The Headingley library cat is following me all around the building today. She's currently helping me empty the book bins.

Happy Birthday to the guys (and my mum too) 🎂

John McLusky #JamesBond comic strip 1960. Bond is heavy featured and square-jawed - more Gary Cooper than Sean Connery.

Mum bought this book for me so she could turn me into the devil for the Tregolls school fate. I endured a week of having plastic bottles driven into my feet, rice crispies PVA glued to my hands and wax horns slipping off my head. I was runner up - Tregolls just wasn't ready for my old nick.

The book fully embraces the spirit of childhood experimentation - "Here are some ways to make large bosoms and bottoms for wearing under your clothes. They stay in place rather well so you can run and jump in them"

Rediscovered this joyous childhood book - 'Cover-ups: things to put on yourself' McPhee Gribble/David Lancashire 1978. Dressing up is freedom - to make yourself "feel better or different from anyone else"

Next week - why Last of the Summer Wine is the Manics, covering both the pre and post Blamire/Richey years.

Also - Series A (VU & Nico) iconic. Series B (white light) chaotic. Series C (VU) melancholic.  Series D (loaded) undermined.

Angus MacLise, Gerard Malanga, Billy Yule…

Servalan is Andy Warhol. The true puppet master. Stylish, manipulative, and always ten steps ahead. Technically not in the band, but everything revolves around her anyway.

Cally is Sterling Morrison. Solid, skilled, and holding things together with a quiet, focused energy that’s easy to overlook. While the others are busy fighting, she’s grounding them with a level of calm and empathy they don’t deserve.

Tarrant is Doug Yule. Criminality underrated, and unfairly blamed for things that were never his fault. Joins late but somehow makes it all work, even if no one notices at the time.

Vila is Moe Tucker. Practical, dryly funny, and secretly the heart of the operation. He’s not in it for the glory; he’s here to survive the madness. ‘City at the Edge of the World’ is his ‘After Hours’.

Jenna is Nico. Detached, competent, and way better than the chaos she’s stuck in. She’s navigating literal space battles while the rest argue about who’s in charge. She’s judging them, and she’s right.

Avon is John Cale. Cool, calculating, and always the smartest person in the room. Keeps the whole thing functional while constantly reminding you he could leave at any moment—and take the brilliance with him.

Blake is Lou Reed. Intense, self-absorbed and gets his brain fried for failing to conform. Charismatic enough to get people to follow him, but you suspect he’d keep going even if they didn’t. Burnt out by the end, but somehow still legendary.

Watching the amazing #Blakes7 blu-ray and trying to explain the Blake vs Avon dynamic to the far cooler @jesslennox.bsky.social by comparing to Lou Reed vs John Cale. And then It hit me like a new vfx laser blast - revolutionary, doomed, iconic - Blake’s 7 are the Velvet Underground…