Sky news

I met with my good friend Steve yesterday for a spot of breakfast. Where once we'd have hooked up for a lunchtime pint, these days you've more chance of finding us in the greasy spoon round the corner supping nothing stronger than builder's tea. We were planning our next excursion so dates, locations, bands were all high on the agenda (that and the breaking news that Football Focus has been put out to pasture). Really looking forward to spending a few days away with him again. Our last trip set the bar extraordinarily high so 2026 has got a lot to live up to.  

Returning back to base I took a bit of a detour and stumbled upon the place where they make the sky. Who knew it was made in Leicester? Also, it got me thinking, how many sky songs must there be out there? I have no clue. Rol Hirst mightn't either but pound to a penny I bet he's compiled a Top 10 of 'em. And if he hasn't he should. And if he has and it hasn't got this belter in there, then, I'm sorry, but the man's a damn fool.  

However, dig a little deeper in that barrel (who said scraping?) and you'll find this little curio. It's from 1975 - but you don't need me to tell you that as it's plastered all over the backdrop. And one look at the medallions, the dangerously wide white silk flares and the singing drummer will also alert you to the fact that you've entered another world: a world where chicken in a basket and journeymen cabaret acts collide. I give you... 

Jigsaw - Sky High (1975)

And talking of sky high...

Matt Berry - Toast of London

Dive in

I love dive bars. I've spent a significant proportion of my adult life in dive bars. And it never did me any harm. (Don't @ me.) Someone else who has a penchant for all things dive is No Badger Required. Our paths have never crossed, yet I feel is if I should be inviting them to BlogCon26; where, I'd like to think, we would meet in a Leeds dive bar of their choice (of which there are many). Hmm, let me mull that one over.

In the meantime, today's musical show & tell is nicked wholesale from NBR's Dive Bar Anthems playlist - now my Dive Bar Anthems playlist. Here's the studio version. However, this is a frantic, not to mention frenetic, no holds barred live version. Enjoy.

Parquet Courts - Live Football (2018)

Bang average songs with amazing intros

I think it was only when I saw Johnny Marr play his own version of How Soon is Now that I realised a song (a band, even) that I'd never much cared for has in fact got a stunning intro. I'm sure if I thought long enough and hard enough I could come up with a few more examples of this genre. But as I've just alienated all my Smiths loving readers I think I'll quit while I'm behind - for fear of inadvertently slaughtering another scared cow.

Johnny Marr - How Soon is Now

Overdue library books

April 2022

"The only thing that you abolutely have to know, is the location of the library." So said Albert Einstein. They knocked our local library down in 2022, so I could only tell you where it used to be. They set about rebuilding it shortly thereafter: it was to be part of a new development that would see a major supermarket occupy the ground floor (with the library upstairs) and some affordable housing at the rear. So far so good.

However, various construction delays, arguments over funding etc. etc. and it all got very messy. Sainsbury's opened for business in November 2023 and directly above stood a library with no books. For over two years. God knows what they were playing at. But Sherwood Library finally opened its doors to its book starved populus last week.

April 2026

I paid a visit yesterday morning and it was doing a brisk trade. And there were a lot of kids in there - which is always good to see. And a lot of books - old and new (see Julian Barnes' latest novel below). I can't tell you how brilliant it is having a new (well newish) library just up the road.

Gone too soon

Jan loved having her nails done - she'd let me take pics of her latest offerings

It was a desperately sad day yesterday. My friend Jan had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and knew that her eventual retirement wouldn't the retirement she would have hoped for; enjoying her beautiful garden and spending more time with her friends and family, not least he beloved grandchildren, would be limited. But even a drastically reduced retirement wasn't to be. Despite putting up up a formidable fight against her virulent cancer, Jan tragically slipped away in the early hours. There are no words.

Jan was one of my first visitors after I came home from hospital