Always worth remembering.

25 years ago yesterday, as they say, I was in Portsmouth. It was edging towards the end of my first year at university and that day marked 50 years since the long overdue demise of the Third Reich, a Reich notable for (amongst other things) thoroughly failing to last for a thousand years. That it […]

To The Beach Boys, with love.

The letter B is particularly ripe for recording artists. The Band, Black Sabbath, Blur, Bowie, father and son Buckley, Lindsey Buckingham, Bee Gees, Burt Bacharach, John Barry, James Brown, Black Keyes, Solomon Burke, Big Star, Harold Budd, Belle and Sebastian, Roy Buchanan, Be-Bop-Deluxe, The Byrds, Beck, The Beta Band, The Bloody Beatles. You can even […]

Tired of sharers. Sick of ‘experts’.

One of the most gruelling aspects of ‘the age of coronavirus’ is just how much people feel compelled to share. It was bad enough already with Facebook and Twitter and idiots like me pouring their thoughts and opinions out all over the place and making everything dirty. But now that we’re locked down and locked […]

Notes from the back line.

I’ve written nothing for over a week. This is not a good sign. I mean, I may be working from home but that doesn’t mean I should just put writing on the back burner altogether. I would like to be able to tell you what I do for a living but I doubt you’d be […]

Just forget about Yesterday.

This is the problem with not doing so much during the day. You get rusty, and though it hasn’t been ages since my last post it still feels like ages. This is also the problem with every day bleeding into the next until for all you know you’ve been living in a hole in the […]

The Coronavinyl Revival: The second half of The Rolling Stones.

I won’t be hurt if you don’t bother reading this. Among the handful of truly great books about popular music sits a collection of writing by Nick Kent, once the top of the food chain in British music journalism and a writer of rare talent. There are few to match him; Stanley Booth, maybe Lester […]

Tell you wot……

I reckon I must no a lot more than wot the WHO nos. You no the WHO. Not the band wots called the WHO but that bunch of doctors and whatevers who get all ladeeda and bang on about loads of stuff about healf and stuff like that. They no fuckin nuffin if you ask […]

The gift of carbonara.

To celebrate my 300th post I am going to give you a present: my recipe for carbonara. I’m no cook but I can rustle together a few things. I can make chicken taste better with mustard, chilli flakes and honey. I can do something very salty but quite yummy with salmon, soy sauce, chilli flakes […]

The Karate Kid vs Coronavirus.

It must be happening any minute now, I reckon. I mean, we’ve had to wait quite a while as it is, so surely now’s as good a time as any? Frankly if it doesn’t happen soon then its all being a bit irresponsible. It’s like a divorced dad saying he’s going to pick his kids […]

The Coronavinyl Revival: On George Harrison.

Whether you like it or not collecting music is generally speaking man territory. It’s not that women can’t or won’t collect music, it’s just that generally speaking most large gatherings of music on any physical format tend to be guarded over by les hommes. Go into any record shop and feel free to prove my […]