NO SELL: So, that New Order gig sold out in about three seconds, then. Unless the people at Liverpool Olympia come up with a way of getting more people in, in the way that Earls Court have suddenly come up with a way of getting extra people into the Madonna gig there.
Music365: More Madonna Tickets Go On Sale - oh, yes? Earls Court suddenly realise they've got extra space, or is it just a market-forcing hold back of tickets?

SO, HOW EXACTLY IS NAPSTER KILLING MUSIC?: So, despite all this so called piracy and theivery, there's been increases way above inflation in royalties this year. So, where, exactly in Napster and audiogalaxy hitting people hard, then?
BBC: record royalties - "piracy is a worry" says industry figure, as they stuff their bras with tenners

NEW STUFF ONLINE: For some reason, its taken a fucking age, but there's a load of new stuff at bothsidesnow - a 1981 vintage Smash Hits, for example, and Brian Molko's very own gallery. Go on, give it a sniff.

THE JUNE OVERHAUL HAS BEEN FUELLED BY... stuff we've enjoyed hearing while we kept inadvertently deleting the altered images lyric page
Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now?
Controv Smiths cover version, complete with amazing Dark Angel aping video
Ciccone - Leg It, It's the Rozzers
Octane whipperpunk sniffer track (vaguely reminiscent of 'Caught by the fuzz')
Janaury - I Heard Myself In You
Still miss Sarah records? Yeah, me too...
Dirty Harry- Nothing Really Matters
Brassy-esque, Boss Hogg stylings. Lambasted in today's NME
Four Storey - I'm Still Waiting
Chocolate-eating misery beauty
Kings of Convenience - Winning a Battle, Losing a War
I'd always written KoC off before, but this makes me think I may have been more hasty than a NASDAQ investor in 1999
Stereolab - Captain Easychord
Traditional Stereolab fare, which is a good thing
Antiproduct - Best Day of Your Life
I cant remember anything about this, just that I love it
Mekon with Marc Almond - Dead Mans Curve
Having brought Roxanne Shante back, and managed to make her sound now, Mekon's now done it with Marc Almond

GENUINE BUT STRANGE YAHOO GROUPS:
punkrockbowling - for people who like to listen to punk rock as they bowl
oi jesus - skinheads for jesus
Widdie - there's old anne claiming she couldn't muster support, while since November 2000 no fewer than two people have signed up to her fan list. Still, at least she's got a group, more than Hague has

THOUGH...: Just as I published that I got an email claiming that Moyles is using Le Hammond Inferno as backing for his quiz. Would be great if (a) that turns out to be true, and (b) he stops shouting long enough for anyone to hear it. Anyway, it'll all pour cash into the coffers of the good people at invicta hifi so thats a good thing.

DID I MENTION?: Chris Moyles must die. No, really. Highlight today - he was taking the piss out of Steve Wright. Because, apparently, it was just him and his posse talking. The difference being, beardie, that at least Wright's posse had people the quality of Phil Cornwell, Lisa Tarbuck and Richard Easter in it, whereas what have you got? Someone who pranced about in their pants and still only got a single page in FHM (they give that to begging students) and a bloke who clearly would rather be elsewhere and will, I swear, one day kill you. With a spoon. Which is a long and painful death, I can tell you. Oh, and by the way: downloading themes from TV Cream and playing them isn't any substitute for preparing your show properly.
I'm quite warming to nemone, actually, but then I did like emma freud's show. Is that so wrong?

YOU ARE OLD, FATHER FRED: As if to prove that this shouty rock is a young person's game, daddy Durst has had to cancel the rest of Limp Bizkit's tour because he's only gorn and put his back out. Leave it to the youngsters, daddio. Or at least Thurston and Kim, who do it with dignity.

FURTHER: The erotica listmania spreads - now someone's asked me to kick off a similar project on kenickie. An early worried response has been "What if one of them is lurking on the list?" - yeah, like I so don't want Lauren to know that I fancy her. Or Emmy. Or Marie. Apparently, Emmy-Kate is now working on a make-up counter.

WHY I LOVE THE ELASTICA LIST: Whereas some lists are so strictly on topic as to be as exciting as talking to an autistic child about their train number collections, the elastica list has always been a sparkier, more fun place to while away the working day. Having led to the hijacking of knickers list last year, changing it from a "buy my pants, they'll smell vaguely of my cunt" site to a home for bizarre underwear related conversation, in response to a less-sassy member's whining about the creation of another "what is your ultimate Elastica fantasy" poll there's been developed a multiple-writer piece of rolling erotica. So far, Justine's had her leather trouser rubbage inspected, several coathangers have been wasted and a wardrobe broken...

TIMMY VALENTINE: Oh, they're back, baby. Charlatans to play low-key warm up in Wrexham (raising the possibility of Dexadrina and Tim in the same place at the same time) and new website all looking spiffy... but where is the music? We want new music, dammit. New. Now. Music.

STONE BY STONE, INCH BY INCH: At first, didn't think that much to the new Catatonia single - but after a couple of hearings, its really grown on me. I dunno if this means the band should be worried, though - I'm the only person I know who liked Equally Cursed..., and if the first couple of listens left me cold and lukewarm respectively, how will the new single find a place in colder hearts?
karaoke queens - bsn catatonia spin-off
bsn cerys gallery
new tour dates
catatonia official site - still reporting "Karaoke Queen" as next single

TRUE FAITH: Bizarre but apparently true - New Order are going to make their comeback at Liverpool's Olympia, a venue so obscure even veteran Liverpool musos were going "where the fuck is that?" yesterday. Adding to the general confusion (at time of upload) the olympia site is returning the web equivalent of "could you wait outside please", while the Google cached version offers the prospect of entry for four quid, or sixteen quid if you get your tea, too...

ITS ALL ABOUT THE EYELINER: The usually reliable Sean ExRental put us onto Corporation Blend, and while we don't know what they sound like, we do know that they're gorgeous, and, according to the travisgonnadie list, they're so good they will make you have to go home and change your undergarments. Yay.

IT'S COMING UP TO A QUARTER PAST ONE: Now that Sky's Digiboxes can swap channels for you, and Paramount are re-running Seinfeld while I'm at work (or, more accurately, riding an over-crammed Arriva bus to nowhere), I'm catching lots of tantalising bits of other channels in the gap between video clicking on, and channel swapping over. Like, yesterday, there was just this so cute looking chap sat on TOTP@play, being interviewed... Yum. Wayne out of Thirteen:13. The band came across as nice lads, too, and were polite enough to only look mildly discomforted when compared to Travis and Coldplay
Thirteen:13 site - sigh... when will bands stop using their press releases as biogs?

CD REVIEWS UP: Proof that reviewing records isn't the cakewalk you think it - we spent an evening at ink listening to new stuff from the Bunnymen, Muse, JJ72 and others... and there was very little stuff in there to make your heart sing. The Bunnymen album in particular was a real disappointment.
Bunnymen review and links to others

WEBRING DAY: This indieblog webring looks to be pretty edge-of-the-foil box:

Indieblogs

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COINCIDENCE IS THE LITTLE CHEF THAT MAKES US STOP ON THE JOURNEY OF LIFE: Just as I was wondering if it'd be worth firing up blogger to record how quickly and deeply the new Catatonia track stone by stone had grown on me, it came on the radio, so I figure now I'm obligated, don't you? What sounded on first hearing to merely be overblown now is clearly anthemic and quite, quite beautiful. And I find myself in agreement with Chris Moyles, which is a pain but these things unite us.

CHRIS MOYLES, YOU ARE A TALENTLESS BUFFOON and your acolytes should hang their heads in guffaw-shame

TAKING THE PISS: Currently taking the piss, quite clearly:
Travis - the new single is laughable, even by their standards. "Sing, sing, sing, for the love you bring, sing, sing sing" sounds like nothing so much as Baldrick's "boom, boom, boom" poem
Basement Jaxx - oh, yeah, aint they smart? No, they've just released a single S Club 7 would blush to lipsynch to...

EMI CD DOWNLOAD DEAL DONE: - within the year, apparently, we'll be able to download radiohead cds without ever having to leave the house. Which is good news for people who like Radiohead CDs, it has to be said.

YAHOO SEARCH QUERY: So, I just idly typed "mascara music" into Yahoogroups search engine earlier, and it suggested I might be looking for groups about Tanita Tickaram. I can assure you I wasn't...

XRRF IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Life Without Buildings
Angelica
Dexadrina

WHO'S GOT THE MILLION QUID TACKLE?: In a rare burst of equal ops, Music365 has followed up it's "How much would you pay to put Mylene Popstar's tits in your magazine" survey by getting the editor of Euroboy to, ahem, size-up bloke popstar's attractiveness to the gay "community" -in cash terms. Thus, we learn that Robbie Williams is apparently worth five million quid, and Noel and Danny Hear'Say together may get a million, but he fully expects Noel to have fallen back on a career of porn anyway in a few years. Tom Jones is too "specialist", Lenny Kravitz is a "straight women's fantasy" - not any of the straight women we know, mate; and Liam plus Noel would cost the same as Liam on its own.
The prices in full - So, Ronan: Not butch enough; Stephen Gateley, however, is?

UNINTENTIONAL HILARITY: Or, ignoring mote and beam jibes, we pick on smaller, poorly written websites: Ash - currently, they're from Northern Ireland...

BLANK HOLIDAY: Amongst the falling-overs this bank holiday weekend have been Music Choice on Sky - which never got beyond the opening page (for the first time since the reformat, I've been glad the new system won't let me deselect the ghost Alt Rock channel), and anything bothsidesnow web-related, including ink magazine's site. Which is a bit of a pain. On the plus side, X-fm have been playing I-Monster heavily, the perfect soundtrack to a dreamy, sunny bank holiday Monday.

"YOU CAN SEE ALL THAT FOR A SHILLING": Steven Sheilds, editor of so-classy-it's-wipe-clean stroke mag Mayfair, has been asked by Music 365 to price up, erm, pop totty according to what he'd be happy to shell out to get 'em on the top shelf. So we learn that the girls from Hear'Say are worth half a million if they'd touch each other up, but a few quid on their own; Madonna has flashed herself out of the market and if Kylie wants to unlock her five million value, "we'd have to see a bit of minge." Poor sales of the recent album shouldn't upset the Spice Girls - if they can persuade Gerri to be hogtied and slapped on the arse until it's as red as her shiny pink face (and, lets face it, someone persuaded her to do the equally undignified Its Raining Men cover), they can bank two million.
"I'd like some hot tonguing action" - yeah, wouldn't we all...
Usual modelling rates - so, thats where the term "continental breakfast" comes from...

SONY, HAPPY PEOPLE: At last night's Sony awards (the self-styled British Radio Oscars, of course), Radio 2 won Station of the Year while Mark and Lard took the daily music award or somesuch. But Radio One did pretty feebly, perhaps deservedly being frozen out after twelve months of developing shows based on presenters as faceless and talentless as they are usually surnameless. C'mon, for example: Nemone is sitting in for Jo Wylie, who is on maternity leave (at least a move forward from the time then-controller Johnny Beirling asked Janice Long if she could juggle a half hour show and being a mother.) Who is Nemone? What makes it more frustrating is Simon Mayo left the station expecting a swift debut at Five Live, only to be held off starting by the delay to the election...

SHUT UP, YOU'RE AN EMBARRASMENT: Thank god for that Christopher Walken video for the Fatboy Slim single. At least it means that that side of the single is getting the attention, rather than the dire *69... Talking of *69, which was also an REM, what on earth was that Peter Buck airrage incident all about? Clearly he must have got over-excited watching the Foo Fighters video or something. Are *69 the band still going? I liked them. My head hurts.

LISTENING POST: Our ears, our ears. Recently we've become fond of Dreampop Guitars and Girlsolider Radio over at Live365 - shoe and SHOO! respectively. When we're not burning the company cash, the newlook Music Choice alt rock channel is still as good as ever - although we could have done without 20 minutes of Semisonic last night. As we write, it's Madder Rose thats filling our cortex. Yum...