Wow, this far down and no-one’s mentioned the Wondermints? Probably now more famous for being the core of Brian Wilson’s backing band (I think Darian Sahanaja is still Brian’s MD, and helped him put his “Smile” […]

Dear all, THANK YOU so much for all the good advice, good wishes and good vibes – there really isn’t anywhere else like this on the interweb.

Two 1-to-1 consultation meetings later, it looks like 10 years’ […]

If we’re playing the “British light-entertainment stalwarts on Twitter” game, I highly recommend “Who’s Lionel With Today?” wherein Lionel Blair (I presume it’s really him) posts a daily picture of himself, er, […]

As always, context is everything.

I used to work for a big distribution firm in Essex, where every bloke was a “mate”, and every girl was “sweetheart” or “darling”, without exception, from the top down, and it […]

Actually I prefer the “Susie” songs, too, I thought I was the only one!

I think the versions are mostly so faithful to the originals, that Sweet’s songs suffer in comparison, whereas the ones Hoffs sings have a […]

Nicely put, Hawkfall!

Between the comics when I was a kid, and the movies in my 40s & 50s, Stan Lee has a reasonable claim to have brought me more joy than anyone over the years…

I thought it was a nice […]

I’m a “greatest hits” fan of Queen at best, so I don’t have a dog in this race at all, but I think it’s easy to forget that “Queen” is Brian, Roger & John (sleeping partner)’s actual job, i.e. what they do for a […]

I believe the soundtrack album features the whole Live Aid performance for the first time, so that might be enough of a USP to get some decent Christmas gift sales happening, and the film was a huge hit in the UK […]

UPDATE – the tooth is out there!

Had it done this morning, the dentist was very patient with me, took me through the x-rays, and assured me that the extraction was the best course. For any future sufferers, it […]

Thanks a lot folks, exactly the sensible, wide-ranging feedback I was hoping for.

Current plan is for me to go to the appointment, but force them to convince me there’s no other option than extraction before I […]

Bananas are the only food you can live on exclusively without eating anything else, though the excess of potsassium will make you rather ill at the same time…

I have no knowledge of the pineapple/porn confluence, but what you eat definitely has an effect on your, er, excretions… lots of asparagus will make your pee smell, and as most us will have probably experienced, […]

Library music tends to be thought of as synonomous with “lounge” or easy listening, which is far from the whole story. Like anything, there are good & bad (& awful) examples of Library music… most of it is […]

A single CD Soft Cell collection, especially a chronological one, is doomed to be rather a schizophrenic experience, with five top 5 singles followed by “the rest”, dramatically highlighting their artistic […]

“The Sound Of Fury” is wonderful, and yes, it has a good claim to being the first self-written album of the rock & roll era…

BONUS! That fine Johnny Trunk fellow currently has it as a 50p download at […]

I seem to remember Heppo at the old place saying that the evolution of the format was something like 1) “How dare you stitch up our client like that”, 2) “This isn’t going to be for ‘Who the Hell’, is it?”, and […]

“Songs To Learn & Sing” is one of the great ‘Best of’ albums, it really hangs together as an album even though it’s just the singles to date in chronological order, whichof course is the hidden benefit of not […]