Celebratory it is!

Got roped into playing in my local concert band at a charity garden party. Indiana Jones, Titanic and Bohemian Rhapsody 😎

Singing this Nextdoor app post to the tune of We Don't Talk About Bruno

NEW! #FirstLastAnything Ep 37. Journalist, broadcaster and author @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social joins me on the textcast to discuss her superb new book on the Beatles’ first film, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, and chats about some of her cherished music purchases. firstlastanything.co.uk/2026/07/05/f...

Glorious. I don’t need to press play, I can see the whole thing in my mind’s eye and hear every note

Live-streamed tonight www.rcm.ac.uk/events/live/...

This scene! The improvised bit with the glove 🔥 youtu.be/dHtJUWO7yeA?...

Eva Marie Saint is 102 today

The Taylor/Travis wedding has made me think of the polar opposite, Alan Bennett's parents. His mother was painfully shy, so his father asked the vicar if they could get married first thing, before work: no congregation, no fuss, no 'splother'. The vicar had to jump through hoops to make it happen

I doubt I will ever witness a better description of pheasants than the time I heard a ten-year-old call them "fashion chickens".

The use of fat suits for some 'hilarious' pre-weightloss backstory in American sitcoms, Friends included

Was thinking about that Peter Firmin auction and remembered I already own this gem

At @rcmlondon.bsky.social for five new student operas, a collaboration with Tête-à-Tête @billbj.bsky.social - my review will appear early next week

Seeking a home delivery service to bring me the precise bittersweet sensation of sitting in a warm elsewhere square with a small glass of something silly, delicious & violently intoxicating, watching the setting sun tie-dye the sky yolk & lilac & ballet shoe on the last night of a holiday

Footage of nature improves mental health, mental health deteriorates during winter, so axeing Winterwatch seems... an odd choice

@actualnames.bsky.social, are you accepting book titles?

#otd in 1937 David Shire, American composer of stage musicals, film and television scores was born in Buffalo, New York What’s your favorite David Shire film score? Mine is 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - take a listen youtu.be/f84e64g1ZMw?is…

Looks like I have a Stockhausen piece on my playlist now....

‘The Wind-Break War,’ the ep of The Good Life being shown in tribute to Penelope Keith tonight, is a MASTERPIECE. For one thing, there’s a whole page and a half of script just featuring the characters wishing each other ‘Good evening’. And for another… (1/2)

Fantasy & Fairytales✨ Hear five world-premiere short operas by @rcmlondon.bsky.social composers🎶 📅3 July Discounted tickets available for those under 35⬇️ www.rcm.ac.uk/events/choos...

There's a 19th-century engraving of the complete Bayeux Tapestry in the Battle Museum of Local History: free to visit, no queuing, and lots of other small museum delights in there too www.battlelocalhistory.com/tapestries-2...

The next edition of the magazine I edit is on the theme of sport and music and is launched on Monday, within hours of the next England game; at this rate I think I'm going to have to draft both muted and celebratory versions of the accompanying emails

The DEC has launched an appeal following the devastating earthquakes in #Venezuela. The earthquakes struck within seconds of each other. The scale of destruction is huge. Survivors urgently need shelter, food, water, and medical care. Donate: donation.dec.org.uk/venezuela-earthquake-appeal

Thank you so much for all of your happy birthday wishes. Honestly, I don’t really feel 100. I feel pretty good. I feel like I’m only 98!

ICYMI here's our latest episode 298 - Thunderstorm over sonorous rural woodland 92 mins of a heavy storm as it builds and builds and builds. Very very NOT sleep safe with an extreme crash at 50 minutes! Really don't know how the kit survived this! > radiolento.podbean.com/e/298-thunde... <

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Now that AI has made Google summaries ever more unreliable, it feels particularly risky looking up 'Ponce composer', I dread to think what it's going to come up with

If you're not already signed up to receive Upbeat magazine, join the RCM community here: rcm.ac.uk/subscribe

Wimbledon starts today! Did you know that Royal College of Music alumni Benjamin Britten and Frank Bridge were both tennis fans? Look out for the printed summer edition of Upbeat magazine next week, featuring articles on the surprising connections between music and sport. What's not 'two-love'?

Preparing for new Bluesky users

One of the only impressions I can do is of Penelope Keith as Margo saying 'now Tom, Mrs Dooms-Patterson cannot help her glands.' I loved her, RIP

❤️

Fly the angel sleeves of your hostess dress at half mast, dim the standard lamps of all suburbia and please be seated at the telephone table to make the gossipiest call you can from a landline in memoriam💙

There’s a game you can play called ‘has John Finnemore written a sketch about that?’ The answer is nearly always yes.

Our Island Music - a week long series 21.45 @BBCRadio3 in which musician & writer Colin MacIntyre, aka Mull Historical Society, explores 5 different British islands & what island life means to their musicians. Tonight, the Isle of #Mull. Producer Maggie Ayre www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

It's breaking my heart that the house isn't being turned into a museum to be a permanent home for all of this. Come on national trust, English heritage, v&a or whoever, keep it all together.

Enjoying the lyricism of the station sign 'Frant – for Bells-Yew-Green'

youtu.be/6SiBS2kqgYM I watch this every few months—it is an unfailing bringer of joy. #Happy100thMel

Having a lovely time in Hastings

Spinal Tap 'don't even look at it' energy to this pub table

When the going gets (too) hot, the over heated moaning food historian makes Victorian ices....

Recently saw Richard Kind in The Producers so was looking forward to hearing him talking about Mel Brooks on Radio 4, but had to switch off when the interviewer said, 'surely being funny is just being funny', like when people say musicians are just talented and there's no effort/skill involved

"When he comes home at night and I hear his key in the lock, I say to myself, 'Oh good! The party's about to begin.'" Anne Bancroft on husband Mel Brooks. #Happy100thMel xxx

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