Swingin' Ryan

That's the one I was trying to remember, great band name.

Alessis are putting another mini-synth along the lines of the MicroKorg in a similar price-range out on the market which is supposed to be a bit of an improvement onthe MicroKorg which I'm considering buying, I want something that can make fairly retro synthy noises similar to some of the Postal Service stuff, but I'm currently just honing my pretty inept keyboard skills.

Is there any rough idea of stage order/times?

I thought the riff was groovy until the singer claimed that many critics had compared them to Aerosmith. I was almost ill. Aerosmith Rooster

I've always thought if you were going to meet one of the Manics, James would be the one to meet. Nicky seems a little cynical and resentful nowadays and Sean doesn't seem to be a people person, James is always doing those Glastonbury interviews and Jools Holland etc, seems like an man of honour, did he say much?

Slash and Burn is a stormer of a song too, I think the first two albums seem to get looked over a bit because of the whole masterpiece status of the Holy Bible, but they're both excellent albums. The end of Roses in the Hospital when James starts shouting out the various classic Manics rhetoric like "Credibility, I'm Yawning" and "The west scratches onto my skin" etc, while he's widdling away at the guitar in a Slash style, is absolutely unreal. If you haven't heard it, you don't exist, go and download it. I'm going to put it to the group that James Dean Bradfield is the best british rock vocalist of the 90's by a mile.

I saw footage of some festival from this year of them doing Motorcycle Emptiness and it sounded so limp, They don't seem to do a lot of Gold Against the Soul stuff live, which is a pity because I think it's a great album, it might be a bit of a hit-searcher and really overblown, but it's got balls, as does Generation Terrorists, I like the Holy Bible but it's a little bit cold i think. I'd fucking love to hear them do Roses in the Hospital, but it's unlikely.

I'm still contemplating. On one hand they might stick to mainly old stuff, which I would love. On the other it might shatter my illusion of them forever. It would be great to see them, but they may just sound tired, no doubt I'll decide to go then it'll sell out.

I would currently love to see Aerosmith, and I'm praying they come to Britain as they haven't been here for a very long time. I would have loved to have seen - The Manic Street Preachers around 1993 Elvis Presley in the late 50's - early 60's And I would have walked over hot coals, bare-footed carrying a fat, naked woman to have seen Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis JR (The Rat Pack) doing their thing at the Sands hotel.

I'd say they're definitelly up there. If by important you mean, the band thats influenced the most people to pick up a guitar and start a band then I'd go with Nirvana, I'm not a big Nirvana fan but you can't deny they're incredibly important, maybe not so much in Britain, but in America hugely so.

That's pretty horrible news. Only Tommy left, drummers always seem to be the last survivors, actually I can't think of that many examples but I'll bet Ringo outlives McCartney. Either way it's pretty awful. The Ramones - It's Alive was the first proper punk album I ever bought, I owe them major gratitude. Strummer and 3 of the original Ramones all dead before 65, I bet Ian Watkins lives to be 120 or something (no justice). R.I.P Johnny.

Then you have no heart, love or blood in your veins

The Beatles, quite a few good songs but nowhere near as good or influential as they're credited for, what everyone neglects to notice is that there were LOADS of bands like the Beatles around at the time, they were far from revolutionary, I don't think any of the Beatles would profess to being half as influential as they're claimed to be. It's true what Tarantino says though, there are two kinds of people Beatles people and Elvis people, and I'm definitelly an Elvis person. You can tell loads about a person from their answer to that question in my opinion.

They're not conspiracies at all, they're well organised plans to keep the Government looking it's best. I'm not a raging "fuck the system" leftist, but I think it's pretty plain to see that the British public come second, and keeping your government looking good,caring and keeping the wages high comes first. It's another classic example of bandwagon hysteria, everyone should watch "Grumpy Old Men" on BBC2, they always speak about it. Every 6-12 months there's a mass hysteria on one topic (normally orchestrated by the Daily Mail), we've had the Great Paedophile Hunt of '02 and "The War on Terror" which knocked back race relations about 25 years. Unfortunately we're in a bit of a quiet zone this year, what with the absence of Terror attacks and pre-teen kidnap, so it's back to that old reliable evil, the smokers. P.S I shouldn't even be the one defending smoking I'm a pretty light smoker as smokers go (around 5 a day) and I'm a VERY CONSIDERATE smoker and I've actually left areas where I've been perfectly within my right to smoke because they've got too busy and I don't want to bother non-smokers, despite there being non-smoking areas nearby that they have chosen not to stand in.

No one likes Nirvana? Are you real?

If it's a competition, I've seen 2-3 relatives go in the last couple of years, but I don't think that's totally relevant at the moment, and I don't really think littering a sentence about the death of your relatives with the words "fuckin" and "cunt" is entirely appropriate but that's your call. Did any of these relatives die from diseases brought on by spending time in smokey enviroments, or did they just die of illnesses that the governments "100% conclusive and in no way altered or edited " research, has linked to smoking? And I am not making light of Roy Castles death, I just find it obscene that this one man has become the argument stopping point-prover of every anti-smoker in Britain, how can you possibly credit his death solely on passive smoking, people contract illnesses like cancer all of the time without smoking I have relatives who've contracted cancer without ever touching a cigarette and barely setting foot in a bar. I hate to bring up the same argument over and over again, but CAR FUMES are incredibly poisonous, not only do they rip a hole in the O-Zone layer, they rip a hole in your lungs. Try going to Picadilly Circus, you'll be fucking choking on car fumes before you even catch a sniff of a cigarette. On the topic of clubs and pubs etc, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to have smoking sections and non-smoking sections, just like in a restaurant, I'm not a heavy smoker and I don't need to be at it every minute so that would be fine. When have you ever gone and sat in a no-smoking section in a restaurant and ever been bothered by smoke?

Just thought it might have taught you a bit of dignity and good grace about choices people make. Out of interest, would you tell a motorist making an unnessecary journey down a busy street making you breathe is car fumes (which are hugely unhealthy and actually have PROVEN links to causing cancer), that you wish him to die in a road related accident. The Government have done a pretty good job in creating a new "Big Three" though, fuck Cancer, Heart Disease and Lung Disease..... 1)Terrorists 2)Peadophiles 3)Smokers Don't travel or go to any form of large event, Lock up your children and for the LOVE OF GOD!.....do not go into a smokey bar, never mind the fact that many of your elderly relatives probably spent large amounts of their time in them and are still perfectly well, think of Roy Castle and all the others like.....well all the others!

The moment of first inhalation is truly blissful Jake, like the breath of an angel (although a possible cancer giving angel of some sort). And if your favourite band is playing at a bar, you can't honestly say you wouldn't go because it was smokey! That's absolutely obscene.

I'm sorted then. On topic, the whole ban is fucking ridiculous, fair enough ban it in restaurants if you must, but in a bar or pub, it's utter nonsense. Think of all the elderly non-smokers in the world who do not have passive smoking related illnesses, did they all just stay out of smokey bars their entire life or wear gas masks? Even people who died from or contracted illnesses "related" to passive smoking who never smoked, you cannot pass the blame entirely onto passive smoking. I read a great article against the ban in the Daily Mail of all papers, it detailed several independent reports which have led to the discovery that various Goverment health organisations have rigged,altered,edited and in many ways messed around with studies on smoking. There is NO conclusive evidence to link passive smoking to cancer etc despite what you're told, There IS lots of conclusive evidence to link car fumes to Asthma and Cancer. And aside from all the statistics, it's a FUCKING PUB, people have being smoking in pubs and bars since the year dot, I blame this whiney student nonsense. If people can go into bars, get bladdered, start fights and then piss,puke and shit (yes I've seen it being done), all over the streets I have to walk on, I can have a cigarette in the bar that their in.

I think the main difference is me and Mel are both big believers in the rock star thing, whilst the ones arguing against the image thing are more into the anti-image thing that grunge sparked off, also we're probably biased being fans of clothing/fashion etc, so naturally we want to see bands that make the most of image. I hate the idea of going to see a band and thinking that I look better than them, it ruins the whole rock star/public mystique. Rock stars should be like super hero's not the guy next door. I'm not saying I only like a band if they wear outlandish clothes, I like a lot of Indie/Noise-Pop bands who have little/no image whatsoever, but I just think it gives the band so much more, that's what makes them a BAND. And on the fashion-core front, if the Lost Prophets wish to be fashion-core, me and mel will happily supply them with string vegetable designer couture for the stage. P.S - If the 44's call themselves big-band-core, do they actually sound like a proper big band a la Count Basie or Nelson Riddel, or are they just a fancy ska band?

No irony. I find it stomach churning that bands nowadays can get away with making a living from making music and putting no effort into how they look or act or move. It's outrageous, when there's bands out there putting so much into the whole package and performance for beer money and the price of petrol to the next venue, that bands like the Lost Prophets who are dull as fucking dishwater can make vast amounts of cash from prancing about in Topman's finest. It breaks down like this, there's two types Rock Stars and Musicians, if you're a rock star you look cool, you act cool and image is everything. Musicians are the serious muso types. Both of these are totally valid and accpetable to me, but a band like the Lost Prophets look dull and their performance on those Reading highlights was just embarassing. But me and Ben are still xxF@$hion-C0o0Rexx to the max.