Optical illusion of a woman bent over some papers. Her sunglasses are pushed up and she is wearing a hair band so the top of her head looks exactly like a Muppet face
Sorry I know the world is in a terrible fix but I've been laughing at this for ten minutes now
Alexis Taylor's Paris In The Spring (out a week on Friday) is a deep comforting hug of a record from which I am in absolutely no hurry to release myself.
Can't hear one without hearing the other, much as I don't want to.
Royals by Lorde playing at my local grocery. So similar to the theme song to Morons From Outer Space. Yet so different.
You must never stop.
I wonder how on earth that happened?!
Oh, that is fabulous. I had good chats with both Ed and Jane back in summer 2021, and it's one of the strangest but loveliest little things I've worked on. Genuine eccentrics, but the nicest people. It's all here:
hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2021/08/13/e...
Wow! The way you describe it I now feel like I was there too! Just magical. Thank you! x
Technically 2025 (though only just, 11th Dec) it was stunning. The evening was billed as an Edward Barton retrospective featuring him and guests. She was sitting to our right during the opening acts, looking like any of us (about 120 people all aged 50-70) and then she stood up and blew our minds!
I went to this gig, with about 50 people in all, and it was about the most magical thing that happened in 2025. I would really like to talk about Edward Barton and Jane every day.
Been listening to a lot of Sharon Jones and to the Daptone Gold album lately, so coming across this by @petepaphides.bsky.social is a nice heartwarmer.
(It's also good to hear the Naturally instrumentals album released fairly recently.)
www.patreon.com/posts/among-...
Thanks so much Stephen. It's doubly gratifying to me that you loved this without even having heard the original! Happy to be of service! x
This is why I follow @petepaphides.bsky.social. Not afraid to confess that I'd never (knowingly) heard the original. Now I have. And this amazing present-day performance, too. In a world of doom-scrolling, a wholly positive post like this is the day's unexpected joy.
Have just gone and bought the Jane and Barton EP on the strength of this, so my ears say thank you while my wallet quietly curses. Thanks for finding and sharing. It's joyful.
Oh my goodness.
I totally get it! I wasn’t far off myself. X
Why am I sitting here in tears on a Tuesday morning after watching this? It’s a fine day indeed.
Thanks, Pete
This is wonderful!
Here she is in 2026! This neatly bobbed, elegantly coutured lady in her 60s, steps forward in the manner of someone who might just as easily address an international conference held to improve the efficacy of PPE rollouts in future pandemics. And then she sings: “It’s a fine day/People open windows”
Thank you so much Dave. As it happens, I thought about you today. I was listening to a playlist that came to an end and it automatically went into a song from a Del Amitri album – Can You Do Me Good? – I'd never heard. Sounded fantastic. I think I'll have to purchase it.
Thank you so much. I've definitely played that game too. It's a useful litmus test.
I play a game on social media I say something nice about U2 and then count the minutes until someone pops up to tell me Bono is a dick or mention something about their taxes etc. Pete eloquently discusses much the same issue here.
“Anyway, at the risk of sounding cheesy and mawkish, you really can’t underestimate the importance of gratitude, can you?” @petepaphides.bsky.social
You may have heard it (but some of your followers may not have), but his was such a good episode of This Cultural Life and sent me straight to his book.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
#THIS. 🙏
(While I'm thinking of the Dap-Kings, good luck finding a better Xmas record than the one Sharon Jones made with them, "It's A Holiday Soul Party".)
I found myself inordinately touched by Mark Ronson's decision to place The Dap-Kings right at the centre of his big Brits moment, so I wrote a few words to explain why (to myself as much as anyone else).
I've interviewed Will a couple of times and once said to him i'd mispelt Ian's surname on something. Made me laugh when he said "just leave it".
This really does mean a lot coming from @andrewmale.bsky.social, a great storyteller in his own right and a brilliant, egoless editor to boot. His interviews with Bill Callahan and Bill Fay exist as little reminders in my head that this is the standard for which I have to try and shoot.
In 2008, I travelled to the birthplace of John Conteh and came back looking like I'd done 15 rounds with him. The truth was somewhat more prosaic. I'd been given the runaround by Ian McCulloch...
Pretty sure that the pollster on BBC just said of the likelihood of Green’s success today being an indicator of any General Election success, that “it’s very hard to expectorate”. How very phlegmatic of him.
