Elvis Was A Stiff

In your humble opinion, What's the best Elvis Costello album?
I'm torn between This Years Model and Imperial Bedroom.

This just in -
Bristol Named UK’s Most Musical Town
Latest research undertaken by PRS for Music, the organisation that collects royalties on behalf of composers and songwriters, today reveals that Bristol has ‘produced’ more musicians by size of population than any other town in the UK.

PRS for Music conducted the research to see which regions produced the most musicians as opposed to where they currently live. Whereas London has the greatest number of musicians living there, but it didn’t make the top 20 for musical births, coming in at number 26.

1. Bristol
2. Cardiff
3. Wakefield
4. Glasgow
5. Cheltenham
6. Edinburgh
7. Manchester
8. Paisley
9. Doncaster
10. Londonderry
11. Scunthorpe*

* I made that last one up.

The Slits are coming to Newcastle in May. When I was a lad and all this was just fields, they were one of my bestest bands ever, along with The Banshees and Patti Smith.
I'm not one for tribute bands and I'm not one for reunuion tours, despite this - I'm tempted. If Budgie was in the drum seat I'd deffo go, seems though he's not.

So Massive, should I stay (in) or should I go?

Critic David Simpson's next-door neighbour in a village near York took such exception to his choice of late-night sounds that he punched him in the face.
The critic says he has been the victim of a curse since he wrote a book about legendary group The Fall.

Since he wrote the book, his lifelong girlfriend has left him and he has driven his car into a river.

His experiences echo that of many former members of the band whose career often went into freefall once they left.
Mr Simpson, who worked for The Guardian and still writes regularly for the newspaper since recently going freelance, said: "I have been beset by the Curse Of The Fall, which has resulted in various incidents ranging from being dumped by my lifelong girlfriend to driving my car into a river, and I'm tempted to suspect this is another one of those.

He was playing Control I'm Here by Nitzer Ebb for about three minutes when he was attacked.

Harrogate Magistrates Court heard how ''a continuous thumping sound'' at 10.20pm on January 25 had disturbed 51-year-old Brian Edmunds' TV viewing and led to him marching to Mr Simpson's house in Crawford Close, Tockwith, near
York, and attacking him when he came to his door.

Prosecutor Kathryn Reeve said Mr Simpson had been twice punched in his left eye, grabbed by his neck and pushed back into his hallway. "He had needed hospital treatment for a one-inch cut and swelling and bruising to his eye, along with blurred vision. He had also suffered a broken tooth and a sore neck.

The court heard Edmunds had moved into the house only four weeks prior to the attack, having left Ripon after his mother died.

Edmunds had gone to investigate, the two men had a dialogue and when it appeared to Edmunds that Mr Simpson was not prepared to turn the music down he acted totally out of character.

Maybe he was exacting revenge for Mark E Smith. The Fallen is a particularly badly written and executed book. I felt like punching him after I'd read half of it.

I wish I lived in the world of celebrity, then I could do amzing things like this:

'Anton du Beke is lending his support to the British pork industry by becoming the face of this year’s Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week.'

So, he is offering to be the face of a pig. Way to go, good career choice.

I hate musicals. I love music, I love singing, I love cinema and I love theatre. When they're stuck together though, what a palaver.
There are some great musicals - but the singing gets in the way of the plot. If, for instance, if Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a normal film, it would be an hour shorter and all the better for it. The only 'musical' I can stomach is Moulin Rouge, and that's not really a musical, it's a film with songs crowbarred into the plot.
Anyone out there want to suggest a musical that I might like?*

*Don't even dare mention The Rocky Horror Show, I hate The Rocky Horror Show.

After a very lucky trawl in a second hand shop I returned home with a bag full of books by George Tremlett and Richard Allen.
Two writers who for me are the epitome of the 1970's teenage book case. Any others?

that that flashing ad for subs on the right hand side is really, really bloody irritating?
It's like having an epileptic right eye.

A remarkable film with a brilliant soundtrack, lots of early Eno. Who knew Peter Jackson had such good taste? A bit harrowing mind, but despite that, quite brilliant.

Page 89 of this months issue.
The Horror, the horror, the horror.

It's the greatest TV show ever.
No argument.
It's a fact.

Vampire Weekend are mint.
No argument.
It's a fact.

That's all. Merry Christmas.

Diamond Dogs was the soundtrack to mine.
You?

According to the Sunday Mirror, Michael McIntyre blew out a corporate gig and lost himself a £28,000 fee in the process. It was a debt collectors xmas jolly. I doff my cap to him.