Andrew Leyshon

“By doing maybe one Doors show a month we can fill a hole in our dire finances”: Mercury-nominated UK band Field Music are working as a tribute act “Any embarrassment I might have felt about doing this has dissolved," the band explain, while thoroughly detailing their predicament

Late to this: a good example of the difficulties most artists have in making a living in the contemporary music economy. Long-standing indie band @fieldmusicmusic.bsky.social moonlight as a Doors cover band to make ends meet. I'd happily pay to watch them in either form! tinyurl.com/49b37t54

I think she was joking.

A cultural industries colleague, who studied science fiction, argued it was 10/9/2008. This was the day the Large Hadron Collider was switched on which, she argued, led to the proliferation of infinite multiple universes. This version of ourselves just happen to be living in a wrong track universe.

Balancing a desire for innovative growth through fintech expansion with the pervasive fear of another systemic financial crisis, personified here by UK CEx Rachel Reeves and BoE Governor Andrew Bailey, has shaped the evolution of fintech economies since the GFC. #FinTechCapital on.ft.com/44ShfuP

If this is the example I think it is then this is surely an effort of omission rather than commission: emeriti get a new email address, but it’s linked to the old one, so everything should carry on. It did for me, so it looks like someone didn’t prioritise or action the transfer process.

As @andrewleyshon.bsky.social and I show in our forthcoming book, JPMorgan Chase has been competing against, partnering with, investing in, and buying up FinTech startups since at least 2014. They have long been leveraging their monopoly position in US banking to shape FinTech economies

They are clearly doing this on purpose now.

This is definitely getting worse.

@jonawils.bsky.social may be a great football historian, but he’s got his arithmetic wrong here. John White was 21 when moved to Falkirk: he wouldn’t have been 25 until 1962, after he’d won the double with Spurs.

Cycling jerseys, drawing in black and white with text as follows: - 'Petro-chemical company causing climate change' - 'Country where prisoners are tortured' - 'Do some gambling' - 'State with terrible human rights record' - 'Oil company that downplayed the risks from climate change for three decades' - 'Sponsoring cycling makes us look green and ethical'

Such an important feature on TotalEnergies by ITV Cycling and Matt Rendell on the Tour de France rest day programme this evening. In support: a repost of this drawing.

The Economy and Society Early Career Paper Prize 2026 is now live.
£1000 prize.
Submission deadline: 15/12/25
Details here and in the News and CfP section of our website
files.taylorandfrancis.com/economy-and-...

Private equity and the crushing cost of UK vets’ bills Charges have risen sharply since 2016 as more practices have been swallowed up by buyout groups

Thanks, will check it out. The Morgenson and Rosner book is also about PE in general, but specifically in the US. BTW, did you see this piece in the FT re: vet’s bills and an observation of PE’s influence on everyday life? on.ft.com/4eTz1Bn Private equity and the crushing cost of UK vets’ bills

Really enjoying the podcast. You mentioned you were reading a book on PE as part of its growing influence on the game but didn’t, I think, give its title. Was it ‘These are the Plunderers’ by Morgenson and Rosner?

Reeves unveils City reforms aimed at cutting red tape and fuelling UK growth ‘Leeds Reforms’ include streamlined accountability for senior bankers and a campaign to get more consumers investing in stock market

“Nothing can possibly go wrong!”

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Really good follow up essay from Gillian Tett on Geoeconomics, revealing more sources & some useful interviews. Still bemused by the lack of reference to 1980s Japan & the concerted US campaign against Japan’s perceived mercantilism. Worked too.

on.ft.com/40b9ayH

The new age of geoeconomics

Better late than never I suppose re: Thatcherism.

on.ft.com/44iwZHl The roots of the British malaise lie in a sick economy

Nearly a quarter of foster places in England provided by private equity-backed firms Experts raise alarm over ‘commodification’ of vulnerable children as independent fostering agencies make millions in profit Experts have raised alarm over the “commodification” of vulnerable foster children as analysis reveals almost a quarter of all foster places in England are now provided by private equity-backed companies making millions of pounds in profits. Analysis for the Guardian by thinktank Common Wealth found independent fostering agencies (IFAs) are making millions via public funding from councils to provide placements for foster children, while foster carers struggle to pay bills. Continue reading...

Nearly a quarter of foster places in England provided by private equity-backed firms

Me, @allanwatson1.bsky.social and @andrewleyshon.bsky.social spotted in Foyles - huddling together in solidarity. The critical filling in a chunky sandwich of handbooks and how-to manuals...

Another day, another 100k added. Of course, a lot of this is curiosity, but it's all generating streams. Will be interesting to see when this levels off and declines. Perhaps it won't?

AI "Band" The Velvet Sundown Is An "Art Hoax" Created With Suno, Spokesperson Admits Perhaps you, too, have had the displeasure of stumbling across the Velvet Sundown on Spotify or social media. The psych-rock “band” made headlines last month after they’d amassed hundreds of thousands...

Up to over 750k now, but it’s been confirmed that The Velvet Sundown are indeed an AI confection. Sorry, [checks notes] an “Art Hoax”. Whatever. Expect lots of these too.
www.stereogum.com/2313949/ai-b...

Wrote this last year anticipating the problems of Labour's economic inheritance & the need to find ways of keeping the financial markets at bay. After the Wefare Bill debacle, the markets are unhappy. Absent any substantial growth, the choices are spending cuts, tax rises or fiscal rule changes.

Seemingly AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown have over 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners Seemingly AI-generated band The Velvet Sundown have thousands of monthly Spotify listeners but have only existed for a month

NME write up of story here. Note the 50% increase in listeners since this story was first published two days ago. The story itself is streambait. www.nme.com/news/music/s...

If The Velvet Sundown are indeed AI generated with over 600k monthly listeners then the investors that own the music rights and those invested in AI music algos are going to be very excited about the possibilities of this business model. This 'band' may be blown, but there will be more. Many more.

Klarna accelerates shift to digital bank ahead of second IPO attempt Swedish fintech’s transition comes as pressure mounts on core ‘buy now, pay later’ business model

Klarna's FinTech identity crisis continues. Investors are increasingly impatient for IPO. As @andrewleyshon.bsky.social and I argue in our forthcoming book, Klarna's inability to generate profits dates from its costly expansion into the US, driven by VC logic of scale up
on.ft.com/3Gh8st2 via @FT

Fair.

YouTube video by Chrystal Smith Iris Mountbatten: Trousers

I know it dates me, but can I be the only one who watched Jake Shears on stage at Glastonbury with the Scissors Sisters last night and thought, “Well, er … the trousers”. youtu.be/gB0MxBMMKHM?...

Hell of a chart, this, from @financialtimes.com. Spot the JCPOA.

on.ft.com/4kSuQYO

The Rise of the Platform Music Industries A critical appraisal of the latest round of platform intermediation, centred on MusicTech, social media platforms and user-generated content, live streaming, crowdfunding and gamification, that is res...

The Rise of the Platform Music Industries, written by me and @allanwatson1.bsky.social, was formally published yesterday. The physical version is available from all good bookshops (as well as a few bad ones). It’s also available as an an Open Access pdf): www.agendapub.com/page/detail/...

AI boom means regulator cannot predict future water shortages in England Datacentres, which do not have to report amount of water used to cool servers, leave Environment Agency with no idea of shortfalls

'The artificial intelligence boom means the Environment Agency has no idea how much water England will be short of in future decades, as datacentres do not have to report how much they are using to cool their servers.' Maybe the policy of 'turbocharging' AI everywhere & all the time needs thought?

Given the real problems academic journal editors are experiencing in sourcing paper reviewers at present, one thing that they and their publishers should really pay attention to is the increasing tendency to omit the authors comments when asking for a re-review. It's happening more and more.