Does “Puppy Love” count?

Yes, the mix is great – of course it’s great; it’s Bob Clearmountain – but even he can only mix what’s he’s given. The problem is that the production/arrangement has nothing going on except that dirgy wash of […]

Do they still do their legendary bayleaf-heavy spag bol? I lived on that stuff during my first year in London (Earls Court bedsit, obviously) in 1977.

I’ve got one! I’ve got one! Power pop was huge for about twelve weeks in 1978, then it sank without trace.

Skiffle perhaps isn’t what it once was.

Oh, yes, and I’ve seen at least four of them live. But when they were at their most commercially successful, did you or would you?

To me “not cool” refers not to your naff ‘n’ cheesy Lieutenant Pigeons or Black Laces but to perfectly competent performers whose music for some hard-to-pin-down reason we were wise to keep quiet about actually […]

Make your bechamel backwards instead of the “correct” way! It’s quicker, instantly smooth and never, ever lumpy. Make your roux as normal in a small frying pan, then set it aside to cool down a bit. Heat the […]

How different/the same is this from/as the BBC Sessions 2CD set that came out years ago? One CD of that was of studio material (presumably Whistle Test) and the other one was from presumably the same 1979 gig at […]

Googling with “site:” or “-site:” to focus on (or, with the minus sign, to discount) certain hits can be handy. Let’s say, frinstance, that you want to see what people have been saying about the “Mouldy Old […]

Leaving Twitter because of all the far-right raving suggests to me that people must be using the For You feed rather than the Following one. On the latter, the only knuckledragging Nazism you’ll see is whenever […]

Forget Sinatra in From Here to Eternity. Forget Elvis’s 1968 Special. Forget Messi’s World Cup…. This will go down as the ultimate triumphant comeback. Four years without daring or even being physically able to […]

The Aristocrats!

Or maybe people just liked the song. Before the contest was overtaken by all the controversy (read “virtue signalling”), a lot of people were saying this year’s Israeli entry was the best power ballad since “Rise […]

I am too late for this, as ever, but my reaction scrolling down the thread has been one of mounting incredulity as the one name I expected to top the list got not even a passing mention. Surely the Quintessence […]

No, I’m not bothering topping up in the UK, because Spanish pensions are much more generous than UK ones (a full one here is about 85% of your average salary over the last 15 years). Instead, I’m having my UK […]

Even though I haven’t paid any taxes in the UK for 35 years, I did invest money in the British state throughout my twenties by paying in all my NI contributions. I’ll soon be entitled to recover some of that […]

So anybody who is a citizen of one country but lives, works and pays taxes in another will always be unable to vote in either? Tough crowd.

Following the wonky logic of some people in this thread, If Brits abroad who pay no UK taxes shouldn’t be entitled to vote in UK elections, then presumably all foreign nationals who are currently working in the […]

Dairylea Lewis?