Someone spent the Greek bailout on fireworks

My week as a tracklist

1.Sunday Morning Swimming
2.Vegetarian Roast Dinner
3.(I saw the) Lego Tree Framework
4. Platelet Donation Night
5. Newspaper Expose Tip-Off
6. Bad Brakes, Broken Spokes
7. I Found Jesus (Under the Sofa)
8. The Sucker Punch, Again
9. Get Santa Out Of My Face
10. Garden Centre Wonderland/Jordanthorpe Parkway

How was yours?

While filing my new Champion Kickboxer CD between Nick Cave and Chas and Dave (in an appalling lack of alphabetical serendipity they sound nothing like a cross between the two, I'm told they sound like a cross between the Futureheads and Gentlre Giant) I recalled a comment on my last.fm profile to the effect that you can always tell a Word reader. Are we so predictable? If I were to say that the other CD I filed today I put between Gogol Bordello and Gonjasufi, can you guess who it was by?

Not v hard. But then post your own " what lies between?" question from your own collection.

Or not...

OK this'll probably die on its arse but here goes. Is it possible to play the Buzzcocks intros round purely by writing out the sounds?

First one - what song this the intro to?:

Check check check
Awoo-oo awoo-oo awoo-oo awoo-oo awoo-oo awoo-oo
Tick tickada tick, tick tick-tick. Tick tickada tick, tick tick-tick
Dowowadadow dowowadadow dowowadadowdadowowow dowowadadowdadowowow dowowadadowdadowowow dowdow
Blauauau blauauau blauauau blauauau blauauau blauauau
Chank chank chank chank chank- chank chank
Squeeeeeee-ooooo....

Post answers/new intros for guessing below.

Cue tumbleweed.

So Mark Cavendish is World Champion after a brilliant GB team ride and great individual finish.

The last 3 hours of the race were pure tension. I'm exhausted just from watching.

Sports personality of the year ought to be nailed on. But it won't be. Doesn't matter though. After 25 years watching cycling it's amazing stuff seeing so much GB talent.

I just found a set of answers (copied below) I submitted to a quiz in issue 65 of Vox, 15 years ago. Any ideas about the questions? (NB no guarantee these are the right answers...)

You're going to tell me you've all seen this before, aren't you? As linked to by They Might Be Giants. The Bit 52's do Rock Lobster

Just learned that Denise Lewis' father-in-law is Tom O'Connor (yes, that Tom O'Connor). Phil Lynott's father-in-law was Leslie Crowther.

Any other unlikely relatives I should know about?

I know the parts of the Word readership are interested in the business side of the music biz. Kristin Hersh is an artist I admire massively, well-established with a decent fanbase she invests a lot of time in and a decentish press profile as well I'd say. And a tendency to make her music available for free. She's been sharing on Facebook the extent of the rewards that this brings.

"...a few people have asked privately how sales of records and books have been. they're wondering because i have lots of twitter and FB followers (75,000 or so) i appreciate the curiosity - and in the spirit of full disclosure, i'll say that the best selling thing i've done in the past 10 years has been Rat Girl [US title of her book] and I've sold 15,000 or so of that. Crooked has sold just under 10,000 books, about 1000 CDs and a few hundred apps [she released her last album in book form, with download codes for final mixes - having made rough versions freely avaiable - as well as CD an IPhone app format]. And I have 250 or so Strange Angels [her scheme whereby you can contribute a fixed amount per quarter] at any given time. Not an economic disaster, but not enough to pay studio bills *and* earn a living, which creates a natural tension between living and creating. that's where you come in..."

Intersting I thought - certainly reinforces my increasingly quaint determination to pay for stuff...

Yep on the late train home, a couple of strong beers to the good so it's "say what you see" time. My fellow passengers are

- a Chinese mother and daughter, the latter in a grey velour tracksuit that is by some miracle not unflattering, who've been sightseeing at St Paul's and shopping at Top Shop
- a very large tattooed Wednesday fan tapping away at his iPad, he's gone past the sudoku he was doing earlier, accompanied
- a not-at-all as large young lady with dyed red hair who, going by the complete lack of interaction between them over the last hour must be his sister. If she's his girlfriend, I give it a week, tops.
- a young lady, also with dyed red hair, a floral top, reading the pleasingly academic-looking Journal of Singing.

Come on, any other Massive members bored out of their skulls and unable to access Twitter looking to share for a few minutes?

I'm going to listen to McLusky.

Once or twice when I've heard a song I like being used in an ad or on a TV soundtrack it has made me cringe. But mostly I'm just pleased to hear it. Indeed I sometimes think "ooh that'd work really well on a highlights package/ad". For instance this is just crying out for a sports event to hype:

Embrace Mammon. Any of your darlings (especially if by artists that'd probably appreciate a bob or two) d'you think might turn a trick out on the mean streets of commerce?

This popped onto the ipod this morning

As a teenager I once counted the number of times La Eldritch sang the word "Heartland" during this. Can't now remember whether it was in the region of 120 or 170 times. I think it was the latter (though because of the fade it's difficult to be precise).

What's the record for the repetition of a single word in a song?

When the industry, deep in its water, still just about remembered that this sort of thing was good for it.

Now disagree. Especially if there's something more recent.

Have been reading James Yorkston's admirably grumpy tour diaries, in which he mentions he's now got a small child. I was wondering if he might be considering rewriting 6:30 Is Just Way Too Early as 6:30 Would Be A Rather Nice Lie In.

Had there been Ramone Jnrs might they have ended up singing Put The Brat On The Naughty Step?

I should be able to think of more, but I've been up an hour already. Anyone?

I still share my enthusiasms with anyone who doesn't glance at their watch and sidle off making excuses (come back...). But I really can't be arsed with the endless slagging off. Why not? I used to love it, and think it mattered. It can't just be age. I think it might be that there used to be lots of barriers to getting music out there, cultural, societal, financial. Anything that made it over all of those and wasted the opportunity was worth railing at. The barriers are so much lower these days (home recording, parental encouragement, media desensitised to shock...) that joining the ranks of the drably competent is just, well, whatever...

Anyone still got the energy to rage at dull music?