Anyone read Nick Kent's new book yet? Mick Wall has, he doesn't seem to like it, this is from his blog. Think I will give it a go though.

"Still reading Nick Kent but really starting to stumble now over the ditch-like cliches. People never just leave, they 'bid fond farewells'. Crowds of people don't enjoy gigs, they are 'beguiled'. Bands don't play shows in London, they arrive 'on British soil'. When artists go to other artists shows they are 'scoping out the competition'. Cocaine even gets called 'the devil's dandruff', which is particularly icky as that's not an expression anyone in the rock press used until Mark Ellen put it as a tag line on the cover of the first ever issue of Q magazine at least half-a-decade after Kent's book ends. And so on and tediously on. It's a shame as I'm enjoying the stories. I just wish this most famous of rock writers could fucking write. God bless him".

You know what Chatroulette is, yes? Of course you do.

OK, first you need to see this:

OK, now that you're all up to speed you really really need to watch this one:

Ain't the Internet wonderful?

As has been said many times before, Ian Anderson no longer has the vocal range he used to have. To compensate their set was chosen around his vocal limitations, the only song that his missing higher range was really evident was Life's a Long Song. In addition, the instrumental sections were extended and songs from Anderson's more recent solo albums featured heavily.

However, this is a minor quibble as musically the band was on top form, performing blistering takes on Aqualung and Locomotive Breath. Martin Barre played exceptionally well.

Anderson still plays the flute on one leg! My mates and I were thoroughly entertained!

I know The Serious Albums like the back of my hand but have neglected the fresh, early rock'n'roll records since a (less pretentious/portentous) kid.

Maybe in the light of the mono remasters, which of the earlier albums do you most rate?

This morning I woke up worrying for my sanity after an odd dream. I'd won a competition and the top prize was a visit to the Word office. The winners were myself and a young woman who I didn't know; accompanying us was an excitable Davina McCall-alike who acted as our guide.
We turned up outside the main door as a Monday morning editorial was about to start. David Hepworth wasn't impressed at the interruption but allowed us stay a little while to observe proceedings. At this point Davina whisked me off to show me the rest of the building, leaving my co-winner in the office.
A short time later I went back to the main room. Mr. Hepworth gave me the skunk eye and I felt like a young boy hauled up to see the Head Teacher for an unknown misdemeanor. Not wanting to stay under this withering gaze, I wandered over to see what my companion was up to. She explained that Hepworth was making her finish off someone else's article as he didn't think the original was good enough. She was very upset because she knew nothing about the artist that the piece was about and was asking me for advice. I didn't want to get involved and managed to wake myself up at this point.
Preceding this adventure, a few nights before I'd dreamt that I'd texted the Today programme to point out an error in their pronunciation of a phrase. For this I won £10, 000.
As my wife lovingly pointed out to me this morning, "You dreamt about the Today programme and now Word magazine? Not very rock'n'roll is it?".

Remember when artists, while sitting down to sequence their new album, would front-load it with the better tracks or the singles? It got ridiculous at times, and could occasionally unbalance a record, but the reasoning was sound.

And this was in the days when people would sit down and take in a record as a whole. Why, when the album-as-album idea is struggling, do so many of them let their record limp through the opening tracks?

Take the new Gorillaz one, Plastic Beach. Once you hit track 4, the gems come in a nearly unbroken string; but how many will get to track 4? I think some of the sniffy reviews it’s received have something to do with this.

Mind you, nothing else on it can match "On Melancholy Hill"; mind you, nothing much can. It's in the "This Is A Low" league.

Now, the Drive-By Truckers, there’s a band that knows how to kick a record off—Christ, their new one's good. (With the traditional flat patch two-thirds through, of course.)

It appears Sandra Bullock had already decided to give her philandering husband his walking papers on the night she won the Best Actress Oscars. Look at her reaction when her name is read out. And doesn't he a mite look worried that she's about to slag him off in front of a worldwide TV audience?

Apparently last Thursday, 6 Music, in a nod to the Facebook campaign to protest at the closure of 6 by getting 'Joy Division Oven Gloves' to Number 6 in the charts, made a point of playing tracks by all the artists named in Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Irk The Purists'. A non-more Word selection it is too:

"Give me Love, give me Can, give me Meatloaf
Give me Rush, give me Marquee Moon
Michael Ball, or The Fall, I could listen to them all
In the twilight of the afternoon

Irk the purists, irk the purists, irk the purists its a right good laugh
Irk the purists, irk the purists, irk the purists at the back

Hall & Oates, random Goth, Miles Davis
Patti Smith, Simply Red, Sly Stone
Be they false or 4REAL, I don't care and nor does Neil
So long as we can hear their songs

Irk the purists, irk the purists, it could well be an olympic sport
Irk the purists, irk the purists, if you've never then you ought

Husker Du Du Du, Captain Beefheart, ELO
Chris de Burgh, Sun Ra, Del Amitri, John Coltrane
Irk the purists, irk the purists, come on boy you know it feels so right
Irk the purists, irk the purists, irk the purists tonight"

I have to confess I'm not a cryer. Probably no more than 5 times in the last 30 years. But...life is a bit shit at the moment and this popped up on the shuffle driving home last week and it made me cry.

Not a particularly well known song but it got to me. Any of the Massive had a similar moment?

Goldfrapp's Rocket(Richard X One Zero Remix) is available as a free download at Amazon.

Last night I sat and watched Sport Relief and expected to watch it with my usual cynical, world weary eye. I've seen so many celebrities doing their bit to camera in some god forsaken part of the world where all hope appears lost unless we pick up the phone that it had stopped registering. My belief that there really is nothing we can do is confirmed by the fact that Band Aid was quarter of a century ago and people in Africa are still "fucking dying". Bangladesh host the England cricket team while Claudia Winkelman finds children working 14 hours a day to produce lipstick holders. South Africa prepares for the World Cup while people live in slums next to a railway line and thousands die of aids in Uganda I've seen it all before and I am sanitised to the horror. Except last night I had an epiphany and it was brought on by Chris Moyles of all people. After watching the following 3 minutes I found myself blubbing like a baby and wanting to help. Obviously a baby dying is horrific but as I said I've seen it all before. Maybe it was because Moyles, someone I have no real feeling towards, was so moved I'm not sure but something struck a chord somewhere and today I can't shake this particular film and Moyles saying in obvious distress "a kid's a kid" from my head. What will I do about it? I don't know but it woke me from my apathy towards a situation that just shouldn't be happening in the 21st century. I don't have the words really to say what I mean so may I recommend that if you didn't see this last night and if you think giving money to Sport Relief helps then please do.

http://www.sportrelief.com/

was maybe David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days....Bowie had just started to become known again (by me anyway) but I hadn't heard Ziggy yet....so when tickets went on sale my reaction was "David Bowie 80p a ticket! I'm not paying that; he hasn't done anything since "Space Oddity" Mind you I wasn't the only one it would seem; as a mate who did "invest" told me that only a couple of hundred turned up anyway! Another similar experience happened a few years later when at university in Manchester;the Rag Ball headliners were announced and tickets were outrageously priced at £1.00....no chance of me paying that to see "Queen"...in my defense they weren't that big yet and had only had one single out.A few years later I opted to stay for pint rather than go and see U2 at my local 800 seater venue; same place me and my mates turned up too late to get into the Stiff tour with Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and all.Oh well; never mind -none of them ever amounted to much anyway --unless you know different.

Shanties were never like this in Nelson's day.

I was reading the “Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White) hit maker’s” interview with DH last night when Toni* mentioned that during the early recordings with T-Rex being short of funds they had to use a “Pixiephone” from Woolies.

Now I could have googled this but where’s the fun in that as I am sure someone round here has one in the loft!

Also it being Marc Bolan my mind was agog with what sort of marvelous machine it would be presumably played with the help of the little people of the Beltane. Sadly I fear the answer is more prosaic but one can dream.

Can anyone help?

*I am slightly disappointed Mr Visconti only produced Modern Romances 2nd lp imagine how much better even “Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey” would have been with TV at the faders!