An effective way to start a song, I think, is a single chord struck out on its own.

Such as:

Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
The Charlatans - Indian Rope

Any more?

'Our new centre forward is good at holding the ball up'

'The CD single contains almost 40 minutes of remixes'

'The record shop is closing, but don't worry, they are going on-line'

'There is a bonus DVD showing the making of the album / film / TV Series'

'The new album was created mainly from jamming in the studio'

Any more phrases that fill you with that 'ho hum' feeling?

I have recently been driving a car without a functioning CD player, but the radio works. Not DAB, just the usual FM/AM/LW.

It has occurred to me that there is just far too much news broadcast. It is every station's assumption that everyone wants to hear about 5 mins of news every hour.

Surely, if you have a radio, and want to catch up on the news, you could just tune to an appropriate station?

Is it just on because royalties don't have to be paid on it? If anyone does listen to a station all day at work, do they want to hear the same bulletin 8 or 9 times?

The most obvious example of this is Frankie Goes To Hollywood's The Power Of Love. It must be included on dozens of Christmas compilations, despite not actually being a Christmas song, the forward-thinking ZTT (OK, Paul Morley), marketing it as one in 1984, complete with Nativity video and reaping the rewards ever since.

I don't blame them/him and it is a fantastic record.

On the other hand, you have Christmas songs in the middle of 'normal' albums, which seems odd to me, For instance, Fairytale of New York in the middle of Side One of If I Should Fall From Grace With God, and there is a lovely Joyzipper Christmas song (Christmas Song) which sits uncomfortably as the second song on one of their albums.

So, any more examples of either phenomena?

Every year at work I do a Christmas Pop Quiz. It is pretty straightforward; one sheet of A4, usually the format is 10 lyrics, 10 anagrams and then a handful of quiz questions.

It is very mainstream - I usually stick to well known hits for the lyrics (many number ones), but I like to have something a bit more challenging (but not too obscure) in the questions at the end.

For instance:

What is the festive link between Genesis, Bros and Supergrass?

What is the only record that has been Christmas Number One twice in exactly the same version?

So, with this year's quiz in mind, does anyone have any suggestions for any more along similar lines please?

I know there have already been a few entertaining threads on here about Christmas music etc, but I would like to ask for your favourite:

1. Christmas Song and Artist
2. Christmas Album (Single artist)
3. Christmas Album (Compilation)
4. Christmas Film
5. Christmas Episode of TV Show

I will be nominating mine later...gotta dash!

I listen to a random album each night whilst washing up, and tonight it was the turn of the marvellous album by Medicine, 'Shot Forth Self Living' from back in the early 1990s.

One of the tracks, 'Aruca' was the lead track on an EP just before the album came out, and when I bought it ( on CD), it was so distorted that I actually thought it was faulty! (It wasn't!)

This got me thinking of other occasions where this has been the case.

Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Trumpton Riots' was another, this was vinyl and I thought my stylus had gone.

Any more?

In other words, not just an instrumental version of a track which normally has vocals.

I would like to nominate:

The Smiths - Oscillate Wildly
New Order - Elegia
Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd - Memory Gongs
OMD - The Angels Keep Turning (The Wheels Of The Universe)
Doves - Firesuite
Scenic - Sage
The Pogues - A Pistol For Paddy Garcia

Any more?

You are allowed to walk into any building, in any year in the past. What would the building be, and what year?

You are not allowed to say a particular date, so you couldn't say The 100 Club on the night The Sex Pistols played etc

I think I would quite like to visit some of my old favourite long-gone record shops in the 1980s, or perhaps visit Molineux in the 1950s.

Or you might go back much further, maybe to Ancient Rome or Greece.

I am feeling generous, so you can have two - one in your lifetime and one before you were born...

This one is simple...your favourite three examples of songs with both male and female vocals.

Here is mine:

Belle and Sebastian - Lazy Line Painter Jane
Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield - What Have I Done To Deserve This?
My Bloody Valentine - Feed Me With Your Kiss

Over to you, Massive...

For no good reason, I started thinking this morning about my favourite 5 tracks by artists who have surnames starting with 'Mc' or 'Mac'.

The rules are simple - have to be released under this name (so I can have Ian McNabb but not The Icicle Works), and you can't use the same artist twice. Here is my selection:

1. Ian McNabb - Love's Young Dream
2. Maria McKee - This Perfect Dress
3. Kirsty MacColl - Free World
4. Ian McCulloch - Candleland
5. Grant McLennan - In Your Bright Ray

Over to you, Massive..

I am catching up with a week's worth of Coronation Street, and I have heard Kirsty MacColl's 'They Don't Know' TWICE in the last three episodes, once playing in the Rovers Return and then Gail and Audrey were listening to it in Audrey's house. What next, Swans Way playing in Kevin's garage? The Lotus Eaters in Underworld? Or even Underworld in Underworld?

So, what is the most unlikely incidental music you have heard on TV?

Each evening I try to listen to a random album, and tonight it was the excellent 'Tragedy Rocks' by The Crimea.

One of the best songs on it is called Bad Vibrations. You can see where I'm going with this...

So Bad Vibrations and Good Vibrations - as well as being 'opposites', are both great songs.

Any more?

For whatever reason, have you ever been to a gig with low expectations, and been won over? Perhaps you have accompanied someone to see a band that you didn't think you would like, but ended up as a fan? Conversely, have you been to such an event and found it was just as bad as you imagined?

I remember going to see Crowded House in 1993, not really being fussed one way or the other. They were a revelation; the couple of hours sped by with hit after hit and great stage presence etc. Similarly Jane's Addiction - I didn't really expect a lot but was really impressed with their powerful set, happily free of the expected doodling and meandering.

On the other hand, when I went to see Miles Hunt, of the (personally loathed) Wonderstuff, things were as bad as I imagined all along, complete with 'zany' cries from the audience and infantile banter from Miles himself. Also Feeder, a band I could never get my head around, were as dismal as I had feared when I saw them supporting Foo Fighters. And don't get me started on Har Mar Superstar and his abyss of a performance supporting Placebo. Ironic? No just plain rubbish!

Any more?

For instance, Echo & The Bunnymen's 'All That Jazz' is not a jazz song.

So another example would be The Fall's 'The Classical'.

Plus the recent splendid track by My Morning Jacket, 'Holding On To Black Metal'.

Any more, Massive?