This is England 1990

Shall be returning soon. And the backdrop to the attitude/clobber this time shall be Acid House.

To celebrate this, Talent House are running a competition for artists to create a flyer inspired by the whole scene. I'm no artist but plugging a fellow connoisseurs effort Josh Parky. If you like his effort follow the link and click like.

Rave on.

Summer Swag

With the summer fast approaching and with me dropping a fair bit of weight, I've had a massive clear out of big baggy XL numbers and replacing with slightly slimmer, almost trimmer larges.

First up a few Madras check shirts. A Barbour sample with double chest pockets and hidden button down collar, a staple Ralph Lauren short sleeve Yarmouth and a modern classic L/S by favourite British shirtsmiths tuktuk. All in a pleasing array of summeresque blues, reds and greens...

Summer wouldn't be summer without some cool as Connoisseur bits and pieces. The already iconic Mary Pigeon polo and Heron bucket hat. Also some pinbadges, for FREE, courtesy of Hess the Horse. Sharing some pinbadgelove indeed...

After a spell of weighing up whether to go Stan Smith or Reebok Classic for a cool white summer trainer, have opted for the Exofit Lo Clean. Boks won it being that theyre unlikely to be seen on instagram with the hashtag casuallyobsessed preluding it. #ThatsNotCasual...

Didn't really need another Jacket if I'm honest, but then do we ever need another one? An Oi Polloi issue Armor Lux parka for a criminally low £13 off eBay. In a lovely hue of Francais Bleu (French Blue) and also includes the Frenchies other favourite colour inside the hood and as the lining - white. Anyway 'Lux' like a decent parka anyway...

I'm away this week. In Scotland. And apparently it's going to start raining later today. And not stop until we come back next Saturday. So I've packed a mac...

And finally, with the Gascoigne film out in June (for one night only) a replica version of the 1990 England shirt, complete with his trademark number 19. Perfect for flinging a bit of garden furniture round when on tour in Scotland...

SWR - Close the Dam

New solo material from Shaun Ryder. Sounding a lot fresher than the terrifying, yet compelling, 2003 drug fuelled self indulgence that was Amateur Night in the Big Top, SWR (as he's rebranded himself) releases two quality tunes.

Close the Dam is a solid club track unlike anything Ryder's penned before, potentially a glimpse of any future Mondays/Grape releases. Electric Scales is a proper glorious vintage Happy Mondays sound straight from the Squirrel and G Man heydays. And as he sings in the latter song, never mind the quality, feel the weight. Well, you get both for your buck with these two quality tracks.

That's double, double good.

The General

Don't be a prick. Vote Labour.

A sample of tuktuk

A recent shirting pick up from North West Messrs tuktuk. Actually a sample effort that never made it to general release. I don't know why though because it's mustard...

The Great Escape 2015

Unbelievable Jeff.

Complete Madness

I like the concept of Record Store Day. Some nice limited edition vinyls from cult bands. But queing up outside all night to pay a small fortune for something you can't even play in the car? Nah, not for me.

Never been into records, grew up late 80s and early 90s where cassettes were the cheapest option for pocket money, and then CDs were about to monopolize the market, so as it is I've only got one LP to my name. Complete Madness.

Purchased in mint condition for three pounds from eBay in 2005 as an 'investment'. A quick scan on the auction website today sees them for roughly a fiver. But given ten years has passed and the average rate of inflation, this mintas EP has depreciated. Badly. And Madness have never been so popular. Complete Madness indeed.

Anyway this was an earlyish greatest hits from One Step Beyond (album) to 7. I'm sure it sounds great. But it's never been listened to as -

1) It's an investment. It's my pension etc.

2) I've never had, or any access to, a record player.

3) It's rotting away in the damp of my mam's garage.

Anyway. I'm off to listen to Divine Madness. On Compact Disc format. In the car.