Sinister: Degeneration

[Gardiner, Stuart]

So, it's official. The Divine Comedy are no more. They will be hugely missed
by some of us, less hugely missed by others (Mr Hopkins?). Although
apparently Neil Hannon will still be recording for the same label, and since
he wrote all the songs anyway, it shouldn't be too traumatic, but still.

It's strange, it feels like only yesterday I was watching them play live.
Which is an odd coincidence, since I went to see them play at Rock City in
Nottingham last night. And they were, as ever, fantastic. They even managed
to surpass B&S's recent efforts in endurance by being onstage for just under
2 hours. The set included lots of songs that everyone knows and loves, and
even a cover of Jennifer Rush's The Power Of Love. It was G!R!A!T!E!.

Of course, all dispossesed Divine Comedy fans should immediately switch
their allegiance to The Whitlams, who are still one of my favourite 3 bands
in existence, and their G!R!A!T!E!ness has not diminished during the few
weeks since I last raved about them.

Meeting friends in a club after the show set me on the road to another
discovery; that WKD, basically a mixture of vodka and Iron Bru, is a
fabulous thing. I would declare it to be capable of giving vodka and red
bull a run for its money, were it not for the nagging doubt that it may be
in some way responsible for me feeling as rough as a badger's crotch this
morning.

In other news, I went to see the Lucksmiths in Nottingham recently. They
were alright. Crap sound. The gig was only lifted above the average by them
playing Untidy Towns as an encore, surely their best song.

It's good to see a recent increase in randomness on the list. This is
definitely a good thing. For a horrible couple of weeks I thought people
might even start using subject lines that had some sort of relevance to the
post, and writing "Off Topic" before saying anything, but things have
returned to normal, and the world is a better place again.

So, the IRA have started giving up their weapons. Their (mostly American)
financial backers have finally realised that maybe killing innocent people
isn't such a good idea. Shame it's taken 30 years for them to see sense, but
what can you do? All we need now is for the Americans to stop bombing
hospitals...

The Pinefox wanted to be mentioned in a post. But I refuse to give into his
vanity, so I won't do it.

Big Stu
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