The T-shirts thread led to a side discussion about logos from @pencilsqueezer.

I also like a good logo. The Mute Records walking man is very pleasing as it spins around on a 7” single. My first Mute purchase was TVOD/Warm Leatherette and it was hypnotic. Early Depeche Mode singles had it too.

The Chrysalis mad hatter is another one that promotes warm nostalgic feelings along with Island’s palm trees the RSO pig, the 2-tone man and many more.

As for bands, the Rolling Stones lips logo is the undisputed guvnor I’d have thought.

I’m not alone in this – am I ?

I was at a gathering last night and several people I hadn’t met before were there too. One of these was a gentleman wearing a Peter Hook and the Light concert T shirt, which led me to go and say hello and talk about the last Auckland gig which was about two years ago.

There was a bit of confusion (geddit?) when I mentioned that I am also a fan of New Order/Joy Division and I thought we might have a little bit of a chat about the common ground we clearly share. Once he worked out what it was I was rambling on about, he clicked and we did talk about the gig and all was well. However, he also said that he goes to quite a few gigs and tends to pick up a T shirt each time. He only had a passing knowledge of JD/NO.

So my warning to you is this – don’t assume, like I did, that wearing a band T shirt means that the wearer is a fan of said band. We know that youngsters wearing Ramones T-shirts are probably not at home playing Rock n Roll High School and perhaps may not » Continue Reading.

In the comments I will post a brief video from Stephen Hendry, showing his technique for hitting a snooker ball so it goes into the pocket. It’s so simple, it’s brilliant – and I’m keen to give it a go when I next get an opportunity.

With football, keeping your knee over the ball when you shoot will mean the ball should go in the direction you intend it to go without it screaming over the bar.

With golf, the tips of your toes should align with the direction of where you want the ball to go – when you do manage to hit the ball, that is.

With cricket, a right handed batsman should grip the bat very tightly with the left hand to keep it straight – and you adjust the grip of your right hand in accordance with where you want to ball to go. Again, assuming you actually hit it.

I’m not at all proficient at any of these sports – but the football and golf ones have spared my blushes a bit because they do seem to work. The trouble with the cricket one is that I am generally a terrible batsman, but at least » Continue Reading.

It’s possible that you will see and hear the song “Ein, Zwei, Drei” in the coming weeks, because it’s the UK’s entry in this years Eurovision Song Contest.

I looked at the video for the song to begin with. Very Eurovision, very wacky – the performer, one Sam Battle – a kind of Thomas Dolby and Damon Albarn-type character singing silly lyrics leading to a shoutalong chorus that will be memorable in a good way, hopefully.

But there’s a bit more to this guy. He runs a museum of ancient musical electronic equipment in Ramsgate and is clearly devoted to his craft. He made a furby organ, a Henry vacuum cleaner that is now a flamethrower and rescued a full church organ and wired it up for his museum. I have linked a short video about what he does in the comments.

If you’re longing for someone to fill the gap left by Wilf Lunn in our culture, then look no further. I’m 100% behind him and will be willing him on in May.

Interesting compilation just out from War Child, Help (2) – a fundraiser to help children affected by war across the world.

Depeche Mode’s rather good version of Universal Soldier is on there. Dave Gahan’s “older” voice just seems to be getting better.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7dpPH25jaKKvKDJcYDgF6d?si=2FjMN7V3Tw-VED2FiIHYRA

The death of Neil Sedaka made me think of his Greatest Hits compilation called “Laughter and Tears”. The cover shows 9 headshots of Neil, arranged in a neat square, starting top left with him laughing and as we move through the squares, his mood gradually darkens then by the time we get to the bottom right square – he’s full-on blubbing.

If I am being picky, this isn’t a good example of a literal album cover because “laugher and tears” suggests one or t’other. Shurejy 4 photos of laughing Neil and 4 photos of crying Neil would have done the job, Then again, Neil probably didn’t want to come across bipolar or anything, so that’s why he went for nuance.

Another example is “This Way Up!” by Chris de Burgh. The cover shows two photos of Chris. It’s the same one twice but the bottom one is upside down.

I’d like to hear more about these. Not the usual ones that come up e.g. US Christian singing groups of the 50s with an album called “He’s tickling my fanny” or the like. I want creativity-free, will-this-do route one laziness,

Rather than have one, long, wordle-rivalling post about the leader of the free world, I have taken to bite-size chunks as and when they happen.

Well. As you have doubt already heard, he has posted a memevideo thing depicting the Obamas as apes. This has been taken down, and the blame has been laid on a “staffer”.

What would YOU do if you had something racist posted on social media in your name? You’d be mortified and be quick to disassociate yourself from it and offer a sincere apology. That hasn’t happened. I dare say he finds it all very amusing.

Another snippet I learned today was that redactions in the Epstein files puzzlingly include the word “don’t” As in the line “Don’t forget to pull on your Tena pads, Sir!” Will have the first word blacked out.

Why? Because the millions of files needed to be cleansed of all references to the orange one – and every single short form of his name – Don, Donnie, DJT and …”Don T”….

Let’s remind ourselves the redactions are necessary to protect the victims. Also, appearing in the Epstein files thousands of times is no indication of any wrongdoing. No way.

A local story that might just “cut through”.

In suburban Auckland today, hoodlums with machetes raided an off licence. They grabbed a box of beer each and then made their getaway. On a bus.

The police were waiting at the central Auckland bus station 15 minutes later.

In the US, FIFA have just had corruption charges abruptly dropped by the DOJ.

That Peace Prize did the job, then.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the whole peace prize thing was a Trump suggestion.

I was just challenged for not using the already-hot water from a mixer tap to fill the kettle. I switched it to cold, let it run for a bit, then filled the kettle with cold water.

I know I’m right. But I don’t know why I’m right. All I know is that cold water goes in a kettle if you’re making tea. Always.

I get the feeling every aspect of tea making will have a thousand different opinions. So as I could do with a new hamper, I’d like to know yours.

Anyone had a look at this yet? For those that are unaware, Spotify gives an annual breakdown of your own personal 2025 of listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts. In my one, Alexei Sayle thanks me for listening to his autobiography and Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell also seem to thank me personally for my custom.

My listening age is 61 (about right). My 16 year old twins are 30 and 61 – which they put down to musicals.

DJ and TV personality Pete Murray celebrates his 100th birthday today!

This made me wonder…is Vera Lynn the only charting act to have actually made it to the age of 100? I can’t think of anyone else. Even that grizzled old punk Charlie Harper is still “only” 81.

I read on Wikipedia that Pete’s voice is on a Barclay James Harvest live LP, so this might be the closest we get for a while until Cliff gets there in 2040.

https://star4cast.com/pete-murray-rock-n-rolling-to-100/

Soft Cell’s best Album – The Art of Falling Apart – is getting the spruce up it richly deserves by being reissued in multiple formats including a diamanté toaster, a deformed cuddly toy and word has it that the platter will be added to the periodic table when they have the next round of PT voting in Svalbard in the new year.

The album has a self-effacing title but the songs are strong and confident. Still sleazy, but less of the slap and tickle with a wink to the postman (?). The title track, Baby Doll, Loving You Hating Me and Where the Heart is are all top-drawer Soft Cell songs.

However the gold in them thar hills is the material you found on the 12 inches (missus, ooh I say! And so on). Martin – a quite literally diabolical song in the sense that the Devil is lurking in there, messing with poor old Mart. It’s a Mugs Game is another wonderful nugget – a teenager having an extremely angry and amusingly inarticulate rant about his lot in life. As a broody teenager at the time I very much related to the, erm, energy. And also a very brilliant » Continue Reading.

I heard her interview regarding her tax issues. She hasn’t got a portfolio of properties and she doesn’t funnel assets into a company based in the Cayman Islands. She doesn’t run a funds management company on the side or have multiple enigmatic board roles or take lucrative consulting jobs overseas. It sounds like a messy divorce-related arrangement and the complexity of it has landed her where she is now.

She should have been vigilant over the tax status of the legal arrangement she entered into. She can’t claim that she was bewildered by the process or claim that the legal advice was followed without her realising that she was taking full responsibility for the decisions made. Lots of people have complex family arrangements – the Deputy PM is and should be held to a very high standard in terms of their own tax affairs.

So she was right to resign.

This is not, however, in the same league as the kind of activities mentioned above that Conservative Ministers have been doing for years and years. The venom directed to her sounds like the celebratory crowing of people that believe Angela Rayner had no business being a senior politician » Continue Reading.

@fentonsteve revealed on the Rocky thread that he and his other half dressed as Renee (her) and Yvette (him) from Allo Allo and then they attempted to hitchhike to Paris! The English side was fine, immediately picked up – but there was no success on the French side, amazingly.

About 20 years ago I was in my late thirties and we were invited to a themed party where we were encouraged to dress as movie stars. I’m usually quite half-hearted with these things – but I had a really dumb idea and we went with it. Basically, Mrs BC and I came as Austin Powers and Marilyn Monroe. And we told people that this was what we were going to do.

Given that Austin Powers was my nickname already due to my London-ish accent & Austin being my actual name – and my wife can certainly carry off a convincing Marilyn, everyone assumed that this was what was on the cards.

I can tell you’re ahead of me here. We did a switcheroo, where I was Marilyn and SHE was Mr Powers. As you can imagine, the make up challenge was immense, so we » Continue Reading.

When do you go to bed, then?

Recently I’ve started to be a little less of a night owl and started to be in me scratcher by 11pm. Since the age of 16ish I have been a post-midnight wooden hill climber but going to bed an hour earlier has made me feel a bit more perky the next morning.

I know adult people that are in bed asleep by 9pm and I know I wouldn’t be able to do that.

As we’re all rock n rollers from way back, I sense we are largely creatures of the night. Or are we?

Trump out-twats himself at the FIFA Club World Cup. How? Well…it went like this. Chelsea deservedly won the trophy and the players are excitedly gathered to receive the trophy. They can’t wait to celebrate.

Trump presents the trophy with the slaphead FIFA head honcho (it’s quite big). At this point, the trophy should be handed to the team Captain who lifts the thing aloft and the team go bananas. The protocol is that the winning team enjoys this moment with each other. No hangers on, no sponsors, just the team.

But no. Trump lingers and *hangs around* with them, among them, celebrating as if he was one of them. They’re not exactly going to tell him fuck off, but I bet each and every one of those players wanted to.

The Ladybirds were mentioned on the Wordle thread and this got me thinking about fhe pop performers who always seemed to be around very successful acts of the day, but never seemed to enjoy their own day in the sun.

My own research* revealed that The Ladybirds were present and providing vocals to many big stars in the 60s and 70s and had several lineup changes over many years. They released records under their own name and although these didn’t trouble the scorers, in every other sense they were a band – a going concern – for a very long time.

So when is a pop group not a pop group? There are countless examples of bona fide pop acts who only sing other people’s songs, so we needn’t cock too much of a snook at the fact that they had no original material. They were a group. Just for starters, can any of us imagine Benny Hill’s “Ernie” without the female voices? The answer is no, I don’t think we can. I bet there are other examples. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they pop up in very unexpected places. They could have easily provided the do-do-dos » Continue Reading.

I now have just about everything available to me via Spotify for a very reasonable price. If we cast our minds back to the 80s, if someone asked you how much you would be prepared to pay for instant access to every piece of music ever recorded I’m sure most of us would have happily stumped up at least 10 quid a month forty years ago. It’s great.

And yet…there are things I used to do that I don’t do now and I miss it. As I’m driving or walking the dog I can’t fast forward within tracks of music to get to the bits I particularly like within a song. For example I like the last 90 seconds or so of U2’s Unforgettable Fire and I don’t need to hear the whole thing. In the days of cassettes and CDs I could FFWD to those bits.

Is it a settings thing? You can go forwards and back 15 seconds on podcasts – that would be fine.

Black Type’s excellent Kylie review made me think of the songs that I hear about from her that are not widely known but are fan favourites. BT mentions Padam Padam and I am also aware of one by hers called Your Disco Needs You! I’m sold by the title already.

In my sphere of popular music, I know that OMD have performed The Romance of the Telescope and flop single Telegraph due to fan demand. Also. Depeche Mode tend to close their shows with Never Let Me Down Again, which was not a big hit single for them – but it has become something that they must play every time. Its inclusion in The Last of Us series 1 gave it a boost too.

Pet Shop Boys concerts must feature Being Boring even though, by their standards at the time the single flopped.

It helps that these are all wonderful songs but I’m interested to learn of other under-the-radar flop singles and album tracks that the fans love but might have escaped wider attention.