Blog Archive: November 2022

Actual Modern Music Of NOW
I sent out this month's newsletter earlier today, in which I mentioned that voiting for The Dandelion Radio Festive 50 was closing at midnight tonight - purely as a SERVICE you understand. I was not suggesting WHAT anybody should vote for of course, that is the furthest thing from my mind, but I know from personal experience that IMPORTANT MUSICAL ITEMS have been released this year and people might wish to vote for them. It's basically democracy I'm thinking of, that's all.

Anyway, having had my attempt at VOTER INFLUENCING I realised that, actually, for the first time in AGES, I could probably vote MYSELF. The Festive 50 is for tracks that have been released this year, but for the past few years I've not been sufficiently up to date to think of anything. However, here in the futuristic space era of 2022 I very much AM.

For LO! a few months ago I asked for some suggestions of NEW MUSIC on Social Media, and got a HUGE list of stuff to try out, much of which I have been working my way through ever since. I asked for recommendations of stuff that people THEMSELVES liked, rather than what they thought *I* might like, so there was quite a lot of stuff where I thought "Why on earth are you suggesting THIS?!?", but then that is always the way and is indeed All Part Of The Fun. However, there was also a TONNE of stuff that I liked, and some that I liked AN AWFUL LOT!

My absolute favourite of ALL the suggested acts was The Beths, who I FLIPPING LOVE. You might say that this is unusual - it's not like I have history of really really really liking female fronted bands from the southern hemisphere who have immense tunes and brilliant lyrics - but I have listened to them A LOT this year, and was VERY excited when their new album came out. It's SURELY DECADES since a modern current band that I a) LIKE b) do not know personally has released a brand new record, so it was QUITE the thrill, and I was even MORE excited when they announced a UK tour next year and LEAPT in to get some tickets - HOORAH!

I also thoroughly enjoyed Lonely Tourist, who, if they were any further up by my street would be driving up my metaphorical drive and into my GARAGE. My only complaint with these is that nobody had seen fit to tell me about them before (as far as I remember anyway), nor had any promoters thought "Hang on, this is VERY SIMILAR to Hibbett, why not get him to support them?" Come on, THE UNIVERSE, it is surely a DREAM BILL!

I voted for tracks by both of the above ("Expert In A Dying Field" and "Four Phone Calls" respectively) and also "WTD??" by Sad13 which is GRATE and has been stuck in my head for MONTHS. That is a FAB album by them, by the way, which also conforms to a TREND what I have noticed with the current new bands i.e. that the long held RULE of starting an album with a BANGER appears to have been relaxed. I suppose it doesn't matter so much in the age of STREAMING, but I was surprised by how many albums seem to start with A Bit Of A Slow One.

I also HUGELY enjoyed Holiday Ghosts and Dream Wife, despite BOTH being the sort of band I wouldn't have listened to previously (i.e. Band That Sound American But Aren't and Band Formed On A Course In Brighton). Bas Jan were dead good too, and after much Being Mentioned I also really liked Pip Blom. Also, OBVIOUSLY, like approx 98% of everybody on the planet I bought the Wet Leg album and listened to it for about three weeks straight as it was ACE.

There were various other albums I bought and Quite Liked, and several that I keep meaning to get to, and also MANY by PALS, but all in all 2022 so far (NB there is still a month to go so this is NOT a Best Of 2022 list - people who put out Best Of The Year lists in December should be ARRESTED) has been a pretty excellent year for music for me. If it carries on like this into 2023 I might even go to a few more gigs!

posted 30/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Nation Of Language
On Thursday night I went to an ACTUAL GIG performed by PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW! I had forgotten such things existed, but was reminded of the fact by Mr M Sutton, who got us the tickets for the gig, and I must say (SPOILERS) I am pleased he did, because it was GRATE.

The gig was by Nation Of Language who I must admit I had never heard of until a couple of months ago when Mark asked if I fancied going. Since then I have done much REVISION of their recent album A Way Forward, which is dead good. It's a bit Pet Shop Boys and a bit Frazier Chorus, to my ears anyway, though other people may have more up to date reference points!

The gig was at Electric Brixton which turned out to be the old Brixton Fridge. I'd never been there before, but was familiar with the TYPE. It reminded me of places like The Scala or the Astoria, with an upstairs bar area that was MUCH less busy than the downstairs ones, and also numerous CORRIDORS and STAIRWAYS that we could use to move between aforesaid bar area and the bit that is QUITE near the front but not TOO near. Such GIG SKILLZ take years to perfect, so it was nice to know they had not deserted us!

Listening to the album I had thought it was going to be a Young Hip Audience of Electro Synth TYPES, but it turned out to be, basically, a 6Music Audience, full of 6MUSIC DADS. 6Music Dads are DELIGHTFUL as they know how it all works, behave responsibly, and generally are not Gig Wankers. For some reason we felt very much at home amongst them!

After the support band had finished (who were WEIRDLY flat, as if they were trying not to be too exciting, apart from the bass player who was clearly Doing Her Best) we were joined by the other half of the audience, reducing the aveerage ago by a couple of decades. The gear was set up, the lights went down, and I remembered just how EXCITING this bit is at Big Gigs. Then the band came on and ... COR! They were DISTINCTLY not how they sounded on record! Where that was calm, mellow and bleeping, this was FLIPPING ROCKING!

The line-up was a singer, a bass player, and a synth wizard, but between them they made a HUGE noise, with everyone ROCKING OUT pretty much throughout, apart from an interval where the bass player got everyone to say happy birthday to his NAN (and if anything is guaranteed to win over 6Music Dads, that is it). The singer was dancing around ALL OVER THE PLACE and the whole show felt ENORMOUS. It was GRATE!

Really my only complaint was that the album had misled me to believe that the actual gig would not be as BANGERTASTIC as it turned out to be. Come on, Producers Of Records, make bands who are exciting LIVE sound similarly exciting on tape! Other than that: COR! I can see now why the much mnetioned 6Music Dads continue to make the effort to go out. Gigs are BRILLIANT!

posted 25/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Black Panther and Black Adam
I have recently been to the pictures TWICE to see two different superhero films with similar-ish names - "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and "Black Adam: Murder Is Hilarious." They were NOT similar in many other ways!

I went to see Black Panther with my traditional MCU Pal Mr S Carter, who had booked us in to see it at the BFI. As per he had selected PRIME CINEASTE SEATS in the middle right at the back, and by the time we got there I was out of breath for LO! it is a MASSIVE cinema with a RUDDY ENORMOUS screen. Crumbs but it was big, and that meant that the FILM itself felt pretty enornous too.

This was also helped by the fact that the actual film IS rather huge, with a LOT going on. Dull idiots always say dull, idiotic things like "Ooh, superhero films, they're all the same aren't they?" but this was VERY different to something like "Guardians Of The Galaxy" or "Thor: Ragnorak", as it was QUITE SERIOUS throughout (though there were still some GAGS) and had a lot to say about GRIEF and all that. It was also pretty EPIC in its story, and in places it felt like Game Of Thrones or something, with Important Families and Huge Nations going into battle.

The whole thing was Very Exciting throughout, but there were two key points I took away from it. Firatly, it was amazing to watch a colossal blockbuster of action and excitement where nearly ALL of the main characters were WOMEN, and also Women Of Colour, but that not be The Be All And End All of it. I guess if they HAD spent the whole film going "Look! Look who the main characters are everybody! Let's just do that and not bother with a plot" then it would probably get a LOT more Oscars than the traditional single Oscar for something technical that superhero films usually get, but it would have been a lot less GRATE.

The second key point is that flipping NAMOR THE SUBMARINER was not only IN it, but he was presented VISUALLY very much like he is in the comics - including FLAPPY LITTLE ANKLE WINGS and also TINY GREEN SWIMMING TRUNKS - and yet was STILL VERY COOL! I am entirely happy with all the changes to Atlantis and all that, but I was AMAZED throughout that they made him so brilliant. Well done, MARVEL!

So yes, I enjoyed it a LOT, which is much more than can be said for "Black Adam", although I must admit that the cinema I saw it at may have contrinuted to my lack of THRILLZ. I saw it in the VUE in Stratford Westfield early on a Saturday evening and my fellow moviegoers were A BIT MUCH. Crikey, it felt like pretty much EVERYBODY got up at some point and left for a bit, almost always having A GOOD OLD CHAT about it before and afterwards, including the ENTIRE ROW of teenage boys who changed seats eighteen times and then LEFT FOREVER halfway through. It was like being at a GIG!

The film itself was mostly sort of ALL RIGHT, but some of the choices were a bit DERANGED. Why oh why oh why does anybody think having a PLUCKY SKATEBOARDING TEEN as the main character is a good idea? It was dreary and annoying when THE CHILDREN'S FILM FOUNDATION did it, and it hasn't got any more wonderful since then, even with the 21st Century innovation of having their BRAVE YET BEAUTIFUL SINGLE MUM as the main romantic lead. And the less said about FUN FAT UNCLE the better.

It MIGHT be argued that the Plucky Teen is there to appeal to Actual Children, but in that case it's even more MAD that the main moral lesson of the movie is "MURDER IS HILARIOUS!" All the way through people get murdered in more and more ridiculous, yet explicit, ways, and all the way through this is played as BRILLIANT, even when other characters say it isn't, it's immediately followed up by a Plucky Local saying "No, it is FAB!" I don't mind this sort of thing when it's done WELL, like in Deadpool or something, but here it felt QUEASY when mixed up with TEEN FUN.

It wasn't all terrible - The Justice Society were done really well, in a fashion quite similar to how NAMOR was done in Black Panther, and I especially liked COUSIN PIERCE* (* he is my second cousin twice removed by marriage - FACT) as Doctor Fate. All of that stuff was good fun, but the rest of it was mostly DULL, except where it was ANNOYING. I have done really well over the past few years in avoding the inevitable disappointment of DC movies by simply NOT going to see them but I'd read a couple of reviews recently that said this one would be different. It wasn't as hideously awful as "Batman VS Superman: Three Hours Of Tedium", but that's not saying an awful lot!

In summary: Black Panther good, Black Adam tedious, plucky teens awful, tiny green swimming trunks GRATE!

posted 22/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Into The Escape Capsules
The HOT TOPIC over on twitter for the past week or so has been TWITTER ITSELF, as everybody discusses what's going to happen now that The World's Worst Boss has taken it over and is seeking to inspire his staff by telling them that a) free speech is the most important thing ever b) they all have to dedicate their entire lives to his glory c) anyone who disagrees gets sacked. Who could have predicted that THAT would backfire?

With all that going on many WISE HEADS have been looking at places to go to should Twitter collapse under the weight of Everybody Who Knows How It Works Being Sacekd. The lead place to do this seems to be Mastodon, and so I have joined the mad rush of people going over there to set up accounts. I'd originally set up an account four years ago, on the advice of my in-house Comms expert, inspired by Mr J Kell taking it, but now I've gone back and have been gradually ADDING stuff to it and even POSTING. If you'd like to follow me there you can find me at https://mastodon.social/@mjhibbett.

Mastodon was not my first choice, however. Initially I had the DELIGHTFUL idea of just going back to MYSPACE, and did my very best to log back into my original account there. For some reason I wasn't able to get in - I tried "Forgot Password" but, three days later, nothing has come through. It COULD be that I used an old work email to set it up, but I don't think so. I filled in a FORM to ask for help but I guess I might not be the only one trying to get back in, so Justin Timberlake (he's the owner now I think?) has probably got his hands full.

So it looks like Mastodon is the place, and with that in mind I have added a LINK to it on these very webpages, which felt weirdly SERIOUS. In many many ways it will be a shame if twitter is run into the ground by the supreme arrogance of someone born into enormous wealth (it's not like THOSE GUYS have form for this sort of thing is it?) as it's been a GRATE place for learning about stuff and indeed SHOWING OFF over the years. If it does go though it might be a nice way for us all to REBUILD what we actually liked about it in the first place. If nothing else, getting rid of all the INCREDIBLY ANNOYING adverts that clog twitter up these days would be a BOON to all our lives - and it would leave lots more room for the rest of us to do our own, ENTIRELY CHARMING advertising instead.

Talking of which, I should probably go and do a POST on Mastodon to say I've done this blog shouldn't I? Hopefully it will make a nice change from everybody just talking about twitter!

posted 21/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Bad Back UNLEASHED
Today I am DELIGHTED to be releasing a thrilling new single, Bad Back (Osteopaths Of Glory Mix). It's a BANGING remix done by our very own Frankie Machine, and it's available on Spotify and all of your usual streaming services, including BANDCAMP right here:



As is my WONT of late I have also done a VIDEO to go with it, which is visible below:



Rather wonderfully Mr Steve Lamacq played the original album version on his 6music show on Friday, although I missed it because - TRUTH - I'd got the yoga mat out and was doing my back exercises!

As ever any tweets, instagram mentions, reviews or just shouting about it in the street would be VERY much appreciated, as I think this is pretty darn GRATE and would benefit from being heard about.

posted 14/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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A Proper Book
This morning I got an email containing the EXCITING news that the book Comics And Agency has been published. Obviously this is MOSTLY exciting because of the amazing array of BRANES involved in it, all with the aim to "intensify the interdisciplinary dialogue on comics and related popular multimodal forms (including manga, graphic novels, and cartoons) by focusing on the concept of medial, mediated, and mediating agency", but I must admit a lot of my own excitement is because I AM IN IT!

It will come as little surprise to anybody to find out that I am banging on about Doctor Doom as usual, in a chapter called "The Agents of Doom: An Empirical Approach to Transmedia Actors". It's an adaptation of a paper I presented at COMFOR a while ago, sharing some of the ideas behind my PhD and focusing on Market Authors and Textual Authors. I could tell you more about this here but there is NO POINT because the book is GOLD OPEN ACCESS so you can read it yourself!

I really am FLIPPING THRILLED about this - I've done loads of conference presentations, talks, and a few articles, but this is the first actual proper BOOK I've been involved in, and it is a CRACKER. Apparently I'll be getting a physical copy for myself too at some point - I CANNOT WAIT!

posted 12/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Fire Drill Proposal
Today I have the great pleasure of unleashing the video for my song Fire Drill, the latest in the series of videos of songs from The Unearthly Beauty Of MJ Hibbett. Here it is:



As discussed elsewhere (notably my track by track analysis of the whole album for JOYZINE) this song puts forward the proposal that public safety would be better served if we had FEWER fire drills. In every job I have ever had, and indeed also when I was at school, the reaction to the fire alarm going off was a collective GROAN, followed by sluggish trudging towards the doors, often stopping to get stuff on the way because experience had told us this was CLEARLY NOT A FIRE.

My suggestion is that Fire Marshals should TELL us when there's going to be a drill. "Oh but then you would not behave as you would in a real fire," is always the answer to this from Fire Marshals. WE ARE ALREADY NOT DOING THAT is my furtehr response, ESPECIALLY on occasions when we've all seen you lurking around the entrance lobby GIGGLING to yourself. The purpose of a drill is to have a PRACTICE, so if you TELL us that is what it is then we can all be ready for it (so it doesn't bugger up long planned events, or lose HOURS of time during the day as everybody has to queue up to get back into the building) and will then WILLINGLY go along with procedures and do it PROPERLY, rather than with loathing and bitterness in our hearts. And THEN, when we hear a fire alarm when we HAVEN'T been told there's a drill, we will assume that it IS an actual fire and do it PROPERLY, rather than going to rinse our cup out, shutting down the computer, putting on our coat and so forth.

To be honest it is also borne out of being ENTIRELY FED UP of having to do them, but then again this is an echo of the PALPABLE GLEE of many Fire Marshals I have known over the years who love the POWER TRIP of forcing everyone out into the cold unneccessarily. For the good of everyone, I say it is time to put these tawdry considerations aside and reform the system once and for all!

posted 9/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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End Of Tour Finale
On Saturday I headed NORTH, to distant MIDDLEWICH. I must admit I was rather dreading the journey as a) there was meant to be a STRIKE and b) it was on Avanti West Coast, so I was expecting cancellations, delays, and all sorts of TUMULT. In the end the strike was called off and the journey was Rather Pleasant, largely due to most other people deciding not to risk it - PHEW!

I was met at Crewe station by Mr G Williams, who was putting on my GIG that night at The Kings Lock. It was very nice of Gareth to put me on, it was even NICER of him to pick me up from the station, but it was utterly above and beyond for him to come and fetch me from the ACTUAL PLATFORM. This must be what it feels like to be MARIAH CAREY!

Gareth dropped me off at the hotel I was staying in and then we reconvened back at The Kings Lock a couple of hours later. Earlier in the afternoon a ROARING FIRE had been set, which was very cosy but also POTENTIALLY DEADLY as it was RIGHT in the corner of the pub where the PA was being set up. "I'll fix it!" said a man called Adie, and he spring into action, using some TONGS to pick up the BURNING LOGS, drop them in a tin bucket, and then carry them outside.

At which point the fire alarm went off. And kept going off! The landlord managed to get it switched off after a while, and the FIRE ENGINE did not need to come, but it was all very exciting and there was MUCH JIBING throughout the rest of the evening. It was an exciting start to the night!

We got set up, I went and got some chips, and then around 8pm Gareth went on in his GUISE as Jasmine Allen Estate to do the first SET. I've SEEN Gareth play before, last time I was at The Kings Lock for Pop At The Lock, but this was the first time I'd actually HEARD him, and he was GRATE. I've READ about some of the songs he's doing in his sets so it was fantastic to finally hear them, especially "Dead Cat" as I'd thought it was JUST a song about an actual dead cat, but it is SO MUCH MORE than that. It's nice when people you like turn out to be dead good, and that was very much the case here!

After that it was my turn and I done THIS:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

Good Cooking

It's Hard To Be Hopeful

Clubbing In The Week

Bad Back

I Think I Did OK

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

I tell you what, this whole "Only having one alcoholic drink before you start" thing is AMAZING - it's so much easier to remember the words and NOT PANIC when you are NOT DRUNK. Who knew? HASHTAG Continuuing Professional Development. It seemed to go pretty well, and I had a LOVELY time doing it, especially when people liked the new ones. HOORAH!

After that we embarked on A LOT OF BEER, which was followed by a stroll back to my hotel and then SEVERAL LARGE WHISKIES, also INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION, which was a LOT of fun. The next morning definitely was LESS SO, but it was a lovely end to what has been a rather enjoyable mini-tour. Thanks very much everyone who's come to see me, and especially to everyone who's put me on - let's do it all again soon-ish!

posted 7/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Bad Back Single Cover Reveal
As readers of the newsletter will already be aware, later this month I shall be UNLEASHING Bad Back as a single in a brand new MIX created by our very own Frankie Machine - the Osteopaths Of Glory Mix!

SIDEBAR: One of Frankie's main responsibilities in The Validators is Thinking Of Names For Things - I think the title of this remix demonstrates why.

The single will be out on all of The Streaming Services on Monday 14 November, and as it's a New Thing I'll be putting it up on Bandcamp too. It is something of a BANGER and I am pretty confident that it will go down well with the core demographic i.e. the intersection of the Venn diagram showing people who like DANCING and people who have bad backs.

It also has a new COVER, which modern marketing plans insist I must REVEAL. So here it is, REVEALED!



As you can hopefully see, I am folowing a THEME for these covers, and that theme is PICTURES OF ME. Again, I am resolutely sure that this can only be a positive!

posted 3/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Suffering For My Art
On Monday afternoonI headed off to Theatre Deli near Liverpool Street after work , where I had once again booked a room to make some MOVIE MAGIC. Theatre Deli basically take over office space that isn't being used as such and rent out rooms for REHEARSAL, which is a GRATE idea and entirely perfect for my needs i.e. to have a Very Standard Room that isn't in my HOUSE in which I can record a VIDEO.

Last time I was there I recorded the video for Kenny's Brother Alan's Stag Do and got it all done so quickly that I didn't even need HALF of my alloted two hour slot. THIS time I had arrived determined to use the LOT, with plans for FOUR (4) videos!

The MAIN one was for Bad Back, for reasons we will be discussing in more detail later this week. My IDEA was to do something similar to what I did for Kenny, but this time with me doing BACK EXERCISES instead of INTERPRETIVE DANCE. I had thus arrived with some EXERCISE TROUSERS and a YOGA MAT, ready to FLEX. "This will be PEASY", I thought. "I do these back exercises nearly every day and they are GENTLE." Friends, it was NOT peasy and NOT gentle, as I had not factored in the fact that I would be doing eight different exercises for two minutes (i.e. the song length) TWICE (due to pretending to be two different versions of ME) for each and every one of them. I ended up doing about an HOUR of flipping exercises, which bloody wore me out, so I needed a proper sit down before doing anything else at all. I'm still aching today!

After that I did MUCH less strenuous filming for It's Hard To Be Hopeful, People Who Stand In The Door and What I Always Think While Watching Poetry. I had decided to try and do a very straightforward NORMAL video for It's Hard To Be Hopeful, so that involved me basically playing the song all the way through a few times while filming myself from different angles. The other two were pretty much made up on the spot, with me looning around in various ways which, I hope, will make some kind of sense in THE EDITING SUITE. As before, my mantra was "Whatever it is, that's what it is." It did make life a lot easier!

I'm planning to keep on releasing these videos at the rate of about once a week for the rest of the year, so as ever if you want to keep up with my RELEASE SCHEDULE do please go over and subscribe to my YouTube channel!

posted 2/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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Posh and Prolapse
I had an EXTREMELY busy Saturday this weekend, as I was out TWICE on the same day. TWICE!

The first outing was to Peterborough, where Posh were playing our Local Rivals Cambridge for the first time in the league for over TWENTY YEARS. It is a proper rivalry with RUDE SONGS and everything, so there was much excitement in the air and, indeed, in THE PUB.

The game itself was objectively ALL RIGHT, though subjectively it was GRATE as a) we WON and b) it was via an HILARIOUS own goal, which caused much joyous jumping up and down, pointing, shouting and LARFING.

When it was all over I hot-footed it back to the train, then home for a quick shower before zooming off AGANE to go and see Prolapse doing a GIG in Hackney. This was the last day of their TOUR which, from Social Media, looked to have been going REALLY well. I rolled up at Stratford Overground station ready for my short HOP to Hackney Central, only to feel the DESOLATION of a sign saying "Rail Replacement Bus Services This Weekend". I went and got one and it wasn't TOO bad, but still: BOO to rail replacement bus services!

I arrived to find The Pattisons EN MASSE, which was delightful as ever, then went upstairs where I found Mr Jeff Higgott. We then went into the venue and found LOADS of other people, so there was much HELLOing and hugging and general Being Reunited. It was lovely, and in some ways it was a shame when the band came on and made all that NOISE to rudely interrupt it all.

Once we'd all got over that though they were BRILLO. They did ALL the hits and sounded dead good -it is AMAZING how sound systems have improved since I used to see them in The Charlotte back in the days of Queen Victoria - and the whole crowd flipping LOVED it. Surely - SURELY - it won't be another several years until they do it again? Come on, Major Festival Organisers, get them booked for the summer and force them to do more!

Afterwards there was much delight all around and more helloing, notably with Ms J Bisset who introduced me to her pal Miki. "Oh, you're THAT Miki" I said, as it was Miki from Lush (NB the band, not the shop). Truly, it was a night of CELEBRITIES!

After saying our farewells Jeff and I went off to find the Rail Replacement Bus back to Stratford, where he would be continuing his journey. We waited a while for one to come but ended up getting a normal bus as far as Hackney Wick. "We can walk from here peasily" I said with the great confidence of someone who's had a long day on the beer and has just met Miki From Lush. It turned out to be entirely do-able, but felt CONSIDERABLY further in the dark and slightly drunk than it does sober in the daytime!

THUS it was a quite WINDED farewell at the station, before heading home for a much needed second shower of the day. All of this social WHIRLING is a lot of fun, but it's flipping knackering!

posted 1/11/2022 by MJ Hibbett
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