Walking through Borough Market this evening I spied the inestimable Mr H with, I can only assume, his good lady wife.

Couldn't resist stopping him to say how much I enjoy the Word podcasts.

They're recording a new one tomorrow, fact fans!

Swooning over!

Listening to the most recent podcast reminded me of my only John Peel (tenuous) encounter.

At the end of the aforementioned podcast, David Hepworth mentioned the late 60s group The Principle Edwards - an outfit I'd never heard of until I went to university almost 20 years ago.

It turned out that my former Russian lecturer, Bill Leatherbarrow, was once part of The Principle Edwards and we discovered that they recorded a Peel Session.

This excited me beyond belief, so in an effort to track the session down, I wrote a letter (hey, this was pre-email) to John Peel setting out the problem and asking if he could help.

A few weeks later I came home one evening to find a note written by one of my housemates, sitting next to the house phone.

The note said: 'Rob, some bloke called John Peel phoned. Sounded like a weirdo so I hung up on him.'

Yup, he made the effort to call me, but my dumb housemate didn't believe he was genuine and didn't even get a number. My chance of talking to the great man gone - ruined by an M People-listening Philistine.

Anyone else got any random, tenuous John Peel stories?

Just read the latest issue (well, most of it) and had to give a thumbs up to Mark Ellen's interview with Ginger Baker.

As a long admirer of Mr Ellen and lucky enough to have listened to talks about journalism from the very man, this is a classic example of how to turn what could have been a nightmare interview into a masterclass.

As a sometime journalist myself, I have also turned the nightmare interview with an unwilling interviewee into something approaching usable - but only after having been inspired by similar techniques employed by Mssrs Ellen and Hepworth earlier in their careers.

Just another reason why I love The Word!

Did anyone see this story that the Holiday Inn in Kensington have banned Slade songs this year.

According to the 'hotel' spokeswoman, "when it became apparent that the Slade hit was not being well received by such a large proportion of our guests, we decided the best way to keep everyone's spirits up in the countdown to Christmas was to remove it from the playlist."

As if that's not bad enough, she then had this to say:

"...if there are any more Christmas turkeys that guests want to ban we will be listening out for any serious requests."

Christmas turkey? What a cheek! Has she no concept of good and bad Xmas choons? Hrumph!

Leaving London Bridge station this morning, I spotted the one and only Kevin Rowland going in and joining the back of the queue to buy a train ticket.

Naturally, he went unnoticed by the rest of the throng - and, no, he wasn't wearing a dress!

Anyone got any others sightings of music 'legends' doing the mundane?

So Astral Weeks is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary and Van will be performing it live.

It reminded me again of how subjective music really is. Astral Weeks has often been put at the top of the 'great albums everyone must own' style-lists that litter music magazines, but most people will have never heard it.

But is there any album/track that everyone genuinely agrees on?

Clearly we can't rely on sales: that would mean everyone loves Dido, James Blunt, Coldplay and David Gray (the decade's highest selling artists) - and we know that's not true.

But how many people who buy Dido et al would agree on the merits of Pet Sounds, Astral Weeks, What's Going On or OK Computer? Not many, I'll wager.

I know the answer is probably, but would anyone care to posit any album/track that everyone loves?

I'll throw into the ring that once heard, most people would love Big Yellow Taxi (obviously the original and not the Amy Stewart mangling from the 90s).

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat, but I had to share this, if only to get it off my chest.

I actually dreamed about going to something that resembled The Word magazine's Christmas party.

Now bear with me, because dreams aren't exactly structured. It was at some sort of stately home outside London and the special guest was either Van Morrison or Bruce Springsteen - I know there's no resemblance between the two, but they weren't the main focus of the dream.

As they came on stage they were flanked by none other than Mark Ellen playing the saxophone and David Hepworth with a bass slung around his neck. Sadly, my dream wasn't auditory so I can't vouch for their musical prowess.

After the gig, everyone started filtering home and I was collared by Mr Ellen who was desperate for booze. He ordered me to go to the nearest supermarket and pick up some lager for him and Guy Garvey, who was also there - and make sure it was a 6-pack.

I was also told not to get any elderflower cider because Garvey hates it after having it last time he was a Word party.

After finding alcohol, we headed for the station to catch a train back to London.

We literally just missed the train by seconds, only to see David Hepworth gleefully waving from the window.

We then managed to miss every train for the next two hours with Mr Ellen getting progressively drunker and laughing louder and louder and me getting more and more stressed out at not being able to get home. At that point, I finally woke up!

Scary or very close to the truth? Thoughts, please!

Any resemblance to the behaviour of people featured in the real world is totally unintended and a complete coincidence

I was sitting looking at my CD shelves the other evening (which are arranged alphabetically, of course) and started wondering which letter of the alphabet I'd want to take with me, if I was going to a desert island.

Now, personally speaking, I tend to categorize by surname for artist (unlike iTunes and last.fm), so Nick Cave is under 'C', Dr John is under 'J' (I know it's not a surname).

After much soul-searching I plumped for B - Bowie, Bragg, Blur, Bacharach, Bjork, Belle & Sebastian, Byrne, Kate Bush, Big Star, Badly Drawn Boy...

Anyone else care want to throw their letter into the ring?

Am I the only person to have watched 30 Rock on British TV?

The recent Word Magazine e-newsletter, indicated that 'There's no sign of this appearing in the UK,' which is of course cobblers!

The oft-criticised Five showed it earlier this year on a Thursday evening after the equally great 2nd series of the David Duchovny vehicle Californication.

That 30 Rock was shown on Five indicates why no-one realised it had been broadcast in the UK. Viewing figures were pitiful.

Still, there's always the DVD!

Recently came across a great set of music podcasts called Coverville.

Hosted up to 3 times a week by a guy called Brian Ibbott and he puts together a really great show.

He has a great laidback delivery and it's just a great way to hear new artists.

As the name suggests, every song he plays is a cover version. Some podcasts are themed to tie in with artists' birthdays, many are just listener requests.

If I have one minor criticism it's that there are possibly too many American rock covers, but that's minor. Give it a listen!

I know that there's probably a thread on here about albums you have in your collection that never see the light of day, but what about individual tracks?

To conserve battery power on my rather ageing iPod, I took off the shuffle function (top tip, folks) and started listening to albums from start to finish again - gosh, how revolutionary!

The other day, I happened across Terence Trent Water Authority's debut album Introducing The Hardline... and reminded myself of how bloody good it is.

And then I got to that weird acapella track, the penultimate one on the album, called As Yet Untitled and realised I'd hardly ever listened to it, because I always press 'FForward'.

Surely, there must be other tracks that make us habitually press the 'Skip' button to avoid hearing all the way through?

Any takers?

The latest podcast reminded me that many entertainers manage to reinvent themselves far better than any Madonna or Kylie.

As a kid, I always knew Ralph McTell for Streets of London, but my sister, who's 10 years younger than me only recognises him from the kids programmes Alphabet Zoo and Tickle On The Tum.

Similarly Bernard Cribbins... for the likes of Mssrs Hepworth and Ellen, he's known as a quality comic actor and singer of tunes such as Right Said Fred.

Being a few years younger, however, I grew up with Bernard Cribbins as the voice of The Wombles.

There will be younger people than I who will not know Neil Morrissey as an actor in the likes of Boon or Men Behaving Badly, but as the voice of Bob The Builder.

Can anyone else think of similar entertainment greats (OK, I'm stretching it a little with Neil Morrisey) who have achieved legendary status in more than one field?

We have a company awards bash tonight and are getting ready in the office.

As I work with all girls, I wasn't sure what tunes to put on to guarantee a good response.

My regular listening habits of things like Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Richard Hawley, Rufus Wainwright wouldn't exactly get the party started, if you get my drift.

I eventually settled on some Elton John (hey, my iTunes only has 2,500 tracks on it at work), which pleased the masses.

What do other Worders listen to in advance of a big night out?

I hope someone can help with this...

My iPod earphones have finally given up the ghost and I need to upgrade.

I know I should have chucked the white things in the bin ages ago, so now I have the chance to do so.

The thing is, I know I'll get more out of my listening if I get a better pair of 'ear-cans'.

I could do a search on google, but I thought I'd ask the advice of a group of people who know their music and probably have extensive experience of hearing products.

I can't afford headphones that cost hundreds of quid, but clearly want to spend more than a tenner.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks in advance...

UPDATE: Thanks for all your advice. There are some Sennheiser CX300s on the way!

I was sad to read about the death of Neil Aspinall, as reported elsewhere on this site.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/neil-aspinall-gatekeeper-beatles-h...

But the one thing that made me stop was the description of him as the 'fifth Beatle'.

Now I'm not an expert on the Fab Four (let's leave that to Mark Ellen, shall we?), but this is not the first time I've heard that expression used to describe someone close to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Brian Epstein was often referred to as the same, as were Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe in their various guises as early members.

And of course there's George Martin... now that, by my rudimentary arithmetic, makes 10 Beatles already!

How many 'Beatles' were there, for goodness sake?

Update: Blimey, The Sun must read this blog... look what's in today's paper
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article959869.ece

Not sure about Heather Mills, though!