Freelance Writer: comedy and pop culture2024-09-21T23:35:52+01:00

Freelance writer specializing in comedy and the geekier end of the pop culture spectrum.

Contact Me

Latest Stuff

What Goes Round

So, Britain’s best-selling red-top is back in the blue camp again. I can’t say I was particularly surprised when The Sun’s 12 year love-in with New Labour came to an end the other week. Maybe it’s because my political conscience first rolled off the production line during the 1980s, but I’ve always struggled to think of the Soaraway One as anything other than a vicious little Tory rag. For me, at least, its recent volte-face was a bit like the Angling Times announcing a return to fishing-themed coverage after a decade or so spent focusing on musical theatre. I’ve never [...]

A mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

I went to see comedian Robin Ince at Birmingham's Electric Cinema last Thursday.  He was performing his new one-man show - Robin Ince vs. the Moral Majority - as part of this year's Birmingham Comedy Festival.  The bulk of the show consisted of a vicious yet hilarious attack on the so-called quality press and - in that respect at least - it was not unlike the final season of The Wire, albeit with more punchlines and less drive-by shootings.  Ince  was on remarkably good form and I've written a glowing review about it and everything.  I'll tell you about that [...]

Deface Value

Seamlessly following on from my previous post, this appeared on The Guardian's Music Blog back in 2007: Opening this Thursday, a new exhibition at London's Art Vinyl gallery, entitled De-Face Value, will showcase hand-painted re-workings of [Phil Collins'] No Jacket Required LP sleeve by artists and musicians... No explanation required.

Arse Gratia Artis

"Art for art's sake Money for God's sake" - 10CC From BBC News: Artist Tracey Emin has said she is thinking of leaving the UK in protest about being overtaxed. In a Sunday Times interview she said she was "very seriously considering leaving Britain," adding: "I'm simply not willing to pay tax at 50%." Far be it for me to undermine your significant cultural significance here, Tracey, but doesn't this behaviour - technically speaking, of course - put you in the same category of artist as, say, Jim Davidson, Paul Daniels or Phil Collins?   Phil, as you might remember, was [...]

Go to Top