n 1990 Jane’s Addiction were a huge alternative rock band recently signed to a major label, a combination which invariably leads to two things: epic drug use and unfettered artistic indulgence. Both are rife in Gift.

Yesterday was the 241st birthday of William Henry Ireland.

I wrote a reappraisal of Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween for The Quietus.

I've a new essay up at The Learned Pig.

It's titled 'Before the Beginning' and is about insomnia, volcanoes and the origins of Frankenstein.

The third in a loose trilogy of films from the great Lindsay Anderson which set out to satirise Britain’s dominant institutions – education in If…. (1968), the justice system in O Lucky Man! (1973) – Britannia Hospital’s focal target, as the title implies, would appear to be the NHS.