bickster

My best ever fare as a cab driver, no-one has ever beaten it on our firm, involved gambling. I picked up at the flats facing the Albert Dock in Liverpool and took this middle eastern lad to the Leo Casino, it's on the same road and the journey including the mad not strictly legal U-turn you have to do to shorted the journey is exactly 1 mile "You pray for me sir, you pray for me" (I refrained from pointing out that he really had the wrong person for this or that gambling isn't exactly what a good Muslim should be doing) - £100, 3 minutes work I dread to think how much money he spunked at the tables that night but I got the impression that he didn't care and that it didn't matter as daddy's oil wells made more than he was going to lose every second of the day My gambling these days is limited to the very rare lottery ticket and a few quid on the Grand National, sometimes.

*makes note for deadpool 2023*

Get out of here, that's Ollie Reed and David Crosby out on a bender

Happy Mondays secret gig at the old Warrington Rugby league Club. Oh boy that was one pharmaceutically challenged gig, not just the band, pretty much the whole audience too - absolute nightmare Happy Mondays + Benny Profane at the Hacienda. There was only one dressing room at the Hac so the bands were sharing. Fair play to the Mondays, they came in and I think it was Bez that said, "Look lads, no problem sharing the room, stay as long as you like but some of our mates will be back here after the gig, so make sure all your gear is out of here because our mates are a bit tasty, they won't give a f*** and it'll be robbed as soon as they see it, they even rob our gear"

I'm not even convinced Bridgen would make it into the top trumps of Tory Word Removeds Game

Most of my gig regrets are having to watch bands I'd rather not

She's the biggest benefits layabout in the country Her and her family's antics wouldn't be out of place in shameless She's on light duties? Is that ringing a bell for the Butler to make her a cuppa?

Wordle 246 5/6

Not really, it's only Dammers and John Bradbury from the band on it (I suppose you could argue Dick Cuthell on trumpet too), there's a Swinging Cat and a Bodysnatcher on it making up the numbers, the main rump of the actual band had got sick of Dammers by then

Actually, it is (Ghost Town notwithstanding)

This must be the most bizarre release ever on Trojan Records. It really doesn't fit their profile Jah Wobble - I Could Have Been A Contender. A 3 CD anthology of his early career which is ordered somewhat randomly and not chronologically so his PIL output is massively different to his other work and it just sort of jarrs against the rest Some great stuff on here, I just don't think the PIL tracks were neccessary

I'll probably be shot down for this but in hindsight The Specials debut was a bit crap. I say this as someone who was there at the time, wearing two tone suits, Docs and Fred Perrys, on the stage for the obligatory encore stage invasion I also say this as someone who discovered Ska through the band They are tremendously important to me both musically and politically They were a band of their time, they and the movement were very necessary. But that first album… I have to say, I generally prefer the originals. I never have the desire to listen to it any more. They were much better live than on record. The second album was even worse, I never really liked it Ghost Town, however, will always be their finest moment, it is better than many bands finest moments by a long way (and Dammers even ripped off another tune for that too) I went to see that first reunion tour, it wasn’t the same. The Specials needed their youthfulness. I'm more likely to listen to The Beat or The Selecter's first couple of albums than I am, either of the Specials albums. The Beat were far more talented/original and The Selecter wrote their own tunes in he main. The Specials were really a hybrid cabaret band *runs for cover*

Russian is a minority (albeit large - 60/40ish)) demographic in the Donbas, the only area of Ukraine where it was a majority was / is Crimea. It is also split between Urban / Rural, the cities being mainly Russian speaking but nonetheless it is a minority. And as we can also imagine not all the Russian speaking people of the Donbas want to be part of Russia

same here, very transpennine

Ignoring the savory side of things, I think Greggs fresh sandwich / roll selection punches well above it's pricepoint. All made fresh, instore on the day

You want nuance? 50% of the Azov Battalion are native Russian speakers from the Donbas region. Regardless of their politics (which are obviously disgusting) that flies in the face of the claims that all the ethnic Russians in the Donbas want to be part of Russia

Sometimes, you just need to play an album you know inside out, you know its backstory and you know what it influenced. There's something comforting in that. For me, probably the most important album ever. Plucking numbers out of the air, I think this one album has influenced between 25-50% of the music I own

These are just holidays you are forced to take when you don't want to but quite frankly with the amount of holidays I'm still owed from this year and last year it's unusually for me, of no consequence at all

Just had my morning dump, I'm COVID safe for another day

Yep, I'm expecting to be chasing the other half of next doors plastic flashing around the garden in a bit. There's no way it'll survive

Just imagine if she carks it and it was Charles that gave it to her If she does cark it, can we cancel the silly Thursday Bank Holiday and put it somewhere more useful

I see Storm Franklyn isn’t getting much media attention. Well for us in the North West it’s forecast to be much higher wind speeds than Eunice was on Friday Wind speeds of up to 75mph forecast whereas on Friday the speeds were only forecast to be 60 mph

Word magazine was probably the best. Best articles and most definitely the best cover discs

I started off with NME, Sounds and Melody Maker with NME being the obvious leader of the pack Then like Xann I read the business magazine Music Week. In the magazine era, Uncut and Mojo are the main ones but there lots more niche magazines like Record Collector, Shindig, Electronic Sound, Under the Radar and I used to like Long Live Vinyl before it folded But with all of them I just tend to dip in and out of them as I see fit with my Readly subscription

It’s not fun, he’s a Putin shill He's the new Lord Haw Haw