iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

40 years old this month… purchased this morning for, yes, still £1.99. A very obedient charity shop.

Greetings to the New Brunette 12” single by Billy Bragg

Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

First gig this year where I was I confess a bit teary eyed it was so good. First Aid Kit with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

🙂🙃🙂 enjoying yesterday’s rare chazza bargain buy.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Bunnymen tonight: 1. Trees in Regents Park reminded me of the cover of their 1st album. Crocodiles. Set kicked off with 1st track off that, Going Up. 3. Ever seen Will Sergeant & Andy Burnham in same room? 3. Ian McCulloch hides in the dark these days. But none of us look how we looked in 1980.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Matt just got clattered and is out for at least the rest of the season 😕 #saintsfc

Matt Le Tissier/TEAssier mug with broken handle

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I did first read this as AI. Need to get a life or new glasses.

BBC online headline “Amazon warehouse could affect A1, says councillor”.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Not only was this a fascinating read, it led me back to the albums I’d ignored. I Trawl The Megahertz & The Gunman all week. 🙏 PS PM is a genius.

Cover of the book Truly Gifted Kids: A Book About A Band Called Prefab Sprout by @nigetassell.bsky.social

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Refreshing to read a rock biography where the excess that brings everything to a halt at the peak of the band’s success turns out to be an addiction to cycling.

Cover of Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany by Uwe Schütte

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Don’t civilians actually read the National Planning Policy Framework, December 2024 & August 2026 versions, each published after much public consultation, by an elected government? Or Planning & Infrastructure and English Devolution Acts? What’s to come clean on?

Daily Express front page - ‘PM MUST COME CLEAN ON HOMES FOR GREEN BELT’

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Practically took out a mortgage for this one. Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I spy with my little eye… #NPPF www.gov.uk/government/n...

Confirmation in press release that the updated National Planning Policy Framework will be published on Monday.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Kudos to the LP Cafe Watford for a 3rd Sunday afternoon of local acts in the sunshine. More guitars than you could shake a tambourine at. Arranging stuff like this builds a community.

Callaine playing guitar outside the shops - LP in large letters in the window

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Darn it. 85 pages into The Every. Enjoyable but was starting to get serious deja vu until I checked the Eggers section of my shelves. He writes too many books!

Cover of this previous edition of The Every

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

A completely fascinating, disturbing book, accentuated if you think you know modern London, or indeed your offspring. A sad true story & I do hope @praddenkeefe.bsky.social’s journalistic rigour has brought at least some sense of closure to the family.

Cover of London Falling by Patrick Radden
Keefe

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

A very thirsty deer found our garden water feature this morning.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I eked out this new & essential Simon Reynolds book, stopping after each chapter to listen back to each act. Many familiar but many I had blanked out at the time via tribalism or preconceptions, some justified some not so much. Maybe if you can remember 1984 to 94 you weren’t really there?

Cover of Still In A Dream by Simon Reynolds

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

No man is an island. Oh except me.

Google earth satellite pic - parc municipal de l’ile simon

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

What are the chances? I just walked past this for the first time tonight. Ashland Place W1.

Plaque: LIVE AID13 July 1985 PLANNED AND RUN FROM THIS BUILDING

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Really interesting polemic. For the world to live healthily with artificial intelligence we have to be the head and shoulders of the centaur, served by AI as the body and not vice versa. And as a personal aside, my relationship with this cat has exactly the same tension built into it unfortunately.

White cat sitting next to book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About AI Before It’s Too Late by Cory Doctorow.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

🎭 The Divine Comedy tonight in Aylesbury. (Hot Wednesday night rather than rainy Sunday afternoon).

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

36 years ago yesterday: England going out to West Germany in Italy on penalties, schedule clash with the Stones at Wembley - vibe there crushed. News coming through from Turin via those with transistor radios.

Concert archives “36 years ago you saw Gun and the Rolling Stones at Wembley Stadium”

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I remember being in an argumentative mood for this episode. It was a hot afternoon, water was spilt… @50shadesofplanning.bsky.social episode 174: Red Hot Planning Chat pod.co/50-shades-of...

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Why use an artist when AI can produce birthday card art like this? I’m not surprised the record deck appears to be on fire…

Birthday card with illustration of a record desk. Stylus arm on wrong side.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

A fascinating book, good vehicle for recounting a lot of specific London history. Ever-changing city.

List of the 25 demolished buildings the subject of the book

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Another nostalgia night… the B52s, Devo (not pictured but you can visualise I’m sure), Rezillos…

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I’m told that Elvis Costello was down there in that pic, together with Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas. From where I was in the RAH they didn’t look a day older to me than circa 1978. Supported by Chris Difford. Between them some of the greatest songs of the late 20th century, well late 70s anyway.

Elvis Costello and band at the Royal Albert Hall, a long long way down from where I was sitting.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Absence one day will make the heart grow fonder: unfashionable to say it but Paul McCartney’s new album is fresher, more crafted without any pretensions and straight-up normal honest than anyone has a right to expect after more than 6 decades.

Sleeve of The Boys Of Dungeon Lane by Paul McCartney

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Little Simz at Cross The Tracks, Brockwell Park. Also really enjoyed: Joy Crookes; Obongjayar; Bricknasty; Bel Cobain; Lady Wray. On the hottest day of the year or what.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Shortly to embark on the second of the five stages of UKREiif, which of course are Denial, LNER, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. #UKREiif #Leeds 🚂

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Thanks Nigel Smith for tonight’s gig at the Garage, Islington. On 28 April 1979 younger & provincial versions of the 2 of us first saw Magazine at the Southampton Gaumont (Simple Minds in support). Dave Formula has now recreated those songs with Noko & band. A very special & personal heritage gig. 👌

Dave Formula in stylish hat, behind the keyboards

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

When you turn up at a dinner and you see that one of your heroes is the after dinner speaker. 🤩

Guest speaker: Professor David Olusoga OBE

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Was anyone else in Brockwell Park 43 years ago today? ✌️

Map for 1983 CND festival for peace. Line up including Madness, Style Council etc.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Public Image Limited at the Watford Colosseum tonight.

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Someone here just loves David Attenborough’s Secret Garden

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

I’ve finally started to read a book I borrowed from my late father-in-law 20 years ago. Seemed topical. I’m left feeling that any incoming world leader should be given a compulsory reading list, with this on it - and with a pre-inauguration test. How could we forget the lessons of history, so soon?

Cover of The Wars Against Saddam by John Simpson

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

🎵 Don’t need this pressure on Don’t need this pressure on You go down, down Pass the talk of town You go down Greek street Then its underground Well it’s Soho life For this mobile knife It’s the place to shoot Saturday night beetroot 🎵

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Simon Ricketts @simonicity.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Trying to remember what I must have bought 🤨

Amazon message on phone “based on your recent purchase you may also be interested in pet odour removers”

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