Blog Archive: April 2024

Oadby Wonky Knobby Unleashed
Today is the last working day of the month, which means it's time for the latest edition of our newsletter The Last Working Day Of The Month, and LO! it is a big one this month because it is issue TWO FLIPPING HUNDRED!!

Flipping heck, when I started bothering people with a newsletter nearly TWENTY YEARS AGO I never dared to dream that it would still be appearing, in pretty much the same format, all these futuristic years later. On previous occassions when we've reached BIG NUMBERS I've given away a free compilation exclusively to newsletter subscribers, and I was all ready to do so again this time but, as previously discussed, when I started putting it together I thought "Hang on, this is actually pretty good, maybe I should give it a WIDER RELEASE."

THUS Oadby Wonky Knobby is out today on All Streaming Services so that THE KIDS can get hold of it however they wish. HOWEVER,T the original plan to give it away for free to newsletter subscribers remains VALID, so if you ARE a newsletter subscriber please do hop over to the Bandcamp page for the album, click "Buy Digital Album" and enter a big old ZERO in the price you want to pay. You should then get it for NOWT!

If you're not a newsletter subscriber but would still like to avail yourself of this offer please sign up and then follow the same process. More subscribers are always welcome, and it'll only be about five years until we do the NEXT compilation, so you might as well get in early!

posted 30/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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White Town At TA
Last night I made my way once again to The King & Queen in London's fashionable Fitzrovia area of London, for an evening of ROCK!

For LO! Totally Acoustic was BACK! I've avoided FORMALLY saying this previously for various reasons, largely to do with the hassle of trying to do regular dates, working out who to book, and then all the gubbins around the podcast, but I realise now that I can just do it occasionally when I've GOT someone who can play, and not worry about the rest of it. INDEED this gig had only been booked because the band White Town got in touch through their emissary Mr F A Machine to ask about doing one, so it is them what I have to thank for this realisation! In fact, Mr J Mishra is Getting The Band Back Together in a very similar fashion i.e. doing gigs when it looks like it'll be fun, so that's DOUBLE inspiration!

Anyway, I arrived at the King & Queen to find that it now has what looks like a STUDENT clientele, who had all decided to stand RIGHT IN THE DOORWAY so you literally had to push your way through them to get in. Later on several people said to me "You should write a song about that!" I ALREADY HAVE, I replied.

Upstairs I found Frankie, Jyoti and Mr I Turner already in residence, and we were soon joined by Mr S Hewitt and a whole HEAP of lovely people, and also a couple of lovely DOGS, courtesy of The Cresswells. Seeing all these various CHUMS - including Mr T "The Tiger" McClure, who had RACED to be there - reminded me of why I really enjoy doing Totally Acoustic, and very much affirmed in my mind that it was worth doing it again.

Soon it was time to kick off, and we began in the traditional manner with the Totally Acoustic theme tune before I launched into action with the following:

Monster Island

A Museum Of One Thing

Only A Robot

The reason I played these particular songs was that I'd realised I had an album coming out soon, and so I really ought to do some songs from it. However, I had NEVER played the first two songs in front of an audience before, so rather than risk it all going HORRIBLY WRONG I printed myself some LARGE TYPE lyric sheets, which worked out really nicely, and aside from distracting myself with thoughts of Open Top Bus Tours in A Museum Of One Thing it all went pretty well.

We then had a break before White Town came on and were GRATE. They did a stream of songs which were GORGEOUS, contained within an ongoing narrative of explanation and THORTS from Jyoti - it was fab! This was his first gig for about six years, he said, but there was precisely NO rustiness about it. It was one of those lovely gigs where as soon as it begins you feel like it's all going to be FINE and also FUN. Also also, they did THE HIT just over halfway through, and a) it fit in with the rest of the set of equally gorgeous songs and b) there was a TINGLE around the room as we all gently sang along with an actual NUMBER ONE being sung by its author. That was pretty special! Also, Frankie played the trunpet bit on a blow-into-it keyboard thing, which was ACE!

With only them and me on it all finished at a HIGHLY reasonable time, leaving lots of space for YACKING. Excitingly, when I popped downstairs I overheard a conversation at the bar between three chaps talking about Ron Smith and Massimo Belardinelli so INVEIGLED my way into it by saying, "Excuse me, I am a DOCTOR OF COMICS." All right, I'd had an exciting night, but they didn't seem to mind too much!

Eventually it was time for us all to wend our merry way home after a lovely evening of ROCK and PALS. I'm hoping to do another one of these in a month or two, and have someone very much in mind to drag along to do it, but fear not, I shall be broadcasting details loud and clear as soon as it's arranged!

posted 26/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Only A Robot
Today I am unleashing a brand new VIDEO upon the world! It is for the song Only A Robot from my forthcoming album Oadby Wonky Knobby and you can see it HERE:



As the bit at the end says, the images were taken from a Golden Age comic strip called "Hugh Hazzard & His Iron Man" by Wayne Reid which appeared in the early 1940s in "Smash Comic" (and so is public domain!). I read several issues of the comic to find the right panels, and it was REALLY interesting reading strips from the transition period from pulp heroes to superheroes, with all sorts of very solid men with alliterative names using Science (or sometimes Weird Science) items to Fight Crime. I was surprised by how GOOD some of it looked - lots of really old comics I've read look like they were drawn by a 14 year-old in a hurry (and some of them were) but these look Actually Pretty Cool, and the stories do at least make sense, mostly.

Fittingly the song comes from a SHOW that did at least make sense, mostly - Moon Horse VS The Mars Men Of Jupiter. Other shows that Steve and I did got a bit complicated (yes I'm looking at you, Total Hero Team) but I always remember this one being FAIRLY straightforward, and also a LOT of fun to do. Tiddy The Tin Man emerged as the EMOTIONAL CENTRE of the whole thing, and this was his big BALLAD which always felt GRATE to sing, even though audiences seemed to get distracted by something going on behind me during the instrumental section.

As I say, the song turned out to be a lot more EMOTIONAL than expected, and putting the video together felt even MORE so. My GRATE hope is that, come the inevitable RISE OF THE MACHINES our future robot overlords will see this video and think "Ah yes, Hibbett got it, let us spare him!" Here's hoping!

posted 23/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Fallout And Mrs Maisel
This week I have been watching Fallout on Amazon Prime and it has been GRATE.

Having all the episodes available at once means I've been able to LUXURIATE in it, knowing there's more to come, and generally feel PAMPERED by the immense QUALITY on show. For the first few nights I had the nagging feeling that it reminded me of something and couldn't quite work out what. I mean, OBVIOUSLY the gore and humour (and starring appearance by The Dead Man) reminded me of 2000AD but that wasn't quite it.

And then yesterday it hit me: it's basically The Marvelous Mrs Maisel! There's an obvious comparison with the super-stylish 50s DESIGN of the whole thing and especially the MUSIC but there's a whole heck of a lot more to it than that. Part of it is the aforesaid feeling of QUALITY, in that every single scene screams "We are Amazon and we spent ALL the money on this!" and the ACTORS ACTORING is all glorious. There's also a feeling of SAFETY, like you know each episode is going to be a special TREAT, so you can relax into it and WALLOW.

There's also something about the STORYWORLD. As I type this I can hear hundreds of Popular Culture Academics all around the world wondering how they can get a presentaion out of "Fallout", as its TRANSMEDIALITY is a thing of joy and wonder to behold. I have only played one game in the series - Fallout Shelter - so although there are plenty of references and design choices that I recognise there's also loads of other stuff that CLEARLY means something from other games. Often I can tell by the way the camera lingers over a road sign or a supermarket item, and when that happens it fills me with a desire to get onto a WIKI and find out what it all MEANS. I haven't yet for fear of SPOILERS, but I WILL!

This deep storyworld is a HUGE attraction for people who like This Sort Of Thing, but also a MASSIVE TURN-OFF for traditional critics who don't seem to be able to cope with the idea that a film or TV series can have stuff in it that is only explained fully in another show or indeed entirely different MEDIUM. They moan on about it all the time with the MCU, for instance, not seeming to know or realise that that's part of the POINT.

Anyway, the attention to detail on the storyworld is a DELIGHT, and that's also something it shares with Mrs Maisel, where I was forever having to get to GOOGLE to see a) if a specific character is based on a real person and if so b) who they were and what they did. It may not necessarily have always been historically accurate (I mean, it wasn't Lenny Bruce-wise) but it always LOOKED as if the people who made it cared enough to make sure it was consistent. There wasn't a whole other transmedia universe to dip into, but HEY! Ultimate Play The Game! If you want to make a Mrs Maisel platform game I am THERE for it!

What I'm saying is that I very much liked Fallout in the same way that I very much liked Mrs Maisel, and would HIGHLY recommend the latter to anyone who liked the former, and also vice versa. They are GRATE!

posted 18/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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A Secret Meeting
Last night I went to a SECRET MEETING! All right, it wasn't hugely secret, and the main reason I don't want to go into TOO much detail at the moment is because I don't want to JINX it, but that doesn't sound quite as exciting as SECRET MEETING does it?

So, this SECRET MEETING took place at the very nice Queen's Head near Kings Cross. I have been there several times and always seem to end up at the table next to the LOO, which is handy for the LOO admittedly but also a bit close to everyone going in and out. I'd actually turned up a bit early so thought I'd be able to NAB somewhere a bit nicer, and when I entered it looked like the pub was pretty much empty, but on closer inspection every other table had ONE person sitting at it, waiting for others to arrive. THE CHEEK.

I was soon joined by my SECRET CO-CONSPIRATORS, one of whom I have done LOADS of collaborations with and the other I have done SOME, but mostly shared bills alongside. Who could they be eh? It is SECRET! We were gathered to discuss an IDEA for a THING we might do later in the year, and the main reason I wanted to mention this at all (apart from it being dead glamorous and intriguing, obvs) is to say how much FUN it was. THORTS and IDEAS flew around the table as we developed a decent idea of how the aforesaid THING would work, what would be IN it, where it would happen, and even how we would work it up and PRACTICE it. The three of us are all VETERANS of doing STUFF, so it was a thing of joy and wonder for us to use our ROCK ADMIN skillz in this way.

We concluded our business with TASKS to complete and things to think about, with a general idea that we would discuss online and then gather properly in the summer months to DEVELOP the thing itself. All being well we will have DATES and VENUES by then, at which point I shall be able to reveal proper details of what it's all about, but all I can say for now is that if it works it will be GRATE! You heard it here - SECRETLY - first!

posted 17/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Superdata
Today is the launch day for ANOTHER book about superheroes/supervillains and data which features ME banging on about Doctor Doom, for LO! Superheroes and Digital Perspectives: Super data has just been UNLEASHED by Rowan & Littlefield!

The book "examines the intersection of the superhero genre and issues of the internet, data, and digital media to provide not only a posthuman study of the superhero, but also an examination of the ways in which the superhero acts as a lens for our interactions with technology", which I think is all you need to know before running - not walking - to your local interweb connection to buy a copy. It's basically a collection of essays compiled by Sarah Young and Freyja McCreery where various BRANES look at superheroes and data in different ways, with me bringing up the rear with an overview of the METHODOLOGY what I used in Data and Doctor Doom. The postie hasn't turned up with my copy yet, but I am EAGER to get my paws on it, as it looks GRATE!



Like all academic books this one has taken several YEARS to get to this point - I've got two or three other chapters in other books that are at different stages of the process, so apologies in advance if the next year sees a DELUGE of me talking about SUPERHERO DATA in various collections. Over the years I've gotten all excited about various Calls For Papers and for some reason it looks like everything's coming out at around the same time, which to be honest is Quite Good Fun!

I'm off to the letter box now to look out for postie!

posted 15/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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If You've Never Lost At Wembley
On Sunday I travelled across the teeming metropolis of London to distant WEST London for a very important occassion. For LO! I was off to meet PALS for Peterborough United's glorious return to WEMBERLEY!

We were playing in that most prestigious of ALL trophys, The Bristol Street Motors Trophy. Yes, that's right, the trophy that other teams hanker for MOST OF ALL, otherwise known as The EFL Trophy, such is its wonder. Actually, it used to be called The Johnstone's Paint Trophy when we LAST won it ten years ago, and I think this succession of well-known and highly esteemed sponsors tells you exactly how prestigious it is. A LOT.

I met our CREW in Wolfpack, an Actually QUite Nice bar with TAPS aplenty. Originally we'd been meeting in the pub next door, but when the main group arrived they had discovered Peterborough MP Paul F Bristow in situ. Bristow is not what you would call popular in his constituency, although he was one of the Popular MPs who supported the likes of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, so perhaps the two are linked somehow. Anyway, as soon as they saw him they ALMOST IMMEDIATELY turned around and left (after spending 10 minutes not getting served at the bar) in DISGUST. It is in these ways that REVOLUTIONS begin.

We had a delightful couple of hours in Wolfpack trying out some of their fine BEERS before it was time to head off to the TOOB and thence to Wembley Park and the walk to the stadium itself. This bit was DEAD EXCITING as there were literally THOUSANS of Posh and Wycombe Wanderers fans making their way, all in very high spirits. I had been to Wembley THREE times before, once for the aforesaid Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final and twice for League One play-off finals, and there is a different atmosphere for the two, probably because the play-offs decide the entire next year of your football life, and possibly beyond, whereas OBVIOUSLY the GLORY of winning The Bristol Street Motors Trophy lasts FORVER.

There was a very long queue to get in, partly caused by slightly exhaustive SEARCHING but mostly due to people not being used to big stadiums where you have to follow detailed instructions for the correct GATE at a football match. Still, eventually we DID get in and soaked up some a) atmosphere b) BEER before the game. Weirdly I didn't see ANYONE there I knew apart from the aforesaid CREW, but did see HUNDREDS of other people in Posh shirts. I haven't lived in Peterborough for DECADES but I did hope for at least one Person I'd Been To School With But Is Somehow Now Looking Much Older.

We went through to find we had FANTASTIC seats with a FAB view, sorted out for us by a PAL who I shall not name but who done us PROUD. We were dead close to the pitch and it was exciting and WEIRD to watch players you see every couple of weeks at London Road dashing about at ACTUAL WEMBLEY, especially as the game itself was very similar INDEED to what we usually saw i.e. Posh having 99.99% of the possession all the time but never actually seeming to do much with it. The whole game was thus rather FRUSTRATING as for the vast majority of it we had approx 300,000 corners but 0 goals, and the dread prospect of going into EXTRA TIME started to loom. Nobody likes EXTRA TIME even in the most exciting games, and this was not one of those.

Well, it wasn't until the 85th minute when, after the MILLIONTH attack on goal we actually managed to score! There was jumping, there was shouting, and a general joyous feeling of relief across the Fenland end of the stadium... for about three minutes, at which point Wycombe scored to equalise. FLIPPING HECK. Cue further shouting, lots of running around on the pitch, also shots, hoofing, and then yet another corner. "We are rubbish at corners" I muttered, as is my WONT and also RITUAL - my theory is that if I always say that then FATE will try and prove me wrong, and LO! it may not have worked the previous 300,000 times but this time it DID and led to Harrison Burrows scoring a WONDER GOAL in the 92nd minute!

Joy was ALMOST unconfined, as there was then another approx MONTH of added time before the referee FINALLY blew his whistle and it was all over and we had won at Wembley! AGANE! We stood around doing some GRINNING and CHEERING and then turned round to see the presentation of the PRESTIGIOUS TROPHY just above us in the royal box. For some reason there didn't seem to be any Actual Royalty there, which was fine with me as it gave space for a clearly DELIGHTED Barry Fry and then a whole bunch of EXCITED players. It was lovely!

Eventually it was time to go, and we wandered off back to the tube station singing that old folk song "If You've Never Lost At Wembley Clap Your Hands". The way things are looking we might be back in a few weeks for the League One play-offs, so I hope that song continues to ring true!

posted 8/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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A Great Change In The Force
A couple of weeks ago I UNVELIED the cover and title of a new compilation set to be called "Oadby Wan Kenobi". The general IDEA was that it would be a FREE GIFT to celebrate the 200th issue of our newsletter, The Last Working Day Of The Month, what is due to come out next month.

Since then, however, my THORTS have changed - all, I believe, in a GRATE way. What happened was that I started going through the various tracks I'd assembled, re-mastering and occasionally mildly editing some of them, and then working out a running order. Whilst doing that I found myself thinking "Hang on, this is actually pretty good". I mean, OBVIOUSLY this is a) hugely modest of me and b) true of ALL my mighty OUVRE, but I was Quite Surprise by how much I was enjoying listening to these tracks, partly because I hadn't heard some of them for over a DECADE but mostly because the running order was working so nicely with the instrumentals spaced out across the tracklist.

The more I thought about it the more I realised that I'd like to UNLEASH it a bit more widely, so that the tracks could be heard by ALL. Yes yes all right and I also had daydreams of songs like Alan getting onto TIKTOK and millions of wholesome teens working out choreography WHAT OF IT. However, I very quickly realised that there was a big problem with doing this i.e. it was called "Oadby Wan Kenobi" and the cover used an actual picture of Ewan McGregor slapped onto a screenshot off of Google Street View. Quite apart from the fact that I do not want to annoy DISNEY - owners of both Doctor Doom AND Donald Duck - I was pretty sure that emubands, the people who I use to upload my stuff to streaming services, would also have some problems with this.

THUS I made TWO fateful decisions. Firstly I went the whole hog and revised the title to something even DAFTER but less LEGALLY PROBLEMATIC, and secondly I conducted a PHOTO SESSION to prepare the BELOW as the brand new and revised cover for the album which will now be called Oadby Wonky Knobby.



This new version should be UNLEASHED on all streaming services on Tuesday 30 April, which is when the 200th edition of the newsletter will be out, and it will ALSO be available as a Pay What You Want download on our Bandcamp page, so that those in the KNOW can still get it for free. I hope everyone will be DELIGHTED by this new turn of events - I know I certainly am - and I look forward to a) the aforesaid legions of teens "body popping" to Open Top Bus Tour and b) George Lucas getting in touch about a new Disney+ series about someone (ME) trying to Project Manage updates to Empire security systems.

posted 5/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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Unfold at Sunfold
Before our previously mentioned trip to Bournemouth I had had another ADVENTURE last week, heading out WEST to distant Weston-Super-Mare to play at the first day of UNFOLD #6. This was the sixth iteration of Mr Steve Morricone's twice-yearly festival of ROCK that takes place in The Sunfold Hotel, what he and his family run, and it was GRATE!

After a slightly delayed but otherwise Perfectly Acceptable journey WEST I stomped through a very WINDY Weston to find The Sunfold nestling happily right next to the seafront, like an ideal DREAM of what a seaside lodging house should be like. When I got in I found KIT and GEAR being loaded in and Steve dashing around SORTING things - I have known Steve for a LONG old time* in The Krazy World Of ROCK through his membership of The Scaramanga Six and, especially, Being 747, which made it NORMAL to see him ORGANISING things (it reminded me of how he, Paul and Dave had to DASH AROUND like looniez setting up and taking down the Technically Quite Involved set-up for their Edinburgh Fringe shows) but then WEIRD later on when he was checking people into rooms, serving up the (DELICIOUS) buffet, taking drinks orders, and generally being MEIN HOST. He was very very good at it!

Soon it was SHOWTIME and, after a soundcheck with Celebrity Soundman Stuffy From Out Of Stuffy And The Fuses (my SECOND celebrity soundman after being soundchecked by Mr Pete Dale at Going Up The Country some years ago) it was time for me, as first act on, to step forward and do THIS:

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

Clubbing In The Week

Bad Back

Hey Hey 16K

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine

The Perfect Love Song

It Only Works Because You're here

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Boom Shake The Room

I must admit that I was quite NERVOUS at the start, partly because people were still arriving and saying hello to each other and partly because I am so UNUSED to singing through a PA, and I thus made a HORRIBLE mess (not for the first time) of the lyrics to Hey Hey 16K. However, a few songs later I had managed to CALM DOWN a little bit and actually got INTO it, remembering for the MILLIONTH flipping time that, in this situation, it is always better to do a couple of QUIET songs rather than trying to BELLOW your way through. I should write that down somewhere!

With that all done it was time to further relax, chat to various people (including pals Mr G Jones and Ms E Pemberton), thoroughly enjoy Gurgles, Cowtown and Memorials who were all on after me, and also thoroughly enjoy the BEER that the aforesaid Mein Host was serving up. It was an all-round lovely evening, and certainly the best time I have ever had in the LOUNGE of a bed and breakfast, and also brilliant to see the Morricone brothers again - HOORAH!

(* later in the evening I asked Mr Paul Morricone, also in attendance, how I DID originally know then. We both puzzled over this for ages without satisfactory answer - I'd seen The Six a couple of times, and we'd palled around quite a bit in Edinburgh, but by then we knew each other anyway. It is a ROCK MYSTERY!)

posted 3/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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A Return To Bournemouth
Last Saturday afternoon myself and The Attractions On My Pier set off for the SEASIDE, for LO! we were heading south to Bournemouth again!

We'd last been to Bournemouth just over a year ago and liked it a LOT so decided to go all over again. One of the BEST things about this plan was that it was PEASY - we didn't have to catch a pre-designated train (let alone a PLANE) in either direction, and thus could set off whenever we wanted, which is exactly what we did. The aforementioned Cushions On My Seat even UPGRADED us on the way there, which on South Western Trains means sitting in basically a Small Room, like you are in a carriage on a STEAM TRAIN. It was ace!

We stayed once again in the Holiday Inn, which was a DELIGHT, despite us having multiple issues with towels missing, windows not opening, windows not closing and so forth. This meant we had a similar number of interactions with the staff, who were all a) lovely b) Quite Young, and so it was like being helped by the Just About Grown-Up Children Of Friends. Every time one of them came to the room to MEND something I wanted to tell them a mildly inappropriate story about what their parents had been like at their age.

On our first full day we headed out to Hengistbury Head for a walk in the gorgeous sunshine. We were not the only ones to have this idea, as pretty much EVERYBODY within ten miles who had a DOG had thought the same. There were LOADS of happy dogs of ALL breeds and, sometimes, of very similar breeds in what appeared to be EITHER a family of people who also had a family of big shaggy dogs OR meet ups of owners. It was a lovely day and we ended up walking all the way back to Bournemouth Actual along the sea front. This was INCREDIBLE as it is literally Miles And Miles Of Golden Sandy Beaches like something out of an ADVERT or possibly a BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL, all kept in fantastic nick and looking lovely. It wasn't warm enough to sunbathe (although we did see someone doing exactly that, in a bikini) but I can only imagine it being wonderful in the summer.

The next day featured another, slightly shorter, stroll in the other direction along the beach, and then a go on The Bournemouth Big Wheel. As The Windows On My Observation Deck commented, this was UNLIKE The London Eye in that it got going at a noticeable, though still gentle, speed, so you really FELT like you were moving around in a big circle. We were both VERY BRAVE!

There was also some DINING involved along the way but mostly we spent our mini-break AMBLING ABOUT and just having a nice time, to such an extent that when we got home it felt like we'd been away for a whole WEEK rather than just three nights. I guess part of this is due to the fact that we'd been BEFORE, and so didn't need the one or two days at the start working things out, and also the PEASY journey meant you weren't lopping chunks of time off trying to get to AIRPORTS or whatnot, but either way it was GRATE. Who knew going on holiday in the UK could be so much fun? Would recommend and, hopefully, REPEAT!

posted 2/4/2024 by MJ Hibbett
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