Congratulations to Paul Weller and his wife Hannah...

Called the twins Bowie and John-Paul. Shame he didn't go for George-Ringo to complete the set.

edit - I realise that little 'un is named after his old man but c'mon, it's an open goal, just tuck it away!

Oh, the days as a youth on Bank Holidays and Christmas where me and my brother so looked forward Disney Time on the box and the cartoon clips of Fantasia, Pinocchio and Peter Pan. Unless they were ever re-run at the flicks, you never got to see them anywhere else. Our kids still sit transfixed watching these some 60 years after some were first released.

Robin Hood from 1973 is my personal favourite. Terribly overlooked (Disney do not and have not produced ANY cuddly toy versions of the characters - a first, I believe) and I don't really know why. Too English? Tightly scripted, great story, brilliantly animated, funny, great characters and superbly voiced (Peter Ustinov and Terry-Thomas make a great knockabout pair as Prince John and Sir Hiss).

So, what's the Massive's favourite Disney flick....(*other animated film makers are available...)

Morrissey's one time muse, author of "A Taste of Honey" passed away today. RIP Shelagh Delaney.

Studied A Taste of Honey for Modern Eng Lit. Didn't translate to 80's west London as it did to the early 70's Stretford for SPM.

That young popstrel/noisemonger Jessie J has just tweeted this.

"jessiejofficial JESSIE J
by guardianmusic
Planes give me so much joke. Some people are just so inner!!!! Lol"

What does it mean? Adjectives, pronouns and adverbs just thrown together in any old fashion. Answers on a postcard......

It's just nonsense isn't it? There was a poncey "down wiv ver kids" Professor in Linguistics from A.N.Other Poly on Steroids University on BBC Breakfast the other morning, desperately trying to convince Sian and Bill that the language spoken by the cast of "The Only Way is Essex" (don't get me started) is a genuine descendent of an Anglian dialect and slang and not a lazy bastardization of what they hear on EastEnders crossed with "Gangsta" styling's courtesy of a 13 year old's understanding of the So Solid Crew's Peckham linguistic jiggery pokery.

Rant over.

Young Six Pup has requested one of these as Santy Claus present this year. Very happy to buy one for him as this will be very useful on his introduction to secondary school next summer AND, more importantly, provides him with his own iTunes, so my PC isn't clogged up with the Black Eyed Peas and Taio Cruz

Having never used one of these little boxes of wonder (standard laptop & desktop combo) am I right in thinking they don't have any form of DVD/Bluray drive? If so, how do you install stuff like MS Office and Anti Virus programmes?

Any help gratefully appreciated.

Technofear. It's happening again. Vivian!

Trying to just rip the music from U2's "U2 Go Home" Slane Castle DVD on to iTunes. I used to be able to do this with a MiniDisc recorder by plugging the optical out cable into the back of the old VHS.

Any idea on how to do this digitally? I have Handbrake but really don't want or need the video aspect of the files.

Any advice much appreciated. Ta!

...according to various reports etc etc...and understand that the Massive demographic may not all be atuned to the revolutionary impact they had on me at 19 years old so please bear with me! They were my Last Gang in Town. They had the looks, the chops, the songs and the sheer force of nature that punched you slap bang between the eyes.

Now - The Roses were my Led Zeppelin, MY band. I posted a "It was 20 years ago today" thread on here in 2009 on the anniversary of the Roses and Mondays ToTP appearance - I'll confess now that I even set a calendar reminder to do this! I followed them from the Amersham Arms in New Cross in February 89, through nearly every gig there on in. Some mind bendingly brilliant - bunking the train to Manchester directly from work in St James's Park to see them at the Hacienda and getting the milk train back to London, dripping in sweat, no doubt stinking to high heaven and with some monstrous chemicals still buzzing around my head - and going straight back to the same desk -, some absolutely shocking (Glasgow Green and the nadir of Reading that made me cry - Robbie Maddix shouting 'Reading, make some noiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise...' - just so, so very wrong).

I had the Alexandra Palace and Spike Island posters stuck to my bedroom wall with the gig tickets affixed to them. Their disposal by my Mum after I left home for good (post uni, post other FPO's flats etc) led to a major major row. I sulked and stomped like a teenager for weeks (there may have even been a tear). I was 27 years old at the time. Those posters meant everything to me.

So what of this reunion? I'm not going to bother with it. My time capsule and memories are perfect. It'll be like seeing an old girlfriend some 22 years down the track. Wrinkles where there used to be smoothness, baggage where there used to be none. Do I need to see Ian Brown murder She Bangs the Drum again or Mani gurning as he runs up and down the fretboard as I Am The Resurrection closes? All for an extortionate ticket price at the O2 Arena. No, not really. I've seen them do both at various gigs and festivals in the intervening years.

Is there "unfinished business" here? I can't see anything. The whole thing fell in around its ears during the recording of The Second Coming. I hope they're honest and admit it's about the pension fund. I don't begrudge anyone earning a living or selling their art and I'm not quite that self absorbed to think that they shouldn't get back together as I'm sure the younger generation will clamour to see them as I did when the Pistols played Finsbury Park in '96.

Ian, John, Gary and Alan - thanks for the memories - I'll keep them intact.

edit - confirmed - Heaton Park June 28 & 29. Almost 22 years to the day from Spike Island. That's a fucking long time. Confronting mortality even.

The humble cigarette holder. The item that could make the suburban upwardly mobile housewife into a alluring Audrey Hepburn, a foxy Joan Collins or a brassy Bet Lynch. Terry-Thomas looked the uber cad with a cigarette holder. All would be cads and "nice" villains used them.

I don't think I've seen one in use for 20 odd years. As an aside to being a little bit of a fashion prop, they also had a bit of a use as they kept ones fingers from reeking of tobacco and filtered out much of the tar. My Mum used one in the 70's and they were incredibly well designed objects. Tortoiseshell colours, slim, elegant - certainly added more to the smokers armoury than a pipe cleaner and snuff.

So, young people still smoke (albeit in dwindling numbers - good thing etc) so why the utter decimation of the cigarette holder? It looked cool and had a use without being overly tricky to use.

The John Foxx/Midge Ure conundrum in particular.

It still puzzles me. I know the oft cited musical differences and "wanting to move in different directions" gets an airing but it was a fair old leap from the relatively established experimental left field electronica to the globe straddling fantastic synth pop that Ure delivered in a very short space of time. Being only 10 or 11 at the time, I wasn't aware of how the inkies reported this back then or what the general consensus was.

What would be the modern equivalent? Will Young fronting Beady Eye???

Whilst I'm on an Ultravox theme, does anyone remember Midge Ure on a programme in the mid 80's (Blue Peter or similar) demonstrating a synthesiser that was based on a guitar rather than a keyboard? Ure was very enthused by this piece of kit saying it was perfect for those musicians without formal training who found it easier to play melody on strings rather than keys. No idea who this was manufactured by and never seen one since. Can the Massive assure me I didn't dream this?!

Little Jimmy Krankie appears to be having difficulty finding his/her sea legs...

Take it away massive....

Do any members of the massive have any inkling as to whether this will ever see the light of day on DVD? After the Anthology series and the recent polished up re-issues, I'd kinda assumed that all parties were back on speaking terms and more or less ego free that would allow Let It Be to be finally released. Maybe not?

My old VHS is worn thin!

Just idly flicking through my Twitter feed on my Android phone on a train journey down to Poole last week when Lauren Laverne tweeted something about just how brilliant Steppenwolf's 'Magic Carpet Ride' was. That really perked my interest as I hadn't heard the track for years and years. Within 45 seconds, SECONDS, I'd found the track on a download service and was listening to the damn thing! Unbelievable.

Not 10 years back, a similar attempt to even listen to Magic Carpet Ride would have involved either dragging my sorry backside around various record fairs or shelling out £15.99 for a shabby "Greatest Hits" type efford from a mega sized HMV in a big town (our local music stores didn't stock much back catalogue stuff).

45 seconds from Twitter mention to my ears via 69 English pence. Astounding. Kids today don't know they're born.

I am easily pleased. Everything's brilliaaaaaaaant.....!

I know this has probably been done in the past (and excuse the faux pas if recently) but I came across this today...

It begged the questions...

How? Why? Who bought this? What the hell does it sound like??? Did the Colonel really trouble a recording studio??

It's utterly bonkers yet completely fantastic at the same time. Is this a 1950's early take on product placement or something free you got with a Happy Meal? Did it come with a clean up tissue? Why is the little boy about to kneel on a big Let it Bleed type cake?

Any other fast food vanity albums knocking around? Did Ronald McDonald ever team up with Mayor McCheese to knock out a hip hop covers album?

Has anybody been? If so, is it any good and would it sustain the interest of a 10 year old boy "into" the Black Eyed Peas and Jessie J?

Been mulling it over for a while......

Recommended?

Caitlin Moran tweeted this link early today. It is utterly fantastic.

If you want to see a 6 year old lad playing 5 a side football with a panda bear cub in the 1930's, this is your site!

http://awe.sm/5HIpU