Perfect! I once told him he reminded me of my brother (a similarly chaotic and creative person, comparison genuine). Some time after I walked into a bar in Manchester. Ryder there. Looked at me. Struggled to place me. Then bellows: "You're the one who says I remind you of their kid!"

Shaun Ryder on highs, lows and Happy Mondays: ‘Heroin isn’t a party drug – you can’t just do it at the weekend’ As a child, the singer loved to start fires. As an adult, he was barely less chaotic. He discusses Bez, charisma, ADHD, his new memoir – and why making music is great, even if the record industry will...

Shaun Ryder is one of the smartest and most creative people I have ever interviewed. @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social captures him brilliantly here: "As a lyricist and just a person in the world, he slings out... sentences like an elite athlete." www.theguardian.com/music/2026/m...

Thought this might be a tricky game. Just don’t concede Leeds…

Also: found a thread on another platform where Labour people were getting righteously cross about Greens not mentioning the environment. Response: Labour could try mentioning socialism, or even boring old social democracy, once in a while.

Labour is stubborn in defeat because it knows this: we face the belated end of the political 20th century | John Harris In Gorton and Denton, I heard again and again that people wanted seismic political change – Labour and the Tories are no longer part of that conversation, says Guardian columnist John Harris

This. @johnharris1969.bsky.social elegantly states what should be the bleedin' obvious. From the perspective of Bristol, this result was no surprise. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

An Evening with Nicolette — Roseberry Road Studios Join us on 6th March for An Evening with Nicolette… Nicolette burst onto the music scene in 1990 with Shut Up and Dance, when their debut single ‘School of the World’ / ‘Single Minded People’ be...

Looking forwards to hosting a Q&A in Bath this Friday with Nicolette. www.roseberryroadstudios.com/events/an-ev...

Whisper it, but maybe try the code massive on checkout for a discount.

Friends who live in Bath especially, I am hosting a Q&A for Nicolette this Friday, 6 March. Be good to see you there.

Harry Gray! Those who know, know. #lufc

Don't usually like covers LPs, but The Damned's Not Like Everybody Else is great. Sounds like they're having really good fun saluting the late Brian James.

The enemy of enemy is... the temporary subject of my good wishes.

Stop tempting the football gods but, yes, a huge win.

The Sleaford Mods frontman discusses life and creativity with his friend, the film maker and occasional director of music videos

Peer Review: Jason Williamson Interviews Ben Wheatley… and Vice Versa

buff.ly/SdJYpWF

A sense in Labour of some voters being more 'authentic' plays in here. As the two-party system being on life support. I don't think any party can build a stable coalition of voters as things stand. Best stop now or I'll start talking about proportional representation...

Agreed. Labour is losing its hold on Britain's cities. (Has already lost this in Bristol and Brighton.) I look ahead and I just see two Red Walls crumbling. Not that I would necessarily mind if it weren't for the spectre of Faragism.

Good luck. I have to reseal a badly fitted shower pre-my mother arriving pre-Xmas. I keep putting this off...

Just listened to it and it sounds a bit trite now, oddly enough, where it didn't pre-Buckley. It's as if the song's familiarity has washed away the grit I used to find in Cale's version.

Geese had flown over me before. I just listened to a couple of their things, including a live Suzanne, and I feel like they unloaded on me from a great height. Cohen was a tough old bird. You at the very least have to play his songs with *intention* to reflect this or they just sound winsome.

Agreed. More happily, John Cale's reconstruction of Hallelujah – and, hands up, I was for a while obsessed with his live version on Fragments of a Rainy Season – paved the way for Cohen's final act as the world's most unlikely arena act.

True Blue: The Barry Harris Story | eBay UK Barry Harris is a Portsmouth Football legend. He went to his first game at Fratton Park in February 1952 aged eight. From boy mascot to Pompey sailor’ from youth team physio to assistant kitman and ma...

NEW POMPEY BOOK

Pompey club legend Barry Harris has been linked closely to the club he loves for over 70 years+ and has a few stories to tell

Discover them in his brand new autobiography - available now

#pompey

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18779766...

Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇

The Quietus Albums of the Year 2025 (In Association with Norman Records) | The Quietus One of the scant benefits bestowed by editing a countercultural magazine born in a time of great financial turmoil is that you eventually develop a state of permanent readiness for the next disaster. ...

tQ's albums of the year 2025 have landed! As ever, it'll be a joy over the next 12 months speaking to people excited about the releases they discovered through it – this is why we continue, into our 18th year. I hope you'll find something you love herein:

thequietus.com/tq-charts/al...

Here are some places you can still see the ace film GAME.

(Yes, made by pals of mine, but ace nonetheless)

The ‘squeezed middle’ is back – and this time it could be Labour’s undoing | John Harris Last week’s budget left middle-income families anxious and angry. The party is turning its back on voters it can little afford to lose, says Guardian columnist John Harris

This is excellent from @johnharris1969.bsky.social. Labour is levying higher taxes on squeezed middle without as yet improving services in ways people really notice. Or telling a convincing story about the country it wants us to be. Dispiriting times.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Weird how some things carry on being their thing. Leeds United will, give or take the odd Bielsa season, always be falling just short and in comedic crisis. And the left will always be arguing with itself, at least when not arguing with social democrats, rather than taking on the right.

He'll likely do best serious, we're-all-comrades face if asked about this, but Zack Polanski probably has wet pants from laughing.

"Nasty, unpredictable, properly bonkers. One of a kind." Possibly not a coincidence that scriptwriter @robwilliams71.bsky.social is all of the above except "nasty". It's more, I think, that he has a dark sense of humour.

So sad to hear of passing of Mani. Have been listening to first Roses' LP and it's fabulous.

I hope not. I'm on a low-carb diet. Could we go berry republic instead? Better for my blood sugar.

This looks excellent from @danieldylanwray.bsky.social via @whiterabbitbks.bsky.social. I hope to learn much about I'm So Hollow, Comsat Angels, Artery and others. Going into an awards show, I once heard two girls discussing whether I was a member of Def Leppard, but that's another story.