It’s still 1979! And perhaps the least likely ‘Top of The Pops’ performance is underway. The ex-singer of the Sex Pistols mid-agonised wail about his mother dying, while the ex-guitarist of the Clash comes up with a shredded version of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’. 1/3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB0N...

Hear Ye! Five things about this Kayne West farrago.. i) Starmer, Streeting and Lammy are (as ever) screaming hypocrities. Crying racism when it suits them, then pandering to Trump, Netanyahu and Reform the next second.

The people who, ten minutes into a gig, elbow their way past you to take up their rightful position at the front... ...I'm going to start calling them Gig Israelis.

Happy Easter!

It's 1979! And the first Echo & the Bunnymen single marks, in its own words, the sound of something changing. If music supposedly started with Rock&Roll but was actually better before then music officially got going again with Punk but was actually better after. (1/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2DS...

So I got to see Fucked Up again. As usual I didn't know what to expect, and as usual I was surprised. The main set was one long multi-limbed number, apparently from the Zodiac series, named after the Chinese zodiac and resetting the Monkey legend. (Yes, *that* Monkey legend!) (1/2)

THIS perfectly describes most of today’s media bias and failure!

It’s still 1978! Most bands of the Punk era were short-lived. Having turned the clock back from 1976 to 1966, just holding the hands in place had diminishing returns. And the Jam nearly went down with them... (1/4) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4E...

For a minute, thought I had an email inviting me to see the reformed Quarrymen. Without all the original members, you'd suppose. Turns out to be someone giving a talk about them.

Half a million of us marched in London today against the far right. The BBC have done an item on it, which they've placed below another feature called 'Have Easter Treats Gone Too Far?' Priorities, eh? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I was wondering who'd come up with this stupid idea. Turns out its serial liar and Zionist troll Margaret Hodge. www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

News of Terry Cox's death hadn't reached me until today. He doesn't get shown much in this clip, but it's the music which counts, and this is one of my fave tracks of theirs. Jacquie now the sole surviving member, but Pentangle won't be forgotten any time soon... www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dz5...

Most honest reporting in the past few weeks.

I was against ambulances being shot up in Gaza. so I'm also going to against arson attacks on ambulances in London. But the far right chuds who are trying to weaponise this, suppose London had 'Muslim ambulances'? Imagine how gammony they'd be getting over that.

It’s 1978! And 1977 already seems a long time ago. The sound of the Human League came with the slogan “electronically yours”, & press releases sent on computer paper. Guitars had become relics, to be jeered at just as Punks had jeered at long hair and flares. (1/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NS...

Much enjoyed Jehnny Beth's set last night. Exhilterating and slightly terrifying, I think I must have got four of my five a day just watching her. No footage, perhaps due to her kleptomaniac habit of snatching mobiles from people's hands, so this is from Later... www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTKK...

It's still 1977! Why, when there’s so many Bowie songs, should ‘Heroes’ have such resonance? There’s the monumental sound, monumental as the Berlin Wall. And the lovers are of course in opposition to it, representing people coming together. (1/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgk...

It’s 1977! Now Punks, they were cats. So all other Punks were not even rivals but pretenders and interlopers, to be hissed and spat at. And the New York/London rivalry over who was was Punk central got to be the most hissy scrap of all. (1/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohZn...

For some day, a ladybird has been hanging around my work room. It flutters round for a bit, and I think "ugh! a bug!" and get the urge to squash it. Then it lands, and I think "aw!, a sweet li'l ladybird." Then repeat.

This half-hour documentary on the Alternative Press Fairs in London features two seconds off the front of the top of my head. Not the top of my head, not the front of my head, the top of the front of my head. This may be the closest to fame I ever get... vimeo.com/84511449

It’s still1976! Time was when music historians assumed black people (being all, y’know, instinctive ’n’ stuff) had kicked off modern music, but it had taken smart white people to refine it. How did they fit Lee Perry into that? By ignoring him, of course. (1/3) www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9oL...

So 4 Eyed Gav went up to that London to see Olivia Chaney's new electric folk outfit New From Nowhere. And verily, Four Eyed Gav was much impressed, but could find no footage to share with his on-line friends. So instead here's her last electric folk outfit, Offa Rex www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLod...

So twice now Trumps' decapitation strategy. It's because the baboon is only capable of short-term thinking. He imagines he can do something big and bold and he'll fix some seemly intractable problem. When that doesn't work he wanders off again. He's a walking Dunning-Kruger effect.

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

Our history of song through two tracks a year reaches the Chaos Days of 1976 to 1990. Where music now told us we needed to destroy everything, whilst also not caring about it. Which was tricky… (1/5)

Okay,maybe it's good the Greens beat Reform in the by-election. On the other hand, they,ve made it that bit harder to find yourself a Plumber.

everyone loved the tech industry's free music and friendship machines of 20-30 years ago. it's unclear what could be causing people to feel the opposite about the industry's new racism and insanity machine

All Saints were not necessarily the most typical girl band. Singing live on Jools Holland just with piano and some very subdued drums, its pretty much all vocal harmonies. With a song co-written by a band member. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvI3...

'Wuthering Heights' (with airquotes) is Wuthering Heights for the Instagram era. You could argue for some while what is the silliest thing about it. The way Thrushcross Grange seems to be decorated by Melania Trump? The notion Victorians went to hangings because they didn't have OnlyFans yet? (1/3)

Great Adrian Sherwood set at the Barbican last night. What can you say about a gig where African Head Charge are the support act? Now been going since 1980, and still forging ahead! (Clip is not from... oh, you guessed.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaGg...

Passengers, please strap yourselves in for ‘The Tracks You Leave’ - your next playlist! After our first ever break for ads (not skippable), sights include Nina Nastasia, Lankum, Zounds, New York Gong, John Cale, Nomeansno, Thurston Moore, Popol Vuh and Boris. open.spotify.com/playlist/4cr...

1975 bonus track! Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ remains a classic. Rock music is supposedly strident stuff, breast-beating, insistent. But it’s the elusive nature of this number which makes it so haunting, like it’s never quite possible to grasp it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4H...

It’s still 1975! And Patti Smith has released her first album, kicking off with ‘Gloria’. She’s since admitted she went for a cover as she was hesitant about her own writing. But this adds so much while retaining everything that’s great about Them’s original. 1/4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7so...

At a single stroke, Lord Mandelson has completely destroyed his hard-won reputation for honesty. Tragic.

“It was a long time ago, in a farmhouse far away.” “It was the worst of times, then it was the worst of times for the next generation.” "It is a far better hissy fit than I have ever thrown; it is a far better rest that I go to than that I have ever known. Heathcliffe, you’ll be along later, yeah?”

It’s 1975! Let me take you there…. No Led Zeppelin fan’s favourite track is… you know, *that* one. We all know the right response is the answer Robert Plant himself gave - 'Kashmir. 1/4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW_W...

You know what gets me? If they made January a thirty-day month, and gave the extra day to June, we'd have one more warm, sunny day and one less that's wet and cold. I mean, do I have to think of everything?

“Melania” is truly the worst experience I’ve had in a theater” -Abraham Lincoln

You know when, after a toothache finally goes away, and that one tooth in your mouth suddenly feels blissfully un-painful? I felt that way today about having dry feet at work.

Imagined victimhood is a foundational tenet of fascism. Persecution fantasies permeate conservative politics. Their great oppressors include racial diversity, science, drag brunch, children's literature, public education, N-95 masks, electric cars, medicine, the rule of law, empathy, and Ms. Rachel.

It’s still 1974! And, having just left Roxy Music, Eno didn’t know what to do with himself. Which, as he well knew, was the same thing as being free. There being nothing he particularly felt like saying, he instead set up processes. (1/4) www.youtube.com/watch?v=nItu...

Being armed is justification for execution, claims the masked gang with guns.

”There came a light tap at the library door, and pale as the tenat of a tomb, a menial entered upton tipoe. He pointed to my garments - they were muddy and clotted with gore. I spoke not.” Anyone hazard a guess what’s next up in my Gothic Horror reading list?

I can't believe that's not a nutter.

It’s 1974! Yes, Hawkwind had once produced the great space trilogy. But surely the less lofty mid-Seventies had brought the sonic cosmonauts crashing down to earth. In fact they adjusted to earthbound life with surprising ease. (1/2) www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BZx...