Speak of the devil.

Though she was cute in a Tennant’s-Lager-can sort of way, I don’t think Carol Hawkins was in the same, er, class as Raquel Welch. The Jayne Mansfield of Comprehensive Education, maybe?

Download: Mary of The 4th Form – The Boomtown Rats (mp3)

I’m speechless at the news that Poly Styrene has died of breast cancer. Calling her an “original” seems like faint praise for such a singular talent. It wasn’t so much that they broke the mould when they made her, more that the mould hadn’t even been invented before she came along.





Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard
But I think…
Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

This terrific short film called The Girl Chewing Gum was made in 1976 by the artist John Smith (surely not his real name). It takes a minute for the “joke” to sink in but once it does it’s wonderful to watch, well worth sticking with to the end.

(Discovered at It’s Nice That)

My wife is out of town visiting her family this week and she took the kids with her so I’m all on my own for a whole week. The single blokes out there might not think this is a big deal but for us marrieds it’s like being given a Golden Ticket pass to live like a bachelor again.

Before the wife left there were a lot of jokes about me living on sausages and Scotch and lying on the couch in my underwear watching nothing but football and violent movies. But I haven’t done any of that (well, OK, I have watched some footie, drank some Scotch, and had sausages for dinner last night — with chips! Covered in HP Sauce!), there’s been no cocaine and hookers ordered in either. To be honest the thing I’ve most enjoyed the past couple of days is getting a solid night’s sleep without any baby crying and having an extra 1/2 an hour in bed in the morning because I haven’t got to feed and dress the kids.

How sad is that? My twenty-something self would be disgusted with me.

Download: Alone Again (Naturally) – Gilbert O’Sullivan (mp3)

I’m a huuuge fan of the wonderful Róisín Murphy (why isn’t she an international superstar?) and the idea of her singing a vocal version of The Persuaders theme music sounds interesting on paper and in reality it’s absolutely fantastic, like the Bond theme of your dreams.

Download: The Persuaders – Róisín Murphy and The Bullitts (mp3)

This is a collaboration with an act called The Bullitts who I don’t know much about but it appears to be part of an album coming out later this year featuring various artists (Murphy,Tori Amos, Mos Def) interpreting themes in this way. There’s a “video” or, as they call it, a Flixtape to go with this track (and the others so far).

When they woz good.

What with Bowie, The Associates and now Robert Fripp he does seem to have a taste for my more avant garde records.

I was never all that keen on Fripp’s Exposure album which I think I only bought (and kept) because I liked the cover. But it does have some nice moments on it like this which I think is better than the version on Gabriel’s first solo album (and has Brian Eno playing synth on it to boot).

Download: Here Comes The Flood – Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel (mp3)