July 29, 2026

"The gig also made me remember what rockstar fandom, as a young girl, had been: a gateway drug to the opposite sex and sexual attraction in general."

"I remembered chasing Sting (as part of a mob of 14-year-old girls) as he rode with the other members of the Police in an open-top Jeep down Hammersmith Broadway in 1978. I remembered ogling his poster in my bedroom.... Aged 58, I felt as though I was somehow repeating a level on the multi-player game of life that I’d previously completed at 14: sexual and emotional infatuation with a rock star as a prelude and initiation to the real thing...."

From "A moment that changed me: I’d lost my libido – then I saw Richard Ashcroft on stage and it came bursting back/I was nearly 60 and hadn’t had sex in 10 years. And I was fine with that. But seeing the Verve’s former frontman reminded me how much fun it is to fancy someone" (The Guardian).

56 comments:

Leland said...

Don’t stand so close to me.

Political Junkie said...

Every breath Sting took, she was watching him.

Caroline said...

Some recollections are best kept to oneself.

Disparity of Cult said...

Post Tiger Beat, still feels the heat.

ronetc said...

Great movie on the theme: Almost Famous

Howard said...

Star fucking, The gift that keeps on giving.

Howard said...

I don't know about you guys but these posts this morning are fantastic. I've almost forgotten that team TRT, Trump and Hegseth, launched an poorly planned irresponsible widespread war on Iran and have depleted our stockpiles of defensive missiles helping China realize that taking over Taiwan can move up on the timetable by a decade or so.

Oso Negro said...

@ Howard, I can only imagine the endorphin rush you will feel if China grabs Taiwan with Trump in office. Perhaps an AI Chinese girlfriend will get you warmed up.

tim maguire said...

**Howard said...I've almost forgotten that team TRT, Trump and Hegseth, blah, blah, blah**

God forbid you forget for one second how much you hate Trump. How boring.

Political Junkie said...

Howard at 751 - If you think things are bad now, wait till 2029 when the party of the DSA is running America.

Peachy+2 said...

rock stars I fancied along the way. Feel free to laugh.
The Beatles - Paul in particular.
Billy Squire
Robert Smith
Sean Kelly

True love. Robert Smith was the most deluded of the bunch.

RideSpaceMountain said...

For me it was Charlotte Hatherley from Ash, the girl your mom told you to stay away from.

Howard said...

I don't hate Trump. I hate how he fucked up royally in Iran. I hate that he is making the US look weak. If he had stopped at Venezuela, that would have been fantastic. But no, he had to shoot the moon and now we have to eat the bitch.

Also, I don't hate you people for loving and excusing Trump. I totally get why you do because the Democrats are God fucking awful and you have no place to turn. However, it's gotten so bad and rotten Momma Althouse has to shield you like children from the real news. Open your eyes and stop being pathetic. Your spostta be red blooded Americans. Act like it. The country needs you to pull your head out of your ass.

CJinPA said...

"Mel Hudson’s show, Richard Ashcroft Revived My Libido, is at the Edinburgh fringe from 5–30 August (excluding 18 August) at Gilded Balloon Teviot."

This is basically an ad for her show in which she'll regale ticket-buyers with stories of her senior citizen sexcapades.*

*This is only permitted in polite company for women.

Howard said...

As a boy, It's hard for me to remember if it was Catherine Ross in Butch Cassidy or Julie Christie and Dr. Zhivago. Now it's Jennifer Lawrence for sure.

Jamie said...

Without reading other comments - I had to look up Richard Ashcroft, and what springs to mind is, "WHY?!"

Lazarus said...

“Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov.”

I sense the theme today is groupies. This chick, Ruby Rippey, ... and maybe Fauci fans and Lindsey and his funeral fit in somehow.

rehajm said...

..:I always appreciate the British use of fancy…

Lazarus said...

"Do you fancy me?" never made it across the Atlantic.

We do speak of dog, cat, and pigeon fanciers, but there's nothing sexual involved ... most of the time.

Peachy+2 said...

Howard - the topic is rock stars - not Trump, or hollywood.

Mary Beth said...

"Howard said...

Star fucking, The gift that keeps on giving.
7/29/26, 7:48 AM "

"When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Dude1394 said...

60 and haven’t had sex in 10 years. Damn

Mary Beth said...

Jamie, I looked him up too. I wanted to see the hotness that reawakened her. My reaction was the same.

Narr said...

I switched on my TV this morning while eating my cereal and caught another NBC concert on the plaza or whatever they call it.

Mumford and Sons. I never saw or heard their appeal, but the youngsters in the audience were certainly enjoying the chance to bob like retards to a crummy song.

I suspect most of the girls and half of the boys would gladly spread 'em . . .

Dude1394 said...

Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love.

baghdadbob said...

Belinda Carlisle, Ann-Margret, Dolores O'Riordan.

Not an oldster. said...

Howard needs someone to crush on this sum-sum-summer...
His bikini bottoms are too tight.

William said...

Late life libido is somewhat ridiculous. I don't think Nature particularly wants you to have children, but the drive is there and we're stuck with it. Fortunately most of us aren't rock stars like Madonna or Mick Jagger and we can slake our impulses in discreet ways.

n.n said...

AFLA is a milestone in Critical Prop Theory.

Rocco said...

Peachy+2 said...
…Robert Smith…

He did collaborate with Olivia Rodriguez. When she introduced him on stage live, supposedly her fans were like ‘Who is this old guy?’

Earnest Prole said...

Gotta prime that pump.

Rocco said...

Susanna Hoffs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuKzdWbiefs

I was at that concert that night. I’m surprised there wasn’t a local mini baby boom 9 months later.

Shirley Manson was a surprising rock star crush for me as well. Not normally my type.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

A man might say a similar thing. But would a major news outlet print it?

Beaver7216 said...

Howard, I thought this post was about Trump and the heuristic of first impressions impacting future thinking. Trump’s statement about “you can grab them…” Not that he grabbed them but celebrities could grab them. An anecdotal truth. Yet that impacted views of Trump for 10+ years.

Clyde said...

@ Rocco

Agree 100% on Susanna Hoffs and that video, which I've seen before. She's dressed down but the erotic energy there is off the charts. There is also a scene in a movie that her mother Tamar Hoffs made, The Allnighter, of Susanna in her undies, getting dressed up to go out. Etched in my memory!

boatbuilder said...

Well, I hope that Paul guy finally got laid, at least.

D.D. Driver said...

The Verve? A one hit wonder from the 90s?

Peachy said...

I'd like to start a band and call it.
Banana Grandma
or
Granny and the goobers or something like that.

I'd hire Winston Marshall for starters.

Peachy said...

You love who ya love DD.

Peachy said...

Robert Smith didn't age real well.

Peachy said...

but look how cute

we bite and scratch and scream all night.

Jaq said...

Where is the article about the 75 year old man who got his libido back by encountering Sydney Sweeney? Or would that be too yucky.

Jamie said...

Not as age appropriate as the Verve guy, Jaq.

The thing is, there are plenty of very good-looking age-appropriate men, and (although I think it's a bigger ask for evolutionary psychology reasons) also age-appropriate women, for the 60ish crowd. How on earth does THIS guy get a rise out of her?

I guess, since I didn't watch the video but only looked at still pictures, maybe I missed the fact that he has that je ne sais quoi while performing, the way (say) Owen Wilson has been able to be somewhat of a leading man despite being a genuinely weird-looking guy. Or whatsisname, big dude who was in The Wedding Crashers with him - not as weird-looking, but not good-looking either - Vance? Vince something? He also landed several starting roles in romantic comedies.

Jamie said...

Sorry, starring.

William50 said...

For me it was Diana Rigg. Classy and hot.

bagoh20 said...

It's getting harder every day to take American women seriously. No wonder so many of you can't figure out how to vote like it matters. And it's seems like it was mostly women who found Fauci to be so dreamy. Maybe you do need men in the locker rooms to help put your shoes on the right feet.

john mosby said...

“ I’d lost my libido – then I saw Richard Ashcroft on stage and it came bursting back”

For me, it was John. CC, JSM

Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

Where is the article about the old men who got their libido back by encountering and palling around with Epstein? Or would that be too honest.

Iman said...

Grow up, lady.

Iman said...

DeeDee sang the lead on Dead or Alive’s "You Spin Me Round" at karaoke one night. He nailed it and then he got nailed.

Iman said...

“Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love.”

No accounting for taste, Dude1394… retch…

Iman said...

Valerie Carter, circa 1977-78.

Jamie said...

I just thought about the writing: how does something "come bursting back"? Bursting does not tend to be directional - it seems to me to imply an omnidirectional phenomenon, rather than something that can return - "come back." A poor choice of word, I think. Maybe "came flowing back," like a tide? Or does that skate too close to menstruation?

Peachy+2 said...

if were talking actors-
Tom Selleck
Paul Newman

Blair said...

"The Verve? A one hit wonder from the 90s?"

Hardly. They put out three fantastic albums and had a run of hit singles from two of them. Urban Hymns was one of the biggest selling albums of 1997. They were HUGE.

Kirk Parker said...

Jamie @8:02pm,

LOL! Brilliant.

I don't suppose you guys are getting to Western Washington during your travels? I keep trying to put some kind of althouse refugee get together but there's never a critical mass. I am hoping to do this because back in the dial-up days we had some in-person get togethers with a few folks from bix.com and it was really quite satisfying to meet people in person.

Post a Comment

Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.