We ran a Word Of Mouth with the delightful Joanna Page recently (she likes Nick Drake and Mulholland Drive and Stephen King). What we forgot to mention was that Ms Page is not only in the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, she's also in Cinderella at the New Wimbledon Theatre from December 5 until January 18. Some good news there, for a change.

Eight and a half years ago I wrote the following words: "Whether Matthew Jay will be as massive as he deserves to be - and believe me, he deserves a string of top 10 hits and undying critical adulation - isn't what's really important. What is important though, is that at just 21, he has the wonderful songs, the sumptuous voice and the gently sussed poise to become very precious indeed to those people willing to listen. You should be one of them..."

This Friday should have been his 30th birthday, but, shockingly, in September 2003, Matthew died after falling from a 7th storey window in central London. The reasons for his death remain unsolved.

I spoke to Matthew two or three times during his short career and was lucky enough to see him play live once or twice too. He was an excellent songwriter with a great voice and a desire to make music that actually meant something to people. A tribute concert - Further Than Tomorrow - is being held on Friday October 10 at the Shepherds Bush Empire in aid of Unicef and Amnesty. Chris Difford, James Walsh from Starsailor, Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl will all appear.

We're continually told that young people today patently don't "know their stuff", so in the new issue of The Word (pictured right, out this week), we tested the music critics from the nation's newspapers to discover if their arcane pop knowledge was up to scratch.

The contestants and final scores are shown below, and reveal The Guardian's Alexis Petridis to be current master of the impossible question.

We've also listed the questions and answers so you can see how you would have scored.

The Questions

1. Carl, Graham, Lee, Mark, Mike, Dan and Chris. Which group?

2. Winged Eel Fingerling, The Mascara Snake, Ariel Bender, Zoot Horn Rollo: who’s the odd one out?

3. Jimmy Nicol, Matt Deighton, Glen Campbell. All deputised on tour for various pop stars who were ill. Which?

4. What's the connection between Lou Reed and Clive Dunn?

5. Which is of these is true? Chris Martin appeared as a zombie in Shaun Of The Dead, or typing correction fluid was invented by Peter Tork of The Monkees' Mum?

6. One member of this '80s group was jailed for an axe attack. Another married a Radio 1 DJ. Which group?

7. Sexy! No No No by Girls Aloud samples which song by '70s rock troopers Nazareth?

8. What the hell is "clownstep"?

9. Which three artists have had the most Number One singles in British chart history?

How did you do?

I've just received the new single from Psapp. I haven't played it and, to be honest, I probably never will (sorry, Domino) because, and I'm not proud to admit this, I just don't like their name. It makes me feel uncomfortable. I have been sent, probably, every record they've ever made and I don't think I've listened to any of them. I know, ridiculous, isn't it? And I don't think I know how to pronounce it. Is it P-sap or Sap or, y'know, something else? Am I alone here, or does everyone give some bands the swerve because they're not keen on what they're called?

There's a fantastic, short documentary about a pre-teen Scottish Heavy Metal band called Hatred (previously known as Rising Eagle, fact fans). They're all about 11 or 12, but their influences are nearly all the same as the bands that me and my friends Michael and Martin would have recognised when we formed our band in 1982 - AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Motorhead. There's a heart-breaking clip where they practice in a disapproving mother's front room (about 3:10) which is precisely how I remember long afternoons spent at "band practice" to be. The endless, formless noodling interpersed with a frantic, awful racket. "The reason he was sacked was because he didn't, like, rock..." A classic in the making.

... that I mentioned in Home Service seems to have collapsed under the weight of people (including me) trying to fill their iPods with Lee Morse and her Bluegrass Boys tracks. If anyone sees it up again - or mirrored somewhere - let us know!
EDIT: News and torrent here.

Jack Nicholson goes green. In 1978... The female newscaster has the most incredible accent - she really chews through her lines. Any idea where it originates?

I received the following poem as an email this morning. The sender - OK, I realise there probably isn't a real sender - is "BradleysyllableDixon@mackinac.com". He doesn't exist on the internet. Neither does "Jesus Kennedy", the name that appeared in my Inbox. I like to think it's a real poem sent to me by a real person. As it stands, I think it's a fine piece of work. It's entitled "Rout Chert" (which also doesn't exist on the intrasquizz)..

ROUT CHERT
by Jesus Kennedy

Naked naked laureate
laughlin podge ain't stinkpot,
camelopard gorse.
vet combatted gorse podge irving excelling,
gorse naked moldboard contention yelp excelling.
lobar moldboard

/ENDS/

Pretty good, no ("laughlin podge ain't stinkpot" is a great line)? Can you beat that?

Killer Mike And Ice Cube Pressure: I think it's safe to say you'll never see this on TV...

Dawn Landes and the WST Bluegrass Band do Peter, Bjorn & John's Young Folks. What's not to like?

I've been listening to a lot of AC/DC recently. Here's the newsflash, I don't think they've ever made a bad record, certainly not between 1975 and 1982 anyway, and 10 albums is enough for anyone, right? So this morning I was listening to Highway To Hell for the first time in, at least, 22 years and I discovered a few things, namely:
A) It's really good, not a duff track on it, brilliant choruses, extremely melodic, very funky.
B) Love Hungry Man is, in all honesty, a disco track. The guitars are a (wonderful) distraction - just check the metronomic pulse of Phil Rudd's drums and Cliff Williams' startlingly groovy bassline.

I tell you what, a decent edit of this and it's dancefloor smash o'clock. It is!