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In 1968 Vashti Bunyan set out on a journey that still resonates five decades later. Today we’re publishing the first in a series of regular posts by Vashti at The Social Gathering, beautifully illustrated by the author herself. I needed a way to keep my dog and not lose my mind. I left home – … Continued

The reality of the pandemic descended upon me during a Guns n´Roses concert in Mexico City. The date was March 14th. While Mexico hadn’t yet formally declared any confinement measures (that would happen on March 23rd), the pandemic was well advanced throughout the world and many bands cancelled their participation in one of Mexico’s biggest … Continued

2016 has been a difficult year, of course it has.  It’s as though my radar has been scrambled.  This has got me wondering what I’m up to, deep down in the rabbit hole of Andrew Weatherall’s Music’s Not For Everyone.  I feel like I have tunnelled to the centre of the earth and can’t turn … Continued

VI There are two fields, one to the north, one to the south, intersected by the road that runs through the middle of the village, a road that is both the high street, the locus of all commerce, the façade of our place, and a section of the Ridgeway—the ancient track that also once meant … Continued

Stood outside Downing Street yesterday I saw something that cut through even my own iron clad pessimism. I haven’t been reading or writing much these last few weeks, well I haven’t been writing at all, I’ve been too busy sliding down a greasy pole, making the most of lockdown easing, seeing a few friends, drinking … Continued

I was born and raised in a house of cars and maps. The cars went over my head, sometimes through our garden fence and once upside down with me in it. It took a long time for me to get into cars, but maps had me hooked from the second we met. Dad – like … Continued

So much can change in a short space of time. I started writing this before we were all talking about Barnard’s Castle and replacing eye tests with Wacky Racers style day trips and losing whatever sense of ‘all in this together’ we had to start with. It was always a fragile idea at best anyhow, … Continued

We have covered the premature death of Andrew Weatherall age 56 from many angles in these pages over the past three months. The shock and sadness, but also the affection and respect for a man of astonishing creative integrity, has been the bass leitmotif of lockdown; a constant reminder we’ve lost a man who created … Continued

Back to normal eh? Eh? I can’t honestly work out if I feel happy or tense about this Big Reopening we are encouraged to join in with. I’m chuffed that we can start programming film, art and live streams (for example some live drum and bass gigs-cum-broadcasts in late June and early July, and a … Continued

As every fan knows, Prince recorded far more songs than he ever released.  Most years he put out less than ten percent of the work he completed.  The mythology around his music depends as much on what he squirreled away in his famous Vault as the songs he officially released.  Over the years fans and … Continued

Four years ago I was contacted by a writer whose work I knew from The Wire and other publications on Twitter called David Keenan. He had, a few months previously, written a scabrous review of a book I was proud of publishing and here he was (the cheeky bastard), petitioning me to read a novel which I … Continued

V Lonely, fraught, strange days. I am up at four with the sun and the birdsong. My days have taken on the rhythm of these non-human things, beginning in dim light and settling into the long lull of the afternoon before a brief flare of energy as the evening turns into the night. My walks … Continued

At the end of July, White Rabbit Books publishes a memoir by Chris Frantz, who has the distinction of founding, playing and recording with not only one but two of the most influential North American bands. Remain in Love, published 40 years on from the release of their classic album Remain in Light, tells the story of … Continued

Today on The Social Gathering, we’re pleased to bring you an extract from an interview with artist Junior Tomlin. It’s taken from a new book – Junior Tomlin: Flyer & Cover Art – an amazing retrospective of his work in the ’80s and ’90s. Junior’s artwork was a vital and unmistakable part of the burgeoning … Continued

At the end of last week we asked friends in the States if they could paint us the view from there as part of our regular series and also what we could do as The Social Gathering to help. Screenwriter Camilla Blackett responded by holding up a mirror. Please read and consider what she’s saying. And … Continued

With Q – and all of the music press – under even greater threat as the covid recession looms, Katherine Cantwell of Heavenly Recordings writes about the magic of music mags. Before lockdown, buying Q was a monthly breaktime routine. I like an excuse to nip to the corner shop in Soho and grab a … Continued

IV Perhaps the Paper Lantern itself—this suddenly strange, suddenly useless and rather sad building just off the main road in our unimportant little ‘village’—bears a bit of describing. Where to start. Perhaps the plain greyish front door on South Street, the all-important road out, the road to the big city and all that might mean, … Continued

The opening sequence of Ken Hughes’ 1963 beat-crime masterpiece The Small World of Sammy Lee is a collage of tracking shots of an early Soho morning, set to an elegiac Kenny Graham jazz score. A cleaning truck hoses down empty market stalls. Newspapers blow about in the breeze. Pigeons flutter, then scatter. A series of … Continued

Dig if you will the picture. It’s 3.20am and about 200 of the most forward-thinking, risk-embracing, party-loving publishers in Europe (and a smattering of bemused Americans) are dancing to Tim Burgess of The Charlatans who is dj-ing at the infamous Saturday night after-party at a certain festival in The Hague. They are joined by a … Continued

I don’t know how to break this to everyone, but you’ve got your infamous seducer metaphors all messed up. He’s not Svengali, he’s Rasputin.  There’s been loads written about Cummings over the last few days. His failed airline startup during a mysterious few years in Russia. His hiding in a bunker on his dad’s farm … Continued

One of the biggest questions raised by lockdown is what happens next. And specifically, will we all just go back to old ways of living. Is it possible to change the pace we were all hurtling along at before everything stopped, chasing those daily goals irrespective of the effect on our mental wellbeing? Is it … Continued

Last month we brought you the first part of the hugely popular Cold War Steve/Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery collaboration. Today, we’re excited to present the second (and final) part of the commission on The Social Gathering. This consists of two never before seen CWS collages which feature characters from notable Pre-Raphaelite works in Birmingham … Continued

The last 8 weeks have been defined by an absence of action – at least any action that involved moving my body beyond the well trodden route of bed, fridge, sofa, desk, lawn, bed. Occasionally the bath when I got my act together.  This week, all that changed.  It started small. I made some decisions … Continued

III The morning after the VE Day celebrations comes on with a violent reminder of the previous world of this pub, of me, of my life with my parents. I sit in the sun and try to sweat the hangover out—a horror that seems barely credible. A few doors down the street the man with … Continued

On working with Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs on their seminal ‘Presents’ compilation series by Liz Buckley, Label Manager at Ace Records Five years ago, I was sat in a Highgate pub with Bob Stanley, having a bit of a catch up, talking records, drinking the usual ‘couple of quick afternoon pints’ that always turn … Continued

The explosion of digital TV means that, even now, many weeks into lockdown, there is still a massive amount of unwatched, ready to discover televisual wonder out there. It also means that some of those gems suffer the ultimate fate of being cancelled after one or two series, leaving plotlines hanging in the air when … Continued

In my first piece for this esteemed publication, I ended by posing a question: can the Netherlands really survive and prosper with closed borders and a relatively inactive Schiphol?  This question is of direct relevance to the European and trans-continental music industry as it was pre COVID. Things don’t look that rosy for the established … Continued

Phil May was born in Erith , a bleak, industrial town in the most easterly corner of London.  He lived a few streets away from me and was viewed with suspicion because of his rebellious, beatnik look and his shoulder-length hair.  He was always a rebel with a cause. Jagger and Richards lived in neighbouring … Continued

A few weeks back, The Social Gathering opened the doors on its daydream travel agency. Imagine An Island is here to transport you out of the here and now, away from this reality to lands beyond the lockdown as yet undiscovered.  Each new destination is visualised by a different artist. Having last stopped at an unspoilt nutopia … Continued

On February the 18th 1956, Tutti Frutti hit #21, its highest position in the US top 100. Or rather, the original version did. It’s so hard to recapture Little Richard’s explosive impact, but listen to Tutti Frutti in the chart of the time and you get the idea. It’s obvious that nothing like it had … Continued

The biggest thing clouding my vision is my martyr complex. Even with all the bountiful fruits that life has delivered for me to devour, my rather adept imagination still throws up a sense of having endured a superior kind of suffering to those around me. I have borne indignities that few could possibly understand, I … Continued

(artwork by Caio Wheelhouse) I shouldn’t have been surprised that as the world altered entirely, I’d be watching from the vantage point of the kitchen. ‘Second-Hand Time’ by the Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich collects oral testimonies from ordinary Russian citizens on the fall of the Soviet Union, during Perestroika and Glasnost. A lingering image from … Continued

II. What could be worse than spending these last few weeks alone in a place defined by its public communal aspect? A fatuous statement of course—there is always a case worse off than your own. And I say alone, but that is also a bit of a conceptual stretch, as in fact I live here … Continued

If I was to say Wind of Change by Scorpions was a guilty pleasure of mine, it would be a lie. It’s a record I genuinely love. That love is possibly a hangover from an early ’80s upbringing in old South Wales, where low-grade heavy metal was less a lifestyle choice and more a by-product of ambient … Continued

An occasional installation project in which I cement an mp3 player into the fabric of a structure, somewhere in the city or its outskirts. A rumination on the built environment and the psyche. This 3rd edition takes place in another nebulous landscape where regions overlap – Ardwick, Beswick, Gorton – leylines stretching out towards East … Continued

Stayed alert – well as alert as you can be in a soporific stupor, muscles atrophied through never leaving the house, weighed down by 1500 superfluous calories a day sourced mainly from butter and carbohydrates, senses dulled by a steady stream of Italian white wine from the top shelf of Marks and Spencer’s, vision impaired … Continued

We’re extremely proud to bring you the second part of The Social Gathering’s podcast series, where Steve Mason’s reads from one of the greatest endurance stories ever told – Shackleton’s journey to the South Pole. Here, Steve recaps where we are.  Reading and sound design by Steve Mason.  Illustrations by Peter Turner.  At this point, it’s … Continued

I’ve finally had it with the footy. I don’t even know where to start, 30 odd years with a Liverpool season ticket but fuck it, it’s gotta go for good. It’s hard to write this. It’s like finally accepting that the girl you fell in love with decades ago and that you thought you’d grow … Continued

Of all the weird and wonderful tales to have emerged in the last six weeks, my little brother deciding to finally try and get a job is the most confounding. Nathan has been a dedicated job hunter since he left our mum’s bungalow in Co. Tyrone to live on my couch in London after getting … Continued

When it’s a ritual.   Enter the Temple of Gnostic Sonics, a sanctuary of sound from the Music’s Not For Everyone shows of 2017.  Shows that begin with Andrew Weatherall’s ritualistic bidding to don your ceremonial gowns and headwear, huddle around your devices, sisters and brothers (always sisters first), gnostic explorers and fellow lovers of … Continued

I. We will begin with a rough physical description. The place is a small market town which, for some reason, insists upon being called a village. But how, you might ask, would a place insist on such a thing? Already we hit upon a point of interest—does the place have some innate sense of self? … Continued

Listened to Florence blasting My Sharona from her room constantly. Bought a massive new fern which was delivered upside down but survived.  Rewatched some of Patrick Melrose which I maintain is one of the best things ever made. Ordered the books which arrived in one huge volume which I look forward to devouring soon – … Continued

OK, so week three. Nice of the BBC to bring back Killing Eve, though I’m not feeling it like I once did – just me? – and a few big hitters including HOLLYWOOD set to land on Netflix (more on that in a week or so) but, fear not! There are still tons of undiscovered … Continued

“Eventually they turned up in Manchester, but they parked where the River Irwell is in Salford, it’s a big island. It reminded them of their home. So they all set up camp. And there’s these pictures from the fookin’ eighteen seventies and eighties of all these wigwams set up in Salford…”  Filmmaker Glenn Kitson got … Continued

Here at The Social Gathering we’ve been marking May Day by celebrating how we come together to fight the power, enact revenge and resist sexual control. Another May Day weekend tradition is getting together on the streets and in warehouses and under arches and in pubs with people who love music as much as you … Continued

The only memory and association I have for May Day is the ritual of making wreaths at my grandmother’s home in Corinth as a kid. I would wake up excited, and after a gluttonous portion of Tiganites she’d made for us, I would briskly get dressed and wicker basket in hand jump out and over … Continued

Nineteen years ago, at the anticapitalist protest in central London, me and my friend Ellie and a few hundred other people were kettled by military police at Oxford Circus. They had surrounded the whole junction in a big circle, their arms interlinked like state-sanctioned linedancers. I sometimes still look fondly at the spot, outside Benetton, … Continued

Hack a path through the briars and push open the gate. The creak is a music that wakes the dead and gives them permission to keep haunting us. Almost ten years ago now I published a book at Faber and Faber called Electric Eden by Rob Young.  Its subtitle is (as far as subtitles go) unusually useful: Unearthing … Continued

“So the scholars say it was one of our religions when we lived in caves… I can’t say whether its druidic or neolithic, but you’ve got to admit this Padstow Oss dance is pretty terrific.” Words written by Alan Lomax, 1953 I’ve been fascinated with Britain’s May Day traditions for a long time. In any … Continued

BDS is one of my favourite photographers but somehow I’ve never seen these photos he took at the May Day protests just after the millennium. They are an incredible bit of time travel, taking you back to a very different London – one where you were far more likely to be ‘kettled’ than socially distanced. … Continued

A few years back, I met Jonny Trunk in a pub in Stoke Newington on a sunny afternoon to talk about The Wicker Man. Jonny is one of the most inspiring men you could hope to waste an afternoon in the pub with – both a font of pop culture knowledge and a great raconteur. … Continued

To mark the launch of Mark Lanegan’s memoir SING BACKWARDS AND WEEP in the UK, we teamed with White Rabbit to celebrate it with an online launch on their Twitter account. You can catch up on the whole thing here, and there are some highlights below – including a Q&A with Mark, a playlist featuring all the songs featured … Continued

Talking about things you like is fun. Fun is fun. High energy is fun, low energy is fun. Coffee is fun. America’s most notable coffee championing comedian, Chelsea Peretti, is fun. Below are some suggestions of Chelsea Peretti related fun. Chelsea Peretti is my favourite. Peretti, for me, has been a consistent humour compass. Content-wise, … Continued

Abandoned bras. Abandoned the hairdryer. Abandoned face wash. Abandoned razors. Abandoned any clothing without an elasticated waistband and three way stretch. Contributed significantly to Uniqlo’s ability to stay afloat in these UNPRECEDENTED times. Swept the floor by the back door constantly but still the crap accumulated there every day. Justified my mood swings as a … Continued

We asked Hayden Thorpe, formerly singer in one of the great British bands of the past decade, Wild Beasts, to offer his ‘View from’ in our occasional series of sketches by artists around the world. We thought he lived in Kendal in the Lake District but it turns out his vista is rather less romantic … Continued

So, we’re still here. I’m guessing that you are pretty much done now with all the stuff you knew about. Maybe you now share my addiction to El Dragon and are ploughing through series two – Adela! Sure, you could rewatch The Sopranos or all of Mad Men if you were desperate but maybe last … Continued

This weekend, The Social Gathering launches its semi-regular daydream travel section. Imagine An Island is your first class ticket on the next flight out of here; an escape from this reality to destinations as yet undiscovered. Each issue will explore a different destination as visualised by artists and designers. The first is an unspoilt nutopia with images by Social Gathering … Continued

A classic Social logo tee with our ‘Because No One Should Drink Alone’ manifesto designed by Raissa Pardini on the back. Pre-order available 1 month. SHOP NOW All the profits from this tshirt will go towards keeping the Social Gathering project ticking over whilst the bar on Little Portland St is shut. We’re still open … Continued

Certain aspects of my personal hygiene have taken a backseat in recent weeks, with nobody around who could possibly care, why not wear the same crappy Primark boxers six days in a row? I love it when they get to this point actually, stepping out of my daily bath back into my room, I take … Continued

(The Most Approximate Anti-Christ Blackboard by Babak Ganjei) — It’s 1984, a noisy Belfast classroom at break-time and some numerology is underway in the back of a homework diary. Teen fans of the divinatory arts are determining who out of Kevin Rowland, Chaka Khan and Paul Rutherford from Frankie most approximates the Antichrist. Our mystical … Continued

It was around the time the airline cancelled our flights that I began to dream of an island.  Easy Jet’s decision was absolute, and our first family holiday in years was already a receding dream before the lockdown began. Their prescient move helped to assuage a nervousness that had gnawed away at me since mid-February … Continued

Four years have passed to the day since the most singular, talented and prolific musician and songwriter of his generation died alone in an elevator in Minneapolis. In that time there has been an avalanche of official Prince releases from the estate, dodgy bootlegs and ‘Mountains’ of live youtube footage that in his lifetime was … Continued

Announced internally “right that’s it now, I can’t do this anymore”, like that gave me license to take some forbidden action. Like once I’d properly acknowledged it, some path would be revealed that had remained hidden for the last 4 weeks, until I really needed it. Or maybe someone in authority was going to hear … Continued

I guess it must have been a few weeks ago that I saw a story about a couple of Italian kids who had immediately saved many lives in their local hospital by 3D printing ventilator valves. These parts cost 10 grand each, but even at that price there were none available, so the kids got … Continued

Your time has come your second skinThe cost so high the gain so lowWalk through the valleyThe written word is a lie One of the most enduring of the postpunk-pop-anthems was ‘Rise’, by Public Image Ltd, a band whose musical legacy – and arguably influence – dwarfs that of the Sex Pistols. Famously, he sang (on … Continued

In September 2019 (a properly different world it was then!) the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery approached Cold War Steve to work on a commission based around their amazing Digital Image Resource. The idea was to dig deep into the archives and give some of their fantastic pieces the CWS treatment, and in doing so … Continued

“Sir Edmund Hillary said… ‘For scientific discovery, give me Scott. For speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundson. But when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”’ This weekend, The Social Gathering moves into your headphones with its first podcast courtesy of our friend (and total legend) Steve … Continued

In the second of our regular collection of letters from Fat White Family’s Lias Saoudi, the writer’s mind travels from Brixton’s Windmill to Sebald’s Suffolk via a fictional Mexican border town and alights upon the most pressing question of the day: “will the pubs open again before the summer ends, and if they don’t, what’s to become … Continued

Fourth week of lockdown and we’ve all done Succession twice, we’re not sure about the new Westworld, the kids have got bored of Disney+ and we’re all wishing there was one more episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (or – even better – a Leon special). So what’s left to watch? Lewis Jamieson has trawled the outer … Continued

‘At the restaurant he put his phone face-down on the table, so I did the same as if for me, too, this represented a professional sacrifice’.  So writes Naoise Dolan, about Julian (a banker), watched by Ava (a TEFL teacher), in the second paragraph of Exciting Times – a novel I am lucky enough to … Continued

Thanked God for immigrants (thank you Jeremy Deller). Missed drinking cocktails on a Saturday afternoon with Jen and Louise. Missed making Louise uncomfortable with excessive displays of physical affection. Missed trying to get Jen out of a cab and into a bar while she enquires about the driver’s entire life history. Ate a ridiculous amount of … Continued

Last week, Catherine Eccles talked us through her archival journey piecing tracks from Andrew Weatherall’s peerless NTS shows into playlists. The second playlist is a five and a half hour deep dive through Andrew’s 2018 shows. It’s proof that while music may not be for everyone, it’s certainly working its magic for some of us at … Continued

When starting The Social Gathering, we sent out a message to friends outside of Britain’s big cities asking how our they were getting on in the rest of the world. How does isolation feel outside of our media bubble? What – if any – are the signs of hope that we can draw on? Our second View comes … Continued

A few years back, our friend Kieran Evans made a beautiful and intimate film with legendary singer / songwriter Vashti Bunyan. From Here To Before retraces the steps of her late ’60s journey from London to the Outer Hebrides by horse and cart and spends time with her before her return to the stage in … Continued

In the early noughties, Tesco Extra-esque supermarkets were hailed the new superclubs. A place of consumerist worship for the Nespresso generation. Star fade to 2020 and supermarkets are now legitimately THE ONLY public place to hear locally (and internationally) sourced (mostly) ethical BANGERS. Specifically Co-Op. At this point, I don’t know if other supermarkets even play … Continued

The View From Here One of the first things we wanted to do when we started The Social Gathering was ask how our friends were doing around the rest of the world. How does isolation feel outside of our media bubble? Are there signs of hope that we can read?  The first view is from … Continued

White Rabbit: I’m assuming the film is set in Hartlepool judging by those accents. When did you first come across Rambo?  Maxy Bianco: Yes the film was made in Hartlepool. Myself and Michael Smith had been developing the idea for the films on paper for a preposed series of short films for Channel 4 called, … Continued

Waved at people a lot. Bathed less regularly than I’d imagined I would in the circumstances. Thanked God this wasn’t happening when my children were any younger, when every day started at 5am and I struggled to even get through some weekends. Thought about everyone who has young children and is holding it down. Thought … Continued

During the last decade or so, Andrew Weatherall was a regular presence at The Social. It wasn’t uncommon to see him manning the decks behind the upstairs bar as the staff poured drinks, or playing downstairs on one of his regular Moine Dubh nights, warming up for someone like Beck when he breezed through town … Continued

flaneur  noun  a man who saunters around observing society —————————  Of all Andrew Weatherall’s many celebrated talents, the most under-appreciated might be his accomplishments in the itself under-appreciated pursuit of flaneuring.   Thursdays were Andrew’s day to flaneur, or as he sometimes put it, perambulate around the West End. And he saw this as a civilising activity.  He would visit … Continued

It’s impossible to know how you’re going to react when someone dies.  In early February, my good friend Lee Brackstone sent me the January 30th episode of Andrew Weatherall’s Music is Not for Everyone, to which my response was, “He’s a genius.  John Peel of our times”.  Ten days later the devastating news came through Andrew … Continued

This is an extract from the new book I’ve been working on, about a bloke having a midlife crisis while late capitalism has its own spectacular crisis all around him, asking himself what the fuck (if anything) it all means – a bit angsty, a bit funny, set in a pretty, shabby, post-apocalyptic seaside town … Continued

Arthur Schopenhauer, it was reputed, would stick to a strict daily routine. He would reveille at 7am, drink a strong coffee, take a bath, write until noon, luncheon, read for four hours, practice the flute for half an hour, go for a two hour walk, dine out, then take in a play or a show … Continued

Earlier today, our friends at Sonic Cathedral announced ‘Bedroom’, the debut album by the brilliant Leeds/Hull-based band bdrmm. To celebrate, they are co-hosting a Social afterwork drinks on Facebook from 6pm tonight. This will be the first in a new series of afterwork drinks dedicated to Facebook. These will all be hosted on FB events … Continued

Happy publication day to Will Burns, whose long-awaited debut collection, Country Music, is now out! We had a big blowout launch party at The Social planned, but sadly have had to postpone it due to the dread virus. But, of course, we’ll still be celebrating at a distance! In the evening (join us at 6pm on … Continued

Less than a year after it opened, The Social hosted a huge birthday party for Annie Nightingale on both floors of the bar. It coincided with a day of civil unrest in the capitol and kickstarted 300 monumental hangovers. Twenty years on to the day, we’re all on lockdown and The Social is running as a virtual pub on … Continued

The escalation of the virus has coincided with the Vernal Equinox, the immediate prospect of the clocks going backwards (time will be joining the current reality field) and the official commencement of what has already been a wonderful and restorative early spring. There is now more daylight than night; at least we won’t have to … Continued

Thanked God I didn’t have to tell my children Tom Hanks had died. Wore a lot of big earrings. Extended my loungewear collection beyond its already excessive levels. Maintained my lipstick schedule. Missed wearing suits. Ordered flea treatment on a monthly subscription at 5am one day because it was an anxiety I could easily manage. … Continued

Rap, Rave & The Rise of XL Recordings

Collecting up music, words, art & conversation to bring The Social to wherever you are in the world. Because if we have to do this in isolation, we should at least have our mates with us, reading over our shoulders & getting the beers in

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