Sad news. I think “Electric Music” is one of the finest psychedelic albums to come out San Francisco in the 1960s. The follow-up – “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die” – is pretty good too, with Who Am I? perhaps my fa […]

I’d say Radiohead

Perhaps it’s time to question the role of special advisers in the political process. These are unelected and unaccountable individuals who seem to play an outsized role in the political decision-making process. J […]

Binge watched it last night and give it nine out of ten. It has quite a few of those brilliant moments where I was expecting one thing and then Crook’s script/plot caught me off-guard, as per The Detectorists, b […]

The Isle of Everywhere – have a cup of tea Mannheim – set out on a rainy Saturday Solsbury Hill – break out of the rut A loot-filled secret cave – knock down 40,000 headmen

Great choice. This is one of my ‘I remember where I was when I first heard it’ songs

Another good one from Abba, this from 1977’s ‘The Movie’. I don’t think this song made it on to any album and the only footage has been lifted from the Australian film.

Let’s get modern (at the Rainbow, circa March 1974)

Bazball (for want of a better description) certainly delivers enthralling cricket; the highs are spectacular, the lows equally so. But it is in its death throes. Listening to some of the ball-by-ball commentary on […]

It will be interesting to see what England’s Plan B is in Adelaide. Stokes talks about ‘weak’ players but, to me, the weakness is in his game plan. Hit, hit, hit seems to be the batters’ mantra and yet the Austral […]

‘Thinking back to what you were doing in September 1975 when this enduring classic first appeared.’ Living in South Africa and smoking a lot of very strong weed, as I recall. I was not a great admirer of Dave Gil […]

I am reasonably fit and really don’t need anyone offering me their seat. However, I have learnt to accept the proffered seat as this is easier than having a “Thanks, but no thanks”/ “But I insist….” conversation […]

When people start offering you their seat on a train or bus.

They’re all piling in now. The Guardian has a follow-up article with this brilliant observation: Kim Kardashian’s central performance is so relentlessly listless and monotone ‘that it just sort of sits there like […]

I am tempted to buy The Temptations edition of On Track, if only for information on their ‘psychedelic’ period. I can live without their earlier music, but the studio albums from 1970’s Psychedelic Shack to 1973’s […]

It all depends on whether Stokes can stay fit throughout the series. With him, I reckon, England have a chance of edging the series; without him there will be a bloodbath. The recent England vs India series was […]

Sad news. His recordings were always excellent, but particularly so for me when he teamed up with Dave Holland. This partnership began in Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew era and continued on and off for the next 50 y […]

For some unknown reason I often whistle the sax riff from South African musician Basil Coetzee’s ‘African Jazz Dance’. This usually happens at night and outdoors (again, I don’t know why) but whenever I do it I kn […]

My favourite place is standing up on the periphery with a wall or pillar to lean against and away from the heaving crowd. This thread reminds me of Lullaloop, Robert Wyatt’s take on getting old: “Hey! You! / […]