Manuelgate

Oooh, it's all got a bit messy in the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross/Andrew Sachs fiasco, what with Brand resigning from the BBC and Ross being suspended for 12 weeks, without pay - and when you're on 16 grand a week, that stacks up. I would imagine that will be the last time either of them decide to leave rude messages on some unfortunate actor's answerphone and crack jokes about shagging his granddaugther.

IMHO, the show's producer was at fault as much, if not more than, Brand and Ross. Everyone knows they're a pair of loudmouthed eejits. So it probably wasn't a great decision on his part to give them Andrew Sachs' home phone number. On top of that, it was a recorded show, so how difficult would it have been to edit those sections out before broadcast?

And what does Mr Sachs' granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, have to say about the BBC's reaction to this matter? Well, according to Thursday's Metro:

"Me and my grandad are both really happy because it could have damaged our reputation permanently," said the 23-year-old Satanic Sluts dancer.

Uh... hello?

Attic Lights (again)

This is the song that I've listened to more than 150* times over the last 5 days. If there's such a thing as the perfect 3-minute pop song, this is the one that would get my vote.

* at last count

Attic Lights

Anyone want to take a guess as to what might be my favourite song from the Attic Lights album?

39

I managed to remember to take my camera to QPR last night. Unfortunately, I forgot the put the 2GB memory card inside it. I had been hoping to record some of last night's event for posterity. As it turned out, I managed to record about 90 seconds of the old song '39. Which, to be fair, has always been one of favourite Queen songs. Allegedly, if you count the songs on the first 4 Queen albums, '39 is the 39th track to appear. I've never been quite sad enough to check up on this. No, I haven't.

Anyhow, this a far better quality version than the one I grabbed...

Queen + Paul Rodgers, Glasgow SECC

The guy from the [Glasgow] Herald couldn't have been more wrong. "Don't expect to hear too many oldies tonight, because [they] have a new album to plug".

In a two-and-a-quarter hour set, QPR played 5 songs from their new album. The first half hour was a relentless bombardment of old favourites. Hammer to Fall, Tie Your Mother Down, Fat Bottomed Girls, Another One Bites The Dust, I Want It All, I Want To Break Free. Later on, three songs from A Night At The Opera: Love of My Life, '39, and I'm In Love With My Car. And on to A Kind of Magic, Radio Gaga, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.

Not to mention 3 songs from Paul Rodgers' back catalog... Seagull, Bad Company, and something called All Right Now.

Yeah, not too many oldies.

We Believe

OK, last one. I promise.

Runaway

While I'm on about Queen & Paul, who'd have seen this coming?

Small

Off to see Queen & Paul Rodgers tomorrow night. Their new album, The Cosmos Rocks, has been a pleasant surprise - after all, the notion of a Queen album without Freddie doesn't initially sound promising. But they've pulled it off.

Here's my favourite song from the new album - it's called "Small", which is something you wouldn't readily associate with Queen. Full of surprises.

Suspended

Oh hurrah. The rail dispute hasn't been entirely resolved, but the second 24-hour strike has been suspended. So, thank goodness, I get to turn up at the office tomorrow*. Praise be, the extra 3 hours of quality time were really starting to take their toll.

*Or later today, nitpick fans.

Strike!

Those pesky rail signalworkers are at it again. Unless there's a breakthrough in last-minute negotiations tomorrow, they'll be staging two 24-hour strikes this week. Cunningly though, the first of these begins at noon on Tuesday and ends on noon on Wednesday. The second will run from noon on Thursday until noon on Friday. Clever, eh?

Imagine the disruption if this goes ahead. I, for one, would be forced to work from home all week - which would be awful, what with having to stay in bed for an extra hour in the morning, and having to conform to the most relaxed dress code imaginable, and being home 2 hours earlier than usual in the evening. Just awful.