You’ll hear a lot about today being “Blue Monday” In case people fall for it, a reminder that Blue Monday was invented by a UK travel company, Sky Travel, in 2005 as a PR stunt to sell holidays. This is the only Blue Monday you need.

Morning

Morning

Happy Birthday to Low. Album released this day in 1977 by David Bowie. His 11th. The first of the fabled “Berlin Trilogy”. Grounded in Art Rock, it features Bowie’s first explorations in electronic and ambient styles. An album of the past that still sounds like the future .

Morning

Monday

Morning. Leonard Cohen - 1975 📸 Steve Schapiro

“The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.” For me growing up, he was always there. For me growing older, he’s still here. David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016)

WARNING: Horrific , stomach churning ,scenes in Stranger Things 5. I’m amazed how scenes disturbing as this are even allowed on TV these days. The dialogue is creepy too , at one point a character says “I hate The Clash”. I’m going to cheer myself up and watch The Exorcist. #ThatchersbrokenBritain

Gifted Christmas reading, all killers, no fillers. Recommended.

Happy 91st Birthday Elvis and 79th Birthday David Bowie. If the stories are true and it had came to fruition we would have had a Bowie produced Elvis album. Jumpsuits forever lads.

Morning

Just saw on the news that the runway is closed at John Lennon Airport. Imagine all the people.

My first time seeing R.E.M live on the “Reckoning “ tour in 1984 at Newcastle Tiffany’s. If memory serves, they did fabulous covers of “Pale Blue Eyes” and “Moon River”, and also bought a very long haired Michael Stipe a pint at the bar. Happy Birthday Michael Stipe.

The Bar’s open! Arnold Schwarzenegger at Rococo Nightclub, Roker , Sunderland, early 1970’s .

Happy 70th Birthday Bernard Sumner. "Joy Division sounded like Manchester: cold, sparse and, at times, bleak." 📸 Kevin Cummins, New York.

“Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time you mention The Epstein Files, Donald bombs a country.”

A shame, one of our favourites

Call me a bit of a cynic, but I’m starting to get the feeling that the FIFA Peace Prize may have been a bit of a sham…

Morning from a snowy North - East. “Wallsend in the Snow” 1976 📸 Chris Killip

Gym owners today.

New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Not all our friends and family made it. Never take for granted the people you love. Be thankful for today, you deserve it. Happy 2026 from Watsonchester ❤️

BAR’S OPEN!! GAN DAFT KIDZ!!

WARNING: INCOMING JOOLS HOLLAND BOOGIE WOOGIE PIANO ALERT.

Happy 79th birthday to Patricia Lee Smith. "We tried not to age, but time had its rage."

“A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.” Brigette Bardot ( 28th September 1934 - 28th December 2025)

Morning 📸 Richard Avedon Claudia Cardinale and Frank Zappa : 1967

#nowreading Good Fellas - The Cocaine Buddy years, the enduring hedonistic Bromance of Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese. The book tells a pedal to the metal wild ride of drugs, sex, and many movie viewing sessions, often over pasta or fine food, during the twenty months they lived together .

Bar’s Open!! Sending love, peace, soul and unity to you all xx

Merry Christmas!

Morning

" We’re all going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid off whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations."- Joe Strummer 1952-22nd December 2002.

“This is a call, a call to all” Last night was not so much a gig, more of a communion. Magical, majestic,euphoric and emotional on all levels with Skyscraping melodies and electronic emotive textures. I hope the 02 Apollo manages to find the roof after @dovesofficial.bsky.social blew it off.

Tonight’s adventure

Hello Manchester!! Bar’s Open! A “Toast” to you all, step lightly and stay free xx

Morning

Hard to believe this epic gig was 8 years ago. @acertainratio.bsky.social on the Ritz at Manchester Ritz. Doing the Du and shacking up the dance floor, and an after show at Gorilla. Not forgetting of course that me and Tina had a drink in a bar that was converted from a public toilet beforehand

Morning

Morning

Happy Birthday to Paul Gustave Simonon , 70 years old today.

Morning

Sandinsta has turned 45 years old, but still sounds like it was recorded tomorrow. The Clash album that is amazing, confounding, genre-bending and, above all, ahead of its time. An eclectic mix of punk, funk, reggae, dub, folk, jazz, gospel, rockabilly and even calypso that still surprises everytime

Morning all. They are at the tough end of things, the people in my photographs. It's about the struggle for work, being out of work, fighting for work. - Chris Killip, artist. Terraced House and Coal Mine, Castleford, Yorkshire, Photographer Chris Killip 1976.

Morning . Eartha Kitt , Newport Jazz Festival, 1958. 📸 Roy Schatt

Todmorden in the area. Another journey into sound curated by The Flightpath DJ’s and pressed into infinity by Golden Lion records. More grooves than a woodwork lesson, kicking off with a previously unreleased 12 minute opus from Sabres of Paradise “Lick Wid Nit Wit ” . @adamturner23.bsky.social

Bar’s open! RIP Martin Parr Yates’s Wine Lodge, Ashton-Under-Lyne, 1983

Afternoon 📸 Elliot Erwitt. Wallsend, 1969 #wallsend

Morning