I am friends with Mr Rusty from "Dougal and the Blue Cat", but I don't go on about it. Well, not until now anyway. Mr Rusty and I were discussing Isobel's apparent unpopularity the other day and we came to the conclusion that it's traditional for a group's fans to dislike at least one member of the group. Beach Boys fans have great fun hating Mike Love, Beatles fans cringe at the very mention of George Harrison's sitar, 70s WHO fans, and indeed the 70s WHO, have always enjoyed Daltrey bashing. Speaking of the 70s WHO, have you heard the new all-star version of I Know It's Only Rock'n'Roll But I Like It? It's got a bit of 70s WHO tagged on the end. Makes sitting through it worthwhile. I managed to spot one pop star mystery voice, that of Mrs Cranberries. But I digress. Another great rock tradition B&S are holding up is that of band members releasing dodgy side projects. Just like in the great days of Yes and Deep Purple. Somewhere along the line there's always a sneaky suspicion that someone's trying to take advantage of the dedicated fans' willingness to spend their pocket money on any old crap associated with their favourite band. I don't think it's the musicians who feel that way, they probably feel a genuine need to express themselves over four sides of synthesizer experiments or dogbreath spoken word monotony. But I doubt if any of it would get recorded, let alone released, if it weren't for the possibility of putting a little sticker on the cover saying "featuring players and singers from Deep Purple". It's little wonder some people end up sulking about it. Needless to say, these are not my own opinions, but those of Mr Rusty. Peter +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+