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Midday Contracts Leaflets

Manchester...so much to answer for

I went to Manchester for a stag do this weekend. As I was best man I put together a Manchester Survival Kit. In it I included a CD compilation of Manchester bands. Tracklisting as follows:

Rock 'n' Roll Star - Oasis
Elephant Stone - The Stone Roses
William It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
Montevideo - Alfie
Reverend Black Grape - Black Grape
Not Nineteen Forever - The Courteeners
Then - The Charlatans
The Cedar Room - Doves
On A Day Like This - Elbow
Get The Message- Electronic
There's A Ghost In My House - The Fall
Wrote For Luck - Happy Mondays
This Is How It Feels - Inspiral Carpets
Hymn From A Village - James
Pacific 202 - 808 State
Atmosphere - Joy Division

Thankfully the weekend was a success. It's was pretty hard organising a stag do in a city I didn't know but everyone seemed to have a good time. We managed to get through 10 different bars. My favourite was called Big Hands. Pavement, Pixies and Sonic Youth on the jukebox. The worst was a heavy metal pub. I never want to go into a pub that has Pantera next to Sepultura on the jukebox ever again!

Just got to write my speech now!

Bargain!!!

The Complete West Wing: Seasons 1-7 (44 Disc Box Set)

The West Wing box set collection arrived over the weekend. A bargain from Amazon at only £73.97 for 44 DVDs.

Just need to find a spare 112 hours to watch it all!

Reading...

That's Me In The Corner by Andrew Collins

Like a Team GB Gold Medal Cyclist I smashed my previous reading record by 3 days. Heaven Knows I'm miserable now by Andrew Collins was completed in just 14 days. The book captures the spirit of '80's college life and follows the author falling in love with The Smiths, meeting The Cocteau Twins and getting his first assignment from the NME.

I'm now on with his final book - That's Me In The Corner

Listening to...

Love Is Noise - The Verve
Great comeback single from The Verve. I Love Nick McCabe's subtle, understated guitar work.

It's the group's first single in 5 years and is the first track to be taken from the group's new album 'Forth' out on August 25th.

I wonder how long they will last this time.

No Star Wars here

Another Year, Another Poll
Empire magazine are doing a 500 greatest films poll here
Here's what I voted for:
1. The Godfather Part 1
2. The Godfather Part 2
3. The Usual Suspects
4. Goodfellas
5. 12 Angry Men
6. Jurassic Park
7. Pulp Fiction
8. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Taxi Driver
10. Jaws

Reading...

I Finished the first installment of Andrew Collins memoirs "Where Did It All Go Right?".

I managed to get through it in only 17 days which is pretty good when you have a nine month old baby boy! In fact I finished in at 3.30am on Tuesday morning as the boy was up most of the night crying!

I really enjoyed the book and have now started the 2nd part "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now". Let's see if I can beat the 17 days record.

Andrew Collins is an English journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster. You can check out his website and blog here.

Five from the Pod

A slow work day so another 5 from the pod
1. Sunshine and Clouds - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
2. Supersonic - Oasis
3. A Great Drinker - The Wonder Stuff
4. I'll Sing A Hymn - The Charlatans
5. Luxury Pool - Neon Neon

What a shame...

Drogba to miss the start of the football season
Oh dear. Poor Didier Drogba fell over and hurt his knee. Bless him. The cheating, diving wanker.

My Favourite...

20 bands
Too difficult to do 10 so it had to be 20. The top 3 always remain the same. The others change on a monthly basis!
1. The Smiths/Morrissey
2. The Stone Roses
3. The Beatles
4. Billy Bragg
5. Manic Street Preachers
6. New Order
7. The Strokes
8. Kings of Leon
9. Belle & Sebastian
10. Suede
11. The Boo Radleys
12. Led Zeppelin
13. The Pixies
14. The Clash
15. Arctic Monkeys
16. Radiohead
17. Happy Mondays
18. Kingmaker
19. Super Furry Animals
20. The Sleepy Jackson

Artist Of The Month...August 2008

Beck
Each month I will be looking back over my record collection (Can you still call it a record collection when nowadays it's all CD's and Mp3's? Well, record collection sounds cooler to me anyway) and choosing an artist to celebrate for the month. Beck has the honour of my first Artist of the Month accolade.

If you only buy one Beck album in your lifetime then Odelay, released in 1996 is the one. The others in order of greatness are:

1 - Odelay - 1996
2 - Mutations - 1998
3 - Modern Guilt - 2008
3 - Guero - 2005
4 - Sea Change - 2002
5 - Midnite Viltures - 1999
6 - The Information - 2006
7 - Mellow Gold - 1994