Barking Spiders

The 23 Skidoo song is indeed Coup. You'd really need to hear the 12" version, which works much more effectively than the radio edit.

Absolutely. You can also add those beardy counterparts Tom Walker and Tom Grennan.

It's a shame about Ed and Blunty in that they seem to be really nice guys with their hearts in the right place but their music is pretty unlistenable for me. If someone is a total bell3nd, like the Gallagher brothers it's so easy to dislike their dreadful music.

It's all about context. When black guys use the n word among their social group it's completely different from when a white racist uses it towards them. Similarly, when we we much younger me and my mates often jokingly referred to eachother as 'a big p**f', 'big girl's blouse' etc if we did something not quite acceptable to the group e.g. drinking coke instead of a beer while out on a session. No one was offended, it was typical banter. It would've been different if we'd addressed a total stranger the same way.

Viz the N word, the way NWA and others use it's n***a not n***er, which is the racist term. I still occasionally dig out my Macc Lads CDs if I need a bit of a laff. I'm not offended by any of their songs.

I don't give a monkey's left t1t whether bands can play their instruments properly. It's the end result that counts. Conversely there are all these technical metal type thing bands that have brilliant players but sticking needles in my eardrums is preferable to listening to their stuff. As for sampling and autotune, I have no problem with them. After all, for decades revered rock bands have been making albums doing multiple takes and then stitching the best bits together, kinda. As for originality, just check in to Planet Rock and there's one newish rock band after another who not only sound like eachother but also like thousands that have gone before e.g. Those Damn Crows, Massive Wagons, Stone Broken, When Rivers Meet, Kris Barras Band, Mason Hill, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless.......

As a young scrote one of the first bands I got into of my own accord was U2, as opposed to half inching my older siblings vinyl. While I bought the first two LPs, from War onwards I soon became less interested which eventually turned into antipathy to the extent I gave them to a charity shop. It's only recently I've bought the deluxe versions of those through Discogs, which have B-sides off the early 45s, and which I'm enjoying again, nearly 40 years later! I also started liking some of the later singles like It's A Beautiful Day that once would've had me reaching for the off button. Odd the way the brain/mind works! Over to you...

I'm a scouser so I'll leave it at that. I now split my time between Leamington Spa and Stroud in Gloucs. Viz Leam there's Banco da Gaia (whose music I'm very partial to) and errm Aleister Crowley. I dunno much about them but the Edgar Broughton Band are from Warwick which merges into Leam. As for Stroud, hmm can't find any of note. I lived in Cheltenham for 15 years previously -the longest time I've spent in any one place -which does a bit better with Gustav Holst, Brian Jones, Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke, FKA Twigs, Richard O' Brien of Rocky Horror and The Crystal Maze fame and Pigbag whose one big hit still gets regular airplay. I forgot the lovely Sade. She's not from the area originally but for a long time she's been living in a village near Stroud so I'll take that. While the area doesn't boast many musos there are loads of famous thesps and other slebs living around and about.

I've been wondering for decades when I'd ever hear this track again. I bought the 12" back in 1988 but along with 200+ other 12", 100 LPs and a few hundred 45s it drowned in a flash flood in the basement flat I was living in as an undergrad. Anyone else recall it? Mebbe not as it wasn't a chart hit.

Put many of these bass players in the context of guesting on someone else's song and you probably wouldn't guess it's them. The only ones that come to mind are Peter Hook and Mark King. I used to have a 12" of an early 80s song by Leisure Process called A Way You'll Never Be. Initially I thought it was a Level 42 song with a guest singer but it was the other way round. Also some players don't always stick with the same tone. I mean J-J Burnel had a very distinctive tone on the first 4 albums but from then on as The Stranglers mellowed, so did his sound.

And amen to that. Rightfully disparaged as 'landfill indie

Best STP album? Core or Purple for me too. Core is majorly grungy but Purple is only in patches. As for Smashing Pumpkins, Gish and Siamese Dream fit in with the Seattle bands but less so Melon Collie onwards. You used to hear all bands denying they were part of the scene. The grunge bands may've not had much in common musically but like punk, grunge was more about a reaction against what came before and an attitude. It was the last significant music movement if you don't count godawful nu-metal. Although one or two bands - e.g. SOAD - stood apart from the pack 99% of the stuff that stayed over in the US is woeful. Mind you, it was still better than Britpop.

Huuuuge fan of the grunge era me. I watch a lot of RB vids. He did overlook Stone Temple Pilots for this one which is a tad odd as he's put up a couple of their tunes for his 'why this song is great' series.

Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes, Black & White - JJs tone and aggressive style and the sheer visceral sound of his bass still gets me buzzing. Sons & Fascination, Sister Feelings Call and New Gold Dream - IMO Simple Minds lost something when Derek Forbes left. All his lines, even the simpler ones, are crackers that drive the tunes. Lexicon of Love by ABC - great melodic basslines from start to finish that stand out but don't overpower the songs Sulk by The Associates - really imaginative and unusual but melodic basslines by Michael Dempsey. Check out Better This Way, Club Country and Skipping.

Nowt wrong with Coldplay. Seem a decent bunch of blokes and they put on a good live show. There are about a million other bands and solo acts whose imminent retirement would be much more welcome

Clapton has not only been extremely vocal in his anti-vax messaging but he's also funding anti-vax band Jam for Freedom. Doesn't this winker and others like him realise that it is the unvaccinated that are clogging up covid wards. Both my sisters-in-law work at general hospitals. One is in charge of a path lab and the other is a senior nurse on an ICU. Currently, well over half the patients in the ICUs at each hospital are younger and unvaccinated. The rest are mostly vaccinated and older with major co-morbidities. So you get these covidiots refusing to get vaccinated then they go to hospital when they get covid. I know this digresses from the OP but Clapout and others make my blood boil with their dangerous anti-vax messages. Rant over.

Card carrying bigoted gobshyte, active anti-vaxxer deliberately trying to undermine vaccination messages and all-round unpleasant Cnut like his former Cream bandmate Ginger Baker. I've never liked a single tune by him so that's saved me the hassle of having to boycott his gigs, releases etc

Its a ' ya'll better watch old woman, ahm gunna get ya and get ya real good ' face

Truly appalling load of old b0llix from a truly dire band but maybe I can match this with more Yule themed craptastic rock n'roll

Here's one for you all to enjoy 😁 and the fun keeps a-comin'

I think I recognise Mark on bass but not anyone else. The singer does a pretty good rendition of Holly

There is still a planet load of idiots of sub-normal intelligence carrying as is everything is hunky dory. Last saturday evening, drunken 'singing' football fans rammed into the carriages from New Street to Leamington, none with a mask on , happily shouting and chanting their viral particles all over the carriage. Clearly football's not really suffering so I do wonder why live music still is?

I don't bother trying find owt new. Everything that could be done with music has been done and done quite a long time ago. There is now nothing new under the sun or any other celestial body. So just listen to and enjoy your old faves. Nowt wrong with that at all.

And No Rest for The Wicked is eve more so..IMO

Just been listening to Low Life in the car, IMO New Order's best album as it sill has traces of Joy Division. Here's my highlight from it