How are the massive feeling today? Tickety boo or not so pucker? I didn’t get where I am today without remembering the myriad catchphrases from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

Tim Staffell of Smile / Humpy Bong has a further claim to fame. He built the models for Thomas the Tank Engine. Not just Thomas and friends but the Fat Controller and the whole island of Sodor.

I was a big fan until I came upon him on social media. He’s firmly of the “so-profoundly-pro-Palestinian-that-he-blames-Israel-and-the-west-for-everything’ persuasion, as well as displaying some old-f […]

I remember not liking Goods & Services at first. But it’s a pretty good document of their work. I once saw them effectively booed off at the Mean Fiddler but I would always go back and see them year after year. […]

I feel this joke needs more appreciation.

It’s hard to imagine now but there once was a time when Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine were No 1 album, festival-headliner massive. A lot of their appeal, like a proto Sleaford Mods, was in smart alecky w […]

In no particular order …. After the Flood Mr Bates Nolly One Day Behind Her Eyes Griselda Under the Banner of Heaven Things You Should Do Baby Reindeer The Dry Blue Lights The Responder The a […]

There’s a separate comp to be made of Van covers. I like Art Neville’s version of Warm Love.

It seems a concerted effort on energise their repertoire a bit – and I approve. Will always have a soft spoilt for Elbow, one of the few bands who can make a space like that seem intimate. However, what really […]

It wouldn’t be the first time. “Old Van Morrison’s moaning / Something about a copycat”. I bloody love Mike Scott but have only really liked Where the Action Is of his most recent records. Like Van the Man, he […]

That’s four of the above I’ve added now, plus a firm note to self to check out Blue Rose Code. I especially liked that and Satan Is on the Loose.

Yeah, She Knows is on there. I knew this aspect of Thin Lizzy’s work existed but never found many examples. But on She Knows, Phil mirrors the guitar with a bit of “dweeb-dweeb-dip-dip” vocalising, which is very […]

I did say it was hard thing to pull off. But the Decemberists, Steve Forbert, Bruce and Antony & the Johnsons songs all contain more than trace elements of Van.

Thank you. Those are all mostly new to me. The Black Sorrows were on there but slipped off for some reason. Got to admit I struggle with Counting Crows, although they redeemed themselves by being one of the few […]

Some great early Nick Mason-style springy drumming, too.

Yep, I think you’re right. I wish I could find it. It got me a job interview at NME because the editor saw I’d done it and was a bit of a fan.

I want to say Toby Manning (?) and one other. They were very genial and knowledgable. It was for a new music glossy that was launching out of Bristol but sadly I can’t remember the name of the mag or its editor. […]

Thank you. I’m ready fed up that I can’t lay my hands on a better Fannies interview I did around the time of Grand Prix. I had the pleasure of going for a few pints with them one night. I literally bumped into the […]