'Was Brexit a bad idea?' ask the minority for whom it mostly made no real difference.

This Thursday! I’ll be talking 168 Songs and all things #Manics with James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire at Hay Festival. www.hayfestival.com/p-25123-jame...

For those in their morning scroll sesh, please take a look.

One of the great Simpsons 'sign' jokes. I had never seen any Ernest films, but in your bones, you just knew.

Chat about Disney chaff last night has made me ponder again one of my Great Recurring Ideas for a Series which you almost certainly couldn't make: THE CAGE OF FOLLIES Each week, talking to those involved about an absolute turkey of a film/TV series/album etc and how and why it went wrong.

Do I know anyone who’s F L U E N T in Scottish Gaelic? I have a phonetics question regarding a beguiling water spirit character name that I’ve created and I want it to sound authentic. #ScottishGaelic

Herbie Goes Somewhere Cheap

My god, so Condorman was Disney as well. Christ, it wasn’t all Mary Poppins gold, was it.

I’m not necessarily saying it was a bad film but 1979’s The Black Hole was an early clue that I was going to find some cinematic experiences unbelievably dull. When you are nine, a two-hour film you are not enjoying might as well last two months.

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

This is perhaps my favourite track from my 2022 album of piano music (brilliantly played by @matthewmillsmusic.bsky.social). It's a reworking of the final movement of Bach's St Matthew Passion as a tango. Shouldn't oughtta work - but I think it does!

This is a bit of a niche one, but we need all the help we can get at the moment

I’ve finished about 5 of these. Mostly the 20th c. ones. This seems a good time to tell you I have a new YouTube channel where I read intriguing women from classic novels. Search my name if you’re interested; casual views mess with The Algorithm… :/ www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Also featured lower down the charts: - Bambi Slam - Happy Birthday - Danielle Dax - Big Hollow Man - The Smithereens - Strangers When We Meet - Gonzalez - Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet (for some reason) - The Creepers - Brute - Laibach - Life Is Life

The first two members of staff in Sainsbury’s at the bottom of Tulse Hill (which is on the site of a rink where Eisenstein went rollerskating when he brought Battleship Potemkin to London in 1929) hate Marmite so didn’t have the foggiest where it was shelved. I rather admired them for their sass.

These are excellent books, highly recommend.

Plus! New Patreon-only EggPod Express online! Available at patreon.com/eggpod @quantick.bsky.social discusses the 14 May issue of DISC and Music Echo with Chris Shaw

New EggPod Express online! Available everywhere! This, then, is @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social discussing the 10 July 1964 issue of New Musical Express with Chris Shaw

The new Whicker Island. I laughed.

Just bought both, an absolute steal at a quid each!

Finally going to give Now TV a free trial later this week to watch the whole series of SNL UK. It sounds like it's been a triumph, really followed its own path.

ICYMI: it was a blast to be invited to take part in @shadowtodd.bsky.social and @alinaisyou.bsky.social's illustrious Song vs. Song podcast. Thanks again to you both. My #IntoTheGroove book, on the history of 80s pop, will be out in North America on 21 July and is available for pre-order now.

PSA: Both #DontStopTheMusic and #IntoTheGroove are 99p on Kindle formats right now. Dive in, if you haven't done so before. If you buy the physical copies instead at normal price, I will not stand in your way. (Father's Day in a month, just saying.)

Does Rob Burley's essay, which I am unlikely to read, mention at any stage the 'capture' of the BBC under his stint by extremists like Brexiteers, the Tax-Payers Alliance, Tufton Street and Farage, and their threats to impartiality.

Sunday Express use the word ‘turmoil’ and Baker and Kelly immediately come to mind.

Two visual puns I hadn’t been aware of until yesterday. The vertical elements of the City of London School for Girls resemble pencils, and those for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama represent tuning forks.

It's never occurred to me before, but I'm not really a fan of any of the UK's five Eurovision winners. Quite liked our entry this year. I don't know what this says about anything.

What Justin said! Can't make next Friday but want to buy a ticket? DM me how many tickets you'd like, I'll pay, keep your tickets safe and you can pay me after. 36+books 20+authors £500+ value 1 Good Cause.

Just had a screenshot pushed in front of me which tells me that according to one Republican senator, 'drinking out of straws' is what women do, and not only do I wonder how these people find partners, I don't know how they find their own trousers first thing in the morning.

Thread! Please do support this if you can.

Reports of racist teens at the local skate park today. Whatever the age, no excuse, but where oh where are they getting these ideas from? Not me, say their parents or the people they cheer on Question Time every Thursday or the columists and politicians of who they squawk 'they have a point though'

Just like to say how truly sorry I feel for the bar staff and bus drivers of central London today. They are going to have a day that is, at best, deeply shit and at worst, possibly quite scary. And they don't have the option of staying out of town, which I do.

‘Tonight Matthew I’m going to be the Daily Express’

I think I might have found the worst romance novel cover.

Stephen Pile’s Book of Heroic Failures. Never in top 100s.

A parody of Now! magazine, a reference that sailed over my head, aged 10.

Happy 60th today to Pet Sounds. #WhenWasThings

Happy 75th birthday to Jonathan Richman. Here's That Summer Feeling

One of these days, will do ‘Top 20 TV Comedy Cash In Books Because It’s Christmas’ I read over and over as a teen. But which Alas Smith and Jones spin-off will feature?

the true story of the 1982 dire straits classic

THE BIG REVEAL! Chums, on Friday, 22nd of May (from 12.30) we're having the grand opening of High Barnet North London Hospice's Bookshop! There will be live CARTOONING from @marshallcartoon.bsky.social! There will be caricatures! There will also be....

LRT: with Larson, so often, what kills me is all in the eyes.

“My next guest, on the monitor behind me, is an organized crime informant. To protect his identity, we’ve placed him in a darkened studio—so let’s go to him now.”

Egged on by moneyed cynics who don’t go near the capital at weekends, or in some cases, ever.

This, among other things, reminds me whatever happened to Jeremy Kyle who was so ‘cruelly cancelled’ by ITV. They’re almost never truly cancelled.

The only thing about London that really scares me is, ironically, when bigots who don’t understand the place assemble there on a Saturday.

Just as he was a massive racist at school and still is, he was a bully at school, and he still is.

We know the Superbowl half-time show had a galaxy of stars but are we really kidding ourselves that it was better than Bruce Forsyth at the 1974 FA Cup final?

Continued good wishes for BT's full recovery.

I need to learn to read, because I've just been told this actually does that.