In the late '70s/early '80s it was nothing to see "NF" scrawled on walls in London. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) captured the darkness of that time, but also its seeds of enlightenment. And it made Daniel Day-Lewis's name. Watch it with me On 7 October: www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2025/on-lond...

I was lucky enough to be the first member of the public to see these notes. It was quite a thing open.substack.com/pub/bowiegod...

Getting lairy. Villains get the best pads. The Big Lebowski to Goldfinger, Ex Machina to The Black Cat. Free to read. on.ft.com/4nIxykk Supervillains get the best lairs

The Trump administration says real things are hoaxes and hoaxes are real? That might not be the first time that happened... Join me and @jamesrball.com at 6pm on Thu 9 Oct to talk about the most spectacular hoax in modern America, and what it tells us about now: www.theconduit.com/upcoming-eve...

I am in Sutton. A small child just screamed ‘all right baldy’ from a passing car. I hate this town.

I've tried to get to the bottom of this burning issue several times, the problem being it depends what you mean by "oldest", "pub" and "London".

Many of you have asked for stripped-down, live versions of your favourite songs, so I’m thrilled to announce that Emma Tricca Live – Vol. 1 will be released on December 12, 2025, exclusively on Bandcamp. Pre-orders will open this coming Bandcamp Friday 🤍🌱 emmatricca.bandcamp.com/album/emma-t...

There are still a handful of places left for my Alexander Baron/Lowlife walking tour of Stoke Newington next Saturday. Tickets here! www.faber.co.uk/product/walk...

RIP to the great Danny Thompson. Here he is on 2024's "So Quietly" by Paul Weller, his final recording session. Weller "Danny said it was his “last plonk”, which was a very sad thing in a way but what a life man. We felt very honoured to be part of that final recording performance."

spokesperson for Sadiq Khan: “We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response. “London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities, and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”

Can anyone help? Playing David Ackles' American Gothic - it still has the price sticker from where it was bought. But I can't recall which shop it was. I may have got it from Cheapo Cheapo on Rupert Street. Does anyone recognise the price sticker?

Just heard that sportswriter Rob Steen has died suddenly. He gave me one of my first breaks in journalism - researching his David Gower biography - and walk-on roles in a couple of his books. The Mavericks is a classic. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mavericks...

On 17 August 1982 John Rentoul and I published a detailed report in the New Statesman reporting that Margaret Thatcher’s Falkland’s War Cabinet had “contemplated using Polaris nuclear missiles against Argentina. A Polaris submarine was sent to the South Atlantic to be ready for action 'if need be'.

This is a superb piece; on Sade themselves but also on Black British music since the 80s and how subcultures cross-pollinate and expand.

Father forgive me for I have sinned - just pretended to be Catholic to get rid of some Jehovah Witnesses.

There are still a handful of places left for my Alexander Baron/Lowlife walking tour of Stoke Newington next Saturday. Tickets here! www.faber.co.uk/product/walk...

There’s a lot going on at Denmark Street - latest is the planned reopening of Regent Sounds studio. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/s...

Manchester United appear to be under the misapprehension that this means they are good. Hate to break it to them…

I am very excited about the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, who has accidentally become my favourite contemporary director after Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza despite the fact I was the only person in the world who hated There Will Be Blood.

Good read on the Baader-Meinhof gang. One member of the RAF, Astrid Proll, fled to London and worked as a park keeper in Hackney. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

"We were talking about the space between us all and in particular the widening rift every time I go back to Ian MacDonald's Revolution In The Head and see how woefully his tired and weary polemic has dated. I mean I was a huge fan of I Mac's NME writing but RITH has not aged at all well".

I met the stonemason, blacksmith and coppersmith who are using their craft to turn Smithfield market into the new London Museum. www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

Last chance to send us your questions for Self Esteem! www.uncut.co.uk/news/send-us...

The launch of my new @manchesterup.bsky.social book Songs of Seven Dials will be at 6pm, Tues 21 Oct, at Waterstones Covent Garden. I'll be in conversation with the wonderful @julialaite.bsky.social. Please do come along. Free tickets, but register in advance www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/songs-of-s...

🚨 THIS IS NOT A DRILL 🚨 We’ve just seen this, by creator “Menapian” - a 4,998-piece set of the Great Exhibition (1851) Crystal Palace - complete with a bonus Megalosaurus and Ichthyosaur… beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

You may have guessed, I am now working for All Is Joy, the most excellent creative hub in the heart of Soho. So if you want to be a member, have an event, work with us or have the grooviest Christmas party, my DMs are very much open. Love to show you around! allisjoysoho.com

Stephen is correct as usual but also i'm glad he's called out the utter bullshit about eCoNoMiC aNxIeTy

I wrote about my Pulp cover story in Uncut and why it meant so much to me to write about the band. greatwen.com/2025/09/15/p...

Delighted to see (and very happy to contribute to) this hefty oral history of Paul Weller by Dan Jennings. It’s a fascinating read. I know Weller has been approached to write an autobiography a few times but didn’t feel ready to commit - Dan has now done all the work for him.

Building ‘Homes for Tomorrow’: Lambeth’s Council Housing of 1965 to 1980 - this week's new blog post looks at the exhibition celebrating the social ideals and path-breaking design of the borough's housing in its heyday: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/b...

So. Who wants access to a delightfully bonkers private members' club in Soho for a mad £19 a year? allisjoysoho.com/product/memb...

My main memory of Shankhill Skinhead was general amusement that the editorial address was somewhere in Croydon.

In 1979, the teenage Mariella Frostrup, aka 'Mariella Sometimes', was credited as tape operator on Simple Minds' second album, Real to Real Cacophony. 46 years later, on October 21st, she is hosting the London event for Our Secrets Are The Same at the British Library. events.bl.uk/events/an-ev...

With a new Mick Herron book out today, here’s a photo of what I am pretty sure is Slough House taken last week when I was near the Barbican.

Browsing the Bowie catalogue at the V&A and just found this pack of unsmoked Marlboros found in a pocket of the suit he wore at Live Aid. collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O178486...

The painted over Banksy Mural now looks like a silhouette of an episode of ‘Bottom’ where Richie is attacking Eddie and Eddie is defending himself with a TV aerial

Sorry to be right about this. No GBBF next year as it made “a substantial loss”, according to CAMRA

Chicken cocktails with Iggy, the problem with lunch with goblins, Major Tom’s surname and ‘many sex scenes’ - I did a deep dive into the new David Bowie Centre at the V&A Storehouse. www.uncut.co.uk/features/10-...

Dalston.

I wrote about a BBC clip going behind the scenes at Time Out magazine in 1978, when everybody was paid the same, the staff were always on strike and smoking was compulsory. greatwen.com/2025/09/08/t...

I wrote about a BBC clip going behind the scenes at Time Out magazine in 1978, when everybody was paid the same, the staff were always on strike and smoking was compulsory. greatwen.com/2025/09/08/t...

Time Out in 1978 has moved from 'seedy King's Cross' to 'trendy Covent Garden'. Was Covent Garden (genuinely) 'trendy' in the post-market, pre-tourist years?

Geat BBC archive footage, behind the scenes at Time Out in 1978. www.instagram.com/reel/DOVQeeX...

Ok, so today I received the kind of financial blow that would have anyone reaching for a begging bowl. But I'm not doing that. Instead I'm suggesting anyone who feels they could spare a bit of cutter to buy something off my Bandcamp page, eg andylewisuk.bandcamp.com/album/51

Just been told that following the BBC’s oddly generous piece about the flagman of Sutton, somebody put through the windows of the Sound Lounge on the high street where the owners had raised questions about vigilante masked flag-raising.

Geat BBC archive footage, behind the scenes at Time Out in 1978. www.instagram.com/reel/DOVQeeX...

Sonny Rollins is 95 today which feels slightly miraculous, a survivor from his art form's heroic age

My brother in law, who is the size of a yeti, ‘went floppy’ at the recent protest and it took six coppers to move him.

Municipal guide cover of the day (possibly an all time great!): Croydon, 1971. Countdown typeface klaxon!

Making my first trip to what I still insist on calling Arsenal’s new stadium tomorrow.