Jacko: You don't call that a comeback?

A telling detail of the slipshod modern world of Michael Jackson: If you're going to try and create a frenzy around your surprise announcement, it might be a good idea to make sure your organisation isn't slapping posters up in tube stations which give away the secret hours before the press conference.

So we know, without Jacko having to even lower his facemask, he's doing ten nights at the Millennium Dome (now the BT Cellnet Millennium Dome).

Indeed, not only have billposters stolen Jackson's thunder, but so have the Association of Secondary Ticket Agents (or Tout Club), issuing warnings about touts flogging dodgy tickets for gigs that haven't been announced. Except to tube travellers:

"We are warning people not to buy tickets that are not yet on sale because it is unlikely that they will receive those tickets," ASTA chief Graham Burns told BBC 6music.

He added: "It's impossible when the dates haven't been announced to be selling tickets for something when there are no announced dates."

Obviously, his point is a fair one. But that last sentence should perhaps be preserved for itself, as a thing of beauty and logic.