Your Top Ten Manic Street Preachers Songs

Occasionally, every few years, Luke discusses his Top Ten Manic Street Preachers songs. This came up as a topic last weekend following the Guardian's Top 30 songs by Alex Petridis, which Christine found here. Thirty seems excessive so let's go with a Top Ten! Luke's previous Top Ten list for Christine's blog from 2018 is...

Orange cat, orange room, orange blog

I redecorated the blog to match the redecorated living room. I got Mackie 2 years ago, painted the room later that year from the boring magnolia, and ditched desktop computer for laptop just recently. All coming together nicely. Hoping to put something here in this blog space at least monthly, hopefully more often.

Sleeper – The It Girl

The second in my occasional series of albums that have meant something to me. Again these are not in-depth thoughts of a music writer. I'm not going to explore anything technical or write in the way the established music press writes about it. The idea of these is simply to share music with people I...

Sleeper – Smart

I am 40 this March and I hate it. But it seems like a good excuse to continue this idea of looking back at favourite albums that I started a year ago. It seems fitting to spend this year highlighting music that has got me through life so far. In this series I'm not going...

Earworms: Sleeper – Hunch

Don't come outside with those freak show eyes Don't look at me with those freak show eyes I know the song is about a later middle-aged couple. I know it's fairly slow, not very artistically revolutionary mid-90s indie Britpop rock. I just love that chorus. Song: "Hunch" Artist: Sleeper Album: Smart Year: 1994 Label: Indolent...

Ladytron KCRW Session

I began something of a love affair with the albums of Ladytron in 2013 and have been playing them relentlessly ever since. I'd previously heard 'He Took Her To A Movie' on a Lamacq Evening Session, donkey's years ago, circa 2001, and of course it wasn't long later 'Destroy Everything You Touch' was so big....

Visit to the Norman Lockyer Observatory

On Saturday, 6th April I visited the Norman Lockyer Observatory near Sidmouth for an "Introduction to Astronomy". This was a daytime course from 10am to 5pm centred in the lecture theatre and planetarium. The idea is to pique your interest or develop an existing hobby, perhaps with the hope you will join as a member and...

Thoughts On Films: Red River (1948)

Name:  Red River Year:  1948 Runtime:  2h13m Directors:  Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson Cast:  John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan Watched:  30 December 2018 Now this is the perfect way to while away a lazy Sunday over Christmas. Finally getting home and chilling out, watching an old Western on ITV4. In black & white! And followed up with two...