I should be seeing Stackridge (yep, none more Word) tonight. But apparently the pipes at the Nag's Head burst yesterday and the place is flooded, so now I have to hope that (a) it gets re-scheduled and (b) if they do, that it's a date I can do. Fortunately, with Twitter it meant that at least I didn't make the trip in vain.

Anyway, it reminded me of a couple of other gigs that got cancelled on me at the last moment:

Mansun - Oxford Brookes, probably 1999. I think it was the lighting rig that failed, so it was very last-minute but the whole thing wasn't handled well. We were allowed to queue for ages in the cold before it was clear that it wasn't going to happen; the band issued a statement saying that they were 'gutted' and promising to make it up to the fans...and then did nothing of the sort. All the tickets were declared void weeks later, and when they eventually did return to play a gig it was a festival warm-up that they were probably planning to do anyway. They could have played without the lighting rig and I for one would have been quite happy...I'm not easily miffed but it annoyed me at the time and I didn't buy any more of their albums until this year, when I picked up 'Little Kix' in a charity shop for 95p. (It's good, better than 'Six'.)

Stiff Little Fingers, Portsmouth Wedgwood Rooms, 2001. Apparently Bruce Foxton was the victim of a violent mugging in London. They returned a few weeks (or months) later and played a blinder.

Has it ever happened to you? What's the best or worst excuse for cancelling a gig?

Regular eBayers will know that sometimes sellers seem, well, just a bit optimistic. Here's a good example:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kate-Bush-Mike-Scott-Luke-Haines-Howard-Devoto...

It's a copy of the December 2011 issue, yours for a steal at £39.99. Plus £3.20 for the postage. It seems churlish to point out that it's about the same for a subscription - then again, looking at the feedback it would appear that there are takers. Someone appears to have paid £60 for a magazine and is very pleased with it. Wow.

So if you can bear to be parted from them, there is evidently some money to be made from your old (pristine) copies. Just don't all flood the market at once.

* Then again, they may not be.

From Billboard and the BBC site:

1 Taylor Swift - $35.7m
2 U2 - $32.1m
3 Kenny Chesney - $29.8m
4 Lady Gaga - $25.4m
5 Lil Wayne - $23.2m
6 Sade - $16.4m
7 Bon Jovi - $15.8m
8 Celine Dion - $14.3m
9 Jason Adlean - $13.4m
10 Adele - $13.1m

Oh, and the HJH were 24th with $6.7m.

There are a few old-timers in there, aren't there? I had no idea Celine Dion was still belting them out, but there's the Titanic anniversary in a few weeks. And who are Jason and Kenny?

More things that make you go "hmmm", of interest to anyone considering a flight to the USA. It seems that Continental have been cutting costs by using smaller planes (757s, since you ask), with less fuel capacity than the bigger boys. Most days it works. But sometimes the headwinds are too strong, they use too much fuel and have to make an unscheduled fuel stop. Not popular with the passengers who have connections to make.

More here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020343690457715297409824198...

My old Aiwa system that lives in the kitchen has been slowly giving up the ghost over the past few years, and now it's getting very choosy about CDs - CDRs seem out of the question these days. So it looks like I'm going to need a replacement.

Things to take into consideration:
- It has to be small enough to go in the kitchen
- The Aiwa (with 2 x 35W rms) is only just loud enough when the extractor's on. So anything less is probably a bad idea
- I want to play mp3 CDRs as well as normal audio discs
- An iPod dock would replace the separate one I use now
- DAB is not completely essential, but I'd like it as a backup for when my seven year old Pure Bug dies.
- External line-in is a must for my other gadgets
- USB/SD input is a nice-to-have; I can live without it as long as the external line-in is there
- Budget: would rather stay under £200, although we do use it a lot so I don't want to compromise too much

So, Massive. Anybody bought or tried anything recently you'd recommend?

Much as I dearly love my parents, both are prone to buying me presents that demonstrate a charming disregard for anything I might actually want or need. I know trouble is looming if they don’t ask me what I’d like for Christmas, because it means they’ve already been struck with inspiration. Let’s have some examples...

My mum’s speciality is books. Often it’s the usual stocking-fillers like the origins of pub names and such like. But a few years ago she gave me a book called “Man walks into a bar”. It’s a book of jokes. Something that would have been fairly appropriate and much appreciated when I was, ooh, about ten. Last year I got one on tartans.

My dad on the other hand is the kind of guy the Innovations catalogue was aimed at. Gadgets are his thing, and so is personalization – I’ve had all sorts, from a shoe-shine kit to a passport wallet, with my initials embossed on them. Perhaps the high point was when he decided to get us a table-top dishwasher; despite the generosity of the offer I was compelled to stop him.
“But Dad, we’re having the kitchen done next year, and we’ll have a full size one then.”
“Oh, that’s OK. You can take it in the car when you go away on holiday.”
There’s always some kind of logic there.

This Christmas, I already know I will be receiving something like this:
http://www.mdgtools.com/index.cfm?pid=10450
Personally, I tend to put things like screws and nails in a pocket before I need them. But hey – he clearly loves giving this kind of present so I shall accept it gracefully.

So, Massive – what kind of rubbish presents have you had?

I knew nothing of the works of John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, but our Antipodean friends may well know them. Anyway, these have had me giggling in a very undignified way at my desk. (You might find them desperately unfunny, of course.)

This first one involves a government minister attempting to explain away a massive tanker oil spill:

More recently, they address the state of the EU economy:

Followed by the UK riots:

Must stop now and do something useful.

Just when you thought they were settled. Is it me or are they pressing the self-destruct button again?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/926121...