So here's my problem. I have over 20,000 tracks on my ipod, but I can't remember the last time I listened to any of them. The reason? I simply have too many podcasts to listen to.

My current podcast essential listening is as follows:

The Word Podcast

Mark Kermode's Film Reviews

The IGN Games Podcast

Andrew Collins and Richard Herring Podcast

Adam & Joe Podcast

The Daily Mayo

Cinema Diabolica Podcast

Stewart Maconie's Freakzone Podcast

After that little lot, there is little or no time to listen to any music. I listen to the podcasts on the way to work, but I only have a ten minute walk to the office. I come home at lunchtimes to see to the dog and to intercept the post before my wife comes home, so that I can hide my online CD, DVD and Xbox 360 game purchases (we're meant to be saving for a new kitchen). All of this adds up to about 45 minutes of listening a day, Monday to Friday. I may occasionally get some extra time at weekends, but if I walk into town to go shopping, the wife likes to come with me, and she rather unreasonably expects to be able to have a conversation with me as we walk.

So what's the answer? I don't want to give up my beloved podcasts, but I also need to find time to give a considered listen to the new Portishead, NIN and Delays albums, along with the recent reissues of the Cud back catalogue and the new 2 disc edition of Forever Changes.

Anyone listening to the Robbie Williams/Jon Ronson program on Radio 4 this evening where they travel to a UFO convention in Nevada? It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard. Robbie, apparently "Just wants to believe." He has also, apparently grown a huge beard.

Is this really true? Or is this a spoof? I'm suspicious as it's going out on the 6.30 pm slot usually reserved for the evening comedy show.

Or, maybe, Robbie really is the boyband Reg Presley?

I read about this in the Observer at the weekend, where a bunch of activists dressed in V For Vendetta masks "Rickrolled" the London HQ of Scientology.

I found this on the internet by way of explanation. Rick seems like a pretty decent chap and seems to be taking it all in his stride.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/03/rick-astley-kin.html

Which albums do you think you know so well, that you could sing along to them from beginning to end, with no slip ups or forgotten words, If I played them to you right now?

Mine would be:

"Disintegration" - The Cure
"Diamond Dogs" - David Bowie
"The Queen Is Dead" - The Smiths
"Tin Drum" - Japan

Pete Doherty has been sent down for 14 weeks. Which means he misses Glastonbury and his Royal Albert Hall shows.

Can anyone think of any other prominent performers who spent time at Her Majesty's pleasure?

Just listening to Radio 2's coverage of REM at the Albert Hall. I was very amused at the audience's muted reaction to Michael Stipe's announcement that they will be "Playing a whole bunch of new songs." I'm fairly confident that the good people of the Royal Albert didn't fork out up to £55 a ticket to hear the band run through their new album. They've tossed in a few old favourites for good measure, but the old songs just amplify the fact that the new album only sounds like a return to form inasmuch as the last two were so bad that anything remotely resembling a tune is an improvement. It's not a bad record, by any means, but I doubt that I'll listen to it more than a couple of times.

I remember seeing REM on the "Green" tour in Newport. Stipe got rather tetchy when the crowd began shouting out requests, and informed his audience that he was "Not a jukebox." However, is this what bands like REM have become on tour, as their fans sit patiently through the new material, waiting for them to "do some old" towards the end of the set?

So, another year, another edition of Costello's "This Year's Model." I have already bought this album four times: on vinyl, the first cd issue (which was badly mastered), the first cd reissue (i.e. the "extended play" series with a handful of extra tracks) and, finally, what I was told was the definitive 2cd edition (which is fantastic.)

This week, however, sees the release of the "deluxe" edition - featuring more previously unreleased material - a live set from the time the album was recorded. I won't be buying this edition. I don't want to help to generate decent sales which may lead to more "deluxe" editions being released of albums I have already bought three or four times.

I have just read that there is to be a 40th anniversary edition of Love's "Forever Changes." A double cd edition coming just a few years after the remastered expanded edition, which itself followed the bog standard cd release.

If you really want to see how reissues should be handled, check out the re-releases of the albums by underated 90's indie band, Cud. Their albums have been deleted for years and fetch silly prices on ebay. They are being remastered and released with bags of great unreleased tracks, wonderfully informative liner notes and they cost about seven pounds each when bought online.

Here's a recent story posted on the BBC news website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7264623.stm

Dave Rowntree, the drummer from Blur is to stand for election as a Labour MP in the seat of Cities of London & Westminster at the next general election.

What do we think? Do politics and pop mix? Would you vote for Dave simply because you were partial to Beetlebum or Song 2?

Whilst posting on another thread on this site, I stated that I found it hard to like the music of Queen largely due to their enthusiasm for playing the whites only Sun City in South Africa in the 1980s. This got me thinking. Are their any bands or artists out there you simply cannot listen to, not because of the music per se, but because of the beliefs, actions and opinions of the people that make it? Can you separate the art from the artist? I don't necessarily dislike some of Queen's tunes, but the sight of them taking the stage at Live Aid to raise money for starving Africans after making a shedload of cash propping up the apartheid regime of SA really turned my stomach. Though their performance was terrific.

The podcasts often make fun of Van Morrison and his dour disposition, but I still love his music. I used to see him about a lot in Bath in the 1990s when he lived there. He was always barking into a mobile phone and people would actually cross the road to avoid walking past him. I was working in the local "Our Price" at the time and we would often take on temporary staff to cover busy times of the year. They were usually students, and part of our initiation process was to force them to serve "Van the Man" without being reduced to tears. If they stood up to him, they were in our gang. Van was a frequent visitor to our shop and would invariably complain that we didn't stock enough of his cds. One former shop manager made the mistake of telling him that it was because they didn't sell very well. Later that afternoon, we received a phone call from head office, informing us that Van had been on the phone to the CEO of Our Price giving him an absolute roasting. We were then ordered to stock up with as many Van cds as was humanly possible, and sure enough, Van himself was back in the shop a few days later, to make sure that we were well stocked with copies of Astral Weeks and Avalon Sunset. I don't like him any less for it, though. I think he's hilarious. Likewise, I find it difficult to dislike Phil Collins, though I know I should. He voted for and vocally supported Thatcher and then made a hefty wedge writing a song sympathising with the explosion in homelessness her policies created ("Another Day In Paradise"). But somehow, I can't help liking him, even feeling sorry for him. (Remember "Nonce Sense?") After all, Gary Numan, Paul Weller and Ian Curtis all voted Tory too and, with the possible exception of Numan, none are vilified for it. No one brings up the "People have more money in their pockets under the Tories" quote in front of Weller anymore, but they won't let Collins forget that he said he would leave the country if Labour got in. At least he had the courage of his convictions.

Why can I not forgive Clapton's Enoch Powell was right outburst onstage at the NEC in the 1970s but am perfectly happy to dismiss Bowie's "Nazi salute" at Victoria Station and carry on listening to his music. Why, as a former hunt saboteur, can I no longer listen to Roxy Music due to Ferry's Countryside Alliance dalliances and fox hunting offspring? Surely, I should just be able to enjoy the music without feeling uneasy about Ferry's recent "appreciation" of Nazi architecture. After all, Joy Division are my favourite band and we all know where they got their name from.

Conversely, I can't help liking certain people, despite not being a great fan of their output. I was a big Smiths fan, but I don't think much of Morrissey's solo output. Yet, as a vegan and animal welfare activist, I'm always interested in what he has to say and I'm keen for him to maintain his high profile. Likewise, I have a lot of respect for George Michael who, right from the early Wham days, insisted his records not be sold in South Africa. In fact, I believe he even fired his first manager for going against those very wishes. But I would rather die than listen to one of his albums from start to finish.

I once served Jim Davidson in the shop too. He was an absolute gentleman. Yet when I served Seal, he was a complete tosser. He wanted us to close the shop so he could look around "without being bothered by the public." When I refused and pointed out that no one in the shop had any idea who he was, he went ballistic. So I know which one I'd rather share a pint with, despite being poles apart from him politically. It's funny how these experiences inform your long term opinions of people.