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[…]

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![…]

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,[…]

KATE BUSH — ‘This Woman’s Work’
What Isabel likes about Bush is her range — ‘lots of variety; most of your CDs get boring after a few tracks’ — and I kind of agree, though one Kate Bush song is more lik[…]

The honour of a nation is saved! – by, erm, Dirty Vegas.[…]

‘We can live in the
empty spaces of this life/my baby says ‘Far away/the STARS ARE COMING ALL UNDONE/oh but that’s far away, and we’re young!/If the Devil comes, we’ll just shoot him with a gun’[…]