Paul Simon at the end of the show last night. I did not think I’d get the chance to see him play live again but I am very glad I did.

Some of the worst people in this country know exactly what they will do with a majority a quarter of that size, and they will not waste a moment doing it. The rest of us can only stand watching as you effectively hand it all over to them.

Great thread

Friendship were really excellent at The Dome tonight. There’s always something special about catching a band just as they reach a larger audience.

At the risk of suggesting something for which I do not have easy answers, I think we have to fundamentally rethink town centres because the market is no longer a reliable driver of vitality there. It can't just be "the shops" anymore

The “Blue Labour” strategy still being promoted by some on Labour right is premised on being able to win social conservatives while holding on to social liberals. Failure state for this strategy is failing to win social cons while alienating social liberals. Here is a map of that failure state:

Always worth voting...

Are we still saying Labour has time and there’s no way Reform will win in 2029? We are on a very dangerous road.

Wow #thesnooker

Wu Yize is a brave and brilliant player and there’s a strong chance he will be world champion on Monday evening - but I feel completely gutted for Mark Allen there.

The business end of this Snooker World Championship has been absolutely astonishing.

Alexis Taylor & Rob Smoughton

The way Big Thief approach playing live is really something to treasure. I’ve seen two out of four shows in this Brixton residency (getting dangerously tempted to go back tonight) and there were, I think , 12 changes between the two shows….

So good! Finish the damn record! youtu.be/ERgxcNyneYI?...

On days like today, a tube strike can turn out to be a good thing. Walked from Euston to The Prince Charles Cinema in the glorious evening sun - and I got to watch John Sayles’ excellent and hard-to-see LIANNA at the end of it.

Elvis Costello was, like, properly old when he wrote this song, right? Oh. youtu.be/KPZkldKk1WA?...

The problem with Starmer's argument (well one of them) is that it depends on an assertion that he wouldn't have appointment Mandelson if he'd known he'd failed vetting. But he appointed him before vetting was complete.

Finally made it to a Bill Orcutt show. Brutal, beautiful, brilliant.

Oh no, RIP Mike Westbrook. One of the very greatest British composers and musicians. I only ever interacted with him by email when I worked at Jazz CDs, but he always seemed like a lovely person too. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

Oh me oh my - best Godspeed You Black Emperor show I’ve seen in quite a while at The Troxy tonight.

New David Torn youtu.be/-wgV6d-LWKo?...

Right, let’s see what all the fuss is about then.

MUBI UK is currently a treasure trove of Frederick Wiseman films. Dare I delve back into City Hall, which is the film I was attempting to watch as I came down with acute pancreatitis some years ago?

Bob Carpenter on the PA! What a song youtu.be/QRhFzkkb6DE?...

At Bush Hall for the fantastic combination of Joan Shelley and Red River Dialect.

Last 7 days:

Like most prohibition type rules this will end up backfiring in ways that get ever more dumb – not least that because teens aren't supposed to be on the network now, and only circumvent it via third-party tools, Australia can't hold social media companies responsible for harms they face on there.

Urgh I’ve been sleeping on the Cafe Oto programme and seem to have missed the boat for The Necks and Los Thuthanaka. Sigh.

Tremendous song from an excellent album thedelines.bandcamp.com/track/walkin...

Really impressive to complain about "grievance politics based on religion" when *two sentences earlier* you've talked about "the monster of harversting muslim community bloc votes".

Good record, this - even if it does come weirdly close to lifting Champage Supernova youtu.be/CFlVkte3oT4?...

The BAFTA discourse has to be a new low for social media, particularly in the other place. People I beg that you accept that multiple things can be true at the same time!

THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE I’m @princecharlescinema.com on April 23rd for an extremely rare screening of John Sayles’ groundbreaking second feature, LIANNA (1983) from an original 35mm print together with an online Q&A with John Sayles and Maggie Renzi! On sale now, don’t miss it: tinyurl.com/33bfc63e

As ever, I’m getting irrationally excited about a Bruce Springsteen tour taking place in a different continent, that there is zero chance of me being able to attend, and that is more than likely to be a direct repeat of the shows I saw in the UK and France last summer.

I can only hope that Reform giving high profile roles to the most thoroughly discredited former Tories will be their downfall, but I’m probably being naive.

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Across a filmmaking career spanning more than five decades, Frederick Wiseman – who has died at 96 – refined a uniquely austere, quietly radical form of documentary cinema www.bfi.org.uk/features/fre...

Frederick Wiseman - perhaps the very greatest documentary film maker, and tremendous value in a Q&A almost to the very end. What a life and what a body of work.

"Everything is beautiful." --The last line spoken in Wiseman's final film, MENUS-PLASIRS LES TROISGROS.

How about regulating this?

I should also say, I fully expect the UK government to ban under 16s from social media, and to ban them from using VPNs. They'll do it, to get great headlines, but in the process ruin the lives of some marginalised teens and make most kids less safe.

A bit of Love on Valentines Day (If You Know You Know)

I am sick, absolutely sick, of the retreat of civic society, the media and the other political parties in the face of Reform UK - one of the most existential threats the state structures have faced for decades.

All this said, there are few better places to be than an Underworld show, so all is good.

I know there’s good reason for it, but the utter palaver of getting into a gig at Brixton Academy now has put me right off going.

THIS

Getting things delivered is just becoming ridiculous now. Earlier this week, a book was left ‘behind the bins’ (actually not even behind but next to them in this case) in the pouring rain with only cardboard packaging.

This is really sad news - Christoph was the first artist I worked with when I worked for Basho Records, and a really excellent musician. www.srf.ch/kultur/musik...

What Kemi seems to mean here is ‘keep children off certain social media platforms so that adults can do whatever they like on them’.