SpacedX

8 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

Clarkson announcing he's been diagnosed with prostate cancer, apparently all treatable so hopefully he'll make a full recovery. 

 

Really sad news, but a positive with it being such a prominent male celeb is the number of men now checking themselves, or researching prostate cancer. 

Hopefully it'll raise awareness and I was delighted to see Prostate Cancer UK had purchased an advertising slot during the World Cup opener last week. But the melodrama in the clip when he divulged it in Clarkson's Farm was cringeworthy and I would speculate, as harsh as it sounds, the revelation that he had cancer was an absolute God send for the script writers/production team. Apparently it's been caught early and prompt action was taken. Half the battle with this stealth killer is knowing that it's there. Then, we can fight it with knives, nuke it or poison it but ultimately once you have it in your body, the possibility of biochemical recurrence is with you for life and you never fully know what it will do. I wish him the very best, but like Cameron, he would have had absolutely the most rapid and top treatment options out there that isn't necessarily forthcoming for many of the 64,000 people diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year. 

7 minutes ago, purpleronnie said:

I was talking to someone about this the other day.  I couldn't afford to buy records but my local library would have some and every now and again a load more would turn up. I still remember that feeling of seeing a new album from an artist you loved and rushing home to play it....back when there was no internet i had no idea of the discography of an artist, so just seeing one you'd never seen before whether it was a new release or an older one was really an amazing moment.

It was not simply a product, but a body of work. Also, a discography had a tangible chronology and progression in which one album would not have been possible without the preceding one. I recall my fascination unearthing these in record shops and second hand dealers. The sleeve artwork, the liner notes, the tactile feel of an album in your possession and as you say, frisson of excitement rushing home to play it. 

In today's digital age music is like tap water. Contextless and disembodied. 

8 hours ago, when_you're_smiling said:

If we keep up this ratio of red cards we’ll be on 312 for the tournament.

Last night reminded me of Kevin Keegan in the 1998 World Cup likening the card happy referee's top pocket to a 'pop up toaster'.

On 03/06/2026 at 19:20, DJW1 said:

I stayed on to the 6th form and one of the female students was actually living with one of the male teachers. Legal but not really appropriate!

 

Her initials weren't JP were they? - Because I observed precisely the same scenario. 

At my school in West London, the staff would use violence and emotional cruelty, groom and have relationships with pupils, frequently get drunk, use inappropriate language, confiscate property that they would never return alongside flagrant selective favouritism and bias. And that was just the dinner ladies. 

Each and every lab in one photo - American field and English pedigree: Fox red (lemon), black and chocolate. Bred and hard wired for the water.  

Starship V3 poised for another launch attempt billed as make or break for SpaceX.  They've lengthened both the upper stage and the Super Heavy booster of Starship Version 3 in order to expand fuel capacity, improve payload capacity, and upgraded its propulsion system with Raptor 3 engines. New launch pad too. 

2 hours ago, davieG said:

What an absolute shit show this has been and continues to be.

The reduced route is now unlikely to hit its target of 2033 and is set to cost in excess of £100billion. That figure is more than NASA's £79billion budget for the Artemis missions, exceeding costs for the planned Artemis IV expedition, expected to place astronauts back on the moon within a fraction of the timescale.

A superb acquisition for us at the time. The accident was horrific incurring near fatal head, internal, and leg injuries and as I recall he was in a critical condition for some length of time following the emergency surgery. It put an end to his playing career. Celtic loaned him to us and even based upon his brief performances I remember there was much anticipation that he would possibly stay. He was an absolute hero at Hearts. 

6 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

https://3savilerow.thebeatles.com/

Opening it's doors to the public next year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c86dp2w0zygo

I had a good look around when it was an Abercrombie and Fitch store and into the basement which was the main studio. Be good if you can get on the roof. 

8 hours ago, Fox92 said:

I've always though it to be Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Michael Jackson.

 

I don't think we've seen anyone at the level since Michael Jackson but Taylor Swift is massive and can easily sell out 50k gigs day after day.

As of now, Taylor Swift holds the record for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time with her Eras Tour, which concluded in December 2024 with over $2 billion in revenue. For overall career touring revenue, The Rolling Stones are the highest-grossing live band in history, collecting over $2.9 billion.

4 hours ago, Raj said:

Madonna is the highest-selling female artist of all time, with an estimated 300–400 million records sold worldwide.

Rihanna – 250+ Million Records Sold

 

Madonna's career sales are often cited between 300 and 400 million, placing her behind only The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson in total worldwide records sold. The Beatles are undisputed in total sales, with claims ranging from 600 to 1 billion units. 

Of course sales and superstardom isn't necessarily a sole measure of creative worth and merit but in the case of the Beatles, the latter is hard to dispute. 

Following their May 2025 election victory, Reform UK, which took control of Lincolnshire County Council, has reversed local climate leadership by "declaring war" on green energy, with leader Cllr Sean Matthews dismissing the "climate emergency". The administration is in the process of scrapping net-zero targets and opposing renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar, labelling them "eyesore." This local policy aligns with the national Reform UK party’s stance, which has received significant funding from  climate change deniers, including direct support from the Heartland Institute. The sheer irony of this happening first in Lincolnshire of all counties - you couldn't make it up. 

4 hours ago, Lionator said:

 CCP could have Kim overthrown in seconds if he stepped too far out of line. 

Although China has significant leverage over North Korea, providing roughly 90% of its trade, food, and energy, it is highly unlikely to ever overthrow Kim Jong-un. Beijing prioritises regional stability, and fears the possibility of a refugee crisis, potential military conflict, or a pro-US, unified Korea on its border. 

North Korea offers significant strategic stability and acts as a buffer state against US-aligned South Korea and Japan. A sudden collapse or overthrowing of the Kim dynasty could trigger a chaotic war or regional instability, which China is anxious avoid. Also, contrary to popular belief, China does not station troops in North Korea and cannot easily install a new government and since North Korea is a nuclear power; a violent regime change could lead to dangerous instability.

While China holds leverage through trade, completely cutting off resources is seen as too risky, potentially causing an uncontrolled collapse. If the regime showed signs of collapse or the dictator as you say "stepped too far out of line", Beijing might notionally aim to support a more cooperative faction in Pyongyang rather than a full, hostile overthrow, though this would still be challenging in practice.

This,  a fanbase that struggles with the complexity of "Leicester, Leicester, Leicester Leicester, Leicester, Leicester, Leicester" to the tune of Amazing Grace. 

11 hours ago, davieG said:

Abbey Road Tribute ·

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The Song George Martin Rejected—and What It Revealed About the Beatles

During the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, George Harrison brought in “Only a Northern Song.”

Harrison’s publishing position within Northern Songs was markedly smaller than that of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

The track is unstable by design—detuned brass, drifting pitch, no fixed tonal center. Instruments enter without alignment.

In the context of Sgt. Pepper, where sequencing and cohesion were being closely managed, the track did not meet the same standard of construction as the surrounding material.

In its place, Harrison completed “Within You Without You,” recorded separately with Indian musicians and structured with precision. That track remained.

“Only a Northern Song” reappeared on Yellow Submarine, where its looseness was less exposed by context.

“The song was a sly dig at the business arrangements of the Beatles,” Martin said. “Their songs had always been published by Northern Songs Ltd, 30% of whose shares belonged to John and Paul with Ringo and George owning only 1.6% each. This meant that John and Paul, in addition to being the group’s main songwriters, were benefiting again as prime shareholders in the publishing company. As far as Northern Songs was concerned, George was merely a contracted writer.”

“I realized Dick James had conned me out of the copyrights for my own songs by offering to become my publisher,” remembered Harrison of the track later. “As an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I thought, ‘Great, somebody’s gonna publish my songs!’ But he never said, ‘And incidentally, when you sign this document here, you’re assigning me the ownership of the songs,’ which is what it is. It was just a blatant theft.”

With a lesson in music business learned, Harrison decided to aim a barbed track squarely at those who had done him wrong, a trick he would pull off many times in the future: “By the time I realized what had happened, when they were going public and making all this money out of this catalogue, I wrote ‘Only A Northern Song’ as what we call a ‘piss-take,’ just to have a joke about it.”

Martin would later say that it was the “track he hated most [from Harrison].”

Was Martin right to exclude “Only a Northern Song” from Sgt. Pepper — or does its absence leave out an essential piece of Harrison’s story?

Ha! yes, whether Dick James was a "con artist" is subjective, but he was widely considered an ruthlessly effective music publisher who exploited common 1960s industry practices to his advantage. While he played a pivotal role in launching the Beatles' career, he later secured control of their songwriting copyrights and sold them for a massive profit without their consent.

Regarding the last sentence of this piece, absolutely. It was relegated to the Yellow Submarine soundtrack and like 'It's All Too Much' became more of a curiosity than a song cemented in Beatles lore. Whereas 'It's Only a Northern Song' was completed early in the Sgt Pepper sessions and quickly forgotten about, the latter was recorded after the completion of the album in the main at De Lane Lea Studios in Soho, not Abbey Road, and very little is known about the process. particularly what the spoken intro actually says and who was responsible for the sustained, feedback-heavy whammy bar G major chord - ( I reckon Lennon on his '61  sonic blue strat that had been purchased at his decree by Mal Evans during the Help sessions). What is said at the start is debatable, and isn't even discernable through isolation. It sounds like conversation to me cut off prematurely, although some suggest it's John saying “To Jorma,” in reference to Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane, who he was hanging with in London the time. 

There are other tracks that could have been left off Sgt. Pepper too in my opinion.. At the time it was a singles dominated market, so there was always pressure from EMI for another chart topping product which often meant their best material at any given time. Picture how much better the album would have been with the inclusion of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields and the omission of the throwaway 'Good Morning Good Morning' and the somewhat banal 'Fixing a Hole'. Imagine Revolver with 'Paperback Writer' and 'Rain' as opposed to 'I Want to Tell You' and 'Good Day Sunshine' or Rubber Soul with 'Day Tripper' and 'We Can Work it Out' replacing 'What Goes on' and 'Run For Your Life'. 

That stupid ****ing 'Vichai's Dream' song is now extinct at last. 

15 hours ago, bovril said:

Orban defeated in Hungary and a week later the rather Orban esque Radev elected in Bulgaria. 

Orbán built a decade-long system of confrontation with Brussels, backed by a disciplined party machine, deep networks across the European right and a sustained strategy of using veto power for leverage. Radev meanwhile enters in a very different setting. Bulgaria’s state capacity is much weaker and is far more dependent on EU funding. That matters because Bulgaria’s leaders have generally avoided theatrical clashes with Brussels for this reason.

Moscow welcomes the victory because Radev has historically opposed military aid to Ukraine and long cultivated a more accommodating conciliatory line towards Moscow than most EU leaders. So yes, he could still push Sofia away from the more clearly pro-Western orientation pursued by the current caretaker authorities and create more room for obstruction and strategic ambiguity at a time when the EU needs the opposite. But Orbán showed how a single leader can turn an EU member state into a durable source of internal disruption. Radev is likely to test a different model based upon selective divergence dressed up as pragmatism. 

Josh Murphy is at least out for this, but they are now back at full strength at the back so given what little threat we pose up front and the fact that we are largely incapable of conceding, the prospect of getting anything from this encounter is unlikely. 

Fratton Park has always been an intimidating prospect but oddly Pompey's poor home form has been one of the reasons that they have been hauled into a relegation battle. 

Leicester City FC are pleased to confirm and proud to announce that DOI TUNG will be the Official Principal Partner and sponsor of Leicester City Football Club for the 2026/27 season.

Quite apt when they continue to get roasted.