No Rock And Roll Fun

SMITHS AHEAD: We got excited over a New York Times article promoting a record shop which allowed you to listen to nearly any record in their shop a little while back. We were totally shocked to discover that you can do this in Britain - in fact, in Speke, Liverpool. The WH Smiths there is all set up to allow you to try before you buy by choosing any track from nearly any of its albums. Of course, the downside is that Smiths hasn't got the greatest range of albums on offer, but it's a wonderful step forward. Maybe Smiths are the first to embrace this technology as they've noticed that people flicking through books drives sales, rather than cuts them.