right that's enough werk 🙌 time to dive into this new edition of the cultural history discourse from @jahduran.bsky.social and @luketurner.bsky.social which i have been saving since i saw it drop yesterday <3 aaaand relax

Playing INXS in Tesco again. Literal sex music. Outrageous.

Went to meet my oldest friend at the restaurant gutting and rebuild he’s doing almost single-handedly last night; fireboard, cables, ducting, incredibly neat and efficient. Never has my routine of fiddling on a keyboard & staring into space felt perhaps more justifiably doomed by the march of AI.

Do slightly regret spending my 20s pulverising my brain cells quite so hard that I can't remember anything – researching for a forthcoming Liars feature I realise that in July 2007 I saw them *and* These New Puritans on the same bill at the v small White Heat club in Soho. Had completely forgotten.

It’s a month until Tales of the Suburbs is published. And I have loads of events lined up… www.johngrindrod.co.uk/events

Because of this story I can never give signed books to charity and if I buy one which turns out to have an inscription I feel bad for the signatory

Thanks Alan! Alan also kindly says “subscribe to The Quietus. It’s a jewel in our cultural landscape” and you can do so here thequietus.com/subscribers/

Not sure if it’s just round our way but I feel like part of the current enshittification of society is a literal enshittification with people not picking their dog turds up from the pavement - not merely the bags hung in trees. A string of cannonballs this morning. I bet the owners all vote Reform.

Dad gave me this scarf. I said this is not claret & blue, and "ZERO CHILL" is hardly E London/Essex. He insisted it was West Ham. I Googled – apparently the Hammers are a fictional ice hockey team in a TV drama. This is like the time he gave me a Sade postcard. Dad, I said, it's Suede I love, SUEDE.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has *v* strong ‘two years out of Belmarsh after a 35 year stretch for a Republican bombing he didn’t commit; now doing an extended interview with Krishnan Guru- Murthy about his forthcoming book of prison poetry and ‘script talks/improv sessions with Ken Loach’ energy.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 643: It may be tempting to include song lyrics in your work. (And why not? Stephen King does it all the time.) But beware; the rights to even a line of a song can run into the thousands of pounds- and the publisher will expect YOU to pay for them…

Absolute bunch of traitors hiding behind their supposed 'patriotism'. So depressing that in a right wing / demented social media dominated landscape this can't cut through.

The good people of @plexlondon.bsky.social & pals nights at Corsica Studios opened my ears to so much new heavy doof, always utterly crackers, all sorts of lunacy going on. They praise London's finest venue & pick some of their highlights over the years for tQ: thequietus.com/news/plex-sa...

Farewell to the Backlisted pod, where I have discovered so many great books & had my eyes opened onto ones I thought I knew. It was such a joy going on to discuss Werner Herzog's On Walking In Ice live at End Of The Road festival many moons ago, tune in thus: www.backlisted.fm/episodes/101...

These Happy Shopper Trumpists... We *can't* let them win. Lots of us are going to have to hold our noses whenever we next go to the polls. But *anything* is better than this...

Ok so this is a bit Partridge “Best Of The Beatles” but I put on this New Order comp earlier and I do love it. My first New Order, one of the first bits of vinyl I bought, and aside from Power Corruption & Lies the one I’ve always gone back to rather than the studio LPs.

the thing is he doesn't really give a fuck whether it's true does he, he just knows it plays well with stupid old farts who love banging on about common sense while shitting their pants

The mood in No 10? I would describe it as upbeat, confident and positive.

I know we shouldn’t anthropomorphise but the little cross turn and look this robin does when its courtship ritual is met with a fly-off has been amusing me all day (these two have been hanging out for a while now so I reckon they’ll end up nesting, hopefully nicely hidden from the cats)

This looks fascinating and pertinent to my interests, thanks @lemoustier.bsky.social for the tip!

I feel like your late-40s, especially as a geriatric (lol) parent of a four-year-old, are just a constant succession of bits of your back pulling quite painfully, with internal foley artist making twanging noises on a large rubber band to accompany each successive agony.

A Passage To Wisbech: another excellent new upload to BBC Archive on the last days of hard and dangerous but clearly rewarding toil on the small coasters that plied the North Sea and English Channel with cargoes of eg fertiliser and spuds for a chip factory youtu.be/oPtvw91fQ88?...

Tempest vrs V1, 80+ years on

For a while people have said “you really must watch this gangster film with Ian McShane playing a bisexual hood alongside Richard Burton” and (thanks again to @andrewmale.bsky.social) I’ve finally watched the 1971 Clement & La Frenais-penned Villain and well, yes, *hello* to the both of them 👀

Thanks Andrew for this clip from Film 87 about the bloke who looked after the palm trees in the battle scenes shot in Docklands for Full Metal Jacket. Also feat. Barry Norman in full Barry Norman saying that he hates gardening.

Another wonderful Bob Symes film on the BBC Archive, feat. the six miles of railway in his garden, Dr Who’s Stones Of Blood spaceship & an amazing bit where he’s sat in a stunning red MG & says, twinkling, “I had one of these but I wrote it orf at Silverstone.” youtu.be/HmDxmxhrGDc?...

Suitably inspired by today’s trip, looking for film tips in one of my favourite genres - post war London docklands decline, 50s to 80s eg Pool Of London, Jubilee, Long Good Friday

If in doubt, to the Maritime Museum via DLR front seat, London’s finest free(ish) tourist attraction

Right pain this time of year with the infernal rain trying to get a small kid who’s been ill all week out, none of the weird brilliant museums eg Whitewebb are open as it’s winter, railways all shut, leaving only the mediocre horror of eg the Natural History & battling the hordes of South Kensington

'Pilot Boat, Moelfre, Anglesey.' (c1970) Writing about why he started to paint, Kyffin Williams said it was record the land, the people and natural history. I never intended to produce works of art but if this did happen by chance, it was all to the good.'

Morgan McSweeney has *intense* ‘cyclist rights activist/amateur magician from Swindon defending himself in court re: a ‘mass action’ deflating SUV tires’ energy. The judge absolutely hates him.

Superb Suede review by @juderogers.bsky.social, can’t wait to see them on this tour. The bit where Brett Anderson does a turn completely unaccompanied is stunning - I saw footage online of the bit mentioned at the start here & there must have been something in my eye

@jackelderton.bsky.social hi Jack not sure if you’ve already been notified by umpteen people but in the apple podcast app your excellent show comes up as being ‘American Football’

We have a kids cd popular in the car which has a song about a donkey who likes country music, and ends up described as “spunky hanky panky stinky winky wonky”, and blow me sidewise and call me Mary Whitehouse but I am not sure this is appropriate.

On tQ today, musicians in Iran and across the diaspora speak out about the recent uprising, the dubious and unhelpful conspiracy tendency from “anti-imperialists” in the West, and their hopes and (with Trump’s military build-up continuing) fears for the future thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

Who wants another lovely found photo to break up the misery and dreariness? You do? Right then. This is a stunner, a corker. In fact I’d go so far as to say an absolute belter… and, I think I’ve worked out who she is.

Again, I don't get why a certain section of the population is so enraged by the 20mph speed limit. And we've had it for ages in London and (unlike ULEZ) nobody really batted an eyelid.

During the Second World War, Britain was in the "strange position of fighting to create a new world order that is going to inevitably reduce its power & status"- A fascinating interview with @alanallport.bsky.social on the excellent @nmtdambusters.bsky.social pod: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...

A beautifully filmed look back to the inaugural journey of the #BluePullman diesel train between Manchester and St Pancras. 🚄 BLUE PULLMAN (1960) 6:30pm documentary short for all train lovers on #TPTV

"When I was at art school, I often didn’t do the work I should have during the day, so I’d have to pull all-nighters to catch up. I’d play albums to accompany me through the night. The one that was always on was Berlin." #PeterCapaldi on Lou Reed - Berlin buff.ly/oydxqd4

I was walking past the Garrick, Sir Ian McKellen was having a snout and gave me a proper 👀

Happy 30th birthday to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads: here's the late, great Dele Fadele's fantastic essay on the parallels between 90s gangsta rap and this most violent of records: thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

Thought I’d share this because it’s such a fantastic photo. Will explain more below. But basically it’s from an album found in a chazza. Look at these fellas.

'And now, we move on to liars...'

A great read on gay porn soundtracks, the work of the amazing Dark Entries label on resurfacing this important part of queer history, and a creative world destroyed by AIDS: “We lost so many friends, and it did something to us." www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

World War One advert for Bovril, in which a patriotic cow offers to be boiled down and sent down to France. The beef-extract was consistently marketed as a drink for soldiers. Members of the public were encouraged to send Bovril to the front line to support the forces.

This is "High Wycombe" by Harold Steggles from 1938. It was exhibited at Lefevre in 1938 & 1939 & again at the Ashmolean in 1939, where it was sold to Sir Robert Ensor. It is fascinating to see Harold's archive photo & his "alteration" of the view #HaroldSteggles #EastLondonGroup #HighWycombe

BRITISH RAIL IS TRAVELLING (1969)

…and another

Reform is leading in the polls in the lowest lying parts of England. Reform denies that climate change is a problem and would do all it can to worsen it.