Was also at the gig and have been struggling to describe it/them. Was electric, enthralling but challenging in a good way - strange song structures, some prog rock style excursions with a few sonic explosions. The best gigs should take you out of it all and leave an imprint and this did.
Geese at the Eventim Apollo - brilliant set, now get the hype!
Quite wonderful evening with David Byrne at Hammersmith Apollo, great new songs and old TH classics and more of a music/dance/art show than a gig. Also good to see some most people staying in the moment rather than just filming the whole gig…
Mt. Misery at The Waiting Room. Great gig with all the favourites from Love In Mind and some excellent new songs.
Iconic set from Morrissey at the O2 tonight with Smiths and solo classics plus new album tracks.
Fleetwood Mac and Cheese?
London Film Festival today - Gala performance of Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident and personal favourite of the day Bugonia
John Grant at The Troxy last night. Great mix of old and new and finished off with GMF…
Late summer reading list. All recommended
Teenage Fanclub last night at Chinnery’s in Southend. Still banging them out and got 2 of my boys along to pass on the magic…
…for a more soulful shout…
…3 days in and the Deliveroo guy who they made Head of “DOGE” is gone….
You can smell the regret on this one before they’ve even started “doge-ing”…
Easter holiday reading. Recommend “Get In” by @patrickmaguire.bsky.social and @gabrielpogrund.bsky.social - scholarly with just enough juicy (often unattributable) titbits. And also reflecting on Trump’s America through re-reading Atwood + Frantzen’s essays.
Teenage Cancer Trust - Pistols + Frank Carter. Bit apprehensive it wouldn’t work but was wrong and Frank Carter re-energises the songs (mainly NMTB) and was grinning all night.
Agreed - Frank Carter brought something to it I wasn’t expecting. Grinning all night. Only personal reservation was the My Way encore but the punters seemed to love it…
Recent reads - all recommended. A new Anne Tyler is always special, enjoyably clever new Jonathan Coe novel and thought provoking work from Ash Sarkar
Bit late to this but warmly recommended and deserved all the plaudits in the end of year reviews.
Josh Rouse at The Garage last night playing ‘Nashville’ for its 20th Anniversary. Great album, great gig
Just finished this - genuinely different biography and Lawrence is a genuinely fascinating character.
Saw A Complete Unknown this afternoon - loved it. His voice is great and you forget pretty quickly it’s not Bob.
Loved the cinematography, not so much the script and and less said about some of the acting the better…
Really enjoyed Oedipus at the Wyndham. Great performances from all the cast - Mark Strong and Lesley Manville the obvious standouts
Last film from Chelmsford Film Club - really enjoyed this, imagine Godland meets National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation…
Saw Bird at the NFT. Recommended if you like social realism with a bit of mysticism and ambiguity
Quick BlueSky catch up on recent gigs. Big Star Band’s Radio City was almost spiritual and Nada Surf so much fun.
