Having watched the first episode of 'Inspector Banks' on TV last week, I have a feeling/impression that Steven Tompkinson is mis-cast in the lead. He just doesn't echo the character that I imagine from the books. Would anyone else agree/disagree?

I know that we all have an impression of certain characters, but there are no doubt countless examples of miscasting in order to get a 'bankable' name for a film or TV series. (Nick Cage in Captain Corelli is an obvious case).

Slightly O/T - whilst away for the weekend, I had the misfortune to watch the film of 'The Other Boleyn Girl'. The female leads were not believable. The dialogue was poor. The sex scenes were perfunctory and cleaned up to meet Hollywood demands - Henry's lust was watered down and the last half hour concertinaed history, with only a passing reference to the battles with Rome, Dissolution and the main events of Henry's reign - ghastly!

I suddenly realised the other day that I had not heard of this company for years.
At one time they were a household name, almost synonymous with typewriters in the same way that (say) Hoover were with vacuum cleaners, for example.

Now I realise that no-one has a divine right to be in business and that many electronics/computing firms that were once pre-eminent/flavour-of- the-month have come and gone in the last 20 years, but I can't think of another name that was so well-known by the general public that has so completely disappeared from common usage.

Here is a popular item from today's BBC web site. No doubt it will provoke a storm of responses (on the BBC site) picking up on lazy speech and irritating neologisms, as the Massive have done many times.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942

However, I'm not convinced that all American (read U.S.) usage is irritating or redundant. I'm pushed to think of examples, and I must admit that trying to graft (for example) U.S. sports metaphors into a British environment can appear artificial.

Some of the examples quoted in the article are not particularly annoying - e.g. Outage, Faze.

Most of the examples that have been quoted on this board in the past (e.g. 'My Bad') are catchphrases/slang rather than replacements for words in common usage over here.

I wouldn't say 'can' rather than 'bin', or 'trunk' rather than 'boot' (car), but I am not uncomfortable with 'apartment' or 'guy'

Discuss.

I'm not a drummer, but there are drum fills that I love and to me make a certain song.

Like guitar licks, it could be that these are trademarks of certain drummers that they pull out to lift a track or give it that 'Je Ne Sais Quoi'

I was just posting in another thread and Earl Palmer's fills in the chorus of Tim Buckley's 'Tijuana Moon' came to mind. What Palmer plays stops the track dead whilst he plays a sort of syncopated fill, in time, before the rest of the band come back in. It oozes funk.

I haven't mined my memory completely, but another one that always slays me is the drum 'pickup' on Joe Ely's 'Cornbread Moon'. The song starts in a Train rhythm and then as the drum fill plays, lurches into a swingy shuffle - brilliant.

Sometimes it can be a part of the track - the drums on Ian Cutler's 'Azerie' play on the third beat of every bar for part of the song before coming back to 2/4 and it's just hypnotic. Not sure who's playing it - reminds me a bit of Dave Mattacks, talking of which, his Drums on Feast of Fiddles are majestic - particularly his cannon-like salvoes on 'Horses Brawl'

Vinnie Colaiuta is known for his sometimes off-kilter playing (most recently seen with Jeff Beck) - what he does on Robben Ford's 'Breakaway' (From 1988's 'Talk To Your Daughter') is awesome - playing with the beat, delaying it and building a great tension and funk (once again) into the song.

Steve Gadd's drum break on 'Aja' is relatively well-known - but is another good example.

Am I alone in this or do other readers notice this stuff?

3 Top Drummers all die in the same week - all outrageously talented -

Jack Parnell, Martin Drew and Richie Hayward !

Weird (and sad) synchronicity.

RIP chaps.

Very sad news about the passing of Richie. An outstanding drummer - his contribution to Feat's sound and groove should not be underestimated. A polyrhythmic master. Also provided sterling drumming for Robert Palmer, Clapton and on Helen Watson's 'Blue Slipper' amongst many others.

He apparently not only had liver cancer, but also pulmonary fibrosis (which is not really treatable) and finally pneumonia.

A sad loss.

I listen to the podcast when I drive up and down the M6 to the North West (mostly Liverpool now) from the Midlands.

Not sure what I will do when I don't have to travel so regularly. otherwise the podcasts stack up a bit.

Where do other members of the massive listen?

Following on from the 'List of 10' thread, I find myself wondering whether 'Best Of' or 'Greatest Hits' compilations have a future?

Given the almost unlimited availability of downloads (both legal and illegal), won't most people build their own 'best of' rather than buying a commercially packaged collection?

I was extremely saddened by the news of Ms. Greenwich's passing. First became truly aware of her when I bought her album 'Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung' in the 70s, although I knew she had co-written lots of hits..
The album included a wonderful reworking of 'Baby I Know', which she wrote for Lesley Gore.
I was fortunate enough to see the musical 'Leader Of The Pack', based on her life story, twice. Apart from being a 'juke-box' production, it actually had a back-story and both casts were superb, musically as well as theatrically.
She was clearly tough enough to fight her corner and made a career as producer and arranger as well as a songwriter. No mean feat for a woman in those less-enlightened days.

I won't trot out the list of hits as it is relatively well known.

I think she should be remembered as one of the great songwriters of her time.

This Youtube clip is a mildly amusing take on my Generation by The Who, with animated Lego characters and destruction at the end: -

Good fun though.

There was also a puppet band playing a rock classic on Youtube, but can't remember what it was - any clues from the Massive?

I read in the paper that apparently when Prince Charles visits Cornwall by boat he always likes to go via the Bristol Channel and not by the English Channel.

This is because he likes to pass the Dutchy on the left hand side

(gets coat, exits swiftly.......)

I'm astounded that Mark Hagen found the Clash performance from the Roundhouse in 1976 that I referred to on 'Famous People I sat next to' thread. (Thanks for the link once again).

I know from friends who are members of various on-line 'communities'(Dead , Roy Harper, Rush, John Martyn as examples) that there are a lot of soundboards of well-known bands and singers out there, but something obscure from 33 years ago?(scary) - makes me wonder what other gigs that I went to in the 70s have been recorded for posterity.

I grew up in and lived in London at the time, it was the era of pub-rock and the West Coast artists were (arguably) at their zenith, so there were a lot of concerts to go to and gigs around town. A lot of the pub-rock bands didn't translate to record too well, but It would be interesting to know what's around.