What a good weekend ... Bandcamp Friday and then two parcels from @castlesinspace.bsky.social (thanks!) so much (good) new music.

The final release (for now) from the Lunar Module @castlesinspace.bsky.social imprint. Highly recommended.

For two days running, BlueSky has had me on the verge of a disgrace-inducing hearty guffaw in the office. Yesterday, it was @judasdjs.bsky.social's phrase 'beginning to look like a cubist experiment'. Today it's 'sentient fucking saucepan'. Thank you both for your work...

In 2025 I had some lovely moments remembering why gigs are community, and @jamesadrianbrown.bsky.social was part of two! The Levitation all-dayer in Liverpool run by @castlesinspace.bsky.social & a gig in @theblackbox.bsky.social. His debut album is out today - go listen for it is fab!

I was only just yesterday talking with my hairdresser about section 28 & how wonderful it is now to see kids wearing pride badges on their school blazers and bags when only a generation ago repression & anti LGBT+ bullying was state mandated at school. I refuse to cede an inch backwards.

I was not expecting to love a ceramic avocado quite so much #potterythrowdown

Apparently I’m a Macclesfield Town fan now. YEEEEEOOOOO! The FA Cup delivers once again.

This is marvellous. Happy Nollaig na mBan!

Am belatedly catching up on tonight’s #potterythrowdown. Andrew and Fynn’s illustrations were STUNNING. I’m already doing a Keith and sobbing. Or maybe that’s just Going Back To Work trauma…

BEAUTIFUL WORK.

Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in 2026.

What doesn’t kill you gives you a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms and a really dark sense of humour

‘guilty feet ain’t got no rhythm’ is SUCH a good line #totp

Merry Christmas, all! x

One of the best Christmas Eve traditions of them all. Teenager’s Meth Den is a standout this year, but Creepy Medical Model With Visible Internal Organs is up there too. Enjoy #duvetknowitschristmas and fire a few quid to Centrepoint if you can. Happy Bedding Down For Christmas, everyone!

So pleased they reintroduced ‘let’s make Esme guess’ to the transformation round. Nipples, golden poos… never change. #sewingbee

Tree: up. Current mood: covered in fake snow. Jumper may or may not recover.

There’s nothing else for it; I’m going to have to put the Christmas tree up. I couldn’t be feeling much more bah humbug, but I’ve got a tiny window for it before the bewildered sheep of Messiah descend…

I realised late this afternoon that today is, to the exact day & date, my 11th anniversary working at @ulsterorchestra.bsky.social And what better way to showcase the unique set of skills & knowledge I bring to the job than to talk about ABBA & bewildered sheep in the context of Handel’s Messiah?

Have just watched this on an old Top Of The Pops. Distressingly, my outrage is tempered by the hilarity of the camel, which is clearly two of Legs and Co… youtu.be/Bv_I-6dJ9p8?...

We’re doing a Lunar Module sampler, which will be pay what you like but any profits will be sent to Shelter. england.shelter.org.uk/donate_winte...

Was a bit late to #strictly tonight and have just finished watching. Wasn’t it absolutely delightful, glorious carnage? Well done, everyone. Especially Claudia, who was giving no less than Eric Morecambe when she emerged in the Carmen Miranda hat #SCD

Merch was a high point of tonight, but actually the best bit was talking to @jamesadrianbrown.bsky.social, @kaylapainter.bsky.social & @sulkrooms.bsky.social. Absolute dotes, all of you! Welcome to Smaller Island, have a brilliant time in Dublin tomorrow & next time, I am going to be ON IT with PR!

Finally (and following a quick phone battery charge from the gorgeous Black Box staff) it’s @kaylapainter.bsky.social I will be buying an Ambient Owl Core tshirt

Next up, last seen at @castlesinspace.bsky.social’s Levitation, @jamesadrianbrown.bsky.social

Starting tonight in the Green Room at the Black Box with @sulkrooms.bsky.social

Been a busy few weeks getting everything lined up for this announcement, but it’s been a joy to a) finally get it out there and b) get lovely emails back from folk who share our excitement. Days when my job is great!

@solar76.bsky.social and I are heading to this tonight - we saw @jamesadrianbrown.bsky.social at the @castlesinspace.bsky.social Levitation all-dayer. Hurrah for the Castles In Space fam!

Catching up on #onlyconnect and am only sorry that they didn’t go with @solar76.bsky.social and I’s preferred pairing of Karl Marx and Frank Spencer for the shops @vcorenmitchell.bsky.social

One cover I am definitely not on the fence about - I definitely do not want to hear Cilla’s version of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell. Yikes.

Latest bogglement: Leonard Nimitz did a version of Proud Mary (written by Creedence Clearwater Revivals). Schrödinger’s record - I both do and don’t want to hear Nimoy’s version.

Oh, the fierce camp DISSING by Dionne Warwick of Cilla. I ADORE it. Voice like the Mersey foghorn (Cilla, not Dionne. Dionne is a goddess)

Nor did I know Red Red Wine is a Neil Diamond song. I feel I am going to be a very boring skeeter for the next hour and a half or so, as I regularly broadcast my ignorance of the origins of pop songs. (Tbh, UB40’s version is much better than the original, in my view)

I am watching 40 Originals at the BBc (which was on BBC4 last night) and first track in, my tiny mind is BLOWN to discover Rockin’ All Over The World was not by Status Quo.

Can we have La Voix’s dad on as a contestant next series? I love him #strictly #scd

Voix La klaxon!!!! The sweetest Dad #strictly #scd

Oooh, Craig. I mean, he’s right, but well done for actually saying it #strictly #scd

Karen is one of my unexpected favourite contestants this series. And I love how Carlos partners her; I don’t think he ever really outdances her #strictly #scd

Love that acid yellow on Vicky. And a rare jive not in trainers #strictly

Electribe 101’s singer bears a resemblance to, and sounds a bit like Cilla Black.

Catching up on the #totp reruns shown earlier. Can’t help but feel that Darts’s female singer should have been solo or in a different band. Or something. She just always feels like she’s vocally on a different planet and as for glamour… off the scale

Watching this 40 Originals at the BBC thing. Remember hearing Dolly’s original of I Will Always Love You for the first time and being BAFFLED that you would prefer Whitney’s.

Drunk Alan Partridge is on my bus and pissed off the bus driver because he ineffectually kicked at the tyre and nearly hit the emergency stop button. He is absolutely hammered and a total liability. And I have a horrible feeling he’s getting off at my stop.

Oh lord, Bal and Anita at the Mayan ruins has me in floods. They are TOO DELIGHTFUL #raceacrosstheworld #ratw

And, for VERY different reasons, also falling in love with Dylan Llewelyn and his Ma. #raceacrosstheworld #ratw

Catching up on Celeb Race Across The World. Ten minutes in and in love with Anita Rani and her Da. Delightful. #raceacrosstheworld #ratw

Feeling sorta Christmassy at choir. Can’t decide if I’m appalled or kinda into it. We do Messiah every year; we just don’t normally start rehearsing this early in November!

How come Aaron didn’t get any extra time when his bowl broke? #gbbo

What a day in my scouse second home! Kimo’s breakfast, spectacular Beatles museum that had everything from a George Harrison strat to John Lennon’s garden furniture (tone indicator: hilarious). Then to the Capstone for an EPIC Levitation curated by the absolutely dote-y @castlesinspace.bsky.social

@solar76.bsky.social and I are here! The purpose of the insane ferry trip. Lovely to meet @castlesinspace.bsky.social and looking forward to the day. If you’re here, I’m the one in the Super Furry Animals ‘Fuzzy Logic’ t shirt.