Une Fille Comme Les Autres from Jalouse blog on Vimeo.

Fantastic viral ad for French fashion mag, Jalouse. Bam, hipster from the book store.

I have interviewed Jay Kay from Jamiroquai many, many times. I interviewed him again recently for the cover feature of the Mail On Sunday’s Live Magazine colour supplement. I will add it to the interview/journalism page soon. In the meantime you can read it on the Mail’s website here. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers (unless I wrote it); he’s charming, funny, always entertaining and one of the few interesting people in music – I wouldn’t keep interviewing him if he wasn’t. Music could do with more like him. Gawd bless you sir. A true gent and a scholar.

I don’t think Hunter S. Thompson liked contracts.

Magazines, newspapers, it’s all screwed. Or so we’re told. Titles closing left right and centre, advertisers not interested in advertising, everyone sitting around, shaking their heads, staring into the abyss wondering when they’re going to have to get a proper job. Still, it wasn’t always like that. Once upon a time, advertiser money flowed as free as the Champagne and beautiful people were journalists and journalists were beautiful people who earned a fortune. Now most freelance writers aren’t even sure if they can earn a living anymore. Never mind, remember the beginning of the end of the good old days with the great piece in The New York Times by David Carr on the launch party for Tina Brown’s ill-fated Talk magazine. I remember the excitement, the hype, the couldn’t fail confidence. How times have changed.

*I couldn’t find a suitable picture to illustrate the excesses of magazine launch parties in the late ’90s or the demise of publishing, so I went with a gratuitous picture of Lindsay Lohan because a) she’s on the cover of a magazine, b) she’s not wearing clothes c) because LiLo knows how to party.

I am now officially to be found on RocksBackpages.com.

For those who don’t know RocksBackpages.com is the biggest and most prestigious archieve of music journalism to be found anywhere on the internet. Which means that I’m now sharing server space with some of the finest words from the likes of Lester Bangs, Nick Kent, Danny Baker, Felix Dennis, Nick Logan, Nick Hornby, Neil Tennant – yes, that Neil Tennant – Toby Young, Will Self, John Robb, Charles Shaar Murray, Andrew Mueller, Stuart Maconie, Dorian Lynskey, Paul Morley, Steven ‘Swells’ Wells, Phil Sutcliffe, Paolo Hewitt and saucy Loyd Grossman. Distinguished company I’m sure you’ll agree, although I like to think I hold my own.

Over the coming months my features, interviews and reviews will be added to the RocksBackpages.com library, making it the most exhaustive record of my journalism online and as if that wasn’t reason enough to pay the site a visit and sign-up for a reasonably priced subscription, I’ll also be posting witty, insightful and well argued music related pieces on my RocksBackpages.com writer’s blog – or more likely rambling semi-coherently about the twin and not completley incompatible joys of pop and downtempom cinematic jazz.

How could you even think of missing it?

DJing. It’s just playing records. No it is. Alright, you’ve got to have taste. And some records. And as with everything in life there are those who are really good at it and then there’s Peaches Geldof. But as Amy Kellner points out in her stupidly funny Vice Magazine piece about her life as a party DJ, it’s ‘the biggest fucking bullshit con of all time!’.

The Guardian’s collected together here the front pages of newspapers around the world to compare coverage of yesterday’s inauguration. Proof, as if any were needed, that the Obama Presidency is already having a positive impact on US international standing.

In an effort to make things look cheerier (and prove that I really am a journalist) I’ve added page scans to all the articles in the journalism section. You’re welcome.