From The List Archive

Live Review: A Girl And a Gun Taking pot shots at potboilers Share: Author: Lorna Irvine Taking pot shots at potboilers Louise Orwin’s funny yet trenchant show, A Girl and a Gun, exists in a hinterland where the good girl (in white) is every bit as damaging and pernicious as the femme fatale (in red) andContinue reading “From The List Archive”

Anatomy Of A Classic: Strawberry Switchblade

Everyone adored their hit single, ‘Since Yesterday’, but Strawberry Switchblade’s eponymous album had many more beautiful songs. In their aesthetic and musical DNA lies a plethora of influences. Sixties icons Brigitte Bardot and The Shangri-Las. Their look is the first obvious jumping -off point. There’s a strong goth look in the Siouxsie-esque make-up and corsets,Continue reading “Anatomy Of A Classic: Strawberry Switchblade”

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Series 8: Update

Mama Ru’s latest batch of UK queens: bloody hell, they’re a shady lot and no mistake. Don’t hold back, bitches! No sooner had the dust settled on the KY Kelly v Paris Baby furore, than there were yet more kerfuffles. Even the brilliantly named Anita Piss (pictured below) was getting in on the in-fights, andContinue reading “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Series 8: Update”

Lucifer Over Perthshire: Sabrina Carpenter

Can you smell it? The sweet scent of capitalism. Sabrina Carpenter can. She would do anything for money. Yet another Disney gal gone bad, Ms Carpenter continues the trajectory of what the lascivious, prurient tabloids call the “she’s all grown up now” column, whereby it’s legitimate to openly ogle at young women, because, after all,Continue reading “Lucifer Over Perthshire: Sabrina Carpenter”

Goodbye Dr. Bonnie Greer

Bonnie Greer, who has passed away after a short illness at seventy seven years old, was a courageous writer, playwright and broadcaster. She could often be found on ‘Question Time’ squaring up to right-wing bigots like Lawrence Fox and Nick Griffin. She was never bolshy, quiet and measured but outspoken. We are lesser without thisContinue reading “Goodbye Dr. Bonnie Greer”

T Shirt Day 2026

Do the Kardashian family or Justin Bieber really like metal? I can’t imagine either Kim, Justin or many of these other vain, moneyed celebs actually listening to metal, let alone going to their gigs, but at the risk of sounding like a gatekeeper, I will say it’s up to them. This led to Steve Lamacq,Continue reading “T Shirt Day 2026”

Five Perfect Pavement Songs

I woke up with Spit On A Stranger this morning as an earworm and it’s both caustic and beautiful, so here’s that very song along with four other beauties. Don’t say I’m not good to you.

Skeleton Tree Is A Decade Old

How is it possible? Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ ‘Skeleton Tree’s a decade old. An overwhelming album scrutinising appalling loss, grief and coping through love, it was arguably the most personal album Cave had ever created at that pont. Andrew Dominik’s film, ‘One More Time With Feeling’ that came out to accompany the album,Continue reading “Skeleton Tree Is A Decade Old”

RuPaul’s Drag Race Series 8 Begins!

The winning franchise continues as- staggeringly- we find ourselves at series 8 of the UK version. And oh my, for the love of Saint Dolly, is it kicking off already. These queens do not hold back. In an extremely ill-judged moment backstage, young queen Paris Baby threw what I think she thought was shady banterContinue reading “RuPaul’s Drag Race Series 8 Begins!”

That Mitchell and Webb Look- Series 1(2006)

The first series of ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’ is by far the best. It came along at exactly the right time, 2006, when sketch comedy shows seemed moribund. Melding their contrasting ‘Peep Show’ personas with outright absurdism, it was very silly and often inspired. There was ‘Numberwang’, the quiz show with no discernible rules;Continue reading “That Mitchell and Webb Look- Series 1(2006)”