My two teenage daughters want me to take them to see 'The Boat That Rocked'. I've seen the trailer, it doesn't look that great. Should I refuse to take them and go off and see some incomprehensible French family drama instead? What's the Word Massive's collective view of this film?

My sister, god bless her, has just watched a documentary on the songwriting genius of Ray Davies. I missed it and she did not record it, damn. Anyway, earlier tonight she asked me to put together a single disc of the best of Ray's body of work. Hmmm. I just finished loading over forty CDs on to the computer, pulling out what I thought was the best, and listening to sngs I have not heard in ages and finding some more. The problem is, I have loaded 598 songs and only managed to narrow it down to 176 candidates! I can't choose! Can anyone tell me what should be on the disc, obviously some hits but what overlooked tunes are also musts?

Just took time out from trawling The Word's site to catch 'Spicks & Specks', a music 'quiz' show on the ABC network. Two of tonight's guests were the mighty Guy Garvey, from Elbow, and Seasick Steve. Whilst it was entertaining, as the show always is, it struck me as incongruous that these two performers would be on such a show. Am I old fashioned in feeling that artists need to keep a sense of credibility at all times and stay true to their image? Or is it now OK to 'diversify' and, on one hand, sing heartfelt soul stirring paeans to love and life, or wail a blues tune about loss and pain, and then, on the other, appear on 'light entertainment' shows cracking jokes and singing Cohen's 'Hallelujah' with lyrics taken from a book about soil sciences? (Sorry about the length of that last question)

Just listening to the latest podcast and it would appear that Mr Hepworth, Mr Ellen and Ms. Mossman find the fact that I(and I believe other fanatics) am coming from Australia to see Mott The Hoople a little strange because Ian Hunter has been playing live continuously with various other Mott personnel, and the Mott reunion, in your opinion, is just a 'rebranding exercise'. The fact is, my learned friends,Ian Hunter has never toured Australia, neither has any other Mott member other than Mick Ralphs in Bad Company back in 1974. A fact, I believe, that would have been easy to discover if you employed one of the main tools of journalism - research! Anyway, I consider the trip will be money well spent, and a pint or two for any of you who might be frequenting public houses in the vicinity of Hammersmith is certainly not out of the question.
The Who played here last week (first time in 41 years), Neil Young made it to Adelaide a month or so back (first time in eons), as did Leonard Cohen (over twenty years between drinks). Simon & Garfunkel are due here in June (not sure if they have ever made it this far before)so eventually if you wait long enough...so my question is what's the longest wait you spoiled guys in Britain have had to wait to see an artist live?

I'm planning my itinerary for October when I'll be flying over from Australia to see Mott. My other half wants to visit Dublin for a couple of days - that's cool with me, because I'll have a photo of the Phil Lynott statue then. When I get to London though, what rock oriented landmarks should I take a tourist snapshot of? The Ronno soundshell in Hull?

What is the best example (read 'godawful') of a sportsperson trying to cross-over into the world of popular music? I'll start off the thread by putting up for your enjoyment an example of an Australian Rules footballer who hit the charts in the eighties. As a player he was most famous for taking his false teeth out and putting them on top of his head before he whacked an opponent behind the play...

Trawling through You Tube this evening, I found footage of Lou Reed's 1974 interview on Australian TV whilst on his Rock And Roll Animal tour. I remember it being screened at the time and my memory of it was that his responses to questions were totally monosyllabic. That was not the case it seems, although it may have been edited at the time to make him look bad. It is still fun to watch - as is Iggy Pop on 'Countdown' being interviewed by media buffoon 'Molly' Meldrum. Can anyone else remember (and hopefully upload) any other corkers?

I had the iPod on random play a few moments ago and it played, in succession, XTC's 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul',John Cale's 'The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy' and then Robyn Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Invented Himself'. Whilst the amazing coincidence of three consecutive songs about 'The Man' emerging from the iPod was certainly worth a ceremonial raising of the eyebrows, it set me thinking about what is the most unusual song ever put to disc about 'The Man'?
I searched through the iPod and found some more, like:

Richard Hell & The Voidoids - 'The Man With The Lightbulb Head'
Thee Headcoats - 'The Man With Eyes Like Little Fishes'
Dead Milkmen - 'The Man Who Rides The Bus'
Brian Ritchie - 'The Man With The Cigarette In His Nose'
Ultravox - 'The Man Who Dies Everyday'
David Bowie - 'The Man Who Sold The World'
The Angels Of Light - 'The Man We Left Behind'
Rainbow - 'The Man On The Silver Mountain'
Gene Pitney - 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'
The Libertines - 'The Man Who Would Be King'

A couple of these might be contenders for the title, but there must be better nominees out there somewhere?