As someone who has always loved Hot Chip, I enjoyed reviewing Alexis Taylor’s new LP for @spectrumculture.bsky.social . Probably his strongest solo album yet 🎷 spectrumculture.com/2026/03/18/a...

The Hot Chip Expanded Universe stays hot. spectrumculture.com/2026/03/18/a...

New blog post - featuring ashes, @sultansofping.bsky.social, The Ballad of Wallis Island and God being on the losing team. Thanks to @petepaphides.bsky.social for the Richard Rohr/U2 link 👌🏼 www.petesprogress.com/post/pullove...

"Honest and enchanting." Thanks to @petebate.bsky.social for this lovely, indepth review of Our Secrets Are The Same for @spectrumculture.bsky.social spectrumculture.com/2026/02/15/o..

Here’s my review of the thrice-renewed ‘Our Secrets Are The Same’ for @spectrumculture.bsky.social spectrumculture.com/2026/02/15/o... @graemethomson.bsky.social

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

New blog post up featuring this superb @robinince.bsky.social couplet: ‘Much that destroys me/Also creates me’ from this wonderful book. www.petesprogress.com/post/keeping...

Happy 80th birthday to our founder, John Bird. 35 years ago, he created the Big Issue to offer a hand up, not a handout. Since then, over 100,000 vendors have sold 200 million magazines and earned more than £150 million. From all of us at Big Issue, thank you. Here is to what comes next.

Happy birthday to the magnificent Robert Wyatt. Here he is performing I'm a Believer on #TOTP in 1974. The show's producer asked him to perform in a wicker chair because a wheelchair "was not suitable for family viewing". Robert told him where to go

This came up in my old posts today. Don’t know why, but it feels good to know that Andre 3000 specifically is this kind of guy.

'The puzzle-like quality to Berman’s lyrics is another example of his quiet dedication to poetry. Sonically, this song is closer to the lo-fi Americana of the time than country.' Silver Jews – ‘The Wild Kindness’, from American Water (1998) - The Strange World of #DavidBerman buff.ly/wf8j77h

From Trump’s rejected treaties to our daily lives, we’re building walls around ourselves | Anand Pandian

On this day in which we remember and honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., here’s Michael reading selections from Dr. King's 1963 book Strength To Love. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFhR...

I've been aware for a while of the work by faith and other community groups to support people seeking asylum. So I asked the @refugeecouncil.bsky.social where there was really vigorous community support. They said Northallerton. Here's what I found when I went there: as.ft.com/r/b3449fbd-3...

My latest blog post: www.petesprogress.com/post/phantom...

Just because you are unable to imagine how someone else’s mind works does not mean that person’s mind does not work like that

I’m loving the Elijah Jamal Asani album. Would’ve never heard it if not for your chart. So thanks @thequietus.com 🤠

Fadi and Jum'ah abu Assi, 8 and 11 years old killed by the IDF today as they were collecting firewood near Khan Younis. IDF spokesperson announced the airforce and ground forces "eliminated an immediate threat to IDF forces"

RIP Mani youtu.be/3QLMS0QsPF0

I shared this photo a week or so ago on Mani’s birthday - It never failed to bring a smile to my face - and that was exactly the same for the man himself. One of the absolute best in every way - such a beautiful friend Love you Mani x x Never to be forgotten

Belated thanks for the heads up on this @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social Although I remember hearing the soundtrack in the 80s, I was probs too young to watch it on first screening. Just put that right and it’s a corker 🤠

The Blue Nile’s Heatwave - the perfect pop song for an early autumn evening, despite its title?! Paul Buchanan’s aching melody over the bouncing bass line in the chorus gets me every time. @petepaphides.bsky.social youtu.be/PypoQDHG6Kg?...

My For Folk’s Sake review of the timely new Mavis Staples album. www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/4198...

This was such a refreshing, fun, life-affirming listen. Thanks Tim and Elliot 👍🏼

@martycricket.bsky.social loving the commentary even if I’m having to carefully pause the live stream to make you, Dave and Mel sync up. Not sure why they can’t use you on the stream like the Pears do?

Bloggin’ www.petesprogress.com/post/eight-b...

‘They just want a better life’: the UK households who host asylum seekers

New blog post up featuring a trip to Moseley Folk Festival to see the brilliant @waterboysmusic.bsky.social plus a fortnight in France and my weirdly behaving cancer latest. @mickpuck.bsky.social www.petesprogress.com/post/reasons...

Proud to stand with @scotrefugeecouncil.bsky.social in their campaign showing the support refugees receive across Scotland. Let’s keep building a country where everyone feels safe and welcome🧡 Be #PartOfTheBiggerPicture - buy their new t-shirt and help make Scotland more inclusive: ow.ly/JSXt50WmPoj

The new album by @bccamplight.bsky.social is something special. Can’t wait to see him live in Manchester later this year. Here’s my For Folk’s Sake review: shorturl.at/po2r5 @bellaunion.bsky.social

Thankyou for the music, melodies and inspiration Brian. I imagine you now restored to the place they all came from, a place on high.

Brian. www.patreon.com/posts/youre-...

Got the new iOS 26 running

For most Jews, Israel was not about settler colonialism. It was supposed to be a safe homeland for a traumatised generation post-Holocaust. It was, in the Jewish consciousness, a homecoming to a land we’d been expelled from. What it’s become fills me with grief, rage & shame I can’t even articulate.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made a series of claims about the BBC's coverage of events in Gaza on Sunday. We've looked at the claims - and the number of misrepresentations and untruths that they contained. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

The Guardian: Exercise ‘better than drugs’ to stop cancer returning #TomorrowsPapersToday

Crap theme parks, Mike Peters, Miley Cyrus and re-purposed trees….new blog post up 🥸 www.petesprogress.com/post/stabs-o...

Standing with @GuyPearce in calling for conscience over silence. The suffering of men, women and children in Palestine is a humanitarian crisis we must address. Let’s voice our disdain and act to stop this atrocity. #StandForHumanity #Palestine #ConscienceOverPolitics

I loved chatting to Mike Peters as a young journo 26 years ago in Wolverhampton. He’d just got through his 1st bout of cancer. His, and Jules, brave battle with the disease has inspired me during my own cancer journey. RIP Mike. ”The more I know the more liberty I feel." tinyurl.com/uvhkrktu

RIP Mike Peters. Terribly sad news - thinking of his friends and family. Photo taken when The Alarm played Birmingham Poly in May 1983

Rock in peace, Mike Peters. First sighted with The Alarm, Dingwalls, 1982, the night Johnny Thunders came on for Sylvain Sylvain's encore. Last connection - the happy and optimistic email he sent me a month ago, still full of life and good feeling. Travel on well, Dude.

RIP Mike Peters - one of my first English language gigs at 14yrs was the Alarm at the massive Astra, Llandudno, Maffia Mr Huws opened. He was a pop superstar & had an ultra positive force, a spectacular gig. Me &BF thought we’d get our heads kicked in by punks but it was good vibes all round.

A little while ago, my parents' cat Bridget went missing. As the weeks dragged on, they became extremely worried. My dad devised a way to distract himself: he began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up in some of art and music's most iconic scenes.

This #BowelCancerAwarenessMonth, you can help someone by sharing your story on @bowelcanceruk’s story wall. bit.ly/4iolti6 #PassItOn

WIN! - A Vinyl Copy of 'SABLE, fABLE' by Bon Iver Bon Iver's anticipated fifth album drops next week, and we're giving away a 2LP black/salmon to one winner. Simply like, share, and follow us to be entered. @jagjaguwar.bsky.social www.normanrecords.com/records/2077...

2 years ago yesterday I was diagnosed with incurable cancer. This morning I ran 6 miles and felt fully alive and thankful. “I will die, yes, but not today” (Kate Bowler). New blog post up! #bowelcancerawarenessmonth www.petesprogress.com/post/we-ve-c...

My review of the new @mymorningjacket.bsky.social album ‘is’ for For Folk’s Sake. It’s a good ‘un (the album that it is!) 🤓 www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/4172... @onebeatpr.bsky.social

Neil Young - Comes a Time (1978) Returning to the folky sound of ‘Harvest’, it features some of the same musicians and has a similar production style. I love Nicolette Larson’s backing vocals too youtu.be/qxH_4e7W7hc Young has described it as one of his best albums ever! #nowspinning #5albums70s5

Car: "Depress clutch to start." Me to clutch: "Our lives are being increasingly controlled by robots and nobody can work out how to escape. What's more, I think I might have an ear infection. Also I can't stop thinking about all the stuff I put in bins in the 1990s that I should have recycled."

Fresh blog post up on cats, MRIs, Masters, crepes, Lent and the Lakes: www.petesprogress.com/post/meowing...