And came across a map of the 1969 IOW Festival on this page

http://woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/gmodern.php

(2nd image)

Now, I always thought that pop festivals in this era were pretty basic things - couple of joss sticks, acoustic guitars, 2000w pa systems. What I wasn't expecting to see - in the bottom left just south of the 'Environmental Playground' - was the 'CAR JOUSTING ARENA'.

This, I feel, is an element that has been lacking from subsequent IOW festivals.

Erstwhile nature type Chris Packham successfully snuck a number of Smiths song titles into his links on BBC's Springwatch the other year. All well and good.

However, it appears that one of the officers involved in the controversial shooting of barrister Mark Saunders thought that a similar tactic was called for when giving evidence under oath:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/02/mark-saunders-song-titles

Now, the question remains: What song titles do you think he attempted to sneak under the judicial radar?

Now I was never going to go myself, but Marilyn Manson has cancelled his forthcoming gig here in Stockholm because 'it was decided to reshuffle the tour and there wasn't room for a Swedish date.'

Previously Marc Almond cancelled a gig here I was going to go to because of 'Ill health', but oddly never rescheduled another date.

Why on earth can't promoters ever come out and say 'we simply haven't sold enough tickets and can't make ends meet so we're pulling the plug'? Has this ever happened with a major artist?

(coincidentally, this is one of the lead stories on the Isle Of Wight County Press at the moment:

"POOR pre-concert ticket sales have lead to the cancellation of a Led Zeppelin tribute gig at Ryde Theatre on Saturday, October 10.
Ryde Theatre management said promoters took the decision to cancel a forthcoming concert by tribute band Whole Lotta Led because only 15 tickets had been sold."

Bless.)

Blogs can be fantastic and interesting - like the Word's or the Nickel In The Machine - or they can be downright dull and sell obsessed.

Anyone care to share any fantastic and interesting blogs? There are some crackers out there:

http://www.londonshopfronts.com/
Strangely compelling pictures of...no, I won't spoil it for you.

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/
When cloning tools strike.

http://www.sexypeople-blog.com/
Family pictures from times gone by - a concept ripped off and cheapened by the inferior Awkward Family Pictures.

There's quite a history of riots at gigs - from teens being sent into such a frenzy by watching Bill Haley and the Comets that they rip out the seats of a provincial cinema, through the near mythical Jesus and Mary Chain three-blokes-and-a-dog-have-a-punch-up "riot" through to the misguided revival of the Woodstock Festival in the '90s.

But was there ever a gig riot as unlikely as this?

(taken from the superb http://www.nickelinthemachine.com)

"Less than a week before Emily Davison’s tragic death at the Derby, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was premiered in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The complex and modern music caused chaos in the audience which soon degenerated into a riot. At the interval the Parisian police had to intervene. It was the slight discordant notes behind the initial bassoon solo at the beginning of the piece that set off the violence. "

I'm just watching Blur at Glastonbury. They're playing 'Tender', and I don't intend to comment on Alex James's oh-so-precious double bass playing (save to wonder whether there has ever been a popstar with a more slappable face).

No. What strikes me is the flags being waved by the crowd - and a couple of questions spring to mind. 1) Why? Who are you waving the flags for? Is it for the benefit of the TV viewers? Of for the people behind you, to bring a smile to their faces? That brings me onto 2) Who started this? The technology behind these things now is incredible, all 30 foot long carbon fibre fishing poles and the like.

More than anything else, isn't it incredibly annoying to turn up to watch a band and find you view blocked by the standard of a few backpackers from South Africa, waving it in front of Damon Albarn as you try to watch their sour faced bad-vibed comeback gig?

50 years old today, and surely a candidate for the next topless aging cover star of the word... The first of my boyhood pop icons to get 'old' as it were.

What did we do as kids? We hung around record shops on saturdays, flicking through all the stock, looking out for new releases, scrounging posters for said releases, looking for second hand records, haranguing the staff to play this or that and - very occasionally - buying a record or two.

The small record shop is to all extents and purposes gone from the high street, but it seems to me that its place has been taken by the computer games shop. Now, I know Word doesn't touch this stuff with a bargepole, but that's where you'll find all yer kids these days of a Saturday barging each other out of the way to play on the demo consoles, flicking through all the covers and - mum & dad or paper round willing - running home clutching a new release in grubby mitts. The fervour pre release around the bigger games - Grand Theft Auto 4, Killzone 2 (this Friday), Metal Gear Solid 4 - looks to me just like that that we saw leading up to the release of big albums...

Am I onto something here? Anyone else agree?

To use Noddy Holder's warcry.

The christmas iTunes playlist got the first airing of the year over the weekend and got me to thinking: Just how many 'Christmas' songs are actually not really anything to do with Christmas?

Of the ones that popped up 'Last Christmas' by Wham could be written about absolutely anything - substitute 'Christmas' for 'Summer' and get rid of the sleighbells and it still works. Same with Jonah Lewry's 'Stop The Cavalry'. Take out the line 'Wish I was at home for Christmas' and the sleighbells again and it's as festive as Edwin Starr's 'WAR'.

And let's not mention those chancers East 17 who did a snow and white-parka filled video for 'Stay', bunged on some sleighbells and churchbells and reap in the royalties annually.

Any others spring to anyone's mind?

We are expecting our first child in March next year. I confess here that we have chosen his first name Ulf after Swedish rocker Ulf Lundell.

I have known in my time a James Marshall Hallam (after Hendrix), a Bowie and there are any number of Dylans out there of a certain age. Has anyone else sneakily named their offspring after pop and rock?

I bring you 'In Bed With Chris Needham'

From the 1992 BBC2 'Teenage Diaries' video diary series we follow Chris as he puts together his band Manslaughter (later redubbed 'Manslorter' as people thought they were called 'Man's Laughter') while struggling with the day to day problems of teenage life in Loughborough. It's a terribly sweet film, bless him, and utterly utterly hilarious.

The Guardian reports that Babyshambles have been stopped from performing at a festival:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/20/petedoherty.festivals

"Experts are telling us that the profile of fans that follow Pete Doherty and Babyshambles is volatile and they can easily be whipped up into a frenzy, whereas the profile of someone that would follow around Cliff Richard or Bucks Fizz, for example, is completely different."

You what?

Always just a little bit underrated and over shadowed by the Theme From Shaft - but Hot Buttered Soul is easily one of the greatest soul albums ever. Shame to see him go.

No, not THAT one.

"It takes something special to fill the gap left by Danny in the summer and this is it," said BBC London 94.9 assistant editor Justin Kings.

"Mitch Winehouse is a listener to and friend of the station. We're delighted he's agreed to a show the other side of the microphone for a change."

But I recall that Mitch Winehouse made some fans here with a recent performance at some ceremony or other. And now's your chance to see if he lives up to your expectations - he's on on the 1st September. The rest of the stand ins are here..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/08/04/danny_guest_pres...

But I've just found this marvellous doohickey:

http://www.seero.com/video/Steve_McQueen_3

It's the car chase from Bullitt, showing in a window on the left, whilst the locations of the cars in the chase are shown in sync in a Google Earth window on the right. Oooh!