Mikal Gilmore, little brother of notorious executed mormon-killer Gary, and author of THIS excellent if grim memoir (as well as a lot of rather less excellent rock writing), says somewhere in the memoir, in wonder, that many of the photos of his chil[…]

I was officially good at games as a kid. Note, that is games with a lower case g. Which means, in hip-hop parlance, games which were less dangerous, less likely to get me killed and generally played on a board. Or at least had plenty of garish, brigh[…]

I was officially crap at Games at school. It was always the low point in my school report. Small in stature, a year younger than everyone else in my class and no depth perception all added up to a poor team player: it was assumed. And it was true. Od[…]

The rain over the last few days nagged at me. Not really annoying the rain, I thought, but odd timing. Why was the onset of rain int he last week of July bugging me. And then I remembered. The kids summer holidays have just started. Hence it starts r[…]

Among those of us with an interest there seems to be a kind of canon of children’s literature which centres on Narnia and the Moomins and then fans outward. I could talk about the Moomins for a thousand years but what about the books that didn&[…]

Now seems as good a time as any to ask this.
When I was small, about 7 or 8, I was staying with family friends in Cheshire, who had a son a couple years older than me. I remember this boy singing me a comic song about an encounter with a ram. The onl[…]

typically frustrating article from the Guardian about marketing films to schools by providing them with teaching aids. It occasionally skirts around doing some analysis but rather than trying to answer any of its interviewees points it just resorts t[…]

…and I am listening to “The First Noel”. A synthesised and re-arranged version of the carol with accompanying flourishes from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. A version better known as the theme tune from “The Box Of Delights&#82[…]

.[…]

A blanket ban on any live act performing original compositions before, say, 2PM. This is the main insight you’re left with camping near the new bands/John Peel tent but a wander anywhere onsite on any morning will show that the principle holds […]