Whilst away I had the privilege, nay pleasure, of watching some Fox News. Its output was probably at about two in the morning, however what was interesting was a five minute package of Palestinian Rap. There was much pooh-poohing that this “uni[…]

How is the Martian battle cry in Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds spelt? It is one of the most recognisable sounds in pop but Wayne himself never has to verbalise (unless earlier editions than mine come with a libretto!). Orbital sampled the pier[…]

and thus, inevitably, a column in which mark steel gamely ploughs his way through a crit of THIS KIND OF THING (viz: Live8 in particular, charity protest in general). Fraid you have to subscribe for the complete “764 words approx” but her[…]

It’s not often that Simon Renolds reminds me of Alexis Petridis, but his 10th June comments on blissblog have a definite echo of Petridis’s Lost in Music Guardian Review cover story from last October. As professional music critics both Re[…]

I remembered this in the bath this morning for some reason, and then have been reminded again by mention below.
When JK had a pop column in The Sun during the 80s – tipping among others Carter USM for greatness – he once devoted an entire[…]

i. i meant to blog abt this an age ago (hopkin crazyfrog will back me up) but wz in shropshire last year and away from all computers when i discovered it (ie by the method of Watchin Telly) and forgot when i got back ii. anyway it sorta kinda came up[…]

Tom might have stopped but I shall continue, mainly cos this isn’t a Live 8 post at all. Apart from maybe a joke I’ll make at the end about flogging tickets on eBay.
Other members of the Boomtown Rats are going to sue Bob for unpaid royal[…]

Sir Bob goes mental. “Everyone in this country knows why it’s wrong”. OK, fair enough, re-selling charity gig tickets is a bit dodgy. Except this isn’t a charity gig, it’s an awareness raising event. The money being spen[…]

Sick of Top 100 lists that appear on Channel 4, voted for by a public that does not include us? Why not take a different tack to decide the best tracks ever? Perhaps there is a way of telling what songs stand the test of time by the frequency they ar[…]

Stylus singles jukebox – I didn’t like the records any more than last week but I made a little more effort with the blurbs. I owe William B Swygart a favour for sparing my blushes as I sleepily mis-identified the Missy “Lose Control[…]