The Cure in Belfast. A windswept set of epic proportions. One Hundred Years into Endsong gave me goosebumps. Dancing to Love Cats uplifted my heart. The Twilight Sad brought me to tears with intense emotion. Indoor gigs are better, but I’ve been lucky with great outdoors shows this summer… 🖤

Huge thank you to The Repair Shop for giving mum and I the chance to talk about my incredible grandmother, trailblazing Northern Irish journalist Kay Kennedy. The work they did on her writing box is quite literally unbelievable. What an amazing experience. 🥰💖

“It gives the audience permission to behave badly.” Lovely to hear Tim Curry talking about Rocky Horror on Radio 4 this morning. & happy 50th to the Rocky Horror Picture Show! This celebration of the Rocky Horror Show’s 50th (stage not film) is among my favourite ever cover stories I’ve written.

Huge respect to Lush who have closed their website and all their UK stores today in protest at the genocide in Gaza. ✊🏻

Could every week from now on please feature three @fatherjohnmisty gigs? Ideally in the Ulster Hall & @barrowland_ballroom?? I enjoyed it so much, at one point I thought I was going to pass out. This man is a genius. The greatest frontman of my generation. The greatest chronicler of our times.

I’ve missed a few gigs in this thread… oops. But this weekend was a three-gigger. One surprisingly great show; one reliably spectacular; one depressingly awful mess that left me sad and worried. A very mixed bag. The Sisters of Mercy 🖤 Tragedy 💖✨🪩 Lemonheads 🥺

Thank you for the metal, Ozzy. I’m so glad you got to feel this loved at the end. 🖤

All hail Black Sabbath! All hail Ozzy! Hail Satan!! 🤘🏻🥹🖤 🖤🖤 And huge love to my partner in crime, the glorious Vicky! 🖤🖤

Then there was the community… Birmingham was packed with my people! And they’d literally hung the bunting for us. Metal often doesn’t get the respect it’s due. It was really moving to see that happen too. Heavy music matters - and the community around it is the best music community I’ve ever known.

And it was a moment in which we all confronted both human frailty and the power of the human spirit. Sitting on his throne rather than jumping off amplifiers, Ozzy is obviously not well. His tremors were visible. But he is emphatically still Ozzy. People are more than their medical conditions.

It was also honouring a fierce and complicated life that has given us so much. It was celebrating the metal community that I love. Mastodon, Papa V Perpetua, Gojira, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt… wow.

To say Ozzy’s final bow was emotional doesn’t quite do it justice. It was more than just the heartsoaring joy of hearing Paranoid and War Pigs among a huge crowd, every last one on their feet and in full voice. It was more than the tears coursing down thousands of faces during Mama, I’m Coming Home.

Are you off somewhere nice? says the taxi driver. Hell yeah, I grin. Birmingham, I’m coming for ya!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻

The Greatest Week of Metal (TM) kicked off last night with enormous riffs and gigantic smiles… I don’t know how it’s taken me this long to finally see Iron Maiden but, by hell, they did not disappoint!

If there is a multiverse (& by my understanding of the science, there pro is), I’m deeply grateful to live in the world where @sparksofficial.bsky.social are still performing AT THIS STANDARD after 5 decades. There’s nothing like when that huge beat hits in The Number One Song in Heaven. 💖

If you have the chance to see Sparks, and I can’t say this enough, SEE SPARKS. Every time. Another glorious night. Exuberant and thoughtful, thinkable and danceable. Glorious.

Having survived the longest day, and London heat… I look forward to winter 🖤❄️

Berlin’s Adventure Team giving enjoyably Lemonheads energy at the Glad Cafe on Saturday night…

Inflatable arm waving tube men!!! Nope, I did not expect them to be a highlight of Pulp at the Hydro - but how brilliantly odd they were. Absolutely capturing the paranoia of The Fear. OU was the best moment for me. “He said he loved her. She tried to look impressed” Oh Jarv. Another great night.

WHAT a new music Friday!!! The first new Pulp album in 24 years - and it’s already hitting home with spiky insights and sexy hips… AND Creeper’s neck-piercing return to SanguivoreWorld. As bloody catchy as ever. Jim Steinman’s spirit is still alive. And I love it. Music is everything.

I’ve just heard the really sad news that the great Barry McIlheney has died. Baz was a bit of a hero to me.

The story of the space dogs is much more interesting than the Irish #eurovision song might lead you to believe. (Recommended reading)

Finally caught the excellent Fréwaka… Maybe it’s because I’m Irish, but Na Sidhe feel so much more eerily plausible than the rest of the otherworldly. Living on the edge of what we laughably call civilisation, ready to steal the unwary. If they aren’t there, surely the woods would invent them.

“It's the sound of a fucking gun and it’s the sound of your world collapsing” Anywhere, Why, and I Am Dog Now were the stand out moments from the spectacular @chatpileband.bsky.social making their return to Glasgow at the QMU. Thanks for a great one, lads! 🤘🏻🖤

First night of the no-phones Skeletour! I cannot claim to be taken with the pure chaos of the Manchester venue… but that is a show to end all shows. No spoilers here. Other than… hail Satan!

An incredible two nights at the Barras with the Manics and some spectacular pals! Such a surprising set - Peeled Apples, She is Suffering, Sleepflower and Autumnsong all highlights among highlights! 💖⚡️🖤

They’ve been woven through my entire life. So it’s not just the time that’s passed for them, the losses they’ve had - it’s my own time gone, the people I’ve lost along the way, my youth that’s in the past. It’s our shared history, in all its power and beauty and grief. Fuck I love this band.

Ramping myself up for night two of The Manics at the Barras. I always forget how emotional it is as an experience. Seeing them play Motorcycle Emptiness in front of projections of their young selves… it just breaks me. Almost unbearably poignant.

Happy #recordstoreday from me, The Cure and @monorailmusic.bsky.social!

Skunk Anansie at the Academy in Glasgow. Truly epic! Moshing literally WITH SKIN! And with the most epic best-friend-cousin-sister anyone could ever have! 🖤💖