A reminder from Napoleon Solo that THE MAN FROM UNCLE can be seen on @TalkingPicsTV Every Sunday at 4pm, and repeated Tuesday at 6:55pm! Open channel D! #TPTVsubtitles

First TV / film watching of the year has been spy-related: The Man from U.N.C.L.E ‘60s TV show on @TalkingPicsTV, Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning, and The Eagle Has Landed.

I’m watching The Eagle Has Landed - the Mapledurham Watermill featured in the film is also on the cover of the first Black Sabbath album. #theeaglehaslanded

The Eagle Has Landed and The Guns of Navarone are both on BBC2 this afternoon. If you add in Where Eagles Dare and The Heroes of Telemark you’ve basically got my perfect day of war film viewing.

New books - the larger pile - and recent reads. 📚

Accidentally ended up working today - oh well, I’ll give myself the weekend off. #freelancelife

We had our New Year’s Eve tonight - ate steak and chips and watched Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning. 🧨 💥

Finally finished Kim Sherwood’s Bond spin-off novel, Double Or Nothing - it was hard work. Very convoluted, with a confusing plot and too many characters. She tried to cram too much in - it’s too long and jumps all over the place. I persevered with it, but it was a tough mission - a real slog.

Woken up with a cold. #NewYearsDay2026

Put the kids to bed, fell asleep for two hours - woke up just before midnight, watched some of Jools’ Hootenanny - particularly mediocre this year - and am now off to bed. The steak dinner we planned to have will now have to wait until New Year’s Day. #NewYearsEve

Just in the nick of time… I chose my favourite albums of 2025, wrote about some of them, and made a playlist: sayitwithgarageflowers.com/2025/12/31/t... #bestof2025 #albumsoftheyear #endoftheyear

I watched Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning again, ahead of watching the next film in the franchise, The Final Reckoning, which I haven’t seen yet. I didn’t manage to get to the cinema - but I recently bought it on DVD: it’s the same price as paying to stream it. That’s New Year’s Eve sorted! 💣 💥

I enjoyed the new A Ghost Story For Christmas this festive season. I’ve also watched a few films I’d recorded on Talking Pictures TV - including The League of Gentlemen,The Good Die Young, The Small Back Room and The Ship That Died of Shame. I also watched Once Upon A Time In Hollywood again.

I can remember when all I used to do between Christmas and New Year was sit at home and watch old war films or Bond movies. Today, I’m sat in a soft play centre.

Just ventured outside for the first time since Tuesday…

The Christmas playlist is on - just short of seven hours. #nowplaying Heaven Knows I'm Mistletoe Now: open.spotify.com/playlist/4qG...

I was up at 5:30, but our six-year-old boys are still asleep at 7am. 🤨 #christmasinreverse

Wrapping presents - a task I loathe and am terrible at.

Feel sad - our six-year-old twin boys don’t want to watch The Snowman with me tonight. We usually watch it every year… This year, they want to watch Minecraft videos and brain rot on YouTube. #sixgoingonsixteeen #ChristmasEve

One of these big white beards is fake….

We don’t have to leave Chesham, where we live, at all over Christmas. This pleases me. No train or car journeys - we’re just staying at home. Tonight we have a food and drink delivery coming, and then we’re pretty much sorted.

One of my favourite compilation albums of the year was Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology – a retrospective of US singer-songwriter, Nelson Bragg. I spoke to him about it, and also asked him about his time playing with Brian Wilson: sayitwithgarageflowers.com/2025/12/21/i...

Should’ve been dropped years ago for his awful children’s books… I had the misfortune of reading one to our boys a while back - we got given it - and it was dreadful. Unimaginative, full of toilet humour and dull. The kids didn’t enjoy it either - we’ve never read it since. #davidwalliams

Just done my last interview of 2025! Always great to talk to the wonderful @richardhawley.bsky.social: we were chatting about Vol 2 in his @acerecords.bsky.social compilation series: Little Bangers from Richard Hawley’s Jukebox,which is out in Jan. It’s a cracking collection: more news on this soon!

Just heard someone say: ‘All ready for Crimbo?’ *shudders.* Kill me now.

Last gig of the year - my 53rd! What a show by Marc Valentine at the Hope & Anchor. One of my favourite concerts of 2025. Killer power-pop songs and cool rock & roll swagger. 💥 😎

Put your hands together for the hottest modern jazz band in Waitrose.

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

circus marketing

And so begins that great festive tradition… chasing up unpaid invoices before Christmas kicks in… *checks banking app for the tenth time this morning.* #freelancelife 🙏

The cosy organic cafe on South Norwood’s insalubrious Portland Road shut its doors recently. The new owners clearly thought they’d get the punters in by calling it The Chill Spot and kitting it out in purple neon, black, chrome and hot pink. Curiously, the punters have stayed away.

A great night with Dr Robert - @theblowmonkeys.bsky.social - and Matt Deighton at 229 in London - they played all of their album,The Instant Garden, plus some of their solo songs and some covers:a special gig. Catch ‘em on tour this month - Brighton tonight - and next year. A really special gig.

Heading into London to see Dr Robert - @theblowmonkeys.bsky.social - and Matt Deighton play at 229 - their album, The Instant Garden, is one of my favourite records of the year. Bewitching and haunting psych-folk - a garden of unearthly delights. #nowplaying

I’m reviewing 2026 albums: just listened to a great one. More news on this soon. #freelancelife

I won’t be publishing my favourite albums of the year list until the end of December, but, in the meantime, here’s a Spotify playlist of some of my favourite songs of 2025 - just over seven hours of new music: open.spotify.com/playlist/4gM...

Huge thanks to @20thcenturymarc.marcburrows.co.uk for coming to Chesham Library to talk to me about Christmas Number Ones and his new book,Mistletoe & Vinyl.We laughed, we cried into our second glass of red wine, and we covered a lot of snowy ground. Look to the future now:it’s only just begun…

RIP Steve Cropper. A guitar player for the ages. One of his lesser-known credits is a bit of guitar on Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers. Apparently Alex Chilton’s weird druggy depressive vibes scared him and he stood outside the room to record his licks

The Beatles' Rubber Soul turns 60 today! To celebrate, here's a rundown of the Fab Four's 50 Greatest Songs, as chosen by famous fans including Bryan Ferry, Radiohead, Paul Weller, David Byrne and Edwyn Collins www.uncut.co.uk/features/the...

Off to Claridge’s for a work Christmas lunch - I’m wearing a suit. The last time I wore a suit was two years ago - for a work Christmas lunch at Claridge’s…

And so begins that festive tradition… Chasing up outstanding invoices to see if they’ll be paid before Christmas… #freelancelife

Good new Christmas song shocker! This is right up my snowy, ‘60s London back alley: a festive, Joe Meek-inspired death disc byThe Coral: She Died On Christmas Day.🪦 🎄I’ve just added it to my Christmas playlist - In the Meek Mid-Winter, anyone? Johnny December Me? m.youtube.com/watch?v=jvzp...

Meanwhile up north, people keep dying as tributes are being paid to them. How unfortunate - most people die before the tributes happen, not while they’re taking place… 🤨 Maybe it’s the curse of the Liverpool Echo News. With friends like these…

Delighted to have been asked to write the sleeve notes for Document - the great new album by Edgar Jones. My vinyl copy just arrived, and it looks and sounds great. The album’s out next week on @av8records.bsky.social: vinyl and CD. I am available for other liner notes projects. 😉 #freelancelife

Doing my tax / accounts, ahead of sending it to my accountant. Not a great year for me financially - no one can accuse me of becoming a freelance journalist to get rich quick, that’s for sure. #freelancelife #toughtimes #handtomouth

Not left the house all day - the kids woke up at 5am…We’ve been on the sofa, watched a lot of Horrible Histories, I finished the new @20thcenturymarc.marcburrows.co.uk book, Mistletoe & Vinyl, which is the story of the Christmas No.1, and we’ve eaten spaghetti bolognaise. An early night beckons.

I really enjoyed reviewing this new @nickheyward.com box set for @super-deluxe.bsky.social: three great albums and loads of extra tracks: demos, b-sides, live songs and previously unreleased gems.

I have an unholy amount of Bluesky followers… Maybe it’s an omen…

Having a Horrible Histories marathon on the sofa with the boys - we’ve covered a lot of ground this morning: Boudica, William the Conqueror, Henry VIII, The Great Fire of London, Mary Queen of Scots, The Gunpowder Plot, Napoleon, The First World War and The Second World War.

Imagine posing for a photographer friend who sells your image to iStock and a year later, you see this is what The Washington Post has done with the image of you walking on a beautiful fall day

On the day episode 9 of the Beatles Anthology was released, I got to interview director, Oliver Murray: more on this soon. #thebeatles #anthology #episode9