When someone on the telly says “You do NOT want to miss it”, I nearly always do

There’s a bit in Spinal Tap where they are accused of being sexist, and the band are confused and bewildered because surely it’s good to be sexy.

I have the same feeling of bewilderment and confusion when people use ‘antifa’ as if it’s a bad thing. Surely it can only be good to be anti-fascist?

I haven’t seen this before…the White Hart is still a hotel in Salisbury. It’s titled “The departure from the ' White Hart', Salisbury, attended by Landlord, waiters, Postboys, Hostlers etc etc”

I don’t know if the statue of the hart would be the same one that’s now on top of the Hotel

Yasuji Ariga, a Japanese prison guard, on Paul McCartney

(Extracted in the Times from the new book about Wings )

I enjoyed Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 🍿.

I enjoyed the music performances, and the Americana of it. Also it’s fun to be a fly on the wall when the music biz guy (Jimmy Iovine?) first the hears Nebraska LP.

It’s an odd film though - I guess the process of writing music isn’t easy to film.

I sometimes wonder who I like best, out of Hyde, Lewis and Moran

This is Caitlin Moran in Saturday’s Times. You miss the context about brews and golden owls, but I didn’t feel I could post the whole article

This is still a fine, fine country. These 24 hours of travelling across it are like collecting unexpected joy. Heading back to London, at Wakefield station - Wakefield! the sexy future has arrived: the departures board is a full-colour screen with a BSL interpreter in the corner, casually signing “Doncaster” and “12.42”. The poisonous chimneys of the industrial north have been replaced by wind turbines and solar farms. The tribes we superseded would be astonished by how clever we became. How the smogs and the soot seem as ancient as Permian rock now.

Back at King’s Cross, and a teenage girl sings Back to Black with a Jamaican twang, at the piano, next to M&S - and there’s England, right there. Patois, Winehouse, custard; golden owls, brews and gurdwaras, and Betjeman keeping watch over the whole thing. JD Vance would be bewildered by these things. Or, crucially, blind to them.

He does not know what these things are when he sees them. How this is England.

England is still here. Of course it is.■

Got kicked out of the queue for Chelsea tickets for no discernible reason….I think the new system is worse than the old one 😡😡

I might have to go and support Frank Lampard and Coventry instead

⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc

As Harold Wilson almost said, a week is a long time in football, and in Strictly Come Dancing

At least you can depend on Liverpool

⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc 🕺

These are my Crucial Tracks for the last few days.

A song from college or early adulthood.

"Dark Streets of London (feat. Spider Stacy)" by Stick in the Wheel

I'm tempted to pick Bowie mentioning the London School of Eco-gnomics, but I've had that before....so instead this is a song of the time, and also a song of London

I remember in “Fresher’s Week” discussing whether the college’s Irish Society could book the Pogues (who were probably still Pogue Mahone at that stage). They couldn’t , but I got to see the band at the end of my first year, at a free open-air show in Battersea Park.

This is a cover by a band that supported the Pogues this year, at the Brixton Academy. It was an emotional night

"Dark Streets of London (feat. Spider Stacy)" by Stick in the Wheel on Apple music

A song from your teenage years.

"Way Down" by Elvis Presley

Sadly, both Elvis and Marc Bolan died within a couple of months of me becoming a teenager.

This was the Elvis song that posthumously charted in the UK. In my memory, it was number one for ages.

Great song, in any case.

"Way Down" by Elvis Presley on Apple music

If you were a professional athlete, what is your walk up or intro song?

"A Pistol for Paddy Garcia" by The Pogues

This used to be the Pogues' walk on music. While none of the Pogues are professional athletes, this was always quite dramatic so I will use it too, when the need arises

"A Pistol for Paddy Garcia" by The Pogues on Apple music

What's a song that you like but most of your friends don't.

"Tara Hill" by The Fureys And Davey Arthur

My partner likes this but I don't think any of my other friends have heard this, or would much like it if they did.

"Tara Hill" by The Fureys And Davey Arthur on Apple music

What is a song that makes you think of your first job?

"Hitsville U.K. (Remastered)" by The Clash

My first job was in a posh proto-Waitrose supermarket called the Country Market

I earned a whole pound an hour. I mainly spent that on Guinness, and on going up to London to see bands. At that time a pound an hour could cover that. This lot were the most famous of the bands I saw at that time. I think they cost £3.50

"Hitsville U.K. (Remastered)" by The Clash on Apple music

What's a song that instantly makes you smile?

"Joxer Goes to Stuttgart" by Christy Moore

This makes me smile because it's a funny song, and because Damien Duff picked it for a CD compilation of the Chelsea teams favourite songs.

The Duffer made me smile as a footballer, and putting this song in amongst the rest of the songs - Spandau, Bryan' Adams, Europe - on the CD makes me smile too..

"Joxer Goes to Stuttgart" by Christy Moore on Apple music

Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper were on This Morning with Josie Lawrence today. I’ve never heard so many west country accents on TV at the same time

There are the ravens leaving the Tower of London, and then we have Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman leaving Strictly.

Rylan, Alison Hammond … Bill Bailey? Who could possibly replace Claudia and Tess on Strictly?

Exactly what I thought

Marina Hyde quotes Diego Torres' description of Jose Mourinho’s footballing philosophy

1. The game is won by the team who commit fewer errors.

2. Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition.

3. Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes.

4. Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake.

5. Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake.

6. Whoever has the ball has fear.

7. Whoever does not have it is thereby stronger.

The Rest Is Entertainment - Can The Rock Win An Oscar?

Also here: José Mourinho, the anti-Barcelona, stands alone in modern football

Chelsea won. Liverpool lost. Tottenham lost. And Jimmy Floyd is still in Strictly.

😀

⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc

Child #1 said she’s going to a thing celebrating Samuel Coleridge Taylor this weekend

Me: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, surely?

Nope.

London Mozart Players: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at 150

If I automated this a bit better then I wouldn’t need to worry about mis-spelling ‘Crucial’ every week.

Anyway, these are my Crucail Tracks for the last few days.

A song that reminds you of somewhere you lived.

"London You're a Lady" by The Pogues

Having lived in London there are lots of songs, both generic London ones and more local ones.

I’ve already posted Hilly Fields. There are a bunch of songs about Camberwell (Basement Jaxx, Dub Pistols). The Barron Knights were ‘from Catford, ain’t we eh?.’ The Kinks had a song about a road we once lived in - Lavender Hill - and Squeeze’s Up The Junction was about the local railway station.

I’ve picked one of the generic London songs though, by ‘the dear old towns favourite bard '

It’s got a lyric I really like -

“Your eyes are full of sadness

Red buses skirt your hem

Your head-dress is a ring of lights

But I would not follow them

Your architects were madmen

And your builders sane but drunk

But amidst your fading jewels

Shine acid house and punk”

"London You're a Lady" by The Pogues on Apple music

What is the oldest song you like?

"London Pride" by Noël Coward

Some of the folk songs I like go back hundreds of years, but I'm interpreting this as the oldest recording I like

There are a few candidates from Hank Williams, from Louis Armstrong and from Louis Jordan, but I’ve picked this song as I know I listen to it most frequently

I lived in London for just short of twenty years…and the song provokes nostalgia both for London and for the wartime generation that I grew up with - grannies and grandad, aunts and uncles, and blokes in pubs….I miss them all.

"London Pride" by Noël Coward on Apple music

A song off the last album you paid money for.

"Blackbird (Esher Demo)" by The Beatles

I've only started listening to this up-and-coming band fairly recently, and I bought the Esher Sessions version of the White Album from a stall on Salisbury Market

"Blackbird (Esher Demo)" by The Beatles on Apple music

A song from the 2010s that you like or means something to you.

"Fester Skank (feat. Diztortion)" by Lethal Bizzle

I found it relatively difficult to place songs as being from the 2010s

I’m not sure why.

It could be old age. Or it could be because it’s when I stopped buying so much physical product. Or it might be that there hasn’t been enough time for a 2010s nostalgia wave to get going, so the 2010’s hasn’t got a fixed musical identity.

I think old age is the most likely, really.

Anyway, this was one of the last CD’s I bought before switching to streaming

"Fester Skank (feat. Diztortion)" by Lethal Bizzle on Apple music

A song from the 2000s that you like or means something to you.

"I Dreamed a Dream" by Susan Boyle

At the end of the 2000s we went to see the Britain's Got Talent live show

I was and am dubious about most ot the output from those shows, but that year was a high point. There were two street dance acts, Flawless and Diversity, a couple of funny novelty acts, and there was Susan

She had health issues at the time, and missed some of the shows. No-one was sure whether she was going to be there the night we went, but in the end she was brilliant, the crowd was brilliant and it was one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen.

"I Dreamed a Dream" by Susan Boyle on Apple music

A song from the 1990s that you like or means something to you.

"Mulder and Scully" by Catatonia

Catatonia were on a re-run of an old Top of the Pops last week.

There was some good indie music in the 1990s beyond the Britpop heavyweights.

It was a shame Catatonia didn’t go on a bit longer

"Mulder and Scully" by Catatonia on Apple music

A song from the 1980s that you like or means something to you.

"Street Tuff (feat. Rebel MC)" by Double Trouble

According to a reviewer quoted on Wikipedia this "mixes the rhythms of Jamaican reggae with a house music beat."...which seems about right.

At the start, it quotes the "You can’t play bass" bit from my Crucial Track from yesterday.

"Street Tuff (feat. Rebel MC)" by Double Trouble on Apple music

A song from the 1970s that you like or means something to you.

"Bed Skank" by Scotty

This is Scotty toasting (rapping) over Lorna Bennett's reggae version of my Crucial Track yesterday.

"Bed Skank" by Scotty on Apple music

A song from the 1960s that you like or means something to you.

"Breakfast In Bed" by Dusty Springfield

This song has a couple of reggae versions. The first was Lorna Bennett, which links to my 1970s choice. The second was

a UK number one for UB40 and Chrissie Hynde. I saw the Pretenders support UB40 a few years later and was miffed that they didn’t do the song

"Breakfast In Bed" by Dusty Springfield on Apple music

#TodayILearned that to substitute more than one thing at once in vim you can do this

4,40s/Arsenal/Chelsea/g | 4,40s/Tinpot/Champions of the World/g

You do seem to need the ‘/g’ (or presumably ‘/1’ or whatever)

I enjoyed this film’s footage of Old London, and Old Suburbia. The film maker is a bit down on the latter.

I think the film was made at around the time of the first 7 Up

youtu.be/Tn6fGryqC…

Watched: A City Crowned with Green 🍿

Interesting bit on The Rest is Entertainment.

For someone to earn the UK minimum wage from Spotify they need to have 567,000 monthly streams. That is roughly the number of streams that Alison Moyet gets

Thankfully Ms Moyet will have other sources of income

The rest is entertainment

Vim command to replace all your backslashes with forward slashes, on the current line

:.s/\\/\//g 

“In May 1981 Labour backbench MP George Foulkes proposed a bill for the ‘Control of Space Invaders and Other Electronic Games’. They were, he said, a ‘force for evil’, dependent on ‘blood money’ extracted from children:

I have seen reports from all over the country of young people becoming so addicted to these machines that they resort to theft, blackmail and vice to obtain money to satisfy their addiction …

That is what is happening to our young people. They play truant, miss meals, and give up other normal activity to play ‘space invaders’. They become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them, as they play the machines. It is difficult to appreciate unless one has seen it for oneself. I suggest that right hon. and hon. Members who have not seen it should go incognito to an arcade or café in their own areas and see the effect that it is having on young people”

Currently reading: The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook 📚

Looking forward to this

Interesting read about Trump and NATO

The Guardian - Former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalls the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the alliance to the point of collapse

I didn’t know this, about Tiger Man, one of my favourite Elvis songs. It references both Hound Dog, and an answer to Hound Dog.

[Sam] Phillips penned an answer song to Hound Dog that he dubbed Bear Cat in which the singer rebuts Big Mama’s bad-dog accusation from a male perspective. …The Bear Cat melody, though, sounded indistinguishable from that of Hound Dog, and so Bear Cat and Phillips infringed on the Hound Dog copyright.

Sam Phillips got sued, and had to give up the royalties. Phillips then produced the original of Tiger Man…

The lyric shares Sam’s sense of humor about his recent legal setback, as Thomas sings, “I get up on the mountain and I call my bear cat back. My bear cat comes a runnin’ and the hound dogs stand way back.” In his 1970s power and glory phase, Presley would perform Tiger Man in his live sets, in medley with Mystery Train.

From BEFORE ELVIS by Preston Lauterbach

There’s a new Cecil Beaton exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Regular readers will probably be bored with me saying that my Granny was his cleaner

Audrey Hepburn to Salvador Dalí: Cecil Beaton’s bright young things – in pictures - A new exhibition, featuring images of Hollywood stars and war photography, shows why the ‘King of Vogue’ was one of the visionary forces of the British 20th century

Pic: catalogue for Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World exhibition at the NPG. 9 October 2025 - 11 January 2026

I think many people will instead be comparing the duo to the Judean Peoples Front, and the Peoples Front of Judea

Zarah Sultana has said she and Jeremy Corbyn have patched up their combustible co-leadership of a new leftwing party, with the MP comparing the duo to Liam and Noel Gallagher. Zarah Sultana says she and Corbyn have reconciled and can co-lead new party