Musicians appreciate him because they have hands-on awareness of just how fiendishly difficult it is to do what he did. But the technical difficulty involved in playing something isn’t a factor in whether I find […]

(I posted this before the extended edit appeared, so I was responding only to the first paragraph. I completely agree with the second one.)

Ah, yes! And we ended up kindalike agreeing, didn’t we? (tl;dr: He was brilliant, although his music didn’t do much for most people.)

Oh, sure. Horses for courses, innit. All I was saying was that Jeff Beck’s music leaving people cold is clearly the majority view among the general music-lervin’ public, not some kind of weirdass outlier as […]

From reading this thread? Yes.

It’s probably only to be expected that folks here would pile on Lodes [Load on piles? – Ed.), as if his opinion of Jeff Beck’s music were equivalent to some kind of mad marginal flat-earther woo, but here isn’t […]

I bought the lad one of those for Christmas. I’ve got the 9. Best phone – including an iPhone – I’ve ever had. Not particularly bells ‘n’ whistly, just reliable, fast and clutter-free.

The random-episodes gimmick was a bit pointless, I agree, but at least it served to get the thing noticed and talked about. All too many equally well-made shows (hi, DEVS!) slip under the radar because so much new […]

I do wonder how fans in America handle all the franchise changes over the years. Do local folks in Baltimore who used to support the Colts still follow them, even though they’re now based 600 miles away? Or do […]

I missed that. Hang on. [googles] Oh, dear.

I seem to be saddled with supporting teams that feature players I can’t stand. I’ve followed the Steelers since the early ’80s, towards the tail end of their golden era of Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris […]

You really think Harry Maguire is going to stop Mbappé, Dembelé and Griezmann in their tracks? Now that’s what I call faith. I’m confident that the semis will be Argentina-Brazil and France-Portugal, and my p […]

Slow Horses is the best thing on telly since, um, the last best thing on telly. Oldman and KST are the best double act since Tracy and Hepburn. The dialogue in their scenes is great but they don’t even need it; […]

Same here. Samsung 4K smart TV, but I use the much better Xiaomi MI box to access apps for streaming: t’ Flix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, YouTube, etc.

But to what extent does an individual not watching something constitute a protest, rather than mere virtue-signalling?

If the matches themselves are not corrupt (although I accept that not even that is a given), and bearing in mind that most of us will happily watch our club side’s UEFA-competition away games in several other […]

Brian May: Mostly pedestrian playing but wrapped up in a tone that most guitarists will recognise, however reluctantly, as having been quite magnificent.

Keith Moon: As with Mitch Mitchell, far too many […]

If we ignore who it is and just concentrate on listening to what it is, what do we hear? A disastrous mish-mash of arranged-to-death mush.

I’ve heard cover versions by James Last that were more moving and more […]

Me neither. “Oliver’s Army” borrows the final wail from “Born to Run”, o’ course, but “Pump It Up” sounds more like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” as reimagined by the Sir Douglas Quintet.

“Play some old,” that’s my motto.