No, not the title of a song by The Fall...

Got to love a bit of Eliza - saw her on the Dreams Of Breathing Underwater tour, when the songs Little Big Man, The Company Of Men and Mr Magnifico turned my head.

If someone from the Massive who is attending the 'Word In Your Ear' gig would be wonderful enough to volunteer to pick up a signed copy of her book for me, I would not only pay them but would be inordinately grateful*.

I can pay for this kindness by Paypal and will, of course, also cover the cost of postage.

*Gratitude may extend to no more than an e-mailed (but nonetheless sincere) 'thank you'.

Joyous, yes?

Was there a better run of early-80s pop singles than that put forth by The Style Council?

Speak Like A Child, A Solid Bond In Your Heart, Long Hot Summer, My Ever Changing Moods, Walls Come Tumbling Down... I still listen to these from time-to-time. It's not nostalgia - a school disco classic is for life, not just for Christmas.

Cafe Bleu is one of my favourite albums, full of cracking tunes and a surprisingly infectious sense of artistic freedom and release - 'Paul Weller has fun' shocker!

Perhaps the timing was right, for me, in that The Style Council appeared and were interesting and seemingly sophisticated, and I had hit that age where I wanted to appear seriously interesting and sophisticated to girls (I wasn't), so I aligned myself (pretty feebly, looking back) with what I felt were the worldly and simultaneously archly humourous stylings of The Style Council: "Look at me - I know what capuccino is AND I've taken that George Orwell book out of the school library".

In fact, preferring TSC to The Jam (though I really liked them, of course) actually got me punched in the school playground. Not by a girl, though.

Was my slightly black-eye deserved? Discuss...

Erm... And while we're on it... anyone out there got a hardback copy of the 2008 reprint of Ian Munn's book MR COOL'S DREAM up for sale? I'm really keen to find a copy and it is really hard to track down...

Right. There I was on the Overrated Artists thread, banging on about my intense dislike for Elvis Costello...

... and I happened to mention that particular dislike / thread to someone in "real life" this lunchtime. Their response? The bizarre "It's Christmas, for f***'s sake".

So, feeling perhaps a little ashamed for my Elvisanthropy, I have borrowed the first four CDs (My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces and Get Happy) from that person, with the intention of giving them a listen during the next few days to see if there is "a certain something" I missed the first time round.

It's not like there's much else going on, other than a couple of nights out, the Doctor Who Christmas special, and a Boxing Day footy match.

Perhaps I will have a Damascene conversion and renounce the error of my ways in disparaging the efforts of EC. Or, like Brian Clough, perhaps I'll take myself into the office, get down to it for twenty minutes and then decide I was right: he IS overrated, smug, blah blah blah blah... Who knows?

I'm prepared to give him one more chance, and I will report back my findings in four or five days time...

But, for now, perhaps those who have an affection for the man would like to offer me some "listener's notes" on these four albums...

I'm sure this sort of thing will have been discussed before, and my apologies if it has.

I was just reading another thread and was somehow reminded of an encounter with the writer Alan Bennett, about 18 months ago.

It set me off wondering if other members of the Massive have had encounters with 'celebrities' which have left them 'surprised' - where the behaviour or language or setting of the encounter is entirely at odds with the preconceptions one may have built up through exposure to their work / public image.

I was attending the press launch for a fresh production of Bennett's ace The History Boys at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Sitting down for my five minutes with him, I filled the time taken to set up my recorder by asking him how he was.

"Ready for my fucking dinner", he replied.

And here we are, look. Not a fucking dinner in sight.

... same principle as t'other thread... but post your self-recorded songs by others right here. I'll get the ball rolling and begin with a Morrissey cover I "put to tape" in July this year.

So, there must be many of us in the Massive who have dabbled with the dark arts of songwriting, recording, being in bands, gigging etc etc...

How about a handy thread - let's say... this one - where the Massive reservoir that talent, allowing the rest of us to siphon off a glass or two?

I'm suggesting posting YouTube links to your "work".

You never know, perhaps Messrs Ellen and Hepworth and co may be sufficiently charmed to include, say, one Massive track per podcast or CD?

Worth a go? Apologies if this has been suggested / done before...

It's been a long while since any song, or performance of a song, has rattled my timbers in quite the way this did yesterday. This could be the saddest and most beautiful thing I have ever heard.

Her album Passenger is out today, and you may have seen my review of it up on the Word's 7Digital page. Without being evangelistic about it, it genuinely is worth a speculative or considered punt.

I have a spare ticket for her gig in York, 21st November, if anyone is interested. Face value, of course. None of that touting rubbish. Drop me a message.

I'm sure we're all (sort of) familiar with Radiohead's self-release of their last couple of albums, and the 'tip-jar' policy / deluxe edition thing.

Other artists lower down the leagues and less newsworthy have been doing the same thing on a word-of-mouth basis for a longer time - two that spring readily to mind (because I like them and have bought their wares) are Lloyd Cole and Martin Stephenson (of The Daintees).

Yesterday I received an email from Scopitones, the web "home" of the two-bands-in-one songwriter David Gedge.

I'll explain what the e-mail was about in a moment.

Gedge has been (in the words of John Peel) "responsible for some of the greatest love songs of the rock era" in his bands The Wedding Present and Cinerama, and has kept me interested for almost 25 years. I don't care that the songs are relatively simplistic, I don't care that you can "tell" it's The Wedding Present (I even had their ace self-deprecating "All The Songs Sound The Same" t-shirt), and I don't care that the lyrics only really deal with the one subject.

Like (I suspect) everyone else on here, I can mark certain events in my life with which of one of my favourite band's songs was kicking around at the time.

Drink a lot and dance and snog every Thursday night at indie disco? My Favourite Dress and Nobody's Twisting Your Arm.

Drink only slightly less than before and give up crap job in a supermarket? Bizarro album.

Drink the same as before I started drinking less, start a football fanzine? Seamonsters album.

Plan new music fanzine, meet Gedge, interview him, be astounded by his hairy ears? Three 7" single.

Notice first significant other and plan to ask her out? Come Play With Me 7" single.

Move in with first significant other - Loveslave 7" single.

Dump her? Watusi album.

Move town? Mini album.

Get really fed up at thought of having dumped first significant other, and so come home? Saturnalia album.

Etc etc etc etc etc.

Though I have "gone digital" and ditched 99.9% of my CD and vinyl collection, I "own" every song Gedge's two bands have ever officially released. I am a completist, though I don't collect. I'm not into "formats". Just the songs, please, in whatever format I can crunch down to digital and stick onto my 2TB external hard-drive.

Now, here's the thing, the e-mail thing.

The Wedding Present have recorded a new album to be issued in March next year. Hooray!

Do I want to join the 500-members only club, at a cost of one hundred pounds sterling? Ooh.

I would receive a signed copy of the album on CD, with my name in the credits, plus a 7" single with two unreleased tracks? Plus, of course, there will be other things added in to the mix over the year - who knows what these will be?

Exlusive downloads? Guest list spots? T-shirt? Mr Gedge turning up at my house to play the Seamonsters album live and REALLY FUCKING LOUD in my living room as, late one night in a blue moon, I semi-drunkenly flick through pages of youthful vim, vigour and vitriol in my football fanzine?

For the record, I am not coming from a negative angle in reporting the e-mail, and, of course, it's one of my long-term favourite bands, and I'm just grateful Gedge is still making bloody great records after all this time, so..... if I can squirrel the cash together quick enough I'll be there on the front line.

But it got me wondering, though, about value. What is true value in music, now? I guess it is whatever the punter perceives it to be. Has it always been like this?

What lengths would other members of the Massive go to in support of their favourite band, and what would you expect to receive for your money? And, as per this post, indulge yourself a little and tell a few of those significant moment / which record things....

Have a listen to this while you think about it. It's great.

Has anyone else had the good fortune to get hold of a copy of this gem, published quietly in the slipstream of Fry's latest volume of autobiography? It's ridiculous, hilarious and gloriously silly. I preferred it to the more serious of the two recent Fry books. Those who love Fry, or who love a very high laugh-per-line count, will adore this. It's an essential purchase, I would say.

His secret wife has been keeping a diary. Stephen has been keeping secrets about his celebrity status - she believes he is a (very busy) window cleaner...

Saturday
Every January 1st is exactly the same. A cold, grey, afternon, nothing on the telly and Stephen with his head down the toilet belching the theme to Doctor Zhivago. Must be Groundhogmanay. Apparently he spent the night unconscious in the S&M Club car park. This morning I had to pay £50 to have his nipples unclamped.

And so it goes on, for a marvellous 346 pages.

Also, try http://mrsfrysdiary.blogspot.com/

Anyone else out there have any unsuccessful and ignored albums that they actually can't fault?

I ask because I'm sat here in the office and decided to give the following album a go after a couple of false starts since it was released (yes, I know it's been out for some considerable time).

Is it just me, or is this one actually a mini-masterpiece?

Pop gem after pop gem stand up really well, there's some fine singing and it has a nicely 'whole' feel.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I've been dipping back through the Now Hear This CDs. Loaded them all on the iPod and stuck it on shuffle while on a really long walk last weekend. I really enjoyed the Horace Silver track that was on a CD in 2008, I think - which made me think about dipping my toes and having a listen to a little bit more jazz...

... though I think I'd prefer something just slightly more laid back, lazy even, and not too dark in mood. Jazz au lait, s'il vous plait.

... what recommendations could you make for me, please?

We've all had them - those brief moments at gigs (or when listening to recorded music, or reading books, or watching films, TV, live sport, wherever and whatever) when our jaws have hit the floor in shock and awe at the sheer majesty of what we are witnessing.

Here's my latest, which I stumbled across on YouTube last night.

So what are yours?

The amazing Fraser could probably turn this into an amazing pie chart or something equally amazing.

Pick one ten year span, and then an album or song per year that you can use to chart that period.

It is the one album or song that you nostalgically think of as the soundtrack to each particular year. It doesn't have to have come out that year, doesn't have to be cool, and you don't even have to like it. It could be an album or song that your mates all raved about all the time, or your sister played all the time, or your parents had on in the car or whatever......

For the purposes of clarity, I count music DVDs as albums.

Shall I go first?

I've picked 1990 - 2000

1990 - Workers Playtime (Billy Bragg)
1991 - Seamonsters (The Wedding Present)
1992 - Gladsome, Humour & Blue (Martin Stephenson & The Daintees)
1993 - Upwards At 45 Degrees (Julian Cope)
1994 - Vauxhall And I (Morrissey)
1995 - Dog Man Star (Suede)
1996 - Post (Bjork)
1997 - Drawn To The Deep End (Gene)
1998 - Static And Silence (The Sundays)
1999 - Central Reservation (Beth Orton)

It's harder than you might think, boiling one year down to one song or one album. 1996 was a total bitch... But 1994 was easy - I mean, what else was there?

*cough*

http://new.uk.music.yahoo.com/blogs/behind_the_music/15634/albarn-admits...

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard:
"Music magazines don’t give rock its due and still rave on about Nick Drake. How many more front covers do Paul McCartney and Morrissey need? Our album will sell more than Morrissey’s so why don’t we get the same kind of respect?"

Discuss.....

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/music/835637-joe-elliot-def-leppard-dont-get-enou...