Making my Guardian First Edition debut
Those of you who regularly do my increasingly silly Thursday news quiz will have noticed that today, rather than appearing at 11am as is traditional, the 222nd edition emerged blinking in the dark horror of 6.30am. Why, you ask? Well,…
A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in October 2025
This month featuring, among others, Nadine Fuckin’ Shah, Self Esteem, Kathryn Joseph, Idlewild, Level 42, Sting, Duran Duran, some random at an O’Neill’s in Watford, and not Roland Gift … Roland Gift, Palladium, London, 2 Oct – I walked out of this…
A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in October 2025
This month featuring, among others, Brides, Dead of Winter, Good Boy, Tron: Ares, Sketch, The Last Sacrifice, Depeche Mode’s “M”, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birbs and the Rocky Horror doco. Brides (2025), Nadia Fall – I thought this…
Article about the return of Doctor Who in 2026
I mentioned yesterday that I had been in the paper wittering on about the return of Doctor Who and what it might mean for the future of the show. There is now an online version of the story to go…
Appearing on Good Morning Scotland talking about Doctor Who
I was invited on to BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland today to be interviewed by Laura Maxwell about the news that Doctor Who will be returning to our screens in 2026 with a Christmas special, and a new series…
A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in September 2025
This month featuring, among others, The Toxic Avenger, The Courageous, Honey Don’t!, Caught Stealing, Happyend, and the inevitably disappointing Spinal Tap sequel. The Toxic Avenger (2023), Macon Blair – Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood and Julia Davis all appear to be having…
A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in September 2025
This month featuring, among others, Everything But The Girl, the Manics (again), Hot Chip, Ash, Suede, my beloved Dog Race, Kevin Rowland talking about his life and Erasure in a place where you couldn’t drink beer while watching them ……
A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in July and August 2025
This instalment got rather behind schedule while I was having a tricky summer, but anyway, my gig reviews are back, featuring, among others, Duran Duran in Exeter, The Human League in Halifax, Kaiser Chiefs, The New Eves, the Manics, Natalie…
Farewell to our lemon tree …
Another little corner of the old internet I used to live in crumbles away today, as blogging service Typepad is closing its doors for good. From March 2006 to October 2008 I used to write A lemon tree of our…
The Guardian Thursday news quiz is back!
Good news, everyone! After an unexpected hiatus due to me going slightly loopy over the summer, the Guardian Thursday news quiz is back! As I said on Facebook, “A huge news week deserves the return of a huge news quiz….