West Ham v Leeds today in the FA Cup 3rd round. Last FA Cup game was 4 years ago, third round, we won 2-0. We lost to them 3-2 a week later in the league, Jack Harrison scoring a hat trick. As we play Leeds at home on the last day of the season, wonder if Hammers fans would accept the same results?

Been to so many gigs, but only a couple of matinee shows. Maybe more artists should play them? This time last Saturday I was enjoying Wild Billy Childish & CTMF at the Lexington and it was brilliant. This is Keep Mojave Weird, which, Billy pointed out, was promoting his new EP #WildBillyChildish

Edwyn Collins has just released an EP of live recordings from his triumphant show at the Royal Festival Hall earlier this year ▶️ open.spotify.com/album/3g5mFv...

matgeorgewhu The Rose Wylie exhibition The Picture Comes First at the Royal Academy closes April 19. This is Pink Table Cloth, Short Shot Film Notes) 2013 Oil on canvas Reviews have been decent, if somewhat patronising about Wylie's age. Plenty of people were enjoying it when I visited #RoseWylie

On this day, 2021, Waterlow Park in that North London. Still in Covid lockdown, pubs and restaurants are closed #Easter

Split Dogs at the Underworld in Camden Town on Good Friday, early curfew, same unbelievable energy. This is And What? They're never knowingly not touring and there's plenty of shows coming up as they prepare to release new album Nice'N' Rough in September #splitdogs

Perhaps I’m entering my abstract impressionist era. Is there still CIA funding?

It’s one thing to consider playing Pet Sounds all the way through, quite another to actually do it. A magical evening at the Jazz Cafe in Camden, in that London with Aqualung

Upper Holloway railway station has an impressive wildlife garden, including bird feeders. So good to see them using their land to help nature, and congratulations to those giving their time and efforts #UpperHolloway

The Alessandro Mendini exhibition at the Estorick Collection in Islington until May 10 has Futurist Masks, of five significant figures in the movement. This one is Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), whose oil on canvas The Hand of the Violinist (1912) is in the permanent collection #EstorickCollection

Playing another (bleedin) gig (as Down For You Is Up) this Sunday @ The Spice of Life, Soho (just about) wegottickets.com/event/690918/

Keely Hodgkinson on the 2029 World Athletics Championships possibly being held at London Stadium: “The GB team will bring back more medals to that stadium than west ham have seen in their entire history 🫢🫶🏼😂” Only 10 would be needed. She broke the British 800m record at the stadium in 2024.

Two games, four days apart. West Ham United Women draw 0-0 with Manchester United at Victoria Road in Dagenham, then lose 5-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates. Arsenal play every home WSL game there, while West Ham Women have played exactly one match at the London Stadium.

Guess the film

Happy birthday to Pete Wylie. Here's Sinful filmed for Wogan in 86. Everything about this is great - Pete and Josie are so cool while the dancing nuns doing the Koyaanisqatsi-style interlude is the icing on the cake

Saturday afternoon and two football paintings from the Rose Wylie exhibition The Picture Comes First at the Royal Academy until April 19. Arsenal & Spurs (2006) and Yellow Strip, also 2006 and featuring Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Jens Lehmann and John Terry #RoseWylie

Not sure I’ll ever understand why The Blue Aeroplanes aren’t the biggest band in the known universe. The double LP Magical Realism: The Best of The Blue Aeroplanes 1985-2025 is a good place to start. There’s a 7-inch with Showing Off To Impress The Girls, from origin story group Art Objects in 1981

Imagine the shock for the anonymous mudlark who dug up these gnashers? From the recent exhibition Secrets Of The Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures at London Museum Docklands. “These false teeth dating to the 1700s are made from real human teeth, probably collected from the dead.”

cootie catcher - Something We All Got, released last month, charming lo-if slacker rock influenced by Beat Happening & Pavement but bringing plenty new including samples & beats. The Toronto quartet have 3 songwriters, all with distinctive voices, and this 3rd LP is their 1st recorded in a studio.

1/3 Always worth visiting the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury, but to March 29 the exhibition A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music explores how uplifting music, especially choruses, spark emotional connections and inspire social change. The Grand Chorus, was composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel.

Two West Ham home games a month apart. Both against Manchester teams, both ending 1-1. Strange how contrasting the emotions. United’s equaliser 7 minutes into 6 minutes of added time felt a crushing defeat. Holding on against City felt like a win. Yet both meant 1 point in the relegation battle.

1/2 Saturday. 3pm. Hundreds of football matches have just kicked off. This one did on September 23 2023, West Ham's annual home league defeat to Man City. Here’s James Ward-Prowse taking a corner. We're losing to them again today, but at 8pm, a ridiculous time for a weekend game, dictated by TV.

Surely this could only be one city?

I’ve been anticipating a goal from this player for ages

…and Mr Albrucksburger and Miss Haag, his fiancée, and Ardita Fitz-Peters and Mr P. Jewett, once head of the American Legion, and Miss Claudia Hip, with a man reputed to be her chauffeur, and a prince of some-thing, whom we called Duke, and whose name, if I ever knew it, I have forgotten.

Hampstead Heath #HampsteadHeath

It may have been miserably cold today but when the magnificent magnolia at Kenwood House is flowering on Hampstead Heath, the world is a better place and you know warmer days are coming

just me who thought of the Cybermen? In the Alessandro Mendini exhibition at Estorick Collection in Islington til May 10, very much recommended. Lampada di Milo (Segno 1987 / Codiceicona, 2022) Steel standard lamps, Codiceicona Mendini was inspired by the later figurative work of Kazimir Malevich.

1/2 Pauline in the Yellow Dress, by Sir James Gunn (Oil on canvas, 1944) I’d not heard of this until I visited the wonderful Harris in Preston, but apparently this portrait of Pauline, the artist's wife, is the most popular painting in the collection. #Paulineintheyellowdress

Released in January, this tribute to Brian James is covers of their formative influences. All but Raw Power are from the mid-60s and songs by the Stones, Kinks, Animals, Yardbirds and The Creation are all here, along with See Emily Play, Summer In The City and There’s A Ghost In My House #TheDamned

Jarvis channels his inner Kes, in a 1995 Steve Double photograph for the NME #JarvisCocker

As last gig seemed to go (mostly) ok(ish) am playing another (as Down For You Is Up) at the Spice of Life on Sunday 29 March: wegottickets.com/event/690918/

Tense evening at the Cottage, where West Ham held on for a 1-0 win. Still not quite enough to get us out of the relegation zone, but we’re improving, Anfield apart. The defence is better, Fernandes a joy to watch and Summerville scored yet again. Might not be enough but at least we’re fighting.

Made it back Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A in South Kensington, long sold out and closing on March 22. It's not all frocks, jewellery and magnificent furniture, there's also the brutally misogynist cartoons and caricatures that helped stoke hatred against her & the royal family #MarieAntoinette

1/2 The new Gus Englehorn album was released on Friday, only a year after the previous one. The former pro snowboarder is as interesting as he is baffling, and I feel I need to see him live to make sense of him. The Hornbook has a couple of cosmic melodies along the lines of Grandaddy.

Righteous- the Dead Pioneers at the Underworld in Camden Town tonight

It’s been on for a year but I only just snuck into the Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures exhibition @londonmuseum.bsky.social in the final hours. So glad I did, an excellent summary of what was fairly niche only a decade ago, but is now hugely popular #Mudlarking

Just got there before it closed, but this was wonderful tho I can't do it justice. Zhang Kechun: The Yellow Desert at Huxley-Parlour Maddox Street. 10 works from his project to photograph the Gobi desert, a popular tourist destination, with remnants of film sets, abandoned towns and ancient graves.

I watched Wrexham a fair amount before Rob and Ryan arrived, so I’m not a total gloryhunter. Enjoyed returning to The Valley after a few years, and the stadium is looking good. Wrexham weren’t at their best, but a Rathbone goal, and world class Okonkwo save in the last minute secured an away win.

Good news- @wbgooderham.bsky.social - who was in the excellent Baptiste and Kelman in the Noughties - is back songwriting and gigging as Down For You Is Up. Brilliant show last night upstairs at Walthamstow Trades Hall with E’spaniel, a jangly quartet from County Durham with an enjoyable C86 sound.

If you’re a British Museum member, or in my case, know one, you can do an after hours torchlight tour. This Egyptian Galleries one included the Rosetta Stone, and the 4,400 year old limestone false door and architrave of Ptahshepses. The tour was led by Curator of Egyptian Art Marcel Maree #Museum

Is it time to reassess Animal Nightlife? Found this 1985 debut LP in a Crouch End charity shop. It got to 36 in the album chart, 1988 follow-up Lush Life didn’t chart and that was it. Maybe they were too boy band looking for the cool club crowd, and too club for the boy band fans? #AnimalNightlife

Vegetarians less likely to get five types of cancer

Borussia Dortmund went out of the Champions League tonight after losing at Atalanta to a penalty with the last kick of the game. In October I saw their group stage 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao at BVB Stadion Dortmund (Signal Iduna Park) with an attendance of 81,365, the Yellow Wall in full effect.

Preston’s fabulous The Harris has an exhibition on tea - The Tea On Tea. The caption for this tea set from around 1865 is: “A symbol of wealth and sophistication. In the 1800s, the very wealthy enjoyed drinking tea from their most refined chinaware in the comfort of their lavish homes.” #Harris

The Paper Kites played the Roundhouse last night, but I couldn’t go. This seventh album was released a month ago, and is less Americana than the previous one. This is simpler and quieter, and could be filed next to Fleet Foxes & Sam Burton, with at times a classic 70s Laurel Canyon sound #PaperKites

Ludo Miklosko tifo in the Bobby Moore Lower at London Stadium before West Ham v Bournemouth. Ludo is one of the best & most popular players in the club’s history. In December 2024 he revealed he has cancer and was withdrawing from treatment to have the best quality of life for as long as possible.

For anyone heading to the football, More Than A Shirt by Joey D’Urso helps explain the branding that can be so familiar we may hardly notice it. So many dubious betting firms, NFT scams and moody crypto pyramid schemes have achieved worldwide publicity through the Premier and Champions leagues.

Wayne McGregor - Infinite Bodies ends tomorrow at Somerset House. “CHOREOGRAPHY IN THE AGE OF AL, ROBOTICS AND MIXED REALITIES” This is: No One is an Island, 2021 Random International + Wayne McGregor + Chihei Hatakeyama #WayneMcGregor