I just received a nice e-mail from Massive member (fnarr! fnarr!) Lucas Hare, asking me if there was a way around this site's rules on self-promotion, as his bother Sam Hare is playing at the Blues Bar on Charlotte St on Friday, in the heart of London's swinging Fitzrovia district, and he's keen for Word readers to attend. Lucas describes Sam's music thusly:

It's basically what John Hiatt referred to as a little bit of rhythm mixed up with country blues; self penned and, as I'm sure you're aware, in dire need of support from as many people as possible. I'll be going, obviously.

As I'm a soft touch I've decided to allow this one instance of promotion, and any that follow in the comments. So if you've got a blog you'd like to plug, a club night you want to promote, or a band with up-and-coming shows, now's your chance to spread the word. Leave the details in the comments.

Righty-ho. If anyone wants to change their website username, this week is the week. Leave your request in the comments, and I'll confirm the switch. Usernames can be a mix of upper case and lower case letters and numbers, and can contain spaces. Use of real names is encouraged. All your old posts will be credited to the new username. Thanks.

This is the The Pogues' frontman recorded last night for NME Radio at the magazine's annual awards show. I fear he may have been drinking.

Apologies for the current slow page loading and occasional downtime - we're working with our web hosts to resolve this, and hope to return to normal service sooner rather than later.

With The Massive so successful in identifying a track heard by pulseczar in the Glasgow branch of Fopp, and a jazz piece that's been bugging Declan since 1974, I've decided to raise the bar a little.

It's some time in 1987 or 1988, I'd guess, and I hear a folk version of Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves playing in a record shop in London's Camden Town. The lead vocal is female, it's a wee bit hey-nonny-nonny, and its identity has been bothering me ever since.

Any suggestions?

It's been a while since Spotify Friday has made an appearance, so we've decided to get 2010 rolling by building a playlist entirely devoted to one-hit-wonders.

The rules:
1) they've got to be good one-hit-wonders. So no Joe Dolce, no Charlene, and certainly no Macarena. We want quality.

2) there are no other rules.

You can contribute to the Spotify list here. We've added a few tracks to get the list going, but apart from that it's all yours. We'll be playing your selections in the office and scrobbling them to our LastFM account, where you can follow what we're listening to in almost-real time.

That's it. Go mental.

Many apologies for the unexpected downtime this morning - one of the database tables crashed and had to be repaired.

I've just had one of those "how have I not seen this before?" moments, so forgive me if I'm the last person on the planet to have watched this clip. It's Michael Winslow, most famous for his role in Police Academy as the officer capable of producing a series of wildly improbable sound effects using only his voice. Here, he does Jimi Hendrix, without once resorting to guitar.

I'm still trying to get to grips with this passing of time thing. The last (and only) time I saw Yes was in 1983. Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman (again) had left, Trevor Rabin and Tony Kaye were in, Owner Of A Lonely Heart was storming the pop charts, and the 18 year old me thought they were a band struggling to cling onto a career. They were old men. And yet, it was only five years since Tormato, the last album issued by what could be considered to be a classic Yes line-up, and Chris Squire wasn't even middle-aged - he was eight years younger than I am today. I even made a Venn diagram to attempt to make sense of all this, but it doesn't really help.

So what of Yes in 2009, 26 years later?

1) It's possible that Benoit David is actually better at being Jon Anderson than Jon Anderson ever was. His voice is as clear as a bell, and he probably doesn't clutter up the tour bus with magic crystals and incense and astrology charts and stuff. And, despite being Canadian, he resists the temptation to sing "Roundabout" as "Roundaboot".

2) I imagine it's compulsory for anyone fronting Yes to wear some kind of white trouser arrangement.

3) Steve Howe can really play. I mean really play. And he's much better at doing Trevor Rabin than Trevor Rabin was at doing Steve Howe.

4) Fact: long hair is a young man's game. Howe, get it cut. Squire, you look like Annie Nightingale.

5) What really strikes you is the incredible ambition these musicians had as young men. They weren't seasoned jazzers with decade's worth of craft behind them, but a youthful, fairly mainstream rock band. But boy, did they push the envelope.

And they're still very good. While just occasionally they don't sound quite as well rehearsed as they might, and the songs from Drama are a little sucky, "And You And I" is still a towering, uplifting thing of rare beauty, an explosive "Astral Traveller" is trotted out for the first time in nearly four decades, and the build-crescendo-release part of "Starship Trooper" is still as sexy (yes, sexy) as it ever was. There, I said it.

Somehow, I appear to have accumulated three copies of AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson's "automotive autobiography" Rockers and Rollers.

According to the press release, the book is "hilarious, personal, insightful - it's the ultimate tale of cars, women, and rock 'n' roll", and is "surprising, joyful, poignant and usually laugh-out-loud funny".

Rather than take the books down to the Oxfam shop, I thought they might find loving homes with Word readers. So if you'd like one, leave a comment below containing an imaginary AC/DC song title. It'll probably contain some kind of sexual innuendo or reference to something being extremely rocking, or somewhat hellish, or perhaps all of the above.

The three best suggestions will receive a copy.

Here's a picture of Margaret Thatcher naked (acrylic on canvas, 24" x30", 2009). Who's the painter?

If you're anything like me, you'll have been delighted to note that the Korean Central New Agency now has a Twitter feed, bringing news of Kim Jong-il's exploits to an eager Twittersphere.

Recent posts include a couple of music-related stories, which I thought I'd share with you, just to show that it's not just our own politicians who are down with the kids. Why, only yesterday the Dear Leader watched a performance given by an art squad of the Ministry of People's Security. Songs performed included "We Have Longed for You, General", "Let's Defend Socialism", "Long Journey for Devotedly Defending the Leader" and "Do Prosper the Workers' Party Era".

And, to show that he's no gigging lightweight, it was just three days ago that the General enjoyed turns by art squads of the February 8 Vinalon Complex and the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex, whose repertoire includes "My Country Is Eternal Country of the Leader", "May, Month of Victory", and "My Beloved Factory".

It certainly beats Keane.

Each minute of every day, people arrive at the Word website after following links from Google.

To give you an idea of the kind of search terms people are using that lead them to our door, here are a few examples from the last 30 days.

frampton comes alive charity shop
"ac/dc" cannons real fire
a finger of fudge
sex drugs rock and chips
what time did mott the hoople go on stage
dr fox quiz machine
fi glover smug
waking up hepworth
rod liddle c**t
fraser digby's wash bag
andrew collins squirrel word magazine
dead female rockstars
supertramp guilty pleasure
"wrathchild" "rob fitzpatrick" -maiden
i hate steve wright
i hate sarah kennedy
thom yorke can't sing
diminutive english regent loses weight
paul morley showing off
british top-shelf magazines
leonard cohen depression
"girls from the zz top videos"
gypsy cream biscuits
"oven chips" missouri

I think the last entry may be a search for an early blues singer.

Here at Word Manor we're trying to think of long-established artists who've made great albums in the noughties. We're looking at Solomon Burke for Don't Give Up on Me, the Boss for his Pete Seeger collection, Brian Wilson for Smile, that kind of thing.

Has anyone got any particular favourites from old folk we have have missed?

Following the bickering and general air of hysteria that accompanied our experiment with up-and-down arrows, we've done the sensible thing and decided to ditch the down, retaining just a single, positive, McCartney-esque up-vote. This is to be used to show your approval for a contribution: for when you think a blog entry is of particular interest, or for when a subsequent comment really adds something to the conversation.

Now that we've reduced the possibility of negativity and upped the likelihood of sunshine and lollipops, we'd also like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of our posting guidelines, which have come to be somewhat neglected of late.

Please take the time to read them. It's quite an extensive list, but this "Wordiquette" is there for a single, simple reason - to ensure that this site remains a pleasant environment for all to inhabit.

Finally, thanks to everyone who contributed comments regarding the arrows, and to those who used them.

Note: You may need to reload the page to see the single arrow as it's meant to be.