As mentioned in this piece from April (“A long overdue catch-up (April 2025)”) I have drafted thousands of words in recent months that have not yet appeared anywhere on this site. In November 2024 I drafted a few hundred words that were never finalized, about artists who have had at least one UK #1. Nothing… Continue reading Jane Morgan RIP and the oldest living artist with a UK #1
Sad news today. The actor and comedian Tony Slattery has died aged 65. He was a schoolfriend of my brother’s, and a family friend for many years after that. He has been mentioned a few times on this site. The handful of references to him on other pages can give you a sense of our… Continue reading Tony Slattery RIP
Sad news from the musical backwaters where I have been known to dip my toes. Musician and producer Pat Collier died last month aged 72. Currently there is only one obituary that I can find, on the Louder Than War website. There are mentions on Facebook but not much else for now. As the article… Continue reading Pat Collier RIP
I return to the subject of money and football. I outlined some milestones in this piece from 2022. It was mainly about Kylian Mbappé, a player you will probably have heard of even if you do not follow football closely. He won the World Cup with France in 2018 and is about to join Real… Continue reading £40m for 48 minutes of football
11 November 2023: The Beatles at #1 in the UK singles chart with their final release “Now and Then”. The last time they were #1 here was in 1969, over 54 years ago, with “The Ballad of John and Yoko”. In the UK, until now, the Beatles had all of their chart-toppers in the 1960s.… Continue reading The Beatles at #1
If you follow the game of cricket, you will be familiar with the idea of a nightwatchman, a batsman who comes in at the fall of a wicket in the last few overs of a day’s play. The nightwatchman’s role is to take the pressure off the other batsman: face as many balls as possible,… Continue reading Word of the week: nighthawk
In the million-plus words that appear on this Blog, all of them still freely available whenever you want to read them, there has been no mention of either of the UK’s two most recent prime ministers. Until now. The current prime minister, less than a week into the job, is Rishi Sunak, who either believes… Continue reading Leeds United FC and Liz Truss
As a family we have started to watch “3rd Rock from the Sun” on More4, Channel 4’s free streaming service. It calls itself “the world’s biggest free streaming service”. I caught most episodes of this US sitcom when they were first broadcast, from 1996 onwards, and again on one of the comedy channels from around… Continue reading “Contains some outdated humour”
The current UK prime minister is Boris Johnson, still, hanging in there until the election of the new leader of the Tory Party, who will become his successor in 10 Downing Street. That’s how it works these days, and the results should be in on 5 September. There are reports that Johnson is getting booed… Continue reading Word of the week: ponce
This Blog is not a place for up-to-the-minute news analysis. There is a category called “In the news” and browsing through articles that have been categorized that way you will find more mentions of recently deceased sportsmen and pop stars than, say, current political developments. When this Blog began, in late 2015, the UK prime… Continue reading What the Daily Record said
The Compartments 