Well Lenny Law clearly has other things on his hands (or perhaps in his hands) at the moment so I've taken it upon myself to see if anyone else fancies a south coast massive mingle.

I live in Southampton and work in Portsmouth but could be tempted as far as, say, Bournemouth or even Chichester. Anybody else fancy getting together without making that nice Mr Souter even more obscenely rich by riding one of his South west Trains to that London? If so, suggestions wanted for when and where.

I was listening to the Let It Be album yesterday (the "naked" version but either will do) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's often dismissed as the sound of a band falling apart or just a collection of songs not good enough for Abbey Road. But I think it's more than this.

There are the two stand-out ballads of Let It Be and Long and Winding Road (two of McCartney's best) and the really nice harmony duet of Two Of Us, the rock vocals of I've Got a Feeling and George's I Me Mine. Then add the Cavern-era One After 909, the hippyish Across The Universe and the slide guitar playing on For You Blue and you've got a collection of songs any band would be proud of. And I haven't even mentioned Get Back.

Go on, revisit this album. You'll be glad you did.

As I've mentioned on here before, I foolishly agreed to accompany my son and his friends to V as they are underage.

Well, the day is approaching. I have a V app on my phone telling me the exact number of hours until it all starts - well, I did have but it kept crashing all the other apps so I removed it. I've even picked out some people I want to see (Bellowhead, Squeeze, Plan B, KT Tunstall) and others I'll check out to see if I like them more live than I do on record (wouldn't be hard) such as Eminem.

But, given the little scamps (actually my son is five inches taller than me) will ditch me once they are safely through the gate, it could be a lonely weekend.

Any members of the massive going to be there?

I have a spare half price (£17.50) ticket for Roger Daltrey this evening - show starts 7:30. If anybody is interested please respond here ASAP.

(Apologies for the advertising, I just don't want to see the ticket wasted).

And it's stopped raining,

Imagine my surprise to switch on Radio 2 just after 7:00 this morning and hear "Roots" by Show of Hands. And then instead of the usual inanity of Chris Evans to hear Simon Mayo and Jamie Cullum go on to play and talk about records by Emmylou Harris and Bellowhead. They also played a couple of jazz tracks which I really liked but can't remember the names of - although one was a stonking a capella version of "Feeling Good". The show finished with a live performance of "Come Together" by Cullum. This was a last minute suggestion from Chris Evans (who turned up anyway)as Jamie had apparently planned to play "Dear Prudence". ANy prejudices I may have had about Jamie Cullum were confounded. It was a great version. It's here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hqf75

All this is apparently part of Radio 2 Day where they're changing the daytime schedule to reflect the whole breadth of what is broadcast over a week.

I doubt I'll listen to much more during the day. But that hour between 7 and 8 shows how good morning radio could be.

I have foolishly agreed to accompany my son and two of his friends to the V Festival in Weston Park (near Wolverhampton) this year. I'm required as they are under 16. I fully expect them to ditch the old fart as soon as they are safely through the gates so how should I spend my time? The line up does not look very Massive friendly.

Currently I'm looking forward to Bellowhead, Squeeze, KT Tunstall, Big Audio Dynamite and, possibly, the Manics. But I feel I should broaden my outlook and take this opportunity to see the stuff the yoof like such as Eminem and Rihanna. I've already seen the Arctic Monkeys. Any other recommendations?

And are any other Massive members likely to be there. I'd welcome the chance to spend some time with a more mature concert goer.

On Desert Island Discs. Just wanted to recommend this. It's on a podcast and should still be on iPlayer. It's really very good. That's all.

This web browser is now virtually unusable on a site with lots of embedded video like The Word. All I get now where I should see video clips is a really annoying sad face and a message to say that "The following plugin has crashed: Shockwave Flash". A bit of, er, Googling shows that this is a known problem introduced with version 10 of Chrome. There doesn't seem to be any progress in fixing it and it is not possible to install the previous (ie working) release.

It's a shame. I really liked Chrome as a browser. But it looks like I'm off back to Firefox or IE until Google get around to sorting it out. Surely, though, such a major fault would have been apparent in even the most cursory testing before release?

OK. I foolishly said I'd be the responsible adult and accompany my son and two of his friends to V festival as they are underage.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to get through to buy any tickets before they sold out but somehow his two friends did. Result is that two friends now have tickets they can't use unless I get two tickets so we can go with them.

Question for the Massive. Which is the best site to get tickets? I want it to be trustworthy and for the premium I'm resigned to paying not to be too huge.

Any suggestions

This evening on, er, Radio 2 and BBC TV Red Button from 19:45. Currently live performances and interviews on Simon Mayo's programme.

Here's a bit of pure nostalgia which I'm posting just because it's good.

I was looking at the Rock Faux-lies thread and thought this might qualify as I had a vague memory that it was performed in the film by a school band. But I'm not sure that's right and perhaps it was just played over this sequence.

But it's not only a great performance of a great song, it takes me back to the days of proper red buses with conductors and open platforms. And cheerful Cockney teenagers. Luvverly.

I'd never come across Plan B but, if his contribution to the Elton John Electric Prom this evening was typical, I won't be seeking out any more of his work.

But, Plan B's sub-karaoke contribution aside, what a splendid concert. And great to hear the new stuff with Leon Russell.

And earlier on we had an interview with Elvis Costello on Radio 4's Front Row and a Culture Show special on Keef on BBC2.

All in one evening. You've gotta love the BBC.

I recently came across their latest album "Cogs, Wheels and Lovers" on E-music (it's on Spotify if you want a listen but I don't know how to do a link) and I just wanted to say how good it is. A real "return to form" as the cliche has it. I hadn't even realised they were still recording.

I first heard Steeleye Span around the time of their "Now We Are Six" album in the early seventies. This included two outstanding tracks "Two Magicians" and, of course, "Thomas the Rhymer". The power chords on acoustic and then electric guitars as the former song builds over the verses really hooked me in.

Anyway, Steeleye first got me interested in folk music and thus were responsible for many happy hours over the years both as a listener and performer in clubs and festivals and I am very grateful to them and just felt like starting a thread to say so.

Despite various hints all over the media (including The Word's own podcast) there is no truth in the rumour that Sarah Kennedy was drunk when broadcasting on Radio 2. There must, as they say, be some other explanation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/21/sarah-kennedy-denies-drink-p...

This popped up on my iPod today and I thought I'd share it. I came across this lot in New Orleans three years ago (oh yes, a right globe trotter me) and thought they were excellent. A bit Little Featish and, it occurred to me today, likely to appeal to those members of the Massive who may not have heard them.