Perfect for a rainy/sunny afternoon 🥸 Tony Joe White - Black And White #nowplaying #vinyl

I return to Dream River often. I loved Shepherd on release but haven’t returned as much. I need to dig deeper into Reality! I don’t mind the smoother elements of the new LP, especially viewed against his cancer ordeal. But I get those who prefer his older LPs. Knock Knock is still a knock out!

Sometimes… is my fave (it’s transcendent) but I like a lot of his recent stuff. Even got a soft spot for Have Fun With God which I got for a fiver in a vinyl bargain bin. Enjoying his latest (tho appreciate he’s not the bristling Bill of old) and looking forward to seeing him live, with my daughter.

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...

Think I’m an F due to one skip but otherwise VG+ 👍🏼

Pullover for Lent As the season of Lent begins again, it's like slipping on my old blue woolly jumper. Probably about 15 years old, the jumper is stretched and saggy and, following Lisa's frown, I tend not to wear it i...

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...

Belated caught up on this excellent, fair-minded piece. Currently reading Rohr’s Tears Of Things (highly recommend) and would’ve had no idea about the link otherwise. So, thanks @petepaphides.bsky.social!

Our Secrets Are the Same: by Jim Kerr & Charlie Burchill with Graeme Thomson - Spectrum Culture More of a love story than a memoir, the duo's secrets - many shared with us in this honest, enchanting book - remain at the heart of an enduring relationship which continues to outlive the whims of fa...

"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..

Thanks Graeme! Thoroughly enjoyed it 🤓

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.

I bought Reason For Living on CD single (!) and it remains such a stellar song. North Star surely due a vinyl reissue?

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

Jason Roth @LucidJay Replying to @Hipstercrite Once Andre 3000 was on my ferry ride to Alcatraz and I said hi. My 6 y.o. autistic son came over and started talking his ear off about German Shepherds, his obsession at the time. Andre talked to him about dogs for like 20 mins. We exchanged numbers. 4 years later I got this text iMessage Aug 30, 2017, 9:38 PM Hi Jason. I was searching for a name and yours popped up. I remember our cool encounter on the boat. Ha . How's the kid ? I'm living in nyc now . So if you're ever here please reach out.

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.

Silver Jews - American Water album cover. A simplified drawing of a road (pink), some land (dark grey) and a horizon (lavender).

'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 Martin Luther King Jr knew that ‘whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly’. But we Americans are denying that reality

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

Michael Stipe Reads Selections from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Strength to Love (2002) YouTube video by remhq

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...

Currently enjoying a pristine virgin copy of ‘Our Secrets Are The Same’ from my local library 🤓

‘A place of welcome’: Yorkshire town rallies round to help asylum seekers [FREE TO READ] Churches and community groups in Northallerton provide food, clothing and company for refugee families

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...

I get that. Wilco (and Jeff Tweedy in particular!) can be awkward buggers and not everything they do works. I confess to also not paying enough attention to Jay Farrar’s subsequent output. No worries re the email - still enjoying Sensitive!

Wilco for me Pete.They took the confines of alt country/Americana that Son Volt pioneered and twisted and stretched it into whole new shapes. They even moved beyond the ‘US Radiohead’ badge which dogged them. Asking Cate Le Bon to produce their last LP also shows their forward focus.

Two wings and a phantom fringe I'm four chemo tablets into today and feeling pretty good, considering. The sun is spilling between the part-closed curtains into the spare room, my 'Fall' playlist is swirling out of a blue-tooth sp...

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

Yes! I remember getting plastered with promo copies of his CDs from the Sony rep as a regional newspaper/music reporter.

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

Fadi (8) and Jum'ah (11) Abu Assi, killed by IDF

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"