… and somewhat related: “If you’re playing poker, look around the table – if you can’t see a sucker, it’s you…”

“Culture eats strategy” (in a business context.)

“A good burger beats a bad steak.”

“Never stay in any hotel named the ‘Station’ or ‘Majestic’…”

IIRC The Observer gave the 12″ of Get The Balance Right a long review (i.e. as long as their big album reviews) on release, holding it aloft as an example of the potential of the extended version as artform that […]

Look no further than Scott Walker – I know his latter meat-bashing stuff gets some derision, but his personal journey from top of the poppermost in the 60s to the some of most uncompromising noise available in the […]

I’m not the first to say this, but XTC are one of the few long-running bands who (pretty much) genuinely got better with every album…

The first record I ever bought was The Sweet’s “Wig-Wam Bam” (still bonkers, still brilliant), so I have Chinnichap going through me like a stick of rock… I saw “Andy Scott’s Sweet” a few years back for a […]

Oh yes, but ironically enough, EC actually was “the bloke in IT who asks if you’ve tried turning it off and turning it back on again…”

I can’t find a link, but even pre-Brexit, FishFromMarillion wrote an excellent and fascinating blog on the complexities and costs of touring, naming names and giving actual costs, all illustrating that it was a […]

David Hepworth’s remembrance/theory on Graham Parker is that he was unlucky enough to be hitting his commercial stride just as Elvis Costello came along and effectively stole his entire audience overnight.

I […]

Thanks for the review(s). I’m interested in the T Rex edition, but share your view that Marc’s lyrics really don’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny, fun as they are…

And that’s an interesting point about […]

I’m on the list, huzzah! Looking forward to it!

Trivia alert – author Mark Gruenwald was famously Marvel’s in-house Mr. Know-It-All, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Marvel and all the characters. He was the model for Mr. Mobius, “Senior […]

One unsung genius bit of Thunderbirds is the pre-credits “trailer” of clips from the forthcoming episode, set to Barry Gray’s spectacularly exciting music – to this day I’ve never seen it copied by any other show, […]

Yup, totally in!

The theory which resonates with me most is that many people currently don’t identify themselves as Labour or Tory, so much as pro- or anti-Brexit. While the Tories continue to beat the Brexit drum, however […]

I think you’re right. Hepworth mentioned more than once how other magazines and branding agencies would approach him to ask how Word managed to create such an enthusiastic following as The Massive, and his only […]

Another Word veteran here; going back even further I was on the Rocking Vicar mailing list (I even won a CD in a competition!), which I think was Hepworth & Ellen’s way of gauging the market for what eventually […]

Cat Stevens’ “Mona Bone Jakon” album was originally to be named “The Dustbin Cried The Day The Dustman Died”, hence the illustration of the crying dustbin on the sleeve, which of course makes no sense with the new […]

I have Scritti Politti booked for the end of September which feels quite “safe” as I write.

I’m also considering a gig in the second half of July which is more tentative for obvious reasons, especially as it’s […]

The genius of the “I Say A Little Prayer” arrangement is that in the chorus, the lead and backing parts are effectively reversed, so the the backing vocals are doing the “call”, while Aretha gives the “respon […]