But it's very obviously totally untrue, so why bother a) covering it at all, b) making this transparent lie the headline and c) writing 14 paragraphs before the BBC Verify bit kicks in, fact checking.

RIP Johnny Murphy, our car mechanic for 35 years. Operating from a small garage round the corner, there was nothing he wouldn’t take on and solve. He would always undercharge, requiring me to give him an extra tenner. He liked cats and Man U. He worked until he was 80; a man who loved cars.

The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s. Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!

#5debutalbums0004 2004 introduced us to Scatter’s ‘Surprising Sing, Stupendous Love’, a remarkable mix of folk, free jazz, klezmer, and who knows what else. In its loose, clattering, ensemble approach it now sounds like a precursor of caroline. One of the great Scottish bands to emerge round then.

Reform will apparently pledge today that they'd abolish indefinite leave to remain - including retrospectively, to people already granted it. Obviously this is a moral abomination but it is also a practical and legal impossibility.

We need to be very clear about this. Rising Christian nationalism is a threat to us all. humanists.uk/2025/09/17/r...

I’m not sure that Richard Williams is on here. I always enjoy his music writing, particularly on jazz, but this one’s on something bigger than that. Best wishes to him. thebluemoment.com/2025/09/09/e...

The experience of American Van der Graaf Generator fans in the mid 70s. From youtu.be/1gPTM2AwK3w

For the second time this year, footage of Van der Graaf Generator in concert in 1976 has surfaced - this time from New York - and Jim Christopulos has spliced it with bootleg recordings, band interviews and fan reminiscences. It’s quite extraordinary of course, especially Still Life from 32 mins in.

OMG OMG OMG! Peter Hamill (the Van der Graaf Generator one, not the writer one) is on the latest episode of the Word in Your Ear podcast! shows.acast.com/word-in-your...

That somehow seems impossible.

So the rules of #5debutalbums00-04 means that Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man’s ‘Out of Season’ barrels into contention. I’ll be there anytime.

#5debutalbums00-04 2004 introduced us to Scatter’s ‘Surprising Sing, Stupendous Love’, a remarkable mix of folk, free jazz, klezmer, and who knows what else. In its loose, clattering, ensemble approach it now sounds like a precursor of caroline. One of the great Scottish bands to emerge round then.

First up for #5debutalbums00-04 must be Jeffrey Lewis’ ‘The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane’, full of funny and wise observations and including the marvellous Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song.

A fantastic win!!

We are beginning to hear from a number of #FilmNoir friends that actor Herbert Halbik; best known for playing little Hansel in Carol Reed’s classic #BritNoir The Third Man (1949), has passed away… Halbik was the last surviving member of the cast.

A wifi signal has come on to tell me I am at Finistère. How wonderful!

Richard Serra at the Guggenheim in Bilbao - I expected something special but it surpassed that.

Guernica appropriated for Palestine graffiti protest in Bilbao

I had few expectations of La Rochelle but it’s certainly a handsome place.

Fun to see Funkapolitan playing out the 1981 ToTP repeat tonight. I saw them live at 3am at a party at the Architectural Association which I had been invited along to, and remember the performance very fondly. Bauhaus had played earlier.

Just out in the UK, the best new movie I've seen so far this year… geoffandrew.com/2025/08/29/m...

How it started. How it’s going .

The precise moment when and where in recent weeks America crossed that invisible line from democracy into authoritarianism can and will be debated by future historians, but it’s clear that the line itself has been crossed. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...

Andrew would do anything for love, but he wouldn't do that

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

*What would it take for there to be a massive "mirror life" stock boom "It's really-really dangerous, so here's a hundred billion for a mirror-life farm in Texas"

Visited the remains of Basing House in Hampshire, until 1645 one of the grandest houses in England at which point it was mostly pounded into submission by Parliamentary forces in the Civil War after three sieges. Subject of the excellent The Siege of Loyalty House by Jessie Childs.

Up on Danebury Hill Fort in Hampshire.

Jack Kirby story from 1959 ("I Fought the Colossus," Strange Tales # 72) predicts AI would be developed by 2020 and that one major fear would be that it would start giving the wrong answers to questions and "wreck civilization." Gotta love the 1950s giant mainframes.

caroline being magnificent at Green Man Festival tonight.

Van der Graaf Generator inexplicably not featured on the cover.

"Don't be drinking outside. Donald Trump is tired of it."

Letter of the day (in the Times)

Finland farmers have been spraying their deer with reflective paint in order to reduce road accidents. Now glowing antlers light up the dark roads like something out of a sci-fi movie. Some say it’s genius, others say it’s just plain weird but it’s definitely hard to ignore. ==================

Been for an MRI scan and the sound of the scanner, which comes and goes at different rates and levels, was quite reminiscent of various gigs I’ve been to, like Carter Tutti Void. I found it quite relaxing as a result, aside from the fact that you’re lying down and can’t move.

As you scanned the faces of the children in the crowd, you wondered how this incredible hour would be recalled fifty-four years hence. Test cricket circa 2079 is almost inconceivable. But if it nurtures competition of this intensity and enchantment, don’t count it out.

Gideon Haigh writing beautifully as usual on the last day at the Oval. #ENGvIND open.substack.com/pub/crickete...

Test cricket does it again. A superb series. #ENGvIND

And here we go.

We’re only one wicket away from this Test Match emulating Colin Cowdrey’s broken arm innings.

Test cricket, bloody hell. #ENGvIND

#5albums50s60s5 Not voted for a Frank Sinatra album yet? Well one of his greatest is available in the last round, his torch song masterpiece Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. Listen to ‘Willow Weep for Me’ and be converted.

LINDA (1960) is so obscure that, although IMDb has an entry, it contains no reviews or plot summary.

After the disappointment of the Maltings yesterday I’m pleased to say that the Fat Cat in Sheffield is thriving and serving Dronny Bottom at £4 a pint. I’m alone inside while everyone enjoys the sun.

In York and shocked to find that the Maltings pub has been sold and is now an Irish pub. A great loss, always tried to get there when visiting:

At the Verulamium Roman Theatre in St Albans for, aptly, a performance of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.