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Justin Lewis

@whenisbirths.bsky.social

3.1K followers 1.5K following 16K posts

Author/editor/carer, S Wales, probably autistic: NEW BOOK!: Into the Groove, out on 2 Oct 2025. Textcast archive: https://firstlastanything.co.uk/about/ (next run of eps from late Oct) Email: [email protected] ko-fi.com/firstlastanything .. more

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Justin Lewis is a Professor of Communication and Creative Industries at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. He is the Director of Clwstwr, an Arts and Humanities Research Council and Welsh Government funded Research & Development innovation centre for the Screen and News sectors and Media Cymru, a £50 million, 23 partner consortium, funded by UK Research and Innovation, Cardiff Capital Region and Welsh Government, designed to boost inclusive and sustainable media sector innovation in Wales. He is also Chief Field Editor for Frontiers in Communication, a global Open Access publisher. .. more

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 7d

OUT NOW, my month-by-month guide to 1980s pop, from ABC to XTC, and from Madonna to Neneh. #IntoTheGroove, published by @eandtbooks.bsky.social.

Cover of
INTO THE GROOVE: THE 1980s:
THE ULTIMATE DECADE IN MUSIC HISTORY
by Justin Lewis (me)

'An epic compendium of stories and trivia from the 80s music scene'

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 19h

Telegraph opinion section, next to Tom fucking Skinner.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 19h

I mean, we vaguely thought this about various people who got their own shows on GB News, and seem to be in the Question Time spare chair once a month.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 20h

The worst thing about all four of those people in The Times, though: we have not heard the last of any of them. Have we.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 20h

Second one there looks like Robert Guillaume who I know died in 2017.

Reposted by Justin Lewis

christhebarker @christhebarker.bsky.social · 21h

Hello all. I have a lunchtime quiz for you if you're interested…
I never got round to finishing the key for #sgtpepper2017 and now I've finally decided to do it, there's some faces I can't put a name to. Some of them are really small. Can anyone identify the faces in the following thread? PLEASE!
1:

I'm sure some of these are really obvious and I'm going to kick myself but I think I've gone a bit faceblind…

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 21h

Podcast hosts Daniel and Alex, despite it being in the foyer of hell, made this a perversely enjoyable chat. But what did I choose as my songs from
Hell, and why? @hellishpod.com
#IntoTheGroove

Hellish @hellishpod.com · 21h

Here’s your Thursday picture quiz from the demons of Hellish. Can you work out four of the tracks @whenisbirths.bsky.social will meet in Hell from these visual hints?

As with every week, they’re easier if you’ve listened to the pod. podfollow.com/hellish

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Reposted by Justin Lewis

Hellish @hellishpod.com · 21h

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 22h

Keep thinking it's Michael 'Kevin Webster' Le Vell in all those screenshots I keep seeing.

Reposted by Justin Lewis

Alison B @akbea.bsky.social · 22h

How am I meant to get any work done when the British Newspaper Archive now has all of Jackie online?

Part of the Cathy and Claire advice page. Everything from zodiac sign incompatibility to tetanus.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 22h

Chose that final series for Looks Unfamiliar of course, as I'd only seen its first episode, and I think it ranks as one of the greater disappointments of my childhood. Even worse now. The one about the holiday camp bins never seemed to end.

Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 22h

I have barely any trace of my early writing now, and while it could be interesting to revisit it, it probably wouldn't be.

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Reposted by Justin Lewis

Goon Pod @goonpod.bsky.social · 22h

Goon Pod talked to Jonathan Coe.

He chatted about his influences such as David Nobbs, B.S Johnson and Flann O'Brien and one of his earliest exposures to freewheeling comic prose via Spike Milligan's 1963 novel Puckoon. Take a listen:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j...

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 22h

I allow myself a few minutes of thinking 'That's a good sentence', knowing full well I will almost certainly delete it later.

Reposted by Justin Lewis

Simon Scott @simonscott1975.bsky.social · 22h

Coo!

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 22h

Love the Frank Middlemass list of 'all the great BBC achievements' in an Alexei Sayle's Stuff sketch where he quickly runs out so you get 'Fawlty Towers! [lengthy pause]... Oh no It's Selwyn Froggitt!'

I still maintain Froggitt's an underrated show, at least when Plater's writing it.

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Reposted by Justin Lewis

Ian Greaves @greavesian.bsky.social · 23h

Just listed at Barbican - a December afternoon of rare footage of Derek Bailey, one of a series of events that week marking the 20th anniversary of his death. Supported by @thewiremagazine.bsky.social Tickets here: www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

So Watt Special: Derek Bailey - New Sights, Old Sounds | Barbican

A film screening of rare, unseen footage of Derek Bailey from the Incus Records archive and beyond, capturing his performances and collaborations across decades and continents.

www.barbican.org.uk

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

Once you start getting called 'the wittiest voice in pop', it's death, I think.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

Like seeing Nirvana's 1991 best-selling album and hearing the chorus of the Tony Mansell Singers.

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Reposted by Justin Lewis

Phil Norman @mrphilnorman.bsky.social · 23h

"It's made of people, our Maurice!"

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

I honestly think, as someone who does both, that editing is as important as writing.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

One of the paradoxes of writing: you get better when you get over yourself a bit.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

A sense of relief when I think of some 'funny bits' that editors have asked me to explain a bit more, which is an extremely effective yet polite way of them suggesting 'this doesn't really work'. This stings for five seconds, but you are grateful forever.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

You've just reminded me of what a superb record Sweet Dreams My LA EX was.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 23h

It was only in the charts for six weeks, and its rise and fall were both very rapid, so you could have missed it quite easily in some ways. And obviously it's rarely spun as an oldie. But it's amazing, isn't it.

Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 1d

But then, in south Wales, you didn't really come across Tories your age very often. Being Tory was like a really misjudged 'act of rebellion' in south Wales. Because basically everyone was a Labour or Plaid supporter back then.

Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 1d

I remember Blitz magazine (I think it was) going to some Young Tory conference around 1990 and all the 'hang Mandela' stuff loomed large. I was their age, was kind of horrified, and also thought, Can you imagine these people being let near any kind of power? Well, it went on to happen.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 1d

I'm convinced one factor is the absolute obsession with visibility that young people have to have now, in a way that we never really had to have. There must always be images now. Always.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 1d

Jensen would have almost certainly played it, but Peter Powell played it quite a bit too. Apparently even Noel Edmonds played it on Sunday mornings.

Reposted by Justin Lewis

Dr Cath Annabel @cathannabel.bsky.social · 1d

Things I never thought I'd witness: Robert Fripp heckling & gesticulating furiously at Craig Revel Horwood for (rightly) giving Toyah a low score. Felt like two v different worlds colliding.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 1d

The great thing about seeing pics of Young Conservatives is that I think back to what I looked like at nineteen, and I feel a little less square.

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