The latest from our James Rigby - Deadpan Alley

I really like this one [You like ALL of them! - ED] and your point is?!

 . . . . so I might finish off the day and weekend with this beauty . . . . . . .

DEADPAN ALLEY - BY JAMES RIGBY TUNED - DADAAD ------------------ SONGS FROM THE WATCH - A Compilation of 25 Original Guitar Fingerpicking Pieces in Open Tunings, Taken from 7 Albums, Written over the last 6 years by James Rigby ----------------------------------------------------- SONGS FROM THE WATCH https://jamesrigby1.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-watch-a-personal-favourite-collection-of-original-guitar-fingerpicking-pieces-in-open-tunings-by-james-rigby

The Men They Couldn’t Hang - Green Fields of France 2012 Galtres

 For Kostas (and the gang)

The Men They Couldn’t Hang - Green Fields of France 2012 Galtres

TMTCH were on Kostas survey of Indie Brit pop 1982-1984

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Spindrifter [What About Me?] | jt1764

  . . . . feat. Nicky Hopkins on piano

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/823772423725973504/quicksilver-messenger-service-spindrifter

Various: The Indie Scene 1982 + The Indie Scene 1983 + The Indie Scene 1984 The Story Of British Independent Music | Urban Aspirines

 Various: The Indie Scene 1982 + The Indie Scene 1983 + The Indie Scene 1984 The Story Of British Independent Music

Another Kostas Special

Another spectacular review of Brit Indie music from Aztec Camera (sic) to The Higson’s [comedian Charlie ‘Fast Show’ Higson), The Marine Girls (Tracy Thorn), 

New Order

 01. VARIOUS - THE INDIE SCENE 1982 - THE STORY OF THE BRITISH INDEPENDENT MUSIC

Yazoo - Alf and Vince (Clarke)

02. VARIOUS - THE INDIE SCENE 1983 - THE STORY OF THE BRITISH INDEPENDENT MUSIC

From Ben Watt to The Birthday Party, Depeche Mode to New Order, The Fall to Shriekback

03. VARIOUS - THE INDIE SCENE 1984 - THE STORY OF THE BRITISH INDEPENDENT MUSIC 

Nick Cave

Vol III From The Main They Couldn’t Hang to  Frank Chickens, New Model Army to A Certain Ratio

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC!

Alison Moyet - Only you (Live For Burberry) live with Symphonic Orchestra

New Order - Temptation (Live at Alexandra Palace, 2018)

Frank Chickens - We Are Ninja (Norwegian TV 1985)

The Birthday Party - Sonny’s Burning (Peel Sessions Nov 82)

IN THE GHETTO (live) - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 1992 The Paradiso Amsterdam

Purely gratuitous observation about the making of THE ODYSSEY the film

 So Elon Musk and the casting of Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY has meant he has threatened to re-make it (with AI 😂) so that it’s historically more accurate! It is a work of the earliest fiction so there’s that! It is written by Homer in Ancient Greece

This is the actor chosen to play Helen . . . . She is the simply breathtaking Yale graduate Mexican actor Lupita Njong’o 

If ever you needed proof that Musk is a cretin this is it

P.S. Go Woke , Go Broke doesn’t exactly work as they should have encouraged a Muskrat critique as the film has opened with $260 MILLION! (is that a record breaking opening weekend?)

N.B. Alec Baldwin (random?) has noted that Lupita is simply “the most beautiful woman in the world” no argument here

Remembering Glen Hansard - Falling Slowly (with Rachel Zegler) The Bowery Ballroom 9/04/2026/ The Film ‘Once'

Again some people have been sharing a clipped ending version of this classic hit by Glen here with Rachel Zegler so here is the full piece . . 

Glen Hansard with Rachel Zegler “Falling Slowly” (The Swell Season song) Bowery Ballroom 4-9-26

From the Film

Remembering Glen Hansard...

The music shop scene -  Once (2006)

Take this sinking boat and point it home . .   

David Byrne NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2026

 

What I think of as pop music is broadly defined. Some songs are, by consensus, mainstream, but even some of those often push at the edges. Others take the format, length and shape of pop songs, but to my ears they don’t sound anything like the ones considered more mainstream. That said, they’re all equal in my book, I don’t think of any of them as inside or outside - as I’ve seen those definitions change with plenty of exceptions that prove the rules are meant to be broken.   I’m still on tour. As of August 1, we’ll have about 1 ½ months to go. It will be a year total. It’s a long one, but it’s going extremely well and the general vibe among the band and crew is, amazingly, still good.    The whole band has folding bikes that we travel with- if I have an afternoon off I’ll often go for a ride to clear my head, and if I’m on my own and it’s a secure path or not a busy road… I’ll listen to this playlist.   - David Byrne   Listen to this month's playlist on: Apple Music: Click Here Mixcloud (free streaming): Click Here

My new book SLEEPING BEAUTIES is out Oct 6th! Uncover how breakthroughs across the arts and sciences get forgotten, and how they get rediscovered...  CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER

Check out the new tour dates HERE (New NYC, LA, ASIA, MEXICO dates added)

My new album "Who Is The Sky?" is now available on all streaming platforms - LISTEN HERE

MORE INFO AT DAVIDBYRNE.COM

Ian and Spider Rowe

 Somebody asked me the other day about Ian Dury changing the lyrics of ‘England’s Glory' over the years ( he wrote it back around the time of Kilburn and The Highroads pre-Blockheads) and he did sometimes quite often but they asked me about a reference to "Spider Rowe" and this answers that query . . . . . . 

Ian needed help from the effects of his polio as a child to get on stage and rather than be embarrassed about it often became a feature of his arrival on stage with an ‘assistant’ Spider Rowe was an early one of these and is pictured below adjusting the height of Ian’s microphone

‘Spider’ Rowe,

One of Ian Dury’s helpers/minders etc who helped him on stage

gets a shout out in England's Glory at times early on

Ry Cooder - Vigilante Man & Going To Brownsville (Old Grey Whistle Test + interview with Bob Harris) 1973

 Revisiting an old favourite edition of OGWT is never a miss! This is what turned me onto Ry all these years ago and went straight out and bought Boomer’s Story (still a favourite record desk vinyl, tape and CD!)

Ry Cooder performing and being interviewed on the Old Grey Whistle Test on March 20, 1973

Film Star of The Day: Maureen O'Sullivan

Beauty of the Day : 

Maureen O’Sullivan was one of the most stunning and iconic stars of the pre code era in Hollywood. However, for some odd reason, I have not been able to find many photos which do justice to her amazing beauty. I thought this did