People in the Popular comments boxes are talking about “the canon”. I’m always quite curious as to which bits of the canon have ‘taken’ with a broadly pop-positive audience such as we have here. So here’s a poll, v[…]

The last of our 32 teams take the field of pop: Spain open their campaign against Switzerland. Spain’s Alberto is new to pop management at this level: his opposite number in the Swiss dugout is Greg Fanoe. Good luck to them both!
Voting for thi[…]

Shiny Shiny is an Pitchfork column by me about a fictional “CD Revival”, consisting of interviews with four of the movers and shakers in said revival and some editorial around that. Fictional because the column supposedly dates from 2022.[…]

Group H begins with an intriguing clash between the relatively unfancied Chile and the relatively even more unfancied Honduras. Points on the board important here – both sides have experienced pop managers: Chile has turned to Jel, whereas Hond[…]

Group G’s second game sees Brazil take on North Korea. Brazil are the most successful side ever in the football World Cup – in pop competition they are more of a sleeping giant, and it’s down to Chris Ambrose to revive their fortune[…]

1. We know that even before the BBC’s strategy document recommended 6Music’s closure, the BBC Trust had asked for changes to the station. The Trust felt it should be playing less new music (down from 50% to 30%) and should be attracting a[…]

With the defending Pop World Cup champions Czech Republic failing to qualify for this year’s tournament, Portugal are the most successful 2006 team represented here. Managed by Job de Wit, they open Group G with a game against the Ivory Coast, […]

The second group F game sees New Zealand and Slovakia go head to head – two Pop World Cup unknowns making their debut on the biggest stage. Both have gone for experienced managers, Steve Mannion in the Kiwis’ dugout while Julio de Souza s[…]

Group F’s opener sees Paraguay, managed by Talia, take on Marna’s Italy side. Both these teams came bottom of their groups at the last Pop World Cup – while it’s probably fair to say pop minnows Paraguay will be looking to enj[…]

It’s been a good tournament for the African sides so far: but Cameroon’s Weston Debevec has a very tough opening game against pop sleeping giant Japan, managed by Dasal Abayaratne.
You have until midnight on the 1st March to vote in this […]