PinkyB

Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats and Dogs - Brian & Michael

The message "Livebox cannot connect to the internet". Every five fricking minutes.

http://www.iceshop.co.uk/lang/it/img/products/large_solero.jpg

Sorry, I'm afraid I'm really rubbish at ball games. (bows out) p.s: Didn't mean to offend - I only come here for a bit of light banter and nonsense, and try to avoid getting involved in any conflict if possible. Have a virtual Calippo.

Ouch. Happy to, what do you suggest?

You disappoint me, bbw.

How would YOU pronounce ?$%^& , BBW?

Totally agree with you, nothing more offputting than someone who thinks that dedicating every minute of their spare time to looking "good" (in the most cliched way possible) makes them in any way interesting. I like a few rough/soft edges myself.

Aw, you big tease, Louisiana!

I'm intrigued as to what a "hot ?$%^&" might be...

See My Friends - the Kinks

I'm sure if I go back far enough I'm probably a bit French/Danish/German and Italian. But then that's pretty much everyone else in the country too. Including all those "British til I die" BNP trolls. Reminds me, though, did anyone see Barbara Windsor on Who Do you Think You Are? Hilarious. Not only did she not realise you had to push the button to get the doors to open on a train (woman of the people, my arse), but she also couldn't comprehend why in the mid-19th century her ancestors might have left a lovely picturesque little village in County Cork to go and work in deathtrap factories in London instead. Of course, you still get people who think that now. "But why would you leave Cornwall to go and work in noisy, dirty London?" "Er... because there are no jobs." Back on the subject of this thread, I once exchanged comments about the lack of paper towels with Jane MacDonald of The Cruise fame in the backstage toilets after a recording of Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

I'M EATING A CALIPPO!

For No-One - the Beatles Hurray, we're back in the room! (Oh, and it's fair enough if we can have partial words, I was just checking, really!)

Muley, I believe it was a combination of the Industrial Revolution and the Irish Potato Famine.

Sonic Youth + Pavement, Brixton Academy 1992: Sonic Youth were of course, awesome, but Pavement were amazing. I've always thought they were incredibly underrated, never understood why they weren't bigger. It helped that somehow we managed to sneak downstairs from our crap upstairs seated tickets and get down the front, mind. This was about the time when they had 2 drummers and one of them was employed solely to make toast on stage and hand it out to the audience. Reading Festival, Sunday night, 1992: Nirvana headlined, Kurt came onstage in a wheelchair and a dress. We got down the front at 2pm and stayed there until they came on, about eight hours later. That was also the weekend the festival got waterlogged, the comedy tent blew away, etc. We'd been wearing the same clothes for about 2 days because everything else was soaked through. Needless to say, they were brilliant, and we were happily exhausted. Carter USM + Daisy Chainsaw + some sort of weird ravey lightshow thingy, Sussex Uni, Feb 1991: One of my earliest gigs and still one of the best, even though I haven't listened to Carter USM since about 1992, and the music hasn't dated well at all. The audience was such a mix, crusties, indie kids, ravers, punks, goths, skinheads, hippies, we all danced like maniacs, and afterwards we emerged into the night on a post-gig high to find it was snowing. Magical. Still the only gig I've ever been to that has ended with me rolling in the snow like a puppy. The Breeders, Shepherd's Bush Empire, June 2008/ Frank Black & The Catholics, Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2007: I've been a huge fan of Pixies since 1987 (best band in the world, and anyone who disagrees with me can come outside and say that) but unfortunately never got to see them until the reunion tours in 2006. I'd stopped going to gigs for a few years until then and it sparked a second wave, of which these two were by far the best. The atmosphere in the auditorium waiting for them to come on was electric, like everyone knew they were in the presence of greatness. What I always loved about Pixies (and subsequently The Breeders and Black Francis's solo work) is that they don't try to be cool, they just come on, dressed like chubby plumbers, do their stuff, and blow you away. Not like all these shit bands whose haircut and skinny trousers is apparently more important than the music (and yes, I do know there have always been bands like that, Menswear, anyone?) And finally, the gig I never went to but wished to god I had: Beastie Boys + Run DMC + Public Enemy + ll cool J, Brighton Centre, 1987 Me and my friend Julie were HUGE Beastie Boys fans, but we were 13, there was no way we were going to the gig. (this being the time they had cage-dancers and giant phalluses on stage, as opposed to now, when they're all Buddhist vegetarians) Instead we went into town dressed in our finest cool gear (her: Garfield t-shirt, white jeans and matching white denim jacket, bowl cut, braces on teeth. Me: pink pedal-pushers, Dunlop trainers with velcro fastening, Mickey mouse t-shirt, blue Millets anorak) armed with a screwdriver and attempted to prise off some poor sod's VW badge from the NCP car park. We failed in this, instead leaving a massive scratch across the bonnet, and then basically spent the rest of the day hanging around outside the venue, watching all the lucky sods who had tickets arriving and hoping to catch a glimpse of the band. I always think of it as my first gig, even though we didnt get in. Imagine how good that line-up would have been, though!

I was with Vodafone for ages, no problems until I moved to ED (top end of LL) upon which I found i couldn't get any reception on my phone at all. There's another thread somewhere about a Vodafone reception blackspot in the area, I think. Switched to Orange, and since then no problems. Also, Vodafone tried to make it really hard for me to switch networks, even though I explained I'd been happy with them, but couldn't get reception in my new house. Offered me all sorts of "perks", stuff that I'd never use like extra texts, but sadly, couldn't offer that I could actually make and receive calls from my own house or a 300 yard radius around it! I used to get on the bus up to Forest Hill and as soon as I got to the Horniman Museum, my phone would kick in and a weekend's worth of text and ansaphone messages would suddenly arrive all at once.

Oh, God, really? Don't tell him, will you? I was even ashamed as I was doing it! Ok, now I feel I need to clarify: it wasn't like we molested him in the street or anything. It was at a gig, he was on one of those platforms that comes out into the crowd doing his Jesus bit, he was inches away fom us, a kind of fever took hold of us... My friend mouthed "Touch his trousers!" I refused, but then she did it, laughing hysterically, so I did too. Peer pressure, you see. That or just that mad out-of-body experience you sometimes get at gigs where you'll say or do something you wouldn't have done in any other circumstance, like, say, scream "KIM DEAL I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!" Mind you, if you know who Kim Deal is, you'll understand that's an entirely reasonable response.

Yeah, come on Brum, 'fess up, we're all dying to know here!

A sudden torrential downpour on a day that I'm off sick. The bright sun was giving me a mother of a headache, but lovely, lovely rain makes me feel much better. Bring on the rain! (and thank god or fate or whatever that it didn't rain yesterday and spoil everyone's Sundays)

I saw the final, having somehow managed to avoid actually seeing/hearing any of the acts perform up til that point, and thought she looked absolutely terrified, like she was praying she wouldn't win, because she knew that the media circus she's been through the last few weeks would only be the beginning. Once they announced Diversity had won she couldn't stop smiling, started joking around with Ant & Dec, showing off her legs, and absolutely couldn't have looked happier. I'm sure that once she's back at home and things are relatively normal again, she can have a recording career where she doesn't need to appear on TV, be interviewed, etc. Not everyone wants to be in the spotlight, and I feel a lot of sympathy for her, especially after some of the nastier things the press and public have said about her.

Yeah, but the media juggernaut that is Big Brother starts this week, and as usual, goes on and on for ever and ever. Maybe I'll just de-tune Channel 4 so I don't accidentally catch a glimpse of the fame-hungry morons. Oh, and stop reading the papers, looking at any websites, and listening to strangers on the bus. Or just move to France, maybe.

And on that bombshell... this party doesn't look like finishing any time soon, so I'm going for the earplugs and crossing my fingers. Night all!

Well, you told me you worked in musical theatre, and then I find out you're actually a fireman! And you talk about being duped...

Nope. Not even remotely. (By the way, I'm not really Portuguese either. Solid English stock, way back to about 1840, and before that only Welsh and Irish. There's not an exotic bone in my body, sadly, although I've always rather hankered to be Russian.)