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Absolute Beginner

@leaderofthesect.bsky.social
698 followers 659 following 2K posts

All for art and art for all. Music, films, resistance, culture, books, travel and happy to be part of the industry of human happiness. Y’know, the good stuff in life that doesn’t attract bad people.

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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 11h
In what might be an occasional series - more labels on record labels. Glad this one made its long 60 year journey from the Bronx to the UK. No music store there now - just a boarded up pharmacy.
Shop around by The Miracles on Tamla. With the sellers label showing it came from Roma Music Co in the Bronx NYCAs far as Google Maps allows this boarded up pharmacy, with an ‘Investinthebronx.com’ sign, is what now sits on the site of the former Roma Music shop. The record seems to have fared better over the decades.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 13h
Reefer Jacket out today for the first time since April - refuse to call it a pea coat.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Wondering if this was her - even better first name. RIP Peaches, the records live on!
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Purists 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.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A quartet from the batch of 45s I picked up in Thailand. Particularly pleased with the slightly dodgy Thai Supremes release that is most definitely not endorsed by Motown. The Toho 45 is the theme to some Japanese tv show - I have relatively high hopes for it…
The Supremes - doesn’t actually include I Hear a Symphony, but does have Stop! In the Name of Love and A Lovers Concerto. The Toho 45 is the theme to The Green Man. Japanese press of Where were you when I needed you by The Grassroots, and a slab of GS from The Golden Cups.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I got this. Which is reassuring and also didn’t require 200+ questions.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Thai Ronettes tribute band anyone?
Two ladies on the street in Bangkok rocking not only some fabulously high hair but also a snazzy printed two piece.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Now thats what I call a custom paint job.
Crunched Vespa hand painted with what looks like orange matt emulsion. I’d still have it.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s stopped raining in Bangkok!
Democracy monument, Bangkok, at nightEmpty Bangkok streets!
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
From London to Bangkok - where it is absolutely pissing down. Still better than the day job.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Went for a walk to where the Small Faces used to live all together in Pimlico last night - disappointingly no huge blue plaque. But Battersea Power Station looked impressive on the way back.
Battersea power station from the north bank of the Thames - front facing cooling towers lit up blue/white and a waxing gibbous moon overhead. No pigs in sight.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Battersea Bardot come down to the station…
Battersea power station at night - two of the towers lit up - not a pig to be seen.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Just dropped by Tate Britain for an hour or so - they’ve got a Scopitone showing Agnes Varda films of 50’s Cuba! Thats 3 unexpected delights in one. So much better than the Whistler exhibition.
French Scopitone video jukebox showing Agnes Varda musical films of late 50s Cuba - it’s sublime!
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Quite enamoured by the exterior of the Ibis in Amsterdam. Won’t be staying there - although I’m sure it’s better than the one by the Pompey ground.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Maritime museum, Amsterdam. Roof.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
View from the room in Amsterdam tonight - not too shabby.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Billy Bragg tried that a while ago, and you’re right. But we’re swimming against the tide now I fear. It would help if politicians/media called them out as fascists, as bullies, as the heirs of the NF/BNP, unequivocally with no regard to future votes, I live in hope. But while they don’t we can.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Not much use condemning something the day after. Also, not ‘costumes’ but paramilitary uniforms, not protestors but organised intimidation. This is a lousy response from all concerned.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Jimmy’s, Greek restaurant on Frith Street - mentioned by Clive James in his memoirs. More personally memorable - the waiter once pointed out a photo of me and a girlfriend on the wall there, taken the previous week…but that wasnt who I was there with that night… frosty kleftiko all round…
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This has finally arrived a few weeks after ordering it - the question is, will it sound as good as it did on first hearing or will it be that cynical exercise in milking the family name as some have suggested? Anyway, Womack Sisters, I’m going in!
Womack Sisters debut album plus bonus 45 of Chaffeur on Daptone. All shiny, new and unplayed. Exciting!
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Life from a window, I’m just taking in the view…
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The afterlife is about to get weirder. Have fun Yayoi!
Flower by Yayoi Kusama outside the art gallery of NSW Australia
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
That rain seems to have brought out the butterflies.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Always good to he here on a Friday night.
Electric Avenue in Brixton, London at night with the eponymous neon sign over the corner of Brixton Market.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Lovely ! Mine was the basic metallic blue with very hot vinyl seats. Speedo was one of these - approximate at best.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Just seen this in the garden - should I be worried?
Flower sculpture - Yayoi Kusama
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Best thing about an eclipse is it really fucks with the seagulls.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Given the eclipse, meteor shower and all that, I thought I’d make the same joke as everyone else here - but in German.
German poster for the 1962 film of Day of The Triffids - Fear! Horror! Panic! 
Stay out of the allotment and on no account stare at the meteors.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
My dad would like a fucking word.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Big Sis, somewhere in the Swiss Alps on a school ski trip about 1968. No fancy gear, my mum knitted that orange jumper. Later unravelled it and knitted one for me with the same wool…
My big sister with chunky orange jumper and modishly short hair wondering why the hell shes on a ski trip when there’s no snow for miles. Mountains way off in the background.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The most psychedelic flowers in the garden.
Passion flowerPassion flower - a true tart amongst plants.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Surely you must already have this one?
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
And leaving her out in the rain like this is why the rust took hold….
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Then you’re probably talking about Rod Liddle
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Weekend nearly here. Spending it deep in the underground West Country punk, cider and badger scene. One day it’ll be as big as Northern Soul and you’ll all say you were there.
Badger with a pint on a pool table. That’s as punk as fuck.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Brick Lane for dinner tonight- consider it compensation for having to spend the day in glamorous Dagenham tomorrow.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Ditto!
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Without saying your age, what is your fave film from the year you turned 18…
UK print add for Eating Raoul
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Normally a modern art type, but it’s hard not to love a Caravaggio - even when it’s copied onto a wall. This one just outside the church where the original is (which turned out to be closed…).
The Death of Saint Lucia by Caravaggio - painted on a wall in the square of Santa Lucia, Syracuse, Sicily. The real one is in the church on the left - but after a 30 min walk in 35 degree heat I found that it was closed today…
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Siracusa tonight. I do love this place.
Modern Vespa in front of a restaurant in Syracuse Sicily with cathedral (maybe a church?) in the background - at night.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Lovely little feller - Italian green wall lizard - hanging out in the sublime ruins of Neapolis today.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Now this is what I call a beach…
People swimming off the rocks on the edge of Ortigia, Sicily and sitting on a platform mainly made out of scaffolding poles jutting out to sea.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
In Sicily - The Greek theatre holding up remarkably well after two and a bit thousand years. They knew how to do a view too.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Dolce and Gabbana apparently. Nice but bet neither of them have ridden it.
Vespa all done up for Dolce & Gabbana with pseudo religious paint job. Very nice but I bet neither of them have ridden it.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Ten hours on a sleeper and finally made it to Sicily - Etna still smoking away, but considerably calmer. A day of wine, sun and nothingness ahead. Ciao!
Mount Etna from the Messina-Catania train. Smoke still visible from the summit.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Campaign for decent toy shops in the uk!
Tiny child’s ride on Vespa - on the whole pretty accurate - in shop window in NaplesConsiderably less accurate child’s ride on Vespa - still cute tho Bit more modern but rather smart child’s ride on scooter
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
So no trip to Sicily today - sitting in Bristol instead. Rebooked for tomorrow to Napoli then a ferry down the coast to get there. Turning into quite to a bit of an adventure. Bloody volcanoes - what’s the point of them !
Mount Etna erupting yesterday simply to spite me by getting my flight cancelled and making me take a boat from Naples. Vulcan can do one.
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
This record, everything it introduced me to, that woman’s jumper and haircut on the sleeve, a lifetime of going down deeper soul related rabbit holes, the scratches and clicks - it was America to me for so long.
Sleeve for 1968 album This Is Soul
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Nice Jazz Festival, a brilliant event, cut down to 3 days this year. Not the biggest deal in the scheme of things, but it’s completely down to the newly elected far-right mayor having ‘other priorities’ - the right are threatened when people come together and enjoy themselves.
Vermine fasciste poster showing a rat. U
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Absolute Beginner @leaderofthesect.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Looks good - but they missed one of Europe’s key progressive policies.
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