Bellend Sebastian

My own shite driving. Would probably have reversed into the path of a car (almost certainly going faster than the 20 mph limit on our road) while backing out of my drive if the safety tech on my car hadn't intervened and stopped me. That'll have saved me a few quid

Sorted

Tried to DM you but it didn't work?

Stretch the heck out of it and if that doesn't work, go and see a physio. I know a very good one in Leicester if you need a recommendation

I wouldn't assume that it's a decision made by the artist personally in all instances, and even if it is, they might not appreciate what this might mean in practice. Demand was always going to be high but something about all this doesn't add up to me. I read something yesterday that suggested at one point that there were 20 million people in the queue. That might be bollocks but if that's true there's no way on earth that's actual people. They said Knebworth could have sold out 3 or 4 times over and that's when the band were at the absolute peak of their powers and the tickets were half the price of even the cheap ones today in real terms, so that's only a million people then. I wonder how many tickets were actually sold at the inflated prices and how many were bought by people that intend to go. The only thing that's clear to me about all this is that the technology now allows the absolutely ruthless exploitation of any buzz or hype

If they're serious about cancelling the tickets of the scalpers, there may well be quite a few coming back on resale when folk realise they're not going to be able to cash in

I was hoping all this interest would lead to a surge in the value of historic Oasis artefacts, and I'm delighted to see eBay sellers asking much the same prices today as I paid for all those CD singles 30 years ago

I think I'd trust your mum's recommendations over mine. She's basically rejected all culture ever since Elvis Presley joined the Army, not even when he died. Apart from George Ezra, obviously

Anaïs is calling out the gatekeepers. Good on her https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrl22k3xxzo

Well he said which promoter it was, which lent it a certain amount of credibility and they've both mentioned numerous times over the years that they've been offered silly amounts to do it, and I think it was in Marr's autobiography that it very nearly happened around 2008. I've always had it down as highly unlikely, but you can never say never, can you? Economic factors come into it, surely? Oasis Knebworth tickets, inflation adjusted, would be about £43 today, and look at what they're actually charging for the tour next year. You've got to have pretty strong principles to turn that down, although I doubt it's that difficult for Johnny Marr in practice

I don't rate Marr as a frontman and he cannot write lyrics to save his life but if there's one person in the industry that's earned the right to do whatever the heck he likes it's this guy

Morrissey claiming today that he accepted an offer to tour as The Smiths next year but Johnny Marr ignored it. I don't blame him, I think it's a pretty shite idea, especially without Andy Rourke. I'd love a Marr and Morrissey album though

You got me there, brother. As for the state of my toenails....sweet lord

Some of the "young people shouldn't be allowed to get tickets" discourse on Twitter is well weird. Isn't rock music traditionally a young person's game? If I was Noel Gallagher and looked out at sea of nothing but middle aged blokes (like me) I think I'd be a bit gutted

All this Oasis talk is making me feel proper old. It's 29 years since I last saw them (Granby Halls or Sheffield Arena, cannot remember which came first) and a full thirty years since loads of people in my hall of residence were going on about this great new band. I think everyone I knew at University went to the Lead mill, and despite going to watch any old crap most weeks I managed not to go to that one

Just gone for this, was with Octopus already. It's about 5% more than I'm paying at the minute but Martin Lewis reckons if it's within 11% it's probably worth fixing. We shall see

Have you seen that video of him saying that Afterlife is the "worst thing ever made by human hands" or words to that effect is doing the rounds again and loads of people are furious because they had watched it and thought it was good. I, for the record, thought it was a load of shite

That was the first Fall album I got actually, after hearing John Peel play "Spoilt Victorian Child", still sing under my breath when someone's kid (and sometimes my own) has been acting the twat to this day. I am a monster myself as I prefer late period Fall

I'll shove another five in then now that precedent's been set... The Smiths - Meat is Murder Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell Jeffrey Lewis and Jack Lewis - City and Eastern Songs The Fall - Fall Heads Roll Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe

I mean I remember The Datsuns releasing records but I had almost no sense of what they were about even then. When I say I like the Darkness the most common reaction I get is surprise that they're still going. I saw them in July play to a crowd of a few thousand and their albums generally get into the top 20, but if you're not a fan they're very easily missed. I think the best way to understand The Darkness is to treat them as being a celebration of rock music with a pretty unashamed remit to entertain above all else. They are fantastically talented musicians and songwriters and are basically churning out pretty accessible pop/rock frequently "borrowing" styles from other rock acts which they're good enough to pull off without it just seeming like a piss poor copy. I'm never going to sit through a Whitesnake or Motorhead album but I like them enough to cheerily listen to good songs that sound a bit like them, and there's not much chance of new music from them or Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy or whoever. It's all done with a confidence and ease that lets it be fun, which is probably what made them get up the nose of a lot of other bands and 'serious' rock fans. It's not a joke but why can't it be a laugh? I think it's better to be intentionally amusing than unwittingly triggering mirth when the same old bores proclaim their latest long player a ground breaking triumph when it's the same old meat and potatoes, sometimes with a few samples on. If anyone gets the chance to see them live I think of all the dozens of acts I've seen over the years I'm pretty sure that a neutral would have a better chance of enjoying themselves than with anybody else, to be honest. I actually had most of that written in my head from when I started the "Why I Love..." thread in the music forum, attracting effectively zero contributions from any of you buggers. It might have helped if I hadn't started it with my thoughts on Gorky's Zygotic Mynci but you know, benefit of hindsight and all that

I think I can say with a high level of confidence it's the album I've listened to more than any other, which can make some people furious, admittedly

I find it interesting that 3 of my fave albums (The Darkness one and Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that didn't quite make the cut but would deffo be in my top ten) came out in 2003 and were all debut albums. I was 28 that year so it's hardly a case of youth bias but it really does feel that the musical landscape has changed so much since then

The Darkness - Permission To Land British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit Morrissey - Vauxhall and I David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars Crikey, this was difficult. Picking ten would have been a lot easier but where do you stop? Should probably be shot in the face for picking a solo Moz album over a Smiths one but there you go

"He said the 56-year-old “doesn’t know why he involved himself” in the violence having gone into the city to buy a suit" We keep slagging these folk off but it could happen to anyone really, couldn't it? You head into town to buy a nice new bit of clobber or whatever, one thing leads to another and before you know it you're front and centre of a massive racist riot. "Did you get that suit you were after, love?" "No but I did get something else (that you might actually prefer on the balance of probability) - 20 months inside!"

...from 2030