Blog Archive: April 2025

The First Dress Rehearsal... of DOOM
It's that very special time of the year when the thoughts of people who were in Professional Services in academic institutions turn to ANNUAL LEAVE. For LO! and it's about now that we realise that we have LOADS of days we still need to take off before our annual leave year ends at the close of July. We can, of course, carry days over from one year to the next but once you've done that the first year you are MAXED OUT and so have to use THE LOT. It is a TRIAL.

So it was that this year I thought "Hang on, I have VARIOUS Creative Projects on the go at the moment - including that SECRET one that I have managed not to blab about yet - so why don't I book some time off for THEM, rather than trying to cram things in during whatever NOOK in time I can find?" THUS I booked myself a couple of days extra off this week to work on the Data and Doctor Doom show, starting with an afternoon REHEARSAL yesterday.

I'd booked myself into an Actual Rehearsal room because there are LOADS of things I want to try out, and doing it at home isn't hugely convenient. The show has SLIDES in it, so I needed to be able to try out the PROJECTOR what I've bought, also the SCREEN, also the FOOT PEDAL what moves them along. Also, vitally, I wanted to have a go at playing guitar whilst wearing a CAPE (yes there is a cape) and my dears there is simply not room to SWISH in our flat, so a room was required.

I thus poddled over to create + destroy studios in nearby Hackney Wick, which apart from having a VERY This Part Of East London name was actually dead good. There was NOBODY about to let me in - they emailed me DOOR CODES instead so I could do so myself - but it all worked very nicely and I had a LARGE room with a whole long wall of mirrors all to myself.

The first hour or so of the booking was weirdly EMOTIONAL, as I frankly STRUGGLED with getting the kit all set up. I kept telling myself that it was FINE, and that obviously trying to get a projector and screen and laptop and foot pedal set up was going to take a while, and also that obviously my Not Very Expensive projector would not have PIN PRICK focus, but it was all a bit upsetting to be honest. It reminded me of when I've done SOUNDCHECKS in the past and got myself all in a tizzy during the first 2 minutes because it doesn't sound exactly right yet. I KNOW these things take time, intellectually, but emotionally I do tend to get a bit of a wobble on.

Eventually I got to launch into the show and it was... all right? Some bits were DEAD GOOD, notably the parts that I'd already done a couple of months ago at An Evening Of Unnecessary Detail, but other bits were much less so. AGANE i KNOW that this is part of the process, but it did feel a bit demoralising. Unlike previous times when I've been at this point in the process there was no STEVE around to discuss it with (or BLAME for problems!) so I must admit that it got to me a bit.

Having said that, there was one aspect of the show which is already undeniably a TRIUMPH and that is the CAPE! This looked GRATE when worn (those big mirrors came in handy!) and felt like I should always be wearing one. I'd worried that the - shall we say INEXPENSIVE - material it was made from would make me sweaty, and that it would get in the way constantly with the guitar, but it was totally fine and utterly BRILLO throughout. See for yourself!



PRETTY COOL I think you will agree!

Also, the GEAR all worked and fitted into bags that I was able to carry, and it seems that I have pretty much learned most of the songs at least, so there are many POSITIVES. Also also I am aware that this is just how it GOES at this point, and that in a few weeks it will be ZINGING along as if I've always know exactly when to stomp on the foot pedal while singing about random stratified sampling. It's just that I'd quite like to be at that point NOW, rather than having to do all the work to get there!

posted 16/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Peterborough United Officially Better Than Barcelona
After Saturday night's guestlist adventures I was up and about on Sunday for MORE Exclusive Excitement that had its own, somewhat different, perils.

For LO! I was off to WEMBERLEY there to see Peterborough United compete in the finals of The Vertu Trophy aka The EFL Trophy aka That Competition That Has U21 Premiership Teams In And Is Inherently Ridiculous Until We Get To The Final. Regular readers of this here blog may recall that I went to the very same final LAST year where Posh had been TRIUMPHANT, but this time I was going with significantly more trepidation. Last time our visit had been part of a Surprisingly Good Season where we had done lots of WINNING, whereas this time it has been a Disappointingly Poor Season where we have done lots of BEING RUBBISH. Also, this time we were playing Birmingham City who had been promoted to the Championship as winners of League One on Tuesday by beating...um... US.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY I personally was full of BELIEF - it was other people who said "we might as well sing the If You've Never Lost At Wembley Clap Your Hands song NOW while we still have the chance", and definitely not me - but it was looking distinctly unlikely that we'd be carrying on our proud record of always - ALWAYS - winning at The National Stadium.

Thus entrepidated I headed off to distant West London to meet everyone at the same West Hampstead bar that we accidentally went to last time. On the way there I finished reading "My Cousin Rachel" by D du Maurier, which was AMAZING, and then settled into 90 minutes of BEER and CHAT before heading off to Actual Wembley.

The train was Oddly Quiet on the way but I assume all of the Birmingham fans had already got there as it is probably all very exciting for them as have NOT been to Wembley only a year ago and also may or may not have somehow LOST there at some point in the past. When we arrived we were CHARMED to see Brummies having their photographs taken with the stadium in the background as it reminded us of the simple wonder of playing there when you are not JADED and consider it your home stadium pretty much hem hem.

Last year one of our number, Mr P Bloodworth, had gone viral online with a photograph taken by his son Mr J Bloodworth showing him stuck in the turnstiles, so there was MUCH HILARITY over whether he'd get in or not (he did), followed by EXCITEMENT once through the gates as we looked around to see if there was anybody we knew. Last time Peterborough's then-MP Mr Paul F Bristow had been seen in a nearby bar, THIS time he was spotted lurking around in our area, which seemed like a GOOD OMEN (probably the first time anybody's ever said that about him).

Beer and DODS were purchased then we went into the stadium for what we thought was going to be a bit of a hammering. This was the biggest crowd Posh had EVER played to, and about two thirds of them were Brummies who were in FULL VOICE. However, something strange happened once the game got going and Posh became Quite Good. Not only that, but we scored - TWICE! First of all Harley Mills scored a FABULOUS free kick and then Hector Kyprianou done a WALLOPING great goal from open play, and we found ourselves WINNING before it was half-time.

I tell you what, there were a lot of DAZED looking Posh fans staggering off to the loo, but the excitement was even MORE so for me because, on the way up the stairs, I saw our pal Mr C Dowsett chatting to none other than Craig Mackail-Smith. CMS is a bona fide POSH LEGEND and one of my favourite players EVER so I GRINNED at him, caught his eye, and then... er... sort of WAVED and then ran off up the steps. I am aware that such behaviour may seem odd to most, who surely view me as an ICE COOL ROCK STAR, but my dears I was quite overcome and had to have a RELAXING BEER to try and calm myself down a bit. Craig Mackail-Smith!!

The second half contained no more goals but was VERY exciting and then nerve-wracking as it went on to the ONE HUNDRED AND SECONDTH MINUTE, but in the end we came out as not only WINNERS but with a massive bag of EXCITING STATS. Not only are we the ONLY team to have ever retained the highly prestigious EFL trophy, but we are the ONLY team to have ever played at Wembley five times and won every time. Previously we were equal with BARCELONA, who had also played there four times and won every one, but now we are technically - and surely ACTUALLY - better than them!

We then hung around for a while to jump around a bit, wave at people above us in the royal box, watch players manhandling the trophy and generally soak up the atmosphere. As you can probably tell I had a BLOODY BRILLIANT day out, and very much hope and EXPECT the same this time again next year. Nothing can go wrong!

posted 14/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Jim Bob at Shepherd's Bush Empire
On Saturday evening I met with Mr M Sutton for an evening of ROCK, for LO! we were off to the Shepherd's Bush Empire to see Jim Bob do his epic 40 Years And 40 Songs show. Executive Summary: it was GRATE, also LONG!

We had GUESTLIST tickets thanks to my International Rock Star Chum Mr Chris T-T, who plays KEYBOARDS for Jim Bob. This was a) wonderful but b) slightly terrifying too as I had no idea how being On The Guestlist WORKS at proper big gigs. I know how it works at MY sort of gigs - you go to the door and say "Er.. I think I'm on the guestlist?" and whoever's there looks annoyed, checks a clipboard, and stamps your hand and that's it. However, I've never BEEN on a guestlist at anything above PUB level, so didn't know what would happen. Should I wear formal dinnerwear? Would I have to eat a vol au vent? WHO KNEW?

Nerves were calmed slightly by some BEERS before going, including one of the most - if not THE most - expensive pints I have ever drunk anywhere in the world - EIGHT POUND FIFTY FIVE for just a pint of BEER! This was in The Green in Shepherd's Bush, where apparently it was "match day" (they had Sky Sports on?) which somehow justified it. I take delight in SCOFFING at the YOKEL ANTICS of my fellow Posh fans when they come to London and say "HOW MUCH?!?" in pubs, but gentle reader I must confess I did much the same here.

After that we headed to the gig and asked someone on the door where we went for the guestlist. "The guestlist window" she said, pointing to a window with a sign on it saying "GUESTLIST". We were given tickets and WRISTBANDS and the nice young person behind the glass looked slightly surprised when I asked what the wristbands were for. "They're for the aftershow", they said. "Ooh!" I thought. Or possibly said out loud.

Once inside we found ourselves on a BALCONY which had access to a really really nice bar, which was quieter and also CHEAPER than the one we'd just been in. It really was very nice indeed, I would have gone there for fun!

Suitably provided for we went and found some seats - SEATS!! - and settled in for the show. "I could get used to this", I said to Mr Sutton, and we agreed that it was v pleasant to have nice comfy chairs and a good view. At this point the view was of none other than Mr Spoons, who played at Totally Acoustic last year. Back then I had been surprised to see how NERVOUS he was about playing a gig in the upstairs room of The King & Queen, but I was now ASTONISHED by how CONFIDENT he was jumping, gyrating and dancing around onstage in front of several thousand people while occasionally dashing to the microphone to introduce the next record. It was pretty spectacular!

The spectacularity continued at precisely 8pm when Jim Bob himself came on and launched into a FORTY (40) song set. I mean, I knew that was the plan, but I'd assumed large chunks of it would have been MEDLEYS but oh no, not a bit of it, he played literally forty songs in a SPRINGSTEENESQUE marathon of ROCK that lasted almost THREE HOURS!!

The first couple of songs were just him on his own, but then his PIANIST came on and LO! it was the aforemention Chris T-T. This reminded me of the time we say Prolapse supporting Mogwai at The Roundhouse and I kept thinking "Oh look, there's Tim... onstage in front of thousands of people." This time it was Chris, what I was in the pub with a few weeks ago, just over there beneath a proscenium arch, ROCKING OUT. It was a bit strange, and made more so later on when Steve Pretty (who me and Steve shared a venue with in Edinburgh back in 2010) came on later as part of the horn section.

The full band came on after about half an hour and sounded AMAZING. It reminded me of what I imagine it must have been like in the mid-1970s going to see WINGS in their full Venus & Mars era POMP as a stadium band, with everyone ROCKING OUT through a range of HITS past and present. I must admit I do not know a huge amount of the Jim Bob back catalogue, but it sounded GRATE and was ESPECIALLY so when they did The Hits. When he sang "the grebos the crusties and the goths" in "The Only Living Boy In New Cross" I must admit I WELLED UP. When that song came out it was talking about The Modern Kids, but now it felt like a callback to history. "That was US!" I thought.

Occasionally we would peer over the edge of the balcony, looking down from our lofty vantage point to see the downstairs audience going FLIPPING CRAZY. The MOSHPIT was massive and MOBILE, with everybody bouncing around in great waves of dancing, and LOADS of crowd-surfing. The security staff were kept extremely busy and I must admit I did feel for them, as your modern Jim Bob audience is very much NOT all made up of the Skinny Indie Kid of yore. There will have been some sore knees and backs to go with the sore heads on Sunday!

INDEED the only thing I would even vaguely have changed is the fact that there was no break, which posed some difficulties for the CORE AUDIENCE i.e. everybody needed to go to the loo at least SEVERAL times each, but as we were all very much in the same bladder-boat as each other nobody seemed to mind, and a general air of COMRADERY pervaded the venue.

Mr Sutton headed off for his train just before the end - we knew it was nearly the end due to a) counting the songs (more people should specify exactly how many songs they're doing) and b) the fact that Fruitbat had come on, to the EXTREME delight of the whole room. I stayed in my comfy seat and then after the encores when everyone was heading out I went to another member of security staff and asked where I was meant to go for the aftershow. "Just here," she said, stepping aside to give me access to exactly the same lovely bar I'd been in before.

I very sensibly got myself a pint of Alcohol Free Guiness and then hung around for a bit, bumping into Steve Who Used To Put Gigs On In Cambridge, which was lovely, said hello to Mr Spoons, and then went and gave Chris a BIG HUG to say thanks for letting me come before disappearing into the night for my TOOB. It really was a lovely evening - I think I could get used to being on the guestlist, it was ace!

posted 13/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Book Is Now Half Price!
A couple of days ago I received the rather WONDERFUL news that the price of MY BOOK has been SLASHED in HALF! This brings it down from the slightly crazy price of £89.99 to the slightly less crazy but yes all right still quite expensive £44.99!

I'm very pleased INDEED about this because the previous price was SO MUCH there was no way on earth I could expect anybody to actually BUY it - I think the idea is that LIBRARIES buy it, but to be honest I can't imagine there being loads of libraries that woudl DO so. I'm sure there are lots of people around the world who would a) WANT to b) BENEFIT from knowing more about Doctor Doom, especially with the movie and all that on the way, but I don't think there'd ever be sufficient geographical concentration of such people to warrant a library buying one.

Obviously £44.99 is still A LOT for a book so I'm still not expecting to hit the Times Bestsellers Chart, but with VOUCHERS and DISCOUNT CODES regularly available that might still bring it down enough for Actual Humans to get copies. Having said that I'm going to see if I can get a VOUCHER CODE for the next NEWSLETTER, which will bring it into the Vaguely Do-Able price bracket, so who knows, we could be TOP OF THE (booK) POPS yet!

posted 8/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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My Clem Burke Story Story
With the recent sad news about the death of the amazing Clem Burke, lots of people have come out with STORIES about the great man. I don't have a story about him, but I do have a story ABOUT a story that was vaguely related to him, which I should like to recount for you now.

Like so many of the gentle folk we know as "drummers" he LOVED drumming, to the extent that he had ended up playing GIGS with a Blondie tribute band called Bootleg Blondie. Here he is talking about it, and also another project he was working on with them.



As stated above, such was his enthusiasm for ROCK that he had also got involved with Bootleg Blondie writing some NEW songs of their own and they ended up writing LOADS of songs about London In General for a proposed ROCK OPERA. However, what the video above doesn't tell you is that they did this BEFORE thinking of an actual STORY to go with it, and that is where I very very slightly entered the scene.

For LO! Clem Burke was pals with someone who works at UAL, and they were pals with somebody else that I know there, and this person knew that I'd done some WRITING in the past so suggested that they get in touch with me to see if I had any suggestions about a STORY. To be clear, I sadly never met Clem Burke or Bootleg Blondie (which is a SPOILER for how this all turned out!) but I DID have a couple of chats with the lovely UAL person, and came up with some THORTS about how the story might work.

The main issues, as far as I could see, were that a) the songs were all generally about London itself, without anything to link them and b) neither Clem Burke nor Actual Blondie were involved in their writing, so there wasn't a particular HOOK for Producers. However, I thought there MIGHT be something in the whole idea of COVER VERSIONS and revisiting the past to learn about the future and so I came up with the following PITCH which I am DELIGHTED to finally share with people!

HISTORICAL RECORDS*

This is a story about how exciting it can be to discover the sounds of what's gone before, but also about the dangers of trying to cling slavishly to a vision of how things used to be. The "hook" here is that this is also the story of a Clem and The Booties - coming together through something wonderful from the past, but then creating something new for themselves out of the experience.

Earth in the far future. After centuries of flooding the oceans have finally receded and a team of alien archaeologists have arrived to excavate the ruins of the strange civilisation that was buried by the rising sea.

They discover a series of ancient relics from "London", which they don't understand. A tube roundel is clearly "for religious purposes", declares Professor ZPENG, their leader.

Young researcher FNONG scans it with a Retrovibatron, an alien device which restores the item by reviving its core essence - in practical terms, it generates a song related to it which makes object like new. So here, the roundel is returned to its old glory, and a song about London emerges.

Excited by this discovery they keep digging. They find a street sign for Denmark Street and then a Mary Quant dress and do the same process. For every item ZPENG comes up with a theory about its religious significance, and then FNONG uses the Retrovibatron to tell the real story whilst making the object like new.

As they interact with these songs and stories the aliens are gradually changed. ZPENG becomes obsessed with accuracy, trying to exactly recreate the past and always getting it wrong - wearing clothes upside down, using a guitar for the religious ceremony "Cricket" and so on. FNONG falls in love with the joy of the songs and the humans who made them.

ZPENG insists his version is correct, and so FNONG decides to prove him wrong. She finds an urn marked "Dave" - could this be the original "humans" who lived here? She uses the Retrovibatron and, to her surprise, the urn smashes and an actual human emerges. DAVE.

Unfortunately DAVE is a bit of a twit, who knows almost as much about the real world as ZPENG. He's also a climate sceptic, who insists the whole world being flooded was just a bit of bad weather.

FNONG keeps coming up with items and songs that reveal the truth, and ZPENG and DAVE fight back, each finding their own items to use the Retrovibatron on. DAVE is particularly keen on getting a working toilet going.

Finally they come to blows and, in the heat of battle, turn the Retrovibatron on each other. Suddenly whole new songs emerge about them - the adventures they've had together, the discoveries they've made, and who they are themselves.

Reunited by the power of this realisation - that they have their own stories to tell which have as much value as anything from the past - the aliens leave the earth in search of new adventures. The spaceship takes off full of anticipation and happiness.

There's the sound of a toilet flushing, and DAVE wanders in. "Where is everybody?"



*better title needed!

What's that you say? "Space aliens? WHO WOULD HAVE THORT?!?" Yes, I know, it is a radical departure from my usual OUVRE but I thought it might work!

It will come as NO surprise to anyone to discover that this was NOT what anyone was after, which is more than fair enough, but I was still disappointed that I never got to go to the pub with Clem Burke to talk about it. Still, it was lovely to have very slightly brushed up against a genuine ROCK LEGEND, especially as an adjunct to a project born out of that MOST wonderful and DRUMMERLY instinct to Just Make Some Music. We should all do more things like that!

posted 8/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Progress Report
As those sensible people who follow my SOCIALS will know, this year I've been looking back at some of my OLD BLOGS from the distant days of 2003. Ideally I would have thought to do this two years when it would have been a nice round twentieth anniversary, but unfortunately Bob Fischer (from whom I nicked the idea) didn't start doing HIS look back at old diaries until last year, so I guess that means it's his fault!

There have been multiple benefits from doing this, not least forcing me to listen again to various old songs which are QUITE GOOD and be reminded of all sorts of JAPES which I hadn't thought about for many years. However, the most beneficial benefit might be the fact that I am getting some idea of what it is like to READ my blogs, rather than just write them. OBVIOUSLY the key result of THIS is usually me thinking "Wot important and incisive insights" but I must admit that sometimes I think "Why are you bothering to tell people this, me of the past? Why don't you wait until someting actually HAPPENS, instead of endlessly wittering on about every random idea you've had for something that probably WON'T?"

That experience explains why there haven't been a lot of MODERN blogs just lately, as lots of stuff has been going on for ME, but it isn't necessarily of interest to anyone else. No no, I insist, it really isn't, don't write in!

Much of this has been to do with the SHOW, both in terms of ADMIN and indeed PERFORMANCE. Last week, for example, I did a complete REJIG of the Data And Doctor Doom website (which is much nicer now), bought various pieces of GEAR, and processed the process of booking a whole bunch of GIGS which aren't quite ready to announce yet. It's all good ADMIN but it's pretty much the same sort of thing every day, so not hugely newsworthy.

Similarly I've been preparing myself to DO the show through a combination of my TWO usual practices. Firstly I've been learning the SONGS as usual by a) singing them a lot and b) muttering the words to myself all day long like a loon to force them into my BRANE. Secondly I've been learning the SLIDES by going through them again and again and changing them every time. I am horribly aware that this whole thing is going to be really HARD to learn as it's Saying Things AND Playing Guitar AND Singing AND Changing Slides all at the same time. What idiot thought that was a good idea?

Anyway, hopefully that has demonstrated the levels of excitement that have been missed over the past few weeks, but all being well there'll be a bit more to come soon as things actually HAPPEN!

posted 8/4/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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