60 years ago. Flicker flicker flicker blam Powis Gardens. It all begins here, underground pop dance fans.

They deserved more acclaim but couldn't shake the manufactured/pretty boy tag. Once they started writing their own material you got Sunshine Cottage, an overlooked popsike classic with Miss Jones on the b-side - a decent immitation of the Small Faces (no wonder Marriott wanted Frampton to join)

Heads-up 60s music nerds! The new issue of Shindig! features my article on The Herd, gothic psych idols led by Peter Frampton and Andy Bown, who I interviewed for it. There’s an excerpt from it here! :) shindig-magazine.com?p=7440

Agreed with this statement. So much of the "Golden Age of TV" nonsense was based on the false idea that US network TV was all TV (not helped by a generation of Guardian culture-writers who thought American shit was better than British gold), at the same time post-1990 British TV quality cratered.

Phil Upchurch gone? Man, that got NO publicity! One of Stepney's most trusted right-hand men. R.I.P. immense talent; I still can't sit still.

@andrewhickey.500songs.com The new Rotary Connection bonus is a joy - thank you Andrew! I noted that you mention Phil Upchurch, who sadly died only last month; I was wondering if you were familiar with this, the first recording of “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun”? :) m.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzN...

I managed in my forties to find a way to make a living from doing the thing my brain is broken for, and both I and (I like to think) the world are better off for it. Imagine if I could have done it in my twenties, when I had energy, instead of destroying my health for decades with shitty jobs.

I’m writing about a really big musical group. To give you some clue, everyone’s talking about them. They are the subject of nepo baby / industry plant allegations. There’s solo stuff by the one of them. You guessed it - it’s Paul and Barry Ryan!

In case anyone missed it, there’s a Shindig special bookazine out now featuring a lengthy cover story I wrote on the beginning of Sparks! I spoke to three early members - John Mendelssohn, Earle Mankey and Jim Mankey - and there’s a special contribution from Russell Mael.

In Tune In I quoted a 1960 Paul McCartney letter declaring that the Beatals (yes) had ‘competence, confidence & continuity’ … and just today I’ve found that Paul nicked it from a Midland Bank cheque book, Competence–Continuity–Confidence being printed on the inside back cover. Great nicking, Paul!

work party tonight. must not get drunk. must not try to explain who stanley baxter was to co-workers.

Saw Cliff Richard last night (it’s okay I wasn’t cool anyway). A unique experience and I enjoyed every minute of it, to be honest. Reminded me of this great piece from his last tour by @fergalkinney.bsky.social thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

Hot Chocolate were fucking brilliant and for years, honestly. #TOTP

I love Suzi but “Devil Gate Drive” is a bit shit tbh. #TOTP

I don’t get sick of good pop songs and “Killer Queen” is a perfect example. Loved it since I was a kid. Best Queen single. #TOTP

ABBA were listening to Wizzard right? #TOTP

The first George McCrae album is one of the very best 70s LPs you can still find for under a fiver. Unbelievable singer. #TOTP

“Crazy Horses”. Kinda the best record ever let’s be fair #TOTP

David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars doing “Starman”. Sick to death of hearing received wisdom about this appearance but I did rinse it on YouTube when I first got into Bowie. It is a wonderful clip. #TOTP

Mickey Finn pretending to play the snare hits in the intro on the bongos is hysterical #TOTP

Alright, “Maggie May“ is one of those songs I grew up constantly being told was a stone-cold classic, used in constant clip shows, referenced everywhere. It ain’t that good is it? “You Wear It Well” demolishes it. #TOTP

“Lola” is alright but I have never felt it was a great example of one of the best bands Britain ever produced. Hard to love Rootsy Kinks sorry. #TOTP

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” was one of my first favourite songs cos I had this thing as a little kid. I think it had been my mum’s. #TOTP

I know people hate “Where Do Go To (My Lovely)” (overexposure, hectoring lyrics etc) but Peter Sarstedt got the last laugh (ha-ha ha-ha) because a lot of young people into 60s music love it unabashedly. #TOTP

“Baby Come Back” is one of a few UK number ones where the original recording isn’t on streaming. Streaming is rubbish innit. #TOTP

Heartbreaking www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Invest in humanity: buy my art

Two albums I love, now getting a boost from @andrewhickey.500songs.com :)

"A.i." doesn't empower anyone. It strips them of belief in themselves and the power of their own minds and hands and abilities and stories. EVERY KID CAN DRAW. EVERY KID CAN TELL STORIES AND MAKE COMICS. Fuck "A.i." for telling kids lies and making them less-than.

Generative AI by definition is conformity. It is an averaging of anything you ask of it - quite literally guessing what the most likely version of a thing might be. It is, by definition, mainstream, as is everything it creates old and deeply ideological, as every model trains on similar data.

The late Jane Morgan with a breezy Bacharach-David tune. youtu.be/6Y1qcT9uv-M

Hi it’s Chloe, I have added these four original artworks to my website! (For sale) Monkeys and hearts, frog looking on, William Blake and the Tyger, the eye tree. If you share this post I will be chuffed. www.chloecumming.com

It is bizarre that there's this well-established TV canon which is entirely prestige US shows from the 21st century, as if the 20th century and the rest of the world don't exist. Not the case for film, music, art, etc., just TV.

an american on instagram just told me that “the welsh had their own language and they have their own accent”. fascinating if true, will keep you all posted.

X social engineering 101: Below is the kind of general “prompt” post that does well on X This one has gone fully viral today it is my unfortunate job to tell you your friends over there have all been quote-posting a natalist anti-gay advocate, sending all their feeds further to the right

tuffins supermarket in knighton just played the full 12-inch version of PSB’s left to my own devices followed by django by rocky roberts. who made this playlist. why is it so good.

Does anyone need their Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich fix? Surely you do! I wrote about their colourful 60s career in the latest Shindig! magazine, out now. This isn’t an ad, I’m just pleased to have done it. :)

off to a coffee shop to interview someone in person. never done this before! aaa!

"Before then, a new Otis Redding record, a Donovan record, a Who record were all part of the same thing. Then Rolling Stone started telling people, “This is hip and this is not.”" John Sinclair, manager of the MC5

Haunting and goofy are two key Beach Boys words.

It’s hard to escape the dawning realization that part of the goal of Google’s AI Overview is to simply eradicate the concept of anyone else having any kind of website at all. Why click on a link & explore when Google told you the answer & you didn’t know it was wrong?

Just been informed that Abaco Dream B-side may not be Sly so here’s something else brilliant; Sly and the Family Stone’s kooky French-language rejig of “Dance to the Music”, a sort of dub version with an extra dollop of psychedelia. youtu.be/mwMsySApBrQ

just listened to that podcast with those two old english rock critics chatting away. talking about sly stone’s influence, one of them pronounces d’angelo as danjello. love it.

This article is about horrifying things, not least of which is the fact that it opens with an NYT writer enthusiastically using an A.I. to generate focus, characters, and thesis for his next book, because he couldn't think of them Personally, I would fire that person today, but what do I know

@bigbeatlessortout.bsky.social Faves from ‘69; In a Silent Way, Scotts 3 & 4, Odessa, Stand! by Sly & the Family Stone, Jake’s Progress by Jake Thackray, For Women Only by Bergen White, Claude Lombard S/T, Faintly Blowing by Kaleidoscope, Joy of a Toy by Kevin Ayers, Elyse by Elyse Weinberg.

Here’s a Sly Stone rarity I didn’t know about until last week - a synth-riddled flipside, released under a pseudonym, that sounds a bit like 90s big beat. youtu.be/DX2_jCMYerI

The whole painting

Brian Wilson has died. I painted him as the moon once

And still they regurgitate this rockist shit. Even in obits. A line invented by a few west coast critics in the late 60s to justify their turgid jam bands and their coked up world views. It meant nothing in the UK where the band had hit after hit in the late 60s. How these people hated pop music.