ok, so I've just booked my ticket for the Astoria gig on Friday, 5th December and I've suddenly realised that this will be the centralest of Central London gigs I've ever been to, that's if you don't count the dreadful Capital Radio thing at the Hippodrome I went to when I was fifteen with Jaki Graham and Curiosity Killed the Cat (aargh!). The Astoria misspellt the band's name tho: http://www.carlinglive.com/venue_content/carling_astoria.htmlnogig?todo=search&genre=general&ev=&tp=&sb_date=29%2F9%2F2003&date_field=&page=6&recs=10&sortorder=&id_venue=67585# Tsk! I think I might be considered odd. I'm certainly considered odd in the office. Over lunch we were teasing one of my colleagues who owns a Ford Orion, of which he is intensely proud. His trusty steed has not been too well of late and as he enquired, trembling, about its state of health at the garage over his mobile phone, we had a little debate about whether the Orion is a bloke's car or a girl's car. I came to the conclusion that hatchbacks are bloke's cars and saloons are girl's cars as it is simply the pockets versus handbags thing writ large. I then had to suffer the indignity of having everyone else at table sidle away from me nervously, with worried looks on their faces. No, I think I'm weird for other reasons too. One big reason is that I have never fully endorsed the whole mp3 downloading thing. Not for any legalistic or moral reasons, but simply because I actually enjoy going to a shop and purchasing something tangible and taking it home in anticipation. So I'll be waiting for the proper release date of DICKYWUSS. In the days leading up to its release, I have begun to listen to all the other albums in turn and I suppose this leads me to belatedly add my contribution to the FISHYCLAP/TWATTYBUS debate. I don't actually believe FISHYCLAP to be an inferior album at all. I think it's all to do with the ordering of the tracks. My favourites are at the beginning (I Fought in a War and the Model) and the end (There's Too Much Love). ON TWATTYBUS however the gems are very much interspersed with the weaker songs. Incidentally, I wasn't too keen on Simple Things when it first came out, for some reason and now I absolutely adore it! I'm always impressed when songs clock in at less than two minutes and are *still* wonderful....it seems like the epitome of the songwriter's art to have made a statement in less than the time that it takes some people to even get started. I wonder whether it was a trick picked up from Lawrence, as another song which is so brief yet so complete is Felt's How Spook Got Her Man from Pictorial Jackson Review. I wonder what happened to Mick Bund? Bassist on that album, co-writer of St. Etienne's Marble Lions and then nothing, so far as I can tell. Cheers Dafyd, for pointing out what time the footie starts, I had visions of a later kick off and people having to divide their loyalties, hmmmm. Fortunately not. You neglected to mention that http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=5358 features SARAH as well....what has the poor girl ever done to you ;). Yours (oddly), Mark. ______________________________________________________________ For up-to-the-minute music news, reviews and specials visit http://www.nme.com Get free e-mail (anyname@nme.com) now at http://www.nmemail.com The sender of this e-mail is NOT an employee or associate of NME, nme.com or any other IPC magazine. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+