Blog Archive: October 2025

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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