"You're as cold as ice!" Now I don't usually leave my workplace singing that particular song, but I was prompted to do so yesterday. Once I'd got far enough across our covered courtyard outside our offices to see that it was raining, I got my umbrella out of my bag and put it up. I didn't realise, however, that it was also very windy and inevitably it blew inside out. Now you would think that this occurrence would've provoked a look of sympathy, or amusement, or *something* on the faces of any onlookers, but a woman waiting for her lift who must have seen me did not display a flicker of emotion at this point. Totally impassive. The epitome of inscrutability. Weird. So, B&S are being produced by Trevor Horn, then? It might work, like it did for Frankie, Propaganda and TATU. Does anyone know what Trev is like to work with? Well, Geoffrey Downes does for one. But what kind of reputation has he got in the studio? Producers can sometimes be real martinets can't they.....I recall Damon Albarn saying that Blur had once abandoned recording sessions with XTC's Andy Partridge, likening his treatment of the band to that of a strict headmaster. By now you're probably thinking, "Pshaw! There goes Hester, off on one as usual, always thinking the worst. For all he knows Trevor Horn could be a real sweetie, keeping Struan & co. supplied with cups of tea and digestive biscuits". Older does not necessarily mean wiser. Especially where drinking is concerned....for last night was the night that Content Management (the name of my department, with 'content' as a noun not an adjective) hit Cowley Road, possibly the only street in Oxford where you just *can't* do a pub crawl visiting every pub, so don't even try, silly. One of the hostelries we visited was chock full of people from other departments of the company...sometimes I wonder why we don't just order in a few crates of beer for the offices and not bother with the moving about bit. Anyway, we eventually wound up queueing to enter some dubious bar and chatting to some students from Kansas City who were most impressed that I knew that their home town wasn't actually in Kansas. The fact that I knew absolutely nothing else at all about the place didn't seem to bother them in the slightest. Earlier in the day, at lunch, the Big Boss Man had walk past our table yet again (must be third time in a week) and someone said "I really *love* working here!" very loudly, in what is becoming a tradition - maybe we should have a rota for it. Big Stu I'm not sure Do They Know It's Christmas counts as one of the best songs of the eighties. The best *intentions* maybe. And I don't often find myself agreeing with Bono, but that "Thank God it's them instead of you" line is very dubious.... Paul Arathoon, I'm not sure who the Glam Metal Detectives are, but it's a tremendous name! Shame he didn't produce "I'm Horny, Horny, Horny" by whoever it was (I'm sure someone will fill me in). I hope those of you in Brighton today have/had a super time! Would have been there myself were it not for various commitments which mean I have to remain here in Oxford (shopping, convincing my girlfriend that she really does want to keep going out with a cynical old drunkard, that kinda thing...) 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+