I remember a few years back Aphex Twin sold a single copy of an otherwise unavailable vinyl album for a similar sum – it was bought by a crowdfunding campaign, wherein every contributor (there were hundreds) ended […]

I did my foundation course at the Art College from 1982-83, and after some first term wobbles I had a great time… obviously there were no “halls of residence” so we students were billeted in the out-of-season […]

“Fade To Grey” is a great single, and sums up the era perfectly. Rusty Egan’s story is that there weren’t enough Bowie/Roxy/Kraftwerk/Iggy records for their club nights, so they tried to make their own in that […]

There’s a “chicken & egg” element at work here – is Fox News a mirror that reflects what that person thinks, or is it a propaganda tool that indoctrinates viewers to its worldview?

Of course the answer is […]

I don’t dance like I used to, but in my head I was dancing to this…

I had a soft spot for Japan v1.0, their ridiculous cover of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” endeared them to me somewhat, though not to the point where I listen to those first albums too often these days… they were […]

For the record, I don’t have a problem with the production of those albums either, and yes, that Tears album has some great tracks on it, but as you’ve mentioned Neil Tennant, here he is performing with Suede at […]

I wanted to keep my OP relatively short, so didn’t mention it, but I also have nothing but admiration for the band for keeping going after BB’s departure – it would have been the end for 99% of bands, but somehow […]

Regardless of the quality of the track (I like it FWIW), that Gary Glitter track is apparently the only one in which GG and the Glitter Band actually perform together – all of the “classic” GG tracks were […]

Ah, the perennial “Band vs. solo artist” conundrum… even when one member is the unarguable driving force of a band, as David Byrne surely was with Talking Heads, it can’t possibly be understated how important it […]

I always find it strange when a media concern (HBO in this case) buys the rights to a well-known character, then proceeds to leave out everything recognisable about them – in Perry Mason’s case, that he’s a […]

Just under the wire…

1 – Citizen Kane – 1941
2 – It’s a Wonderful Life – 1946
3 – Duck Soup – 1933
4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
5 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
6 – The Godfather – 1972
7 – The Right S […]

At a tangent, I might suggest R.E.M. (don’t @ me), if only because of a long-held private theory that their latter, least-loved work, is actually empirically rather good (I have loads of time for ‘Accelerate’ and […]

You’ll have to take my word for it, but LL lives near my parents in a very unexotic part of the East of England [in the interests of privacy I won’t be any more specific.] I haven’t met her myself but by all […]

Thanks for your help folks, much appreciated!

I should have mentioned that Handbrake (still) works fine, i.e. the drive still _recognises_ disks of any region, and will still “rip” them, but the DVDs themselves […]

UPDATE!! Having tried the offered advice from the Massive to no positive effect, I’d resigned myself to having to avail myself of the PC warranty to get this problem fixed, but was leaving it a few weeks until we […]

PS New info – *authored* DVD-Rs are working OK! i.e. those I’ve assembled on my PC using Flickr work OK, it’s DVDs that have come from our DVD recorder connected to the TV that don’t work, so I’m guessing it’s […]

Hi everyone, thanks for your help so far, and apologies for radio silence, I had a funeral yesterday which took me out of commission somewhat…

Anyway, no joy as yet, quick update:
– turning off & on again, […]