Watch Neville Staples, backstage bar for Reverend and the Makers, back stage side for ver 'grass, then beat the traffic during Happy Mondays. Home in time for tiffin.

I cannot stand the lad from Reverend and The Makers? John McClure, I think his name is. Happy Mondays, I've never really got into; nor the rest of the "Madchester" scene. Supergrass, on the other hand, are brilliant as far as I'm concerned.

sleazy as hell, funny, depraved, loose and funky.

and then Black Grape were two of my best live experiences ever. But twenty years on from the Mondays at their best...I might be tempted if I'd had a few, but I wouldn't be expecting greatness.

They did have some great tunes though...

To hell with them all!

Stand up for what *you* believe in!

Get out your Arran jumper and corduroy jacket(with patches).

Twist around middle finger and ready to wave.
Time for the "Morris On" reappraisal?

(All a bit Mixmag? My son is 22........)

"missing the point" set in about the time of acid house to me.
I was 31 in 1990, I had followed a fairly well-trodden path through Bolan- Bowie-Roxy-Lou/Velvets-Springsteen-punk-Clash/Jam/Pistols-Dury/Lowe/Costello-Indie etc with not altogether unexpected detours into Country (Gram/Emmylou etc) and soul/reggae and various other moderately predictable tangents but at some time in my mid-30's I realised something was happening that I was not a part of, or did not comprehendd.
It wasn't so much the baggy/Madchester thing in my case - a route from Joy Division/New Order through The Smiths via James to the Mondays and co was logical enough and I would still thrill on Saturday mornings when it was the turn of the Indie Top 10 on The Chart Show hoping that they would play something fierce by The Pixies or alternatively something smouldering and mysterious imparted by a desirable indie waif like Kristin Hersh or Tanya Donnely.
But the realisation that I was getting left behind came when I would get to the end of a week and it dawned on me I had only read the charts, letters, adverts and cartoons in the NME.
Carter, The Wonder Stuff and PWEI and co had passed me by without registering but now there was a movement and a music that I could not even be bothered devouring every bit of info about - Chicago House, Dance, Acid call it whatever.
Ever since I admit to turning into my dad - "Sampling? What's that? Nicking bits off other records? What's clever about that?"
"Dj's?" You pay to go to watch a deejay? It's just a bloke putting records on innit?" and pooh-poohing anything I don't immediately latch onto as directly decended from the stuff I became a reasonably mature adult enjoying.
I continued to buy the NME out of sheer brand loyalty for about 7 more years, basically for the crossword by the end. It was an unfathomable language by the time I packed up.
I've made no effort to appreciate rap, hip-hop, garage, anything new since basically.
I can't tell you the difference between Coldplay, Kings Of Leon, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, Arctic Monkeys any of em. Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs, Killers, Courteeners - I couldn't hum a single tune by any of them. Well, alright "I Predict A Riot" I'll grant you but I thought that was, well, just okay.
I haven't listened to a Bob Harris Saturday show for around seven years or a full Maconie/Radcliffe programme. This a bloke who used to tape "Out On Blue 6"
Yet I still buy Mojo, Uncut and The Word. And I would still sooner spend an hour and a half (and my £40 or whatever) in Fopp than at my beloved Ewood Park
Is there a natural age/point at which it's acceptable to become so blinkered? When it's natural and dignified to step off the treadmill that being a "slightly hip accounts clerk" (as the NME demographic was once approximately described) led me onto?
Have I missed anything I would really have liked?

to start. Im sure you'll have missed something that would have tickled your taste buds over the years, and I agree with some of your observations re Carter, PWIE, House, etc, but you are still obviously keeping up with what is going on by reading Mojo, Word etc, so you're not so 'off the treadmill' as you believe, even the NME still has KOL, Courteneers etc regularly on the cover. Thinking back to when my father was 45, i know he hadn't heard of The Pixies, Sugarcubes etc, and certainly didn't read any music mags

I always smile when I hear the term '£50 man', a description that could be levelled at some of the Word massive i'm sure, I saw the term used in NME not so long ago, probably in a desirory manner i'm sure? Usually when talking about The Cure, Joy Division the NME will say 'ask your father about them'.

I'll be 45 this year, and almost pathologically try to keep up with what's new, and sometimes wish that I wasn't so. I take too much notice of reviews, and am easily sucked into a good review into buying said cd, already getting excited by new cd by Grizzly Bear, which will probably be nowhere near as good as those in the know are predicting. But hey would not have it any other way