So here we are, twenty years of this shivering, wretched Blog whanging on about garage punk, cumbia, psychedelia and all the rest of it…  A score of years …  and what have we learned? Not so much, …

So here we are, twenty years of this shivering, wretched Blog whanging on about garage punk, cumbia, psychedelia and all the rest of it…  A score of years …  and what have we learned? Not so much, truth be told.  Live music is still the absolute business, proof that God exists and still loves us (beer and Gloucester rugby coming in a decent second).

Still buzzing from a gloriously gutsy but ultimately futile evening at Kingsholm (and still a little green around the gills), I thought I’d set fingertips to keyboard and make a little announcement…

Blimey. You think you know someone, you think you know yourself, and then you go and start something like this… You make a bit of a thing about not doing End of Year Lists every Christmas; you go o…

I’d been hoping to make this a double whammy of a post – two dazzling pieces of writing one after another, mirroring the frenetic nature of the exhilarating two-in-two I experienced a couple …

As a jammy, good-for-nowt educator, the Christmas season is always nice and long. Teachers get to hang their mortar boards up for two whole weeks, often a good week before the real workers down too…

At the start of a season when proper bloggers are preparing their end of year lists, and when I probably should be spending my limited writing time and skills, reviewing a 2025 which has had quite …

So, I’ve had a packed fortnight or so. Lots of work, lots of music, quite a bit of Spanish, some Laurel & Hardy-esque furniture moving (our rockstar lodgers having now moved on) and even an inc…

In a stark, pounding contrast to Sunday’s private, reflective affair, our dear old Guildhall pulled out one of its sporadic, all-too-uncommon coups on Thursday, bringing East London’s urban worrier…

So, half term at last.  And, yeah OK, it means that the clocks go back tonight (with all the accompanying gloom and wretchedness that that involves), but look on the bright side, eh? Teachers …

So, I had a brilliant weekend, thank you for asking. Went to Kingsholm for the first competitive game of the season, which was a light affair with Gloucester spending most of the game dropping passes and making tackles. There were glimpses though… it could be another good season… Beers and curries ensued and it was good to get the first one under the belt.

Well, it’s quite the summer, we’re having, isn’t it? I’ve sat out all morning with a book, gone back inside for a spot of mandatory hoovering and now I’m back outside, in a garden chair with a ligh…

So… I’ve had an indulgent few days over in London, celebrating 37 years of being the luckiest old gentleman in the world. A fair amount of food was tucked away, fine wines and sherries were consume…

Summer is well and truly upon us! I’ve had the cricket on, I’ve had my shorts on, I’ve sat in the garden, I’ve sat in pub gardens. Glasses of Vermouth have been chinked in the late evenings. Latin …

And so… it came to pass that I went to see Big Special for a third time last week. And I was moved by the Spirit to spaff out a few more lines on the subject.  If you’ve been paying attention…

So apart from yesterday’s hurried post, it’s been a long sorry while, my friends, I know… but I think you’re going to like this. Being that sort of chap these days (a few extra coins in t…

How did I get to be this old? These days, I’m drawing my teacher’s pension and worrying about the state of the world today. I make that noise old folk make as they sit down. Friends talk to me abou…

How did I get to be this old? These days, I’m drawing my teacher’s pension and worrying about the state of the world today. I make that noise old folk make as they sit down. Friends talk to me about their financial advisors. I listen to Neil Young records. I don’t want to use the word “embrace” (that would suggest I’m OK with this…) but I did kind of expect these kind of things as I ventured uncertainly into the third age.

Stop Trump Coalition

Well, we’ve just come back from two weeks over there again. The Basque capital of Bilbao this time, and a pretty darn great city it is too.  We swanned around like tourists pretending to be l…

Well, we've just come back from two weeks over there again. The Basque capital of Bilbao this time, and a pretty darn great city it is too.  We swanned around like tourists pretending to be locals, elbowing our way confidently into chattering pinchos bars, we drank glasses of Txakoli like natives, jumped on and off trams with little regard for personal safety, cheered on Athletic Club in the supporters’ bar and shopped like no one was watching.