I’m yet to watch “Adolescence” so this isn’t aimed at it, except to say that I find that everything made for Netflix is simply way too long, including movies, but especially series, many of which should just be […]

This sounds very similar to the tech which recovered those two old Morecambe & Wise shows a few years ago, from film stock which had all but melted into a blob in the canisters, remarkable stuff…

I was going to suggest R.E.M. too, but something earlier, “Automatic For The People” maybe?

I’m not going to defend “God Only Knows” (yes, dreadful) but DB’s cover versions are little discussed outside of “Pin-Ups”, which is weird bearing in mind that most of his albums include one, and they’re usu […]

From the artier (and earlier) end of the spectrum, Steve Reich’s “Come Out” from 1966:

On BAD’s 2nd album, No. 10 Upping St., they actually created their own “samples”’ for the track Dial A Hitman, with (then hot) Matt Dillon reading their script in a suitably hard-boiled manner…

As I’m sure many here did, I saw the Stones at Wembley in June 1982, when it was widely rumoured that it would be their last tour… yes, 45 years ago, when Mick wasn’t even 40 years old, but we all thought, “yup, […]

I promise I’m not being wilfully obscure, but i nominate “St. Mark’s Place” by Britpop no-hopers World Of Leather. I bought the CD unheard for 99p in an HMV sale, solely out of curiosity because I was at college […]

(To be fair to the mags in question, tracks from new albums will nearly always be put forward by the label rather than selected by the mag, though they will have more latitude when assembling themed oldies CDs)

My first disappointing LP purchase as a junior record-buyer, after saving X weeks of pocket money, was Bowie’s “Heroes”… loved the single title track of course, but what’s all this other weird stuff?! Fortunate […]

I loved Ze Records, “A Christmas Record” (origin of The Waitresses’ “Christmas Rapping”) always gets brought out each December chez Mickey, and Cristina’s fantastic “Is That All There Is?” also came up in the […]

Black Celebration of this parish will be able to confirm that The Hitmen were Alan Wilder’s band prior to joining Depeche Mode… (side note: how can I remember trivia like this, but not my own ‘phone number?)

I saw BAD at the Birmingham Powerhouse on (Google tells me) 11.11.86, a great gig, my two main rememberances being: 1) Mick introducing E=MC2 by saying “this is the kind of song that makes record companies send f […]

Annie Nightingale played this for me on her request show once while it was still banned and you couldn’t buy it… many years later the 7” was the very first thing I bought on some newfangled website called eBay.

Great track, I loved The Pirates… I had a hand in releasing their last album, even introduced them on stage once, and carried Mick Green’s guitar home for him after a rather raucous post-gig curry…

(Fairly) interesting thing about The Tourists is that Dave ‘n’ Annie weren’t the songwriters for the band, that was the never-heard-from-since Peet (sic) Coombs… talking of forgotten singles, I bought Eurythm […]

Truss was my parents’ MP until her ejection at the last GE, losing a massive majority in a constituency where (as the saying goes) a wheelie bin wearing a blue rosette could have been elected under normal c […]

Don’t throw away that broccoli “stump”, julienne it (cut it into thin strips), fry it up with bacon/ham, sliced chilli and garlic to taste, add to a drained pan of your cooked pasta of choice, stir in a good few t […]

I did walk out of Ben Folds at the Royal Opera House some years ago; he was so far back from the “apron” that from my seat to the side I literally couldn’t see him, which defeated the object somewhat…

Less so since his motorcycle accident which affected his memory, but Marc Almond used to have massive set variation from gig to gig, and his audience would actively welcome new songs and super deep cuts like […]