Yours truly with the Fallen Woman at the Lexington, London

A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in December 2023

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in…

Natalie Palamides, David Earl and Fionn Foley blundering through Ireland somewhere

Happy birthday to my blog and a Happy Christmas to you

My first ever blog post was on Christmas Eve in 2002 which means this website is now old enough to drink in the US. I used to write prolifically about my work, politics, the internet and pop culture etc, but…

So Sha at the Rumsey Wells, Norwich

A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in November 2023

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in…

David Byrne in Stop Making Sense

A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in October and November 2023

I’ve never really been a movies person, they last too long and I always want the bar/toilet after 20 minutes like at a gig, which stresses me out. But I got myself a BFI and a Picturehouse membership and once…

Geordie (1958–2023)

Geordie (1958–2023)

Killing Joke’s Geordie has died and I am absolutely gutted about it. He didn’t really sound like anything else on earth, and his playing style practically invented a genre. I first saw them in 1989, and they were never anything…

Midge Ure at the Royal Albert Hall

A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in October 2023

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in…

The New Eves at St Pancras Old Church

A one-line review of (nearly) every gig I’ve been to in September 2023

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in…

Sophie Wilde and a china hand in Talk To Me

A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in August and September 2023

I’ve never really been a movies person, they last too long and I always want the bar/toilet after 20 minutes like at a gig, which stresses me out. But I got myself a BFI and a Picturehouse membership and once…

Black Midi at All Points East

A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in August 2023

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in…

Doctor Who ratings 2023 for the 60th anniversary specials are going to be apples/oranges

A rare actual blog post on this site these days. I’m sure I’ve written before that Doctor Who fandom is uniquely culturally scarred by the 1980s experience of hiatus and cancellation and being pitched against Coronation Street, and so obsesses…