Listening to Kate Bush's Best Of The Other Sides, and find myself astonished that a song of such delicacy and beauty was a b-side, although maybe that was so because her music was already moving on. A-side = Running Up That Hill. open.spotify.com/track/7iHwqx...

Belated shoutout. The latest LP by Brìghde Chaimbeul is fantastic. Last week's show at The Mount Without in Bristol was fabulous. Cheers to @ilkamedia.bsky.social for tix. brighdechaimbeul.bandcamp.com/album/sunwise

Should you be looking for some reasons to investigate Bowie's 21st-century work, and you should, here's something I wrote earlier. thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

I actually think that weirdly, today is quite a hopeful day. We're going to start getting actual policy outlines from Reform now. The policies are going to be morally grotesque and practically ludicrous. The mainstream media will have NO excuse not to start interrogating them. 1

Some great 'arriving at a family event after having a massive row in the car' energy here

'Right to the end David Bowie was uniquely creative, with lessons still to impart: concern over the world we’re bequeathing our children, reassessing life from the vantage of middle age and, at the end, how to face death' #DavidBowie’s I Can’t Give Everything Away [2002-2016] buff.ly/JE3HHuG

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

IKEA today and how I imagine freshers week will be have surprisingly much in common. Lots of teenagers soon to embark in earnest on uni life looking lost.

The Sophs, recent Rough Trade signings, at Bristol Lanes last week. Most excellent. Big Jeff was there and Big Jeff knows. Something just a bit Henry Rollins-y about this pic. Music not really Rollins-y.

So long Ozzy. My brother, who also passed this month, introduced me to Sabbath. Iron Man and War Pigs were scary yet I was fascinated by them. And I lived those Vertigo pressings with their odd swirly labels.

V much enjoyed writing a thing on The Narrow Road to The Deep North for @historyextra.bsky.social www.historyextra.com/period/secon...

Belatedly, thanks to The Guardian for chance to revisit one of my favourite records: www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Thanks to @reversediorama.bsky.social for taking the time to speak with me for Groovy Times. groovy-times.com/david-keenan/

This is great! I remember visiting Volcanic Tongue with my wife once: back in 20something or other, then went to Duke’s Bar & Sparklehorse, ended up in Mother India before getting a Joe baxi back into the centre - the most West Glasgow day out ever. Magic! The compilation for David’s book is a must.

Issue 3 of Groovy Times opens with an interview author David Keenan He talks first gigs, record reviewing and Volcanic Tongue (record shop, book & compilation) @reversediorama.bsky.social @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social @disciples.bsky.social @unsunghunger.bsky.social groovy-times.com/david-keenan/

To Park Jiha concert at St George's in Bristol last night. Glorious. Electronica underpinning melodic lines performed in odd-looking Korean musical instruments. She really should be better known. parkjiha.com. Thanks to @ilkamedia.bsky.social for organising tix.

Listening to the Tim Harford radio 4 doc about how children suffered from a lockdown imposed to protect adults, straight after a news bulletin full of 'young people with MH problems need to get back to work to save us all a fortune' is I have to say fairly jarring

A joy to interview @edwyncollins.bsky.social and Grace for @thequietus.com' Baker's Dozen feature ahead of his gorgeous new album. I especially loved the Sparks story and have told it to at least five people already! thequietus.com/interviews/b...

Los Pirañas, los-piranas.bandcamp.com/album/una-op..., at the Jam Jar in Bristol last night found the sweet spot between Beefheart, post-punk and experimental Latin music. And if that sounds daunting, it's worth noting people danced. A lot. Thanks to @ilkamedia.bsky.social for arranging tix.

Belated post, but @theweatherstation.bsky.social live are magnificent. Played at the Fleece in Bristol on Wednesday. A fabulous show of light and shadows, be sure to catch them when they come back to Blighty.

Reading about contenders for England squad. Quite often muttering, "Who?" This is what happens when your team has been outside the Premier League for the best part of two seasons. #lufc

Oh happy day! News of the new These New Puritans album and a stunning duet with Caroline Polachek to be listened to right away: thequietus.com/news/these-n...

RIP David Johansen. Have good memories of seeing the Dolls at the Festival Hall. Personality Crisis, what a song.

me: great news! been wanting to write more about free markets for ages! I've got a pitch about the cloud computing monopoly, comparing it to Bell Telecom ... Bezos: you have ten seconds before I release the hounds

To Laibach at Bristol Trinity last night. So much of what they do now pointed given the context of our political situation. Plus a power ballad singalong to I Want to Know What Love Is. The missing link between performance art and Eurovision. Thanks to @zoezopf.bsky.social for organising tix.

RIP Bill Fay. And thanks. I so loved discovering your music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDOR...

Works as advertised

This is so good.

Rest in peace Marianne Faithful. Such an icon and wonderful songwriter and what a singer! Met her at a book signing and was so dazed I crashed my car afterwards! Loved her music and story . Me and Khan paid tribute to her Broken English on our album entitled “ Bad English” . R. I.P.

This is on the nose. Why fight on the opposition's territory so much of the time and to the long-term detriment of the country when you have a huge majority?https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/31/labour-mp-government-growth-heathrow-party

RIP Marianne Faithfull. I loved this LP so much when I was younger. open.spotify.com/track/09r8CN...

Such sadness to hear Marianne Faithfull has passed. ❤️

OpenAI says it has proof that Deepseek used its work without permission to create something meant to undermine and destroy its product. On behalf of all the authors whose novels and stories were taken as training data, oh no that must be so hard for you.

Great to chat with @bingewriting.bsky.social today for a forthcoming profile piece. Dissolution, Nick's new novel, both a meditation on time, memory and love and a cracking slipstream thriller, comes highly recommended.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day.

'An album that, as much as it looks inwards lyrically, is finally just as universal as Weather Station’s climate change-themed breakthrough album Ignorance, a remarkable achievement in itself.' #TheWeatherStation - Humanhood https://buff.ly/4jjp3ek

Should have posted about this ahead of time, but had the privilege of chairing a Q&A with @theweatherstation.bsky.social at Rough Trade Bristol on Sunday 19th. The new LP – reviewed at thequietus.com/quietus-revi... – is fabulous.

This picture of King Tubby and David Rodigan is bringing me so much joy.

Ao Tanaka completed 114 passes last night against Luton, the most by a Championship midfielder in a game this season & the most by a Leeds United midfielder in a league game Opta has on record since 2013-14. #lufc

Finished season 3 of The Bear. Season 4 seems an unreasonably long way away.

Introduce yourself with: One book 📚 - Cannery Row, John Steinbeck One movie 🎥 - A Matter Of Life & Death One album 💿 - Closer, Joy Division One TV show 📺 - Edge Of Darkness