My Editor has asked me whether 'Are Friends Electric?' is a song or a record. I'm stumped. I feel like one of those dogs that have been trained to thump their tails on the floor, once for yes and twice for no, and then get asked whether they prefer Pedigree Chum or Bonio. I think I'll tell him it's a song on a record. It may be relatively safe from car bombs and what-not in Scandanavia, but the chances of being grabbed from behind by a big fat bald man wearing only a towel and being bustled into a sauna and locked inside at maximum temperature are much greater than in Northern Ireland. Swings and roundabouts. Besides which, which IRA are we talking about, the Provisional IRA, the Real IRA, the Authentic IRA, IRA The Spaghetti Incident or the IRA Rabbit Redux? I would like Elenita99 to write 'SALUT LES COPAINS!' on her velcro. Or 'GLISSEMENTS PROGRESSIFS DU PLAISIR' which is a terrible film I sat through today. It translates as 'I LIKE CHEESE'. While I'm Reporting Back, some listees might like to know that Lenny Waronker gets a thank you on Bootsy Collins' greatest hits package 'Back in the Day'. Now I'm on the digest I've been thinking, how long does a message have to be to get a digest all to yourself? I think one or two of you have been trying to find this out yourselves. I don't think I'm going to manage it today. The Mike Hurst Orchestra appears on a compilation called 'Pet Sounds' on, I think, RPM records. I've been listening to a bloke called Sandy Denny and an excellent album called 'The Hard Shoulder' by a young lady called Jo Brooker. I read somewhere that it's heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen, so I was expecting veins sticking out on necks and spine dislodging stomp-a-longs, but it turns out to be a rather lovely gentle acoustic outing. I started out listening to it while I was working, but I ended up stopping work so I could listen to it properly. And there's no greater compliment coming from a confirmed workaholic like myself. It almost made me want to get a sex change myself. I've also been listening to 'Big Pink Music' by The Band. I think it may go on to become an acknowledged classic. Why has the new Spiritualized album been released in a blancmange mould? Is it any good? We only ever seem to talk about Hefner nowadays :-( Thank you to everyone who has been Reporting Back. Peter +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+