Son has just come back from a sabbatical uni term in Dublin, where he was able to study due to EU tuition fee rates. That window of opportunity has now closed. As the French friend he made on the course said; […]

Entertaining film due to the ‘single shot’ thing but I had to suspend all my critical faculties while watching it. Of course the Germans were terrible shots and it’s possible to run through artillery shell […]

I lived in Liverpool in the 80s as a student and had no interest in the Beatles (and neither did anyone else back then, it seems). I only recently found out that our student friends’ flat on Gambier Terrace was […]

I recently asked my wife to get two spare wheel nuts from the Auto Parts store. When she came back she said they were very expensive and had bought two complete wheel lugs sets. How we laughed when she realised […]

Here in Sydney, my son is in prison, and many of the young guys he is in with are in a repeat cycle of homelessness/drug use/arrest/prison. Some of them even welcome going back to prison for a short sentence […]

Not scary at all. It’s non-ionising radiation, there is no plausible mechanism by which it might cause cancer. Likewise 1-4G phones, no evidence at all of causal relationship with cancer. I’ve just been at the […]

Have just finished reading the Lynda (Oxo Mum) Bellingham’s autobiography. She was married to the guy who conceived and produced the Confessions series, and he was – by her telling – simply a hustler who saw the […]

I was going to say Ian McCulloch vs Julian Cope, but after thinking about it, they both hated lots of other people too. Mac described Paddy McAloon as having the most insincere voice in music. Cope said something […]

As a former NZ resident I can imagine what a horrific impact this is having, particularly in a place like Chch with its small population still not recovered from devastating earthquake 8 yrs ago. One thing I […]

Good documentary on them here including his classic “don’t gob on me, 1-2-3-4” intro at the Electric Ballroom and the bit where he stuffed eight quid in his pocket to gazump Loadsamoney on Everybody’s Happy […]

In Australia there are multiple meanings for mate depending on what tone is used.
Long, draw out maaaate = matey. Abrupt, accusative tone = Oi!
Someone on the ABC equated it to the four tones of Mandarin:

Sounds like it was hate at first sight. In Cosello’s autobiography he apparently describes him as “…a horrible little git called Eric, who’d stumbled into the office “

Agree about the Piano, and this is from someone who lived in Auckland [where it was shot] at the time I saw it. I didn’t learn my lesson, though, as I made the mistake of going to see Campion’s Portrait of a Lady. […]

I have a friend called Corduroy, but she tells me it is derived from the French for King Heart (Coeur du Roi) rather than the kegs. I used to sell the jumbo variety in my Saturday job at Huggy Bear’s boutique on […]

I also devour rock autobiographies. Recent ones I’ve liked: Wilko Johnson, Chrissy Hynde, and as already mentioned Lol Tolhurst and Viv Albertine. One that I found a bit disappointing was Chris Difford’s. He is […]

And tells the 800 pound gorilla: “I know how you feel”.

May not be comfortable, but it is worth reading old correspondence. My mum sent me a pile of old letters I’d left in the attic. When I read them it destroyed many of the comfortable myths I’d created about my […]

At our office Christmas party I had a drunken conversation with a Scottish colleague who was doing Harry Enfield’s “everything’s better in Scotland’ routine. I was praising the Associates, and this 50-year old […]