Like Ezra Pound’s notes on The Waste Land if they’d been more cutting, self-critical and in awe of Johnny Vegas, Stewart Lee here transcribes and annotates the three stand-up shows that brought him back from disillusioned retirement in 2001 to his position as one of the UK’s most revered struggling comedians. From conception through to reception, Lee traces the development of each show, (two of which were recorded at The Stand in Glasgow), acknowledges debts to comics such as Simon Munnery, Greg Fleet and his old partner Richard Herring, while guiding the reader line-by-line through the intricacies of describing to an audience the act of vomiting into the gaping anus of Christ.

Taking comedy seriously but himself rather less so (it’s subtitled ‘The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian’), Lee’s footnotes serve as wry toppers to his original routines, their knowing, brutal honesty permitting him to settle a few scores and brazenly insult friend and foe alike. Exceptionally funny and insightful.

In the late 80s I used to do standup at a Soho club called Raging Bull, run by the young Eddie Izzard. At half-time we shared our dressing room with male strippers from The Paul Raymond Carnival of Erotica. They would sit naked in their chairs, casually chatting and masturbating, but not for pleasure, merely to keep their members at the maximum tumescence for public display, the legal definition of an erection being 45 degrees.

I for one feel this definition is too exacting, and hope that one of the benefits of leaving the European Union will be a relaxation in the erection rules. In fact, I wonder if, secretly, it is a desire to set our own standards on what level of tumescence constitutes an erection that has made Mark Francois, for example, such a zealous Brexiteer.

It is hard to believe my accidental encounter with the sharp end of the sex business ever happened now. I was 20, and I was sitting in a room in Soho watching naked men masturbating. It was everything my worried gran had warned me showbiz would be.

The Mull of Kintyre famously juts out from mainland Scotland at exactly the same angle as that of the legal penis definition, and it is said that for many years the British Board of Film Censors used an image of the peninsula to judge the legality of an onscreen erection, the outcrop first employed to analyse sex scenes in Tinto Brass’s 1979 epic, Caligula.

I have a confession. The opening of this column is cut and pasted from notes towards my new standup show, Snowflake/Tornado, which previews at London’s Leicester Square theatre from the 24th. On Tuesday morning I travelled to the lighthouse at the bell end of the Mull, the closest mainland point to the Northern Irish coast, to shoot some footage for a multimedia climax to the piece, based around my youthful memories of the Soho dressing room incident.

In the dawn mist of the Mull, I looked across the sea towards Northern Ireland, and noticed, on the beach, a strange mixture of surveyors in high-vis jackets, and druidic figures in dark robes, waving sextants and staffs respectively. Cloaked men were chanting, “We build a bridge, a bridge of lies.” Back then, I had no idea what they meant.

Later that day, on my Campbeltown hotel television, I saw Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Letterbox Cake Bumboys Vampires Haircut Wall-Spaffer Spunk-Burster Fuck-Business Fuck-the-Families Get-Off-My-Fucking-Laptop Girly-Swot Big-Girl’s-Blouse Chicken-frit Turds Johnson declare his intention to build a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, something, he quickly pointed out “that Jeremy Corbyn would be too chicken-frit to do!”

Turds has form here. In my newly published study of Brexit, March of the Lemmings, I detail Turds’ previous declaration of bridge-building intent. On 18 January 2018, as the EU’s transition deal stance hardened, and a discredited Turds doubled down on his disputed £350m NHS dividend lie, the then foreign secretary promised a 22-mile motorway crossing from England to France, an obvious dead cat distraction from the gathering Brexit storm.

No one seems to remember this now, but Turds’ wall-spaffed envelope-back spunk-burst of an idea was swiftly dismissed by the UK Chamber of Shipping with an understated rebuttal: “Building a huge concrete structure in the middle of the world’s busiest shipping lane might come with some challenges.” Turds’ London Garden Bridge project had already ended in ignominy.

It is as if Turds has a strange bridge-based Tourette syndrome. Whenever he finds himself under pressure, Turds’ default setting seems to be to announce, in a mad panic, that he will build some kind of bridge. And by the time of his Tuesday bridge announcement, Turds has been sorely stressed.

On Monday morning Turds was easily bested in his beloved classical allusion stakes by Ireland’s Leo Varadkar, whom Turds presumably considers a bumboy. And in the evening Turds saw parliament dissolve in a haze of rousing oppositional folk singing and chants of “shame on you”, which was not good optics.

Normally reserved procedure-nerds lay themselves across the retiring Speaker like Spearmint Rhino lapdancers. Mark Francois, who seemed to have taken ketamine, stood up to ramble prophetically about a bell tolling, and whom it was tolling for, a Peter Glaze Cassandra in the Crackerjack Trojan War. But when I look at Mark Francois I know the Bell End tolls for him.

By Tuesday afternoon, questions of funding, construction material strength, and the problem of unexploded Second World war munitions in the straits between Scotland and Northern Ireland had already thrown Turds’ latest bridge boast into doubt. I went down to the beach again, assuming the figures there had some connection to the project.

A bearded wizard figure chanted into the waves, “Come, oh lies! Take physical form! Bend to the will of Boris!” I caught the eye of a bewildered engineer, hard-hatted head bent into the wind. “I know, I know,” he said, “we’re here on the orders of Dominic Cumming. We’re to build Boris’s Irish bridge from the strongest, most indestructible material available.” I asked what that material was. “Mr Cumming’s and Mr Johnson’s lies, apparently,” said the engineer, nonplussed. “They believe they can withstand anything.”

On Wednesday I watched the hotel television while I waited for the film crew. Suddenly, it seemed that Turds’ proroguing had been declared illegal. Parliament might reconvene.

There appeared to be some consternation down on the beach too. Staffs were snapped in two. Surveying equipment was hurled into the sea. An engineer bellowed into a mobile phone. One of the druids sat down on a rock to roll a pacifying joint.

Luxury box set of 4 heavyweight 180g LPs. Includes a 20-page booklet with photos, interviews and an essay by Wolfgang Seidel as well as the original festival programme with a text by Brian Morton.

Order on Bandcamp (inside EU) or via www.ptd.lu (EU & worldwide).

Includes unlimited streaming of Just Not Cricket! via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

National Bound: Wills Morgan and Lucy Stevens in the Battersea Arts production of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

As a statement of intent, it could not be clearer. Just as soon as the last tuxedos are tucked away from Cole Porter's gentle musical Anything Goes, an altogether less housetrained beast is going to be unleashed on to the stage of the National Theatre next year.
Jerry Springer - The Opera, a cheeky, irreverent, and joyously filthy musical theatre satire on the TV chat show no one likes to admit to watching, will be Nicholas Hytner's first big production when his reign begins in April.

As a first choice it sends an unmistakable message that the years ahead are likely not only to be risky and exciting but revolutionary in a way that Sir Trevor Nunn's were not.

As a statement of intent, it could not be clearer. Just as soon as the last tuxedos are tucked away from Cole Porter's gentle musical Anything Goes, an altogether less housetrained beast is going to be unleashed on to the stage of the National Theatre next year.

Jerry Springer - The Opera, a cheeky, irreverent, and joyously filthy musical theatre satire on the TV chat show no one likes to admit to watching, will be Nicholas Hytner's first big production when his reign begins in April.

As a first choice it sends an unmistakable message that the years ahead are likely not only to be risky and exciting but revolutionary in a way that Sir Trevor Nunn's were not.

Hytner had to fight hard to drag the cult show, the hit of the Edinburgh Festival, out of the hands of a clutch of West End producers, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. It is also a triumph for the Battersea Arts Centre in south London, one of the hottest cradles of theatrical talent. The show started there from fewer than 10 minutes of material on one of its famous "scratch nights". Over the past 18 months, its composer Richard Thomas and co-writer comedian Stewart Lee have developed and tinkered with it in front of live audiences.

Yesterday BAC's director, Tom Morris, said a new era was dawning at the National. "It's just amazing. The idea of the National Theatre audience chanting "Jerry! Jerry!" as Edinburgh ones did is the sort of thing you talk about late at night when you are very, very drunk.

"It's quite flabbergasting what Nick Hytner is doing. One of the things said about the National in the past was that it was a bit isolated. There was this idea that the best artists would just seep in if it sat back and waited.

"It's one thing to say I'm going to look outside the building, another to do so. Hytner has been out looking around lots of fringey places, from ourselves to the Arcola in Dalston, which is just fantastic. For him to have the courage to go with one of his finds is just, well, amazing. And, believe me, we have plenty more at BAC where that came from."

Although Hytner will not unveil his detailed vision until next month, the smoke signals coming out of the South Bank bunker are that he is thinking radical thoughts. Much of the change being talked of actually began in the twilight years of the Nunn regime, with the creation of The Loft space in the Lyttelton for edgy new work.

The sea of grey heads stereotype that has come to characterise the National's audiences is clearly about to change.

Jerry Springer will also be the first opera staged there, not that Covent Garden or the English National Opera have often been graced with tunes like "My boyfriend doesn't know I'm a man".

Hytner's choice of a musical as his first big signature production is also being seen as a mark of solidarity with Nunn, who has been roasted for his fondness for staging big Broadway musicals that quickly transfer to the West End.

Yesterday Hytner would not be drawn on his plans. "I've followed the development of Jerry Springer - The Opera since I saw it in a workshop production 18 months ago at Battersea Arts Centre. It's exactly the kind of work the National should be doing: bold, scabrous, funny, and beautiful. I'm delighted to be working with Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee on their ground-breaking new opera."

Thomas and Lee are still working on sections of the show, which was given a concert performance at Edinburgh. Julian Crouch, who designed Shockheaded Peter, another fringe theatre gem that built up a cult following, has also been brought on board.

· Adrian Noble will direct Ralph Fiennes in Ibsen's Brand in his last play for the Royal Shakespeare Company before he steps down as artistic director. It will then transfer for a limited run to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London.

The spring season at Stratford also has The Taming of the Shrew paired with John Fletcher's rarely-performed sequel, The Tamer Tamed. Bill Alexander returns to direct Titus Andronicus. As You Like It, Cymbeline, Measure For Measure and Richard III complete the line up.

It's one of those dream concepts that catches everyone's imagination. Jerry Springer and opera: that's funny right? And extra buzz about this opera-comedy together by Stewart Lee, stand-up turned director, and Richard Thomas, whose CV includes an opera called Tourette's Diva.

They have slowly built this tribute to telly's king of dysfunctional relationships from tentative concert performances to try-out first act, all the time getting audience feedback and pointers about which way to head next. 'It's evolved in a weird, Labour Party-style public partnership with its financial supporters,' laughs Lee.

So although its official debut is not until now in Edinburgh, it has already attracted attention on a global scale. Its try-out in February at the Battersea Arts Centre drew audiences from as far afield as New York as well as promoters including Cameron Mackintosh, Andrew Lloyd Webber and National Theatre director Nick Hytner. There and then, Lee and Thomas were given offers of a West End run.

Luckily for us they resisted. This is Lee's 15th consecutive year on the Fringe and Thomas is not far behind with 11 visits. The festival is their artistic home and they wanted to give the show one last tweak for Edinburgh, cutting 40 minutes of good but not quite perfect material before what seems like the inevitable commercial transfer. 'I wanted to do it right, to really finish it off,' says Thomas, a self-taught composer. 'And Edinburgh's a great place to do it. It's the greatest festival on earth.'

Lee and Thomas are two men who know they're on a roll. Sitting opposite me in a quiet corner above their Clapham rehearsal room, they babble away in a high-speed barrage of enthusiasm, the one barely giving room for the other to speak. 'I thought we'd get a real backlash from the opera crowd,' says Thomas. 'That it would be seen as too lowbrow or undignified. But in fact, they really liked it.'

Lee chips in: 'I don't know anything about opera, so I just treated it like a comedy script that needed editing. But then when the opera people were coming in and going: "This is the funniest thing I've ever seen," I went and saw some opera and I thought, well, it probably is. If you've only ever seen West End musicals or opera, this is probably astonishing. It's written by people who have worked in comedy and know what is really funny, instead of what someone wrongly imagines as funny.'

Set in the dying days of The Jerry Springer Show, the first act features three sets of guests with guilty secrets. Interspersed are solos in which they reveal their real secrets (the man who says he likes to wear diapers really likes shitting his pants). Act two is set inside the mind of Jerry Springer as he descends into hell. The two men have used the conventions of the TV programme to inform the opera. 'In Jerry Springer,' says Lee, 'he says: "What's your problem then?" and you're straight into where you want to be. The programme has really harsh edits. That means you dispense with intros and outros or having to have things that are in the same key thrown together.'

The idea first came to Thomas as he watched The Jerry Springer Show and saw lots of fat people shouting at each other incoherently: just like in opera. 'Opera is an extreme form,' he says. 'So if you're going to write an opera, you may as well use an extreme subject. If the guests are screaming at each other - 'You pervert, you sicko, you motherfucker" - the music can go against that: the subtext can come through.'

The two had a meeting with Springer himself ('I think of him as Saint Mephistopheles,' says Thomas), who gave his tacit agreement to the project and may even turn up in person when he appears at the Edinburgh Television Festival. Are there any legal complications I ask? 'Er...' says Thomas, uncharacteristically panicked. 'I can't really say.'

So why does he think it's taking off in such a big way? 'It genuinely is pretty funny,' he says. 'It's tight. It's not boring. All the things you associate with opera, it isn't. But musically, we've got fantastic singers who have to be really good because it's complex stuff. I get a kick from the fact that people might be laughing over some serious, complex music.'

1. SAVE THE TOMB OF THE EAGLES

One of my favorite places in the world is the neolithic Tomb of The Eagles on Orkney. Instead of making it easy for themselves and just reburying it, the farming family that owned the land it occupied tried to run it for the benefit of visitors, with young volunteer archaeologists staffing a museum full of amazing objects.  They marked out a stunning route from the farm to the tomb and installed a little trolley on wheels with a rope so you couldn’t haul yourself along the entrance passage into the chamber. I have visited three times and I loved it.  But obviously covid wiped out tourism temporarily and picking up the financial pieces proved impossible and this incredible place closed to the public.
These people of the Island of South Ronaldsay (below) are trying to crowdfund reopening the Tomb so please help!

About the Tomb

The internationally famous Neolithic chambered cairn at Isbister, known as the Tomb of the Eagles, occupies a spectacular clifftop location in the South Parish of South Ronaldsay. The 5,000+ year-old burial tomb is currently in private ownership. For over 20 years it was a successful family-run, and family-friendly, visitor attraction comprising the chambered cairn, scenic walks, a Bronze Age burnt mound, and a visitor centre. The Tomb provided employment opportunities for young people, and established itself as a much-loved and unique part of South Ronaldsay and Orkney’s tourism scene.

Why is it closed?

In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the suspension of tourism activity, and the tomb was closed to visitors. It did not reopen, and the family has now decided to retire, and to sell the Tomb and associated assets.

What are we doing about it?

With the family's full support, we, the South Ronaldsay community, are working to buy these assets, reopen the tomb, and redevelop the site using sustainable tourism principles.

To buy the site and make it safe, we are actively applying for funding from several places, including the Scottish Land Fund, the National Heritage Lottery Fund, and Orkney-based resources. Crowdfunding and sponsorship from local businesses will then help us staff and run the site, creating a sustainable and welcoming hub for the South Ronaldsay and wider community.

What has happened so far?

We have commissioned expert surveys of the tomb itself to assess its structural integrity, of the buildings and land that will support the visitor experience, and of the financial viability of running the site as a community-owned place. Each report has shown that our plan is viable, as long as we can upgrade the facilities already in place. Best of all, the 5000 year-old tomb remains in excellent condition!

Why this crowdfund?

Through our crowdfunder campaign, we hope to raise a minimum of £20,000 to re-open the visitor centre, including renovating the museum displays, shop and toilet facilities, and providing a snack and hot drinks service. If successful, we plan that the centre and site will once again welcome visitors starting in late summer 2025.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tomb-of-the-eagles

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2. SAVE THE MOTH CLUB, HACKNEY, LONDON

Why can’t we have nice things? Predictably this superb grass roots music and comedy venue, with real atmosphere and fantastic sound and sightlines where we shot much of King Rocker, is at risk of closure due to a dodgy housing development. Two housing proposals have been deliberately split into two applications to avoid the obligation to include social housing. Save The Moth Club here

https://www.change.org/p/moth-club-faces-second-building-planning-application

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3. NEW MERCH

Along with WAXFACE’s usual line of Stewart Lee merch there are new for 2025 t-shirts and hoodies on the Man-Wulf theme, all of the highest quality. I’d wear them myself but I’d look arrogant. Waste the money your Nan gave you for Xmas here

wax-face.com/stewart-lee

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4. MAN-WULF BY THE PRIMEVALS

Glasgow’s garage punk veterans The Primevals announce a new single as featured in the new Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf U.K. tour.
There are 3 versions
Side a I’m The Man-Wulf
Side b I’m The Man-Wulf (long nail edit)
Plus a 9 minute I’m The Man-Wulf (long nail version) (I LOOOOOVE THIS!!)

Vinyl sides a&b were released on a 7” 45 in January.
See The Primevals live JUNE 27^th London Hope & Anchor, 28^th Preston Ferret.

https://primevals.bandcamp.com

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5. BASIC LEE IS ON NOW TV

https://www.nowtv.com/ie/watch/entertainment/collections/ultimate-comedy/asset/stewart-lee-basic-lee.../A5EK6949itCVNKaChrDXN

You’ll have to subscribe though.

Here is a thorough, and not entirely positive, review from a thoughtful young man on Youtube, still better than most pro-critics.
https://youtu.be/kdOYgqCzJ4s?si=1uIZBn8tMWsAiS0h

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6. STEWART LEE VS THE MAN-WULF

John Mackay & Sally Homer, in association with Debi Allen/Curtis Brown present
STEWART LEE vs THE MAN-WULF BRAND NEW SHOW


UK TOURING THROUGHOUT 2025

NB: TICKETS FOR THESE SHOWS WILL REMAIN AT THE ADVERTISED PRICE. SURGE PRICING IS IMMORAL AND TICKETMASTER AND OASIS ARE WANKERS, ENCOURAGED BY SUCCESSIVE TORY CULTURE SECRETARIES IN THEIR CRIMINAL ENDEAVOURS.

In this brand-new show, Lee shares his stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee. Can the beast inside us all be silenced with the silver bullet of Lee's unprecedentedly critically acclaimed style of stand-up.

STEWART LEE vs THE MAN-WULF Opened at Leicester Square Theatre in December 2024 the new show will tour to UK cities throughout 2025.

I AM VERY PLEASED WITH HOW THIS SHOW IS SHAPING UP - PRESS IS COLLECTING HERE.

April 2025

Tuesday 1st April 2025 - Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield - TICKETS
Wednesday 2nd April 2025 - Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield - TICKETS
Thursday 3rd April 2025 - New Theatre, Peterborough - TICKETS
Friday 4th April 2025 - Palace Theatre, Southend - TICKETS
Saturday 5th April 2025 - Palace Theatre, Southend - TICKETS
Sunday 6th April 2025 - Palace Theatre, Southend - TICKETS
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 - Royal & Derngate, Northampton - TICKETS
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 - Royal & Derngate, Northampton - TICKETS
Monday 28th April 2025 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS
Tuesday 29th April 2025 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS
Wednesday 30th April 2025 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

May 2025

Thursday 1st May 2025 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS
Friday 2nd May 2025 - The Mach Arena, Machynlleth Comedy Festival - TICKETS
Saturday 3rd May 2025 - The Mach Arena, Machynlleth Comedy Festival - TICKETS
Sunday 4th May 2025 - The Mach Arena, Machynlleth Comedy Festival - TICKETS
Tuesday 6th May 2025 - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS
Wednesday 7th May 2025 - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS
Thursday 8th May 2025 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS
Friday 9th May 2025 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS
Saturday 10th May 2025 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS
Monday 12th May 2025 - Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton - TICKETS
Thursday 15th May 2025 - King's Theatre, Portsmouth - TICKETS
Friday 16th May 2025 - The Forum, Bath - TICKETS

June 2025

Wednesday 18th June 2025 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS
Friday 20th June 2025 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS
Saturday 21st June 2025 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS
Saturday 21st June 2025 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

July 2025

Saturday 5th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS
Sunday 6th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS
Sunday 6th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS
Saturday 12th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS
Sunday 13th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS
Sunday 13th July 2025 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

September 2025

Monday 8th September 2025 - Lighthouse, Poole - TICKETS
Tuesday 9th September 2025 - Lighthouse, Poole - TICKETS
Wednesday 10th September 2025 - Hall For Cornwall, Truro - TICKETS
Thursday 11th September 2025 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS
Friday 12th September 2025 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS
Saturday 13th September 2025 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS
Sunday 14th September 2025 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS
Tuesday 16th September 2025 - New Theatre, Cardiff - TICKETS
Wednesday 17th September 2025 - New Theatre, Cardiff - TICKETS
Thursday 18th September 2025 - New Theatre, Cardiff - TICKETS
Friday 19th September 2025 - New Theatre, Cardiff - TICKETS
Saturday 20th September 2025 - New Theatre, Cardiff - TICKETS
Wednesday 24th September 2025 - Hippodrome, Darlington - TICKETS
Thursday 25th September 2025 - Gala, Durham - TICKETS
Friday 26th September 2025 - Theatre Royal, Glasgow - TICKETS
Saturday 27th September 2025 - Playhouse, Edinburgh - TICKETS
Sunday 28th September 2025 - His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen - TICKETS

October 2025

Friday 3rd October 2025 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre – Great Hall, Aberystwyth - TICKETS
Tuesday 7th October 2025 - Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes - TICKETS
Wednesday 8th October 2025 - Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes - TICKETS
Thursday 9th October 2025 - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS
Friday 10th October 2025 - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS
Saturday 11th October 2025 - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS
Wednesday 15th October 2025 - Grand Theatre, Swansea - TICKETS
Thursday 16th October 2025 - Grand Theatre, Swansea - TICKETS
Friday 17th October 2025 - Bristol Beacon, Bristol - TICKETS
Saturday 18th October 2025 - Bristol Beacon, Bristol - TICKETS
Tuesday 21st October 2025 - Storyhouse, Chester - TICKETS
Wednesday 22nd October 2025 - Storyhouse, Chester - TICKETS
Thursday 23rd October 2025 - Opera House, Buxton - TICKETS
Friday 24th October 2025 - Opera House, Buxton - TICKETS
Saturday 25th October 2025 - The Baths Hall, Scunthorpe - TICKETS
Wednesday 29th October 2025 - Cast, Doncaster - TICKETS
Thursday 30th October 2025 - Cast, Doncaster - TICKETS
Friday 31st October 2025 - Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate - TICKETS

November 2025

Saturday 1st November 2025 - Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate - TICKETS
Sunday 2nd November 2025 - Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate - TICKETS
Monday 3rd November 2025 - Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS
Tuesday 4th November 2025 - Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS
Friday 7th November 2025 - The Anvil, Basingstoke - TICKETS
Saturday 8th November 2025 - Rose Theatre, KIngston - TICKETS
Sunday 9th November 2025 - Rose Theatre, KIngston - TICKETS
Tuesday 11th November 2025 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - TICKETS
Wednesday 12th November 2025 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - TICKETS
Thursday 13th November 2025 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - TICKETS
Friday 14th November 2025 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - TICKETS
Saturday 15th November 2025 - Brighton Dome, Brighton - TICKETS
Monday 17th November 2025 - Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham - TICKETS
Tuesday 18th November 2025 - Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham - TICKETS
Wednesday 19th November 2025 - Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham - TICKETS

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7. SNOWFLAKE/TORNADO

Stewart’s 2019-2022 touring show Snowflake/Tornado, which was originally broadcast as a BBC Special in Autumn 2022 is now available to buy or rent “on demand” from www.mediagarageproductions.com

Both shows also appear to be free as part of the current Amazon Prime rosta, but buy them from us to defeat American fascism.

We are currently preparing a physical release of these shows but it’s got delayed as I got pneumonia and have been bogged down in picking through a wealth of possible, and very exciting, audio extras, where the material worked much better than in the broadcast show itself.

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8. FESTIVAL STAND-UP SETS 2025 (the usual 30 mins greatest hits shit)

24th May 2025 Bearded Theory, Derbyshire

Iggy Pop, The Manics, Thee Sisters O’ Mercy, Yard Act, Left Field, Throwing Muses, The Selecter, The Lovely Lovely Eggs, my pals Asian Dub Foundation, Cool distaff Japanese Ramones Shonen Knife, The Alarm (!!!!???), Beans on Toast, dub legends Zion Train, Angeline Morrison, Miki Berenyi from off of The Shoegazing Lushes, The Vaselines, Stick In The Wheel, Paul Heaton, and afro-rock avatars W.I.T.C.H.
www.beardedtheory.co.uk.

18^TH – 20^TH JULY Toldpuddle Martyrs’ Festival, Tolpuddle, Dorset. I will be doing 20 mins on a mixed bill here one night. Looks great. https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival

22^nd – 24^th August Krankenhaus, Muncaster Castle, Lake District  Sea Power, Arab Strap, the legendary Throwing Muses, Jane Weaver, The Lovely Lovely Lovely Eggs, the awesome Richard Dawson, the amazing Nightingales, King Rocker film, the quirky Personal Trainer, the mesemerising Ex-Easter Island Head, the hypnotic Alison Cotton. www.krankenhausfestival.com

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9. BENEFIT SHOWS

The Burning Parrot, Just Stop Oil fundraised, Walthamstow Trades, London, 8^th April https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-burning-parrot-comedy-fundraiser-tickets-1245032508749?aff=oddtdtcreator Me, Judy Boom, Henry Morris, Rosie Holt, Harley Brewer, Cameron Ford.

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10. IDLER FEST 11-13 JULY, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, LONDON

I will be amongst the knobheads being grilled at the Idler magazine’s annual 3 day garden party. It’s a lovely event. “FENTON HOUSE & GARDEN, HAMPSTEAD, LONDON. The Idler Festival is a weekend of philosophy and merriment, comedy, talks, music, workshops and salons in the bucolic surroundings of Fenton House and gardens near Hampstead Heath. You’ll be entertained and enlightened by the Idler’s favourite thinkers, comedians, writers, and musicians. There’ll be walks, ukulele, bibliotherapy, agony aunts, beekeeping and plenty of time to loaf under the apple trees. There’ll be dancing lessons on the lawn, loafing to DJs in the orchard and salons in the house. Join us for our dream garden party. Headlining a stellar line up will be comedians Michael Palin and Stewart Lee and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Plus Daisy Dunn, Miranda Sawyer, a mini pilgrimage with Guy Hayward, evensong on Sunday and much more to be announced. “Britain’s best arts and literary festival,” Spectator”

https://www.idler.co.uk/festival/

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CODE : DAMP AT THE BFI, LONDON, WEDS 25^TH JUNE

CODE: DAMP Experimenta Mixtape. Curated by Sophie Sleigh-Johnson. + Q&A with Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, hosted by Stewart Lee

A new book on the dark shadows of 1970s British TV comedy, centred around the work of Leonard Rossiter, provides the inspiration for a new Experimenta Mixtape in which, as ever, no further information is provided in advance of the event. The textures, domestic surrealism and atavistic underbelly of the British television sit-com are unpicked and excavated in singular, idiosyncratic fashion in Sophie Sleigh-Johnson’s strange, new book CODE: DAMP, and this one-off, adjunct, ExperimentaL, film and television, cut-up, screening mix.  With references to The Fall, the situationists, medieval musical instruments, 1970s horror, and Holsten Pils, Sleigh-Johnson’s world is at once: weird, wonderful and frightening.

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GO FUND JOHN MANN, COMEDY’S ESSEX UNCLE

Comedy fans of a certain age will remember John Mann as a safe pair of hands, great gagsmith, classic era Big Breakfast energy courier, and indefatigable supporter of new ‘90s talent at the Harlow Square comedy club. Now he needs your help. Promoter Jim Howarth writes, ““Hi there everyone, Jim Howarth here and I am coming to you for help raising some funds for one of our own in the comedy industry. John Mann has been making people laugh for over 30 years and during that time he has up there with the best of them. He has written for some of the biggest names in the business, and some less so. he has mentored and supported and generally been one of the nicest people in our industry. Those close to him will know he has been unwell for a while, but he has been soldiering on but even the toughest soldier have their limits. John has barely worked for the last 2 months as he barely worked and financially that has put him in a very tough situation.He has a serious long term respiratory issue and on top of that he has pneumonia, with an infection on his lung which is proving very difficult to shift.  Despite being unwell, John helped to deliver one of my own shows while I was poorly in hospital, and in the past he has helped to raise funds for me at my own time of need. His first thought is always to look after others, and he is always on hand to advise and support. It is now it is time to return the favour by offering him our support.  Please give whatever you can to help John get through this difficult situation, he gives so much to others, me in particular and whatever we can raise I know will be a huge help to John.  These are the pit falls of being self employed, we have to push through difficult times as we lose income. I am hoping we can take away some of the pressure he finds himself under so he can focus on his recovery.  Thank you in advance for your support, and please spread this across our industry to make sure as many people see this as possible. Jim, Comedy Hotspot”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/john-mann-needs-our-help

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GO FUND PETER DAVID, RADICAL HULK WRITER.

In the 90s it was Al Murray, whose own landlord alter-ego displays a Hulkish bent, who turned me on to the amazing work Peter David was doing in rebooting The Hulk comics, foregrounding with great humour and imagination, and in a modern way, all the kind of moral and psychological dilemmas that were handled in broader strokes in Lee and Kirby’s classic 60s comics, and the collected editions I have of his work have survived numerous culls and domestic upheavals. Of course as a Marvel comics writer David gets no share of profits from any further exploitation of the creative contributions he has made, and as an American he lives in a fascist shithole where healthcare is costly business for creatives and freelancers. Some guy called Graham Murphy says … “Hi, friends. I'm restarting a fundraiser for Peter David and his family. Peter's health issues continue to be a challenge. He has been in recovery now forthree years!Peter is steadily improving - even with his kidney disease, minor surgeries, and some recent small strokes. But Medicaid, which had been taking care of his Long Term Disability, has just dropped him. As a result, medical care and living expenses are mounting beyond current control. So, we are reaching out to you for help. I've known Peter and his family for many years. They are the nicest, kindest, and most generous people you will ever meet. Let's return some of that kindness and generosity and help them make it through this. Please donate and spread the word. Thank you!”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-peter-david

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14. THE OLDEST COMEDY CLUB IN BRITAIN

Joe Bor’s doc about Downstairs At The King’s Head in Crouch End, London, which I am in, is now on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9rNqqk3T3M

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15. I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND

BEN MOOR’S A THREE DAY THING The unassuming performance-art-comedy legend that is Ben Moor has a new project on the go, A Three Day Thing. He says...

“My new stage piece is called A Three Thing Day, and it is highly upcoming. I previewed it at the awesome Bookseller Crow On The Hill in Crystal Palace in late January and I got some great feedback from the lovely audience. Here's yet another brief excerpt:

My sister puts the plant milk on the table – it comes in a landscape carton to differentiate it from the other kind – switches the TV off – it’s been showing That’s Riduckulous! The World’s Funniest Duck Videos.

The aquarium has objects from dry land at the bottom, presumably to acclimatise the fish life for what they’ll be swimming through in the future as the seas rise.

It's a surreal and melancomic journey through a day when I had three things to do, including detours about snacks and dolphins, the nature of time, and different forms of vertigo.  I'm currently learning and editing the script, and it should be good to go by the time summer comes round, when I hope to be taking it to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  The wonderful Simon Oakes and his band Suns of the Tundra are composing and recording a beautiful music score, and I will be printing the full text (along with some other new writing) in a book to be published in July.

More details in the next mailout, but for now, I've scheduled some work-in-progress performances...

16.00 Saturday 29th March 2025 A THREE THING DAY - WORK-IN-PROGRESS at  THE LAUGHARNE WEEKEND, a weekend of literature, comedy and performance in Carmarthenshire, the home of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. This has an absolutely amazing array of people like John Shuttleworth, Lucy Cooke, Stewart Lee and Mike Brearley, so that's poetry, zoology, comedy and cricket sorted.

I'll be stumbling through the new show in the marquee behind Browns Hotel and enjoying the excellence on offer at all other times. SOME TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
20.00 Wednesday 23rd April 2025 A THREE THING DAY - WORK-IN-PROGRESS COLCHESTER ARTS CENTRE I'll hopefully have got the show a little closer to the final thing by the time of this date as part of the terrific Colchester Arts Centre's Wonderful Wednesdays. It's Pay What You Can Afford. TICKETS ON SALE HERE

12.00pm Sunday 4th May 2025 A THREE THING DAY - WORK-IN-PROGRESS

MACHYNLLETH COMEDY FESTIVAL Another fantastic bill for this weekender of oddball comedy excellence. Tons of great acts (lots off the telly even) over the Bank Holiday in a lovely setting and a marvellous festival spirit. And the camping in the sheepfield is always a highlight of a perennial celebration of comedy and creativity.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
16.00pm Saturday 7th June 2025 A THREE THING DAY - WORK-IN-PROGRESS EXETER COMEDY FESTIVAL Last year's inaugural Exeter Comedy Festival was a joy - great programme, delicious pizza and special late-night acts too!

Again - what a brilliant set of comedians - Christie, Hegley, Long, Hill, Watson, Adamsdale, Brookes etc.  TICKETS ON SALE NOW

11th-13th July 2025 A THREE THING DAY - WORK-IN-PROGRESS

THE IDLER FESTIVAL A special few days of summer ease at Fenton House in Hampstead celebrating the pleasures of taking things slowly. There'll be talks from Michael Palin, Rowan Williams and Stewart Lee; dancing, strolling, loafing.

I'll have the show nearly ready by now and will probably be on early on the Saturday... TICKETS ON SALE NOW”

TIRZAH GARWOOD: Beyond Ravilious, Dulwich Picture Gallery London, until 26 May 2025. 

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/press-media/press-releases/first-major-exhibition-of-modern-british-artist-tirzah-garwood-among-2024-highlights-at-dulwich-picture-gallery/

The first major exhibition devoted to the artist and designer Tirzah Garwood (1908–1951) since 1952. Best known until now as the wife of Eric Ravilious and as the author of the autobiography Long Live Great Bardfield, Garwood excelled as a fine artist and printmaker. Her diverse and enchanting works are gems of the mid-20th century.

ITHELL COLQUHOUN – BETWEEN TWO WORLDS Tate St Ives, Feb 1^st – May 5^th.  Coincidentally, I have a routine about Ithell in the new show! “The first major exhibition of visionary artist Ithell Colquhoun. One of the most radical artists of her generation, Ithell Colquhoun was an important figure in British Surrealism during the 1930s and 1940s. An innovative writer and practicing occultist, Colquhoun charted her own course, investigating surrealist methods of unconscious picture-making and fearlessly delving into the realms of myth and magic. Colquhoun explored the possibilities of a divine feminine power as a path to personal fulfilment and societal transformation. Her understanding of the world as a connected spiritual cosmos brought her to Cornwall, where she deepened her creative explorations, inspired by the region’s ancient landscape, Celtic traditions, and sacred sites. This landmark exhibition of over 200 artworks and archival materials traces Colquhoun’s evolution, from her early student work and engagement with the surrealist movement, to her fascination with the intertwining realms of art, sexual identity, ecology and occultism. It culminates in a room dedicated to Colquhoun’s interpretation of the Tarot deck – her most accomplished fusion of her artistic and magical practice. Explore Colquhoun’s enthralling, multi-layered universe through writings, drawings, paintings, early theatre projects and mural designs, many of which have never been shown publicly before. The exhibition will debut at Tate St Ives in February 2025, journeying to Tate Britain from June to October 2025.” Here’s an audio guide to this with bits of me on it https://www.tate.org.uk/story-player/ithell-colquhoun

THE FALLEN LEAVES Mod-punk veteran assassins. MAY 3^rd Stockton-On-Tees Volume, 4^th N’Castle Billy Bootleggers, 31^st London Dublin Castle, June 8^th Southsea Edge of The Wedge, SEPT 27^th London Dublin Castle

DEAN WAREHAM Galaxie 500/Luna guitar guru on the road. APRIL 1^st Glasgow Garage, 2^nd M’cr Band On The Wall, 3^rd Liverpool Rough Trade, 4^th Leamington Spa Assembly, 5^th Leeds Brudenell, 6^th Bristol Fleece, 7^th London 229

JOHN SHUTTLEWORTH One of the all-time funniest character comics. Surely he can’t go on for ever?  The once so elderly John is now younger than his creator Graham! APRIL 6^th Glasgow, 11^th Scarborough Spa, 14^th Exeter Phoenix, MAY 16^th Bude Lit Fest. An inspiration! Oppressive kitchen sink surrealism in spades!

EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD Groovy minimalists. APRIL 20^th Colchester Arts

DAVID LANCE CALLAHAN I cannot arrogantly recommend enough the former Moonshake and Wolfhounds man’s amazing solo folk-blues-noise workouts, nailing the state of the world over a superb stripped down sound in some great small venues that we all should support.

APRIL 3^rd Penzance Acorn; 16^th Leytonstone What’s Cookin’.

MAY 9th Brighton Hope and Ruin.

JUNE 5th Birmingham Rock’n’roll Brewhouse, 6^th Sheffield Bishop’s House.

AUGUST 3^rd Chilterns Awamu Together Festival

FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES – CARVED HEADS OF SHIRLEY COLLINS AND DON LETTS BY CORIN JOHNSON The Fitzrovia Chapel, London, April 4^th – 15^th.  The chapel is one of London’s hidden gems and so are these two icons of Englishness.

MEKONS/NIGHTINGAKES. STEWART LEE April 12^th – Signature Brew, Haggerston, London. I host an album launch show by Welsh country punk legends the Mekons w support from The Nightingales and a short set from me.

THE MAGPIE ARC Fabulous young British country-folk-rock act on the road, augmented for the final time by the mighty guitar legend Martin Simpson APRIL Thursday 17th – The Glasshouse, Gateshead Buy Tickets, Tuesday 22nd – The Phoenix, Exeter Buy Tickets, Thursday 24th – Chapel Arts, Bath Buy Tickets

HAWKWIND 2025. Another implausible trip for the psychedelic survivors, Dave Brock still imperious, even from his octogenarian stool. APRIL 17th – Gateshead Glasshouse, 18^th – Guildford G Live, 19^th – Bournemouth Pavillion, 20^th – B’ham Symphony Hall. MAY 9^th – Aylesbury Waterside, 10^th – Liverpool Auditorium, 11^th – M’cr Bridgewater Hall, 23^rd – Sheffield City Hall, 25^th – Cambridge Corn Exchange, 26^th – London Barbican

OSCAR MCLENNAN … is one of the people that made me want to do comedy, although he was really a performance artist, and I didn’t have a name for that when I saw him describe terrible domestic scenes while crawling on the floor as Turkey Bones and The Wild Dogs’ Helicopter Man shredded the Warwick Arts Centre studio PA in 1984. He has a new cd out https://oscarmclennan.bandcamp.com/album/snow-on-the-river and a launch for it in Dublin on Sunday April 20^th  https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/snow-on-the-river-album-launch-tickets-1232613372779?aff=oddtdtcreator

RICHARD DAWSON Unmitigated art-folk genius, and funny with it

APRIL 23^rd & 24th M’cr Stoller Hall, 25^th Kendal Brewery Arts, 27^th Leeds City Varieties, 29^th London Clapham Grand, MAY 1^st Cardiff Gate, 2^nd Notts Metronome, 17^th Gateshead Glasshouse, 20^th Edinbro Pleasance, 21^st Glasgow St Lukes, 22^nd L’pool Philharmonic, 23^rd Brighton St Georhe’s , 24^th Folkestone Quarterhouse.

MARTIN SIMPSON Folk guitarist who mines the hidden connections between British and American traditional musics with taste and virtuosity. APRIL 26^th London Kings Place. JULY 21^st Croydon Ruskin House. SEPT 6^th Howden Shire Hall

THE ICEMAN AT TABERNACLE GALLERY, NOTTING HILL, LONDON

April 28^th – 4^TH May. Anthony Irving Iceman (aim) says, “aim is surfacing from deepest Dorset for his first London show which is taking place at the Tabernacle Gallery in Notting Hill. Here is a group of paintings from the previous 10 years selected by aim himself. There is also a series of more recent paintings based on The Iceman’s ground-breaking Lecture at the Bill Murray Club in September 2024 where The Iceman explained his Block melting work in the form of an academic lecture. All aim’s paintings are based on the live performance and relational work of The Iceman who has spent his adult life melting Blocks of ice for reasons that escape most people. The Iceman and aim are one and the same person. Humanly speaking, they coalesce as Anthony Irvine.“The Blocks live on”-that is the Iceman’s mantra and now aim’s as well. aim’s paintings have been described in numerous ways. He looks forward to hearing more adjectival phrases to describe his work during this run. aim is sometimes labelled as an ‘outsider’ artist because of the raw energy of his painting style and the idiosyncratic subject matter. But aim himself simply describes himself as a “painter with clear aims.” Although in one sense the pieces could be described as obsessional self-portraits, in another sense they are paintings of ‘Everyman’ and “’Everywoman’ in life’s struggles and joys. Taking a leaf from Andy Warhol’s dictum that Business is the best kind of art to heart,The Iceman will be clearly delineating the prices of individual paintings. He will also be offering a wide spectrum of aesthetic merchandise for sale at bargain prices: Postcards, Posters, his ’75 braimnd new paintings’ art Book, his “Melt It! Book”, etchings, engravings, signed block photocopies on authentic fax paper, Melt It Badges and even his children’s book, “Lockdown Melter”, will all be available for purchase. Truly there is something for everyone. The Iceman will have a padlocked cash box on site and provide his own security for his priceless paintings and all goods. aim hopes visitors enjoy viewing his insightful canvases. The opening do is at 7pm on 29^th April 2025 [Thank you to “Music Business Associates” for kindly sponsoring the refreshments for that event] The Iceman/aim will be in the Tabernacle Gallery in person every day of the run. But he will not be shaking anyone’s hand, for health and safety reasons, due to the freezing effect of such a gesture. *Thank you to Artcetera, Bournemouth who generously supply aim with free quality cut-offs of mounting board upon which to paint. **FYI The Iceman’s Blockbuster Documentary film “Melt It!The Film of the Iceman” is due to be released this year 2025”

https://iceblocked.co.uk/aims-selections-taimbernaimcle-gaimllery-28th-april-4th-may/

WATERBOYS The Waterboys ebb and flow like the tides of time, under the ongoing stewardship of mad Mike Scott. He saw the crescent. MAY 1^st Basingstoke Anvil, 2^nd Bath Forum, 3^rd Bexhill-On-Sea De-La-Warr, 5^th Brighton, 7^th Nottingham Rock City, 8^th Liverpool Philharmonic, 9^th Sheffield City Hall, 10^th Gateshead Glasshouse, 12^th Blackpool Opera House, 13^th M’cr Bridgewater Hall, 15^th York Barbican, 16^th Birmingham Symphony Hall, 18^th Bournemouth Pavillion, 19^th Cardiff New, 20^th Cambridge Corn Exch, 22^nd Bristol Beacon, 23^rd Oxford New, 24^th Stockton Globe, 25^th Llandudno Venue Cymru, 27^th Guildford G Love, 28^th Leicester De Montfort, 31^st London Roundhouse. JUNE 1^st London Roundhouse, 7^th Dublin 3 Arena.

MACHYNLLETH COMEDY FESTIVAL The greatest comedy festival in the world. Book your bell tent now to avoid disappointment. I am doing MAN-WULF 3 times, John Shuttleworth is on, Celya AB etc etc. Make sure to see Ben Moor’s A Three Thing Day. May 2^nd - 4^th. Once visited, never forgotten.  DON’T TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT OR YOU WILL RUIN IT!!!!

https://machcomedyfest.co.uk

DEAD PIONEERS Native American hardcore punk. Superb.  MAY 13^th Norwich Voodoo Daddy’s, 14^th London Dome.

CHRIS PACKHAM PORTRAIT BY RICHARD ANSETT on display at The Fitzrovia Chapel, London May 14^th-21^st . The building alone is worth seeing. https://www.fitzroviachapel.org/series/chris-packham-endangered-species/

BEVIS FROND Psychedelic survivors reaching a late career phase of imperial majesty MAY 16^th Lewes Con Club, 17^th & 18th London Lexington, AUG 8^TH Built Wells Kozfest.

DINOSAUR JR The Crazy Horse of the hardcore era in another turn of the wheel MAY 18^th M’cr Albert Hall, 20^th Glasgow Barrowlands, 22^nd London Troxy

SAMANTHA CRAIN Heart-rending Choctaw country-folk. MAY 19^th Brighton Green Door, 20^th London Neon 194, 21^st M’cr Gullivers

THE NIGHTINGALES Birmingham post-punk leg-ends hit the road again. When will it end? MAY 21^ST Leeds Brudenell, 22^nd Newcastle Think Tank, 23^rd Glasgow Stereo, 24^th M’cr Deaf Institute, 25^th B’ham Castle & Falcon, 27^th Bristol Exchange, 28^th Brighton Chalk, 29^th Cambridge Junction, 30^th London Oslo, 31^st Swansea Bunkhouse. ALSO ----- The Nightingales release their first studio album since 2022’s much-praised ‘The Last Laugh’. Celebrated in the Stewart Lee-narrated film King Rocker of 2020, where the curtain was raised on the magic of the “long serving  punk/alternative rock volunteer” (The Quietus) Robert Lloyd, The Nightingales are as pertinent as ever as they release a poignant tirade on modern times heralded, quite rightly, as ‘The Awful Truth’. Released on April 4th on Fire Records, their new album ‘The Awful Truth’ is a modern mutant music hall interpretation of the day’s news, a haunting jolt into realism narrated with all the angst of an insistent, slightly dishevelled late-night newscaster.  BUY A BUNDLE HERE. https://thenightingales.org.uk

BOOTHBY GRAFFOE & ANTONIO FORCIONE May 28^th, The Old Woollen, Leeds. A MUST!! ONE OFF SHOW!!!! “20 years ago a stand-up comedian made an album with a virtuoso guitarist. They did a bunch of shows and got a bunch of 5 star reviews. Then they toured Australia, and won a bunch of awards. One of which they left in an Italian restaurant in Adelaide.  Now they're back, performing songs from Wot Italian? and some other songs too.  Boothby is funny & Antonio is one of the best guitar players in the whole wide world. Seriously.” https://oldwoollen.seetickets.com/tour/antonio-forcione-boothby-graffoe-wot-italian-

SONGHOY BLUES The Mali Clash. JUNE 1^st Sheffield Crookes, 2^nd Leeds Brudenell, 4^th B’ham Castle & Falcon, 6^th London Islington Assembly Hall, 7^th Bristol Thekla

BO NINGEN Japanese art psyche-punks JUNE  5^th Liverpooo Arts, 7^th London Dome.

0SEES I am a late adopter of the extreme noise power of this veteran combo, amazing live, who share the same t-shirt provider as me.  JUNE 9^th Edinburgh Liquid, 15^th Bristol Marble Factory, 16^th M’cr Ritz, 18^th Glasgow Galvanisers, 20^th Leeds Irish Cent, 21^st B’ham Digbeth Crossing, 23^rd London Electric Ballroom, 24^th London Earth, 25^th Brighton Chalk.

LEN PRICE 3 Durable punk-mods. JUNE 18^th – 229 London

CHRIS ECKMAN Former frontman of dark alt country prgenitors The Walkabouts in what I think is his first UK date this century. June 19^th Water Rats, London

SKEP WAX WEEKENDER July 17^th – 20^th, Islington, London

Four nights of radical indiepop - Thursday and Friday evening at the Lexington, Saturday evening at Islington Town Hall, Sunday (4pm) back at The Lexington: see full line-up below. The 'Weekender' ticket will admit you to all four nights. Day tickets are available for each of the four shows.
Thursday (The Lexington) Jeanines, Sassyhiya, Panic Pocket
Friday (The Lexington) The Would-Be-Goods, The Orchids, Swansea Sound
Saturday (Islington Assembly Room) Heavenly, Lightheaded, Crumbs
Sunday (The Lexington), Marlody, The Gentle Spring, Special Friend
Venue addresses: The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, London, N1 9JB.
Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, London, N1 2UD. (The venues are less than a mile apart.)
Heavenly's new 7" single will go on sale at this event.
Ticket prices include £1.50 Venue Levy for Islington Town Hall.
The Lexington is 18+ admission, The Islington Assembly Hall is 16+

https://wegottickets.com/f/13685

MILLIONS OF DEAD COPS / MDC American hardcore heroes of NO KKK NO FASCIST USA chant fame. AUG 4^th – New Cross Inn, London

EDWYN COLLINS Orange Juice’s indiepop originator SEPT 27^th Glasgow Theatre Royal, 29^th Buxton Opera House, 30^th Bath Komedia. OCT 2^nd S’hampton Central Hall, 3^rd Brighton St Georges, 4^th London RFH, 6^th Norwich Epic, 7^th Manchester Albert Hall, 8^th Newcastle Boiler Shop

BOB MOULD Hardcore punk pioneer of Husker Du/Sugar lineage. NOV 18^th Glasgow Oran Mor, 19^th Leeds Brudenell, 20^th London Dome

SAINTS 73-79 Superb! The original line-up of the Australian Punk progenitors, but with Mudhoney's Mark Arm deputising for the departed Chris Bailey (a gentleman and a scholar who once came to my show!). His co-writer and co-guitarist Ed Kuepper remains undimmed and the rhythm section will rattle your bones. NOVEMBER 21^ST Bristol Trinity, 22nd Leeds Project, 23^rd Glasgow Garage, 24^th M’cr Academy 2, 26^th London Camden Electric

16. IN OUR LAMENTATIONS 2025

Barre Phillips (Jazz bassman, 1934)
Bob Grover (Brighton Piranha, 1956)
Riro (Japanese sea otter, 2007)
Nora Orlandi (Spaghetti symphonist, 1933)
Ed Askew (Acid folkie, 1940)
Tony Slattery (The vile blows of the world made him reckless, 1959)
David Lynch (He erased our heads, 1946)
Landy Randerson (Museum access pioneer, 1949)
Garth Hudson (Bandolier, 1937)
Brian Murphy (Instantly aged actor, 1932)
Rab MacWilliam (Hackney historian, 1951)
Barry Goldberg (His flag was electric, 1941)
Peter Yarrow (He left on a jetplane, 1938)
Snowy Fleet (Easybeater, 1939)
Jamie Muir (Absolute fucking rhythmical genius, 1942)
Mike Ratledge (Moon in June Soft Machine man, 1943)
Gabriel Yacoub (Malicorne muso of French folk, 1952)
Bill Fay (Christian mystic songwriter seer, 1943)
Roberta Flack (Made Ewan MacColl sexy, 1937)
Gene Hackman (an actor who knew when not to,1930)
Jay Rayner’s Observer restaurant column (1999)
David Johansen (New York Doll, 1950)
Bill Dare (Even his socks were funny, 1959)
Johnny Green (A gentleman, a dandy, and always a pleasure,)
Ken Parker (The Blue Bender, 1943)
Edweena Banger (Her nose bled, 1959)
John Cassady (Planetary penman, 1971)
Joey Molland (His finger was bad, 1947)
Peter Farrelly (Fruuppster, 1949)
Jesse Colin Young (He got it together, 1941)
Brian James (Lord of The Damned, 1955)
Roy Ayers (Good vibes, 1940)
Bob Rupe (Brilliant Gutterball and Silos bottom end)
Nadia Cassini (Starcrash starlet, 1949)
Nike Arrighi (The Devil Rides Out, 1944)
Bill Smith (Original Corrie, 1936)
DG Hessayon (Garden expert who answered my questions, 1928)
Elliot Ingber (Winged Eel Fingerling, 1941)
Leanne Cowie (Scientific drummer, 1964?)
George Foreman (Meat griller, 1949)

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17. AN IMPRISONED CLIMATE CHANGE PROTESTOR WRITES...

This heroic young man, George Simonon, has written about his time in prison for climate change activism for the Guardian

“‘The prison system is insanely broken’: a climate activist on his experience in jail

George Simonson says you learn about society by seeing how it treats its prisoners – and jail has strengthened his belief that change is crucial

Wed 19 Mar 2025 05.00 GMT

George Simonson, 24, from London, had recently graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Edinburgh when he was given a 24-month custodial sentence for climbing a gantry over the M25 in 2022. He was also found guilty of criminal damage and sentenced to a further six-week custodial sentence for spraying paint on a wall of Exeter University in 2023. He sent this letter from prison before he was released in January.

I remember the day I was sentenced like it was yesterday. I was filled with anxiety the entire time. It’s a strange situation to be in, not knowing whether or not you’d have your liberty at the end of the day, or for how long it might be taken away. My mind was racing and I had no idea how to operate.

At the moment the judge read out my sentence, I felt so many things at once. Sadness, strength and some relief, if I’m honest. Simply because the uncertainty was gone. I stood up and blew kisses to my family and partner who were sitting in the gallery. I wanted them to know that I was going to be OK.

But I didn’t look at the judge. I wanted those precious moments to be shared with the people I love. As I walked down to the court cells, my eyes filled with tears. I didn’t know when I’d see any of them next and I didn’t know what the next few months would bring.

The whole experience has shaped me and made me who I am today

My first few days in jail felt like weeks. It was the end of summer and it was something like 30 degrees at HMP Chelmsford. The heating was on constantly and the tiny windows offered no relief. The Olympics were on, so I and my co-defendant, who I was sharing with, spent our time watching and re-enacting the events in our hot, sweaty cell. I’ll always be grateful for his company during that time. It was the first time in prison for both of us so we were able to work through it together.

It took several weeks to sort out communication with my family. Several times my application forms would get lost or forgotten about by staff.

I was hungry a lot of the time, too: vegan options weren’t on the menu, so often I’d have digestive biscuits for dinner and eat my cereal with water rather than milk. I didn’t kick up too much of a fuss. I was new on the wing and I knew that prison wasn’t going to be particularly nice.

I was sustained by the belief that a better future is possible. I fought for it, and now, as a result, I’ve been sent to prison. But I wasn’t going to let the experience break me.

The action itself was over two years ago now. I remember many friends, family and even strangers were supportive, but some weren’t. One family friend told me that they would run me over if they were stuck in the traffic I caused. I understand their anger, and I just hope that one day they will understand why I chose to take this action – simply, I didn’t think there was any other option left.

The days here run on a rigid routine which changes only slightly between weekdays and weekends. In the week, we wake up at 7.30am. I listen to the radio while I eat my prison-issue breakfast and drink my coffee. We’re unlocked at 8.05am and I leave the wing after a pat-down from the guards. Thankfully, I’m in full-time work, so I spend much of the day fixing bicycles in the workshop for a charity. There is a two-hour break at lunchtime when we’re locked up again. After work in the afternoon, we’ll grab our dinners before going to the gym, which we can attend a few times per week. We aren’t allowed out into the yard during the week, so I only spend five to 10 minutes each day outside walking to and from work.

On the weekends, it’s a lot slower and loneliness often creeps in. I’ll have biscuits with my coffee for a treat. I play card games, write letters or watch TV in my cell. We all dread the weekend: Saturdays and Sundays feel longer than the working week.

If I was alone it would be so much worse, but the people I’ve met in here have given me so much strength and support. They’re friends that I’ll keep in contact with once I’m released.

I’m convinced that civil resistance works, and it’s absolutely justified when you’re fighting for the survival of the human race. I’d voted, signed petitions, written to my MP, attended marches … I tried all the conventional ways to make my voice heard like everyone else, but it didn’t change a thing. So I feel content with the choices I’ve taken. Ultimately, the action that I took did work: it played a part in getting the demands of no new oil and gas drilling into the Labour manifesto. And now it’s policy.

It angers me that politicians have known about global warming and climate change for decades. They’ve known that fossil fuels are causing it, and they’ve known that it’s going to kill, displace and starve millions of people. But they ignored it.

Whatever stability people had is ripped away when you step inside 

Our politicians are perfectly willing to lead when the country goes to war, but not when it comes to stopping emissions, which will save lives. In light of all of this, it was clear to me that civil resistance was the only option left. I didn’t do it for fun, for attention or for the sake of it. I did it because I knew that it could work. We’re taught about Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and the suffragettes in school: they’re celebrated as heroes now. But nobody pays much attention to the fact that they were absolutely vilified by the government, the judiciary and the journalists at the time.

In the end I’ve done what I can, and a judge chose to send me to prison for it. I don’t blame him, and I don’t spend my time wishing things had gone differently. The whole experience has shaped me and made me who I am today.

You learn about society by seeing how people are treated in its prisons, and it’s an absolute mess in ours. This whole experience has deepened my understanding of our system and strengthened my conviction that change is desperately needed. Not reform – we need revolutionary change. The prison system is insanely broken – people here are not treated like human beings.

The entire apparatus is executed with maximum emphasis on punishment and a superficial mention of rehabilitation. Many people resort to smashing the contents of their cells or self-harming as a way to access the help that is available. It is absolutely no wonder that re-offending rates are so high when those leaving prison are in a worse way than when they came in.

And whatever stability people had in their lives before prison, whether it’s housing or employment, is ripped away when you step inside and there is minimal help to put things back together. Once you’ve received a prison sentence, it’s harder to get a mortgage, car insurance, or a job. How is any of this fair? This country has a huge problem and the evidence is hidden away behind razor wire and brick walls where nobody can see it.

I’m going to be released with extraordinarily broad licence conditions, with the purpose of stopping my involvement in “political activism”. Really, these conditions will mean that the probation service can pick and choose which elements of the political process I can be involved in. I’ve been told that I won’t be able to attend meetings of the Labour party, for example, or post anything to do with protesting on my social media, despite the fact that freedom of assembly and expression is protected by the European convention on human rights. Lack of cooperation results in imprisonment for the remainder of the sentence. In my case, that would be 19 months.

Before I got involved in civil resistance, I was so depressed. I buried my head in the sand because I felt so powerless in the face of it all. I was terrified about what the rest of my life would be like.

Looking at the positives, though, I’m going to come out of prison with a fresh appreciation for the things around me. I can’t wait to savour the things that gave me happiness. I took so much for granted before. Whether it’s walking in nature, listening to music, or spending time with my family and partner, I’m going to savour every minute. Even things like being able to use a toilet or shower in privacy and go to sleep knowing you won’t be woken up by a night guard. There’s a lot to settle back into, but I feel lucky that the day of my release is coming – something that many people in here don’t have.

Speaking to Andy Potter on Radio Derby

I wrote the introduction to a book on Lee Hazelwood by Wyndham Wallace

"Lee, Myself & I is an intimate portrait of the last years of Lee Hazlewood, the legendary singer and songwriter best known for ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’, the chart-topping hit he wrote and produced for Nancy Sinatra. It begins in 1999, when Hazlewood began his comeback after many years in the wilderness, and ends with his death in 2007. In the intervening years, the author, Wyndham Wallace, became Hazlewood’s friend, confidante, de-facto manager, and more, even providing the lyrics for Lee’s final recording, ‘Hilli (At The Top Of The World)’.

In the light of reissues of Hazlewood’s work by the esteemed Light In The Attic label—including There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966–1971, an acclaimed boxed set of his work with the label he founded, LHI, as well as further releases including liner notes by Wallace—interest in Hazlewood has never been greater. Lee, Myself & I is the first book to address his life and work."

Where do creative ideas come from? A friend of mine thinks his beard receives them from the ether, and that when it grows too long the drooping hairs become less effective aerials. He is a wrong and lazy man. Most successful shows and stories evolve in the secrecy of writers' garrets or rehearsal rooms before
being inflicted fully formed on a public who have played no part in their creation.

But what opportunities are there to involve an audience in the process of probing and retreating that leads to a finished work? Ten years ago I remember, through rose-tinted vapour, we'd fill a sack with hats, cobble together the kind of confused comedy show we couldn't do in a mainstream venue, take it to the Edinburgh Fringe, revise it daily, lose a grand and learn something. But today the Fringe is a market-place, where TV executives gauge festival audiences to guide their cheque books. The communal arts workshop has become a commercial showcase, costs for performers have increased accordingly, and correspondingly higher ticket prices mean audiences now expect to see a piece of work, rather than a work in pieces. One fringe comedy newcomer lost £17,000 on his first ever Edinburgh run this year. The Festival is no longer somewhere I personally could afford to experiment, and even hiring a London fringe venue could cost £500 a week.

But was there a magic place midway between my bedroom where I write down ideas at night with no risk of ruin and the certain debts and possible public humiliation of the Scottish front? It appeared there was. It was the Battersea Arts Centre in South London, quietly sowing little acorns in its "Scratch" performances.

The BAC's child-faced director Tom Morris likes nothing more than to be continually referred to as TV satirist Chris Morris's younger brother whenever he is mentioned in the press. As if in pursuit of his own distinctive identity, he first began presenting works-in-progress in 1998, with a piece by The Full Monty's Emily Woof, which subsequently transferred to the Purcell Room.

Morris presents the BAC's "Scratch" ethos as a way for writers and performers to develop unfinished ideas in an environment where both expense and audience expectations are refreshingly minimal. Artists try to learn from the punters, rather than try to impress them. Introducing a work-in-progress by theatre duo Ralph Ralph he explained to the crowd, "They're not sure what the story is yet, so if you see anything resembling a story, find them at the bar afterwards and tell them." The idea seems to be working and some of the seeds sown in last year's Scratch season are already ripening into swollen, juice-filled fruits.

Last summer I directed and contributed to the libretto of Richard Thomas's still not quite finished Jerry Springer ­ The Opera, where a cast of 14 portrayed the trailer-trash nightmare in song in BAC's main house to a rapturous reception.

But only months earlier Thomas had performed a show called How to Write an Opera About Jerry Springer under the sheltering Scratch umbrella. Here he sat alone at the piano and asked the audience to imagine how such an event might sound, while offering free cans of cheap lager to anyone offering useful suggestions. Typically, some die-hard fans have since claimed, erroneously, to prefer this now legendary show to the later product, but there is something to be said for the thrill of seeing an unfinished work gestate. Personally, I liked it best before Richard had even thought of doing it, and when he himself was just an embryo, floating blissfully in his mother's womb ­ though back then the composer's potential appeal to a wider audience was admittedly limited.

This month, alongside Point Blank's Nothing to Declare and The Jammy Tarts' Christmas Special, my own-work-in-progress, Pea Green Boat ­ inspired by an ignorant misinterpretation of Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat ­ is a recipient of the Scratch unction. At the time of writing, just over a week before its four-day run, it comprises 20 minutes of the Owl's diary entries, six slides of owls, an RNLI tea towel, and four plastic bags of false excrement.

A nervous cello player is being pressurised to perform and the comedian Simon Munnery, who has quite a long beard at the moment and thus looks a bit like Lear, today agreed to appear in the show. There will not be time to rehearse any lines for him but he has a fascinating aspect nevertheless.

This lack of preparation is no vainglorious boast. I am not proud. I wanted a chance to try out things I couldn't do in comedy clubs or theatres. I wanted to see how far away I could get from the structures I've used as a stand-up while doing what is still a show in which I come on and say some funny things.
And I wanted to force my hand to begin playing with a bunch of ideas I hope will form the basis of my second novel. The Battersea Art Centre's Scratch ethos has provided the kind of open-ended environment that makes this possible.

I hope I'll do the show again, but Scratch also allows me the opportunity to abandon the idea before it's too late to stop. Maybe Pea Green Boat will become a huge West End smash with dancing owls and ice-skating cats, disliked only by people who saw it when it was just slides, a confused man with a beard, and me speaking.

"It was better when it was raw and real and honest," they will say, obviously. Either way, tickets cost less than a packet of cigarettes, I'm contractually obliged to invite feedback from theatregoers in the bar afterwards, and if only one person comes and pays £3.50 I will make more money than I have in 14 years of Edinburgh Festivals put together. Scratch it and see.

'Pea Green Boat': BAC, London SW11 (020 7223 2223), Thursday to 23 December;
'Jerry Springer – The Opera': BAC, 5-23 February, 2002

THE KING ROCKER LONDON SCREENING 16^th DEC

A tiny teenage girl Hackney Hipster version of Stewart Lee stands outside the Dalston Rio cinema to declare...

“Our labour of love Nightingales rockumentary King Rocker knocks most rockumentaries into a cocked hat.

“I loved every minute” - Ben Dowell, The Times

**** Financial Times

**** Chortle

“One of the best music documentaries of all time” - The Quietus

“The new gold standard for rockumentaries” - The Scotsman

If you live in London come to the KING ROCKER XMAS FUN NIGHT, a screening at Dalston Rio Cinema on Dec 16^th at 8.45, followed by q&a w me and dir Michael Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast)

https://riocinema.org.uk/RioCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Film=13951901

You can also now watch it, ad-free, on NOW TV if you have that https://www.nowtv.com/watch/king-rocker-2020/A5EK4mHuoHzRk73pZuoRf

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THE SOUNDTRACK

KING ROCKER s/t album, w sleeve notes by me, avail Dec 3rd here
https://www.firerecords.com/product/king-rocker-ost/ (also t-shirts etc)


Following King Rocker‘s huge success earlier this year, spotlighting The Nightingales as one of the best band’s in Britain, comes the soundtrack to one of 2021’s break-out films. ‘King Rocker (Soundtrack)’ limited edition red vinyl includes sleeve notes from Stewart Lee, A3 theatrical poster and a lovingly replicated curry menu from Abdul's in Birmingham.

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THE STAND

I am doing some warm up dates for the rebooted SNOWFLAKE/TORNADO tour at THE STAND venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle from 12th-14th December.

Seating re-jigs, covid rule shifts, and standing room carve-ups mean there are a few new tickets suddenly available which will go on sale DEC 1^ST at 12 noon.



Edinburgh | Sun 12 Dec | Doors 9.30pm show 10.30pm| 60 mins | Tickets here



Glasgow | Mon 13 Dec | Doors 9pm show 10pm| 60 mins | Tickets here


Newcastle | Tues 14 Dec | Doors 6pm show 7pm| 60 mins | Tickets here


Newcastle | Tues 14 Dec | Doors 9pm show 10pm| 60 mins | Tickets here

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THE SEEN

An extremely crisp recording, from 2018 at Café Oto, of THE SEEN’s tribute to the free jazz drummer John Stevens, with me reading the text, is newly available here as a digi-download.
I like to burn them onto discs and make toy cd’s.

https://confrontrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/for-sake-of-joy-live

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THE HAT

WOOLY WINTER HAT NOW AVAILABLE

Stew says; "The gifting season is soon upon us. But what to buy for the socially challenged, prematurely middle-aged, pseudo-intellectual man, or woman, in your life?


An enchanting Stewart Lee 'Snowflake Tornado' Beanie, fashioned from the highest quality material by non-slaves, makes for the perfect woke Winterval gift!"

"Christmas is coming,

And Stewart Lee is getting fat,

So please spend a penny

On a Stewart Lee hat!"

https://wax-face.com

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THE SHIRT

The hit All The Cheeses and Content Provider t-shirts are also all printed and ready to ship.
Tees are all unisex and are made by Bella-Canvas. High quality and 100% eco friendly production and no Sweatshops.
Shirts come in all sizes and ship worldwide. Get yours before they sell out.



https://wax-face.com

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THE AWARD

Producer Michael Umney just won a BEST ARTS PRODUCER radio award for STEWART LEE - UNRELIABLE NARRATOR. Listen again here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wynk

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THE POST-NEARLY PRESS

This great book is out from the Post-Nearly Press

https://chromaeditions.com/2021/10/17/new-book-details-confirmed/

All five of the Post-Nearly Press Conversation Series of books compiled together for the first time and made available in colour paperback format, with original artwork and a brand new cover design by Craig Turnbull.

Featuring live face-to-face conversations, unprecedented in length, with five of the UK’s most visionary authors/artists, including: Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit, Andrew Kötting, Alan Moore and Stewart Lee.

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THE FIDDLER

The avant-folk dronemädchens Laura Cannell and Kate Ellis also bring the much delayed live incarnation of their These Feral Lands recording project to London’s King’s Place on Feb 18^th 2022. I wrote words for four of the tracks and will attempt to do something with them on the night. I thought about where I was conceived, and where I was born, plugged the details I know into the folklore of both regions, and tried not to get in the way of Laura and Kate’s mediaeval trance music steamroller.

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/laura-cannell-with-stewart-lee-kate-ellis-these-feral-lands/

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THE TOUR

All the SNOWFLAKE TORNADO tour dates outstanding from 2020 will be shifted into 2022, starting in Jan, and below are the ones we know about so far. Local venues will contact you if they haven’t already. All the warm-up club dates you may have bought tickets for have been slotted in to Nov and Dec, covid willing, and venues will contact ticket holders. Please do not hassle venues about all this. They will contact you. We will get there! It’s all bacon!

January 2022

Tuesday 4th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Wednesday 5th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Thursday 6th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Friday 7th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Saturday 8th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Monday 10th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Tuesday 11th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Wednesday 12th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Thursday 13th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Saturday 15th January 2022 - Theatre Royal, Norwich - TICKETS

Monday 17th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Tuesday 18th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Wednesday 19th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Thursday 20th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Friday 21st January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Saturday 22nd January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Tuesday 25th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Wednesday 26th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Thursday 27th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Friday 28th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Saturday 29th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Sunday 30th January 2022 - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

February 2022

Wednesday 2nd February 2022 - St. David's Hall, Cardiff - TICKETS

Thursday 3rd February 2022 - Rose Theatre, Kingston - TICKETS

Friday 4th February 2022 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS

Saturday 5th February 2022 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS

Tuesday 8th February 2022 - Town Hall, Cheltenham - TICKETS

Wednesday 9th February 2022 - Town Hall, Cheltenham - TICKETS

Thursday 10th February 2022 - De Montfort Hall, Leicester - TICKETS

Friday 11th February 2022 - Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry - TICKETS

Saturday 12th February 2022 - Festival Theatre, Malvern - TICKETS

Sunday 13th February 2022 - Hippodrome, Birmingham - TICKETS

Friday 25th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Saturday 26th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Sunday 27th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Monday 28th February 2022 - The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury - TICKETS

March 2022

Wednesday 2nd March 2022 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS

Thursday 3rd March 2022 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS

Friday 4th March 2022 - Lighthouse, Poole - TICKETS

Saturday 5th March 2022 - Playhouse, Salisbury - TICKETS

Sunday 6th March 2022 - De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill On Sea - TICKETS

Wednesday 9th March 2022 - Theatre Royal, Wakefield - TICKETS

Thursday 10th March 2022 - Opera House, Buxton - TICKETS

Friday 11th March 2022 - The Courtyard, Hereford - TICKETS

Saturday 12th March 2022 - Grand Theatre, Swansea - TICKETS

Monday 14th March 2022 - King's Theatre, Glasgow - TICKETS

Tuesday 15th March 2022 - King's Theatre, Glasgow - TICKETS

Wednesday 16th March 2022 - The Sands Centre, Carlisle - TICKETS

Thursday 17th March 2022 - Royal Hall, Harrogate - TICKETS

Tuesday 22nd March 2022 - Churchill Theatre, Bromley - TICKETS

Wednesday 23rd March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Thursday 24th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Friday 25th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Saturday 26th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Sunday 27th March 2022 - Royal & Derngate, Northampton - TICKETS

Tuesday 29th March 2022 - City Hall, Sheffield - TICKETS

Wednesday 30th March 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Thursday 31st March 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

April 2022

Friday 1st April 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Saturday 2nd April 2022 - Storyhouse, Chester - TICKETS

Tuesday 19th April 2022 - Wyvern Theatre, Swindon - TICKETS

Thursday 21st April 2022 - The Hawth, Crawley - TICKETS

Friday 22nd April 2022 - The Hexagon, Reading - TICKETS

Sunday 24th April 2022 - Mayflower Theatre, Southampton - TICKETS

Tuesday 26th April 2022 - Cliffs Pavilion, Southend On Sea - TICKETS

Wednesday 27th April 2022 - The Central Theatre, Chatham - TICKETS

Thursday 28th April 2022 - Derby Theatre, Derby - TICKETS

Friday 29th April 2022 - Lyceum Theatre, Crewe - TICKETS

Saturday 30th April 2022 - Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - TICKETS

May 2022

Tuesday 3rd May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Wednesday 4th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Thursday 5th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Friday 6th May 2022 - St. George's Hall, Bradford - TICKETS

Saturday 7th May 2022 - Gala Theatre, Durham - TICKETS

Sunday 8th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

Tuesday 10th May 2022 - Palace Theatre, Watford - TICKETS

Wednesday 11th May 2022 - Palace Theatre, Watford - TICKETS

Thursday 12th May 2022 - Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells

Friday 13th May 2022 - The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS

Saturday 14th May 2022 - The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS

Sunday 15th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, Plymouth - TICKETS

Tuesday 17th May 2022 - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Wednesday 18th May 2022 - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Thursday 19th May 2022 - The Baths Hall, Scunthorpe - TICKETS

Saturday 21st May 2022 - New Theatre, Peterborough - TICKETS

Sunday 22nd May 2022 - The Grand, Wolverhampton - TICKETS

Monday 23rd May 2022 - Hippodrome, Bristol - TICKETS

Tuesday 24th May 2022 - Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury - TICKETS

Wednesday 25th May 2022 - The Forum, Bath - TICKETS

Friday 27th May 2022 - Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe - TICKETS

Saturday 28th May 2022 - Winding Wheel, Chesterfield - TICKETS

June 2022

Tuesday 7th June 2022 - Mercury Theatre, Colchester

Wednesday 8th June 2022 - Mercury Theatre, Colchester

Sunday 12th June 2022 - Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple

Friday 17th June 2022 - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS

Saturday 18th June 2022 - Hippodrome, Darlington - TICKETS

Sunday 19th June 2022 - Festival Theatre, Edinburgh - TICKETS

Monday 20th June 2022 - Perth Theatre, Perth - TICKETS

Tuesday 21st June 2022 - Perth Theatre, Perth - TICKETS

Wednesday 22nd June 2022 - Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen - TICKETS

Thursday 23rd June 2022 - Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen - TICKETS

Sunday 26th June 2022 - Theatre Royal, Plymouth - TICKETS

Wednesday 29th June 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Thursday 30th June 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

July 2022

Friday 1st July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Saturday 2nd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Sunday 3rd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Sunday 3rd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

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THE VIRUS

I would be delighted if, if you are coming to see me, you could do your best to get vaccinated, irrespective of what the gvt or the venue insist upon. I doubt that my snowflake audience will contain many people who deny the existence of Covid or believe the vaccine is George Soros or Bill Gates trying to put tiny Transformer robots into your blood. But I and my team will be interacting with over 150 000 people on the next leg of the tour, and I would like to minimise our risk, and the risk to my audience, so meet me half way. I will be selling and signing stuff as usual, I hope, but I won’t be shaking hands to thank you all this time around, and will probably be positioned behind some kind of screen like William Shatner in Airplane 2. Sad.

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THE MEDIA GARAGE

My trusted sales partner Media Garage has compacted all my available stand-up dvds into one convenient on-line marketplace, with most available to d/load too. Remember, if you buy here we will pay tax on these purchases, and help with British schools and hospitals, whereas many major physical media suppliers and streaming services have found ways to avoid declaring their profits, as have NETFLIX, the transphobic bastards. AMERICANS - stop moaning about not being able to see me and visit MEDIA GARAGE! https://www.mediagarageproductions.com/store/

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THE PODCASTS

To try and promote King Rocker I have been pimping myself about like Priss Fotheringham on every Podcast going, alone or with dir M Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast), saying the same things in the same room in the same clothes to all different people, all of whom were very kind. I don’t know what a podcast is really but I think you go on the internet and click on something. As my grandfather once said, in 1983, “Do you know, in America, there are shops that only sell Kentucky Fried Chicken?” I enjoyed being on the internet with all these people enormously, but will put some blue water between me and the next wedge. David Baddiel told me it was good to be on the internet, though. These are available...

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8) I Arrogantly Recommend

LIVE EVENTS WINTERVAL SPECIAL

Welney Swan Feeds

If you’ve ever wondered what 9000 Russian and Icelandic migrating swans would look like all hanging out at a Norfolk wetland, get yourself booked in at WELNEY any day at 3.30 until the end of Feb for this mind-melting awe-inspiring vista of nature https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/welney/whats-on/swan-feeds-2/

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Martin Carthy

Ageless folk veteran DECEMBER 1^st & APRIL 16^TH 2022, Café Oto London

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Alfie Brown

Worthwhile comedy outlier of conviction and immense intensity. Until JAN 29^th London Soho Theatre https://sohotheatre.com/shows/alfie-brown-sensitive-man/

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Sleaford Mods

Angry loud man and quiet electronic man. DECEMBER 1^st Bristol Academy, 2^nd London Printworks, 3^rd Brighton Dome

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Dry Cleaning

Sing-speak post-punk poets DECEMBER 1^st Hebden Bridge Trades, 2^nd Norwich Arts Centre, 3^rd Brighton Dome. FEBRUARY 14^th Liverpool Arts, 15^th Dublin Button, 16^th Belfast Empire,. 18^th Edinburgh Summerhall, 19^th Glasgow QMU, 20^th Leeds Brudenell, 22^nd Birmingham Mill, 23^rd Bristol Marble, 25^th Manchester Academy 2, 26^th Sheffield Leadmill 2, 27^th Nottingham Rescue. MARCH 1^st Southsea Wedgewood, 2^nd Brighton Concorde 2, 3^rd London Forum. APRIL 1^st Manchester 02 Ritz.

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Bridget Christie

- Who Am I? My multi-award winning wife has some dates. You can book here https://www.bridgetchristie.co.uk/gigs/

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Quarterhouse Folkestone

14^th - 18^th December Leicester Square Theatre London https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873620281

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Evan Parker & Henry Dagg

DEC 2^ND Canterbury Free Range. This night combines two valuable British voices of unbowed individuality. Parker changed the sound of the saxophone in Jazz. Electronic music obsessive Dagg is a cross between eccentric inventor Wilf Lunn and Stockhausen. I wish I could get to this. “Dagg will be using a range of vintage electronic sound sources and modifiers to improvise a dialogue with Evan parker's saxophone performances, while using techniques such as variable tape delays and speeds, ring modulation and frequency shifting effects to expand the soundscape of the instrument.” WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?

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Phil Kay

The legendary Scottish comedian with the gift for surreal self-sabotage simply must be seen. Rare full length shows. London Museum of Comedy, Bloomsbury 2 Dec 2021 — 4 Dec 2021 Running Time 90m inc. Interval https://museumofcomedy.ticketsolve.com/shows/873621494

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Swell Maps

Surviving members and associated acts DECEMBER 3^rd + 4^th, Café Oto, London

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The Fallen Women

Female Fall tribute band w guest vocalists incl me. DECEMBER 5^th London Lexington.

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Alcester St Nicholas Night

Dec 6^th, Alcester, Worcs. 5.45pm. 7pm Parade, Fireworks 8.30, Church service 9pm. “The church at Alcester is dedicated to St Nicholas and his feast day is celebrated a parade featuring a boy Bishop, a Confused Graham, musicians, Morris dancers, vintage vehicles, maggot racing, a firework display and Gregorian chant. (Calendarcustoms.com)

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Enthroning of The Boy Bishop

Dec 6^th, Berden, Hertfordshire; Boston, Lincolnshire; Bristol; Hereford Cathedral; Par, Cornwall; Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire.

The custom of choosing a Boy Bishop from the members of a terrified cathedral choir is thought to date from the 13th century. Following his election he is fitted out in full Bishop cosplay including robes, mitre, whip, chequebook, ball gag, and crozier. During the ceremony the chosen chorister and his Confused Graham enter the church, or cathedral, and the new Boy Bishop takes his place on the Bishop’s throne and receives a small egg.
He then holds this egg in his hand from the Feast of St Nicholas on 6th December until Holy Innocents Day on the 28th December. During this period he enjoys many of the powers and privileges of a real Bishop, including a complimentary seat in the House of Lords, the power to influence national law and policy, and protection from child abuse investigations. (Historic-uk.com)

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The Bohman Brothers

Dada-ish improvisors. DECEMBER 8^th Brighton Rose Hill

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John Butcher, Mark Sanders, John Edwards

Top free-improvisation trio DEC 8^th London Iklecktik

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Tim Key

Pretentious comedian/poet/actor’s doubtlessly obtuse and thoroughly entertaining Xmas show. Dec 8^th-11^th London Soho Theatre https://sohotheatre.com/shows/tim-key-crimbo-bimbo/

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Robin Ince’s 9 Lessons and Carols For Curious People

Always a festive treat w amazing special guests DEC 10^th - 18^th, London King’s Place https://cosmicshambles.com/ninelessons They’re at the ROYAL FUCKING ALBERT HALL too on Dec 14^th https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2021/brian-cox-and-robin-inces-christmas-compendium-of-reason/

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The Wave Pictures

Unsung gods of indie DEC 13^th Lexington London

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The Chameleons

M’cr post punk visionaries on another victory lap. DECEMBER 14^TH Huddersfield Parish, 16^th Blackpool Waterloo, 17^th/18^th M’cr Ritz. JANUARY 14^TH Leicester Academy, 15^th Birmingham Institute. FEBRUARY 1^ST Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 5^th London Islington Assembly Hall

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Andrea Pensado, Daniel Thompson, Steve Noble, Steve Beresford, John Butcher, Mark Sanders, Kay Grant, Tim Hodgkinson, Dave Fowler, Douglas Benford, Sue Lynch, Mimi Kobayashi, Dave Tucker, and Adam Bohman

Packed pre-xmas free-improv spectacular feat ex-members of Flying Lizards, Henry Cow, Fall, Morphogenesis, Alterations etc etc DEC 16^th London Iklecktic

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Eliza Carthy

Folk superstar fiddler currently on top form, seen at Laugharne last month DEC 21^st London Union Chapel

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21^st DEC - Penzance Montol FestivalPenzance 12 midday onwards. A procession with traditional Guise Dancers, a Lord of Misrule, mummers, Penglaz the Hobby Horse, lanterns, a river of fire, musicians, dancers, guising, pear-knobbing, dancing, carol singing, a suet swig, a Confused Graham, a Mummers Play, Cornish Carols, and then the burning of the sun - A 10pm torchlit procession leading to a lit Beacon for the Chalking of the Mock and the bonfire. The Mock is a yule log marked in chalk with a stickman before it’s burned. York Sherrif’s Riding From 6pm. The Sheriff, on foot, is accompanied by the York Waits in their livery; they process around the city in a large clay beaker, music playing all the while.

The event begins with a proclamation at Micklegate Bar and further proclamations, horn blowing and chobby-boffing take place at several points on the tour, which ends after about three-quarters of an hour or so with the Sheriff’s speech at the Mansion House, and the bawdy lamentation of a Confused Graham.
The proclamations welcome to the city “whores, thieves, diceplayers and other unthrifty folk” for the period of twelve days of Yule. Afterwards the participants celebrate with venison pasties, ramekin dewpie, and sherry. (Calendarcustoms.com)



Tom Bawcock’s Eve 23^rd Dec Mousehole Cornwall. Tom was a local fisherman who braved the midwinter weather to land a fine catch on this date, after a period of storms had prevented the men from sailing and the villagers faced famine. His act of heroism is commemorated annually and the story is re-enacted in the harbour by a Confused Graham. There is a lantern parade and a special local delicacy called star-gazy pie is served, a fish pie with a pastry crust, the heads of the fish stick out through the crust to gaze accusatorily at the diners, who then weep. The Ship Inn is the place to eat the pie – you’ll also hear a special song about Tom’s brave act during the parade. Carol singing follows on the beach. (Calendarcustoms.com)




24^th DEC Tolling The Devil’s Knell, Dewsbury In the parish church, a team of bell ringers toll the tenor bell, ‘Black Tom of Soothill’, once for every year since Christ was born. The final stroke is timed for midnight. Legend has it the practice began in the 13th century when Thomas de Soothill, a local baron, killed a servant boy. As penance he gave a bell to All Saint’s Church and ordered it rung every Christmas to remind him of his crime, although he didn’t go to prison or anything. After midnight Black Tom is rung once more by a Confused Graham to remind the Devil of his defeat by the birth of Christ, in case he has forgotten, and to protect the town from evil for the coming year, such as a rain of sharks. (Historic-uk.com) Dunster & Axmouth Ashen Faggot, Dunster, Luttrel Arms, 8pm/Axmouth 8.30 pm. The Ashen Faggot is a large log with withies bound around it to make a bundle which is burned indoors in the hearth. A sip of moorjuice is consumed as each withy breaks in the flames. At Dunster their faggot consists of twelve thick sticks bound in a bundle using ash withies and the Dunster Carol is sung while it burns in the vast fireplace. At Axmouth a six-foot-long faggot is constructed in a bundle of hazel twigs, filling the fireplace; as the faggot burns carol singing and recitations take place and the bad events of year are collectively regretted while a Confused Graham delights in the faggot’s embers. Richmond Poor Old ‘Oss Richmond Market Place, Yorkshire 12 midday. The Poor Old Hoss of Richmond is a twisted parody of a horse in the form of a real horse-skull attached to a pole. He is accompanied by a group of mummers in huntsman costumes who sing his special song and bring him back to life with a blast on a hunting horn when he “dies”, accompanied by much merriment and mayhem, and a bawdy gesture from a Confused Graham. Most of the action takes place around the Market Place area, in and out of the pubs, and the bank. (Calendarcustoms.com)




25^th DEC Kirkwall Ba, Kirkwall Orkney A fiercely contested mass-handball game between teams of Uppies and Doonies, tightly packed into the narrow covid-ridden streets. The main game on each day is preceded by a procession of all participants to the Mercat Cross, a shortbread eating competition, and a Boys’ game in the morning at 10.30. Expect 100 players, plenty more spectators and a Confused Graham; play can go on well into the New Year. Rippon Apples, Rippon Cathedral 10.30 am Choristers distribute rosy red apples to the assembled parishioners, who shine them on their cuffs before stamping them into the dirt, whilst being taunted by a Confused Graham.





26^th DEC Old Glory & The Cutty Wren Middleton, Suffolk. Once darkness falls, flaming torches approach to the sound of a slow drum beat as the East Anglian form of Morris is re-created by local Molly Dancers & Musicians, intimidating the weak to the amusement of a Confused Graham (Historic-uk.com) Greatham Sword Dance, Greatham County Durham Redcar Sword Dancers perform outside the gates to Greatham Hospital, with red jackets and carry steel swords, performing intricate longsword dances and a traditional mummers play with a death followed by a resurrection by the doctor, who is lured out from behind a laptop with a simnel cake. During the last dance, the performers are showered with coins, which some Confused Grahams attempt to pocket, so don’t forget to take some! Flamborough Sword Dance 12.30 pm Flamborough Sword Dancers’ moves are derived from threading actions used when making and reparing their fishing nets. They perform with wooden swords outside each of the local pubs including the Rose & Crown and ending at the Royal Dog & Duck, where recriminations for any of the day’s dance mistakes are handed out like toffees by a Confused Graham. Geddington Boxing Day Squirt 11.30 am A huge water fight between the local Geddington Volunteer Fire Brigade and their rivals from Kettering Fire Station. A beer barrel suspended over the ford must be squirted towards their opponents using the force of their fire hoses. A Confused Graham tries to squirt from his own miniature hose, in a bawdy burlesque of the main event. Grenoside Sword Dance 11 am Grenoside Sword Dancers perform with six dancers, accompanied by musicians and a captain in a unique dance featuring a ritual “beheading” movement of the captain with interlinked swords. Clogs are worn by the team, while nine Confused Grahams dance barefoot. Woodhouse/Handsworth Sword Dance (Yorkshire) 11.15am/12pm The Handsworth Traditional Sword Dancers, wearing unique military style uniforms and carrying metre-long swords, perform an intricate dance featuring a “lock” of intertwined swords, while a Confused Graham shields his inbetweenicles. Knaresborough Tug Of War 12 midday Opponents pull their sturdy rope over the River Nidd, while a Confused Graham ridicules water. Ludlow Tug Of War 12 midday The tuggers from the timbered Feathers and its rival the Bull bring the street to a standstill as they struggle to win the best of three pulls, while a Confused Graham performs his own bawdy tug. Marshfield (Gloucestershire) Paper Boys 12 midday The Marshfield Paper Boys perform a traditional mummers play involving a sword-fight and the revival of the defeated protagonist by the Doctor, who is lured out from behind a laptop with a toffee apple; other characters include Saucy Jack, a Confused Graham, and Father Beelzebub. The players wear costumes covered in strips of paper (hence their name) and perform in a serious manner handed down over the generations. The Town Crier leads the procession of players to the set performance points around the village, beginning in the Market Place at 11am. Carols are sung before the first performance and the last play takes place around noon. Silsoe (Bedfordshire) Hunting of The Wren 12 midday The Hunting of the Wren at Silsoe is a modern day interpretation of the old Irish custom with the added advantage that no birds are harmed during the ceremony! Hunting the Wren was a widespread Celtic winter custom in which groups paraded their locality, particularly on Boxing Day, bearing a decorated garland or box containing a dead wren, mumming and singing in return for rewards of food and money. Local Morris side Hemlock Morris perform at the event and they process to the High Street with their artificial wren on a stick, before dancing, readings, acting and music outside the pub for around an hour, while a Confused Graham arranges feathers on a dish, appreciatively. Hemlock are a mixed side, wearing the gothic apparel of Border Morris but performing mainly Cotswold style dances. While Boxing Day dancing and mumming has taken place at Silsoe for a number of years, the Wren Ceremony was introduced more recently by current Squire of Hemlock Andrew Miller, making it a much more unusual event. (Calendarcustoms.com) Gloucester Cathedral Mummers’ Play 12 mid-day Morris Dancing followed by an incomprehensible and historically inaccurate play, performed by increasingky bewildered men, that appears to have some long forgotten meaning but remains thoroughly entertaining. Absolutely superb, every year!





31^st December Fun - Allendale Fire Ceremony Allendale, Northumberland. A procession of ’guisers’ carry tubs of flaming tar above their heads, in contravention of many health and safety regulations, eventually arriving at the town square where the flaming tubs are thrown onto a bonfire, which a Confused Graham attempts to extinguish with his own bawdy hose. At the stroke of midnight the church bells ring out to symbolise the supplanting of cool paganism by square Christianity, and the death of the feminine in ancient British belief systems. Burning The Old Year Out, Biggar Strathclyde & Wick Highland, A torchlight procession through the town is followed by a bonfire symbolizing the burning out of the old year. During WWII a candle was lit in a tin can to ensure the tradition survived, and a Confused Graham commemorates this by extracting his own bawdy candle from its unusual hiding place. Flambeaux Procession Comrie Tayside, A torchlight procession drives out evil spirits as credulous and bewildered villagers march round the fearful settlement and then back into the main square where the torches are thrown onto a bonfire and wasted, as a Confused Graham leaks treacle from its teats. Swinging The Fireballs Stonehaven Grampian, At midnight the High Street is lit up as sixty local fireball-swingers swing their fireballs above their heads, proceeding down to the harbour where their balls are thrown into the sea. A Confused Graham announces that some time in the dark-ages a shooting star appeared above Stonehaven. In the year that followed the sighting, the local farmers recorded a bumper harvest. Attributing their prosperity to the shooting star, the villagers introduced the fireball ceremony to trick gullible nature into rewarding them with surplus foods again. (Historic-uk.com) Llangynwyd Mari Lwyd 7.30 pm The Mari Lwyd takes the form of a decorated horse-skull on a pole operated by a Confused Graham in a white sheet, paraded around the district in return for refreshment. The action takes place at the Corner House pub and the singing is still a feature of this event. (Calanedarcustoms.com)

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Mammoth Penguins

Sublime indie pop storytelling JANUARY 12^th Lexington London

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PHIL MINTON WITH ROGER TURNER / VERYAN WESTON / JOHN BUTCHER / ADRIAN NORTHOVER / JOHN EDWARDS / AUDREY CHEN

JAN 12^th London Café Oto Great night of vocalese and free improv. Minton is a genius.

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Darren Hayman & Emma Krupa

The Sonny and Cher of Indie JANUARY 13^th Lexington London

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The Fallen Leaves

Gentlemen mod punks. JANUARY 15^TH Acton George & Dragon, 20^th 100 Club, London + Downliners’ Sect & Masonics. FEBRUARY 12^th 229 London. JUNE 11^TH 100 Club, London.

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Canadian ritual post-rockers. JANUARY 16^th/17th London Electric Ballroom, 19^th Bristol SWX, 21^st Glasgow Barrowland, 22^nd M’cr Academy

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Idles/Big Joanie

West country positive vibes rabble rousers and support from sturdily scrappy black feminist punks JANUARY 17^TH Brixton Academy, 21^st Cardiff Motorpoint, 22^nd Birmingham Academy, 24^th - 26^th Dublin Vicar St, 28^th - 20^th M’cr Victoria Warehouse, FEBRUARY 1^st Sheffield Academy, 2^nd Newcastle City Hall, 3^rd - 5^th Glasgow Barrowlands

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Shopping

Distaff post-punkers JANUARY 19^th Brixton Academy (w Idles), 20^th Birmingham Hare & Hounds, 22^nd Glasgow Audio

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Bob Mould

Hardcore progenitor and WWWF scriptwriter in solo songsmith mode

JANUARY 19^th Dublin Wheelans, 21^st Liverpool Arts, 23^rd Cardiff Globe, 24^th Chester Live Rooms, 25^th Digbeth B’ham , 27^th Stoke on Trent Sugarmill, 28^th Bristol Thekla, 29^th Nottingham Rescue, 31^st Glasgow Oran Moor, FEBRUARY 1^st Newcastle Riverside, Southampton Engine Rooms, 4^th Brighton Concorde 2, 5^th Oxford Academy 2, 7^th Leeds Brudenell, 8^th London Islington Assembly

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Richard Dawson

Unique Geordie troubadour 20^th JANUARY London Roundhouse, 22^nd Sunderland Fire Station

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Dean Wareham (plays Galaxie 500)

Dreampop avatar revisits juvenilia JANUARY 27^TH Glasgow Oran Mor, 28^th Edinburgh Liquid, 29^th N’castle Cluny, 20^th Leeds Brudenell, FEBRUARY 2^nd Nottingham Rescue, 3^rd Bristol Fleece, 4^th Islington Assembly, 5^th Worthing Venue

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Echo & The Bunnymen

Scally pscyh-survivors FEBRUARY 1^st Sheffield City Hall, 2^nd Leeds Academy, 4^th Bournemouth Academy, 5^th Cardiff St David’s Hall, 7^th London Roundhouse, 9^th Dublin Olympia, 11^th Norwich UEA, 12^th Gateshead Sage, 14^th Liverpool Philharmonic, 16^th M’cr Albert Hall, 17^th Nottingham Rock City, 18^th Cambridge Corn Exch, 20^th Bristol Academy, 22^nd London Shepherds Bush Empire, 23^rd Northampton Derngate, 25^th M’cr Albert Hall, 26^th Birmingham Academy, 28^th Glasgow Barrowlands MARCH 1^st Glasgow Barrowlands, APRIL 6^TH Bexhill De La Ware

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Napalm Death

Grindcore pioneers FEBRUARY 9^TH M’cr Academy, 10^th Glasgow Classic Grand, 11^th Buckley Tivoli, 12^th Birmingham Hammerfest, 13^th London Electric Ballroom

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ALAN PARKER URBAN WARRIOR

Comedy genius Simon Munnery’s timeless anarchist character ALAN PARKER scales the heights with a ‘farewell’ date at London’s South Bank Center. You MUST SEE THIS FEB 16^th https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/performance-dance/simon-munnery-alan-parker-urban-warrior-farewell-tour?eventId=820754

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Van Der Graaf Generator

Monumental master-masons of prog FEBRUARY 21^st Birmingham Town Hall, 22^nd M’cr Bridgewater, 24^th London Palladium, 26^th Edinburgh Queen’s MARCH 1^st Bath Forum

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Stiff Little Fingers

Still impossibly inspiring NI punk survivors MARCH 10^th Bristol Academy, 11^th Cardiff SU, 12^th B’ham Academy, 14^th Nottingham Rock City, 16^th Troon Hall, 17^th Glasgow Barrowlands, 18^th Newcastle City Hall, 19^th Leeds Academy, 21^st Northampton Roadmender, 24^th Bournemouth Academy, 25^th M’cr Academy, 26^th Camden Roundhouse AUGUST 4^th Blackpool Rebellion, OCTOBER 1^st- 2^nd Sheffield Academy

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Robyn Hitchock

Psychedelic surrealist MARCH 17^th Cambridge Storey’s Field, 19^th London QEH, 20^th Leeds Brudenell, 22^nd M’cr Night & Day

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Doug Stanhope

As all serious fans of stand-up know, the American iteration of the artform is currently lagging somewhat compared to the manifestations produced in other English speaking territories, but the mighty Doug Stanhope - the desert compound king of crudely eloquent despair - is an exception. A reformed Libertarian with a compelling stage presence, Stanhope is one of those rare comedians with the skills and talent to make you laugh, against your will, on his terms, whether you agree with his worldview or not. MARCH 24^th Glasgow Academy, 25^th Newcastle City Hall, 26^th Sheffield Academy, 27^th Leeds Academy, 30^th Birmingham Academy, APRIL 1^st M’cr Apollo, 3^rd London T&C.

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Melt Banana

Endlessly inspiring Japanese pop-art-noiseniks MARCH 31^st Margate Elsewhere, APRIL 1^st Reading South Street, 6^th Cambridge Portland Arms, 9^th Huddersfield Parish, 12^th Edinburgh Caves, 13^th Glasgow Stereo, 14^th York Crescent, 17^th Bristol Exchange, 18^th Cardiff Ifor Bach, 22^nd Brighton Patterns

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Wet Leg

Sure to be briefly massive, these waspish Amish-styled Boston-indie-circa-1989-sounding barnstormers hit the road APRIL 17^th Edinburgh Mash, 19^th Leeds Brudenell, 20^th M’cr Gorilla, 21^st Bristol Trinity, 23^rd B’ham Institute 3, 24^th Norwich Arts, 26^th London Scala, 27^th Southsea Wedgewood, MAY 28^th Warrington Weekender

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Maria Bamford

As all serious fans of stand-up know, the American iteration of the artform is currently lagging somewhat compared to the manifestations produced in other English speaking territories, but the mighty Maria Bamford - the Empress of Embarrassment - can hold her own against the best British, Irish and Antipodean acts, and she has an utterly unique comic persona, a kind of crippling bafflement. She is making some rare - and typically modest - British and Irish appearances. APRIL 21^st Dublin Liberty Hall, 25^th Glasgow Glee, 27^th Birmingham Glee, 28^th M'cr Academy, 30^th London Hackney Earth

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Low

Mormon minimalists APRIL 25^th Edinburgh Queen’s Hall, 26^th Dublin Vicar St, 27^th M’cr Cathedral, 28^th Brighton St George’s, 29^th London St John At Hackney, 30^th Bristol Trinity

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NEW FILMS

Little Joe (Jessica Hausner) ****

County Lines (Henry Blake) *****

Animal Antics (Patrick Goddard) *****

OLD FILMS

Box Of Moonlight (Tom DeCillo, 1996) *****

Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 1983) *****

Where Eagles Dare (Brian G Hutton, 1968) *****

The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1967) *****

The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973) *****

Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) *****

The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)*****

Good Vibrations (Lisa Barros D'sa/Glen Leyburn, 2013)*****

Caliber 9 (Fernado di Leon, 1972) *****

'71 (Yann Demange, 2014) *****

Big Night (Campbell Scott/Stanley Tucci, 1996) *****

Jason & The Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963) *****

Goldstone (Ivan Sen, 2016) *****

Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) *****

Avengers Infinity War (Russo Brothers, 2018) ****

Avengers Endgame (Russo Brothers, 2019) ****

In Order of Disappearance (Hans Peter Molland, 2014)*****

Iron Man III (Shane Black, 2013)*****

Pauline A La Plage (Eric Rohmer, 1983) *****

Gone To Earth (Powell/Pressburger, 1950) ****

The Odd Couple (Neil Simon, 1968) *****

Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981) ****

Samurai 1 : Mushashi Miyamoto (Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954) ****

Cache / Hidden (Michaek Haneke, 2005) *****

Babylon (Franco Rosso, 1980) *****

Summer In February (Christopher Menaul, 2013) ****

Guardians of The Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014) *****

All Tomorrow's Parties (Jonathan Caouette, 2009) ****

Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969) *****

Force Majeure (Ruben Ostlund, 2015) ****

Lift To The Scaffold (Louise Malle, 1958)*****

Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971)*****

Tomb of Ligeia (Roger Corman, 1964) ****

Massacre Time (Lucio Fulci, 1966) ****

Bandidos (Massimo Dallamano, 1967) ****

And God Said To Cain (Antonio Margheriti, 1970) *****

Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004) *****

Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996) *****

Gallivant (Andrew Kotting, 1996) *****

Cleo From 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1961)*****

London (Patrick Keiller, 1992) *****

Effie Grey (Emma Thompson, Richard Laxton 2014) ****

OLD BOOKS

Rosemary Tonks - Emir (1963)*****

Rosemary Tonks - The Bloater (1968) *****

John Berger/Jean Mohr - A Fortunate Man (1967) *****

Ann Quin - Berg (1964) ****

Sir John Mandeville - The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357)****

Sean Bythell - Diary of a Bookseller (2018)

Robert Aickman - The Inner Room (1988)

Virginia Nicholson - Amongst The Bohemians (2003)

Joanna Moorhead - The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington (2017)

Betty May - Tiger Woman (1929)

Val Doonican - My Story, My Life (2009)

Dave Graney - Workshy (2017)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde - R L Stevenson (1985)

Hide & Seek - Dennis Potter (1973)

M R James - Complete Ghost Stories (1904 - 35) *****

Gavin Lambert - The Slide Area (1959)****

NEW BOOKS

Tessa Norton/Bob Stanley - Excavate!

Alan Stafford - Wilson, Keppel & Betty, Too Naked For The Nazis

Peter Oborne - The Assault On Truth

Nesrine Malik - We Need New Stories *****

Sean Bythell - Diary of a Bookseller (2018) *****

Robert Aickman - The Inner Room (1988) *****
Alicia Foster - Nina Hamnett

Charlie Hill - I Don't Want To Go To The Taj Mahjal

Hill's economic autobiography is a simplistic list of addresses, dead end jobs, cultural ephemera, and brief assignations, garnished with two or three short paragraphs of barely formed reflection. And yet, in reducing his life to these most basic elements, it manages to be a more profound comment on existence then many more self-consciously analytical efforts. As if to confound Wittgenstein, it appears the unexamined life was worth living after all.

Tracey Thorn - My Rock 'n' Roll Friend *****

Will Sergeant - Bunnyman ****

Hotel Art Head - Rhodri Davies & Nikos Veliotos I have written the intro for this new project exploring the interior design aesthetics travelling musicians' hotel acommodation

https://rhodridavies.bandcamp.com/merch/hotel-art-head-rhodri-davies-nikos-veliotis-art-book

NEW COMICS

Joe Sacco - Paying The Land (2020)

NEW TV

Ghosts S2 (BBC, 2020)

Ghosts - Xmas Special 2020 (BBC, 2020)

The Mandalorian S2 (Disney, 2020) *****

Call My Agent S3 (France 2, 2018)*****

Call My Agent S4 (France 2, 2021) *****

The Trump Show (BBC, 2020-1)*****

Lupin S1 (Netflix, 2021)*****

Wandavision (Marvel, 2021)*****

Stonehenge The Lost Circle Revealed (BBC, 2021) *****

Adam Curtis' Can't Get You Out Of My Head (BBC, 2021)*****

Raiders Of The Lost Past With Janina Ramirez (BBC2, 2021) ****

Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing S3 (BBC, 2020) *****

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (Marvel, 2021) *****

Homeland s8 (Netflix, 2020)*****

Into The Night S1 (Between a Dog & A Wolf, 2020) ****

Unforgotten S4 (ITV, 2021) ****

Inside No 9 S6 (BBC, 2021) *****

Great British Bake Off S11 (C4, 2020) *****

An Evening With Tim Heidecker (Youtube, 2020)
Time (BBC, 2021) *****

Loki (Kate Herron, Marvel, 2021)

Ghosts S3 (BBC, 2021) *****

Alma’s Not Normal (BBC2, 2021)

King Gary S2 (BBC1, 2021)

Great British Bake Off S5 (C4, 2021) *****

Four Hours At The Capitol (BBC, 2021) *****

Blair and Brown, The New Labour Revolution (BBC, 2021) *****

INTERNETS, RADIOS, YOUTUBES AND PODCASTS

Rob Auton's Daily Podcast

Alasdair Beckett-King on Youtube

Shawn Woods' Mouse Trap Monday on Youtube

An Evening With Tim Heidecker (Youtube, 2020) ****

Rosie Holt's Youtube characters

James O’Brien (LBC)

Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar S1 (BBC R4, 2016)

Bridget Christie - Mortal (BBCR4)

Gideon Coe (BBC 6Music)

Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)

Eddie Mair (LBC)

Down The Line S1, S2 ( )

Tom Robinson (BBC 6Music)

NEW RECORDS

Lady Leshurr - Quaranqueen

The Primevals - New Trip

Cult Figures - Deritend

Vapour Trails - Celestial Scuzz *****

Robert Pollard - Before Computers (demos)

Kevin March - Last Night

Doug Gillard - Douglas Scott Gillard II

Guided by Voices - Earth Man Blues

Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain

Ustad Saami - Pakistan Is For The Peaceful *****

The Blue Orchids - Speed The Day

Dave Graney & The Mistly - Live At Byrds *****

Mainliner - Dual Myths *****

Hawkwind - 50th Anniversary Live

The Amorphous Androgynous w Peter Hammill - We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orcestrea - s/t

Major Murphy - Access

Eleventh Dream Day - Since Grazed

Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg

Guided By Voices - Earth Man Blues

Fixed Horizon - Grenouille

Lucinda Williams - Runnin' Down A Dream

Krallice - Demonic Wealth

Catenary Wires - Birling Gap

Cub Scout Bowling Pins - Heaven Beats Iowa ****

Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders - There's Pretty Things in Palookaville ****

Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Upstairs ****

Chris Forsyth - First Flight

Chris Eckerman - Where The Spirit Rests ****

The Scientists - Negativity

David Grubbs & Ryley Walker - Husky Pants ****

Shirley Collins - Heart's Ease *****

Gary Louris - Jump For Joy *****

Fixed Horizon - Full Circle ****

Trees Speak - Post Human ****

William Loveday Intention - People Think They Know Me *****

Hawkwind - Somnia

The Bevis Frond - Little Eden *****

Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders - There's Pretty Things In Palookaville *****

Goat - Headsoup

Adele & The Chandeliers - First Date

Trees Speak - Post Human

Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling *****

Phil Minton - Woke Up At 8 *****

Rudimentary Peni - The Great War

Lucinda Williams - Southern Soul

Son Volt - Electro Melodies ****

Guided By Voices - It's Not Them! It Couldn't Be Them! It Is Them! ****

Billy Childish & CTMF - Where The Purple Iris Grows ****

David Lance Callahan - English Primitive 1 *****

Paul Rooney - Service Industries 1 *****

The Shadracks - From Human Like Forms ****

The Surfing Magazines - Badgers of Wymeswold *****

NEW OLD RECORDS

V/A - Rough Guide To Avant-Garde Japan

Guided by Voices - Live At Irving Plaza (1996)

Damo Suzuki & Echo Ensemble - Live @ Green Door (2013)

Heavenly - A Bout De Heavenly (1989-1996)

Martin Stone - Down But Not Out In Paris and London (1992-2013)

John Russell & Terry Day - Russell & Day (1979?)

Derek Bailey, Trevor Watts & Terry Day - At LTC (1972?)

Sonny Rollins - Rollins In Holland (1967) *****

Robert Pollard - I Sell The Circus (demos) (2015)

The Fall - St Helen's Technical College (1981) *****

Charles Gayle, John Edwards, Mark Sanders - Seasons Changing (2017) *****

The Misunderstood - Children of The Sun(1965-66) *****

Dexter Gordon - Live In Chateauvallon (1978) *****

The Loft - Ghost Trains & Country Lanes (1984-2015)

And Also The Trees - s/t (1984)

Neil Young - Young Shakespeare (1971)

T2 - It'll All Work Out In Boomland (1970)

The Outsiders - Count For Something (1976-78)

The Selecter - Too Much Pressure box (1980)

Brown Acid 11 - v/a (1969-73)

Fleur de Lys - Circles (1964-1969)

J Jazz Deep Jazz From Modern Japan vol 3 - V/A (1962-1985)

The Black Keys Present Hill Country Blues - v/a

Brown Acid 12 - v/a (1968-80)

Raw Material - s/t (1970)

Open Road - Windy Day (1971)

Dave Graney, Clare Moore, Georgie Valentino & Malcolm Ross - s/t (2017) ****

Hangman's Beautiful Daughters - Smashed Full Of Wonder (1987)

The Lipstick Killers - Strange Flash (1976-81)

The Hawks - Obviously 5 Believers (1979-81) ****

v/a - Goitse A Thaisce (1960-2020) *****

v/a - Fire Draw Near (1940-2020) *****

Jackie Leven - Straight Outta Caledonia (1994-2008) ****

Alice Coltrane - Kirtan : Turiya Sings (1982) *****

Van Der Graaf Generator - The Charisma Years (1970-78) *****

Gun Club - Fire Of Love (1981) *****

Lightnin’ Hopkins - King of Dowling St (50s-80s) ****

The Dream Syndicate - What Can I Say? No Regrets (1986) ****

OLD RECORDS

Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984) ****

Billy Bragg - Life's A Riot (1983) *****

Billy Bragg - Brewing Up with (1984) *****

The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional (1986) ****

Siouxsie & The Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse (1982) ****

Bunny Striker Lee - The Bunny Striker Lee Story (1967-80) ****

V/A - Dub, A Journey Into Bass Culture (1970s) ****

V/A - Dub, Original Bass Culture (1970s) ****

V/A - Dub, More Bass Culture (1970s) ****

Tomorrow's Gift - Goodbye Future (1973) ****

Jackson C Frank - s/t (1965) ****

V/A - Down Home Blues, Chicago Fine Boogie (1947-1958)****

Maggie Bjorklund - Shaken (2014)****

June Tabor - Airs & Graces (1976) *****

John Martyn - The Very Best Of (1967-1996) *****

The Owl Service - The Garland Sessions (2007) *****

John Lee Hooker - Tantalising With The Blues (1965-70)*****

Furry Lewis, Memphis Willie B, Memphis Slim - Bluesville 3 (1963?) ****

Lightnin' Hopkins - Prestige Profiles (1960-4) *****

Magic Slim - Live @ Ma Bea's (1976) ****

Jimmy Dawkins - Come Back Baby (1977) ****

Allman Brothers - At Filmore East (1971) ****

John Fahey - The Yellow Princess (1968) *****

Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly? (1992)****

Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (2009) ****

Tragically Hip - Man Machine Poem (2016) ****

Tragically Hip - We Are The Same (2009) ****

Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) *****

Grant Lee Buffalo - Storm Hymnal (1993-98) ****

Shiva Burlesque - Mercury Blues (1990) ****

Yo La Tengo - President (1989) *****

Yo La Tengo - Fakebook (1990) *****

Yo La Tengo - That Is You La Tengo (1991) ****

Yo La Tengo - May I Sing With Me? (1992) ****

Yo La Tengo - Painful (3 cds) (1993) ****

Tim Buckley - Dream Letter (1968) *****

Those Bastard Souls - Debt & Departure (1999) *****

Wanderlust - Prize (1995) ****

Chain - Towards The Blues (1971) ****

The Schramms - Omnidirectional (2019) ****

Cannonball Adderley - Soul Zodiac (1972)

Fred Anderson - Quintessential Birthday Trio Vol II (2015)

Greg Bendian's Interzone - Requiem For Jack Kirby (2001)

Nels Cline & Greg Bendian - Interstellar Space Revisited (1999)

The Beat - Bounce (2016)

Nina Simone - To Be Free (1959-1993)

Swervedriver - 99th Dream (1998)

Road - s/t (1972)

Mudhoney - Morning In America (2019)

Necromandus - Orexis of Death (1973)

Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide (1991)

Ultravox - Rage In Eden (1981)

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox (1986)

Blues Pills - Live In Paris (2017)

Gram Parsons - Alternate Takes (1973-4)

Mike Westbrook - Mama Chicago (1976)

The Fall - Grotesque (1980)

Truly - Fast Stories From Kid Coma (1995)

Echo & the Bunnymen - Evergreen (1997)

Echo & The Bunnymen - What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? (1999)

Blues Pills - Lady In Gold (2016)

Leo Bud Welch - The Angels In Heaven Done Signed My Name (2019)

The Black Keys - Chulahoma (2006)

Nanci Griffith - One Fair Summer Evening (1988)

The Soft Boys - Invisible Hits (1983)

Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Sings (2003)

Raw Material - s/t (1970)

Don Carlos & Gold - Them Never Know Natty Dread Have Him Credentials (1982)

Henry Junjo Lawes - Volcano Erruption (70s-80s)

Don Carlos - Day To Day Living (1982)

Bunny 'Striker' Lee - Full Up (1968-72)

Bunny Lee & Friends - Tape Rolling (1971-4) ****

v/a - Trojan Roots Dancehall Box ('70s, '80s)

Charlie Chaplin & Papa San - Respect Due (1986?)

Robert Forster - The Evangelist (2008) *****

John Stewart - California Bloodlines (1969) ****

v/a - Trojan Dancehall Box ('70s, '80s)

Don Carlos - In Dub (1980)

Yabby You - Deeper Roots ('70s, '80s)

Yabby You - Deeper Roots Part 2 ('70s, '80s)

Norma Winstone - Edge Of Time (1972) ****

Atlas - Just Playin' Rhythm & Blues (1967-71)

V/A - Alan Lomax Songbook (1939-76) ****

Shirley Collins - Lodestar (2016) *****

The Go-betweens - Loving Shocks (1989) ****

Red House Painters - Songs For A Blue Guitar (1996) ****

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control (2013)

The Damned - Music For Pleasure (1977) ****

Skids - Days In Europa (1977)

Big Country - The Crossing (1983) ****

Big Country - Steel Town (1984)

Jon Dee Graham - Escape From Monster Island (1997) ****

The Fall - Live At The Witch Trials (1979) *****

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon (2018)

Echo & The Buynnymen - Ballyhoo (1980-87) *****

Orange Juice - Rip It Up (1982)

Orange Juice - Texas Fever (1984)

The Stone Roses - s/t (1989) ****

The Screaming Trees - Buzz Factory (1989) ****

Mark Lanegan - The Winding Street (1990) *****

Killdozer - For Ladies Only (1989) ****

Magazine - Real Life (1978) ****

The Stranglers - Peaches (1977-82) *****

Screaming Trees - Uncle Anaesthesia (1991)

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday At Devil Dirt (2008)

The Osiris Club - Blazing World (2014)

UB40 - Signing Off (1980)*****

UB40 - Present Arms (1981) *****

UB40 - Present Arms In Dub (1981) ****

Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007) *****

The Brave Little Abacus - Last Show @ Vic Geary Center (2012) *****

Sarofeen and Smoke - s/t (1970) ****

Blue Cheer - Outsideinside (1968) ****

Conqueroo - From The Vulcan Gas Company (1968) ****

Frank Morgan - City Nights (2004) ****

Peter Brotzmann - Machine Gun (1968) *****

Phil Minton - A Doughnut In One Hand (1998) *****

Chris Von Sneidern - The Wild Horse (2003)

Alexei Sayle - Cak! (1982) ****

Steve Wynn - Here Come The Miracles (2001) ****

Steve Wynn - Static Transmission (2003) ****

Andy Irvine - Old Dog Long Road Vol 1 (1961-2012) ****

Patti Smith - Land (1975-2002) *****

Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell etc - Transformations (1997) *****

Dick Gaughan - Handful of Earth (1981) *****

Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us (1982) *****

Sandy Denny - Sandy (1972) ****

Dick Gaughan - Gaughan (1978)****

Hako Yamasaki - ? (1975/6) *****

IN OUR LAMENTATIONS

- 2021 -



Katharine Whitehorn (bedsitter cook) (1928)

Katharine Whitehorn (bedsitter cook) (1928)

Celia Drummond Ford (voice of Trees) (1950)

The Happy Man Tree (Stoke Newington Tree) (1870)

John Russell (guitar guru) (1954)

Marcel Uderzo (Asterisk artist) (1933)

Tom Stevens (Long Ryder and Magus) (1956)

Dougie Anderson (Coda's Edinburgh record dealer (1952)

Captain Tom (Covid Walkman) (1920)

Rynagh O'Grady (Ted's Mary) (1954)

Mary Wilson (Supreme) (1944)

Chick Corea (Miles' tinkler) (1941)

Iain Pattinson (You wanted to see me Prime Minister?) (1951)

U-Roy (Toastmaster) (1942)

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (bookstore beat) (1921)

Wink O'Bannon (Eleventh Dream Day) (1956)

Bunny Wailer (Wailer) (1947)

Doug Parkinson (Oz vocal celeb) (1946)

Milford Graves (temporal explorer) (1941)

Johnny Rogan (Byrds' Boswell) (1953)

Jessica Walter (Play Misty For Me) (1941)

Bertrand Tavernier (Round Midnight) (1941)

Anita Lane (Oz punk chanteuse) (1958)

Barbara Ess (Theoretical Girl) (1944)

Michael Collins (Apollo 11) (1930)

Mohammed Ag Itale (Tinariwen) (1960)

Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop) (1929)

Sonny Simmons (jazz hobo) (1933)

Charles Grodin (The American Tim Key) (1935)

Franco Battiato (Italian Fetus) (1945)

Yoshi Wada (bagpipe minimalist) (1943)

Ned Beatty (squealing piggy) (1937)

Davey Datblygu (Davey Datblygu) (1964)

S Clay Wilson (Captain Pissgums) (1941)

Peter Zinovieff (sonic pioneer) (1933)

Richard Donner (kebab pioneer) (1930)

Alix Dobkin (feminist folksinger) (1940)

Patrick Sky (native American folksinger) (1940)

Tom O'Connor (raconteur) (1939)

Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) (1949)

Bob Sergeant (digital Beat producer) (194?)

Byron Berline (Byrds fiddler) (1944)

John Lawton (friend of Lucifer) (1947)

Una Stubbs (wooden woman) (1937)

Nanci Griffith (C&W poet) (1953)

Sean Lock (excrement genitals) (1963)

Brian Travers (UB40 blowhard) (1959)

Lee Scratch Perry (The Super Ape) (1936)

Michael Chapman (English primitive) (1941)

Norm Macdonald (acceptable face of US stand-up) (1959)

Tony Selby (Get Some In!) (1938)

Tom T Hall (Harper Valley songsmith) (1936)

Powell St John (Psychedelic Texan) (1940)

The White Stag of Bootle (2010?)

John Rossall (The Last Glam In Town) ()

Pat Fish (A Southern Mark Smith) (1957)

Jim Pembroke (psychedelic Anglo-Fin) (1946)

Rick Jones (Fingerbob Meal Ticket) (1937)

Alan Hawkshaw (Sausage on fork composer) (1937)

Takashi Mizutani (Les Rallizes dude) (1948)

Dee Pop (Bush Tetra) (1956)

Lionel Blair (dancing tragedian) (1921)

Astro (UB40 toastmaster) (1957)

Dr Clive Lee (The Ling-Lee Hipster) (1939)

Dean Stockwell (alienated art-houser) (1936)

Everett Morton (Beatmaster of The Beat) (1950)

Darrell Bath (Keith for hire) (1967)

Delbert Ngoni McKay (Misty man) (1954)



A brief heads up for my adoptive father’s brother, and my uncle, CLIVE LEE, who died in November, and was the co-inventor to THE EXETER HIP.

If you or anyone you know has an artificial hip, there’s a 40% chance it’s one of his, and his work has eased the suffering and enhanced the lives of literally millions of people worldwide.

At the funeral, people’s recollections of the early days of the hip project, and the team’s first efforts to fit them, were as exciting and compelling as a science adventure film like Apollo 13 and it was an honour to hear people’s memories of this thoughtful modest man.




I attended a very different memorial a week later at the Soho Theatre, in the form of kind of belated funeral/tribute concert to the promoter who helped turn my collapsed career around in the mid-00’s, the late David Johnson.

An unfailingly honest and conscientious, yet nevertheless hilarious and hedonistic character, David, who died at Christmas, was celebrated by an amazing bill of his clients and collaborators including JACKIE CLUNE, FASCINATING AIDA, SUE PERKINS, CHRISTEEN, MARK RAVENHILL, A PAJAMA MAN, and RICHARD THOMAS & LORE LIXENBERG.


DAVID’s own plan for the event was read out by his co-producer JOHN MACKAY at the end, revealing how David had played us all like a massive cathedral organ made of meat.

It was a privilege to be part of David’s gang of kooks and freaks.

"In contrast with (my) generation, which had spent most of its time online learning to code so that it could add crude butterfly animations to the backgrounds of its weblogs, the generation immediately following had spent most of its time online making incredibly bigoted jokes in order to laugh at the idiots who were stupid enough to think that they meant it. Except that after a while they did mean it, and then somehow at the end of it they were white supremacists. Was this always how it happened?"
Patricia Lockwood, London Review of Books, Feb 2019

---

"This is the Trump way. Fire, fire, fire with the blunderbuss and don’t worry if a shot or two hits an innocent bystander. Keep moving forwards - even as your opponents return fire. Never seriously consider the criticisims, just loose off more shots. It is a strategy that has benefitted Britain’s Trump tribute act, Boris Johnson. As an opinion columnist on The Telegraph , Johnson specialised in offence, from writing in 2002 that the Queen loved the Commonwealth because "it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies" to his recent descriptions of Muslim women in burqas "looking like letterboxes". Such comments are deliberate provocation, pushing the boundaries of what it is permissible for a senior politician to say. IN AN ATTENTION ECONOMY, THEY ARE HARD CURRENCY. Any backlash can be portrayed as "political correctness gone mad" or "liberal Stalinism". Even having to say sorry can be taken as proof that once again, the liberal totalitarians have triumphed. It is a game in which every path leads to victory. Yes, it is divisive, but for every voter who is repulsed, the calculation is, another is attracted."
Helen Lewis, New Statesman, 7th June 2019

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1) SNOWFLAKE/TORNAD0 - LONDON

I'm doing a new stand-up show for the back end of 2019 and the first half of 2020.
More national dates from Feb 2020 will be announced later in the year, but I am going to do less than last time, but with longer runs in bigger rooms to hit the same demand, sadly, as the length of the last run nearly killed me, as you can see from the BBC film of the show.
The initial London dates - which I am currently halfway through - are work in progress, with a free DVD of CONTENT PROVIDER for all ticket holders and fans of obsolete physical media. Tons of fun!
I will film this show/these shows in the Summer of 2020 for offloading to whatever content platforms are still viable at that stage in late capitalism's technologically-driven cultural decline.

David Johnson & John Mackay in association with Debi Allen/Curtis Brown present
STEWART LEE - SNOWFLAKE/TORNADO.

Double-bill of two new 60-ish minute sets, back to back nightly from "the world's greatest living stand-up" (Times).

Tornado questions a shipwrecked Stew’s position in the comedy marketplace after Netflix mistakenly lists his show as "reports of sharks falling from the skies are on the rise again. Nobody on the Eastern Seaboard is safe." What is anything? Is it this?
And Snowflake questions our worth in a collapsing society which no longer shares the liberal values we have for so long been keen to be seen to espouse, in a fairy-tale landscape of winter wonder.
Tons of fun!

SOLD OUT - CHECK DAILY FOR RETURNS at the Leicester Square Theatre here: https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873600219/events/128192910

SNOWFLAKE/TORNADO Work-in-Progress and DVD LAUNCH

Leicester Square Theatre, London.
FEW TICKETS AVAILABLE CHECK DAILY FOR RETURNS AT LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE BOX OFFICE: https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873600219/events/128192910

A run of work-in-progress gigs to celebrate the DVD launch of his celebrated last live show CONTENT PROVIDER.
Each ticket will include a very special limited edition copy of the new DVD, exclusively available to bookers of this live show.
Stewart will be signing copies after the show.

Sept 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th - 7pm start
Oct 1st , 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Oct - 8.45pm start
2 hrs including interval
£26.50 including DVD of Content Provider (RRP £19.95)

Stewart Lee - Snowflake/Tornado.
Leicester Square Theatre, London.

October - December 2019
Tues 29th October 8.45pm - Sat Dec 14th
No Mondays, No Sundays, & not Sat Nov 30th

January 2020
Thurs 2nd Jan 8.45pm - Sat 25th Jan
No Mondays, No Sundays, & not Jan 9th
8.45 pm Stewart on stage
2 hrs + interval

Tues, Weds, Thurs £27.50
Friday & Saturday £29.50

All shows are 14+ apparently. If you are under 14 you are too immature to enjoy my swearing and farts.

In the case of sold out shows, there are often returns added, & Leicester Square maintain a waiting list, so check with the venue.

SEPTEMBER 2019

Friday 27th - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 28th - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm - SOLD OUT

OCTOBER 2019

Tuesday 1st - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Wednesday 2nd - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Thursday 3rd - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Friday 4th - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 5th - WORK-IN-PROGRESS with Free 'Content Provider' DVD - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

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OCTOBER 2019

Tuesday 29th - SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Wednesday 30th - SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Thursday 31st - SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

NOVEMBER 2019

Friday 1st SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 2nd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

Tuesday 5th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 6th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 7th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Friday 8th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 9th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

Tuesday 12th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 13th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 14th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 15th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 16th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

Tuesday 19th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 20th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 21st SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 22nd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 23rd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT

Tuesday 26th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 27th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 28th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 29th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

DECEMBER 2019

Tuesday 3rd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 4th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 5th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 6th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - SOLD OUT
Saturday 7th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

Tuesday 10th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 11th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 12th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 13th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Saturday 14th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

JANUARY 2020

Thursday 2nd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 3rd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Saturday 4th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

Tuesday 7th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 8th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 10th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Saturday 11th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

Tuesday 14th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 15th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 16th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 17th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Saturday 18th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

Tuesday 21st SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 22nd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Thursday 23rd SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Friday 24th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS
Saturday 25th SNOWFLAKE / TORNADO - Leicester Square Theatre, London - 8.45pm - TICKETS

"There's no-one else to touch him" Mark Wareham, Mail On Sunday *****

"Lee remains one of the best stand-ups in the country" ***** Metro

"The world's best living stand-up comedian" Dominic Maxwell, The Times

"He makes stand-up almost a moral pursuit, ... that makes the usual (and more popular) stand-ups seem crude and obvious." Alan Bennet, London Review Of Books.

"Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground" Sarah Vine, Daily Mail

"A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes" Tony Parsons, The Sun

"Woke, enlightened, professionally sensitive, BBC-approved comedian who can be guaranteed to dress to the left. The rancid tip of a cesspit." - Tony Parsons, GQ

"If I could bring one extinct thing back to life it would be Stewart Lee's sense of humour." Frankie Boyle, The Guardian

"The opposite of what really good comedy should be" Toby Young, Radio 4

"Truly, he is the Oscar Wilde of our times" - Gary Bushell, The Daily Star

NB - I DID 5 MONTHS IN TOTAL AT LST OF CONTENT PROVIDER BETWEEN 2016-2018, AND THEN 4 ROYAL FEST HALLS AND THEY ALL SOLD OUT.
ONCE THESE DATES ARE DONE I AM NOT COMING BACK FOR MORE THIS TIME SO GET TICKETS IF YOU WANT THEM.

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2) SNOWFLAKE/TORNADO 2020 TOUR + VIAGOGO

Currently confirmed / onsale as follows.

NOTE: This is not the complete list. More national dates are currently being added & confirmed & will be announced soon.

Not all dates are currently on sale.
As further dates are announced / go on sale, they will be listed on the Live Dates page of the website & via this newsletter as they come in.

---

January 2020

Tuesday 28th January 2020 - 7.30pm - Colosseum, Watford - TICKETS

Wednesday 29th January 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Nottingham TICKETS

Thursday 30th January 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Thursday 31st January 2019 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

February 2020

Saturday 1st February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Tuesday 4th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS

Wednesday 5th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS

Thursday 6th February 2020 - City Hall, Sheffield - TICKETS

Friday 7th February 2020 - City Hall, Sheffield - TICKETS

Wednesday 12th February 2020 - 8pm DeMontfort Hall, Leicester - TICKETS

Thursday 13th February 2020 - 7.30pm - New Theatre Royal, Lincoln - TICKETS

Friday 14th February 2020 - 7.30pm - New Theatre, Peterborough - TICKETS

Saturday 15th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Opera House, Buxton - TICKETS

Tuesday 18th February 2020 - 7.30pm - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Wednesday 19th February 2020 - 7.30pm - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Thursday 20th February 2020 - 7.30pm - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Friday 21st February 2020 - 7.30pm - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Monday 24th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Tuesday 25th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Wednesday 26th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Thursday 27th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Friday 28th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

Saturday 29th February 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Oxford - TICKETS

March 2020

Tuesday 3rd March 2020 - 7.45pm - Festival Theatre, Malvern - TICKETS

Wednesday 4th March 2020 - 7.30pm - St. David's Hall, Cardiff - TICKETS

Thursday 5th March 2020 - 8pm - Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe - TICKETS

Friday 6th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Royal & Derngate, Northampton TICKETS

Monday 9th March 2020 - 8pm - Cliffs Pavillion, Southend-On-Sea - TICKETS

Tuesday 10th March 2020 - 8pm - The Hexagon, Reading - TICKETS

Wednesday 11th March 2020 - 8pm - The Hexagon, Reading - TICKETS

Thursday 12th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Symphony Hall, Birmingham - TICKETS

Friday 13th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Symphony Hall, Birmingham - TICKETS

Tuesday 17th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury - TICKETS

Wednesday 18th March 2020 - 8pm - De La Warr Pavillion , Bexhill On Sea - TICKETS

Thursday 19th March 2020 - 8pm - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Friday 20th March 2020 - 8pm - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Monday 23rd March 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Tuesday 24th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Wednesday 25th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Thursday 26th March 2020 - 7.30pm - King's Theatre, Glasgow - TICKETS

Friday 27th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

Saturday 28th March 2020 - 7.30pm - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

April 2020

Friday 24th April 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Theatre Royal, York

Saturday 25th April 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Theatre Royal, York

Wednesday 29th April 2020 - 7.30pm - Lyric Theatre @ The Lowry, Salford Quays - TICKETS

Thursday 30th April 2020 - 7.30pm - 7.30pm - Lyric Theatre @ The Lowry, Salford Quays - TICKETS

May 2020

Friday 1st May 2020 - 7.30pm - Lyric Theatre @ The Lowry, Salford Quays - TICKETS

Saturday 2nd May 2020 - 7.30pm - Lyric Theatre @ The Lowry, Salford Quays - TICKETS

Sunday 3rd May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Machynlleth (Comedy Festival)

Sunday 10th May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Rose Theatre, Kingston

Thursday 14th May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Westlands, Yeovil

Friday 15th May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Northcott Theatre, Exeter

Saturday 16th May 2020 - 7.30pm - Theatre Royal, Plymouth - TICKETS

Sunday 17th May 2020 - 7.30pm - Theatre Royal, Plymouth - TICKETS

Monday 18th May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Town Hall, Cheltenham

Sunday 31st May 2020 - ON SALE SOON - Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

NB VIAGOGO ETC.

Tickets have started appearing at up to 4 times face value on the ticket-bastard website Viagogo, specifically for the Sheffield shows, with doubtless more to follow.
I know which seats these are and I will come down from the stage and find anyone who has bought from Viagogo, or Stubhub, and I will throw them out personally and I will not refund them at a later date.
If you want to buy illegal tickets and have the money refunded go and see soft-hearted Rhod Gilbert, who will do this out of his own money. I will not. There is no need to cooperate with these criminals.
Tickets will be available at normal rates from the venue and I will endeavour to add on extra dates to meet any demand.

---

3) CONTENT PROVIDER DV

Content Provider is out on modern d/l, available now, and as a dvd with an extra disc of an early work-in-prog show, which at present is only available at shows, but may soon land in whatever physical media outlets remain.
It is ace.
Here is the Amazon d/l link. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stewart-Lee-Content-Provider/dp/B07Y6Q49J2/

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4) King Rocker Doc

Michael Cumming (Brass Eye), James Nicholls (Fire films) and I are now 2/3rds of the way through filming and editing and are looking for donations to complete the film below, which is about Birmingham post-punk survivors The Nightingales. Everyone who donates, no matter how big or how small*, will be featured in the end credits

*(I think this sentence, written by James from Fire, relates to the size of the donation, not the donor.)

https://www.kingrockerfilm.com/


There is now a podcast radio thing you can listen to of me and Michael talking about The Nightingales here.

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5) Sleaford Mods

Sleaford Mods are playing the Hammersmith Apollo, London on Friday 15th November 2019.

I am bottom of the bill supporting them on a line-up that also includes Viagra Boys and Horse Meat Disco (DJ Set). Then I am rushing off to Leics Sq.

You can get tickets here.

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6) NEW BOOK - March Of The Lemmings

March of the Lemmings - Brexit in Print and Performance 2016-2019

Released on 5th September 2019, Faber will publish comedian Stewart Lee’s next book, March of the Lemmings, based on his newspaper columns, providing “the scathing, riotous record the Brexit era deserves”.

“As a Metropolitan Elitist Snowflake, Stewart Lee was disappointed by the Brexit referendum result of 2016. But he knew how to weaponise his inconvenience. He would treat all his subsequent writing, until we left the EU, as interrelated episodes of a complete work. The cast of characters include Lemming-obsessed Michael Gove, violent tanning-salon entrepreneur Tommy Robinson and Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Bumboys Letterbox Cake Disaster Weightloss Haircut Bullshit Johnson."

There is also a "a dramatic chorus is made up of online commenters and Kremlin bots" with Lee cast as the "defeated, unreliable narrator-hero, whose resolve and tolerance would gradually unravel as the horror show dragged on.

Drawing on three years of newspaper columns, a complete transcript of the 'Content Provider' stand-up show, and Lee’s caustic footnote commentary, March of the Lemmings is the scathing, riotous record the Brexit era deserves.”

There is a book launch event on 16th October at THE SOCIAL through THE QUIETUS, tickets £12 here https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-quietus-social-presents-stewart-lee/the-social/1439435

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7) HAVE A BLEEDIN’ GUESS

How exciting for me! I have written an introduction to Paul Hanley’s brilliant informative and funny new book about my favorite album ever, The Fall’s HEX ENDUCTION HOUR.

Have A Bleedin’ Guess in available in ltd edtn hardback on Oct 23rd here
https://routepublishing.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/have-a-bleedin-guess/

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8) I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND

Kate Tempest, young people’s performance poet. Oct 14th Oxford Academy, 15th Hammersmith Apollo, 16th Birmingham Institute, 18th Leicester Academy, 19th Brighton Dome, 20th Bristol Academy

Melt Banana, enduring Japanese pop art noise. Oct 16th Camden Dingwalls, 18th Edinburgh Caves, 19th Glasgow Stereo, 20th Newcastle Cluny, 21st M’cr Gorilla, 25th Bristol Exchange, 27th Oxford Wheatsheaf, 29th Nottingham Bodega, 31st Cambridge Portland Arms, 1st Nov Brighton Chalk

Thurston Moore, immortal Sonic Youth. Oct 19th ULU London, 20th Portsmouth Wedgewood

FREE IMPROV ALL STARS. SARAH GAIL BRAND / STEVE BERESFORD / JOHN EDWARDS / MARK SANDERS - ALBUM LAUNCH - MATINEE - Café Oto, London, 2pm, SUN 20TH OCT.

Dream Syndicate, secret masters of psychedelia. Mon 21st Oct, London Scala

Sun Ra Arkestra, afro-futurist jazz veterans. Mon 21st, Tues 22nd Oct, Jazz Café London.

CONTENT PROVIDER

A 2 hr film of the Content Provider Tour is on BBC on Saturday 28th July at 11pm, not earlier in the month on July 8th as previously announced.

Already the joke about the status of European migrants is dated.

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BENEFIT SHOWS

8th July - The Secret Spy Cops' Ball - Rob Newman, Evelyn Mok, Mark Steel, Stewart Lee, Jackson's Lane, London. For women tricked into relationships w undercover police. Most of the performers on the bill are adopted orphans, oddly.
https://www.jacksonslane.org.uk/whats-on/the-secret-spycops-ball

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NIGHTINGALES DATES

I am supporting Birmingham post-punk Legends The Nightingales doing 15 mins of my 80s material on seven of their autumn tour dates.


Thu SEPT 20 OXFORD, THE CELLAR
https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-nightingales/the-cellar/1227777

Fri SEPT 21 BRISTOL, THE EXCHANGE
https://www.seetickets.com/event/nightingales/exchange/1227678

Sat SEPT 22 PORTSMOUTH, WEDGEWOOD ROOMS
https://www.seetickets.com/event/the-nightingales/wedgewood-rooms/1225457

Tue OCT 2 BIRMINGHAM, HARE & HOUNDS
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Birmingham/Hare-And-Hounds/The-Nightingales/13216234/

Wed OCT 3 LONDON, MOTH CLUB
https://www.seetickets.com/event/nightingales/moth-club/1227677

Thu OCT 4 CAMBRIDGE, PORTLAND ARMS
https://www.wegottickets.com/greenmind/event/439332

Sat OCT 6 BRIGHTON, GREEN DOOR STORE
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/439847

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CAPRI-BATTERIE W STEWART LEE

You can buy Bristol Fashion, an industrial jazz album which we improvised in an hour, here for &pound7.

https://capri-batterie.bandcamp.com/album/bristol-fashion

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Home Town Tales

The writer Maria Whatton and I are the joint authors of a new book of autobiographical fiction about Birmingham, Home Town Tales, which is out now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hometown-Tales-Birmingham-Maria-Whatton/dp/147460594X/

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Post Nearly Press

Neal Jackson of Post Nearly Press conducted a lengthy interview with me, available as a stand-alone book here www.postnearlypress.com

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Go Faster Stripe Singles Club

https://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?page=club

Comedy DVD indie GO FASTER STRIPE, which came into being to film my 90s Comedian show and saved my career, have a new initiative.
Chris Evans of GFS says...

THREE free downloads when you sign up. PLUS everything we do from now on

Join our club for &pound5 a month. You'll get a digital download of everything we will put out from the moment you sign up.

We will send you at least one full length show a month, and the download will include all the usual GFS extras. And there's usually a lot of extras.

The shows will be available to club members a day or two before they are released to the public - you'll get an email to let you know.

As usual they can be downloaded or streamed directly from our website.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

SIGN UP BONUS
As soon as you sign up you can download or stream your choice of any THREE shows we've recorded since we started. There's loads of great stuff here. Have a look at that list on the left hand side of the screen. Cor blimey.

PLUS you should expect the unexpected. The idea is mostly to be a digital download club, but if this is a success I'll be sending out badges and patches and all sorts.

FAQs
How long do I have to sign up for?
You can unsubscribe from this crazy scheme at any time.

So I could just download the three free shows and eff off?
Yes you could. But we wouldn't be very pleased about it.

Wow, this sounds too good to be true.
Good.

How does it work?
When you sign up, you will get your own personal download area.
Then, you can choose your three free shows straight away to start filling it up, and any downloads you've previously bought will be automatically added in too.
Then, every time we release something it will appear by magic in your download area, slightly before the show is made available to everyone else.
We will send you an email when this happens.

What's in the pipeline?
We are putting the finishing touches to brand new shows by Mark Thomas, Rachel Fairburn, Simon Munnery, John-Luke Roberts, Nick Helm, David Trent, Richard Herring, Austentatious and loads more.

Can I sign up for a friend?
You better believe it. Yes. If you want to buy a club membership for a friend, enter their details on the signup page and enter your email at the bottom for billing purposes. You can then give your payment info to paypal, we will bill you, and they will get the goodies.

Is there any type of copy protection on the files?
No. We use the honour system here. All the files will be DRM free, so you can use them however you choose.

Why are you doing this?
Three reasons:
1. People have been asking me to organise a scheme like this for ages.
2. I'm now confident that we've got enough shows in post production to carry us though for at least a year.
3. Mainly though, no one buys DVDs anymore and I'm panicking.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

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Meanwhile, I Arrogantly Recommend

1) Ben Moor - Pronoun Trouble. New show from the performance art genius.

Ben Moor says...

5th July 2018
7.30pm
Greater Manchester Fringe Festival
Anthony Burgess Foundation
3 Cambridge Street
Manchester M1 5BY
The most academic place I have so far found to give the talk, and maybe the coolest.
There are lots of other great things going on during the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival too - why not check out the full programme?
TICKETS

29th June - 1st July 2018
Also Festival
Compton Verney
Warwickshire
A compact weekend of terrific speakers, musicians, performers and makers - I'm thrilled to be invited.
TICKETS

15th July 2018
Idler Festival
Fenton House
Hampstead Grove,
London NW3 6SP
This will be a wonderful weekend of talks by fascinating folk like Michael Palin, Sally Phillips and Carole Cadwalladr.
And I'll be performing a gentle Sunday morning version as part of the celebration of intelligent distraction.
TICKETS

16th - 19th August 2018
Green Man Festival
Crickhowell
Brecon Beacons
The lecture can be located in the brainy enclave of Einstein's Garden.
I'm so glad to be returning to Green Man; this is always an amazing weekend of music, inspiration, fresh air and laughter.
TICKETS

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2) Drenched - Third Man Theatre Company.

I liked Third Man's work so much I became a patron of the company, essentially a vehicle for the visions of Dan Frost. They have a new show with dates so far in London this month and Edinburgh in August.

Daniel Drench. West Cornwall's most prolific and unstable storyteller, presents a bewildering and potentially moving interpretation of the classic Cornish folk tale 'The Mermaid of Zennor'.
Drenched is a one man comedy-theatre piece, challenging the form of a traditional solo performance with a combination of storytelling, character comedy and physical theatre.

Old Red Lion Theatre, Islington
2nd & 3rd July @ 7pm
4th July @ 9.30pm

Edinburgh Festival 2018
1-27 August - Pleasance Courtyard @ 3pm

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3) PIGSPURT'S DAUGHTER

Daisy Campbell's memories of her father the performance art/comedy innvator Ken Campbell, is at Hampstead Theatre 11th - 14th July
TICKETS

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4) Bridget Christie - What Now? (New stand-up show)

SEPTEMBER 2018

Friday 7th - WHAT NOW? - Tobacco Factory, BRISTOL - 8pm - 0117 902 0344 - TICKETS
Saturday 8th - WHAT NOW? - Tobacco Factory, BRISTOL - 8pm - 0117 902 0344 - TICKETS
Thursday 13th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Thursday 20th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Friday 21st - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Saturday 22nd - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS

OCTOBER 2018

Friday 5th - WHAT NOW? - Theatre Royal, WINCHESTER - 8pm - 01962 840 440 - TICKETS
Saturday 6th - WHAT NOW? - Corn Exchange, EXETER - 7.30pm - 01392 665938 - TICKETS
Tuesday 9th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Wednesday 10th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Thursday 11th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Friday 12th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS

NOVEMBER 2018

Thursday 1st - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Friday 2nd - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Saturday 3rd - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Tuesday 6th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Wednesday 7th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Thursday 8th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Friday 9th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Saturday 10th - WHAT NOW? - Leicester Square Theatre, LONDON - 7pm - 020 7734 2222 - TICKETS
Saturday 24th - WHAT NOW? - Nuffield Theatre (NST City), SOUTHAMPTON - 7.30pm - 023 8067 1771 - TICKETS
Tuesday 27th - WHAT NOW? - The Junction, CAMBRIDGE - 8pm - 01223 511 511 - TICKETS

DECEMBER 2018

Monday 3rd - WHAT NOW? - Playhouse, NORWICH - 8pm - 01603 598598 - TICKETS
Tuesday 4th - WHAT NOW? - Playhouse, NORWICH - 8pm - 01603 598598 - TICKETS

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5) WILSON DIXON

Jesse Griffin's dead-on parody of an American outlaw country singer, WILSON DIXON, has an intimate UK tour

July 2018

Sunday July 1st - The Stand Comedy Club, Glasgow - 0141 212 3389 - 4.30pm Tickets
Sunday July 1st - The Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh - 0131 558 7272 - 7.30pm Tickets
Tuesday July 3rd - The Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh - 0131 558 7272 - 7.30pm Tickets
Wednesday July 4th - Chapter Arts, Cardiff - 029 2030 4400 - 7.30pm Tickets

Robin Ince & Josie Long's new podcast, 'Book Shambles' - November 2015

Veteran stand-up Stewart Lee explains the lure of the Fringe, 10 comics, young and old, tell us whether the scene is all smiles. And, for the punchline, a concise history of 'alternative comedy'Rich Hall (in hat, then clockwise), Sean Lock, Stewart Lee, Tameka Empson and Phill Jupitus

Next year I'll turn 40, and for my generation of stand-up comedians there's a Year Zero attitude to 1979. Holy texts found in a skip out the back of the London listing magazine Time Out tell us how Alexei Sayle, Arnold Brown, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders destroyed the British comedy hegemony of Upper-Class Oxbridge Satire and Working-Class Bow Tie-Sporting Racism with a few explosive, post-punk punch-lines. Then, with the fragments of these smashed idols and their own hands, they built the pioneering stand-up clubs The Comedy Store and The Comic Strip. In so doing they founded the egalitarian Polytechnic of Laughs that is today's comedy establishment. Every religion needs a Genesis myth and this is stand-up comedy's...

The comedy community I joined in the late Eighties still retained traces of its birth in opposition to both the political and the entertainment establishments of its day. But what's happened to comedy on the front line, in comedy clubs and at the Edinburgh Fringe? Would the pioneers of yesteryear recognise the territory they carved out?

In the Eighties, London clubs such as Jongleurs and The Comedy Store hosted stand-up comedy, satirical songs, and even magic. Now a massive chain of Jongleurs and Comedy Stores nationwide sells simple man-and-a-mic stand-up to audiences of stag and hen nights – they're a branded franchise, like TGI Fridays or Pizza Hut, serving up comedians and chips in wicker baskets before the disco and late bar. For this reason, the better acts that play Jongleurs gigs have a set which bears little relation to their best work. The London Comedy Store declares itself the National Theatre of Comedy. But like Jongleurs, the Store is now a night out first and foremost, and a platform for adventurous work second. Their bookers ignore the risky, innovative acts that would justify their hyperbolic marketing in favour of guaranteed crowd-pleasers with often breathtaking people skills, squashed talents struggling to work good material into an environment where it's not necessarily wanted, and a few jaded veterans hanging in there for the not-enormous fees.

But the blandness of the big chains means that in every city that has a Franchised Laff Retail Outlet ™, at least one alternative venue seems to have thrived in opposition to it, such as XS Mallarkey in Manchester, or The Comedy Box in Bristol, which have almost no crossover with the franchises in terms of acts. The same sort of seismic shift that pitched The Comedy Store against Bernard Manning's Embassy Club 30 years ago now plays itself out again, but in a post-Blair Britain. What we need is a phrase, such as Janet Street-Porter's early Nineties classic: "Comedy is the new rock'*'roll" , to nail the New Alternative Comedy and we'll have a full-scale movement, primed and ready, for fans and performers to align themselves to. The difference today is that the front line that the French and Saunders generation manned has moved North from Soho and Leicester Square and permanently repositioned itself in Edinburgh in August.

I first worked on the Edinburgh Fringe in 1987 (I'm approaching my 20th Fringe), so I feel qualified to state that, right now, Britain and Ireland have the greatest stand-up comedians on the planet and that the Edinburgh Fringe is, for one month, the world's comedy capital. And they come from all over to be in the Scottish capital in August. There are brilliant Antipodean acts, such as Greg Fleet who is visiting the Fringe this month. All Canadians, meanwhile, are hilarious. But while American stand-ups, such as Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, crystalised the art form, their successors have largely forgotten what it is for. Whenever a high-profile US act tours here the quality of their work is usually disappointing. Any US comics with a real love of the form, such as Paul Provenza, end up returning to the Fringe again and again, in awe of our superior skills; or, as Rich Hall does, they spend as much time as possible in the UK, where the diminished commercial opportunities are vastly outweighed by the value of participating in a comedy community that seems to care about what it's doing.

The schism in the live stand-up scene is most evident in Edinburgh. For the last few years at the Fringe, acts that would wither before the hen and stag parties of the franchised comedy club chains have received superb reviews and won awards, before returning to their usual life of obscurity, near-poverty and patronising dismissal by big club promoters. Conversely, reliable franchise-club headliners – who can clear £80,000 a year doing corporate gigs andJongleurs weekends – venture to the Fringe to sacrifice a month of massive pay-days in search of credibility, but usually wind up with a set of two-star reviews from the critics and massive chips on their shoulders. Why? Because in Edinburgh stand-up is actually reviewed by critics and consumed by audiences who believe it's more than just something you go to to get drunk with a big gang of mates (one of whom will end the night chained to a dead horse with his pubic hair shaved off).

So, instead of complaining that stand-up comedy in Edinburgh is destroying theatre at the Festival (it isn't), we should accept the fact that we are still world leaders in something, and that we got here without public subsidy or private investment, via endless clammy summers of little weirdos working away in tiny Scottish rooms at their own expense. At the Melbourne Comedy Festival and at Montreal's Just For Laughs, a lot of public and private money is spent enticing comedians from all over the world to perform. Just For Laughs struggles to feel like much more than the Comedy Industry Trade Fair that ignorant journalists and cynical pundits accuse the Edinburgh Fringe of being. In Montreal, American actors pretending to be stand-ups perform endless strings of seven-minute showcases in the hope of a lucrative TV deal to audiences comprised largely of American industry insiders. The Montreal festival's choices of foreign talent often reflect this conservatism, or are the result of strong-arming by powerful agents. Last year Just For Laughs took the bold initiative of scheduling a series of actual full-length shows by respected practitioners of the art of stand-up from all over the world, and local media and visiting LA media executives reeled with shock as they struggled to comprehend true stand-up comedy, beyond its degraded American form.

But nothing like the breadth, quality or quantity of Edinburgh Fringe comedy is achieved. At the world's biggest and best arts festival, the performers in the Edinburgh Fringe effectively promote themselves and cover their own inevitable losses. In Edinburgh there is still a sense that strange things are happening without anyone's permission. Unlike any other major festival in the world, there isn't a selection procedure for the Edinburgh Fringe – the Fringe director is an administrator, not a curator or a programmer. People just invite themselves by booking slots, buying a "line-ad" , or entry, in the programme, and getting overdrafts to pay for their shows (an afternoon slot in a middling venue might cost a stand-up £5,000 to £10,000 for the three-week duration).

Sure, TV commissioners and journalists and agents can come and spectate, but the Fringe would be happening with or without them. From the bars of their hotels, industry visitors and cultural commentators may imagine the Fringe is the stock exchange with jokes: "Sell white male stand-ups! Buy female Asian sketch groups!", "The improv market is about to crash! " But here on the trading floor it feels like Babel, and it's brilliant.' Not that you'd know this from the comedy broadcast on TV or radio. A BBC Radio 4 producer earlier this year put the problem in this way: he explained how his father once came to the Fringe to visit him, and was exposed to talents in tiny rooms above pubs far superior to anything he came across on TV or radio, and was confused as to why this was the case.

The producer explained that the procedures which led to talent being spotted or commissioned were many and complex, and that it was often difficult to translate what was great about them to other mediums. Then eventually he heard the sound of his own dissembling voice and blurted out, "You're right. It's ridiculous isn't it." Few first-time visitors to the Fringe return with their sense of cosmic fair-play intact. "These people are br illiant," they say, "why haven't I heard of any of them when Joe Pasquale is a household name?" Well, I haven't really worked in television or radio comedy for nearly a decade now, but here's an urchin's eye view through the letterbox of that big, fancy house.

We know that the BBC's own trailers are as believable as their phone-in competiton results. Imagine if the BBC was actually allowed to make programmes as fascinating, tasteful and diverse as its promotional " idents". (I'm still waiting for that show where the contemporary dancers perform in slow motion on top of a skyscraper.) The most dishonest BBC ident is the one that alludes to everyone's favourite sit-com of the last 10 years, The Office, as being a product of risk-taking enabled by " the unique way the BBC is funded", however, everyone in the business knows that the then controller of BBC2 hated it and tried to pull it after the first show. The Office was unique in tone, style and vision, and as such is not at all typical of television comedy commissioning procedures, which punish flair and reward malleable, cooperative conformity.

It's unfair to single out any particular programme as an example, but perhaps the worst example of recent years is the BBC3 sketch show Rush Hour. Where classic sketch shows such as Big Train or Monty Python's Flying Circus were defined by the distinctive writing and performing style of the teams, Rush Hour, and its contemporary ilk, are defined thematically, by subject. It is hard for TV executives to quantify style or a particular comic aesthetic. They are more comfortable talking about where a comedy might be set, or what kind of objects might feature in it. Rush Hour differed from many of the current crop, which have concentrated almost exclusively on the world of thirty-something relationships lately, to look instead at the hilarious world of transport. The result was a loveless, producer-led mechanism for squandering talents such as Marek Larwood and Adam Buxton, both of whom have appeared at The Fringe pursuing their own unique, individual ideas. This, like many current comedy shows, was clearly a programme that no one, in their hearts, really wanted to make.

Radio, by its simpler nature, could act quickly to capture blossoming talents in the moment with small mobile units. But Radio 4's laborious commissioning procedures mean its comedy remains almost exclusively the kind of middle-class sketch shows where people wander in and out of shops asking for things, establishing an absurd premise, and working it through to its logical and predictable conclusion in irritating student-review voices. Radio 4's most formally radical comedies remain the subversive quiz-show formats, such as Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, developed in the Sixties and Seventies by the now wizened veterans that still staff them. I am a middle-aged, middle-class man, who once wrote for a 1980s Oxbridge student review, and even I find Radio 4 comedy middle-aged, middle-class and studenty.

It takes courage to allow talents with a vision to follow that vision – and The Office happened despite the BBC rather than because of it – and the only place you will see the comedian's vision undiluted by television executives is on The Fringe, or, increasingly, on the internet.

There are few modern sights more depressing than a 39-year-old man who has just figured out iTunes sitting down to write a piece about how he feels the internet may change the entertainment industry. At the moment, YouTube is full of genius-nerds developing their own funny 50-second fragments, that can generate enormous feedback without an orchestrated campaign. But now TV comedy producers want some of that internet excitement. Again, because none of them are smart enough to analyse the tone of individual aesthetics of comedy, they are excited instead by the delivery mechanism, in this case the internet. It was the YouTube success of some short pieces the writer-performer Peter Serafinowicz shot himself and posted that gained him his forthcoming BBC series, rather than his years of quiet and diligent work on various, hugely worthwhile projects such as Look Around You and Spaced.

But maybe the heady frontier days of the internet are already over. The suits are wise to it. Earlier this year, I took a script to a television production company. They suggested developing the characters on the web as icons people could interact with, to generate a buzz. I just wanted money to write a script, words and jokes and stuff, on pieces of paper, like in the old days, so I went home and cried. But on the positive side, if a stand-up comedian could eliminate the desire for mass acclaim, the internet could be one of the tools that relieves him or her of the need to cooperate with broadcasters. I have 5,000 MySpace friends. If each of them came to a gig, or bought a cd, every year, I would make a great living for the rest of my life without needing my popularity to be brokered by the unreliable interface of television or radio. The age of the MySpace comedian cannot be far off. Then we will be able to make the transition from the pre-lapsarian comedy paradise of the Edinburgh Fringe and bypass the broadcaster to achieve direct access to mass audiences, without needing to get any dirt on our shoes. Oh, let it be soon.

In the meantime, the Fringe remains the best place to experience the real cutting edge of comedy, and its role in facilitating cultural exchange, introducing new talents and establishing critical criteria is more important than it has been for some time. This is the good stuff. And a quick statistical scan of show titles in a festival that hasn't been programmed by a governing intelligence, or inhibited by any across-the-board artistic policy, or dumbed-down by TV producers, will tell you what comics really want to talk about.

Last year the Blair government threatened free speech with their woolly, but only narrowly defeated, Incitement to Racial and Religious Hatred Act, and continued its "elephant in the room" approach to the causes of terrorism here at home by refusing to even discuss the possibility that British foreign policy in Iraq was in any way a factor. Twenty comedy shows in Edinburgh last year mentioned these subjects in their titles alone – but how many people caught, say, Abie Bowman's plucky Jesus – The Guantanamo Years?

Television can't respond to cultural shifts with the same speed or precision, and radio doesn't seem to want to. As for the internet, its full potential for the dissemination of quality comedy has yet to be realised. Meanwhile, the Fringe comedy show is written and up and running, without any interference. And because the Fringe attracts people, in all fields of performance, who, however delusionally, believe they are doing their thing for its own sake, it's the best barometer we have of where artists and audiences want to go next...

Stewart Lee's new show '41st Best Stand-Up Ever' is at the Udderbelly @ The Underbelly, Edinburgh, 0870 745 3083, to 26 August

Many years ago, while wearing a Navajo jacket, I was accused of cultural appropriation. I told the zealot harassing me the jacket was a gift from a Native American shaman-clown, under whom I had studied. She backed down, humiliated, like Major General Arthur St Clair before the forces of Little Turtle and the Potawatomi, at the Battle of a Thousand Slain, on 4 November 1791.

My accuser and I began a short but tempestuous relationship, based on the thrill of committing ever more offensive ideological thought crimes. One sick night, I imagined a public library with deliberately inadequate disabled access, while she made a scale model of a unisex toilet and then vandalised it. Within weeks, our imaginary atrocities exhausted, our twisted affair ended. But I realised there may have been some truth in my ex-lover’s accusations of cultural insensitivity. Luckily, I still had the receipt for the jacket and so I returned the racist garment to Camden market, where I had bought it while shopping drunk months earlier.

The idea of “cultural appropriation” is a minefield, especially in the “political correctness gone mad” times that we live in now, in today’s “politically correct” world of “so-called” “political correctness” “gone mad”. But I don’t doubt for a moment that Michael Gove’s decision to quote the rap singer Stormzy in a tweet on Tuesday was without malice. If Gove isn’t a Stormzy fan how would the blotchy foundling know that the rapper’s hit Shut Up included the phrase “I set the trends dem man copy”? Daniel Hannanananananananan’s decision to reply to Gove’s tweet with the emphatic urban phrase “Big man ting!” is less easy to justify. As the words do not relate to a specific Stormzy lyric, one can only assume Hannanananananananan thought them appropriate simply because Stormzy is black.

It would be interesting to see if Hannanananananananan felt comfortable saying “Big man ting!” in person to a black person – Sir Trevor McDonald, Lizzo, Anthony Braxton, or Michelle Obama for example – while explaining his views on Brexit. “Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our position in the single market. Big man ting!” In short, would a “Big man ting” in the mouth of Daniel Hannanananananananan seem uncomfortable, or would it be a perfect fit, as if it had always belonged there?

In the interests of full disclosure I must confess that I sing some Stormzy in my current show, Snowflake/Tornado. A line from Crown, “heavy is the head that wears the crown”, helps the audience understand the pressures I have faced since the Times declared me the “world’s greatest living standup”. But no one has suggested that I am racist quoting Stormzy, perhaps because I do not work for a man who has called black people “picaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”.

Minds immeasurably superior to mine have suggested that Gove’s controversy-generating tweet was manufactured on his behalf by culturally savvy Conservative content providers, primed to cause plausible online distractions while dog-whistling to the coveted Arsehole Vote, historically a key part of any Tory victory.

But Dominic Tosser Raab explained last week he thinks “people don’t give a … er … toss about social media”, which is why his party doesn’t spend money on re-editing news footage to smear their opponents online. Except that it does. Never mind. Tosser is probably confused, like when he didn’t know the difference between sea and land. And anyway, if the Conservatives wanted to woo arseholes, they could just let Jacob Rees-Mogg open his mouth, instead of hiding him on a remote Somerset fen, like the flesh-eating recluse played by Don Henderson in The Ghoul (Freddie Francis, 1975), who said his hitchhiker victims deserved to be cooked and eaten because they lacked the common sense to not be cooked and eaten.

It is likely that Gove, however, feels a genuine connection to Stormzy. Both men, for example, have been accused of using class A drugs, a charge Stormzy denies. But a young black man accused of class A usage would face the full force of the law, whereas an elderly white Conservative politician like Gove can admit to having snuffled as much cocaine as he likes and the offence is soon forgotten. Least said soonest mended, I always say. Gove was further traduced for saying Stormzy, who supported the Grenfell fire victims and funds scholarships to Cambridge University, should leave politics alone because he is “a far, far better rapper than he is a political analyst”. Black people, it seems, need to carry on singing and dancing for their masters and leave the thinking to big brains like Michael Gove.

But is this interpretation of Gove’s words unfair? What if Gove is such a Stormzy fan that he is afraid he will lose his idol from music to politics, and then there will be no more of the rap music that he loves? Is Gove trying to put Stormzy back in the black box simply because he loves him too much?

If the online comment sewer is flowing beneath this piece this week, doubtless readers will ask why this column isn’t questioning the Labour party’s ongoing open-goal antisemitism shambles. This is a legitimate criticism, except that we have the entire rest of the media to ask that question repeatedly while, as usual, the Conservatives’ relentless top-down racism remains relatively unexamined.

It’s a startling fact that 25% of the prison population is from a BAME background, whereas none of it is from parliament, perhaps due to the unequal systems of punishment Gove’s non-conviction proves are in play. Had Gove been imprisoned for his drug offences, as he should have been, his fluency in urban slang would have been a great asset inside. “Ah! Stop it!! It hurts!!! My haggis nozzle!!!! Big man ting!!!!!”

1) KING ROCKER NOW TV

Our labour of love really landed. I arrogantly think it knocks most rockumentaries into a cocked hat and will cheer you up no end in the awful times.

“I loved every minute” - Ben Dowell, The Times
★★★★ Financial Times
★★★★ Chortle
“One of the best music documentaries of all time” - The Quietus
“The new gold standard for rockumentaries” - The Scotsman

All Press is collecting here.
You can also watch it, ad-free, on NOW TV if you have that;

NOW TV LINK

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2) UNRELIABLE NARRATOR DOC BBCR4

I just did this piece of KRS1-style edu-tainment for BBCR4 with Resonance 104.4FM alumney Michael Umney, called Stewart Lee - Unreliable Narrator. Lots of comedians in it.

You can listen here.

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3) ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION

The record store day dbl vinyl of Asian Dub Foundation’s Access Denied album includes a ‘neolithic’ remix of the no 1 single Comin’ Over Here (feat. Stewart Lee) Facebook Link

The original 12” remains available...
Bandcamp
X Ray Production

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4) TEN BOB / USE YOUR LOAF 7”

‘Ten Bob Each Way’ / ‘Use Your Loaf’ is a limited 7” single, featuring a brand-new Nightingales recording, their first since recording their ‘Four Against Fate’ album.
B-sided with Stewart Lee and Nick Pynn covering the band’s second single, ‘Use Your Loaf’, a track that was for a mooted Nightingales tribute album, which didn’t happen after something got spilt on the laptop that had all the tracks on it.
Fire Records/King Rocker Records.

Order 7” here: https://fire-records.lnk.to/TenBobUseYourLoaf

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5) LIVE DATES NEWS

It looks like all the SNOWFLAKE TORNADO tour dates outstanding from 2020 will be shifted into 2022, starting in Jan, and below are the ones we know about so far.
Local venues will contact you if they haven’t already.
All the warm-up club dates you may have bought tickets for have been slotted in to Nov and Dec, covid willing, and venues will contact ticket holders.
Please do not hassle venues about all this. They will contact you. We will get there!

I am planning on re-writing the SNOWFLAKE half of SNOWFLAKE TORNADO to reflect our drastically altered world and will make as good a recording as possible of the abandoned original SNOWFLAKE available at some point.
It’s all bacon!

After the abrupt end of the covid-cancelled sell-out tour of Snowflake/Tornado in March 2020, Stewart Lee, “the world’s greatest living stand-up” (Times), returns to Leicester Square Theatre in January 2022 and then to more than 60 towns and cities in the UK.
The tour, a double bill of two 60-minute sets, back-to-back nightly, will include new material for 2022.



The first half, Snowflake, will be heavily rewritten in the light of the two years the show has been laid off, looking at how the Covid-Brexit era has impacted on the culture war declared on lovely woke snowflakes by horrible people.

The second half, Tornado, questions Stew’s position in the comedy marketplace after Netflix mistakenly listed his show as “reports of sharks falling from the skies are on the rise again. Nobody on the Eastern Seaboard is safe.”

January 2022

Tuesday 4th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Wednesday 5th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Thursday 6th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Friday 7th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Saturday 8th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Monday 10th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Tuesday 11th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Wednesday 12th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Thursday 13th January 2022 - Leicester Square Theatre, London - TICKETS

Saturday 15th January 2022 - Theatre Royal, Norwich - TICKETS

Monday 17th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Tuesday 18th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Wednesday 19th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Thursday 20th January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Friday 21st January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Saturday 22nd January 2022 - Playhouse, Oxford

Tuesday 25th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Wednesday 26th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Thursday 27th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Friday 28th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Saturday 29th January 2022 - The Lowry, Salford - TICKETS

Sunday 30th January 2022 - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

February 2022

Wednesday 2nd February 2022 - St. David's Hall, Cardiff - TICKETS

Thursday 3rd February 2022 - Rose Theatre, Kingston - TICKETS

Friday 4th February 2022 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS

Saturday 5th February 2022 - Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil - TICKETS

Tuesday 8th February 2022 - Town Hall, Cheltenham - TICKETS

Wednesday 9th February 2022 - Town Hall, Cheltenham - TICKETS

Thursday 10th February 2022 - De Montfort Hall, Leicester - TICKETS

Friday 11th February 2022 - Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry - TICKETS

Saturday 12th February 2022 - Festival Theatre, Malvern - TICKETS

Sunday 13th February 2022 - Hippodrome, Birmingham - TICKETS

Friday 25th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Saturday 26th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Sunday 27th February 2022 - The Dome, Brighton - TICKETS

Monday 28th February 2022 - The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury - TICKETS

March 2022

Wednesday 2nd March 2022 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS

Thursday 3rd March 2022 - Northcott Theatre, Exeter - TICKETS

Friday 4th March 2022 - Lighthouse, Poole - TICKETS

Saturday 5th March 2022 - Playhouse, Salisbury

Sunday 6th March 2022 - De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill On Sea - TICKETS

Wednesday 9th March 2022 - Theatre Royal, Wakefield - TICKETS

Thursday 10th March 2022 - Opera House, Buxton - TICKETS

Friday 11th March 2022 - The Courtyard, Hereford - TICKETS

Saturday 12th March 2022 - Grand Theatre, Swansea

Monday 14th March 2022 - King's Theatre, Glasgow - TICKETS

Tuesday 15th March 2022 - King's Theatre, Glasgow - TICKETS

Wednesday 16th March 2022 - The Sands Centre, Carlisle - TICKETS

Thursday 17th March 2022 - Royal Hall, Harrogate

Tuesday 22nd March 2022 - Churchill Theatre, Bromley - TICKETS

Wednesday 23rd March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Thursday 24th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Friday 25th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Saturday 26th March 2022 - Playhouse, Nottingham - TICKETS

Sunday 27th March 2022 - Royal & Derngate, Northampton - TICKETS

Tuesday 29th March 2022 - City Hall, Sheffield - TICKETS

Wednesday 30th March 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Thursday 31st March 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

April 2022

Friday 1st April 2022 - Playhouse, Leeds - TICKETS

Saturday 2nd April 2022 - Storyhouse, Chester - TICKETS

Tuesday 19th April 2022 - Wyvern Theatre, Swindon - TICKETS

Thursday 21st April 2022 - The Hawth, Crawley - TICKETS

Friday 22nd April 2022 - The Hexagon, Reading - TICKETS

Sunday 24th April 2022 - Mayflower Theatre, Southampton - TICKETS

Tuesday 26th April 2022 - Cliffs Pavilion, Southend On Sea - TICKETS

Wednesday 27th April 2022 - The Central Theatre, Chatham - TICKETS

Thursday 28th April 2022 - Derby Theatre, Derby - TICKETS

Friday 29th April 2022 - Lyceum Theatre, Crewe - TICKETS

Saturday 30th April 2022 - Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield - TICKETS

May 2022

Tuesday 3rd May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Wednesday 4th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Thursday 5th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, York - TICKETS

Friday 6th May 2022 - St. George's Hall, Bradford - TICKETS

Saturday 7th May 2022 - Gala Theatre, Durham - TICKETS

Sunday 8th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne - TICKETS

Tuesday 10th May 2022 - Palace Theatre, Watford

Wednesday 11th May 2022 - Palace Theatre, Watford

Thursday 12th May 2022 - Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells

Friday 13th May 2022 - The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS

Saturday 14th May 2022 - The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford - TICKETS

Sunday 15th May 2022 - Theatre Royal, Plymouth

Tuesday 17th May 2022 - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Wednesday 18th May 2022 - Corn Exchange, Cambridge - TICKETS

Thursday 19th May 2022 - The Baths Hall, Scunthorpe - TICKETS

Saturday 21st May 2022 - New Theatre, Peterborough - TICKETS

Sunday 22nd May 2022 - The Grand, Wolverhampton - TICKETS

Monday 23rd May 2022 - Hippodrome, Bristol - TICKETS

Tuesday 24th May 2022 - Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury - TICKETS

Wednesday 25th May 2022 - The Forum, Bath - TICKETS

Friday 27th May 2022 - Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe - TICKETS

Saturday 28th May 2022 - Winding Wheel, Chesterfield - TICKETS

June 2022

Tuesday 7th June 2022 - Mercury Theatre, Colchester

Wednesday 8th June 2022 - Mercury Theatre, Colchester

Friday 10th June 2022 - Hall For Cornwall, Truro

Saturday 11th June 2022 - Hall For Cornwall, Truro

Friday 17th June 2022 - Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - TICKETS

Saturday 18th June 2022 - Hippodrome, Darlington - TICKETS

Sunday 19th June 2022 - Festival Theatre, Edinburgh - TICKETS

Sunday 26th June 2022 - Theatre Royal, Plymouth

Wednesday 29th June 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Thursday 30th June 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

July 2022

Friday 1st July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Saturday 2nd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Sunday 3rd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

Sunday 3rd July 2022 - Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London - TICKETS

 

All Covid rescheduled dates will be added to the Live Dates page of the website, here, as they are confirmed.

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6) TO VAC OR NOT TO VAC

I would be delighted if, if you are coming to see me, you could do your best to get vaccinated, irrespective of what the gvt or the venue insist upon.
I doubt that my snowflake audience will contain many people who deny the existence of Covid or believe the vaccine is George Soros or Bill Gates trying to put tiny Transformer robots into your blood.
But I and my team will be interacting with over 150 000 people on the next leg of the tour, and I would like to minimise our risk, and the risk to my audience, so meet me half way.

I will be selling and signing stuff as usual, I hope, but I won’t be shaking hands to thank you all this time around, and will probably be positioned behind some kind of screen like William Shatner in Airplane 2. Sad.

 

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7) MEDIA GARAGE SALE

My trusted sales partner Media Garage has compacted all my available stand-up dvds into one convenient on-line marketplace, with most available to d/load too.

Remember, if you buy here we will pay tax on these purchases, and help with British schools and hospitals, whereas many major physical media suppliers and streaming services have found ways to avoid declaring their profits, as have NETFLIX, the utter bastards.

AMERICANS - stop moaning about not being able to see me and visit MEDIA GARAGE!

MEDIA GARAGE | MORE INFO ON THE MERCH PAGE

 

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8) Podcasts

To try and promote King Rocker I have been pimping myself about like Priss Fotheringham on every Podcast going, alone or with dir M Cumming (Brass Eye, Toast), saying the same things in the same room in the same clothes to all different people, all of whom were very kind.

I don’t know what a podcast is really but I think you go on the internet and click on something.
As my grandfather once said, in 1983, “Do you know, in America, there are shops that only sell Kentucky Fried Chicken?” I enjoyed being on the internet with all these people enormously, but will put some blue water between me and the next wedge.
David Baddiel told me it was good to be on the internet, though. These are available..





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 









 





 





 





 





 





 





 





 

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9) I Arrogantly Recommend

 

LIVE EVENTS

 

Paul Currie - Edinburgh Fringe.

The first comedian my kids ever saw live was Paul Currie, so they think everything else is boring unless it ends with a massive breadfight.
He is ace, a deceptively clever surrealist clown who generates a genuine sense of comedy panic, and is best seen on his own terms in a fringe vibe.

Paul Currie says - “I AM PLAYING EDINBURGH this August on the Fringes of the fringe.  I’ll be performing my new show TEET from 9th-29th August in the HIVE on Niddry Street @thehivenightclub.
Strict Covid rules must be followed by all punters before, during and after the show. Social distancing will be in place.  NOTE: I’m doing this independently of the fringe festival on my own, a “fringe of the fringe” if you will.
As myself and many artists have been hit so badly with zero furlough over the past 17 months I truly can’t afford the admin fees to be part of the corporate fringe so I’m doing this completely DIY. There will be no physical tickets & No box office.
It will be £5 cash on the door entry fee. Pay What you Want donation on exit of the show. Minimum of 50 socially distanced seats so get there early. 6pm doors open.  7pm SHOW STARTS .late comers not permitted.  8pm SHOW ENDS.

TEET merchandise available to all who attend.
As I’m not using the fringe website or their online program this can only work as word of mouth and people sharing the show through social media and telling friends about it. So please if you could share the details and this advert as much as you can I’d really appreciate it, so we can try fill the venue each night. Thank you for taking time to read this and I hope to see you at the Hive in August.”

Henry Lowther’s Birthday show

British jazz veteran celebrates at London Vortex JULY 31st

Shirley Collins

Folk legend in sonic installation JULY 31ST/AUGUST 1ST Charleston, Lewes.

The Nightingales

Birmingham post punk veterans and KING ROCKER stars.
AUGUST 6th Preston New Continental.
SEPTEMBER 3rd Birmingham Moseley Folk Festival.
OCTOBER 28TH M’cr Gullivers, 29th Newport Le Pub, 30th Exeter Cavern, 31st Lewes Con.
NOVEMBER 1st Sheffield Greystones, 3rd London Lexington, 4th B’ham Hare & Hounds, 5th Bristol Rough Trade, 6th Southsea Wedgewood, 7th Bedford Esquires, 8th London Lexington W BLUE ORCHIDS & TED CHIPPINGTON, 9th Barrow-in-Furness Underground, 10th Glasgow Hugh & Pint, 11th Edinburgh Caves, 12th Middlesbrough Westgarth, 13th Hebden Bridge Trades, 14th Leicester Cookie

Blue Orchids

6th Aug Bristol Thunderbolt, 7th Aug Dublin Castle London, 8th Aug Brighton Prince Albert.
Post-punk dishwater psychedelia.

Ruts

DC Dub punks AUGUST 7th London Jazz café.
SEPTEMBER 10TH Liverpool Positive Vibrations, 25th Newcastle Northumbria Uni

Sleaford Mods

Angry loud man and quiet man. AUGUST 7TH Bromley South Facing.
SEPTEMBER 2ND End of The Road fest.
NOVEMBER 26TH Oxford Academy.
DECEMBER 2ND London Printworks, 3rd Brighton Dome

The Shadracks

Youthful garage punk AUGUST 13TH London Moth
MDC 14th Aug Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s.
Veteran angry American hardcore innovators. Can this be true?

The Rebel

The Jerry Sadowitz of garage country.
AUGUST 14TH London Lexington

Lucinda Williams

19th Aug Cambridge Junction.
Is this on? Odd one-off date by the Queen of Alt Country?

Hawkwind

Psychedelic survivors. AUGUST 20TH Devon Beautiful Days Fest.
SEPTEMBER 11th Cambridge Corn Exchange, 12th Leamington Spa Assembly, 17th Swindon Mecca, 27th M’cr Ritz.
OCTOBER 28TH London Palladium.

The Wolfhounds

Cheesewire realists
AUGUST 20TH Preston Popfest.
NOVEMBER 5TH London 229, 19th Middlesbrough Westgarth, 20th Preston Ferret

Bo Ningen

Lots of dates from Japanese noise-niks.
AUGUST 27TH Preston Ferret,
SEPTEMBER 4th M’cr Pscyh Fest,
OCTOBER 1st Bristol Fleece, 2nd Ramsgate Music Hall, 3rd S’hampton Loft, 6th B’ham Hare & Hounds, 7th Sheffield Record Junkee, 8th L’pool District, 9th Glasgow Stereo, 10th Bristol Fleece, 12th Oxford Bullingdon, 13th London Village U’ground, 14th Brighton Chalk

The Primevals

Glasgow garage rockers.
SEPTEMBER 3rd Middlesbrough Westgarth.
NOVEMBER 27TH London Hope & Anchor.

The Catenary Wires

Overqualified popticians
SEPTEMBER 4TH London Amersham Arms, 10th Rainham Oast, 12th Brighton Prince Albert, 24th Oxford Fusion, 25th Coventry Coal Vaults.

The Chameleons

M’cr post punk visionaries on another victory lap.
SEPTEMBER 8th Bedford Esquires, 25th Holmfrith Picture Dome.
NOVEMBER 12TH Minehead Shine On.
DECEMBER 14TH Huddersfield Parish, 16th Blackpool Waterloo, 17th/18th M’cr Ritz.
JANUARY 14TH Leicester Academy, 15th Birmingham Institute.
FEBRUARY 1ST Nottingham Rescue Rooms.

The Fallen Leaves

Gentlemen mod punks.
SEPTEMBER 11TH London Camden Fiddler’s Elbow.
OCTOBER 30TH London 100 Club.
NOVEMBER 20TH Brighton Prince Albert.

The Scientists

16th SEPTEMBER Spicejazz Soho London. Can this one off by Australian garage gurus be for real?

The Meat Puppets

We are lead to believe that the amazing Meat Puppets, who you must see before you or they die, are doing four UK dates. Grateful Dead crossed w Husker Du. Desert punk psyche.
SEPTEMBER 23rd London Islington Academy, 24th M’cr Bread Shed, 25th Newcastle Cluny, 26th Dover Booking Hall

Fossil Fools

24th Sept Swindon Victoria. Tentative return by top XTC tribute band.

Alison Cotton

Psychedelic folk OCTOBER 27TH London Café Oto

The Fallen Women

Female Fall tribute band w guest vocalists incl me.
DECEMBER 5th London Lexington.

Nina Hamnett

Exhibition of the art of the underrated bohemian Fitzrovian, Charleston, East Sussex.

NEW FILMS

Ronnie’s, Ronnie Scott & His World Famous Jazz Club (Oliver Murray)
The Dig (Simon Stone) ★★★★★
Little Joe (Jessica Hausner) ★★★★
The News Of The World (Paul Greengrass) ★★★★
Nomadland (Chloe Zhao) ★★★★
County Lines (Henry Blake) ★★★★★
Animal Antics (Patrick Goddard) ★★★★★

OLD FILMS

Box Of Moonlight (Tom DeCillo, 1996) ★★★★★
Local Hero (Bill Forsyth, 1983) ★★★★★
Where Eagles Dare (Brian G Hutton, 1968) ★★★★★
The Big Gundown (Sergio Sollima, 1967) ★★★★★
The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973) ★★★★★
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) ★★★★★
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)★★★★★
Good Vibrations (Lisa Barros D’sa/Glen Leyburn, 2013)★★★★★
Caliber 9 (Fernado di Leon, 1972) ★★★★★
‘71 (Yann Demange, 2014) ★★★★★
Big Night (Campbell Scott/Stanley Tucci, 1996) ★★★★★
Jason & The Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963) ★★★★★
Goldstone (Ivan Sen, 2016) ★★★★★
Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) ★★★★★
Avengers Infinity War (Russo Brothers, 2018) ★★★★
Avengers Endgame (Russo Brothers, 2019) ★★★★
In Order of Disappearance (Hans Peter Molland, 2014)★★★★★
Iron Man III (Shane Black, 2013)★★★★★
Pauline A La Plage (Eric Rohmer, 1983) ★★★★★
Gone To Earth (Powell/Pressburger, 1950) ★★★★
The Odd Couple (Neil Simon, 1968) ★★★★★
Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981) ★★★★
Samurai 1 : Mushashi Miyamoto (Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954) ★★★★
Cache / Hidden (Michaek Haneke, 2005) ★★★★★
Babylon (Franco Rosso, 1980) ★★★★★
Summer In February (Christopher Menaul, 2013) ★★★★
Guardians of The Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014) ★★★★★
All Tomorrow’s Parties (Jonathan Caouette, 2009) ★★★★
Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969) ★★★★★
Force Majeure (Ruben Ostlund, 2015) ★★★★
Lift To The Scaffold (Louise Malle, 1958)★★★★★
Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971)★★★★★

OLD BOOKS

Rosemary Tonks - Emir (1963)★★★★★
Rosemary Tonks - The Bloater (1968) ★★★★★
John Berger/Jean Mohr - A Fortunate Man (1967) ★★★★★
Ann Quin - Berg (1964) ★★★★
Sir John Mandeville - The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357)★★★★
Sean Bythell - Diary of a Bookseller (2018)
Robert Aickman - The Inner Room (1988)
Virginia Nicholson - Amongst The Bohemians (2003)
Joanna Moorhead - The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington (2017)
Betty May - Tiger Woman (1929)
Val Doonican - My Story, My Life (2009)
Dave Graney - Workshy (2017)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde - R L Stevenson (1985)
Hide & Seek - Dennis Potter (1973)

NEW BOOKS

Tessa Norton/Bob Stanley - Excavate!
Alan Stafford - Wilson, Keppel & Betty, Too Naked For The Nazis
Peter Oborne - The Assault On Truth
Nesrine Malik - We Need New Stories ★★★★★
Sean Bythell - Diary of a Bookseller (2018) ★★★★★
Robert Aickman - The Inner Room (1988) ★★★★★
Alicia Foster - Nina Hamnett
Charlie Hill - I Don’t Want To Go To The Taj Mahjal
Hill’s economic autobiography is a simplistic list of addresses, dead end jobs, cultural ephemera, and brief assignations, garnished with two or three short paragraphs of barely formed reflection. And yet, in reducing his life to these most basic elements, it manages to be a more profound comment on existence then many more self-consciously analytical efforts. As if to confound Wittgenstein, it appears the unexamined life was worth living after all.

NEW COMICS

Joe Sacco - Paying The Land (2020)

NEW TV

Ghosts S2 (BBC, 2020)
Ghosts - Xmas Special 2020 (BBC, 2020)
The Mandalorian S2 (Disney, 2020) ★★★★★
Call My Agent S3 (France 2, 2018)★★★★★
Call My Agent S4 (France 2, 2021) ★★★★★
The Trump Show (BBC, 2020-1)★★★★★
Lupin S1 (Netflix, 2021)★★★★★
Wandavision (Marvel, 2021)★★★★★
Stonehenge The Lost Circle Revealed (BBC, 2021) ★★★★★
Adam Curtis’ Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (BBC, 2021)★★★★★
Raiders Of The Lost Past With Janina Ramirez (BBC2, 2021) ★★★★
Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing S3 (BBC, 2020) ★★★★★
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier (Marvel, 2021) ★★★★★
Homeland s8 (Netflix, 2020)★★★★★
Into The Night S1 (Between a Dog & A Wolf, 2020) ★★★★
Unforgotten S4 (ITV, 2021) ★★★★
Inside No 9 S6 (BBC, 2021) ★★★★★
Great British Bake Off S11 (C4, 2020) ★★★★★
An Evening With Tim Heidecker (Youtube, 2020)
Time (BBC, 2021) ★★★★★
Loki (Kate Herron, Marvel, 2021)

INTERNETS, RADIOS, YOUTUBES AND PODCASTS

Rob Auton’s Daily Podcast
Alastair Beckett-King on Youtube
Shawn Woods’ Mouse Trap Monday on Youtube
An Evening With Tim Heidecker (Youtube, 2020) ★★★★
Bridget Christie - Mortal (BBCR4)
Rosie Holt’s Youtube characters

THEATRE

Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas (National) ★★★★★
The Pin’s The Comeback (Noel Coward Theatre) ★★★★
This felt like it was from the 1870s, the 1950s and now all at the same time.
It was of a tradition at the same time as exploding it. It reminded me of THE RIGHT Size and it would be great if The Pin could hold the partnership together in the way they didn't as there's probably lots to find out about how elastic it can be, and what you can subsume into it.
A Victorian audience would have recognised it as Music Hall and a ‘50s audience would have recognised it as Absurdism, which Beckett knew was music hall anyway. Were they even in a theatre, really, them blokes? I hope it tours.

NEW RECORDS

Lady Leshurr - Quaranqueen
The Primevals - New Trip
Cult Figures - Deritend
Vapour Trails - Celestial Scuzz ★★★★★
Robert Pollard - Before Computers (demos)
Kevin March - Last Night
Doug Gillard - Douglas Scott Gillard II
Guided by Voices - Earth Man Blues
Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
Ustad Saami - Pakistan Is For The Peaceful ★★★★★
The Blue Orchids - Speed The Day
Dave Graney & The Mistly - Live At Byrds ★★★★★
Mainliner - Dual Myths ★★★★★
Hawkwind - 50th Anniversary Live
The Amorphous Androgynous w Peter Hammill - We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orcestrea - s/t
Major Murphy - Access
Eleventh Dream Day - Since Grazed
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg
Guided By Voices - Earth Man Blues
Fixed Horizon - Grenouille
Lucinda Williams - Runnin’ Down A Dream
Krallice - Demonic Wealth
Catenary Wires - Birling Gap
Cub Scout Bowling Pins - Heaven Beats Iowa ★★★★
Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders - There’s Pretty Things in Palookaville ★★★★
Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Upstairs ★★★★
Chris Forsyth - First Flight
Chris Eckerman - Where The Spirit Rests ★★★★
The Scientists - Negativity
David Grubbs & Ryley Walker - Husky Pants ★★★★
Shirley Collins - Heart’s Ease ★★★★★
Gary Louris - Jump For Joy ★★★★★
Fixed Horizon - Full Circle ★★★★
Trees Speak - Post Human ★★★★
William Loveday Intention - People Think They Know Me ★★★★★
Hawkwind - Somnia
The Bevis Frond - Little Eden ★★★★★
Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders - There’s Pretty Things In Palookaville ★★★★★
Goat - Headsoup
Adele & The Chandeliers - First Date
Trees Speak - Post Human
Sun Ra Arkestra - Swirling ★★★★★
Phil Minton - Woke Up At 8 ★★★★★
Rudimentary Peni - The Great War
Lucinda Williams - Southern Soul

NEW OLD RECORDS

V/A - Rough Guide To Avant-Garde Japan
Guided by Voices - Live At Irving Plaza (1996)
Damo Suzuki & Echo Ensemble - Live @ Green Door (2013)
Heavenly - A Bout De Heavenly (1989-1996)
Martin Stone - Down But Not Out In Paris and London (1992-2013)
John Russell & Terry Day - Russell & Day (1979?)
Derek Bailey, Trevor Watts & Terry Day - At LTC (1972?)
Sonny Rollins - Rollins In Holland (1967) ★★★★★
Robert Pollard - I Sell The Circus (demos) (2015)
The Fall - St Helen’s Technical College (1981) ★★★★★
Charles Gayle, John Edwards, Mark Sanders - Seasons Changing (2017) ★★★★★
The Misunderstood - Children of The Sun(1965-66) ★★★★★
Dexter Gordon - Live In Chateauvallon (1978) ★★★★★
The Loft - Ghost Trains & Country Lanes (1984-2015)
And Also The Trees - s/t (1984)
Neil Young - Young Shakespeare (1971)
T2 - It’ll All Work Out In Boomland (1970)
The Outsiders - Count For Something (1976-78)
The Selecter - Too Much Pressure box (1980)
Brown Acid 11 - v/a (1969-73)
Fleur de Lys - Circles (1964-1969)
J Jazz Deep Jazz From Modern Japan vol 3 - V/A (1962-1985)
The Black Keys Present Hill Country Blues - v/a
Brown Acid 12 - v/a (1968-80)
Raw Material - s/t (1970)
Open Road - Windy Day (1971)
Dave Graney, Clare Moore, Georgie Valentino & Malcolm Ross - s/t (2017) ★★★★
Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters - Smashed Full Of Wonder (1987)
The Lipstick Killers - Strange Flash (1976-81)
The Hawks - Obviously 5 Believers (1979-81) ★★★★
v/a - Goitse A Thaisce (1960-2020) ★★★★★
v/a - Fire Draw Near (1940-2020) ★★★★★

OLD RECORDS

Cocteau Twins - Treasure (1984) ★★★★
Billy Bragg - Life’s A Riot (1983) ★★★★★
Billy Bragg - Brewing Up with (1984) ★★★★★
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional (1986) ★★★★
Siouxsie & The Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse (1982) ★★★★
Bunny Striker Lee - The Bunny Striker Lee Story (1967-80) ★★★★
V/A - Dub, A Journey Into Bass Culture (1970s) ★★★★
V/A - Dub, Original Bass Culture (1970s) ★★★★
V/A - Dub, More Bass Culture (1970s) ★★★★
Tomorrow’s Gift - Goodbye Future (1973) ★★★★
Jackson C Frank - s/t (1965) ★★★★
V/A - Down Home Blues, Chicago Fine Boogie (1947-1958)★★★★
Maggie Bjorklund - Shaken (2014)★★★★
June Tabor - Airs & Graces (1976) ★★★★★
John Martyn - The Very Best Of (1967-1996) ★★★★★
The Owl Service - The Garland Sessions (2007) ★★★★★
John Lee Hooker - Tantalising With The Blues (1965-70)★★★★★
Furry Lewis, Memphis Willie B, Memphis Slim - Bluesville 3 (1963?) ★★★★
Lightnin’ Hopkins - Prestige Profiles (1960-4) ★★★★★
Magic Slim - Live @ Ma Bea’s (1976) ★★★★
Jimmy Dawkins - Come Back Baby (1977) ★★★★
Allman Brothers - At Filmore East (1971) ★★★★
John Fahey - The Yellow Princess (1968) ★★★★★
Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly? (1992)★★★★
Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (2009) ★★★★
Tragically Hip - Man Machine Poem (2016) ★★★★
Tragically Hip - We Are The Same (2009) ★★★★
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) ★★★★★
Grant Lee Buffalo - Storm Hymnal (1993-98) ★★★★
Shiva Burlesque - Mercury Blues (1990) ★★★★
Yo La Tengo - President (1989) ★★★★★
Yo La Tengo - Fakebook (1990) ★★★★★
Yo La Tengo - That Is You La Tengo (1991) ★★★★
Yo La Tengo - May I Sing With Me? (1992) ★★★★
Yo La Tengo - Painful (3 cds) (1993) ★★★★
Tim Buckley - Dream Letter (1968) ★★★★★
Those Bastard Souls - Debt & Departure (1999) ★★★★★
Wanderlust - Prize (1995) ★★★★
Chain - Towards The Blues (1971) ★★★★
The Schramms - Omnidirectional (2019) ★★★★
Cannonball Adderley - Soul Zodiac (1972)
Fred Anderson - Quintessential Birthday Trio Vol II (2015)
Greg Bendian’s Interzone - Requiem For Jack Kirby (2001)
Nels Cline & Greg Bendian - Interstellar Space Revisited (1999)
The Beat - Bounce (2016)
Nina Simone - To Be Free (1959-1993)
Swervedriver - 99th Dream (1998)
Road - s/t (1972)
Mudhoney - Morning In America (2019)
Necromandus - Orexis of Death (1973)
Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide (1991)
Ultravox - Rage In Eden (1981)
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox (1986)
Blues Pills - Live In Paris (2017)
Gram Parsons - Alternate Takes (1973-4)
Mike Westbrook - Mama Chicago (1976)
The Fall - Grotesque (1980)
Truly - Fast Stories From Kid Coma (1995)
Echo & the Bunnymen - Evergreen (1997)
Echo & The Bunnymen - What Are You Going To Do With Your Life? (1999)
Blues Pills - Lady In Gold (2016)
Leo Bud Welch - The Angels In Heaven Done Signed My Name (2019)
The Black Keys - Chulahoma (2006)
Nanci Griffith - One Fair Summer Evening (1988)
The Soft Boys - Invisible Hits (1983)
Robyn Hitchcock - Robyn Sings (2003)
Raw Material - s/t (1970)
Don Carlos & Gold - Them Never Know Natty Dread Have Him Credentials (1982)
Henry Junjo Lawes - Volcano Erruption (70s-80s)
Don Carlos - Day To Day Living (1982)
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee - Full Up (1968-72)
Bunny Lee & Friends - Tape Rolling (1971-4) ★★★★
v/a - Trojan Roots Dancehall Box (‘70s, ‘80s)
Charlie Chaplin & Papa San - Respect Due (1986?)
Robert Forster - The Evangelist (2008) ★★★★★
John Stewart - California Bloodlines (1969) ★★★★
v/a - Trojan Dancehall Box (‘70s, ‘80s)
Don Carlos - In Dub (1980)
Yabby You - Deeper Roots (‘70s, ‘80s)
Yabby You - Deeper Roots Part 2 (‘70s, ‘80s)
Norma Winstone - Edge Of Time (1972) ★★★★
Atlas - Just Playin’ Rhythm & Blues (1967-71)
V/A - Alan Lomax Songbook (1939-76) ★★★★
Shirley Collins - Lodestar (2016) ★★★★★
The Go-betweens - Loving Shocks (1989) ★★★★
Red House Painters - Songs For A Blue Guitar (1996) ★★★★
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Mind Control (2013)
The Damned - Music For Pleasure (1977) ★★★★
Skids - Days In Europa (1977)
Big Country - The Crossing (1983) ★★★★
Big Country - Steel Town (1984)
Jon Dee Graham - Escape From Monster Island (1997) ★★★★
The Fall - Live At The Witch Trials (1979) ★★★★★

10) WOKE CAUSES - THIS MONTH, GOOD LAW PROJECT, GET OFF MY MED RECORDS, GBNEWS ADVERTISERS

GOOD LAW PROJECT

LINK
It’s evident that the corrupt kleptocracy of Boris Johnson isn’t going to dislodged by Kier Starmer’s PMQ’s however forensic, or by the biased media, or by legal investigations in which the gvt essentially investigate themselves.

However, despite the threats to judiciary in the Queen’s speech, at present the gvt are required to obey the law.
Champagne socialist fox-whacking lawyer Jolyon Maugham’s donation funded Good Law Project seems to be better than the opposition currently at holding the gvt to account, and proving where they have broken the law, so if you can spare a pound crowd fund them, as they do seem to be making an impact.

MEDICAL RECORDS OPT OUT

LINK
Did you know that the gvt are about to sell all your medical records off to the highest bidder? Thought not. We weren’t consulted.
I don’t care about the privacy aspect, but I do object to my life being monetised to give leverage to some horrible massive info-tech company.
You can withdraw the gvt’s right to farm your medical history as if you were some kind of data-pig at the link above. THIS IS NOW DELAYED TO SEPTEMBER DUE TO OPPOSITION BUT STILL WORTH DOING

GBNEWS ADVERTISERS

Stop Funding Hate say - Advertising sales for GB News are reportedly handled by Sky Media.
We’re aware of at least one company who say they were unaware that they were going to appear on GB News and suspended those ads when they found out. If you work for a company that buys programmatic advertising from Sky, it may be worth checking with them to ensure that your ads aren’t placed on GB News.

A huge thanks to the Stop Funding Hate volunteers who have come together to help identify GB News advertisers.
Brands that we’ve seen so far include: Vodafone, Octopus Energy, Ovo Energy, Co-op, Ikea, LV, Virgin Media, Kelloggs, Deliveroo, Nivea, Kenco coffee, AA, Premier Inn, American Express, Benadryl (Johnson and Johnson), Wickes, Starbucks, Weetabix, Listerine (Pfizer), National Lottery, Boomin, Cadbury, Taylors coffee, Amazon, Cazoo, Microsoft, Google, Alpen (Weetabix), Beko Harvestfresh, Pinterest, Ladbrokes, Rana pasta, Burger King, Warburtons, The UK Government (EU resettlement scheme), Bosch, Specsavers, TalkTalk, trivagoWeekend, itchpet.com, MSC Cruises, Grolsch, Indeed recruitment, Motability, Feel Multivitamins, Green Flag, Clean G non alcoholic gin, Facebook,Volvo, Bazuka, fiverr, Motability, Ibuleve Gel, Toyota, Appeal home shading / blinds, People’s Postcode Lottery, Just Eat, Petit Filous, Direct Bullion, Compare the Market, Kardia Mobile, Bupa, Verisure, The Open University.

There’s more information here about Stop Funding Hate, and the impact of our campaign so far. If you’re able to help build our movement tackling toxic media in the UK and internationally, please consider becoming a committed supporter and making a regular donation.

11) IN OUR COVID ERA LAMENTATIONS

Adam Schlesinger (Fountain of Wayne) (1967)
John Prine (outlaw country singer) (1946)
Henry Grimes (jazz bassist) (1935)
Dave Mountfield (Ornate Johnson) (1970)
Hal Wilner (arranger) (1957)
Tim Brooke-Taylor (Goodie) (1940)
Lee Konitz (jazz saxophonist) (1927)
Matthew Seligman (Soft Boy) (1955)
Millie Small (ska singer) (1946)
Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk robot) (1947)
Bill Rieflin (drummer for hire) (1960)
Hugh McKenna (Tear Gas pianist) (1949)
Steve Weber (Holy Modal Rounder) (1942)
Astrid Kirchherr (photographer) (1938)
Danny Ray Thompson (Sun Ra saxophonist) (1947)
Aubrey Burl (archaeologist) (1926)
Phil May (Pretty Thing) (1944)
The Clacton Fin Whale (circa 2000)
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (artist) (1930)
Doll Tor stone circle (3300 BC)
Kay Carroll (The Fall) (1948)
Bob the Cat (73 bus) (2006)
Alex Taylor (Shop Assistant, in 2005, and no-one knew)
Simon H Fell (jazz bassist) (1959)
Carl Reiner (director) (1922)
Ennio Morricone (architect of sonic dreams) (1928)
Keith Tippett (jazz pianist) (1947)
Jimmy Cobb (jazz drummer) (1929)
Barbara Smoker (Humanist) (1923)
The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton
Tony Elliot (Time Out) (1942)
Judy Dyble (folk singer) (1949)
Peter Green (blues guitarist) (1946)
Emitt Rhodes (power pop auteur) (1950)
Annie Ross (jazz bohemian) (1930)
Joe Ruby (Scooby-Doo) (1933)
Craig Weatherhill (folklorist) (1950)
Don Weller (jazz saxophonist) (1940)
Simeon Coxe (Silver Apple) (1938)
Diana Rigg (Avenger) (1938)
Toots Hibbert (reggae got soul) (1942)
Dele Fadele (carry bag man) (1962)
George Jeffrie (man’s-laughter maker) (1964)
Dave Kusworth (Brum punk Stone) (1960)
Gary Peacock (jazz bassist) (1935)
Doorkins (Southwark Cathedral Cat) (2005?)
Spencer Davis (Brumbeat pioneer) (1939)
Bunny Lee (dubmaster) (1940)
The Cubbington Pear Tree (1770)
Fungie The Dingle Dolphin (1979)
Jill Paton Walsh (humanist novelist) (1937)
Val Warner (poet) (1946)
Guy N Smith (Lord of The Crabs) (1939)
Richard Corben (decadent cartoonist) (1940)
David Johnson (Duke of Soho) (1960)
Leslie West (Mountain man) (1945)

- 2021 -
Katharine Whitehorn (bedsitter cook) (1928)
Katharine Whitehorn (bedsitter cook) (1928)
Celia Drummond Ford (voice of Trees) (1950)
The Happy Man Tree (Stoke Newington Tree) (1870)
John Russell (guitar guru) (1954)
Marcel Uderzo (Asterisk artist) (1933)
Tom Stevens (Long Ryder and Magus) (1956)
Dougie Anderson (Coda’s Edinburgh record dealer (1952)
Captain Tom (Covid Walkman) (1920)
Rynagh O’Grady (Ted’s Mary) (1954)
Mary Wilson (Supreme) (1944)
Chick Corea (Miles’ tinkler) (1941)
Iain Pattinson (You wanted to see me Prime Minister?) (1951)
U-Roy (Toastmaster) (1942)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (bookstore beat) (1921)
Wink O’Bannon (Eleventh Dream Day) (1956)
Bunny Wailer (Wailer) (1947)
Doug Parkinson (Oz vocal celeb) (1946)
Milford Graves (temporal explorer) (1941)
Johnny Rogan (Byrds’ Boswell) (1953)
Jessica Walter (Play Misty For Me) (1941)
Bertrand Tavernier (Round Midnight) (1941)
Anita Lane (Oz punk chanteuse) (1958)
Barbara Ess (Theoretical Girl) (1944)
Michael Collins (Apollo 11) (1930)
Mohammed Ag Itale (Tinariwen) (1960)
Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop) (1929)
Sonny Simmons (jazz hobo) (1933)
Charles Grodin (The American Tim Key) (1935)
Franco Battiato (Italian Fetus) (1945)
Yoshi Wada (bagpipe minimalist) (1943)
Ned Beatty (squealing piggy) (1937)
Davey Datblygu (Davey Datblygu) (1964)
S Clay Wilson (Captain Pissgums) (1941)
Peter Zinovieff (sonic pioneer) (1933)
Richard Donner (kebab pioneer) (1930)
Alix Dobkin (feminist folksinger) (1940)
Patrick Sky (native American folksinger) (1940)
Tom O’Connor (raconteur) (1939)

Stew provided narration for this release by The Seen...

The origins of this piece date back to the 1st December 1991. I’d attended an all day concert at the Red Rose Theatre in Finsbury Park, London - a benefit gig for Terry Day - featuring dozens of musicians in various groupings throughout the afternoon and evening. One of those musicians was John Stevens. This was my first exposure to John and his music and the beginning of a fascination still very much part of my everyday. John performed three times that afternoon; with his Spontaneous Music Ensemble - comprising Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith later joined by Maggie Nicols and Phil Minton, in a trio with Larry Stabbins and Paul Rogers and in an unaccompanied role, reciting a text composed by himself. He gave no introduction or back story to the piece. It just existed as is. Gone in a few fleeting moments. A couple of years later I secured an audience recording of the concert made by Andy Isham. All of John’s activity that day was on the recording and through repeated listening over the following two decades, I became very attached to the spoken word piece. Earlier this year I finally got around to transcribing the text, hoping that one day I’d be able to include it in a project. This little dream was enabled by Trestle Records and their generous offer to organise and record a session. Finally John’s inspirational words can be heard again and influence others the way they did me, as a young man, twenty six years ago. (Mark Wastell, December 2017)

The One Day Band sessions are an ongoing series of improvisations hosted by Trestle Records. Musicians, sometimes meeting for the first time, are invited to collaborate on a record made in a single day. The idea is to create a supportive studio environment to facilitate the production of new spontaneous music.

For sake of joy of study of oneself together : version II was released by Trestle Records on 22nd December 2017 and can be found at https://trestlerec.bandcamp.com/album/one-day-band-session-12

If someone invited you to a two- hour stand-up routine by an ultra post-modern comedian, so sophisticated that he satirises himself, his audience and all the big names on the circuit, you might pass and ask to see a panto instead.

But Stewart Lee's humour is the opposite of pretentious. Sure, his new show, Carpet Remnant World (I'll come to the title later), is clever, and riddled with oblique references - you're expected to know about Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls, and see the absurdity in the Vatican changing its doctrine on Purgatory. But he isn't showing off - he just assumes you're on his intellectual level. And if you're not, he doesn't want you there anyway. As he keeps saying to any Jimmy Carr fans in the audience: "It's not for you," adding, for his loyal fans, "It'll soon be back to just us."

At the same time he is mock-baffled that the BBC hasn't commissioned him for a third series - it hasn't had time to make a decision. "They're too busy commissioning 200 episodes of Russell Howard and writing Rob Brydon a blank cheque."

In his deadpan, "passive aggressive", middle-aged and bitter way, Lee brilliantly deconstructs and savages other comedians' techniques, so when a joke's not going very well, he says, you slip in a reference to rectal bleeding. Or just add a bit, and then a bit more, and eventually you get a laugh. "In the trade we call it Boyle's law."

If his Michael McIntyre prancing is funny, then his riff on what he calls "observational comedy" is funnier still, as in those comedians who endlessly say, "have you noticed the way ...?". As he puts it: "You can't just go on stage and ask a load of questions without a punchline. Can you?" Of course, the twist is that he is indulging in "observational comedy" about comedy itself.

This sort of meta-comedy, if it can be called that, is the seam running through the show. Take his self-deprecation. He says he's got no material because his life consists of watching Scooby-Doo with his son, and driving round the North Circular. In the hands of another comedian, being told they've got no jokes would be annoying. It's been done before. But Lee pushes it further. Towards the end of the first half, he starts looking at the prompts scrawled on his hand. He does it so subtly, just as you would if you actually had forgotten your script, that for a moment I thought, yeah, actually, you are rubbish. But as the first half fizzles and you realise the fizzling is the joke, the laugh is on you for falling for it.

It's not all so convoluted - there are one-liners too. Such as: "My wife wants me to have a vasectomy." Sigh. "Hardly any point." And there are meta-one-liners, such as: "That was a joke ... They do stick out." Then there are moments of sheer silliness, like the Scooby-Doo riff. Having watched the same cartoon 180 times, it's his only frame of reference. So when he goes into observational comedy mode, the question he keeps asking is: "You know those jungle canyon rope bridges, right, you know, the ones that are always broken ...?"

And what of the show's title? It refers to the carpet remnant store he finds himself going into, on one of his lonely motorway drives. But its true significance comes clear only at the end. Suddenly, a show that you thought was just a meandering two hours of deadpan half-baked material-free nonsense - as he keeps telling you it is - comes together, tight as a ball of string. At the beginning, he tells you what will happen one minute from the end, to "create an illusion of structure". Except it's not an illusion at all - it's just brilliantly post-modern.

Stewart Lee is one of comedy's big success stories. No, he's not filling the arenas like McIntyre, Bishop or Flanagan, and his BBC Two stand-up series is aimed at a niche audience: those of us who are happy to hang on as he works through his carefully convoluted and playfully abrasive ideas, basting his dry routines with reminders that they are routines, that comedy is a contrivance.

Yet in standing his ground and finding his crowd over the nine years since his breakthrough stand-up set - his first after co-creating Jerry Springer: The Opera, which followed his years in a double act with Richard Herring - he has made himself the 21st -century's poster boy for the art form formerly known as alternative comedy.

It runs in the family; his wife, Bridget Christie, has just won the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards. And her old man's new show, Much A-Stew About Nothing, is his funniest and most focused for a while.

That's partly because, as he keeps reminding us, the evening's three half-hour routines are destined for his third television series next year. He makes it clear that this show will be a fragmented, no-frills show - "Anyway, that's the end," is his final line - after noting that this, the second date to go on sale at this 1,700 seater is not quite full. "You're the people that applied late for tickets...I'm glad you came, but you're not really my crowd."

Ah, irony. We all like to think we can handle it. Only a few of us can do so without it farting in our faces. Lee is an irony grandmaster. He has made sure to write plenty of cherishable lines. He's also sidelined the obsession with analysing his position in the market placethat was making his act eat it's own tail. And as he works through a routine about Tories, one about Englishness and multiculturism, and a wickedly morose finale about being "an impotent, vasectomised 45-year-old father of two", he plies a sharp, sophisticated look at the post-political correctness cultural landscape.

Lee explains the changing hegemony between Thatcherism and now in little more than a breath; ponders the political affiliation of Helena Bonham Carter; rubbishes a UKIP politician's disingenuous concern for Bulgarians in a reducto ad absurdum rant that takes little-Englander worries all the way back through the HUgenouts and the Anglo-Saxons to the Big Bang. Masterful.

He toys, he teases, he mocks he plays. And if you can't make it out to a theatre to be spoken down to in person, the good news is that, on this evidence, that next television series is going to be a treat.

23rd OCT JARRET KOBEK + STEW EVENT

Jarett Kobek in conversation with Stewart Lee
Monday 23 October 2017, 7pm - 8.30pm
Islington Assembly Hall, London, N1 2UD * MOVED TO BARBICAN!!!!

Jarett Kobek's novel I Hate the Internet, a satire of the Internet age and Silicon Valley, earned him cult status in the US and praise from the likes of Bret Easton Ellis.

Join Kobek for an evening with another fan - standup comedian Stewart Lee - as he discusses his new novel, The Future Won't Be Long. A California-based Turkish-American writer, Kobek is also the author of several other books, including ATTA, a psychedelic biography of 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, and Soft & Cuddly, a monograph on an obscure computer game for the ZX Spectrum.

Standard tickets are £20, or £30 including a copy of The Future Won't Be Long.

Running time: 90 minutes, no interval. To book tickets go to THIS HAS NOW BEEN MOVED TO THE FROBISHER AUDITORIUM AT THE BARBICAN, HERE

SHIRLEY COLLINS DOC - RIO CINEMA LONDON 29TH OCT 4.30pm

Widely regarded as the 20th century's most important singer of English traditional song, Shirley Collins stood at the epicenter of the folk music revival during the 1960s and 70s.

But in 1980 she developed a disorder of the vocal chords known as dysphonia, which robbed her of her unique singing voice and forced her into early retirement.

Rob Curry and Tim Plester's brilliant documentary sets out to explore the story behind the icon, and chronicles Shirley's battle, at the grand old age of 80, to rediscover that voice she lost so many years previously and suggests that, during these turbulent and increasingly untethered times, we might just need Shirley Collins now more than ever.

Stewart Lee hosts. http://riocinema.org.uk/RioCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Film=9759698

IAIN SINCLAIR + STEW 30TH OCT, LRB BOOKSHOP, LONDON

Iain Sinclair has been writing about London for most of his adult life. The Last London (Oneworld) is the culmination of Iain's London project, although 'project' is far too determined a word to describe a body of work so many-layered, so prodigiously polyvalent.

He'll be talking about the book and the city with comedian Stewart Lee, another Londoner from elsewhere.
https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/events/2017/10/the-last-london-iain-sinclair-and-stewart-lee

NEW LONDON CONTENT PROVIDER DATES

Because all the London Leicester Sq Content Provider dates sold out here is another three month block of the SAME SHOW at the SAME VENUE, Leicester Sq Theatre, with the SAME JOKES at the SAME TIME, 7pm, from November this year until Jan 2018.
Leave voters planning to walk out in disgust will need to book early.

Weds 1st Nov - Sat 9th Dec 2017
Tuesday to Saturday - except there is a performance on Monday 4th December

Tues 2nd Jan to Wed 31st Jan 2018 - Monday to Saturday

Not Fri 24, Sat 25, Thur 30 Nov 2017 (DAYS OFF)
Not Tue 9, Sat 13 Jan 2018 (DAYS OFF)

https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873569397/events

Other extra dates by other comedians are available. More national dates to follow for Feb-April 2018, and then this must end.

Content Provider Tour 2017/2018

October 2017

Thursday 19th - Content Provider - READING - Hexagon - 0118 960 6060 - 8pm - TICKETS
Friday 20th - Content Provider - BEXHILL ON SEA - De La Warr Pavilion - 01424 229111 - 8pm - TICKETS
Saturday 21st - Content Provider - WINCHESTER - Theatre Royal - 01962 840440 - 8pm - SOLD OUT

November 2017

Wednesday November 1st - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday November 2nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday November 3rd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday November 4th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday November 7th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday November 8th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday November 9th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday November 10th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday November 11th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday November 14th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday November 15th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday November 16th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday November 17th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday November 18th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday November 21st - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday November 22nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday November 23rd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday November 28th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday November 29th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS

December 2017

Friday December 1st - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday December 2nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Monday December 4th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday December 5th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday December 6th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday December 7th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday December 8th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday December 9th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS

January 2018

Tuesday January 2nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday January 3rd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday January 4th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday January 5th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday January 6th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Monday January 8th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday January 10th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Monday January 15th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday January 16th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday January 17th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday January 18th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday January 19th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday January 20th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Monday January 22nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday January 23rd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday January 24th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Thursday January 25th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday January 26th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday January 27th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Monday January 29th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Tuesday January 30th - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Wednesday January 31st - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS

February 2018

Thursday February 1st - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday February 2nd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Saturday February 3rd - Content Provider, Leicester Square Theatre, London - 7pm TICKETS
Friday 9th - Content Provider, Grand Theatre, Swansea - 01792 475715 - 8pm - TICKETS
Sunday 18th - Content Provider, Festival Theatre, Chichester - 01243 781312 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Tuesday 20th - Content Provider, Arts House, Stratford Upon Avon - 01789 207100 - 8pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 21st - Content Provider, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury - 01743 281281 - 8pm - TICKETS
Thursday 22nd - Content Provider, The Courtyard, Hereford - 01432 340555 - 8pm - ON SALE SOON
Sunday 25th - Content Provider, The Orchard Theatre, Dartford - 01322 220000 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 28th - Content Provider, Dorking Halls, Dorking - 01306 881717 - 8pm - TICKETS

March 2018

Thursday 1st - Content Provider, Colston Hall, Bristol - 0117 203 4040 - 8pm - TICKETS
Sunday 4th - Content Provider, Theatre Royal, Plymouth - 01752 267222 - 7.30pm - ON SALE SOON
Monday 5th - Content Provider, Northcott Theatre, Exeter - 01392 726363 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Tuesday 6th - Content Provider, Northcott Theatre, Exeter - 01392 726363 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 7th - Content Provider, Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon - 01874 611622 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Saturday 10th - Content Provider, Lyceum Theatre, Crewe - 01270 368 242 - 8pm - TICKETS
Monday 12th - Content Provider, Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen - 01224 641122 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Tuesday 13th - Content Provider, Rep Theatre, Dundee - 01382 223530 - 8pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 14th - Content Provider, Concert Hall, Perth - 01738 621031 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Tuesday 20th - Content Provider, Hippodrome, Darlington - 01325 405405 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Wednesday 21st - Content Provider, City Hall, Hull - 01482 300306 - 7.30pm - TICKETS
Thursday 22nd - Content Provider, Regent, Ipswich - 01473 433100 - 8pm - TICKETS
Friday 23rd - Content Provider, Theatre Royal, Norwich - 01603 630000 - 7.30pm - TICKETS

Other extra dates by other comedians are available. More national dates to follow for Feb-April 2018, and then this must end.

TOP TIPS - I ARROGANTLY RECOMMEND

DREAM SYNDICATE uk TOUR

The 1980s California band sounded, and now sound again, like The Fall playing Credence Clearwater Revival, fronted by Dashiell Hammett... on acid!!!

Their new incarnation mixes noir-ish lyricism with stretched out punk-psyche jams.
Monday 30 October, Tues 31st 2017 - The Lexington, London, UK
Wednesday 01 November 2017 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
Thursday 02 November 2017 The 1865, Southampton, UK

WILSON DIXON - ONLY UK SOLO SHOW

Sunday 5th Nov, 6.45, The Bill Murray, Islington, London
My favorite New Zealand comedian Jesse Griffin, in his guise of country singer Wilson Dixon, does a lone solo show.
You may have seen Wilson on tour with me a decade or so ago. Griffin's C&W character is far better than the usual genre parodists as it is done with a real love and knowledge of the form, the song structures and lyrics reflecting the cosmic cowboy tunes of Guy Clarke or Townes Van Zandt, refracted through a bewildering stoned-rural-mystic persona.

The foolish Kiwi comedian has booked a gig on Bonfire Night, unaware we will all be burning Catholic effigies, so help him out please.

Book Tickets here.

SEAN HUGHES

I was on good terms with Sean Hughes when I started out, and reconnected with him earlier in this decade.

His 1990 fringe show was, in retrospect, a game changer for UK/Irish/Antipodean stand-up generally.
He was encouraging to me in confusing periods, and endlessly provocative on other occasions.

Here is a pair of podcasts of us in better times a few years back, with Sean in a dry season and a witty and wise mood.

PART ONE | PART TWO