Going Home.

The friday playlist #3.

Françoise Hardy - Le temps de l'amour (Fox Medium)
Nirvana - On A Plain (Live At Paramount Theatre, Seattle - 31 October 1991)
Scott Walker- Always Coming Back to You
Talking Heads - And She Was
Lori Burton - Nightmare
Julee Cruise - Falling
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
The 2 Bears - Church
Schoolboy Q - Hands On The Wheel (Feat. A$AP Rocky)
Magic Sam - 21 Days In Jail
Can - Vitamin C
T. Rex - Solid Gold Easy Action
The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun
XTC - The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead
Pentangle - Travelling Song
King Biscuit Time - I Walk The Earth
The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
The Ramones - Poison Heart
Frank Sinatra - Send in the Clowns (Live At Caesars Palace - 5 May 1978)

Cosmic.

Dog dirt alley, Chemical Ali, Kev and Ali, Bowling Alley, Kirstie Alley... Muhammad Ali.

Were you really, genuinely outraged by this performance? I wasn't.

"YouTube and Twitter are wonderful, wonderful things that have changed how we interact with the world … But they have created a mechanism by which we can we can monitor and record behaviour, whether of private citizens or public figures, play them over and over again, and share them with an alarming rapidity. Perhaps this heightened speed also leads us to feel forced into heightened reactions. Without the time to digest context and meaning we can only choose from a range of default reactions, largely based on our own prejudices … There are real problems here; the first is that our need for instant reactions may lead us to the wrong conclusions."

Padraig Reidy, writing for guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 December 2011.

The friday playlist #2.

Bon Iver - Towers
The Fall - Touch Sensitive
Rose Murphy - Pennies From Heaven
Stealers Wheels - Stuck In the Middle With You
Doris Troy - Just One Look
David Bowie - Be My Wife
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Merry Clayton - Gimmie Shelter
Elvis Presley - Burning Love
Aztec Camera - The Crying Scene
Bill Withers - Harlem
Ash - Shining Light
Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
Tom Waits - Martha
Faces - Had Me A Real Good Time
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Dance Stance
David Lynch - These Are My Friends
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Girlfriend
Friends - I'm His Girl
John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett - Really Free
Don Fardon - Indian Reservation

Hard shoulder.

Little Chef in Rain, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire by

Paul Graham.

I had an Omelette Breakfast from Little Chef - East Harlow the day we signed our record deal.

Minutes to midnight.

Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to midnight. 

地獄の独裁者ヒトデヒットラー！！ (Underworld's Dictator, Starfish Hitler!!).

Overheard on the 18.26 to Manchester.

"This is a service announcement. Can customers traveling in the rear carriages of the train please be aware that the toilet is now blocked. I repeat the toilet is now blocked.”

Woman: He sounds guilty.

The friday playlist #1.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed

Prince - When You Were Mine

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

Ben E. King - Stand By Me

Jeffrey Lewis - Cult Boyfriend

2Pac and Dr. Dre - California Love

Public Enemy - Give It Up

The Lemonheads - It's About Time

Westworld - Sonic Boom Boy

Atlas Sound - Mona Lisa

Anna Calvi - Blackout

PiL - This Is Not A Love Song

Janelle Monáe - Tightrope (feat. Big Boi)

And, with news of the most exciting reformation of 2012, here's a reminder of the amazing debut single from Sugababes:

On my radio.

Late Nights at the Blue Boar

Music journalist Pete Paphides tells the story of the M1's improbable 1960s music meeting place - Blue Boar services at Watford Gap.

Face the Facts

John Waite reports on the Irish war heroes shunned for fighting in World War II. They deserted the Irish Army to fight alongside the British and were blacklisted at home.

Soft shoulders and dangerous curves.

"The truck driving man is about as individual and as special a breed of man as you’re ever likely to meet. He’s a man used to long silences broken only by the soft hum of wheels that burn up the miles between lonely townships. He has his own set of driving rules, his own language and his own songs. They’re songs that truly reflect the nomadic life that he leads and the situations that lie around each bend in the road, songs with titles like “Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves”, “Burning Rubber” and “Bumper to Bumper”. The truck driving man may sing, hum or whistle them as he drives along that long black ribbon of tarmac towards his destination. Now you can share these songs of the road, as Big Dave and the Tennessee Tailgaters play and sing the tunes that have their own special message for each truck driving man… 

Wherever he may be."

Side 1

1. Truck Driving Man

2. Gimmie Forty Acres

3. Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves

4. Burnin' Rubber

5. King Of The Road

6. T-Town Tailgaitin'

Side 2

1. Convoy

2. Six Days On The Road

3. Giddy Up-Go

4. Diesel Smoke Sally

5. Bumper To Bumper

6. Girl On The Billboard

Overheard in the pick and mix queue of the cinema.

Woman 1: My Week With Marilyn it is then.

Woman 2: Is it a true story?

Woman1: I should hope so. The best ones usually are. 

(Pause).

Bend It Like Beckham, for example.*

(The Pick and Mix queue moves forward).

She was good, wasn’t she?

Woman 2: Yeah.

(Pause).

Who?

Woman 1: Marilyn.

Woman 2: Yeah.

Woman 1: Good but also vulnerable.

Woman 2: Yeah.

Woman 1: It was the drugs that killed her.

Woman 2: Was it?

Woman 1: Well that and The President.

Woman 2: Yeah.

(Pause).

I’ve never seen a costume drama.

Woman 1: Never?

Woman 2: Never.

Woman 1: Not even Jane Austen?

Woman 2: Which one’s that?

(Pause).

Woman 1: Would you like some Revels?

*N.B. Bend It Like Beckham is NOT a true story.

Return to Oz.

The superior Oz film.