THE ROLLING STONES – “Ruby Tuesday”
And “Manic Monday” is just the start – the names-of-days/pop music connection is deep and baleful. Take this self-pitying bloater of a track, for instance. It’s fairly stup[…]

THE BANGLES – Manic Monday
Now this one also goes out to Prince who had the temerity to write this shocker. I’m not saying the all girl group are completely blameless, they threw themselves so wholeheartedly into the pretense of being off[…]

Music Taste Turn-Offs: one of the most common questions we music lovers ask ourselves is what our ‘guilty pleasures’ are, and one of the most common answers we give is that oh no, we don’t have any, we’re not guilty about what[…]

Stop this madness now! I have nothing against stuffed animals. In fact I’m in favour of them. I have my favourites, of course. I prefer the weatherbeaten knitted variety, or the shapeless bean ones, to the articulated ‘realistic’ cr[…]

What’s up with Madonna?: two Salon writers dissect Madonna’s mediocre new album, and by extension her current status. Interesting points are made: for British readers, none more interesting than the parts dealing with Guy Ritchie. “[…]

THE PUB SEVEN DEADLY SINS: 2: Stainless Steel Pissers
Luckily this is the realm of the more wanky bars and nearly all Mean Fiddler venues, rather than the average pub – but nevertheless there is the odd hostelry which has this man baiting horro[…]

Channel 4 is preparing a Top 100 No.1s Of All Time show, which has been fairly obviously rigged, in that on the website at least you only get to vote from a shortlist of 105. I have a strong and sentimental belief in the magic of the No.1 spot, but h[…]

I’ve updated the archives and links list on the right: if you think you should be on there and you’re not, by all means let me know.[…]

I like bombast-xxx. It’s smartly written and covers bands I’ve heard about, even if it then goes and says something dim like – on a Britney gig – “As costume after costume went on and came off and song after song switche[…]