Probably the wrong place to do this but I bought a ticket for Primal Scream playing Screamadelica at the Olympia in November. I bought two tickets for the Saturday - all of my mates got Friday tickets. Does anyone want a swap?!

This is a few days before my 33rd (RPM) birthday.

This night out is going to be visible from space...there's going to be a lot of refugees

http://www.nme.com/news/primal-scream/49796

Is anyone else planning to go to see 'Black Grape' (well, Shaun, Kermit and Danny Saber) on April Fool's Day?

Memories of average to poor Happy Mondays reunions are fresh in my mind...but there's some great material there

Last time, when we did the 'Worst Band of All Time' poll, there was bemusement and disagreement with our short-list - particularly the inclusion of Crowded House.

As such, we thought we'd share the long list. Ideally we'd like to whittle it down rather than making it bigger, so we can get the survey set up, but if there are glaring omissions or violent disagreements then we'd love to hear them. Remember, this isn't based on science, sense or rational thought.

You can vote on the artists you think should be included in our short list here: Click here to take survey

Vote for as many as you think deserve to be included and we'll put forward the Top 20 to find out the final decision.

Warning: does feature Canadians.

Killer chat up line from other R Kelly

Sorry - it looks like worst band in the world is now credited to readers of Word Magazine...

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=123&title=are_nickelback_really_t...

http://www.chartattack.com/news/77460/nickelback-voted-worst-band-in-the...

Furthermore, if you go to google and type in Nickelback, then click on news - you'll find something interesting

Thanks for Andrew Harrison's help in getting this to 'go viral'.
Funnily enough, as soon as it went on the Word Twitter, there was a marked increased in people (or rock snobs!) nominating big established bands as the worst bands of all time - U2, Oasis, Coldplay and Queen really shot up in the rankings. When the sample was of the general public rather than a 'muso audience', Scouting For Girls and Westlife were dominant, although Queen were still a very popular choice.

Unprompted results -

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1406274/Worst_bands_of_all_time_-_unprom...

Westlife still walk the 'unprompted' category, with a massive 7% of all mentions. Queen were second with 4.5%, closely followed by Nickelback with 3.8%. Fourth were Scouting For Girls with 2.9%. Tied in fifth were U2 and Oasis with 2.7% and equal sixth were Coldplay and the Stereophonics with 2%.

One mention wonders: Bellowhead, Babyshambles, Blur, Guns N Roses, Happy Mondays, Metallica, Arctic Monkeys and REM.

The Beatles got two votes.

To me this looks like a list of personal bugbears rather than an attempt to name the worst band of all time. I can't stand U2, for example, but are they really the worst band of all time?! In a world where the Cranberries exist?! Is there not one single Queen song that you like a tiny bit? Really?!

As for the prompted results -

A walkover for Nickelback with a whopping 19.8% of the vote.

2) Lighthouse Family - 14.3%
3) Toploader - 11.8%
4) Razorlight - 9.8%
5) Savage Garden - 8.4%
6) M People - 7.5%
7) Maroon 5 - 6.6%
8) 4 Non Blondes - 5.5%
9) Snow Patrol - 5.2%
10) Spin Doctors - 3.6%
11=) Beautiful South - 2.0%
11=) Sleeper - 2.0%
13) New Radicals - 1.1%
14=) Lighting Seeds - 0.9%
14=) The Troggs - 0.9%
16)Crowded House - 0.5%

The inclusion of Crowded House seems to have been the most contentious issue on this blog, so their fans will be pleased (and vindicated) that they only scored two votes.

For what it's worth, we are disappointed to have left Chumbawumba, Scouting For Girls and the Cranberries from the shortlist.

1. Lighthouse Family (17.4%)
2. Nickelback (15.6%)
3. Toploader (11.0%)
4. Razorlight (9.6%)
5. Savage Garden (8.3%)

Fewest votes: The Troggs (0%), Crowded House (0.5%), New Radicals (0.5%), Sleeper (1.8%)

Most frequently mentioned but not on our list: Westlife (13), Queen (11), Stereophonics (7), Scouting for Girls (7)

There's still time to change the outcome - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S22GB7B

Me and the people I sit with have been arguing for about a year about who the worst band of all time - so we've decided to settle it once and for all.

EDIT: This is not about 'sacred cows'.

The band must have absolutely no redeeming features and you can't like even a single aspect of them - so that rules out the likes of Coldplay, U2 and the Killers for example - because you might like at least one aspect of one of their songs or you can at least see why other people would.

I know the answer is Maroon 5, but would you mind filling out this quick survey anyway?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S22GB7B

P.s Pass it on! I'll post the results tomorrow

Or less in the case of First Capital Connect.

This site has sprung up in the wake of the latest rail debacle and is well worth a read.....anyone who travels by rail between Bedford, London and Brighton will love it

http://www.firstcrapitalconnect.co.uk/

Just noticed the argy bargy that's being going on.

Why don't we lighten things up a bit and talk about what a triumph 'Dig Out Your Soul' was for Oasis?

I've had 'Ocean Rain' for about seven or eight years. I can't say I played it all that much, but I've always enjoyed listening to it when I have and had the feeling that one day I would totally immerse myself in it and possibly the band as a whole.

I loved 'Nothing Ever Lasts Forever' when it came out at the height of Britpop (especially Liam's 'yeah yeah yeah' bit!).

So where next?

Crocodiles, Porcupine, Evergreen?

Help!

Any good?

I've asked Father Christmas for the live album (I like live albums and they're usually good for a greatest hits selection - plus I hear that;s the way to experience him)

Was that a good move?

A new box set has emerged - 'You Don't Want My Name, You Want My Action' - which contains extremely rare recordings of the short lived line up with both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitar and Jimmy Recca on bass - which lasted less than two months.

They only played ten shows in this guise and the box set contains four of them. I imagine the sound quality is as poor as usual for Stooges bootlegs, but that didn't stop me uncorking 35 doubloons for it, not least because there's a song called 'Big Time Bum (Over My Dead Cock)' - which has to go straight in at number one in the 'all time best use of parentheses' debate'.

Only 'I Got A Right' survived from the setlist at the time, so all the other tracks will be new to you.

You can get it here (http://www.easyaction.co.uk/detail.php?catno=EARS023) but I should point out that your card transaction will appear as 'Easy Action' on your statement which may require some explanation to the FPO.

Definitely the least glamorous

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TlIHNYN5L._SS500_.jpg