Looking Sideways: 10 Things

New Beck, some classic Zep, and rest in peace Beverly Martyn.

1. I had fun catching up with our team at the latest All Conditions Media Away Day in London. Me and Jojo and I have been working together for 12 years now, and I’m really proud of the little company that we’ve built. Thank you, Owen for the picture.

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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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writing, books and sports with Matthew Barr

2. While in Richmond I also took the opportunity to finally meet Ben Mercer in person. Ben writes the outlier on here, is doing some really interesting work around literacy for young boys, and is part of the gang behind the boys book club.

We met virtually last year when he invited to me to take part in a live discussion on here about our shared love to literature and reading, and our background in sport (you can watch that above). True to form we met at a bookshop on Richmond Hill, where we both chose a new read each.

I went for Werner Herzog’s new one, which is now available on the Looking Sideways book store. A quick reminder - buy anything from my book store and you’ll be buying directly from independent UK book stores (which means your money won’t be helping to finance Jeff Bezos’ next ab-lift, for one) as well as helping finance Looking Sideways (I get a 10% commission) in a really simple and (I humbly propose) righteous way.

Get involved here and you can also join my chat and share your own reads below:

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More simple ways to support Looking Sideways - use any of these codes and I’ll get a small commission 🫡

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LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.

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3. Lachrymose country Beck has always been my favourite Beck, so I’m glad to see he’s heading back down the Sea Change route with his new song.

My favourite ever Beck record is One Foot In The Grave, the indie record he made with Calvin Johnson over a couple of days. He snuck this one out at the height of Loser fever back in 1994, after insisting his major label Geffen let him continue to collaborate with his favourite indie labels.

If you haven’t heard it, it’s a real lost gem:

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4. Among all the sub-2-hour marathon discourse, this piece about how Sebastian fuelled his Bannisteresque run was the most interesting thing I read this week.

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5. “What does Michael Jackson’s current popularity say? It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester”.

Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed shares his thoughts on the new Michael Jackson biopic.

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6. Rest in peace the great Beverley Martyn. This righteous valediction by Peter Paphides puts her singular folk career and remarkable life in just context.

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7. I really enjoyed Robert Plant’s Colbert performance of Ramble On.

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8. The Moriah Wilson documentary on Netflix is tastefully handled but what a tragic waste this really was.

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9. My friends at UN[PARA]LD have just launched their new crowdfunding campaign. Find out more here.

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10. Finally, if you listened to my recent episode with Chris Hines and Julie Maughan, and are ready to take action, then make sure you attend one of the forthcoming Surfers Against Sewage paddle outs on May 16th.

The Paddle Outs are a nationwide mobilisation demanding:

• Public health must come first – profit from sewage pollution must end.

• The Government must end the current privatised water industry

• The Government must take back control of water companies, and restructure them, removing the profit motive, to ensure they operate for people and the environment. No option, including public ownership, should be off the table.

There are 46 happening around the country, and if you’re a surfer, swimmer or other water user then you really need to be there to show your support. More here.

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