For an upstanding Christian gentleman, Tony Blair’s persistent attempts to look like Satan in all his photos is remarkable.

Is this satire? trumpcard.gov

It's definitely the first day of term. In the time it takes to answer one email, three more come in.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Vacancy for Reviews Editor for both the Journal of the Royal Musical Association and Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle (new deadline of Monday 6 October) www.rma.ac.uk/2025/07/17/r...

A wee plug for this upcoming Radio3 programme with me and the lovely @mfwalker.bsky.social (her first ever tag on bluesky 😊) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

‼️ DEADLINE EXTENDED ‼️ Following a request from the Musici Trust, the deadline for proposals for the 2026 BFE/RMA Research Students' Conference has been extended by one week to next Thursday, 25th September.

The RMA/CUP 2025 Outstanding Monograph Book Prize is awarded to Jessica Swanston Baker for 'Island Time: Speed and the Archipelago from St. Kitts and Nevis'. Honourable mention also to Matthew D. Morrison (Stanford University) for 'Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States'.

Reminder: the deadline for submitting your proposal to the BFE and RMA 2026 Research Students' Conference (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) is this Thursday! www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoir...

Congratulations to our Dent medallist Prof. Sarah Collins! Sarah gave a brilliant keynote lecture yesterday, titled 'Habits of Realism'. Sarah was presented the Dent medal by the RMA President Simon Keefe.

It's the third and final day of our annual conference in Southampton! Let us know what you're looking forward to today, and what you've enjoyed over the conference. Tag us in your posts and we'll share.

Well done to our conference runners! As advertised in our programme, we met for a friendly and chatty 5k run bright and early this morning. A lovely way to start day 2 of the conference!

Sharing this, accompanied by live BBC Proms performance theconversation.com/sex-stalin-a...

Announcing our new study group! rmameee.wordpress.com

'Gentlemen! You can't fight in here! This is the war room!'

Excited to see a new Weinberg book, announced with a publication date of January 2026! It promises to be a fantastic collection of essays, including a modest one by myself. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

RIP Rodion Shchedrin (1932-2025) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/a...

If anyone wants to hear it, my segment on BBC radio 3 is available to listen again on BBC Sounds! (starting from 54:15) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

From my Friday evening appearance on BBC Radio 3, speaking during the proms interval!

'The next big thing: corduroy pillows. They're already making headlines'.

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere. But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

This is a fantastic initiative for #EarlyCareer #Musicology researchers given the immense career pressure they face. Not only will the applicants be able to complete a major project, but winning a grant makes the applicant more competitive for future grants! More societies should follow suit!

The other day I asked three different AI to do a straightforward multiplication problem, and they all got it wrong. I assure you, @historians.org, AI cannot accurately summarize a history text, no matter how simple. And, as you know, most histories aren’t simple!! RECONSIDER THIS.

Challenging the powerful with banjos, mandolins, fiddles, washboards...

Yes, it's windy, yes it's not always windy, but now when it is, we get the vast majority of our electricity in the UK from trump goading 'windmills.' They do work, they are not a con, they don't kill whales, anyone who believes that dumb garbage deserves our maximum derision.

Analysts show that capital expenditures on AI were so big over the last 6 months they added more to the GDP than *all consumer spending*. That growth is offsetting pain from the tariffs and slow job growth. So the AI bubble may be propping up the whole US economy. What happens if and when it pops?

Deadline coming up soon for the RMA 150th Anniversary Fellowships! www.rma.ac.uk/2025/06/10/t...

'I love giving spoilers for "Dorian Gray". Never gets old.'

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

The great thing about being organised as a workforce is that you don’t need external support you just use your leverage as an organised workforce. What are you going to do? Fire these doctors en masse and replace them? I don’t think so.

pretty telling comment here. Britain and America absolutely did feed and clothe Nazi and Japanese POWs during WWII. and they provided food and supplies to occupied territories as the war was won. the Hunger Plan by contrast was a Nazi thing

Miraculously, I'll be seeing Bob Dylan two nights in a row on his string of UK dates in November (one of which is a pair of tickets to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday!)

A gentle reminder that early-bird registration rates for the Royal Musical Conference for RMA Members close on 31 July. Conference attendees registering after that date will need to pay the full conference registration fee.

Finishing my conference paper the day before the conference, you say? Surely I told myself the last time that I wouldn't do this again!?

"Do you like Tolstoy?" "Of course. Who doesn't?" "What's your favourite book?" "The one where Woody is kidnapped & Buzz tries to save him".

The Daily Telegraph: here’s Britain’s answer to Rage Against The Machine 9 months later: We regret to inform you that Britain’s answer to Rage Against The Machine are political

The Department of Music at the University of Southampton is delighted to release our preliminary programme and registration, which can be found on the official conference website: www.southampton.ac.uk/music/RMAcon...

Applying for an RMA Small Research Grant, Monday 7th July, 11:30am-12:15pm The Royal Musical Association’s Small Research Grants (SRGs) are an excellent source of funding for student members of the RMA (or members of RMA student groups) and member scholars with no access to institutional support.

All set up at Glastonbury, come see us in The Park if you're on site this week!

I'm going to be real. Don't ever subscribe to the notion of "We're all doomed." over real world events, despite how reasonable it seems to do so. You aren't doomed until you're dead or dying. Don't fall into that hole. Be the smallest amount of positivity that some people are needing right now.

Entries are now open for the 2024 Tippett prize, for works which have received a premiere public performance at any time during the calendar year 2024.

Spotted in a couple of gigs at work last week!

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I was nominated for an 'education excellence' award at work. Nomination read: "[Dan is] an incredible teacher who is always inspiring students. I am always engaged in his lectures and feel that the assignments are exciting & challenge my previous thoughts on music in a positive and creative way[...]

Now we're past exam board and the end of term, I am going back to my 'do not open e-mail until noon' rule, as it worked jolly well for the first half of the year and the sabbatical, and I see no reason to go back to allowing it to rule my life now.

Deeply ashamed of my union behaving like the bosses we fight. Imposition, victimisation and union-busting needs to stop right now @ucu.org.uk. Solidarity with UCU Unite staff ✊

How kan Ich sleepe wyth scenes lyke thys yn LA?

In honor of Brian Wilson's passing, here are the four categories of Beach Boys songs: 1. surfing is great, you should try it 2. I have a good vehicle 3. I reach beyond myself into the ineffable, and that's where I find you, my love 4. sloop john b

My favourite one like this is Don Henley getting Brian to autograph a copy of Pet Sounds. Brian signed it "thanks for all the great music" then thought for a second, crossed out "great", and wrote "good"

Do consider applying for this new fellowship scheme!