Musings on the byways of popular culture
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So the tory party are playing to form, voting as expected and hardening their arteries and attitudes as we gambol gaily towards a catastrophic exit.
With 85% of them in the ABC1 group, and two-thirds at or close to retirement age, 120-odd thousand I’m-allright-Jacks at the tail-end of having-a-clue-about-anything-at-all are wagging the rest of us, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Democracy, innit?
by 14 Comments
Can we have some unbiased local angles on whatever the heck is going on in Oz as regards the state versus public service broadcasting?
From the coverage I’ve seen thus far, I can’t say I can easily reconcile recent police activities with the laid back ocker attitude to life I’ve come to associate with my antipodean chums.
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Simple question: anyone here want two tickets to the above? It’s this Sunday, June 2nd, and the gates open at 1:00 pm, with the event ending around 11:30 pm. Weather forecast is looking good.
I bought two adult tickets aaaaages back, but due to circumstances etc. we can’t go.
Tickets cost me £50 a pop; if you can use them, PM me and just make an offer; I can hand ’em over anytime until Sunday lunchtime, or courier them to you if that’s easier.
by 14 Comments
If, like me, you are a Neville Brothers fan, you may be interested to know about these soundboard recordings that are currently available to download:
If you are not, unlike me, a fan of the Neville Brothers, you may feel that this thread is one you should ignore.
Message ends.
by 19 Comments
..and they make a wonderful sound. By the time you read this, Gretchen and her performers have played their Bristol and London gigs for the current tour, which is advertised as having “strings attached”.
We were there on Friday night, at a hushed St. Georges – obviously rammed with long term fans – where we heard a blinding set of songs; it was yet another treat of an evening.
Her band played a blinder, not swamping the songs but supporting them, and the strings really worked their extra magic. Gretchen announced early on that they were recording the show, so I can only hope that we will be treated with another live album as a result of the ‘strings attached’ experiment, and that one or two of the tracks will have come from Friday’s performance. Certainly, when she started ‘On a Bus to St. Cloud’ the place went silent and you could have heard a very small pin drop for the duration of the song, such was the calm of the moment, as 500 plus people allowed themselves to just go with the flow and the feeling of a very special and human piece of observational songwriting. Earlier on » Continue Reading.
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When we had the blighters in to Windsor they torched the gaff, now they’ve left the Frog’s bloody great church in ruins. Can’t get the staff these days. Stupid peasants!
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OK, so I’m suffering at home with bronchitis, going nuts with boredom, when it occurs to me that I haven’t yet put the finishing touches (run-out groove etchings, hidden tracks, etc. etc.) to my contribution to the latest swaperama thingamajig.
So I fire up the various apps, rip a load of Tuvaluan throat-singing epics and obscure Sussex farmers singing agricultural favourites from the Napoleonic wars, and burn a couple of discs to send to my victim, er, swap buddies.
When it comes to finding the CD Swap thread, I can’t. Can we make it sticky in some way, or in any case possible to locate? Just until we’re done?
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I have two rather good seats for the Kathryn Tickell gig at St. Georges in Bristol this Wednesday night (April 3rd) but can no longer make it to the gig.
If any of you good people of the Afterword can use them, or pass them on to friends who can use them, please get in touch as quickly as possible.
I don’t want any money for them, though they cost me £22 a piece, but if you can see your way to bunging a few quid to my pals at a dog rescue centre I know, that would be a nice compromise.
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Time to grasp the shamrock?
https://youtu.be/ZdRhC16Y0GMVideo can’t be loaded: Charlie and the bhoys – give ireland back to the irish (https://youtu.be/ZdRhC16Y0GM)
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I always felt a degree of respect for Keith Flint, having witnessed him in full Firestarter pomp. I wondered how the hell he maintained such a staggering level of manic intensity. It seems something had to give, and now it has. Waaaaay too young to go.
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Shamima Begum; at the age of 15 she did something really dumb. Now older, possibly wiser, certainly damaged by the intervening years, she wants to come back to the place where she grew up, with her new born child, to escape from the madness and the corruption that has surrounded her in Syria.
In the name of humanity, why are we not welcoming the return of the prodigal? Isn’t the refusal of that charity the very reason why we abhor the extremists in the first place? Wouldn’t our ability to respond with love & kindness be the perfect refutation of their ideology?
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So three of the most reasonable members of the Tory benches have decided that enough’s enough – and with a proud two fingers to the ERG and the DUP they are also off, resigning the whip and ploughing an independent line, at least for the moment.
Is this the start of a movement away from the margins, back into something with a broader appeal than the dusty carpeted halls of CCO or the formica tables & plastic cups of the sackcloth & ashes wing of the Labour Party?
I truly hope it is. Your thoughts, once more?
by 75 Comments
So Chuka and pals have jumped ship.
Does that split the difference and doom us all to seeing endless wittering nonentities from the beige corridors of provincial Conservative Clubs ease their sweaty bottoms onto the polished green leather benches and utter approving grunts to the ERG robots and the old-moneyed rural Tories for the next millennium? Or is this the first spring shoots of a revival of a centre-left with the heft to pull the UK screaming into the 21st century?
Or should I just concentrate on building up the tinned food stash, the log pile and the bottled water lake while keeping my head down?
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Bastards.
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I’ve a few minutes to share this before descending into a day-long “workshop” (viz: Alexei’s immortal utterance) all about “Human Resource” information systems, so I’ll just have time to say that it’s a fab selection of paintings, by a woman called Doreen Fletcher, of everyday London – displaying a sweet innocence, humour and a great eye for detail.
Well worth your perusal – I was both charmed and impressed, and glad these made it into the light for more people to see.
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No, not a Brexshit moan, just a post for those who’ve wrestled with frets ‘n’ things, to show you a little YT vid I watched slack-jawed and grinning at the weekend ‘cos I think others will enjoy seeing it too.
PS click through at the end to the duet with Eric Gales!
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Re: your recent comments about events following the Brexit vote and the election of your pal Trump.
Mind your own f*cking business, you bloody gangster.
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No, it’s not that Rees Mogg arse-wipe, and neither is it George Hunter (if only), it’s that monobrowed Manc charlatan who has somehow stretched a thin song-writing ability – just enough to produce the odd half decent Beatles pastiche – into a platform that allows him to spout arrant self-aggrandisement pretending to be self-effacing yet so loaded with hyperbole he even has the arrogance to name drop people like David Bowie.
Is it possible to get a subscription to Mojo that omits any mention of the fool, and are there artists for whom you wish the same sort of editing were possible too?
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Let’s start a petition.
The Fall’s front man for the new fifty quid note! We the people demand it! Take back control!
Maybe we should have a referendum?
by 186 Comments
Here’s Bob Dylan’s entire output after being put through an intense iteration of the Zip algorithm:
“Nerve” “shoe-lace” “Delacroix”
Can you suggest a three word zipped summary for another artist that’s instantly recognisable?
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As eny fule kno, my political opinions are faultless, beyond reproach and sensible to the nth degree, and having done the 38 degress Brexit quiz, my results clearly show that we need to reject Breixit and remain in the EU while working to improve its future fortunes and direction.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is a smelly twot and will have their head put down the toilet while it is flushed.
*wobbly screen*
I would like to be the next Prime Minciter, due to my extraordinary leadership qualities and clear vision for our Nashnul Perlitical future. Apparently all I need is 48 votes or something. Er,
*screen wobbles again*
Hang on, I seem to have suffered a short-lived major neural catastophe just then there; I morphed into a Leaver for 30 seconds!
I certainly don’t want the poisoned chalice, any more than the Maybot does, but I have a huge advantage over here; I haven’t spent the last five decades mimsying about in local Conservative Clubs, giving anodyne speeches about traditional values, judging jam making contests, smiling inanely and raising funds for the local Round Table.
How much more of this chronic display of ineptitude are we prepared » Continue Reading.
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Holy Moses, I love her music, but was there ever so predictable a headline?
This girl is lost, and I feel so sorry for her.
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Seriously, does anyone still feel comfortable using the shitfest that is Facebook?
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Bravo monsieur, c’est vrai.
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Checking out the new edition of Mojo, I’m on pages 76-77, where Macca is pictured sitting in front of some shelves of vinlys. My eye is immediately drawn to an interesting detail.
Can anyone else tell me what the connection is between Paul and the album – a long time favourite of mine – that very clearly appears twice on the shelves behind him?
