Spector at the feast

Well, to be fair to Phil, if we'd been forced to sit in a small soundproof room listening to Starsailor over and over, we'd probably fly into a murderous rage as well. We're guessing his unfortunate houseguest must have made the mistake of saying "Actually, I agree with Paul - Let It Be does sound better without the strings..."

Meanwhile, at King's Reach Tower, a sidebar is being prepared: "Didn't Marvin Gaye shoot someone?" "Nah, he was murdered" "What about Lennon?" "Has any pop person actually shot anyone before?"

Alanisly, Kim Howells was in the Commons yesterday talking about guns and music - he obviously focused more on the dangers of gangsta rap than the wall of sound. Apparently, people who suggest that his belief that the lyrics are bad is misplaced are just liberals, he says. There was poverty in the 1920s and 1930s and people didn't go round making records about guns, he said. Angela Eagle piped up that a lot of rap didn't mention guns at all, you know - we've always liked Angela, especially since she started listing rap acts like she was Clement Freud on Just A Minute - Grandmaster Flash, Ms Dynamite (now, of course, The Acceptable Face of Singing Black People), Missy Elliot.

Oddly, 1Xtra's News TX seems to have missed the story entirely.