The ones of those people who are still alive should have an annual reunion.
"Hello. Derek, is it?"
"No, Norman."
"Oh, sorry. You were a Mindbender, weren't you?"
"Very briefly, yes, but you probably remember me best as a Dreamer. Or a Dakota maybe. I was one of them too. And you?"

My favourite of these is Mickey Finn's T-Rex, who are apprently still functional, despite featuring only one member of the Bolan-era band (the drummer who replaced Bill Legend towards the end) and probably not Mickey Finn either, since he died 23 years ago.

I feel similarly about Ship of Theseus bands. You can replace half of the original members if those remaining include the singer or the lead guitarist, but just the drummer and bass player isn't good enough. This means that Deep Purple were wrongly billed as such for years until Gillan came back.

There's little, if anything at all, to take issue with here.

I went to Tariq Ali. George Melly was probably more fun.

I was an ad copywriter in a previous life. My approach was simply to take the client's brief and rewrite it to grab the attention of someone with no knowledge of and little interest in the product. That's it. Nothing precious about it. No muses required.

This. Writing the first draft is no harder than slapping a lump of clay on a potter's wheel. The turning and shaping and painting and glazing parts of the process? Those are the edits.

Brian Johnson (AC/DC)

And at the bottom of the bill? Surely not.

We've got four. Well, had four - the oldest died last month. She was the matriarch, bending the other three to her will with a withering look. She was the spokescat too. The others would have a quiet word with her, and if she felt they had a case, she'd find us to make damn sure we knew about it.

Haaland doesn't have to do much at all, does he. Just that. And he usually complies.

Don't Cry for Me, Ovaltine-a

tl;dr: "Issues were raised", but Robbins felt free to ignore them and not mention them to anyone anwhere ever.

You can take the boy out of Oldham, etc.

- Stop deluding yourself. Given the right circumstances and after a few light ales, you absolutely would do that.

The greatest backing vocals in the history of recorded music are the "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! ... Stuuuuh-uff!" bit at 2:56 in Donna Summer's timeless disco hit, scientists have found.

#ATMBAR is a proper end-to-end football match.

He is so resoundingly shit, isn't he. He should have gone off at half time and made way for the Fletcher kid. Or Mount, with Bruno sitting back. Or Zirkzee. Or, fuck it, the tea lady.

And Macca was the only one to acknowledge it too. It's quite astounding how he's managed to live through sixty years of ultramegastardom and remain so unscathed by it.

The programme was so desperate to make it The Ultimate Iconic Rock 'n' Pop 'n' Roll Instrument, when it really, really wasn't and he wasn't about to pretend it was. The only moment of emotion in the whole thing was the ambulance driver remembering his wrong-'un-with-a-heart-of-gold dad.

Paul McCartney's contribution: "Yeah. I was a bit cross when it was nicked. I suppose. But it was only my cheap backup bass. Quite nice to have it back though. I suppose."

Klaus Voorman's contribution: "I saw him playing it not long after he bought it."

Elvis Costello's contribution: "I told him, 'That Hofner bass you haven't played for decades sounded quite nice."

The bass detectives' contribution: "We looked for it. Very hard. Someone else found it, though."

The last link in the chain, The Hastings Connection, was also strangely passed over. Best of all was that the most laid back character in the whole thing was Paul himself, giving off "yeah, it's nice to have it back, I guess, but let's not get too carried away, lads; it was my backup bass" vibes.

JD Vance meets Pope Francis

JD Vance meets Viktor Orban

Ok who’s next for the JD kiss of death

The writers of 2026 are still being extremely unsubtle with everything.

No, true, but I was thinking from their early breakthrough film onwards, so Coppola would be The Godfather, Shyamalan: The Sixth Sense, etc.

There are a few other film directors like that (all also possibly a trifle unfair), where every film of theirs has been very slightly, but measurably, worse than the one before: Coppola, Tarantino, Shyamalan....

“It’s Live Nation, so they have fairly large pockets,” said Goebbels. But Goebbels suggested that given the precedent the Wireless cancellation has set, fresh questions may now be asked by the promoters and insurers.

Disconcerting that the Guardian article about Kanye West’s show being cancelled following a backlash over his antisemetic comments about the Jewish community and the Holocaust is peppered with comments by someone called Goebbels.

I like "he dropped in", as if he'd suddenly decided he fancied a slice of Black Forest gateau on his way home from the chippy, rather than making a visit scheduled by 47 people since June 2025.

Ah, OK. Plus, in your case, you've got Spain right next door, with no border controls, so you can always nip up to Vigo to catch the Celta away game ;)

Why are there so many (well, relatively) Americans in Portugal rather than Spain? Is it easier to get resident status there?