iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Certain PRs might as well send that, given their attitude to actually sending out streams.

John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Yes, been saying that it’s possible to have a modicum of sympathy for City, as how else other than financial cheating were clubs supposed to break into the cabal? Arsenal and Man Utd fans crying “Cheats!” are living out Bill Hicks’ “You saw him, he had a gun” routine.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Could easily become one hotbed of corruption, but yeah right now it’s like privatised rail.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh, there’s a lot of City fans who have become entitled chumps. But I have a modicum of sympathy for how the EPL is such a closed shop that financial cheating is the only way to compete. The FA and EPL’s complicity in All Of This needs looking at.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hugely enjoying Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United fans trying to take the moral high ground. Very self-aware. (Liverpool and Spurs fans are exempt because of a motivated fanbase and general hilarity respectively.)

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Having fat fingers while zooming in on what seats to get was the main reason it took until 9.10 to check out for me.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As chaotic as the original run obviously was, the Oasis ticket sale this year has been a lesson in how to do sales to registered fans. Of the four of us in our group, three got sales for various tranches today. I got four tix, checked out by 9.10. Lessons learned, in fairness.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

True, but a long old time to bank pre-orders. On a personal bias, as reviews ed on a longlead monthly, I fully approve of this “Book it in now” policy.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Avoiding Q4 is sensible, imo this gives the album a good run-in on essentially a fresh start. I’m getting a fair few album press releases for early ‘27 now. (Though The Molotovs’ second album announcement for late-April is a bit previous…)

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Album got announced yesterday, out Feb 12. No collabs, looks a solid team of producers.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Agreed, but I’m fuming I didn’t put the bet on I immediately thought of placing that he’d get the winner, when he came on. #narrative

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Paddy Young’s Sky One special is so good - a newish comedian standing out by usually choosing the silliest option, without being self-consciously wacky. A huge amount of charm, too. A very impressive companion to his SNL:UK stuff.

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Maggie McNeill @maggiemcneill.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It’s the new @wsc.co.uk ! In which I argue how timewasting at corners could be eased by getting rid of corner flags.

The front cover of the new issue of When Saturday Comes magazine, in which two Aston Villa players are depicted, with a speech bubble from one saying: “I can see another one leaving.”

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

But she always goes out of her way to land badly, so I don’t believe she wouldn’t understand why the term and whole discussion would be offensive. Never understood why she’s tolerated, let alone celebrated.

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Ian Wade @wadeywade.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

It’s always nervy yet exciting putting art out there but anyway

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Bryan currently has a beard. I think it’s an off-duty beard. But… beard.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I first spoke to Guy Garvey in 2000 for Teletext for the Newborn EP. So, to mark Elbow’s 25th anniversary shows for Asleep In The Back, I chatted to Guy about those times for NME. www.nme.com/news/music/e...

nme.com

Elbow tell us about Manchester 'Asleep In The Back' 25th anniversary gigs and new music plans

Elbow's Guy Garvey on playing 'Asleep In The Back' 25th anniversary gigs at The Ritz in Manchester, Andy Burnham as PM, Talk Talk and new album plans

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Mint Royale @mint-royale.com · 21/08/2026

a single data centre consuming the same amount of electricity as over 1 million uk households seems like quite a lot, and I do enjoy them saying that’s at 50% load as if they’re just building the extra 50% capacity for lols and it’ll never get used we promise www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

According to Ofgem, the average UK household electricity consumption is 2,500 kWh per year. Digital Reef said in its proposal that at a "likely" 50% load, the campus would consume 2.65bn Whper year of electricity, equivalent to the demand of more than 1m UK households.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I initially read this as Michael Hann’s Meat, which would be a VERY different film.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I mean, this is already more fun than Official Charts’ official chart.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Vibrant indeed! What’s the criteria?

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

CDs is 80 mins, but yes, it should deffo be stickered as edited on the vinyl. Considering many reissues of 80s albums now DO have the full version on a deluxe 2LP edition, it seems obvious this will happen soon on new LPs - maybe it’s just a way to get fans to buy an LP twice…

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Stopping entire albums swallowing the Top 10 whole was good, but didn’t go far enough really, did it? Tempting to say “Only allowed four ‘singles’ per album,” but ofc Rein Me In is single six. And where it leaves MR’s original point on the album chart is a big shrug emoji. But both are now hideous.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

This happened fairly regularly in the 80s. Whether the return of it is a good thing is debatable, but vinyl can still only house 45 minutes of music. That an artist as popular as Olivia Rodrigo isn’t doing a 2LP - even, as, say a D2C offering alongside the 36 different coloured vinyl - is sad.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I’ve noticed a significant reduction in the number of Top 40 new entries in the album chart in the past year. At least artists were able to get a solid-looking first week, to build some sort of recognition they’d got an album out. Even that’s now fast disappearing.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

They sort-of do, or at least labels say “Here’s the latest preview track from Album X,” but so many musicians no longer know what counts as a single. If you look at any new artist - even successful ones - there’s just a “-“ where a chart position should be, for literally dozens of singles.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I don’t do friendlies, but I’m watching online.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

For anyone at a loose end on a Friday night, I’m on the @geoffnorcott.bsky.social Times Radio show at 8.45pm discussing the Anatomy Of A Song of…well, no spoilers. Why not change your Friday plans and find out? (Keen fans of Geoff and of Friday night radio are already all over his show, obv.)

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Mint Royale @mint-royale.com · 29/07/2026

This story about anthropic (and other ai companies) just bulk buying millions of books - including old rare, out of print books - then chopping the spines to make them easier to scan and then destroying them once they’re scanned is just so fucking bleak and depressing

news.com.au

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I’d be up for TOTP’s story of 2002, but I turned it on about six weeks ago and so far it’s only been about The Hives and Vanessa Carlton.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Hey, everyone has a specialist subject. You’re right on The Strokes, though. Not had so much as a press release on it, which doesn’t help.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

*Whistles Notion* Not quite everybody…

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Anyway, until Euro 28, it’s goodbye to the @wsc.co.uk wallchart. A little bit of joy every tournament.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Spain are hardly worthy winners. They played their part in making that a dismal game of football. Twice winners in two appalling finals.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Extra time in this is like Ed Sheeran making his next record a double album.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

These last 10 minutes of the half-time show have really dragged.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I’ve seen people say England’s win last night means it’s our best World Cup since 1966. No. It’s our joint second-best, with 1990 and 2018. Beating France was fun, but it was basically a friendly. Unless you can name the last five Community Shield winners without googling, don’t claim it mattered.

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Andy Dawson @andydawson.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Only another 24 hours of reading football posts on here from people who never post about football at any other time 🧐

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I’m going to assume Inside Llewyn Davis has become massive unless specifically told otherwise.

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Andrew Harrison @nndroid.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Why in hell is this foolish man lending credence to the far-right idea that Britain is at “breaking point”? Say we’re angry. Say we’re in trouble. Say people are clamouring for real change. But DO NOT amplify Farage’s talking points. This is elementary messaging.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

This is a magnificent story, the kind of mad adventure the @lordshortcake.bsky.social Danny Baker phone-in was built on.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

After the emcee fiasco and today, prepare the “Is Wordle running out of words?” thinkpieces.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

That should be Simon’s second yellow for simulation.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Penalty apart, has there been a shot on target yet?

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Can’t remember the last time I went to bed when it was daylight. Worth it.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

James Righton’s solo album is genuinely one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard, despite being on Soulwax’s label.

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John Earls @earlsjohn.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

It’s now Aylesbury Waterside, but the Fryars’ runner was hosting gigs there until he died last year. They still have a few gigs there - Blossoms, Morrissey, Paul Weller recently - but it’s mostly comedy and theatre now. (It’s my local-ish venue!)

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