1. BASIC LEE

The tour of the current stand-up show, BASIC LEE, is still at the Leicester Square Theatre then tours nationwide from January 20^th 2024.
Then it will be finished in April.

Dates here;

January 2024

Thursday 4th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Friday 5th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Sunday 7th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Sunday 7th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Monday 8th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Wednesday 10th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Thursday 11th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Sunday 14th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Monday 15th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Tuesday 16th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Wednesday 17th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Thursday 18th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Friday 19th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Saturday 20th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Saturday 20th January 2024 – Leicester Square Theatre, London – TICKETS
Monday 22nd January 2024 – Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham – TICKETS
Tuesday 23rd January 2024 – Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham – TICKETS
Wednesday 24th January 2024 – Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham – TICKETS
Friday 26th January 2024 – Westlands, Yeovil – TICKETS
Saturday 27th January 2024 – The Forum, Bath – TICKETS
Sunday 28th January 2024 – Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – TICKETS
Monday 29th January 2024 – The Marlowe, Canterbury – TICKETS

February 2024

Friday 2nd February 2024 – The Hawth, Crawley – TICKETS
Saturday 3rd February 2024 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – TICKETS
Sunday 4th February 2024 – William Aston Hall, Wrexham – TICKETS
Tuesday 6th February 2024 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – TICKETS
Wednesday 7th February 2024 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – TICKETS
Thursday 8th February 2024 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Friday 9th February 2024 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Saturday 10th February 2024 – Playhouse, Leeds – TICKETS
Sunday 11th February 2024 – Theatre Royal, Newcastle – TICKETS
Sunday 18th February 2024 – DeMontfort Hall, Leicester – TICKETS
Tuesday 20th February 2024 – Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate – TICKETS
Wednesday 21st February 2024 – Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate – TICKETS
Thursday 22nd February 2024 – The Baths Hall, Scunthorpe – TICKETS
Friday 23rd February 2024 – Opera House, Buxton – TICKETS
Saturday 24th February 2024 – Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – TICKETS
Sunday 25th February 2024 – Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – TICKETS
Monday 26th February 2024 – Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe – TICKETS
Thursday 29th February 2024 – The Hexagon, Reading – TICKETS

March 2024

Friday 1st March 2024 – Royal & Derngate, Northampton – TICKETS
Saturday 2nd March 2024 – The Beacon, Bristol – TICKETS
Sunday 3rd March 2024 – Theatre Royal, Plymouth – TICKETS
Monday 4th March 2024 – Hall For Cornwall, Truro – TICKETS
Wednesday 6th March 2024 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Thursday 7th March 2024 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Friday 8th March 2024 – Playhouse, Oxford – TICKETS
Saturday 9th March 2024 – Storyhouse, Chester – TICKETS
Tuesday 12th March 2024 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Wednesday 13th March 2024 – Playhouse, Nottingham – TICKETS
Thursday 14th March 2024 – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield – TICKETS
Friday 15th March 2024 – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield – TICKETS
Saturday 16th March 2024 – Hippodrome, Darlington – TICKETS
Sunday 17th March 2024 – King’s Theatre, Glasgow – TICKETS
Thursday 21st March 2024 – King’s Theatre, Portsmouth – TICKETS
Friday 22nd March 2024 – Chelmsford Theatre, Chelmsford – TICKETS
Saturday 23rd March 2024 – Chelmsford Theatre, Chelmsford – TICKETS
Sunday 24th March 2024 – Theatre Royal, Norwich – TICKETS
Wednesday 27th March 2024 – Northcott Theatre, Exeter – TICKETS
Thursday 28th March 2024 – Northcott Theatre, Exeter – TICKETS

April 2024

Thursday 18th April 2024 – St. George’s Hall, Bradford – TICKETS
Monday 22nd April 2024 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Tuesday 23rd April 2024 – The Lowry, Salford – TICKETS
Thursday 25th April 2024 – The Alban Arena, St. Albans – TICKETS

2) BENEFITS

FEB 1^ST – HACKNEY HOMELESS SHELTER, HACKNEY EMPIRE Celya AB, Fern Brady, Rob Brydon, Rob Delaney, Kevin Eldon, Rosie Holt, Athena Kugblenu, Nish Kumar, Stewart Lee.

https://www.hackneyempire.co.uk/events/belter-for-the-shelter-2024

3) PEA GREEN BOAT WITH JACKDAW WITH CROWBAR

I do my Pea Green Boat spoken word piece with backing from ‘90s Leamington Spa noise art band Jackdaw With Crowbar, for charity, in Coventry, one time only. Sad themes! Loud music!!

Stewart Lee Pea Green Boat & Jackdaw with Crowbar

Sunday 25^th Feb 2024 2pm

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

Tickets: https://www.belgrade.co.uk/events/stewart-lee-pea-green-boat-and-jackdaw-with-crowbar/

An owl wakes up at sea in a pea green boat. It is accompanied by a cat, its natural predator. There is some honey. What chain of events led to this dangerous situation? Stewart Lee reprises his darkly comic tale based on Edward Lear’s The Owl & the Pussycat with improvised musical accompaniment.

“This delve into Edward Lear’s most famous poem is sweet and very funny” ★★★★ Guardian

PLUS a set from band Jackdaw with Crowbar “The best thing to come out of Leamington since the Grand Union Canal’ (Stewart Lee) where bass culture meets EDM and Co in a dark alley full of sequins. This scratch event is a fundraiser for LAMP, an award-winning a specialist education provision established in 2013, dedicated to supporting young people with autism.

This show is suitable for 12yrs + and contains sad themes and loud music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvAXjuyc2tA

4) SPLASH OUT TO HELP OUT

ICEMAN FILM
The mighty comedy historian Robert Wringham wants to make a film about Anthony Irvine, aka The Iceman, who you may have heard me mention repeatedly.

“Robert and Anthony became fast friends in 2022. They worked together on a book called Melt It! The Book of the Iceman. Stuffed with stories and colour artwork, it was published by comedy production company Go Faster Stripe. It had a foreword by Simon Munnery and an afterword by Stewart Lee. But the stories keep on coming. Circus! Showbiz! Rock and Roll! So Robert and Anthony have teamed up with respected YouTuber Mark Cartwright (aka GingerBeardMark) to have yet another crack at a legacy for the Iceman. Since mid-2023, we’ve been working together to make Melt It! The Film of the Iceman. How much permanence and success can we assure for this man whose entire act was about impermanence and failure? Back the film and be among the first to find out. Our aim (aim!) is to complete the film by late-2024, then we hope to secure a limited run of UK art cinemas and possible streaming distribution by our friends at Go Faster Stripe.”

Help fund it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meltit/melt-it-the-film-of-the-iceman

In other cash news, the lovely Kirkdale Bookshop in Sydenham, SE London, where the former free jazz trombonist, flaneur and churchwarden Row-land Bates can be found behind the counter, had all its pre-Christmas takings’ cash burglarised in December, so if you’re buying books with Nan’s Xmas money you could do worse than spend it here https://kirkdalebookshop.com or bung in to a modest gofundme https://www.gofundme.com/f/funding-to-cover-burglary-costs

5) SINGALONGAJUSTSTOPOIL

It’s not too late to weep along to Louise Harris’ Just Stop Oil fundraising hit. Download it here, support the wrongfully detained, and help save the world.

https://juststopoil.org/2023/12/06/louise-harris-new-single-we-tried-becomes-first-ever-climate-song-to-reach-uk-itunes-no-1/

6) THE GIANT SYNDICATE 27^TH APRIL EARTH HACKNEY LONDON

From 1pm – 10pm In the month of my 56^th birthday, and Fire records’ 40^th, I introduce various combinations of Dream Syndicate, Giant Sand and Kristen Hirsch at my local live music emporium.
Teenage me can’t believe it.

https://www.ticketweb.uk/event/the-giant-syndicate-earth-tickets/13278203

7) I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND SOME HAPPENINGS

FALLEN LEAVES Punk-mod showmen. Jan 27^th Brighton Hope & Ruin

MICHAEL ROTHER Neu! noise man still motoring FEB 3^rd 2024 London Barbican

CRYPT W PROFESSOR ALICE ROBERTS The Alice Bag of archaeology LIVE FEB 22^nd Inverness Eden Court, 26^th B’ham Town Hall, 29^th Bury St Edmunds Apex, MARCH 3^rd London Blackheath Halls, 4^th Guildford G Live, 5^th C’nam Town Hall, 6^th Portsmouth Guildhall, 7^th N’hampton Derngate, 9^th Oundle Stahl, 10^th Wycombe Swan

BO NINGEN Japanoiseniks MARCH 1^st Earth Hackney

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN The psychedelic scallies play the greatest hits of their first incarnation March 2^nd – 26^th. March 2^nd Norwich Nick Rayns LCR UEA, 3^rd Brighton Dome, 5^th Bournemouth Academy, 6^th Bristol Beacon, 8^th London Roundhouse, 10^th Cardiff University, 13^th Nottingham Rock City, 16^th/17^th M’cr Albert Hall, 19^th Sheffield City Hall, 20^th Glasgow Barrowlands, 22^nd Leeds Academy, 23^rd Newcastle City Hall, 25^th/26^th Liverpool Empire

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS Raucous NI punk survivors, w Glen Matlock support. March 11^th Nottingham Rock City, 12^th B’ham Academy, 13^th Bristol Academy, 15^th Newcastle City Hall, 16^th/17^th Glasgot Barrowlands, 21^st Leeds Academy, 22^nd M’cr Academy, 23^rd Camden Roundhouse

JOHN ROBB Spoken word tour by the ageless en-quiffed punk dandy intellectual flaneur and man of letters MARCH 22 SELBY Town Hall, 23 CHORLEY Theatre, 27 KENDAL Brewery Arts, 28 SALE Waterside, 29 HALIFAX Square Chapel APRIL 10 SHEFFIELD Leadmill, 11 POCKLINGTON Arts Centre, 12 BUXTON Pavilion Arts, 18 WORCESTER Huntingdon Hall, 19 BRISTOL Folk House, 20 SOUTHAMPTON The Attic, 21 CAMBRIDGE Junction, 22 SUDBURY Quay Theatre, 23 COLCHESTER Arts Centre, 24 NORWICH Arts Centre, 26 CHESTER Storyhouse Garret, 27 LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Music Room, 28 LEEDS The Old Woollen, MAY 01 BRIGHTON Komedia, 03 WOOLWICH Works, 04 LONDON 21 Soho, 09 EDINBURGH Voodoo Rooms

JOLIE HOLLAND Alt-country chanteuse returns MARCH 31^st London Bush Hall, APRIL 1^st Cambridge Portland Arms, 2^nd Birmingham Kitchen Garden, 3rdf Belfast Black Box, 4^th Edinburgh Summerhall, 6^th M’cr St Michael’s, 7^th Brighton Komedia

HAWKWIND This current Hawkwind iteration channels their classic ‘70s space rock sound unashamedly, with keyboardist Thighpaulsandra of Coil, Cope and Spiritualised clearly living out a childhood dream. April 4^th M’cr Academy, 5^th Newcastle City Hall, 6^th Edinburgh Academy, 7^th Glasgow Academy

HOUSE OF ALL M’cr Fall-related supergroup tour APRIL 2^nd Sheffield Leadmill, 3^rd Glasgow Stereo, 8^th London Dome, 9^th Brighton Hope & Ruin, 20^th M’cr Gorilla, 25^th Portsmouth Wedgewood, 16^th Bedford Esquires

NIGHTINGALES Off the beaten track small town dates for Birmingham post-punk heroes of King Rocker fame May 2^nd Kendal Glisky, 3^rd Telford Firefly, 4^th Halifax Square Chapel, 5^th Milton Keynes Crawford Arms, 6^th Ramsgate Music Hall, 8^th W’chester Railway, 9^th Newport Le Pub, 10^th Warrington Irish, 11^th Dunoon Burgh Hall

THE HANDSOME FAMILY Literary Lynchian Alt-Country duo MAY 3^rd Dublin Liberty Hall, 7^th Glasgow St Luke’s, 10^th M’cr Stoller Hall, 12^th Leeds Irish, 14^th Norwich Arts, 16^th Cardiff Gate, 18^th Salisbury Winchester Gate, 21^st London Union Chapel, 23^rd Folkestone Quarterhouse

THE BEVIS FROND Psych legends Lexington, London May 18^th

THE LOVELY EGGS Art-punk duo MAY 23^rd Glasgow St Luke’s, 24^th Edimnburgh Belle Angele, 25^th N’castle Grove, 26^th Leeds Brudenell, 27^th Birmingham Xoyo, 28^th Bristol Thekla, 29^th Brighton Chalk, 30^th London Earth, 31^st Nottingham Rescue Rooms JUNE 1^st M’cr New Century

THE DAMNED Black Album/Strawberries line-up, with hard-wristed Holy Grail headhunter Rat Scabies back on drums. DEC 4^th Newcastle NX, 5^th Glasgow Barrowlands, 6^th M’c Academy, 8^th Leeds Academy, 9^th Nottingham Rock City, 10^th W’hampton Halls, 12^th Bristol Beacon, 13^th S’hampton Guuildhall, 14^th Eastbourne Winter Gardens, 16^th Cambs Corn X, 18^th London Roundhouse

8) MY CULTURAL YEAR 2023 (from DEC 29^th 2022 – DEC 29th 2023)

“I haven’t seen any of Stewart Lee’s nasty little lists… but this is dark stuff ….. a form of bullying, intimidation and shaming that Joseph McCarthy or The Stasi would recognize.” John Robinson, Radio X

Here is everything I consumed this year.
When I really loved something I put ***** and when I really didn’t I put *.
It’s not a critical list. I might have liked something because it pushed my buttons because of how I personally felt then/now, or because of some historical association, not necessarily because it was objectively the best thing ever.

And I might have hated something out of petty spite, or because i was too dumb to understand it.
This list is not intended to annoy anyone or be a definitive statement of anything. I’ve done it anyway, for me. You may as well see it.

21 NEW FILMS (2022/23)

I saw loads of great new films this year, and two terrible ones. Triangle of Sadness was 1/3^rd flawed, and its polemic too pronounced perhaps, but still brilliant, especially the retching.
If I had to choose a top three it would be the ghostly meditation on time and memory Enys Men (Mark Jenkin), the painful portrait of disfunctional dadhood After Sun (Charlotte Wells), the inspiring doc on small town heroism Never Be A Punching Bag For Nobody (Naomi Yang).

The Old Way squandered Cage, which was a shame, but Old Dads was just nasty and cynical and yet also cloyingly sentimental, and clearly a waste of obvious talent – a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, and signifying. nothing. Very honorable mentions to Prey, a Predator film set in 1719 in pre-colonial America, with lots to say politically and the option to watch it in the Comanche language; and to You Hurt My Feelings, an old school American comedy of middle class manners with great performances and a kind heart.

And to Neil Marshall’s return to form, The Lair, a clockwork genre film with geopolitical resonance; and to Nope, where Jordan Peele uses sci-fi tropes to stake a black American claim to wild west mythology.
The Finnish spaghetti war film Sisu breathed new life into the aging warrior’s reluctant return to combat trope. Here’s my new film year in order.

In The Court Of The Crimson King (Toby Amies) *****
Enys Men (Mark Jenkin) *****
After Sun (Charlotte Wells) *****
Never Be A Punching Bag For Nobody (Naomi Yang)*****
The Old Way (Brett Donowho)*
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Dead For A Dollar (Walter Hill)
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)*****
Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023)
The Lair (Neil Marshall) *****
Nope (Jordan Peele)*****
Knock At The Cabin (M Knight Shyamalan)
Cocaine Bear (Elizabeth Banks)
Men (Alex Garland)
You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener)*****
The Last Caveman (Harry Hill) *****
Old Dads (Bill Burr) *
John Wick Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski)
Prey (Daniel Trachtenberg) *****
The Boy & The Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
Sisu (Jalmari Helander)*****

2. 88 OLD FILMS IN ORDER

I watched a lot of great Italian westerns in box sets put out by Arrow films, as you can see. And a lot of inappropriate horror films with my kids.
Peter Watkins’ 1967 rise-of-fascism future fable Privilege, in which my Uncle Roger appears as a policeman for 3 seconds, gets more relevant every year.
Danny Kruger should watch it through tears of shame. We all should.

Profondo Rosso (Dario Argento, 1975)*****
Breathless (Jean Luc Godard, 1960) *****
Vivre Sa Vie (Jean Luc Godard, 1962)*****
The Village (M Knight Shyamalan, 2004)
Trading Places (John Landis) *****
John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014) *****
John Wick II (Chad Stahelski, 2017)
Eagles Over London (Enzo Castellari, 1969)
The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980)
John Wick III Parabellum (Chad Stahelski, 2019)
The Howling (Joe Dante, 1981)
The Canterbury Tales (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1972)*****
The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, 2021)
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall, 2002)*****
The Dirty Outlaws (Franco Rosetti, 1966)
Crawl (Alexandra Aja, 2019)
Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984) *****
Night of The Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1954) *****
The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg, 2013)
The Car (Elliot Silverstein, 1977)
Eight Legged Freaks (Ellory Elkayem, 2002)
In A Valley of Violence (Ti West, 2016)
Appaloosa (Ed Harris, 2008) *
The Hollow Point (Gonzalo López-Gallego, 2016)
The Assassination of Jesse James (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
Forsaken (Jon Cassar, 2015)
Damsel (David & Nathan Zellner, 2018)*****
Sicario (Dennis Villeneuve, 2015)
Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1985)
Alligator (Lewis Teague, 1980)
King Of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982)*****
Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987)*****
Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood, 1971)*****
Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973)*****
The Perfect Host (Nick Tomnay, 2011)*
Casanova (Lasse Hallstrom, 2005)
A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die (Tonio Valerii, 1972)
Tentacles (Ovidio G Assonitis, 1977)
Rasputin The Mad Monk (Don Shields, 1966)
The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977)
Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)*****
The Beast Must Die (Paul Annet, 1974)*
The Burning (Tony Maylam, 1981) *
Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)
Contamination (Luigi Cozzi, 1980)
Old (M Knight Shyamalan, 2021)
Sweeney! (David Wickes, 1977)*****
Lone Star (John Sayles, 1997) *****
Texas Red (Travis Mills, 2021)
Silver City (John Sayles, 2004)
Dracula AD1972 (Alan Gibson, 1972)*****
Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters (Lucio Fulci, 1979)
Rise of The Footsoldier (Julien Gilbey, 2007)
Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)*****
The Church (Michelle Soavi, 1989)
Ready Or Not (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2019)
Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)
From Beyond (Stuart Gordon, 1986)
Mom & Dad (Brian Taylor, 2017)
Dead Men Don’t Count (Rafael Romero Marchent, 1968)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)*****
Imagine The Sound (Ron Mann, 1981)
Duel (Stephen Spielberg, 1971)*****
Race With The Devil (Jack Starrett, 1975)*****
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)*****
Privilege (Peter Watkins, 1967)*****
The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1966)*****
Brotherhood of The Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001)
$10000 Blood Money/$10000 For A Massacre (Romolo Guerierri, 1967)
Alive or Preferably Dead (Duccio Tessari, 1969)
Vengeance Is Mine (Giovanni Fago, 1967)
Find A Place To Die (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1968)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)*****
I Walked With A Zombie (Jaques Tourner, 1943)*****
Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (Freddie Francis, 1965)
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
Willard (Daniel Mann, 1968)
Land Raiders (Nathan Juran, 1970)*
Revolver (Sergio Sollima, 1973)
Stage Fright (Michael Soavi, 1987)
Punk Rock (Carter Stevens, 1977)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)*****
El Puro (Eduardo Mulargia, 1969)
Wrath Of The Wind (Mario Camus, 1970)
Fury of Johnny Kidd (Gianni Puccini, 1967)
The Big Racket (Enzo G Castellari, 1976)
Let The Right One In (Thomas Alfredson, 2008)*****
The Salvation (Kristian Levring, 2014)

3. 10 NEW BOOKS

Alan Garner – Treacle Walker
Lauren Jane Barnett – Death Lines, Walking London Through Horror Cinema *****
RB Russell – Fifty Forgotten Books *****
Iain Sinclair – House of Flies *****
Weird Walk – Weird Walk *****
James O’Brien – How They Broke Britain *****
Cold War Steve – Annual 2024 *****
Toby Driver – The Hillforts of Iron Age Wales *****
Thurston Moore – Sonic Life *****
and
Found And Ground – Caroline Ross – on how to mix paints from natural sources!

4. 4 OLD BOOKS – not a good effort by me

Miles Franklin – My Brilliant Career (1901) *****
William Shakespeare – Macbeth(1623)
Debby Holt – Love Affairs for Grown-Ups (2009)
Kieron Winn – The Mortal Man (2015)

5. 11 OLD TV – all these are ***** to me

Sherlock S1 (BBC, 2010)
Sopranos S1 (HBO, 1999)
Queen’s Gambit (Netflix, 2020)
Sopranos S2 (HBO, 2000)
Sopranos S3 (HBO, 2001)
Sopranos S4 (HB0, 2002)
Sopranos S5 (HBO, 2003)
Sopranos S6 (HBO, 2004)
Sopranos S7 (HBO, 2005)
Deadwood S1 (HBO, 2004)
The Signal-Man (BBC, 1976)

6. 9 NEW TV – all these were *****

Happy Valley S3 (BBC1)
Endeavour S9 (ITV)
Eurovision Song Contest (BBC)
Ghosts S5 (BBC)
The Change (C4)
The Reckoning (BBC)
Patrick Kielty’s Late Show Gaza speech (RTE)
Victoria Derbyshire (BBC)
Ghosts Xmas Special (BBC)

The worst thing I saw, in any category, all year was Ricky Gervais’ new TV special Armageddon (Netflix), though to be fair I watched it curious to see if it could be as bad as everyone was saying, whereas I had high hopes for everything else I sought out on this list.

MAGAZINES AND PAPERS

Shindig, Record Collector, Viz, Mojo, Guardian, Machenallia, Faunus, Observer, Guardian, London Review of Books, Weird Walk, Wire, Idler.
Adrian Childs’ Guardian columns
Jay Rayner’s Observer restaurant reviews
Marina Hyde’s Guardian columns
Nesrine Malik’s Guardian columns
John Crace’s Guardian columns
A Kirstie Allsop interview in Good Housekeeping

RADIO NEW AND OLD

James O’Brien (LBC) *****
Gideon Coe (BBC 6Music) *****
Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)*****
Andrew Marr (LBC)*****
Nick Ferrari (LBC) *
Shelagh Fogerty (LBC)*****
All BBC News *

9. 17 THEATRE/DANCE/RITUAL

The best theatre I saw was Pina Bausch in Edinburgh, and also grand-dad Kitson’s Christmas show.
I thought Wils Wilson’s Macbeth, that I admittedly wrote a scene for, was brilliant too and it was a great privilege to be a part of it.
And the Boxing Day mummery of the Marshfield Paper Boys was mysterious and moving.
I am deeply ashamed that I completely didn’t understand Vanya, that everyone else loved, and I am very depressed about this personally and worried about my brains.

Titus Andronicus (The Globe, London)
Macbeth (a school production)
Spitting Image – Idiots Assemble (Phoenix, London)
The Burryman, Queensferry
Dark Noon – Tue Biering & Nhlanhla Mahlangu (EICC)
The Rites Of Spring/Common Ground(s) – Pina Bausch/Stravinsky – Edinburgh Playhouse *****
2 Guys, 3 Drams (The Space, Edinburgh)
Not On Eileen – Pete Saunders (Finger’s Piano Bar, Edinburgh)
Minotaur/Phaedra – B Britten/Deborah Warner (Ed’bro Lyceum)
Macbeth – Shakespeare/Wils Wilson (RSC) *****
Black Sabbath Ballet – Birmingham Royal Ballet (B’ham Hippodrome)
Vanya – Simon Stephens (Duke of York’s)
Treasure Island (a school production)
Remembrance Day Service (Abney Park)
Our House – Madness/that bloke (a school production)
A Story For Christmas – Daniel Kitson (Alexandra Palace)*****
Aladdin (Hackney Empire)
Marshfield Paper Boys (Marshfield, Gloucestershire)*****

10. 11 COMEDY SHOWS

I am ashamed, that as a comedian, I only saw eleven comedy shows this year, and four of those I was in – pathetic.
Alfie Brown was the best, and NonCensored as a live show at Museum of Comedy was great.

Adam Buxton, Maisie Adam, Nick Helm, Amy Gledhill, Eshaan Akbar – Leicester Square Theatre, London
Daniel Kitson, Shazia Mirza – Bloomsbury Theatre
Paul Currie – outdoors at Glastonbury workin’ him ass off
Rosie Holt – Pleasance, Ed’bro
Alfie Brown’s Work In Progress – Just The Tonic, Ed’bro *****
Simon Munnery – The Stand, Ed’bro
Aideen McQueen/Andrew White – Whistlebinkies, Ed’bro
NonCensored Live (Museum of Comedy)*****
Nick Puppo’s Heroin Equivocation Hour – Mash House, Ed’bro
Andrew O’Neil, The Abyss, Kate Cheka (W’mstow Trades)
Sunil Patel (Always Be Comedy)

11. 40 GIGS

I managed to see 40 music gigs this year, which was brilliant, and most of them were superb – I think because they people I have liked for decades that have kept going just get better and better and also I have had the pleasure of seeing new (and old) things with my kids at their suggestion.

The most fun I had at a gig was dancing about on my own for hours to a ska band called The Downsetters at Glastonbury.
The one that made me the happiest was Chuck Prophet, who is a consummate carnival huckster these days. Slowdive moved me, immensely. Black Country New Road gave me hope for the future.
The Bevis Frond and The Nightingales proved I was right all along, in different ways. Dave Callahan and House of All made me want to persist in my folly. The Bunnymen at the Albert Hall was still sublime. I watched Rick Astley sing The Smiths with my daughter and it was better than the actual Smiths 40 years ago.

I sang with Heavenly. I saw Stereolab, David Murray and The Hives with the kids, which were all great experiences, squaring the circles.
I sat next to Martin Simpson while he tuned up backstage when I hosted the Bert Jansch night. Crime & The City Solution have grown into themselves utterly.
The Sleaford Mods is an 80 minute Beckett show with a beat now. The Wave Pictures have become brilliant standard bearers for a certain kind of timeless sound. Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury was awful, like an endless advert for perfume or cars performed by robots.

My top ten, at this moment in time, in a great year, were…

Bevis Frond (Oslo, Hackney)
The Damned (Glastonbury)
The Downsetters (Rocket Lounge, Glastonbury)
Black Country New Road (Glastonbury)
Echo & The Bunnymen (Royal Albert Hall)
Slowdive (Troxy)
Bert Jansch Tribute night (Royal Festival Hall)
David Murray Quartet (Pizza Express, Soho, London)
Crime & The City Solution (Moth Club, Hackney)
Wave Pictures (Lexington)

But here’s everyone I saw in order

Bevis Frond (Oslo, Hackney)
Mariam Razaei & Angharad Davis (Live Theare, N’castle)
The Nightingales (Alexandra Palace)
Dave Callahan & Daren Garret/House Of All (Garage)
Heavenly/Panic Pocket (Bush Hall)
Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express (Garage)
Master Musicians of Joujouka (Glastonbury)
The Hives (Glastonbury)
The Comet Is Coming (Glastonbury)
Steve Earle (Glastonbury)
Billy Bragg (Glastonbury)
The Damned (Glastonbury)
The Unthanks (Glastonbury)
Billy Bragg & Jamie Webster & Rianne Downey (Glastonbury)
Big Joannie (Glastonbury)
Rick Astley & Blossoms do The Smiths (Glastonbury)
The Pretenders (Glastonbury)
The Murder Capital (Strummerville Glastonbury)
Lana Del Rey (Glastonbury)*
The Downsetters (Rocket Lounge, Glastonbury)
Beth Orton (Glastonbury)
Black Country New Road (Glastonbury)
Sairie/Barbara Manning (Betsey Trotwood, London)
Joe McPhee & Decoy (Café Oto, London)
Sarah Gail Brand & Alex MaGuire/Julian Woods, George Garford & John Bisset/Paul Jolly, Simon McCorry & Jakub Rokita (Vortex)
Pulp (Hammersmith Odeon)
Martin Newell/Feathered Thorns/Willpower (Bungay, St Mary’s)
Thistle Street Bar Folk Session, Thursday
Captain’s Bar Folk session, Thursday
Captain’s Bar Folk session, Friday
Colin Steel Quintet Play Miles Davis (Jazz Bar Edinburgh)
Blueswater duo (The Space, Edinburgh)
Orange Claw Hammer (Bannermans, Ed’bro)
Richard Youngs/Damon & Naomi (Café Oto, London)
Siouxsie (Troxy, London)
Dan Stuart (Walthamstow Trades Hall)
Echo & The Bunnymen (Royal Albert Hall)
The Shadracks (Three Crowns, Stoke Newington)
Matthew Caws/Chris Stamey (Betsey Trotwood, London)
Brian Lopez/Calexico (Electric Ballroom)
Slowdive (Troxy)
BERT JANSCH CELEBRATION – Bernard Butler, Brigid Mae Power & Steve Gunn, Jacqui McShee & Mike Piggot & Kevin Dempsey, James Yorkston & Ranjana Ghatak & Jon Thorne, Kathryn Williams, Martin Simpson, Robert Plant’s Saving Grace, Sam Lee, Sarathy Korwar (Royal Festival Hall)
David Murray Quartet (Pizza Express, Soho, London)
Stereolab (Electric Brixton)
Crime & The City Solution (Moth Club, Hackney)
Lean Left/Steve Beresford (Café Oto)
Sleaford Mods (Alexandra Palace)
Thurston Moore Group (100 Club)
Wave Pictures (Lexington) *****

12. 5 GIGS I WAS PREVENTED FROM ATTENDING

Primevals (Hope & Anchor)
Bevis Frond (Leightonstone)
Hawkwind (Royal Albert Hall)
Blue Aeroplanes/Wave Pictures (Electric Ballroom)
Kid Congo Powers (Oslo, Hackney)

RECORDS I LISTENED TO OLD SCHOOL IN ONE SITTING AT A LISTENING DEVICE

13. 107 NEW RECORDS – 2022/2023

I include some 2022 releases I came to late. I listened to 105 new albums this year.
I think the one I loved the most was The Lilac Time’s elegiac Dance Till All The Stars Come Down, which I found very emotional and exactly right for where I am now, but it was a brilliant year.
Robert Lloyd and Janet Beveridge Bean’s Black Cat Dark Horse paired two of my favorite singers of my teens/twenties on a reflective set of c&w classics that hit this 55 year old square in the heart. I’ve known Eliza Skelton for years and her belated Kate Bush goes acid folk debut is brilliant – it’s always a relief when your friends do something you are happy to praise to the sky.
The Chuck Prophet album is visceral and superb and isn’t on Spotify so you’ll have to give the bloke some money. If I have a top ten, in no order, it’s ….

Lloyd/Bean – Black Cat, Dark Horse *****
House Of All – s/t *****
Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord *****
Eliza Skelton – The Lookerer *****
Chuck Prophet et Le Mission Express – Live A Paris *****
Black Country New Road – Live At Bush Hall *****
Slowdive – Everything Is Alive *****
The Lilac Time – Dance Till All The Stars Come Down *****
The Nightingales – Live In Balsall Heath *****
Shirley Collins – Archangel Hill *****

This is all the new records I listened to this year in order ..

Dave Graney & Clare Moore – In A Mistly
Blue Aeroplanes – Culture Gun
Robert Forster – The Candle & The Flame
Lloyd/Bean – Black Cat, Dark Horse *****
House Of All – s/t *****
Maggie Nicols – Are You Ready?
The Soundcarriers – Wilds
Rich Hopkins & The Luminarios – Exiled On Mabel St
GA-20 – Crackdown
Guided By Voices – La La Land
Maggie Nicols & Mark Wastell – And John
Bevis Frond – Clocks
Caroline Kraabel and Khabat Abas – 5 Communiques
The Mudvaynes – Love It
Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music of The East German Olympic Program 1972-83 Volume V
Carlton Melton – Resemble Ensemble
Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World
Neil Young w Crazy Horse – World Record
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees
The Long Ryders – September November
Hawkwind – The Future Never Waits
Sleaford Mods – UK Grim
Deathcrash – Return
Lightning In A Twilight Hour – Overwintering
Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord *****
Guided By Voices – Tremblers and Goggles By Rank
Wild Billy Childish & CTMF – Failure Not Success
Steve Earle & The Dukes – Jerry Jeff
Pugwash – The Rest Is History
Eliza Skelton – The Lookerer *****
Modern Cosmology – What Will You Grow Now?
Lankum – False Lankum
The Damned – Darkadelic
Headland – Watanda
Shirley Collins – Archangel Hill *****
Naomi Yang – Never Be A Punching Bag For Nobody
Kid Congo Powers – Live In St Kilda
The Necks – Travel
Deathcrash – Less
James Brandon Lewis Trio – Eye of I
Art Ensemble of Chicago – The Sixth Decade
Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders – Blues, Soul & Rock’n’Roll
The Primevals – Dividing Line
Neverland Ranch Davidians – s/t
Mammatus – Expanding Majesty
Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever
Huntress – Destruction Horizon
Larry Gilbert – Heard Her Call My Name
Molina, Talbot, Lofgren, Young – All Roads Lead Home *
Bob Dylan – Shadow Kingdom
Stick In The Wheel – Endurance Soundly Caged
Lauren Helene Green – Outer Highway Realms
Mali Obomsawin – Sweet Tooth
Skull Practitioners – Negative Stars
Rain Parade – Last Days of a Dying Sun
Chuck Prophet et Le Mission Express – Live A Paris *****
The Feathered Thorns – Witch
Brown Spirits – Solitary Transmissions
Thomas Walsh – The Rest Is History
Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud
The Swansea Sound – Twentieth Century
Hugo Race Fatalists – Once Upon A Time In Italy
Cowboy Junkies – Such Ferocious Beauty
Candidate – Point Clear
Lucinda Williams – Stories From A Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart
Laura Cantrell – Just Like A Rose
Black Country New Road – Live At Bush Hall *****
Alex G – God Save The Animals
Son Volt – Day Of The Dog
Son Volt – 26 Live
Brian Lopez – Tidal
Dean Owens – El Tiradito, The Curse of The Sinner’s Shrine
Treeboy & Arc – Natural Habitat
Panic Pocket – Mad Half Hour
Candidate – Point Clear
Slowdive – Everything Is Alive *****
Cult Figures – Between Us And Heaven
The Lilac Time – Dance Till All The Stars Come Down *****
Graham Day & The Gaolers – Reflections In The Glass
Cyanide Pills – Soundtrack To The New Cold War
Guided By Voices – Welshpool Frillies
Snarskicircuslindyband – Someone Said That Someone Said
Gwenno – Tresor
Julian Cope – Robin Hood
The Nightingales – Live In Balsall Heath *****
David Murray, Brad Jones, Hamid Drake – Seriana Promethea
Birds In The Brickwork – A Strange Peace
Vic Mars – The Beacons
Claire M Singer – Saor
Goat – The Gallows Pole
Rooney – Surface Industries II
Guided By Voices – Nowhere To Go But Up
Tobin Sprout – Demos and Outtakes 2
Crime & The City Solution – The Killer
Barbara Manning – Charm of Yesterday… Convenience of Tomorrow
The Handsome Family – Hollow
Martin Simpson & Thomm Jutz – Nothing But Green Willow
Large Plants – The Thorn
Catatonic Suns – Catatonic Suns
The Bevis Frond – Focus On Nature
Silver Apples & Kawabata Mokoto – Mirage
Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders – Sons Of The City Ditch
Black Bombers – Vive La Revolution
Laura Cannell – Midwinter Processionals
Carlton Melton – Turn To Earth
Divine Horsemen – Bitter End Of A Sweet Night
House of All – Bay City Pistols

14. 36 NEW OLD RECORDS – reissues, archive & comp’s

I listened to 36 new old records this year in this order.

The Beatles – Revolver 5 disc version (1966)*****
V/A – Oz Days Live (1972-3) *****
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Los Angeles Forum (1969)
Bob Dylan – Fragments (1996-97)*****
Various Artists – Ost-Kraut! Progressive DDR Archiven (1970-75) Teil 1
The Barracudas – Drop Out With (1977-1982)
The Beach Boys – Sail On Sailor (1972)
V/A – Piombo (1973-1991)
Verlaines – Live @ The Windsor Castle, Auckland (1986)*****
Saffron – Red Amber (1971)
The Chameleons – Dali’s Picture/Auffurung (1981-3)*****
The Fall – Live Out Ferroviarios (2013)
V/A – Studio One Space Age Dub Special (1974-6)
Datblygu – Terfysgiaith (1982-2022) *****
V/A – Deviation Street (1967-1975)
Sonny Stitt – Boppin’ In Baltimore (1972)*****
The Lemonheads – Come On Feel (1993)*****
The Bevis Frond – The Long Stuff (1995-2019) *****
Ayako Shinozaki – Music For The Harp (1974)
Meiko Kaji – Hajiku Uta (1973)
Gadsby & Skol – s/t (1970/1995)
Elvin Jones’ Revival – Live At Pookie’s Pub (1967)
Josef K – It’s Kinda Funny (1980-2)*****
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – A Door Inside Your Mind (1966-68) *****
Roxy Gordon – Crazy Horse Never Died (1988)
John Coltrane W Eric Dolphy – Evenings At The Village Gate (1961)*****
Drive-By Truckers – The Complete Dirty South (2004) *****
Calexico – Feast of Wire (2003) *****
Various Artists – Bullshit Detector 1 (1980)
Various Artists – Bullshit Detector 2 (1982)
Various Artists – Bullshit Detector 3 (1984)
The Galileo 7 – Tear Your Mind Wide Open (2017)
Kyra – Here I Am, I Always Am (1998)
Epic 45 – Drakelow (2005)
Shiva Burlesque – Mercury Blues/Skullduggery(1990)*****
David Westlake – D87 (1987)*****

15. 347 OLD OLD RECORDS

I listened to 347 old old records this year in this order.

Eleventh Dream Day – Prairie School Freakout (1988) *****
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968) *****
The Bevis Frond – We Are Your Friends Man (2018) *****
Uriah Heep – Salisbury (1971)
Swans – Love Of Life (1992)
Sigur Ros – Valtari (2012)
Sigur Ros – Kveikur (2013)
My Bloody Valentine – MBV (2013) *****
Alex G – Beach Music (2015)
Bill Fay – Time Of The Last Persecution (1971)*****
FJ McMahon – Spirit of the Golden Juice (1969)
Jayhawks – Hollywood Town Hall (1992) *****
Modern English – Peel Session (1980)
The Chameleons – Peel Session (1983) *****
Blood And Roses – Peel Session (1983)
Again Again – Peel Session (1978) *****
Stereolab – Switched On (1992) *****
Stereolab – Peng! (1992) *****
The Soundcarriers – Entropicalia (2014)
Malouma – Nour (2007)
Sidewinders – Witchdoctor (1989) *****
Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts (1993)*****
Sidewinders – Auntie Ramos’ Pool Hall (1990)
The Associates – Sulk (1982)
The Pastels – Last Great Wilderness (2002)
The Pastels – Illumination (1997)
Grant-Lee Phillips – Widdershins (2018)
Peter Lang – The Thing At The Nursery Window (1972)
Julius Lester – Dressed Like Freedom (1965-7)
Quicksilver Messenger Service – s/t (1967) *****
Stereolab – Mars Audiac Quartet (1994) *****
Doji Morita – A Boy (1977)
Minami Deutsch – s/t (2015)
Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)*****
Stereolab – The Group Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (1993)
Stereolab – Refried Ectoplasm (1995)*****
Stereolab – Dots & Loops (1997)
Stereolab – ABC Music (1991-2001) *****
Screaming Trees – Buzz Factory (1989) *****
David Crosby – If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)*****
Jefferson Airplane – Takes Off (1966)
Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Jefferson Airplane – After Bathing At Baxter’s (1967)
Jefferson Airplane – Crown of Creation (1968)
28^th Day – s/t (1986) *****
Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers (1969)
Dexter Gordon – At The Subway Club (1973)
John Coltrane – Ballads (1963) *****
Tom Verlaine – Dreamtime (1981)
Stiv Bators – Disconnected (1980)
Black Sabbath – Montreux 1970 (1970) *****
Black Sabbath – s/t (1970)*****
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – The Good Earth (1974)
The Beach Boys – Feel Flows (1969-1971)
The Beach Boys – Sunshine Tomorrow (1967)
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)
Sly & The Family Stone – A Whole New Thing (1967)
Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)
Black Sabbath – Master of Reality (1971)
Black Sabbath – 4 (1972) *****
Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Lyres – Lyres (1985)
Gene Clark – Collected (1965-91) *****
Coleman Hawkins – Hawk Eyes (1959) *****
Pharoah Sanders – Live (1981) *****
McCoy Tyner – Inception (1962)*****
McCoy Tyner – Reaching Forth (1962)
The Cars – The Cars (1978)
McCoy Tyner – Nights of Ballads and Blues (1963)
McCoy Tyner – Today & Tomorrow (1964)
McCoy Tyner – Live At Newport (1962)
McCoy Tyner – Plays Ellington (1964)
Coltrane, Dolphy, Jones, Lewis, Tyner, Workman – Munich Jam (1961)
Albert Ayler – Something Different (1962) *****
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (1965) *****
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (1966) *****
Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand (1994)*****
Rain Parade – Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (1983)*****
Rain Parade – Explosions In The Glass Palace (1984)****
Rain Parade – Beyond The Sunset (1985)*****
Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman (1970)
Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind (1997) *****
The Waterboys – s/t (1983) *****
The Waterboys – A Pagan Place (1984)
The Waterboys – This Is The Sea (1985) *****
The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues (1998) *****
The Fall – Extricate (1990) *****
Robert Belfour – What’s Wrong With You? (2000)
Yung Wu – Shore Leave (1987)
Tiny Grimes & Coleman Hawkins – Blues Groove (1958)
Game Theory – The Big Shot Chronicles (1986) *****
Game Theory – Lolita Nation (1987) *****
Sonny Criss – Jazz USA (1956)
Sonny Criss – Go Man (1956)
The Fall – Are You Are Missing Winner (2001)*****
Dexter Gordon – Both Sides of Midnight (1967)*****
John Coltrane – Crescent (1964)*****
Dharma Bums – Haywire (1988)*****
King Tubby – Dub Gone Grazy (1975-79)*****
The Oblivians – 17 Cum Shots (1997)
The Playn Jayn – Five Good Evils (1985)
The Wreckery – Yeh My People (1987)
The Wreckery – Laying Down The Law (1989)
The Saints – Eternally Yours (1978)
Always August – Geography (1988)
Savage Resurrection – s/t (1968)
Salvation – s/t (1968)
The Thanes – Thanes of Cawdor (1987)
Grimble Grumble – s/t (1997) *****
Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967)*****
Steve Earle – I Feel Alright (1996) *****
Black Sabbath – Sabotage (1975)*****
Watchhouse – Such Jubilee (2015)
Man – 2 Oz’s Plastic With A Hole In The Middle (1969)*****
Centrum – For Meditation (2019)*****
Furry Lewis – s/t (1960)
Glen Campbell – Galveston (1969)
Jeff Wayne – War Of The Worlds (1978) *****
Rita Coolidge – The Lady’s Not For Sale (1972)
Heavenly – Le Jardin Du Heavenly (1992)
Johnny Rivers – Totally Live At The Whisky A Go Go (1964)
Johnny Rivers – Slim Slow Slider (1970)
Johnny Rivers – Whisky A Go Go Revisited (1967)
Johnny Rivers – Changes (1967)
Johnny Rivers – Meanwhile Back At The Whisky A Go Go (1965)
Johnny Rivers – Rocks The Folk (1965)
A A Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose (2009)
Johnny Rivers – A Touch Of Gold (1968)
Jerry Jeff Walker – !Viva Terlingua! (1973)
Kris Kristofferson – Jesus Was A Capricorn (1972)
V/A – C85 (1985)
Tim Hardin – Tim Hardin 2 (1967) *****
Black Country New Road – Ants From Up There (2022)*****
Slowdive – Souvlaki (1993)*****
Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Suite (1968) *****
Bobbie Gentry – Ode To Billie Joe (1967)*****
Eels – Electro-shock Blues (1998)
Thin White Rope – Exploring The Axis (1985)
Thin White Rope – Moonhead (1987)*****
Thin White Rope – Bottom Feeders (1987)
Thin White Rope – In The Spanish Cave (1988)
Thin White Rope – Red Sun (1988)*****
Thin White Rope – Sack Full of Silver (1990)*****
Thin White Rope – The Ruby Sea (1991) *****
Thin White Rope – Squatters’ Rights (1991)
Thin White Rope – The One That Got Away (1993)*****
Thin White Rope – Spoor (1995)
Elliot Smith – XO (1998)
Eels – Beautiful Freak (1996)
Vic Chesnutt – Is The Actor Happy? (1995)*****
Cactus World News – Urban Beaches (1986)
Plasticland – Salon (1987)*****
Plasticland – s/t (1984)
Banchee – s/t (1969)
Mahikari – s/t (2008)
Psycho Daisies – Pushin’ Up Daisies (1985)
Psycho Daisies – 30 mg Of Your Love (1990) *****
David Soul – s/t (1976)
The Groundhogs – Split (1971)*****
The Groundhogs – Thank Christ For The Bomb (1970)*****
The Groundhogs – Blues Obituary (1969) *****
The Groundhogs – Who Will Save The World? (1972)*****
Sonny Simmons – Now! (1963)
Sonny Simmons and Paul Gonsalves – Salt and Pepper (1964)
Felt – The Pictorial Jackson Review (1988)
Gene Clark & Friends – Live At The Three T’s (1985)
V/A – Chicago Blues From Federal Records (1957-64)
Loudon Wainwright III – Fame And Wealth (1983)*****
Hugo Race – Dishee (2021)
Lonesome Strangers – Lonesome Pine (1986)
Lucinda Williams – Lucinda Williams (1988) *****
Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly (1990)*****
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (1993) *****
Mazzy Star – Among My Swan (1996) *****
Chesterfield Kings – Psychedelic Sunrise (2007)
Onionhead – Live Camden Falcon (1989) *****
The Thanes – Evolver (1987-2001)
The Cynics – Rock’n’Roll (1989)*****
The Cynics – Living Is The Best Revenge (1998)*****
The Cynics – Get Our Way (1990)
Sun Kil Moon – Benji (2014)*****
Big Star – Third/Sister Lovers (1974)*****
Nick Drake – Bryter Later (1971) *****
Swans – The Seer (2012)
Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)
Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble – Neptune Collection (1976)
Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble – Ceremony of Dreams (1972-6)
Cocteau Twins – Treasure (1984)*****
The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)*****
Gregory Isaacs – Slum In Dub (1978)
The Fall – Shift-Work (1991)
The Fall – Middle Class Revolt (1994)
The Fall – Cerebral Caustic (1995)
The Fall – The Light User Syndrome (1996) *****
The Fall – Are You Are Missing Winner (2001)
Died Pretty – Free Dirt (1986)*****
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)*****
Gaz Coombes – World’s Strongest Man (2018)
Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey – Mavericks (1991)*****
Chris Stamey – It’s Alright (1987)
Catatonic Suns – Aphelion (2019)
Chris Stamey – Euphoria (2015)
The Fall – Agora Columbus Live (1985)*****
Charles Gayle – Touchin’ On Trane (1991)*****
Rainer – Nocturnes (1995)*****
Rainer – Worried Spirits (1992)*****
Tex, Don & Charlie – All Is Forgiven (2005)*****
Dan Stuart – The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings (2005)*****
Dan Stuart w Twin Tones – Marlowe’s Revenge (2006)*****
Dan Stuart – Unfortunate Demise of Marlowe Billings (2016)*****
Echo & The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)*****
Peter Case – Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (2007) *****
Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes – Night Of The Wolverine (1993)****
Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels (1983) *****
Robyn Hitchcock – Robyn Sings (2002)
Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006)*****
Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs (1989-2006)*****
The Waterboys – Live Adventures Of (1981-85)*****
Onionhead – 3 x 12”s (1990)*****
Orange Humble Band – Humblin’ (Across America) (2000)
The Tragically Hip – Up To Here (1989) *****
Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog (1972/3?)
Stooges – Stooges (1969) *****
Peter Case – Peter Case (1986)*****
Peter Case – The Man With The Post-Modern etc (1989)*****
Blue Mountain – Roots (2001)*****
Peter Case – The Midnight Broadcast (2021)
Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)*****
The Doors – s/t (1967)*****
The Blue Aeroplanes – Tolerance (1985)*****
Dan Stuart – Can O’ Worms (1995)*****
Dan Stuart – 4 Songs (2011)
Robyn Hitchcock – Eye (1990)*****
Robyn Hitchcock – Robyn Sings (2002)*****
Grant Lee Buffalo – Fuzzy (1993)*****
The Shadracks – s/t (2019)
The Shadracks – From Human Like Forms (2021)
The DB’s – I Thought You Wanted To Know (1978-81)
The DB’s – Stands for Decibels (1981)
The DB’s – Repercussion (1981)
The DB’s – Amplifier (1981)
The DB’s – Like This (1984)
Chris Stamey – Fireworks (1991)
Chris Stamey – Travels In The South (1994)*****
Nada Surf – Never Not Together (2020)*****
Bert Jansch – Jack Orion
Pentangle – s/t (1968)*****
Bert Jansch & John Renbourn – Bert & John (1966)
Bert Jansch – It Don’t Bother Me (1965)
Bert Jansch – s/t (1965)
John Renborn & Jacqui McShee – An Evening With (2019)
The Silos – The Bird Album Live on KCRW (1990)
Slowdive – Souvlaki (1993)*****
The Gourds – Dem’s Good Beeble (1996) *****
The Gourds – Stadium Blitzer (1998) *****
Shinyribs – Well After A While (2010)
Martin Simpson – The Bramble Briar (2001)
PF Sloan – Raised On Records (1972)*****
The Fall – Slates (1981)*****
Joe Crow – Compulsion (1982)*****
Josef K – The Only Fun In Town (1981)*****
The Magpie Arc – 1^st Three EP’s (2021)*****
Crime & The City Solution – Just South of Heaven (1985)*****
These Immortal Souls – Get Lost Don’t Lie (1987)*****
Crime & The City Solution – Shine (1988)*****
Crime & The City Solution – Paradise Discotheque (1990) *****
Crime & The City Solution – The Bride Ship (1989) *****
Simon Bonney – Forever (1992) *****
Simon Bonney – Everyman (1995)
Rowland S Howard – Teenage Snuff Film (1999)*****
Rowland S Howard – Pop Crimes (2009) *****
PF Sloan – Anthology (1965-68)*****
Junior Byles – Beat Down Babylon (1972)
David Lance Callahan – English Primitive I (2021)*****
David Lance Callahan – English Primitive II (2022)*****
The Records – Smashes, Crashes & Near Misses (1978-82)
Uncle Tupelo – No Depression (1990)*****
Cowboy Junkies – The Caution Horses (1990)*****
Cowboy Junkies – Black Eyed Man (1992)*****
Cowboy Junkies – Pale Sun Crescent Moon (1993)*****
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue (1977)
Mason Profitt – Two Hangmen (1969)
Mason Profitt – Movin’ Towards Happiness (1971)
V/A – Banks Of The Ship Canal, The Songs of Cyril Barrett (2018)
The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & The Lash (1995)*****
The Bevis Frond – North Circular (1997)*****
The Bevis Frond – Valedictory Songs (2000)*****
PF Sloan – Precious Times (1965-66)*****
The Wailing Souls – Inchpinchers (1982)*****
The Wave Pictures – Instant Coffee Baby (2008)*****
The Harbour Kings – The Big Kahuna (1992)*****
Billie Joe Beccoat – Reflections in a Cracked Mirror (1969)
Shack – Here’s Tom With The Weather (2002)
Tindersticks – s/t (1993)
June Tabor – Airs & Graces (1976)*****
June Tabor & Maddy Prior – Silly Sisters (1976)
June Tabor – Ashes & Diamonds (1977)*****
Talk Talk – The Colour of Spring (1986)*****
Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden (1988)
Lucinda Williams – Have Yourself A Rockin’ Little Xmas (2020)
Sybille Baier – Colour Green (1970-73)
The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Box (1986-88)
Steve Earle – Copperhead Road (1988)*****
Steve Earle – El Corazon (1997)*****
Graham Bond – Love Is The Law (1969)
Andromeda – s/t (1969)
Atomic Rooster – s/t (1970)
Hard Stuff – Bulletproof (1972)
Gene Parsons – Kindling (1973)*****
Townes Van Zandt – For The Sake Of The Song (1968)*****

16. 57 HISTORIC SITES/WALKS

Holy Trinity Church, Hardwicke, Herefordshire
Arthur’s Stone, Golden Valley, Herefordshire
Holy Trinity Church, Sloane St, London
Home of Emmy Bridgwater, B’ham
Site of home of Conroy Maddox, B’ham
Trocadero Pub, B’ham
Kardomah Café, B’ham
Guild Hall, Leicester
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral
St Peter’s church & prehistoric mound, Ugborough, Devon
Brisworthy Stone Circle, Dartmoor
John Rylands Library, M’cr
The Ridgeway, Uffington – Ogden St George
Wayland’s Smithy, Ridgeway
Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire
Owlpen Manor, Gloucestershire
Cotswold Way Uley/Nympsfield
Nympsfield Long Barrow
Uley Long Barrow/Hetty Pegler’s Tump
Uley Bury Hill Fort
Minchinhampton Common
Purton ships’ graveyard
Little Malvern Priory
Malvern Priory
St Anne’s Well, Malvern
Malvern Hills
Brighton Beach Flint Grotto – Rory McCormack
Grave of Lew Lake, Abney Park, London (“Stick it, Jerry!”)
Ham House, London
Bath Roman Baths
The Waveney Valley, Norfolk/Suffolk
The Locks Inn, Suffolk
St Mary’s Church, Bungay
Mettingham Castle, Suffolk
Dunino Den, Fife
St Andrews Cathedral
St Andrews Castle
Earlset Standing Stone, Fife
The Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire
The Guild Church, Stratford Upon Avon
Shakespeare grave & bench ends, Holy Trinity, Stratford Upon Avon
St Bartholemew’s The Great, City of London
Shakespeare’s City of London Walk w guide
Holy Innocents’ Church, Great Barton
Twyn Y Gaer hillfort, Brecon Beacons
Mynydd Illtud stone/s, Brecon Beacons
Pen y Crug hillfort, Brecon Beacons
Maen Llia stone, Brecon Beacons
Maen Madoc stone, Brecon Beacons
Sarn Helen Roman Road, Brecon Beacons
Waterfalls walk, Brecon Beacons
Broadstones stone circle site, Wiltshire
West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire
White Horse Hill, Wiltshire
St Mary’s Churchyard, Bath
Abney Park Cemetery post-Xmas expedition

17. 5 MUSEUMS

The Jazz Centre UK, Southend.
Southend Museum esp Prittlewell Princely Burial *****
Exeter Royal Albert Memorial Museum
Imperial War Museum North, Salford
Honeystreet Crop Circle Museum, Wiltshire

18. 6 RECOMMENDED BOOKSHOPS

Oxfam books, Oxford’s hidden gem
Oxfam books, Cheltenham’s chattering bluestocking hub
Oxfam books, Coventry’s exquisitely curated collection of curios
Oxfam books, Swansea stash
The Malvern Bookshop, Malvern
Burley Fischer books, Dalston, London

19. 10 RECOMMENDED RECORD SHOPS

Spillers – Welsh culture warhorse, Cardiff
Swordfish – B’ham’s living punk era museum
Truck – Oxford’s coffee-perfumed perennial
Badlands – Cheltenham boutique Byrds-suffused nook
Probe – Liverpudlian petri-dish of perennial Walking Seeds
South, Southend’s indie vinyl vault
Monorail Music – Glasgow, Pastel’s pungent outlet *****
Piccadilly Records, M’cr – Knowledgeable counterfolk
Carnival Records, Malvern – Hillside hipster outpost *****
Resident, Brighton – Clean and tidy music sluice

20. 37 ART

I saw 37 stand-alone artworks/art galleries/art exhibitions this year. Marina Abrimovich at the RA was far and away the best thing I saw. Grayson Perry’s Smash Hits made me reconsider him as a much more serious artist that I realized – maybe I just got old? The miaaowing cat grotto at Raveningham Hall was great and it was fun going to Saffon Waldren to find Michael Ayrton.

Edward Burne-Jones stained glass window – Holy Trinity, Sloane Sq

National Museum of Wales; Eileen Agar – Exceptional Occurrence; Francis Bacon – Study for Self Portrait; Merlyn Evans – Beechwood By Moonlight; Harold Gilman – The Kitchen; Augustus John – loadsastuff incl Dylan Thomas; Gwen Johns – loadsa stuff; David Jones – Portrait of a Maker, Crucifixion, St Francis, Jeus Mocked, Landscape in kent, Elephant, Siphon & Salver; RB Kitaj – TeDeum; LS Lowry – Six Bells; Monet – Waterlillies, Rouen; John Nash – Plage; John Piper; Ceri Richards; Stanley Spencer – Switzerland; Kyffin Williams; Christopher Wood – Rug Seller.

Horatio Nelson – Richard Westmacott (1775-1856), B’ham Bull Ring
A Real Birmingham Family – Rachel Wearing, B’ham
Tony Hancock – Bruce Williams, B’ham
Boulton, Watt & Murdoch – William Bloye, B’ham
Queen Victoria – William Bloye, B’ham
Iron Man – Anthony Gormley, B’ham
The Morris Window – Edward Burne-Jones (St Edmund Hall, Oxford)
Oxford Museum Of Modern Art. Marina Abramovic – Gates & Portals
The Wilson, Cheltenham. Arts & crafts, Morris, Burne-Jones, De Morgan.
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral – Elizabeth Frink, Tracey Emin

Horror Show, Ian & Jane Pollard – Somerset House, London. Noel Fielding; Mark E Smith; Jamie Reed; Helen Chadwick; Pam Hogg; Leigh Bowery; Chapman Bros; Dennis Morris; Matt Holness; Stewart Home; Derek Jarman; Michael Landy; Steve Pemberton; Nic Roeg; Scanner (Robin Rimbaud); Adam Scovell; Reece Shearsmith; David Shrigley; Iain Sinclair; Gavin Turk; Rachel Whiteread; Leonora Carrington; Linder; Alice Lowe. *****

Coventry Cathedral. Ecce Homo, St Michael – Jacob Epstein.
Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry – Interior Coventry Cathedral 1940 – John Piper; Figure 1964 – Barbara Hepworth; Lectern Eagle – Elizabeth Frink; Lady Godiva’s Prayer – Edwin Landseer; Yehudi Menuhin – David Wynne; Woman Taken In Adultery – William Holman Hunt; The Fount – Frank Dobson.

Beecroft Art Gallery – Southend. David Hockney, but little else on view.

The Box, Portsmouth – Lots of Barbara Hepworth, a Rose Hilton, a Stanley Spencer and Stanhope Forbes’ mighty A Fish Sale On A Cornish Beach.

M’cr Art Gallery – Ben Nicholson – 1932 Au Chat Botee; Gwen John – The Student; John Waterhouse – Hylas and The Nymphs; George Watts – A Greek Idyll; Frederick Shields – The Annunciation; Annie Louisa Swynnerton – Montagna Mia *****; Edward Burne Jones – Sibylla Delphia; William Holman Hunt – Light of The World, Hireling Shepherd*****; Lady Elizabeth Butler – Balaclava*****; Frederick Sandys – Vivien; William Blake – Poet’s heads ****

Brighton Beach Flint Grotto – Rory McCormack

The Holbourne Museum Bath – Painted Love Renaissance Marriage Portraits; Thomas Barker; Has Beham – The Judgement Of Paris; Brueghel the Younger – Wedding Dance In The Open Air, Visit To A Farmhouse; John Constable – Flatford Lodge; Arthur Devis – Alicia and Jane Clarke; Thomas Gainsborough; Francis Hayman – David Garrick as Richard III; Holbein – Erasmus; Joshua Reynolds; Samuel de Wilde – Thomas Collins as Slender; Willelm Wissing – John Hyde Earl of Rochester; Johann Zoffany – Garrick as Jaffier; & William Beckford’s gold filigree spoon collection.

Victoria Art Gallery Bath – John Armstrong – Psyche Crossing The Styx; Thomas Cooper – To Market In A Snow Drift; Alan Davie – For A Happy Moonday 4; Emmeline Deane – Anna Belinska; Hester Quinton Eversley – Interior Victoria Art Gallery; Charles Ginner- Old Houses Bath; Howard Hodgkin – Silence; Holbein the Younger – Henry VIII; David Inshaw – The River Bank; William Margetson – Mary At The Loom; Robert McGregor – Les Moulieres; John Nash – Canal Bridge Sydney Gardens; William Roberts – The Dressmakers; Henery Herbert La Thangue – The Splash; Edwin Whitney-Smith – The Scarab.

Raveningham Hall, Norfolk – 2023 Sculpture Trail *****
Edinburgh City Art – 250 Years Of Scottish Landscapes
Stuart Pearson Wright’s studio – Mettingham Castle
Grayson Perry – Smash Hits – Scottish National Gallery *****
Phoebe Traquair Murals, Edinburgh *****
Spencer, Lowry, Hockney, Ceri Richards – St Edmund Hall SCR, Oxford
Damien Hirst – Exquisite Pain – St Bartholomew The Great, London
Elizabeth Frink’s Canterbury Tales prints *****
A World of Private Mystery – Fry Gallery, Saffron Walden: Michael Ayrton, Robert Colquhoun, Robert MacBryde, Keith Vaughan, Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and John Minton.*****
Philip Guston – Tate Modern
Edward Burne-Jones’ Faith, Hope & Charity – Great Barton church
Yayoi Kusama – Infinity Mirror Rooms – Tate Modern *
Stuart Pearson Wright – Miscellanalects – Flowers
Marina Abrimovich – Royal Academy *****
El Anatsui – Behind The Red Moon – Tate Modern
Michael Ayrton – Icarus III

21. ARTWORKS I DIDN’T SEE THIS YEAR AS THEY HAD BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM DISPLAY IN THE GALLERIES I VISITED, OR BECAUSE THEY WERE CLOSED, PERMANENTLY OR TEMPORARILLY.

Birmingham Art Gallery – All the art has been locked away until 2024, including Francis Bacon – Figures In Landscape; Lamorna Birch – A Cornish Stream; David Bomberg – Bab-es-siq, Carnival, Hezekiah’s Pool, Self Portrait; Frank Brangwyn – Enrico Canziani, The Bridge; Georges Braque – Pichet; John Bratby – Courtyard w Washing; Emmy Bridgwater – Night Work Is About To Commence; Ford Maddox Brown – Wycliffe Trial, Work, Boy, Pretty Baa-Lanbs, Tristram, Last Of England; Kate Elizabeth Bunce – Musica; Edward Burne-Jones – King & Other Mourners, Peleas, Pygmailion x 4, Psyche x7, Wheel of Fortune, Zephyrus, Annunciation, The Wizard, Study of Oblivion, Troy Triptych; Edward Calvert – Pan, Ulysses, Artemis; Patrick Caulfied – Red & White; Degas – Beggar Woman; Jacob Epstein – Rock Drill, Euphemia Lamb, Tagore, Einstein; Fuseli – Hotspur etc; Spencer Gore; Duncan Grant – Boats @ Twickenham, Dancers, On The Table; Terry Frost – Black & Lemon, Black & Dust Pink; Gluck – Village Church; Barbara Hepworth – Sun & Moon, Cosdon Head, Prelude 1; Maggie Hambling – Max & Me; Richard Hamilton – Whitley Bay, Patrick Heron – Portheor, Standing Figure; Howard Hodgkin – Venice Sunset, Gardening, Room W Chair; William Holman-Hunt – Lantern Maker, Finding Of Saviour, Valentine; Arthur Hughes – Amy, Young Poet, Annunciation, Nativity, Lost Child; Augustus John – Canadian Soldier; RB Kitaj – Desk Murder; Harold Knight – Barry Jackson; Laura Knight – Autumn Sunlight, Les Sylphides; Peter Lanyon – Offshore; John Frederick Lewis; John Linnell – Sheep Drive; LS Lowry – An Industrial Town; Bruce McLean – Spoon 2; John Millais – 3 Sword Hilts, Widow’s Mite, Waiting, Second Sermon, Enemy, Mrs Joseph Chamberlain; Henry Moore – Warrior W Shield; Desmond Morris – Jumping; Alfred Munnings – Barry Jackson, In Cornwall, Epsom Downs; Ben Nicholson – 1950, 1944/5 Scarf; William Nicholson – Pink Still Life; Victor Passmore – Straw Hat, Spiral Motif; John Piper – Ruined Cottage; Renoir – Mdm Renoir; George Richmond; Bridget Riley – Cherry Autumn; William Blake Richmond; Dante Rosetti – Beata Beatrix, Proserpine; Emma Sandys – Lady Holding Rose; Frederick Sandys – Autumn, Medea, Morgan Le Fay; Walter Sickert – Rue Notre Dame, Dieppe Races; Simeon Solomon – Babylon, Bacchus; Joseph Edward Southall; Stanley Spencer – Resurrection, Old Tannery Mills, The Psychiatrist; Graham Sutherland – Edward Sackville West; JAMES SMETHAM (of Queen Elizabeth Walk, Stoke Newington)- THE MANY WINTERED CROW; Henry Tonks – The Orchard, Hat Shop, China Cabinet, Crystal Gazers; Henry Wallis – Chatterton; GF Watts – Little Red Riding Hood; JB Yeats – Dublin Night, An Old Car Driver; and many more!

Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry. The following were among the works not available to view; Christ Seated – Graham Sutherland; Princess Elizabeth Opening The New Broadgate – Laura Knight;, The Bridge – John Tunnard; Miss Ashwandan In Cookham – Stanley Spencer; Dame Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth – Reginald Eves; Hill Farm In Merioneth – Kyffin Williams; Summer – Henry Baynton; Stackyard – Paul Nash; Hippies – Neville Watts.

Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend. The city withheld the following works, amongst many more, from the public; Frank Brangwynn – Old Hammersmith; John Constable – River Stour; Henry Moore – Off Leigh-on-Sea; John Piper – Morten Corbet Castle; Dante Gabriel Rosetti – Fanny Cornforth; JMW Turner – Temple of Jupiter; John Varley – Landscape; Kyfinn Williams – Deserted Farm LLanrhudladd, Sea At Treardurr.

22. 28 MY FOOD JOURNEY

(highlights – this isn’t everything I ate in 2023)

Lambeth scallops, a scallop-free chorizo dish made by me
Cabbage stuffed with meat, Daquise, South Kensington
Wok To Walk vegetable mix, all over the place on tour
Fake bacon and chicken salad, The Cheeky Vegan, Exeter
Baked potato with tuna, Saltram National Trust cafe, Plymouth
Punjabi vegan breakfast, Chakra, Buxton *****
Vegetable phaal, Shapla, Inverness
Vegetable phaal, Rishi’s, Aberdeen
Mixed vegetable karahi vindaloo, Bombay Blue, Glasgow *****
Jones & Sons, Dalston, generally *****
A prawn curry with roast broccoli and cucumber peanut salad *****
Some poached sea bass with fried potatoes and creamed spinach *****
A stuffed pepper with fried okra *****
Chorizo lardons in coddled eggs made by me *****
Turkish breakfast, Nev Kitchen, Dalston
Kurdish kebab, Rojava, Edinburgh
Octopus balls, Koyama, Edinburgh
Lamb balti, Hussain’s, Stratford Upon Avon
Fish and Chips, Alandas, Longniddry *****
Snails & rabbit & a Corbieres Red, No 1 Ship Street, Oxford *****
Salt and pepper tofu & beef curry, Pho Viet 101, Dalston *****
A monkfish curry
Chilli eggs, Brunswick East, Dalston *****
Severely reduced mushrooms with Bovril ™ & garlic
Papo’s bagels, Shacklewell, London *****
My sage eggs *****
Jethro’s katsu aubergines
Lucy’s artichoke soup

25. ON THE PEDESTAL

Carol Vordemonkey
Gary Linnecrisps
Feral Sharkey
Byline Times
James O’Brien
Harringey Tree Protectors
Just Stop Oil
Extinction Rebellion
George Monbiot
Nesrine Malik
The National Trust
Paul Powesland
Channel 4
Good Law Project
All hunt saboteurs

26. IN THE PEDAL BIN

Terrorists
Trumpists
Genocidal maniacs
All Tories and their supporters/apologists
All British newspapers except Guardian
The BBC and its board
ITV
GBNews
Tim Weatherspoon
Gervais, Chapelle etc
All Tufton St outfits and their stooges/mouth-holes
I’m A Celebrity
Wank McPissflaps & Dickhead Dunnawee
Piss Moron

27. NOTE TO SELF – PLACES I HOPE TO VISIT IN 2024

St John The Baptist, Barnack, Stamford – Statue of Christ
All Saints Church, Thorney Hill, New Forest – murals
St Martin on the Hill, Scarborough
St Martin’s Church, Brampton, Cumbria
St Mary’s, Nun Monkton, Yorkshire
Christ Church, Southgate, London
St Michael & All Angels, Brighton
Waterford Church, Hertfordshire
All Saints Church, Youlgreave, Peak District, D’shire
Holy Trinity Church Leamington Spa
St Agatha’s Church, Easby
Torre Abbey, Torbay
The Tabard pub, Chiswick, De morgan, Crane
Ewelme church, Oxfordshire.
The church of St Botolph’s at Skidbrooke
Tew Magna
Aldbury, Hertfordshire, a Woodwose
St Cadoc’s church, Llancarfan
Church of St Mary, Longworth, Oxfordshire – Bunce art
St Mary’s church in Llanfair Kilgedden
St James church nr Bix Chilterns
All Saints, Margaret St, London – Butterfield
Taos Pueblo, one more time
Hopi lands
Tucson, Az
Papa Westray

9) IN OUR LAMENTATIONS 2023

Vivienne Westwood (Punk trousers,1941)
Ruggero Deodato (Junk genius, 1939)
Kelly Monteith (Lucky pants stand-up, 1942)
Alan Rankine (Associate musician, 1958)
Michael Snow (Jazz filmmaker, 1928)
Darryl Hunt (Pogue bass, 1950)
Jeff Beck (He happened ten years time ago, 1944)
Jane Suck (punk chronicler, 195?)
Yukihiro Takahashi (Sadistic Mika Man, 1952)
Ronald Blythe (Akenfieldsman, 1922)
Piers Haggard (hack genius of Claw and Quatermass, 1932)
Van Connor (sturdy psychedelic tree, 1967)
David Sutherland (Bash Street basher, 1933)
David Crosby (Byrdmaniac, 1941)
Tom Verlaine (Sui generis genius Televisionary, 1949)
Burt Bacarach (Musical cheesnius, 1928)
Eugene Cheese (chucklin’ cheesenius moocher, 1944)
Betty Boothroyd (croaky speaker, 1939)
Wayne Shorter (Shorter no longer, 1933)
David Lindley (Kaleidoscopic guitarist, 1944)
Keith Johnstone (Improvisational Canadian, 1933)
Rolly Crump (West Coast Pop Artist, 1930)
Paul O’Grady (Proudly woke drag act, 1955)
Peter Usborne (Mysterious publisher, 1937)
Tony Coe (Jazz panther, 1934)
Milan Kundera (He czech’d out, 1929)
Barry Humphries (Machenalian, 1934)
Mark Stewart (Bristol pre-post-punk pioneer, 1960)
Johnny Fean (Horslips guitar bandit, 1951)
Ian Ross (Jokin’ juggler, 1958)
Frank Kozik (the Giotto of grunge, 1962)
Andy Smart (Bull-running comedian, 1959)
Alan Frank (Gateway ‘70s film scribe, 1942)
Algy Ward (Damned bass Saint, 1959)
Andy Rourke (Sainted bass Smith, 1964)
Pete Brown (Battered ornament, 1940)
George Logan (The Black Cap’s breakout Hinge, 1944)
Jah Shaka (Sound system shaker, 1948)
Spot (SST soundman, 1951)
Ahmad Jamal (cool jazz piano 1931)
Harry Belafonte (anti-apartheid boat singer, 1927)
Gordon Lightfoot (Fitzgerald wrecker, 1938)
Stu James (Mojo not working, 1945)
Jon Povey (Pretty bass Thing, 1942)
Broderick Smith (Singing Dingoe, 1948)
Wee Willie Harris (2 I’s wild man, 1933)
Cliff Fish (Paper Bass, 1949)
Simon Emerson (Afro-Celt Weekender and a very nice man, 1956)
Bruce Barthol (Fish bass, 1947)
Top Topham (Yardbird, 1947)
Renee Geyer (Voice of Sun, 1947)
Tony McPhee (Groundhog hookerman, 1944)
Martin Duffy (He Felt the keys, 1967)
Jack Lee (He nervously hung on the telephone, 1952)
Cormac McCarthy (The real writing deal, 1933)
Peter Brotzmann (Machine-gunner, 1941)
Henrietta Soames (Novelist, theatregoer, gardener, guerrilla rose grower, 1958)
Bill Allerton (Outstanding Stand Out Gentleman disc dealer)
Lord Creator (Rocksteady artistocrat, 1935)
Blackie Onassis (Urge Overkiller, 1966)
Tony Butler (Alan Partridge of Birmingham, 1935)
Jane Birkin (Je t’aime, 1946)
Adrian Street (glam wrestler, 1940)
Ron S Peno (He died pretty, 1955)
Sixto Rodriuguez (rediscovered man, 1941)
Robbie Robertson (Bandleader, 1943)
Erkin Koray (Turkish delight, 1941)
David LaFlamme (It’s a beautiful violin, 1941)
George Tickner (Fruminous snatchman, 1946)
Louis Tillet (Dark lord of the keyboard, 1959)
Brian McBride (Star of The Lid, 1970)
Charles Gayle (Jazz sax titan, 1939)
Richard Davis (Jazz bass sidesman, 1930)
Malcolm Hay (Comedy listings magnate without whom…1941)
Geoff Davies (He probed the Liverpool punks)
Jon Privett (Wordseller on the Water)
John George (TJ Electrician of The Art Of Repair)
David McCallum (Uncle platformed the WCPAEB, 1933)
The Sycamore Gap Tree
Michael Gambon (He was kind to Paul Putner, 1940)
Carla Bley (Jazznik,1936)
Tony Husband (Political cartoonist & a very nice man, 1950)
Angelo Bruschini (Original Blue Aeroplane, 1960)
Dwight Twilley (Power popster, 1951)
Roger Whittaker (He has left old Durham town as promised, 1936)
Gary Wright (His teeth were haunted, 1943)
Gary Young (He drummed on the Pavement, 1953)
AS Byatt (Ragnarocking writer, 1936)
Annabelle Giles (a funny, clever, kind lady, 1959)
Shane MacGowan (Refused to knuckle under & become a professional, 1957)
Tony Allen (His career started as Lenny Bruce’s ended, 1945)
Denny Laine (Winged Brummie diplomat, 1944)
Mars Williams (Punk jazz sax, 1955)
Benjamin Zephaniah (Handsworth revolutionary, 1958)
Sticky Vicky (Vaginal magician, 1943)
John Hyatt (1/3^rd Three Johns)
Shirley Anne Field (Damned decoy, 1938)
Raquel Welch (Hannie get your gun, 1940)
Bobby Sutliff (His power pop broke the wind, 1956)
Wilf Lunn (prop genius, 1942)
100 Colaton Raleigh beech trees (1823)
Scott Kempner (Dictator of the Del-Lords, 1954)
Brian Godding (His toes blossomed, 1945)

10) AND HERE’S AN XMAS GHOST STORY I WROTE FOR THE OBSERVER, FOLLOWED BY A LINK TO C VORDEMAN’S TACTICAL VOTING CAMPAIGN.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/24/the-bleak-midwinter-messages-a-conservative-ghost-story-for-christmas

https://stopthetories.vote

THANKS FOR TURNING OUT TO SEE ME IN 2023. NEW LIVE SHOW BACK END OF ‘24. MUCH APPRECIATED. YOU SHOULDA KILLED ME LAST YEAR! PEACE!! I’M OUTTA HERE!!!