Blog Archive: October 2025

A Brief Word From Doctor Doom
Today is The Last Working Day Of The Month, which means it is NEWSLETTER DAY!

That means that this month's issue should be falling through digital letterboxes worldwide, with news of gigs, podcasts, fanzines and the NEW album project. It's also got a message direct from DOCTOR DOOM himself about the forthcoming Leeds gig, which I thought I'd share with you here:



I wouldn't normally hassle everyone with an advert for one specific gig, but I was really pleased with how this turned out so thought I'd do a little bit more INFLICTION of it on everyone. Hope you like it!

posted 31/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Crystal Palace Session #1
On Tuesday morning I was up bright and early to head to distant Crystal Palace, there to commence recording sessions on the ALBUM what I am recording with Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey. I was last round that way back in February when I went to see Ben Moor preview 'A Three Thing Day', which was GRATE. The studio I was headed to was very close to where that had been, which meant I had to climb up the HUMUNGOUS HILL again, although this time when I got to the summit it was daylight so I could see the AMAAZING views over London. I still don't like hills (why can't people live somewhere flat?) but this was pretty good!

The studio in question was OneCat, under the guidance of Mr J Blusher. Chris had been there LOADS for his own band stuff and also with The JimBob Big Band so had recommended it as a good place, and he was entirely correct. It's been YEARS since I was last in a Studio Environment so it was lovely to be back, although it seems things have ADVANCED somewhat since then. After one recording, for instance, I said "I might need to do that again, there was some popping on the mike" and Jon looked at my funny, perhaps unsure if I was joking. "We can fix that on the track" he said. COR!

The plan for the session was to record piano and vocals for the six songs we'd played in Brighton in August, which is very nearly what we did. First of all we did the PIANO and guide vocals for In The North Stand, It Only Works Because You're here, Born With The Century, Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine and The Perfect Love Song (in that order, I think) with a break towards the end to pop out to fetch some lunch. We were going to do 7 Hearts too but Chris wasn't quite ready for it so instead we did a DIFFERENT cover version what we worked up there and there in the studio like some kind of ROCK WIZARDS. I'll save the details for another time, as it's hopefully for a THING that'll be out soon, but it sounded dead good.

After that we started doing some Actual Vocals, which I must say I found Quite An Experience. Usually when I do gigs I BELLOW the words to get them across, which I am very happy with doing, but here I was trying to do something more like ACTUAL SINGING. Millions of years ago, when we recorded Say It With Words I made a determined attempt to sing that way, but in the decades since I've not done it so much, so this was a bit weird for me to start with. Also, it was in a different setting from usual, with someone else in charge, and most of all the SONGS were all RATHER EMOTIONAL, so it rather got to me. By the end of the day I was hankering for a MASSIVE DUVET to go and hide under as I was feeling VULNERABLE AS HECK!

Luckily for me Chris and Jon were both LOVELY about it and v encouraging, although sitting with them and listening back to raw tracks of me singing like this was still EXCRUCIATING. However, a wonderful and magical thing happened as Jon expertly COMPED the tracks (i.e. sticking together the best bits from each take) until it sounded Pretty Good. It was a hugely reassuring process, like having a really nice haircut or something where someone you trust Makes It All Better!

It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a fantastic day, and listening back to the recordings now I'm even MORE happy about how it worked out, as they sound FAB. The plan is to try out some more songs in December when Chris and I do our gig together at the King & Queen then head back into the studio with Jon to do some further recording. Once we've got a nice batch it'll be time for some ARRANGING and so forth, so it'll be a while yet before we're ready for public consumption, but as I say there should be SOMETHING available before the end of the year. It is all PRETTY EXCITING, and I can't wait to UNLEASH some of this stuff on people!

posted 29/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Prolapse at The Lexington
Sunday evening found me heading for London's fashionable LONDON area of London, where I was due to see young people's art rock band PROLAPSE at The Lexington. Executive Summary: it was GRATE!

As is traditional for gigs at The Lexington I popped round the corner first to have my tea at Indian Veg, which was as delightful as ever. This included a trip to The Toilets Of Propaganda, which informed me in no uncertain terms that vegetariansim/vegansim is EXCELLENT - thanks, The Toilets Of Proaganda in Indian Veg, I did know that but it is always nice to be reminded!

My next stop was The Three Johns to meet Mr S Hewitt for a couple of delicious pints and similarly delicious conversation, and then on to the venue itself for the first night of their NEW ALBUM TOUR. I was looking forward to this, not just because Prolapse are dead good, nor even that the new album is ALSO dead good ("It sounds like THEM!" is the general consensus) but because I was also convinced it would be a room full of old pals I hadn't seen for decades. My BRANE was thinking this because that was the case several years ago when they did their FIRST reunion gigs, but this time it was a room filled with people who LOOKED like the sort of people I remembered, but for the most part were not. Almost as if they have fans that I don't know?

We went up stairs to say hello to Mrs E Pattison, who was talking the J Jervis role in the merch booth, and saw the end of the support band, Moderate Rebels. My GIG INSTINCTS kicked in when I looked at my watch and realised the night was running late, and had to keep saying to myself "This is not your problem, also it will all be fine" and indeed it WAS, and Moderate Rebels were dead good too - very Prolapse-y, in fact!

We struggled round, through the SOLD OUT crowd, to our Usual Spot in the Royal Box (made difficult because, as Steve pointed out, it was an audience full of people who would normally stand at the back) and discovered Dave and Jasper, last seen in Whitstable. Chat was had and then it was ROCK O'CLOCK, as Prolapse came on and were - as discussed earlier - BLOODY GRATE.

As with going to see Allo Darlin' recently, this was different to recent gigs of theirs because it was NOT a Greatest Hits Set celebrating the fact that they were BACK, but rather a NORMAL gig to promote their new album. There were still a lot of HITS, but also some really old songs (including ones I didn't recognise) and LOADS of the new ones, which were ACE. Best of all though it was back to some of the CHAOS and BLOODY RACKET I remember from Back In The Day - INDEED the stage set up and the place where we stood kept reminding me of seeing them at The Charlotte, where it would ALSO be a bit of an old racket and also also unpredictable.

Watching them it made me realise what a weird old thing it is they do - you've got four blokes on guitars looking Quite Stern (except on the occasions when Dave got on the stage-side Remark-O-Phone) and Tim bashing HECK out of his drums, making a sound that, on its own, can veer towards STADIUM GOTH (in a good way), whereas in the middle of it all is a very very different act in the shape of Mick and Linda, especially when they get going on the between song chat. Then when the whole LOT of them get going there is this huge and chaotic BLOODY RACKET that sounds like it's going to go horribly wrong any minute but then DOESN'T. I mean, that's what they've always sounded like really, but having it presented like this with sound that was a) GOOD but also b) still a BLOODY RACKET was pretty flipping wonderful. My only criticism was that a no point did Linda read from a book, or Mick smash up an old TV set, like in OLDEN TYMES!

It was BRILLO basically, and afterwards there was a little while to say WELL DONE and to have a quick chat with the merch supremo before heading off into the night and to home, even though a part of me felt like I should be going to a School Night Indie Disco for more BOOZE and dancing to TAD!

posted 27/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Judge Dredd Data
About a year and a half ago I kicked off the next phase of my ongoing Journey Into Comics And Data by asking people to help me gather data about Judge Dredd.

This went really well, with LOADS of people completing a survey about what experience of the character wnd who they thought he was. I then cleaned that data up, did a brief analysis of it all and sent that out to everyone who'd taken part and then... um... well then didn't really do anything else with it. Lots of other stuff came up, not least Data and Doctor Doom, and so my plans got a little bit waylaid.

However, I have now FINALLY got back on track with it, nearly, sort of, and am planning to try some more CROWDSOURCING soon to gather data on actual Judge Dredd TEXTS, rather than people's memories of him. I'm currently having a LOVELY time working up a data entry system for it all, with a grand hope of asking for volunteers for THIS bit before the end of the year, but for now I thought it was probably about time that I unleashed the ACTUAL DATA into a wider world.

THUS I've uploaded THE LOT onto the University of the Arts London research data repository, so you can download it and have a look for yourself. I am aware that some STRANGE people may not find the prospect of a massive spreadsheet of data as thrilling as I do, and so for those poor souls I have also uploaded the ANALYSIS of it all, so you can see what everybody thought were Judge Dredd's characteristics.

Fans of Judge Dredd may find some SURPRISES in there, and I'm hopeful there'll be a few more when we start collecting the next stage of data and then comparing the two together. As I say, I'm planning to get started on THAT bit in the next month or two, so if you took part in the original survey do stand by your inboxes, there'll be something heading your way soon-ish!

posted 22/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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A Reunion In Whitstable
Sunday lunchtime found me at Stratford Not Really International Station, from where I would usually be heading into town on the short journey to St Pancras Actually International Station to work or similar. THIS time however I was heading SOUTH, to distant Whitstable and a GIG!

For LO! a few weeks ago Mr T Pattison of The Validators had asked if I fancied coming and playing a GIG with him and Mrs E Pattison at Tim's sister's BIRTHDAY party. I definitely DID want to do that, and so it was that I found myself stomping through the aforesaid Whitstable where Amanada lives and to her HOUSE, which was entirely full of PEOPLE eating leftovers from the previous night's party - she was having TWO parties! ROCK!

After some GRUB me, Tim and Emma got set up for a practice. Partly this was due to us not having played together for AGES, but also because we hadn't played some of the songs Amanda had requested for OVER A DECADE. The Database Of ROCK would have come in very handy here, except that it wasn't working at the time (a pre-cursor, I think, to the more widespread AWS outage), so it was not until later in the day that we worked out quite how long it is since those songs had last been played in public.

It was lovely to all be playing together, and it sounded DEAD GOOD, so we set off to the venue a little later full of confidence that it would be GRATE. This took a very slight knock, for me at least, as the evening went on as I realised that this was a PARTY attended by loads of PALS who very much wanted to see and CHAT with each other rather than watch people playing music. In the circumstances this is ENTIRELY understandable and easy just to give up and go along with, so it was BRILLIANT to see the first act, Amanda's son Jasper, doing a PROPER set where he went for it with his own stuff and also did some VERY WISE cover songs to get people listening.

It was therefore excellent to be able to follow him, once he'd done all the hard work of setting it all up, and do THIS:

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

Mental Judo

Better Things To Do

Girlfriend Alarmed

It Only Works Because You're here

Easily Impressed

We Did It Anyway

It sounded REALLY GOOD and it was wonderful to see people listening to us intently and GETTING it - it was especially lovely to see The Young Cousins actually singing along with some of it, making me suddenly realise that - YIKES - for them we had ALWAYS existed and been part of their childhood as their parents' friends and BAND. There were people there I had held as TINY BABIES who now have their own GARAGES and BIG FREEZERS, how is this possible?!?

The best bit though was playing with Tim and Emma, which was LOVELY. When I look back on some of the many gigs we've done one of my main memories is of WORRYING and constantly looking round to check everyone's OK, but this felt PEASY, like we were falling into some kind of MUSICALITY with each other. I was listening to them, they were listening to me, and together we were MAKING something. Maybe this is me finally MATURING into someone who can actually play with other people properly, as it's a feeling I've had when I've been practicing with Chris down in Brighton too. Have I become a - YIKES! - MUSICIAN after all these years?!?

Either way it was great fun, and just a shame that I had to FLEE shortly afterwards to head back to That London. It was a lovely day and a GRATE gig - maybe our future is as a BIRTHDAY BAND?

posted 21/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Divine Comedy In Cambridge
After all the excitement of getting to look round the Apple Offices earlier in the day last Wednesday I then had to DASH home to deliver not one but TWO seperate training sessions and then ZOOM out again to catch the train to distant CAMBRIDGE where I was due to meet Mr M Sutton and then to go and see The Divine Comedy.

I was rather excited about this as The Divine Comedy are (or perhaps IS, as it's basically Neil Hannon plus band) one of my favourite EVER bands. I have seen them LOADS of times and always found them to be GRATE, often in recent years with the aforsaid Mr Sutton, although weirdly THIS time my brother Mr T Smith had seen them a couple of days beforehand. He had told me they had a) been GRATE and b) done a TWO HOUR set, so I was even MORE excited than I already had previously been, which was a LOT.

I met Mark outside the station and we wandered round to his house to drop off my bag and collect Mrs H Sutton before then going to the PUB. Round where they live in Cambridge there are LOADS of really nice pubs, and the first one we went to was The Cambridge Blue where we had a GARGANTUAN plate of chips each. I had also foolishly ordered a TOFU PANINI which made me feel HUGE for the rest of the evening. It was very nice though, although I was AMUSED when the bar chap came over and said "And the tofu panini - for the lady?" OI! Tofu is WELL BUTCH mate!

Helen headed home and me and Mark went next to Live And Let Live where we got to sit in the SNUG, and then onto the venue. By this point I had had some BEER, and got another one once in the venue, so was a bit worried about sitting through a two hour show but I am happy - and inordinately PROUD - to say I didn't even NEED the loo. Well done BLADDER!

We were sat up in the balcony area where there were super comfy seats and also an EXTREMELY well-behaved audience. I have been to some big gigs where it is clear lots of people have only seen gigs on the TELLY so TALK all the way through and are generally annoying, but here everyone was clearly well versed in the ETIQUETTE - in our area everyone sat down throughout too, except for one lady who got up for an APOLOGETIC JIG during 'At The Indie Disco' and then sat quickly down again. The only surprise, when the lights went up at the end, was that The Corn Exchange (for that is where it were) was full of OLD PEOPLE. It was quite confusing - what were THEY all doing at a gig that youngsters like me and Mark were at? It made no sense!

The gig itself was FLIPPING BRILLIANT I must say, as Mr Hannon and the band took us through most of his new album 'Rainy Sunday Afternoon', also the HITS (Britpop years) and also the OTHER HITS (later on). Obviously this was an ALBUM tour so we were expecting a lot of the new stuff, but it was brilliant that apart from that he ranged widely across his EXTENSIVE back catalogue. I can't think of many other bands I like who can do that and keep an audience happy - we all know the famous songs from Back In The Day when e.g. Chris Evans played them, but pretty much EVERY album since then has had a few genuine BANGERS that have been added to the Potential Setlist as time goes by - really bloody brilliant songs like 'Norman and Norma', 'Our Mutual Friend', 'A Lady Of A Certain Age' etc etc which I don't think massively troubled the top ten but have become ingrained in the minds of them of us what follow his work. What I'm saying is that it was GRATE, basically!

There was also BITS, like an interlude where he served the band with DRINKS from a drinks trolley, which in turn led to some INSIGHTS into the interpersonal relationships while touring. I particularly enjoyed this because it reminded me that, generally speaking, bands are BANDS irrespective of how big the venue, and there will always be numerous in-jokes and RULES along the way.

It all left me with a WARM GLOW, especially when they finished with 'Tonight We Fly' which I BLOODY LOVE. We trotted out into the night very happy with a GRATE gig, and topped it all off by going to yet ANOTHER lovely pub, The Free Press, for lasties. Gigs are GRATE, pubs are GRATE, pals are GRATE and it was altogether a VERY cool evening. HOORAH!

posted 20/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Into The Apple
As you may be aware, perhaps through me banging on about it, the theme tune for The Funny Comics Fan Club was shortlisted for the 'Best Jingle' award in this year's Independent Podcast Awards. This is, of course, meaningless to high-minded types like John and I, who care little for such baubles and only entered and paid an entrance fee to demonstrate how much such things don't matter at all to us - indeed, the fact that (SPOILERS) we didn't win in the end barely crossed our minds, with our only emotions being pleasure for the people who did win because they, unlike us, are probably bothered about such tawdry awards that we didn't win. CURSES!

As part of our shortlisting (see above) we got invited to a MIXER event at the HQ of Apple over in Battersea, as Apple Podcasts were one of the event sponsors. For one reason and another we couldn't GO to the Actual Awards Night (where we, as I say, would mostly be applauding everyone else and barely even thinking about the fact we didn't win) so thought it might be good to go to this instead, and so it was that I arrived at the Apple Shop in the super-futurisic Battersea Power Station in the morning ready to NETWORK. This networking was slightly impeded by the fact that it was NOT happening in the Apple Shop as I thought but instead in the main Apple offices, which it took me AGES to find.

However, once I DID find them I embarked on an amazing experience in CORPORATE WONDER, for LO! the offices of Apple are AMAZING. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building, so all I can do is a) describe it and b) suggest you have a look at this article about it which does have pictures in. It was like a cross between a 1960s University campus with big red brick pillars everywhere, and THE CITY OF THE FUTURE with glass lifts whizzing around, but also with lots of WOOD and SPACE and EXPENSIVE GLASSES. Actually, now I think about it, it was a lot like Queensgate in Peterborough - The Capital City Of Shopping!

The funniest thing was actually getting into the event space, as they couldn't just let you wander you off into the building in case, I assume, you went ROGUE and ending up stumbling upon APPLE SECRETS. Thus when I got my name ticked off on the list I was pointed towards a member of staff who introduced themselves, shook our hands, then took us 3 seconds away to the lifts. When the lift arrived at our floor another member of staff greeted us, introduced themselves, shook our hands and said "If you go over to my colleague there, about 8 feet away, they will direct you" and so on and so on. The last time I had an experience like this was YEARS ago when I went to TOKYO and there were people EVERYWHERE opening doors and calling lifts etc, it was WEIRD.

Once in the actual area we were being sent to I pursued my cunning plan of NETWORKING i.e. I looked for John and then stood next to him and talked to whoever HE was talking to. This worked really well, especially when they said "OK now for some more networking" and I cleverly went to the LOO, returning to find John had gone and found someone new that I could go and stand next to him with.

As part of the MIXING I gave people copies of the Doctor Doom Zine as it has a whole BIT about the podcast in it. This went down nicely with most people, except at the end when I offered one to a fellow podcaster who turned his nose up like I had offered him a dehydrated kipper in a hankie. "I don't think I will actually" he said. Charming!

The main part of the occassion was a TALK by some people from Apple, which was ALSO a bit weird. To be clear, it was really nice of them to HAVE the event - I guess it was because some people would be coming to London especially for the awards ceremony that evening, so they thought it'd be good to give them something to do during the day - but it felt ODD to sit down for a session where they told us how great Apple Podcasts were and, basically, how well they were doing off the back of our work. This was the INDEPENDENT podcast awards so maybe it was me being UNNECESSARILY INDIE, but I did get the strong impression that everyone was making money out of podcasts EXCEPT us poor mugs who were actually MAKING them. I don't know - perhaps I was also a bit thrown by how much they talked about monetising audiences and expanding reach when John and I were there with our MASSIVELY NICHE podcast for a few hundred British people who remember some old comics, but it did remind me of some of the more CORPORATE things I've staggered into accidentally over the years in The Krazy World Of Rock And Roll.

I guess that is just the way of the world, and if you ARE a massive corporation then you are going to BEHAVE like one. I did get a free can of diet coke out of it, and also got to chat to some nice people who were in the same Indie Podcaster boat as what we were, and it was definitely worth it to get to see the inside of the ENORMOUS Apple Offices too. I always thought that the bits I could SEE of the Battersea Power Station shopping centre were VAST, so it was a bit of a shock to learn there was this whole OTHER, also VAST, bit inside!

Or perhaps I was just retrospectively miffed that we didn't win? NO, that can't be right at all, it was definitely the corporate-ness, CLEARLY!

posted 17/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Doctor Doom in Brixton
When country bumpkins and yokels from tiny villages (e.g. Peterborough, Derby, Sheffield etc) come down to London they are always taken aback by how BUSY the metropolis is, with people and traffic and shops and noise and action everywhere you go. As a long-term resident of our capital city I, of course, am dead sophisticated and used to it, except of course when I go to BRIXTON which makes the rest of London look like A GENTLE HAMLET on a Sunday afternoon. FLIPPING HECK but there is always a lot going on there!

I mention this because I was IN bustling South London on Saturday afternoon to perform Data And Doctor Doom at Club Silly for The Lambeth Fringe. The Footsteps On My Pavement and I rolled up at the venue after a slightly frazzling journey to discover Mr C Flowers waiting for us, and the three of us went in to find a venue staffed by LOVELY people who were EXTREMELY helpeful getting us all set up.

I was a little alarmed at first because there WAS a projector but WASN'T a screen, but the venue people, under the guidance of the aforesaid Pixels On My Monitor, managed to sort this out by projecting onto the CORRUGATED CEILING. This was a bit weird for me as from where I was standing it all looked super wobbly, and when I looked at the audience I saw a lot of NECKS as everyone was looking UP, but apparently it looked fine for everyone else so that was all right then.



After months of TOURING I have got the show down to approx 48 minutes, which meant we were able to postpone the start slightly so that my BROTHER, Mr P Hibbett, on holiday here from NEW ZEALAND, had time to get there - this was GRATE for two reasons as a) we had time to sell some ZINES (memo to self: ALWAYS do this bit before the show starts) and b) when he DID get there everyone CHEERED as I had told them what was going on!

The show itself was really good fun, with Homer Simpson as the Example Character, and when it was done we said our farewells to the lovely staff (NB I have found that pretty much ALL venue staff have been LOVELY doing these Fringe shows) and pals like Charlie and Mr P Baran who had other engagements, then headed round the corner to a BAR with Paul, his sister-in-law Annie and co, and my old pal Mr T Chesser for a BRILLIANT hour or so of LARFS and CHAT. It was GRATE, but also weird how EASY it all was - I hadn't seen Charlie for several years, Thom for several more, and Paul for ELEVEN years (apart from the other week when he first LANDED back) but it was like we'd all bumped into each other in the pub a couple of weeks ago and the GOOD TIMES rolled as if that was very much the case. Also, Thom did a MAGIC TRICK which was BRILLO! It was, all told, a FAB way to spend a Saturday afternoon!


posted 14/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Funny Comics Fan Club Returns!
Over the past couple of months I have been meeting up with Mr John Dredge to work on series THREE of our AWARDS SHORTLISTED (not that we like to go on about it) podcast The Funny Comics Fan Club. We like to get a bit ahead of ourselves so that we can ensure a steady strem of CONTENT for our user-base, and now that we have got a decent stock of future episodes BANKED we thought it was about time we unleashed the first epsiode of the series, HERE:



I mean, not JUST here, you can also get it pretty much Wherever You Get Your Podcasts. We kick off with a VERY INTERESTING issue of Cracker which a friend of John's gave us to look at, and we've got episodes on The Beezer, Wham, Cor and loads more to come. Three series in we're still trying to look at different series as much as possible, but as we go along you'll be hearing about some familiar characters who seem to have appeared in LOADS of different series, and we're planning a CHRISTMAS TREAT consisting of a look at something many of us will consider PART of the festive season. For now though, I hope you enjoy the start of this new series - as you will hear, we certainly enjoyed making it!

posted 13/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Allo Darlin, Hello Dalston
I zoomed off to fragrant DALSTON on Thursday evening, there to see the mighty Allo Darlin' on their comeback/new album tour.

I was Quite Excited as they are one of my favourite bands EVER and also I suspected lots of old PALS would be there, but as I approached the venue my main feeling was BAFFLEMENT, upon seeing a MASSIVE queue coming down the road from the venue and then round the corner. Had something happened so that the gig was late starting? Was this a very calm and efficient fire drill? And how come everyone was so YOUNG? I mean, obviously the sort of music I like is very much enjoyed by Young People LIKE ME, but it did seem to be a particularly youthful queue for a band who released their first album when many of these people would not even have started school yet.

Luckily I spotted a gentleman of my age (LATE THIRTIES) in the queue who was wearing a Wedding Present t-shirt, so asked him what was going on. It turns out that the place I was going to has TWO venues, and the artist Maisie Peters was playing in the other. "The Allo Darlin' show's already started," he said. "You're not the first person to ask me!"

I left this fine example of indiepop/actual pop LIAISON in the queue with, it turns out, his daughter, and popped over the road to Red Hand to meet Mr S Hewitt. I thought it was a LOVELY bar, not least because it had a HUGE board taking up most of a wall listing all the beers in VERY LARGE PRINT so it was nice and easy to read! We also met Mr B Clancy and Charlotte and had a delightful chat, during which Mr B Clancy insisted - PLEADED some might say - that I mention him in the blog. Mr B Clancy, your dreams have come true today!

After some refreshment we headed over the road for the GIG, where we discovered that they had pretty much RUN OUT OF BEER! I think this was more to do with poor planning than the current Allo Darlin' audience being BEER MONSTERS, but we did manage to provide ourselves with CANS as the evening progressed, so all was well. We also met LOADS of the aforementioned OLD PALS, which was ruddy lovely!

The gig itself was DEAD GOOD, although something about it felt ODD to me. It was only later that I realised that this was because it was just A GIG. The last three times I've seen Allo Darlin' have been a) a highly emotional FINAL GIG b) a highly emotional and tiny warm-up gig for c) a highly emotional and enormous COMEBACK show, all of which had been, not to mince words, highly emotional. This one was the first time in over a decade seeing them ON TOUR and promoting new stuff, so it felt a bit more NORMAL. It was still GRATE though and, as well as the traditional Everyone Going A Bit Quiet during "Tallulah" I also had a sudden BLUB during "Silver Dollars" this time too.

Also, there was CONFUSION amongst our party because it looked like Mr J Jervis was ROADYING. Jerv was, as is THE LAW, on the merch stand, and we knew he was working it for the whole TOUR, so had he expanded into STAGE CREW too? After much looking back and forth we worked out that he was STILL on the merch stand, and that this was someone who just looked like him. As I say, we had supplied ourselves with BOOZE so that may explain the situation.

With the show done there was time for more saying "HELLO!" to pals various and then back to the pub for further BEER and further "Oh I haven't seen you for AGES!" It was a lovely night out to see a fab band - well done everybody!

posted 10/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Marvel Zombies
This week I have been watching the Marvel Animated series Marvel Zombies. SPOILERS: I thought it was really really good.

As very much That Sort Of Person I have watched pretty much ALL of the Marvel TV series and usually get Quite Excited when I see that a new one has arrived, but I must admit that I wasn't too fussed about this one. Like Eyes Of Wakanda (which I haven't got round to yet) it seemed to just appear on the massive list of Marvel TV shows without any heraldry at all, as if they'd forgotten they'd made it and thought they ought to just stick it out anyway. Also, although I ended up enjoying 'What If?', I wasn't all that excited about a whole series of the 'Marvel Zombies' episode. I mean, it was all right, but after reading A LOT of the original comics series back in the day I was pretty sure that I had had my fill of the going "OH look, it is Captain America but a zombie."

How wrong I was! For LO! it turns out that 'Marvel Zombies' isn't really a Marvel Zombies series AT ALL, but is instead a super exciting and also FUN and MASSIVE alternate universe 'Avengers:Endgame'-type finale for all of the Marvel movies of the past six or seven years! Also, it has Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel as the STAR of the whole thing so that means I am flipping WATCHING it.

The general idea of the (ADMIRABLY SHORT - 4 episodes!) series is that there's BEEN a zombie apocalypse and several years later all the characters of Phase Four and Five of the MCU are bashing around DOING stuff in it. THUS you get Riri Williams, Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop zooming around, and they (through various shenanigans) bump into characters like Shang Chi and Katie, Jimmy Woo, some of The Thunderbolts, and Moon Knight, although this is a BLADE who's taken on the Moon Knight role so you get two for the price of one.

Blade is played by someone who ISN'T Wesley Snipes or Mahershala Ali (i.e. the actor who's meant to be playing him in the new version which never seems to be happening) but otherwise pretty much ALL of the characters are voiced by the proper actors from the films, so it feels like a Pretty Big Deal. Also there is LOADS of action and excitement and also JOKES - proper jokes too, not just the occasional BANTER that you got in the 'What If?' series - so that it really does feel like one of the big Avengers EVENT movies. So much so that I do not understand WHY they didn't ADVERTISE it as such, rather than slipping it out in an embarrassed way going "It's Zombies, yeah?" I mean, I know there are twits and wallies out there who object to the whole IDEA of these characters, but surely there are enough of us sensible fans out there who would go "ZOINKS! It's like an AVENGERS movie for this whole batch!"

In summary then, this was a whole lot of fun to watch, to the extent that I thought it was worth my while telling you about it. After all, it's not like these mega corporations have the wherewithal to do it themselves!

posted 8/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Entertaining Mr Sloane
On Saturdays at this time of year I can often be found travelling to see my good friend Mr P Myland to have a drink and then sit together through an afternoon of expressive arts. Usually this is to Peterborough to see The Football, but on the Saturday just gone it was to London's glittering theatreland to see A PLAY with him and the rest of the group we know as The Mylands.

For LO! we had tickets to go and see Entertaining Mr Sloane at The Young Vic, a theatre what I have not been to before but which turned out to be VERY nice. It was peasy to get too, there was an ample bar selling booze and Actually Rather Tasty grub, and the seating within the theatre itself was v comfy and felt very up close to the action of the show. The only minor quibble I had was that they have invested in TERRIBLE stools that were surely designed by someone who has never seen an arse in their life - they have the same ones now at The Barbican (yes, I am very sophisticated) and they are awful.

Apart from that it was all great and the show itself was dead good too. It starred Tamzin Outhwaite out of Eastenders, Moxey from Auf Wiedersehn Pet, The Bloke From Rizzle Kicks, and Daniel Cerqueira who has not been in any telly I've watched but who was good. Tamzin Outhwaite was VERY good throughout, and Moxey was too, which made The Bloke From Rizzle Kicks look slightly - not a lot, but slightly - less good overall. It was his first proper stage play apparently, so with that in mind he did all right. I suppose the Young Vic would want to cast him as a way to get in young people who are so easily swayed by this sort of thing, unlike hepcats like me who definitely weren't just there to see Mel from Eastenders. AT ALL.

The play itself was a bit of a rum old do. I am very mildly familiar with Joe Orton from a) living in Leicester for a long time b) reading about his unmade Beatles movie and c) us doing "Loot" when I was a student, but wasn't familiar with this one at all. I read online afterwards that it was like a cross between Harold Pinter and Beckett, which seems pretty perfect to me. It was odd though thinking about how SHOCKING it would have been at the time, but that the things that shock us now are the general air of misogyny and acceptance of violence, whereas the amorality and comedy of awkwardness is something that's been absorbed into culture generally. Stick that on your posters, Young Vic!

It was a highly delightful way to spend a Saturday afternoon with highly delightful people, and was certainly more fun than recent trips to London Road have been. I wonder if they do Season Tickets?

posted 8/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Rubber-Keyed Wonder
The other night I was gently scrolling through Amazon Prime on the telly, as one is wont to do, and was delighted to see that The Rubber-Keyed Wonder was available to view.

I had vaguely heard of this film being out, but even if I hadn't the fact that it clearly showed a ZX SPECTRUM in amongst all of the other tiles showing gruff looking people looking Serious because they were solving CRIME meant that I was bound to watch it, and I am glad I did because it was GRATE. It was packed with familiar places, games and people - they seemed to have interviewed pretty much EVERYBODY who is still alive and had done a thoroughly excellent job of telling the full story of how this mighty machine came along and not only changed a the lives or people who had them and laid the groundwork for the massive British computing industry what we know and love today.

It's wonderful to see this story breaking out into the mainstream and becoming an accepted part of our national history. The whole reason I wrote the song Hey Hey 16K - over TWENTY FIVE years ago! - was that this seemed to be being forgotten - I make no claims that the song, and especially Rob Manuel's video was any part of this change in perception, but I would certainly like it if OTHER people said so!

With that in mind, it did feel a bit of a shame that they didn't use the song in the film. There were LOADS of sections where people said things like "Yes, we made it look educational so people would buy it TO HELP WITH YOUR HOMEWORK" or "It did in fact build A GENERATION WHO CAN CODE" and so on when it would have surely been IDEAL to lob in a bit of the song? I mean, I am highly aware that I do not own the rights on Remembering ZX Spectrums, but I would have totally been up for it if they'd asked!

Apart from that it was FAB and I'd highly recommend a watch to anyone of a similar disposition. But if anyone wants to make a film about e.g. realising you liked The Smiths a bit too late, or having a romance with someone who helps fix your computer, do get in touch!

posted 2/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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