Author | Lightnews

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

1.6K followers 120 following 4.5K posts

He/him Living in Wollongong, NSW, Australia, in a relationship, proud to be woke, love a wide range of music (no, not all kinds!), working with a Landcare group to restore a small patch of bushland, growing local natives in our own backyard

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Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Created by Michelangelo, about 1511, "The Creation of Adam" on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, only here is the true version before it was painted over with the second rate version.

A caricature of Michaelangelo's "The Birth of Adam" featuring characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show

February 10, 2026 at 9:16 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Photo from the Young Ones TV series, caption reads "How the Young Ones tricked the BBC into paying for anarchy"
When The Young Ones exploded onto BBC2 in 1982, it didn’t just feel different — it felt dangerous. Loud, chaotic and gleefully destructive, the show followed four mismatched students — the violent punk Vyvyan, the sanctimonious hippie Neil, the oily “cool” one Mike and the perpetually put-upon Rick — through a series of surreal disasters in a crumbling North London house. It looked like anarchy. Behind the scenes, however, it was something even more subversive: a clever piece of budgetary strategy.
Under BBC rules at the time, a straightforward “sitcom” was allocated a relatively modest budget. A “variety” show, however — the kind that included musical performances — qualified for more generous funding. The producers realised that if The Young Ones featured a live band in each episode, it could be reclassified. More money meant more elaborate stunts, more ambitious set destruction, and more of the explosive physical comedy that defined the show.
The result was inspired. Every episode featured a musical act — often filmed as if the band had simply wandered into the students’ living room. One of the most iconic moments came when Motörhead blasted through “Ace of Spades” amid the domestic chaos. It wasn’t just cool; it was part of the funding model. Lead singer Lemmy would later develop a long-standing friendship with members of the cast, blurring the line between alternative comedy and rock rebellion.
The higher budget allowed for the kind of outrageous visual gags that would have been impossible otherwise — collapsing walls, exploding kitchens, full-scale slapstick carnage. The destruction wasn’t random; it was carefully engineered mayhem, paid for by a bureaucratic loophole. In a delicious irony, BBC red tape helped finance one of the most anti-establishment programmes it had ever aired.

February 8, 2026 at 10:12 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

allthatsinteresting.com/jack-kerouac...

Jack Kerouac’s First Draft Of ‘On The Road,’ A 121-Foot Scroll He Typed In Three Weeks In 1951, Is About To Be Sold At Auction

In 1951, Jack Kerouac typed his iconic Beat novel "On the Road" on a 121-foot scroll, and it's now expected to sell for up to $4 million at auction.

allthatsinteresting.com

February 7, 2026 at 7:14 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

@garybutler.bsky.social If I see one of these, I will buy it for you - but you have to promise to let me watch you put the strings on 😀

An electric guitar shaped like a flamingo, candy pink, of course, with the neck bent into an S shape which would make fitting strings impossible.

February 7, 2026 at 6:28 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

I know there are different opinions on who was first, but Bill Haley and the Comets were a significant part of the birth of rock and roll. Interesting to see the instruments used - double bass, saxophone, drums, guitars, pedal steel guitar - and ... Accordion 🙂
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXxH...

"The first time I really ever felt a tingle up my spine was when I saw Bill Haley and the Comets on the telly. Then I went to see them live. The ticket was 24 shillings, and I was the only one of my mates who could go as no one else had been able to save up that amount. But I was single-minded about it . . . I knew there was something going on here." - Paul McCartney
"The birth of rock 'n' roll for me? Seeing Bill Haley and the Comets . . . God, that band swung!" - Pete Townshend
"I've still got the ticket stub in my wallet from when I went to see Bill Haley and the Comets play in Manchester in February, 1957 - my first-ever concert. Over the years I've lost houses . . . I've lost wives . . . but I've not lost that ticket stub. It's that important to me." - Graham Nash.
On February 5, 1957 - 69 years ago today - Bill Haley and the Comets disembarked from the Queen Elizabeth at Southampton, England and prepared to launch the first European tour ever by a major American rock-and-roll act.
When Bill Haley and his band reached London's Waterloo Station later that same day, mayhem ensued. More than 5,000 fans formed a crush at the station to greet the group in a raucous display the press dubbed "the Second Battle of Waterloo."
For the generation of war babies just becoming teenagers in Great Britain, Bill Haley's tour offered the first chance to see a real, live rock-and-roll show. As the above quotations suggest, those shows made a particularly strong impression on certain members of that generation who would go on to change the course of music history.
Bill Haley and the Comets
Sounds of their music
Echo across chasm of time
Filling hearts with joy.

February 7, 2026 at 5:48 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

50 years later, we're still asking www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3_0...

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. (Ultimate Mix, 2020) - Plastic Ono Band (official music video HD)

YouTube video by johnlennon

www.youtube.com

February 5, 2026 at 10:06 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

"I was an experimenter around the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. And after they swept by the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune systems, it was possible to do something I had wanted to do from the beginning, and that is to turn the cameras on one of these spacecraft back to photograph the planet from which it had come. And clearly, there would not be much scientific data from this because we were so far away that the earth was just a point - a pale blue dot.
But when we took the picture, there was something about it that seemed to me so - poignant; vulnerable, tiny. And if we had photographed it from a much further distance, it would have been gone, lost against the backdrop of distant stars. And to me, it - I thought there - that's us. That's our world. That's all of us - everybody you know, everybody you love. Everybody you ever heard of lived out their lives there, on a mote of dust in a sunbeam.
And it spoke to me about the need for us to care for one another, and also, to preserve the pale blue dot, which is the only home we've ever known. And it underscored the tininess, the comparative insignificance of our world and ourselves."
Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot" (Talk of the Nation : Science Friday)

February 3, 2026 at 11:41 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Black and white photo of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show, caption reads:
"The government is corrupt on every level, but don't worry - the government will investigate itself and tell you what really happened"

February 3, 2026 at 10:12 AM

Reposted by Peter Butler

George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸

@gtconway.bsky.social

February 1, 2026 at 1:10 AM

Reposted by Peter Butler

Being Liberal ®🗽🏳️‍🌈

@beingliberal.bsky.social

True freaking story. I'm afraid to open the news any more.

February 1, 2026 at 9:56 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

"But when they're held for pleasure, they're the balls that I like best". Yeah, definitely about dancing.

February 2, 2026 at 10:15 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Maybe I have a dirty mind, but I don't think it's a bell he's singing about

February 2, 2026 at 9:56 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Yeah, if you close your eyes, it could be Agnetha singing 😀

February 2, 2026 at 9:53 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Maybe, it doesn't really ring any bells

February 2, 2026 at 9:51 AM

Reposted by Peter Butler

garybutler.bsky.social

@garybutler.bsky.social

youtu.be/KfE-ico_lD0?...

Troldhaugen - Gimme Gimme Gimme (ABBA Cover) (Live @ The Manning Bar 19/1/13)

YouTube video by MrTroldhaugen

youtu.be

February 1, 2026 at 10:54 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Basically just the same as the original version, really 😀

February 2, 2026 at 9:47 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

Nope. I'd never even heard the name Skip James until a couple of days ago

February 2, 2026 at 9:29 AM

Peter Butler

@1717pete.bsky.social

@garybutler.bsky.social Saw a reference to Skip James the other day, hadn't heard of him before - a bit of a change from the standard blues singers www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYAL...