering it focuses strongly on racism, sexuality, discrimination, AIDS and politics)

Bookheads, this comes much recommended but opens in a 1952 Cardiff awash with “rock’n’roll and spitting espresso machines”. There will probably be a Routemaster on page 2. I’m not going to be able to get over the fact-checking, so is it worth continuing with?

Thee Sacred Souls at The Roundhouse … some folk are just natural frontmen, I guess

The curse of - just handed in a feature in which the Ice Man has a significant presence. One of the true soul originals RIP

Forty years ago today, the Luthuli charity head shave. I’d let my hair grow in anticipation. This lassie sponsored me twice as much as everybody else, then turned up with her camera for before and after pictures. Reader, I married her. Look at the colour of that hair, though. What gorgeous, eh?