Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 18hFrom Facebook, so entirely untrustworthy, but this Section 34 dispersal order for Gosport goes right through my mum’s house. 240
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 18hThis is the author’s take, btw. My impression is the band was falling apart because the manager and label are making them tour too much. This seems to happen in about half the music biogs I read. Less sex/drugs etc; more Roadmender and Barrowland once again. 010
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 18hChapter 12, 1985, and while things are looking up for the boys, irreconcilable divisions are starting to appear in the Level 42 enterprise. Mark King has grasped that pop super-stardom is possible, but this means breaking free from jazz-funk purist fundamentalism. Not all the band agree. 140
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Having a conversation on WhatsApp with an American friend who was struggling with Lydon’s accent in a documentary I Ient him about punk. Warned him about Strummer’s fake cockney drawl. WhatsApp archive inbox has transformed this warning and has moved the conversation somewhere else entirely. 160
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Using my knee surgery recovery to catch up on TV I’ve missed. I’m up to 1955 & The Honeymooners. Not as good as Bilko (what is?) but v funny. Fave joke so far: Ed (Art Carney) teaching Ralph (Gleason) to play golf. ‘First, address the golf ball’ (Broad Brooklyn accent) ‘Hello, golf ball’ 140
Reposted by Ian WalkerSimon Knott @simonknott.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Further along Bloom Street, the Salford Corporation Gas Offices, now offices I think, though they also appear to be the HQ of an African church. 0151
Reposted by Ian WalkerAbsolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Purists who want mint copies be damned! I promise the marvellously named Peaches Lipscomb that I’ll take care of her copy of Tracks of my Tears. 1102
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Eve replied "The Gummi Worm deceived me, and I ate”. And so God punished them saying “For dust you are and to dust you will return” Then the Lord God said to the Gummi Worm, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly” 120
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Later today, I’m hoping to have a hot & fresh blast o butter. 220
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Brilliant bookshop. Definitely, currently, in my top 5 of book shops. 160
Reposted by Ian WalkerJohn Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Thanks so much to everyone who came along, lovely audience and great chairing by Matson Taylor. Thanks to the festival and the awesome Dial Lane Books for having me 0112
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Because I got carried away with my physio I messed up my knees replacement recovery a little bit. Nothing serious, but my surgeon’s assistant told me to spend the weekend sitting down, icing my knee a lot, and watch films. Starting with Ride Lonesone, one of the best Ranown films, I believe. 240
Reposted by Ian WalkerMike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 03/10/2026“You're not an Ai influencer”, the sickest of burns a pope has ever received 3348684
Reposted by Ian Walkerᴄʜᴀʀʟᴇʏ★ᴘɪʀᴏᴛʜ @charlespiroth.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Philip Clarkson Elliott (American, 1903-1985) Shelocta, PA, 1943 Oil on canvas Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York 27611
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I first watched it when I was also 14, on a b/w portable in my bedroom. My daughter’s reaction was the same as mine; thrilled & baffled by precise film making, by perfect storytelling. Of wanting to call someone up to tell them what I had just seen. Of not knowing what to do with my reaction. 120
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Last night, our teenage daughter randomly insisted we watch Psycho (I think maybe she follows a YouTube creator/influencer who is mad-obsessed with classic Hollywood - a good thing). I tell you, watching the film with a 14 year old who has no idea of where he film is headed is a fantastic thing 5684447
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026My final Level 42 ridiculously hot-LA-night/insomnia tweet is that they were a great 80s pop band and that The Sun Goes Down (Living it Up) always makes me happy when I hear it. Crazy notion. Forward motion. 060
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The best thing about the hack-work Level 42 biography is it does describe a band who are existentially conflicted over their naturally talented ability to play jazz funk. Bad biopic levels of conflict. 120
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/20261) Wogan once called the band Junction 42 2) The Level Lads is a good name 3) Their name was inspired by Hitchhikers’ GTTG. 4) the Isle of Wight stuff is great - prisons & a plethora of spinnakers 5) I like the unreliability of the text: hacked-out cynical 80s jazz-funk pop biography magic realism 241
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I’m reading this charity-shop-bought 1980s biography of Level 42. As writing goes, it’s hack-work, and it’s not trustworthy, I guess, but it is highly entertaining: it contains the (music-journalist-quoted) line ‘The Level lads aren’t even close to Shakatak for utter monotony’. 071
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I expect this incisive observation about a key issue of the moment to go wildly viral. 210
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Watched McQ (74). I liked the music & Seattle in the 70s, but Wayne is a poor post-Dirty Harry quasi-fascist avenging cop in corrupt America. He looks like he should be in a diner talking loudly & imprecisely about the Dodgers or the Mets to the owner, or bickering with his wife in a Florida condo 041
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Watching Ice Station Zebra. Patrick McGoohan’s fur coat is both unethical and totally excellent. (My dad was a submariner. He never wore a fur coat on a nuclear sub. I know McGoohan is not a submariner in the film, he’a a spy, a foppish spy). (The whole film is unethical and totally excellent). 270
Reposted by Ian WalkerMunicipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Its #WorldPostcardDay so, with thanks to @paulsuttonking.bsky.social who initially shared it with me, I'm offering this fine postcard from Runcorn New Town featuring its futuristic elevated busway and Shopping City. 1366
Reposted by Ian WalkerCar Boot Vinyl Diaries @vinylcarbooty.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Exceptional work from Cliff for October. Sorry, I mean execrable. 11379
Reposted by Ian WalkerClair Woodward @clairywoowoo.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Lionel's son Ty is very talented. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CB5...youtube.comMiss Hope Springs - London's 'Queen of Cabaret'.YouTube video by Ty Jeffries Composer & Lyricist 131
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Watching Shillingbury Tales, a wilfully undemanding series made in 1980 about an English village. I remember it being on TV, I was 12. It’s hung about in my memory in a quasi-Proustian way, probably because it starred Diane Keen. Lionel Jeffries has just turned up. So maybe he was my madeleine. 471
Reposted by Ian WalkerGail Myerscough @gailmyerscough.co.uk · 29/09/2026I’m Gail, a one woman (and a feline assistant) business, based in Manchester. I create prints, homewares, T-shirts & cards inspired by midcentury design, music and architecture. Have a look gailmyerscough.co.uk 7214136
Reposted by Ian WalkerPostcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I want to read your memoirs. 616724
Reposted by Ian WalkerToby Miller @tobytram.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Rain on horizon. I open my backpack and move the Polaroid camera, film, and notebooks to the safety of a plastic bag, like a spy preparing to swim stolen blueprints across the Danube. 1121
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Actually, I’ve already got a shop In my pocket so I don't need one on my telly. 000
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026All my life, I’ve thought that what I need to complete me, to make me feel whole, is to have a shop in my living room. Thanks America, thanks for bringing me home. 020
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Looks like practically everyone I’ve ever known is at the Saint Etienne gig in Cambridge. 160
Reposted by Ian WalkerGoon Pod @goonpod.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Spike Milligan seen here performing a feat unparalleled in all human endeavour: making Van Morrison smile 212124
Reposted by Ian WalkerHappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 25/09/2026Wish they'd do another series of True Detectorists 424727
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026My Uber driver is playing frenzied Euro-disco loudly. We are about to travel on America’s oldest freeway. Party on the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Put your hands in the air. 150
Ian Walker @fenlandgent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The only advice my dad gave me that I’ve taken to heart was his fundamental belief that you should never (and he would always point at me when telling me this), that you should never-ever underestimate Mike + the Mechanics when considering the wider Genesis canon. 3122
Reposted by Ian WalkerJamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Can’t eat a sandwich until you subscribe to sandwiches. Can’t eat today’s sandwich until it has applied daily sandwich updates. Sandwich now has adverts even though you paid for ad-free sandwich. Can pay again to have less sandwich adverts. Now you can eat the sandwich, but it’s smaller. 20747521188
