It must have seemed such a good idea: “I know! How about a TV show in which we get bands on to play one of their own songs and then a cover version of their choice!” You see — their choice, BBC choice — it all makes a horrible[…]

HOLDING ON FOR TOMORROW
If you want to point the finger of blame at someone, Ronan Keating’s as good a target as any. To be crude about it, pop successes in the 90s have appealed to some combo of the four Gs – girls, gays, grannies and ge[…]

POP-EYE 5/5/02
Well, in retrospect the earth didn’t quake, civilization did not fall and the Sugababes were only number one for a week. Now I know this all seems terribly unfair when G-G-Gareth Gates and Will Young can sew the charts up for aro[…]

What I’ve been doing today: downloading tracks for the sixth Freaky Trigger Focus Group. A slimmed-down affair this time, with only 29 songs, but still the usual struggles to find half the tracks – and then to find the correct mixes of ha[…]

Queen classic named all-time favourite single – yeah yeah whatever, but look what’s at No.8! What curious persistence![…]

Pubs aren’t the natural home for innovation. They are by their very nature traditional, even new chains and so called female friendly pub bars are loathe to break with the basic nuts and bolts facade of a pub. You go in, you buy your drink, you[…]

IHM CRIMINAL LYRIC WATCH
Def Leppard ?Animal?
?And I want, and I need, and I love Animals?
Now I?m no lawyer but surely this should have tipped the wink to the Sheffield Police as to who had been buggering all those badgers on the outside of Rotherha[…]

The chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting is a deeply scary man.[…]

DEMPSEY — “ODB on the run”
OK, so this is a novelty single. While Russell Tyrone Jones languishes in chokey the smart-arse undie-ground are partying up a storm on the back of another tragi-comic hip-hop legend in process. Like the r[…]

october symphonies – an excellent piece by the village voice’s dennis lim on two overlooked, autumnal british pop records, the pet shop boys’ release and pulp’s we love life — one released quietly in the u.s., the other,[…]