Isobel Campbell’s ‘Bow to Love’ review: queen of the psychedelic lullaby returns
Thomas Bartley reviews Isobel Campbell's latest release, 'Bow to Love'.
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Thomas Bartley
The art of the podcast review: Times critic James Marriott tells all on how he tackles the fast-growing media form
How do you review a podcast? It is a question I, and I should suspect most of my colleagues in this section, have found ourselves asking repeatedly. It is somewhat of an erratic art form, some repetitive bordering on plagiarism, others almost beyond the confines of explanation. Many will stick...
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The definitive guide to Euro 2024 podcasts
Whilst many football fans still prepare for a major international tournament by poring over the pages of FourFourTwo, World Soccer or When Saturday Comes, or by plastering their Panini sticker book full of shiny players, tastes have undoubtedly changed. Podcasts are increasingly a staple of the sport’s fan diet for...
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Let Girls Play? Outcry as Teesside football club vote to abolish women’s teams
A non-league team from Stockton in Teesside have been met with criticism after voting to abolish all tiers of their women’s teams. Thornaby FC, whose men’s team play in the tenth tier of English football, decided by a majority of their committee to get rid of their under 7s, 8s,...
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“People do want good journalism”: one woman’s mission to revive Birmingham’s local media
Few can claim to have helped launch a newspaper. But for Birmingham-based journalist, Kate Knowles, and co-founder of new online outlet The Dispatch, it is an honour she carries with pride. The Birmingham Dispatch burst onto web browsers and into inboxes back in October, joining Mill Media stablemates The Liverpool...
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Labour and its struggle with the past
Spectres are a powerful force in politics, and not always in the way you might think. Political parties battle to define themselves both with and against their past. In the case of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the desire to depart from its past under Jeremy Corbyn could not be clearer....
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What went wrong at The Body Shop?
Amidst grave financial difficulties, Thomas Bartley discusses the factors driving The Body Shop's decline.
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This Town: New BBC Drama puts West Midlands back on the Map
It hasn’t been the easiest of years for Birmingham. Back in March, its city council announced swingeing cuts following bankruptcy, resulting in a whole range of belt-tightening from the sale of community centres to the dimming of street lights. Just a few days earlier, production ceased on the BBC soap...
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Three months on BeReal: does it live up to expectations?
I resist fads like the plague. Jumping on a bandwagon is too much for my entitled sanctimony, and so, I much prefer to spend the first six to 12 months of any new trend ribbing the gullible participants. Pokemon Go, loom bands, Wordle: the peak of their popularity had to...
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Tory peer forced to pay damages over antisemitism claims against student
A Conservative peer has been forced to pay ‘substantial damages’ after accusing a University Challenge contestant of antisemitism. Jacqueline Foster, Baroness Foster of Oxton, 76, was forced to make a public apology to Melika Gorgianeh, a second-year PhD astrophysics candidate at Oxford University, after suggesting that the student had engaged...
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Rise in union membership of video game workers following redundancies
Layoffs, Strikes and More... Thomas Bartley covers the latest on unionisation within the games industry.
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20 years on, Franz Ferdinand sounds just as good
Thomas Bartley discusses how Franz Ferdinand's eponymous debut has stood the test of time.
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It’s the economy, stupid. Or is it?
It is a phrase which has come to mean dogma for politicians across the world. First coined by James Carville, a strategist on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ has long spoken to the belief that it is ultimately the nation’s finances which govern election fortunes. But...
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