"These cities may change, but there always remains my obsession." It's Bryan Ferry's birthday today, and - bloody hell! - he's 80. He's one of @alwynturner.bsky.social's glam heroes. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

From the relatively familiar calm of August 2015, though the chaos of December 2019 to the ominous and provisional present - @paulsaffer.bsky.social reflects on a decade of political disruption. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

Ed Miliband was elected leader of the Labour Party fifteen years ago today. What a catastrophic mistake that was. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/05/07/e...

⚽️"Britain did not suddenly discover sport in 2015 as a response to the twin shocks of the Tory election victory & Clarkson’s sacking from Top Gear. As far back as 2005, Tony Benn was complaining: ‘The real English nature is sport rather than politics’"⚽️ By @paulsaffer.bsky.social👇 wp.me/p6lzJb-7CH

"The Lib Dems do not feel like the old third force, providing a home for voters tired of the Tory-Labour duopoly; rather they find themselves bracketed with their two old rivals as one of the legacy parties, dreaming of an old, safe world now faded away"👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/24/p...

"‘But, Lady Blakeney,’ said the young man, touched by the gentle earnestness of this exquisitely beautiful woman, ‘do you know that what you propose doing is man’s work?’" Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, was born 160 years ago today in 1865. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/09/23/i...

'A focus group described her as “passionate”, “genuine”, “sincere” and “very smart”, although some saw her as “aggressive” and “rough”.’ Happy birthday to Rebecca Long-Bailey. She was Labour's future once. thelionandunicorn.com/2019/12/17/t...

"‘I think cathedrals are cathedrals,’ he’d declare, or he’d make reference to ‘Bordeaux – as in the tapestry’." thelionandunicorn.com/2024/07/14/c...

"‘Showgirl’ was the first single & was a fine statement of intent; the pristine production couldn’t conceal the grubbiness of the glamour – he may be dreaming of stardom, but he’s still hanging around public libraries" @alwynturner.bsky.social on The Auteurs👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"A fifteen-minute epic, it’s a portrait of youth in a suburban dystopia of Wimpy bars and Woolworth’s..." Glam rock wasn't just for Christmas, you know. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

"It was an attempt to recreate the innocent enthusiasm of the first generation of rock ’n’ roll, but blown up to a grand scale. And at its best, it was very grand indeed" @alwynturner.bsky.social on his top ten Glam albums👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

Happy 60th birthday to DJ, producer and actor Goldie. He co-starred with David Bowie in Everybody Loves Sunshine (1999). thelionandunicorn.com/2023/06/06/f...

"We should defend the gains and achievements of the Cuban revolution." Can it really be true that today is Richard Burgon's 45th birthday already? How soon the bloom of youth fades. thelionandunicorn.com/2018/03/16/a...

"Music suffused with solipsistic gloom, made by stars obsessing over the nature of stardom..." For your pleasure, the ten best glam rock albums, as selected by @alwynturner.bsky.social. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/18/t...

1. Happy 100th B.B.! Remembering my hero and favourite guitarist, Mr. B.B. King, born OTD one hundred years ago in Indianola, Mississippi. I first saw B.B. and his great band play live at the age of 16 in 1990, still the best and most memorable gig I ever attended... #bbking #blues #musicsky

Possibly the best value 12" single of all time, not so much for the extended mix of The Lodgers which is OK, but the live mini-LP presented to us on the flip side that shows just how good the musicianship of the Style Council was.

"Blow by Blow sees Stevie Wonder contribute ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers’ (which here Beck dedicates to guitarist Roy Buchanan) & ‘Thelonious’, with Wonder on uncredited clavinet" @benfinlay74.bsky.social presents his favourite albums of 1975👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

"‘Queen Bee’ (1978) features a memorably eccentric gay witness who’s changed his name by deed poll to… Deed Poll. (‘I am an effeminate homosexual’ he dramatically announces, ‘My life is one round of wine, men and song.’)" From @hellothisisivan.bsky.social👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/06/l...

"I should prefer to leave the affairs of the football industry to the industry itself," said home secretary Rab Butler. But that was then - these days, politicians feel that football needs some interference. @paulsaffer.bsky.social tells the story. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/b...

The Feelies in Williamsburg, encoring with the MC 5’s “The American Ruse,” a timely choice if ever there was.

"This isn’t really ‘new’ media at all. It’s the same faces, the same anecdotes, the same cultural chokehold, just on Spotify instead of the BBC. A gerontocracy with AirPods in" @finlay24.bsky.social decries the 'cultural landlords' who bought up podcasting👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/10/d...

Fifty years old today, 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd. I've written a bit about it as it's in my Top Ten albums of 1975. Click the link here to read 👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t... #pinkfloyd #musicsky #wishyouwerehere #classicalbums #OTD #vinylcommunity

Great article. Don't really know the cooking podcast but the argument against 'new media' is excellent.

"Say what you like about Oxford, you get a better class of blue movie there: titles like Mucky Beth, Moaning Becomes Electra, Hedda Gobbler." Happy birthday to Russell Lewis, the man who gave us Endeavour. thelionandunicorn.com/2023/01/22/e...

"Of course, it would be easy to criticise Off Menu, and indeed that’s what I’m going to do..." thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/10/d...

What was in the hit parade 50 years ago? @alwynturner.bsky.social is your guide to the charts of September 1975. thelionandunicorn.com/2020/09/10/r...

The only satisfying season finale is Thornberry winning the deputyship. "No matter how much people hate us, we’re necessary" – Emily Thornberry thelionandunicorn.com/2018/07/27/t...

"You’re not listening to the scrappy outsiders – the people who first made the space and who would actually benefit from your support – but to cultural landlords who now own the space" @finlay24.bsky.social takes on the podcast industrial complex👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/10/d...

Here's my podcast polemic where I'm very rude about lots of celebrities. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/10/d...

"This practice has no place in a marriage between decent people." It's Hugh Grant's 65th birthday, which is a good opportunity to remember the best-ever letter to the Spectator. thelionandunicorn.com/2015/12/15/p...

"Their debut album is a brilliant rich amalgamation of the individual artists' talents, but it is The Rotters’ Club where they fully developed their style, the apex of the ‘Canterbury Sound’" @benfinlay74.bsky.social on 1975 (one for @jonathancoe.bsky.social)👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

It's three years since Peppa Pig, Cash Converters and "the strongman community" expressed their sorrow on the death of Elizabeth II. Here are the tweets from the time... thelionandunicorn.com/2022/09/16/e...

The great Peter Sellers was born 100 years ago today. In addition to being a brilliant comic actor, he also made this arthouse movie in 1973... thelionandunicorn.com/2023/01/07/f...

"There’s always been a sound about ’75 I like. Maybe it’s the sophisticated end of the hippy period; just the right amount of production and sheen" Our @benfinlay74.bsky.social proves "that 1975 was the apotheosis of sophisticated, mature rock music":👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/07/t...

It's three years since Peppa Pig, Cash Converters and "the strongman community" expressed their sorrow on the death of Elizabeth II. Here are the tweets from the time... thelionandunicorn.com/2022/09/16/e...

It's nice to see Little Englanders (now available in paperback) being quoted in East Anglia Bylines as a sign of how things haven't changed that much. eastangliabylines.co.uk/pecksniff/pe...

Excellent choices. May I also commend to the general air of brilliance that surrounds 1975 the incredibly overlooked Once In A While by Kai Olsson. It's the missing link between singer/songwriter pop, pub rock and the emerging new wave. Featuring future Blockheads in the lineup-

"The creativity in the music offered here is superb, and if things were on the cusp of change, the need for that shift may not have applied to these acts." My latest article for @lionunicorn.bsky.social, the top ten albums of 1975, with playlist included. Nice reading for a Sunday... #musicsky

"What was a cause is now a crusade. You’re not content to say a woman must be liberated, you have another message. Your message for woman is you must be liberated but you must be lesbian to be liberated" @hellothisisivan.bsky.social on ground-breaking TV.👇 thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/06/l...

‘This is a marvellous book’ Heirs and Graces is reviewed in today’s Times and I am a little emotional (again). www.thetimes.com/article/68f2...

"Are you a homosexual or something?" @hellothisisivan.bsky.social celebrates a 1979 episode of the ITV show Crown Court. thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/06/l...

1/ Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' was published OTD in 1957. I can't quite remember when I first read it, but the first copy I owned (I've had several) was the one pictured, and that was an early 90s edition. #kerouac #ontheroad #booksky

Lion & Unicorn on Angela Rayner: She was often compared to John Prescott (sometimes in her own acts of self-promotion), but before Prezza became deputy PM he had been a proper union official, he had served 27 years as an MP, and he had led the Labour group in the European Parliament. (1/?)

Coming up this weekend on @lionunicorn.bsky.social... #musicsky #jazzsky #writingcommunity #vinylsky #folk #blues #britishmusic

"Disillusioned like millions by the Nazi-Soviet Pact, he quit the CPGB and volunteered for war service. Posted to the Pioneer Corps, a repository for unreliable political & émigré recruits, he served 6 years, taking part in several key campaigns" Simon Matthews on Alexander Baron👇 wp.me/p6lzJb-7C1

Simon Matthews on the lost world of novelist Alexander Baron, one of those who emerged from WW2 determined to see "the old muddlers thrown out and people like ourselves doing the big things". wp.me/p6lzJb-7C1

LibDem MP and notorious child-abuser Cyril Smith died 25 years ago today. Here's the story of his campaign against rock 'n' roll in Rochdale back in 1957, when he was a Labour councillor. thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/i...

"A world full of ghosts, with dog tracks, bomb sites, corner shops and tattered old houses that could be bought for a couple of hundred quid." Simon Matthews celebrates the novelist and dramatist Alexander Baron. thelionandunicorn.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/t...