The Marantz models do have a bit of a bad reputation where it comes to less than perfect discs but that model is quite fancy actually. They’re not cheap and have won all sorts of awards. Can you make a CDR copy […]

Booze is great. Until it isn’t. I love it me. I go dry for the first three months of every year. I associate it with certain activities, music listening and after excercise usually. So I do miss it a bit when I’m […]

I laughed so hard at the reading from Julian Cope’s book that the experience was very similar to the laughing experience described elsewhere in the same cast. Luckily I was at home, and not on the bus, which is […]

I still shudder when I think of his contributions being deleted, as they were.

On the subject of flushing milk down the drain, possibly he was coming from the angle that milk can be very harmful to rivers. Milk can rob water of oxygen and harm fish etc. Or so I have heard. I think we’re […]

Martin Newell, the musician and poet, recently had some of his oldest recordings re-released in the states. It was Burger Records I think who did it. Martin was intrigued as to who would be buying cassettes in […]

When my kids were younger, probably this was late 2000’s we took them to see a guy called Dan Zanes at the Festival Hall in London. His thing was ‘it’s pop gig for the kids’. It was a lot of fun. I’d heard he […]

Tom Waits. Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen).

Martin Newell pointed that song out to me. He rates it very highly. Talking of Martin Newell… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRaOFkv-NE

I’ve been streaming music and video round my house for many years now. I use Serviio software. It’s free and it’s the only one I’ve ever had any luck with. You have to have your PC turned on for the free version […]

I use a google app called Datally. It tells you what you’re using in real time and also blocks background apps accessing data.

It’s great to see that I wasn’t alone in my love for that record. In fact it was the first one I played when I got back into vinly about 4 years ago.

Rod’s book was ghost written by Giles Smith of The Cleaners From Venus. So was the recent Tom Jones autobiography. Giles has a very distinctive voice. he’s a great writer. His humour and voice were easy to hear in […]

I accidentally caught them a couple of weeks ago on radio2 with Michael Ball. I heard them described and thought ‘I have to hear this’. I heard them and thought ‘I never want to hear them again’.

It’s probably not a classic but, I for one, have certainly been enjoying Little Steven’s latest ‘Soulfire Live’ album after catching him at the Roundhouse with Wacky Macca Thumbsaloft last year.

Gilbert, or Ray as his fans call him, seems a really nice guy. He meets all his fans at the end of his shows however long that takes. His sister and her husband run the merchandise stall. He’s had his years in the […]

Andy has been typically sneery about this on Twitter.

Ok forget Barry (great show though), there’s also a great 2 part program about Sparks which recently aired.

The BBC radio Iplayer is often full of gems too, which I download to my phone for the commute. Don’t laugh but I’m currently enjoying the latest series of ‘They Write The Songs’ from radio 2 which is hosted by […]

Another obvious example is Frank Sinatra with album’s like Sinatra’s Sinatra.