Yes, I thought Noel was straining a lot. He was shouting more than singing.

I live in hope: I saw recent-ish footage on YouTube where Macca’s voice seemed a lot stronger. I suspect the crowd will do a lot of the heavy lifting.

I once attended a family do at a friend’s house; New Year’s Eve, if I recall correctly. I was absolutely horrified/grotesquely compelled when they played a family game – passed down through the generations – cal […]

Just before lockdown, the rail network was becoming intolerable. Frequent delays, cancellations, part-cancellations (where they booted you off the train miles from home because they couldn’t find a driver), s […]

As I’ve always maintained, and it’s only my opinion, the Libertines were two-thirds of a great band: they looked good, had a fab ramshackle sound…but they just couldn’t write any decent songs.

In his book, One Hit Wonderland, Tony Hawkes details many country music song titles. Alongside the brilliantly-named Drop Kick….there was a ditty called I Don’t Know Whether to Kill Myself or go Bowling.

I worked alongside a fella who thought the original three films represented the apotheosis of modern cinema. He even loved the Phantom Menace, which was about as exciting as a 3-hour Brexit-based Zoom lecture by […]

I’m not sure who the young lady was singing What a Wonderful World, but she sang it in the karaoke style of someone who’s literally never heard the song before. She knew when the words changed, but she seemed to […]

Apologies if this has been answered (I’ve looked through the thread), but will it literally be the same gig every show? Do they have, say, 58 different bits of audience engagement they’ll rotate, or will it be the […]

My good lady only paid £1.99 for No Parlez. She’s offered me much more money than that not to speak, in fairness.

I think it’s a decent little album, actually.

Yes, what a bizarre reason to disallow the goal. The laws of football have been meddled with to the point where you’re left perplexed by the absence of common sense (the Middlesbrough FA Cup goal v Man Utd was another one).

Great review, Dave. As you say, it’s easy to forget what a big star Paul Young was in the 80s. Incidentally, my girlfriend bought an album from a charity shop last week…I think you can guess which one.

I listen to the Guardian Football Weekly podcast; the presenters undertake occasional live tours. Let’s be clear: it’s just four journalists/presenters talking about football… and they’re asking £31 a ticket f […]

In Brilliant Mistake, Elvis Costello sings, ‘She said that she was working for the ABC News/
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.’

It’s a great lyric, but it’s sadly undermined by Elvis p […]

Some lovely – and heartbreaking – posts on this thread.

When I was a kid, maybe 5 or 6, I hero-worshipped my dad; I guess many people feel that way about their father. As the years dripped by, I began to resent […]

I watched this game in a bar in central Manchester – a bar absolutely full of Liverpool fans. Proof the world has, indeed, gone mad.

I seem to recall a psychologist saying it’s actually pretty likely – given the variables of how many dreams we have each night, week and year – that we will, occasionally, dream of someone we’re estranged from and […]

This is one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen in comedy.

Fair play to him – a nice gesture. Mind you, you’ll need some form of financial assistance to afford a single malt at The Briton’s Protection!