Musings on the byways of popular culture
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Much as I enjoy Richard’s acoustic shows, even as they have settled in to a less varied Richard and Zara set list, I wouldn’t want to pass up the opportunity to hear him cut loose on electric guitar one more time. A handful of UK dates have just been announced for late spring 2027.
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A quick recommendation if you’re looking for something to unwind with at the end of a long week. I didn’t really get Colin from Accounts when the Massive and many others were raving about the earliest episodes but I’m glad I stuck with it. The second series was better than the first and, a great rarity, the third and final series which has just been released is better than that. You know the drill – heartwarming, engaging characters, genuinely laugh out loud funny. Grab the alcoholic or non alcoholic beverage of your choice and put your feet up for a TV treat. All episodes now on iPlayer in the UK.
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Obituary
The wonderfully flamboyant Tim Curry has died at the age of 80. Whether as Frank’n’furter in Rocky Horror, Pennywise the Clown in It or Darkness in Legend, he could be relied on to steal every scene where he was caked in a thick layer of make up. Since a serious stroke several years ago he has, so far as I know, only been using his rich baritone for voice roles, and his autobiography was published recently.
Venue:
Colchester Castle Park
Date: 21/08/2026
I hadn’t intended to go to this gig, even though the main entrance is less than 5 minutes walk from my house. I wasn’t bothered enough about The Damned or the bunch of old rock stars (plus one actor) who make up the Hollywood Vampires to pay £75 for the privilege. It was a lovely evening though, and that and some cheap tickets floating around on the local Facebook ‘things for sale’ page made me think it was 20 quid for a night out.
I’d never seen The Damned before, and as I understand they’re doing their pension-filling lap of honour shows so I probably never will again. They were decent if workmanlike (“How many people haven’t seen us before and are surprised how good we are?”) Their support slot was a generous hour long, so as well as Eloise, Neat Neat Neat and New Rose we got plenty of others less familiar to me. The sound wasn’t great all night, and David Vanian’s vocals disappeared in the mix, and problem which persisted into the headliner’s set.
As for Hollywood Vampires, they are essentially a bar covers band which includes 3 very famous » Continue Reading.
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Obituary
I have just read that William Orbit has died at the age of 69. He is best known as a producer for Madonna, Blur and many others but my most played album of his is Pieces in a Modern Style, which applied chill-out production to classical standards. I was the sound track to many a relaxation with a spliff at the end of a night out back in the day. YouTube link in comments.
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I’m investigating Substack in an effort to fill the few remaining minutes of my waking day which aren’t already spent looking at a screen, and also finding that a lot of blogs I used to follow have moved over to the platform.
What are your favourites? My interests tend to pop culture, soft-left politics and humour but feel free to recommend anything that others might enjoy.
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Based on his Makerfield campaign Count Binface will stand in Clacton on a manifesto including pledges to conscript people who use speakerphones on public transport and the abolition of auto-renewal of online subscriptions. Those are both ideas I can get behind, even if some of his other previous policies are less directly relevant to me, but what others would get you rushing to put your X next to his name? Just for starters:
Train guards to be issued with extendable batons of the type police officers use and empowered to administer a smart tap on the ankles of passengers who put their shoes on the opposite seat. I’m not asking for permanent disability, just a limp for the rest of the day and the opportunity to reconsider some of their life decisions.
The consumption of fast food on late nights trains to be banned, but rail companies would be obliged to sell less noisome sustenance on board.
All beers which mimic European brands but are actually brewed under license in the UK to have that information printed in at least the size of the beer’s name.
Vote early! Vote Often!! Vote Afterword!!!
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Obituary
I’m more saddened than I would have expected to hear of the death on Anthony Head, gone at the age of 72 from complications of pneumonia. His partner of decades died last December and I can’t help speculate that this might have led to him lacking to will to fight his own illness.
He always exuded an easy going charm combined with enviable good looks, and remembrances from those who knew him all confirm that he was as much a pleasure to meet and work with as you would hope. I never did either of course, and only knew him from coffee ads, Little Britain and, of course, his role a Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a programme which I insist belongs in the very top tier of long form television).
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We got married in a simple ceremony at the local Town Hall yesterday. Everything went very smoothly apart from a slight hitch with the music. Booking involved choosing music from a drop down list, or suggesting your own and saying how you would supply it. We assumed this meant the venue had a set of tunes which it had licensed and at the required points would play 6, 10 and 12 or whatever those selections were.
This turned out not to be the case. Whatever the music it had to be supplied, along with a means of playing it. A Bluetooth speaker was rustled up, a network connection obtained on my phone (the registrar didn’t know the wifi password) and things went ahead more or less as planned. It was always going to be a relaxed occasion, but I can imagine that at a larger affair that had been months in the planning this could have led to great stress. The registrar has taken the comments on board and said that she has already reported to the County Council that the instructions aren’t clear enough.
Anyway, we had intended to enter to Pachabel’s Canon in D, sign to the » Continue Reading.
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Obituary
I have just read that singer-songwriter Chip Taylor died a on Monday, 2 days after his 86th birthday (though Until I looked up his dates I had been unaware that he was Jon Voight’s brother and hence Angelina Jolie’s uncle). His ‘biggest’ song was probably Wild Thing, but I’ll put a video of Chrissie Hynde’s version of his song Angel of the Morning in the comments. It’s a clip from Friends, but the stripped down performance emphasises how great the song is.
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It’s a time of year when those of us lucky enough can unwind and reflect on the 12 months (almost) gone by, so how was 2025? I hope it has treated you kindly, but let us know the milestones, both high and low, that you’re happy to share with us. Best wishes to all for the year to come.
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I’m struggling to process the appalling news about Rob Reiner and his wife. When someone whose work has given me so much pleasure dies my usual reaction is to dig out some of that work and enjoy it again. When the circumstances are as they appear to be that doesn’t seem right, and I’m not even sure I could enjoy it until at least some time has passed. What horrific news to wake up to.
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I was talking to a work colleague the other day and he told me how pressure his son, currently revising for his GCSE mock exams, is under. Far more than I ever experienced for my O levels at my bog standard 1980s comp.
In addition, he, the son, is constantly being told he has to decide what career path he wants to follow and to target his efforts accordingly. That struck me as bizarre on two grounds – first, we are always being told that young people today will typically ‘build portfolio careers’ (jargon for insecure employment), and second, I’m 58 and have no idea what I ‘want to do’. I’ve quite enjoyed most of what I have done but they have always been jobs I have fallen into rather than worked towards.
What did you want to be when you were a child? I have vague memories of wanting to be a policeman or fireman when I was primary age, something that seemed heroic and came with an impressive uniform. Either that or a dolphin. By secondary school I think I had an aspiration towards architecture, but my technical skills wouldn’t have been up to it. Instead I just » Continue Reading.
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Obituary
Jimmy Cliff’s songs are among those that you almost don’t associate with a creator because they were always just there, part of the cannon of great popular song – Many Rivers to Cross, You Can Get it if You Really Want, Wonderful World, Beautiful People – none of them would be part of our internal jukeboxes without Jimmy Cliff. His family have announced that he has died due from pneumonia at the age of 81.
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Obituary
Details are scant but confirmed by Ian Brown. What a horrible shock. My condolences to those who knew and loved him.
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It’s John Lewis Christmas ad season, for those who celebrate, and this year’s features a dad who’s thoughtful son buys him a 12” vinyl dance track which transports said dad back to his pre-parenthood clubbing days. He loses himself in the music and memories before thoughts of his son bring him back to the present day for a warm embrace.
I hadn’t given any thought to Ultravox! (exclamation mark faithfully observed) for years until John Foxx was on Adam Buxton’s podcast. The choice of guest came as a slight surprise, but makes sense when I think about Buckles’ self-made jingles, and they clearly share a lot of musical background based on the ramble-chat.
Ultravox! were one of the key bands of my mid teens. I was a few years too young to follow the John Foxx era in real time, and this was in the early 80s. So I headed for the depthless Amazon Music catalogue and fired up an ‘Island years’ compilation. It was decades since I had heard these songs, but as I sang along in my head, and occasionally out loud, I was word perfect on My Sex, The Wild, The Beautiful and the Damned, and nailed » Continue Reading.
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Venue:
Colchester Arts Centre
Date: 16/10/2025
Eddie Izzard has been touring the world with his single-handed performance of Hamlet since early 2024, and last night and tonight was Colchester’s turn. (I’ll stick to the name Eddie and male pronouns.) Seating was unreserved so a long queue wound around the deconsecrated church even though we arrived in time for the doors to open 30 minutes before showtime. We still managed to bag great seats dead centre and 5 rows back.
Eddie opens the evening by explaining that the intention is to strip away the distance between the icon of ‘Shakespeare’ and the audience, presenting the work new and raw as it would have been to a contemporary audience. He is not primarily known as an actor and the decision to perform Hamlet, playing every role himself, without props or scenery, is certainly brave, as well as a prodigious feat of memory. He is also, it must be said, not that great an actor. His range of tones is limited and the distinction between characters often slight, though his scenes as the mad Ophelia and the dying Hamlet are genuinely moving. But he is, of course, a superb comedian and it’s » Continue Reading.
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What does it sound like?:
The Cherry Red website describes this as an ‘Extensive seven-CD box set following the career of English singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore.’ Well, up to a point Lord Copper. It’s actually a collection of 7 of Thea’s albums covering the years 2008 to 2015, presented in full, with a handful of extras on some of the discs. It’s not a career retrospective, but it’s a fascinating slice of one.
It also shows how eclectic that career has been. The seven discs cover three studio albums of original songs, a live album, a Christmas album of originals and covers, a track by track take on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, and a best-of / new songs mash-up including several re-recordings of her own songs with guest artists. In the middle of all this she also recorded Don’t Stop Singing, an album of recently discovered Sandy Denny lyrics set to her own tunes, which is not included here.
Even for me, a fan of a couple of decades standing, it’s a lot to take in, over 100 tracks. Given the scale of the project, I’m sure you’ll forgive me for restricting myself to thoughts and memories on each album » Continue Reading.
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It seems that from today we can no longer use Imgur in the UK. I have no idea if I used a VPN to post an Imgur link whether it would show for other UK users.
Any substitutes we could use?
https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/41592665292443-Imgur-access-in-the-United-Kingdom
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I’m instinctively against the idea on non-specific libertarian grounds. The inclusion of a proposal for ID cards in the manifesto was the reason I didn’t vote for Labour in the 2010 General Election (if might not have swayed me if it wasn’t, at least then, a seat with a blue rosette nailed to it). Smartphones and the huge amount of data which I glibly give away these days mean that I can hardly complain about access to my information now.
I suppose my concern is mission creep. I’m sure we’ve all noticed how young adults are routinely challenged for ID when buying alcohol, and hence have been made to get used to the idea, but the only times I ever have to prove my identity is when using an airport or, more recently, to vote in person. What other reasons might I have to carry ID for which I currently don’t? Or is that paranoia?
It is being sold as a measure against illegal immigration and hence, I assume, a way of striking back against the Farage. I can’t see it doing that though. The whole point of the shadow economy is that it operates in an unregulated way and » Continue Reading.
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Obituary
Danny, probably best known for his work with Pentangle, John Martyn and Richard Thompson, has died at the more than respectable age of 86. He was a much in demand session player for artists from Kate Bush to Everything but the Girl, as well as being the perfect Cropredy host. Looking at his Wiki entry just now I learned that Danny and his faithful double bass Victoria also played on Cliff’s Congratulations and the theme tune to Thunderbirds.
The suitably moody picture is from what may have been his last stage appearance, at Richard Thompson’s 75 shindig at the Royal Albert Hall last year.
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Going through some old photos I found this one I took at Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. The church is famous for the Brancacci Chapel but this is one of the neighbouring chambers. It claims to be a C14/15 monk, but anyone with eyes can plainly see that its is a depiction of Richard Thompson from around 1990.
Any more depictions of rock’n’rollers from centuries before they were born?
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Year: 2025 Director: Rob Reiner
So can lightning strike twice? The original is of course up there with Airplane as the funniest film of all time, and it’s probably the film I have seen most often in my life (due in no small part to weekly Saturday night viewings in my student years, after the pub, accompanied by cheap cans and questionable hash).
I’ll keep this spoiler free but the good news is that it is intermittently amusing and no disgrace to the first. It helps that Rob Reiner is on board, and that having reprised the characters over the years the main trio of Guest, McKean and Shearer slip into their personae without the sometimes trying effort which the casts of Guest’s other films brought to their parts.
The basic set up is that Ian Faith has left his daughter, Hope, Tap’s contract in his will, and it includes a stipulation that they must perform one last show. This causes problems with the structure of the film which takes a while to get going as a result. Whereas the first was based around a disintegrating band on tour, allowing for regular songs, this one builds up to a single » Continue Reading.
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If I told you that you needed to hear Sue Pollard belting out Back in the USSR to put a spring in your step today you might think I was taking the mick, but, not, really – look.
⬇️
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A British man is on a driving holiday in the USA. He’s great enthusiast for Native American history so he’s visiting battle sites and so on. He stops in rural Nevada to fill up with petrol and grab a coffee and gets chatting to a local who tells him about a remarkable wise man who lives on a nearby reservation. ‘This man’s incredible – like a one man Wikipedia. Ask him anything and he’ll reel off a string of facts about it.’
Of course, the tourist has to go and see this man, and when he reaches the reservation he’s ushered into a teepee where there sits an old, very dignified man with a deeply lined face and a piercing gaze. The old man raises his hand, ‘How’. ‘How’, replies the visitor, and the old man says, ‘What will you ask me about?’
Thinking of something the wise man couldn’t possibly know he says, ‘What do you know about Leyton Orient?’ Without missing a beat, the old man replies, ‘Leyton Orient football club in Leyton area of Waltham Forest, London, England. Established in 1880s as Glyn Cricket Club, change name to Orient Football Club soon after, then Leyton Orient after » Continue Reading.
