Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Priceless early Beasties memories, Dacia's unmissable Bucket Lise Fund, and an important reminder of the reality of our interneting.
1. I’m moving house, so my life is currently a chaotic pile of boxes and frenzied calls to solicitors and estate agents. Still, going through a lifetime of belongings does throw up the odd gem.
Such as: seeing The Verve on the cusp of A Northern Soul, and still playing A Storm in Heaven, for six quid in a tiny room at Manchester Uni. As the true heads know, they were untouchable at this point, before old Mad Richard dragged ‘em right down the middle of the road.
10 Things will always be free, but it takes a lot of effort, love and curiosity to pull this thing together each week.
So if you want to support Looking Sideways without taking out a paid sub - you can! Click right here.
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2. I don’t often talk about my work with my agency All Conditions Media on here, but I’m breaking that particular fourth wall with news of a campaign that’s too good not to share with the LS faithful.
It’s the Bucket List Fund we have just launched with our friends at Dacia.
Apply, tell us about your dream trip and if we like your idea we’ll lend you a car AND award you up to £5000 to make that pipe dream a reality.
Maybe there’s a family trip you’ve wanted to do for years. An adventure that’s been nagging away. A corner of the British Isles you’ve always had a hankering to enjoy. Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.
One of the great joys of my work at ACM is coming up with ideas that help everybody experience the incredible privileged life of travel and adventure I’ve been luck enough to enjoy over the years.
That’s the thinking behind this one, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what ideas people have. Apply here.
More simple ways to support Looking Sideways - use any of these codes and I’ll get a small commission 🫡
FINISIDEWAYS10 for 10% off anything from Finisterre
LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from Db
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS2026 for 15% off any Albion purchase
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.
3. Seeing my old pal and bezzie Johno Verity ascend to ever more deified Instagram influencer status has been brilliant fun.
And I had a small hand in his latest bit, as he explained in this video above. Johno is coming on the podcast later this year and I'm really looking forward to spending a couple of hours reminiscing about our three decades of friendship, and this mad new chapter of his life.
4. Yep. I am slowly coming out of my little podcast break and planning some new episodes for this summer and beyond.
Up soon (well, hopefully): none other than Jack Johnson, after his ‘people’ got in touch to see if I was up for speaking to him on the occasion of the release of SURFILMUSIC - Emmett Malloy’s documentary tracing Johnson’s journey from surfer to filmmaker to musician. Watch the trailer above.
5. Also in the offing - a long-awaited conversation with the great Alastair Humphreys , about his very singular career as a writer and adventurer, and the release of his new book Unwilded.
6. The best thing I read on Substack this week: Kate Schellenbach of LUSCIOUS JACKSON's brilliant recollections of her experiences as a founding member of the Beastie Boys. Substack is so good for this stuff.
7. The second best thing I read on Substack this week, also on the 90s music tip (clearly something of a theme this week): a piece on Slint's epochal, unclassifiable early 90s classic Spiderland, a record that absolutely changed my life (and that I still listen to this day).
Any other Slint heads out there? Let's hear ya.
8. This week's read - White Bicycles, Joe Boyd's lovely, easy memoir about his life as Swinging London’s promoter du jour, and the producer of Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, John Martyn and more.
9. Do these loathsome World Cup 'hydration breaks' signify the final Americanisation of our beloved game? (The answer is yes)
10. Finally, a very timely reminder, via David Sirota . (Yes, even on here, in this supposedly fluffy corner of the internet).