The fastest podcast ever heard
The latest podcast (or, "free download", depending on how tech-savvy you are) doubles as a medical experiment. We had this crate of a new "energy drink" cluttering up the office and so we decided that Andrew Collins, Mark Ellen and me should unzip a can at the beginning, chug it steadily throughout and see what difference it made to our performance.
Judging by the way Matt Hall had to ride the faders like Lee Perry producing Slayer doing Ride Of The Valkyries, quite a bit. Among the subjects babbled about in our caffeinated frenzy are the plans to put a branch of the Knickerbox in reception at EMI, the trend towards displaying books in a refreshingly candid fashion ("excuse me, where's your S&F section"), why we're sorry we ever came up with the idea of star ratings and how Andrew nearly got his evil way in New York City by pretending to be a member of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.
And if you want to express your support for this great cultural force, then why not post some feedback either here or at the Word Podcast Facebook Group or at iTunes?
Absolutley Brilliant
I'm delighted to have my suggestion for a 'tragic lives' dumpbin header read out by Mr H.
'Absolutely brilliant' - David Hepworth. I think I'll put that at the top of my CV (I'm sure your used to reviews being used out of context.)
They wouldn't use mine either
What's wrong with "Schadenfreude Corner" anyway?
Excellent
Yes!!! My second mention on the Podcast in three months. That probably qualifies me as a minor celebrity.
Perhaps I should start work on my autobiography,then WHS could put it under "Books by people nobody's ever heard of who think we might be interested in their tedious lives."
The Word's...
...refusal to grade albums and let the reviews speak for themselves is one of the main reasons I buy the magazine.
Do you remember the month when Q magazine went berserk and gave seven albums five stars, one of which was Ali Campbell's solo record.
Maybe...
they'd been supping too many energy drinks. What were the other 5 star albums? Dire Straits? U2? Voice of the Beehive?
Not all of them...
...were new releases. I believe one of them was......Infernal Love by Therapy?
Sorry... can I repeat that to make sure I read it right....
'Infernal Love' by Therapy? 5 stars?
Good, and indeed, grief.
5 stars
Another one I believe was Semisonic's 'All about the Chemistry'
Indispensible? My copy didn't stick around long.....
Springsteen's nadir
I do believe that a certain D. Hepworth gave Human Touch 5 stars ...
*****
i think that Q did give dire straits 'on every street' five stars. i WAS a fan at that moment of time, and even i laughed at that. one point i'd like to to be raised, that if you look you will find a copy of 'brothers in arms' in most people CD collection of a certain age. i move to say that in this respect Coldplay are the dire straits of the late 20th century, huge at one point, but in 10 years time...
oh, and very funny podcast, big andrew collins fan, after randomly finding his book on our book shelf, and reading it on a wet saturday afternoon. what i can't explain is how it came to be in our possession as neither me or my wife can recall buying it!!
does Mr collins sneak in to peoples homes and place copies of said book willy and indeed nilly around the house in the hope that someone will find it, read it , love it, and buy the other volumes, including the first installment for family and friends?
I know where you live
I can promise you I have never snuck into your house. My brother is policeman and would take a dim view of it. Although I considered doing it for That's Me In The Corner, since nobody was actually buying it and taking it into their own house.
Well Andrew
I picked up the first of the trilogy in a bookshop in Bangkok. it obviously travelled well.
Stars
Thats when Q started to loose me. Ali Campbell 5 Stars !! Cripes. I wonder did anyone buy it. Rememeber Dire Straits got a special issue for ON Every Street and another 5 Stars.
You may be surprised....
I've just checked the records and Ali Campbell sold 62,984 copies of Big Love. That's nearly enough people to fill Old Trafford. How did that happen?
Ali and those sales
I tip my hat to him. All those people in his street must love him.
Another five star podcast
Was listening to the podcast on the train to work this morning, crying with laughter as I travelled over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and your energy drinks were kicking in. Attracted some strange looks.
But less of the Gomez bashing, Mr Collins! I LIKE Gomez. Have you heard their last album? It's great. And Word gave it a very favourable review (I reckon it'd have been a 4 star...). But yeah, they got dropped from their record label (Virgin) some years ago. They're on ATO now. Same as Radiohead..
Gomez
I was merely using them as an example of the sort of unloved artist that Guy Hands might take some convincing about retaining in his all-new world of profit. No offence to the band themselves.
Hypocrites!
How can The Word argue against star ratings when 'motherf****er' is given 4 of them on the homepage?
And being pedantic, surely it should be 3...
Boom boom.
Not any more it isn't...
My comment above will now make even less sense than it did previously. Please ignore.
Best podcast yet
After a somewhat difficult morning (largely owing to an evening which climaxed with me being refused service at Sainsburys for being too drunk), the podcast brought sunshine back into my life. There were many very public displays of mirth aboard the 8.32am from St Albans.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the Take That post, but am now painfully embarrassed about having a pseudonym.
Polls
In the days when such lists were mercifully as rare as Mark Ellen's dinner, Sgt Pepper was always a shoo-in for NME's Best Album in History. As the years clicked on it was overtaken by Revolver and then by The White Album. When I first noticed these things, in around 1972, CSN's Deja Vu was a regular top-fiver and the Velvet Underground's Banana-on-the-cover record usually surfaced at around #8 - despite the fact that the banana was the most interesting thing about it. White Album better then Pepper? Oh, stop it. And neither of them are as good as Hard Day's Night or Help!
Help!
Help is my favourite Beatles album - I was disappointed to see it listed as the only 'one to avoid' in a Beatles buyer's guide in Classic Rock magazine. The title track, Ticket to Ride, You're Gonna Lose That Girl, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, It's Only Love - all gold.
One to avoid?
Cretin.
Then again, the film was on TV the other night and it is truly terrible.
true
I went to a screening recently and slept through a good hour of it. Although I do like the exchange between Ringo and John
Ringo 'What first attracted you to me?'
John 'Well, you're very polite'
Next thread?
Magazines to Avoid.
Take that, Classic Rock.
Next thread?
Magazines to Avoid.
Take that, Classic Rock.
Getting back to the point for a mo
although both "Magazines to Avoid" and "Schadenfreude Corner" get my vote...
Anyway, another brilliant podcast. Since I got my new iPod Classic (which has yet to have 3rd-party apps developed to get round the ridiculous EU volume limit, like EuPod for the 4G), I've taken to streaming the podcasts to my precariously-balanced-on-the-loo laptop whilst reclining in the bath. Which is very nice in a decadent laudanum'n'Gentleman's club sort of vibe. Nice, that is, until one is so convulsed with laughter that the ashtray goes in the water and one ends up wallowing in a dilute solution of eau de tab. Bugger.
Still didn't spoil my enjoyment of the chaps whacked out of their collective gourds on "disco drinks", though! Nice one.