ClaRK! Kent

D'Arcy is probably the purist's choice, yeah, but you'd have to ask her if she'd want to go back into the band with Billy after all of the stuff that went down at the end of her tenure with the Pumpkins, the drugs, etc. She's got a new career now, and she's probably doing okay for herself. Would she want to return to the atmosphere of the Pumpkins given how she left it? I'm not so sure. MAdM is your more realistic choice, really, although Booker T has a point that it might be a problem for her to give up her creative freedom for it. Either way, I hope it does better than Zwan, because they were gloriously short-lived and disappointing. Has anybody heard TheFutureEmbrace yet? It's absolutely fan-fucking-tastic, Corgan puts all of the half-assed over-commercialised post-grunge American bands to shame in the first few tracks, let alone the entire album. Yes, I'm talking to you, Pennywise.

I agree entirely with Zero. A Pumpkins reunion would be amazing. The best American band of the 1990s reforming would be worth all of the bilge that the continent has turned out in the last year or so. Ten times over. As Booker T said though, you'd have a hard time getting James and Billy sitting down now. The problem is that Billy is a total Nazi when it comes to being in control, he's a total megalomaniac. I've heard TheFutureEmbrace, and it's definitely a marked improvement on Zwan IMO, mostly because he had total freedom to boss everybody who worked on it around from the perspective of being a soloist, I imagine. D'Arcy's work was totally and utterly outclassed by Auf der Maur's bass on the farewell tour (prove me wrong, I dare ya) and Auf der Maur is probably one of the best bass players you could get your hands on these days. She's got her own solo career now, and a damn fine one, but she does owe her entire musical career to Billy Corgan as it was he who reccommended her to Courtney Love, and drafted her into the Pumpkins, and introduced her to Josh Homme who helped her get her through the door with her solo stuff. Out of loyalty to him, she might be swayed. It'd be a difficult thing to make happen, but it'd make my musical year if it did.

I assume he'd write a fair few, seeing as he's the script editor/head writer/producer/it's his project.

I imagine he'll return in the next series, as he was a highlight of the last few episodes. They'll make some reference to him at least, Russel T. Davies isn't the sort to just abandon his characters if he's left it open. I enjoyed that episode, for a hastily re-written ending it wasn't bad, and you got the Doctor/Rose kiss that has been building for 3 months so I guess that's nice at least. David Tenant is a fantastic actor IMO, and if they give him a good personality and a decent wardrobe I think he'll fit right in as the Doctor. We'll see at Christmas, I guess. I don't think the Emperor Dalek will return, as it showed his ship being reduced to atoms, although an online interview with the Producer said that yes, they would be back in the next series or the third series which has been confirmed, as it's pointless not to have them.

It's a free country, yes Tristy, but you've got to admit - whether you like Brian Wilson or not - that Flowers is being wildly hypocritical and frankly has ideas above his station with regard to criticising Wilson's creativity. I doubt that, when he wrote 'Pet Sounds' and 'Smile' amongst others, Brian Wilson felt the need to thumb through a back catalogue of records from 2 decades previously and nick the keyboard hooks.

They're pretty obviously huge morons, in all fairness, and I've found it hard to defend them on the grounds that I like their music. I have a far less impressive story than Zero, but anyway... At the NME Awards Tour 2005, in February, I got tickets for a friend and me as it was her 18th birthday on the night of the gig and she absolutely adored the band. Seeing as we didn't have to be in school that day, and she was really excited, we went into Bristol at about 10am to get some lunch and generally just hang out, although we were at the Academy by about 12:45 because she wanted to catch a glimpse of/meet the band, as girls are known to do. So, we're there - apart from me making the ocassional trip to the pub across the street - for about 7 hours or so, at the dead front, by the time we're let in, and we've been talking to the security/venue people who were all really nice, etc. We go in, watch the bands, and come out, where I buy my friend a T-shirt as a birthday present and we hang around hoping to meet the bands, which it's notoriously easy to do at the Academy. We met the Kaiser Chiefs, and I saw Ross from the Futureheads at the bar during Bloc Party's set and chatted to him for a bit. All nice as anything, etc, and the next day Bloc Party had a note on their forum apologising to the fans at that show for not meeting-and-greeting because they had to get to an album signing in Brighton at 10am the next day. Fair enough. I'm chatting to the security guard, and he tells me this story about how Brandon came in the back way at about 4pm, and didn't have an artist's pass, which you need to get in before about 6pm to prove you're in the band. The guard tells him he can't come in, Brandon apparently asks "don't you know who I am?" and the guard tells him no he doesn't, he's not into indie. Brandon proceeds to throw a hissy fit and storm off, promising to get the security guard fired. By the time we come out, my friend is mega-excited, it's about 11:30 by this time, and the security guard finally decides to go tell the band that there is a huge fan outside who has been waiting all day to see them and just wants her T-shirt signed. He comes out 2 minutes later, saying that the band had told him to fuck off, and one guy - the guitarist with the fro - eventually came out and signed her shirt/my poster. He was a total dick about it, like it was the biggest chore in the world, and he had so many better things to be doing. Simply put, I like their music but as people they leave a lot to be desired. Compared to the Futureheads, Bloc Party, and Kaiser Chiefs, who were on that tour and pleasant as punch to us, the Killers really don't know how to look after their fans and it pisses me off. My friend was mega-upset and it's a shame, because she adores them and it was a really nasty wake-up call to her - "oh, my favourite band are fuckwits." Brian Wilson, by comparison, was beautiful during the 'Smile' show I saw and thanked us all for having him about 10 times. Brandon Flowers is a cunt.

Whoa. I guess you can see where Brandon is coming from re: the effect of drugs, because they did fuck Brian Wilson up beyond all recognition - the book that he wrote in the 1980s and then forgot that he'd written, the 8 years in his house, etc - but to call him an egomaniac is a bit harsh. I saw the Brian Wilson 'Smile' tour last year, and he was nothing if not pleasant and humbled throughout, and in the interviews I've seen of his then he seems fairly laid back and down-to-earth for a man who has written some of the best music ever and also gone on a crazy decade-long drug trip. I like the Killers, but that shot was one too far. It seems like Brandon's feeling a bit threatened by the Bravery and is just saying any old 'shocking' thing to get back into the NME, these days.

As a Morrissey fan, I would echo his sentiment with regard to Tori Amos. As far as I can remember, she's never written anything that wasn't insanely forgettable and generally dull. Morrissey bashing tends to be quite a fun sport amongst his non-fans, but then he/his fans don't tend to care or listen to it, so I guess it's water off of a duck's back really. He's kind of a national institution now anyway, like the Royal Family or the pound, so we let him go about his eccentric and pretentious ways (yeah, he is that, but who cares?) and just generally let him get on with it, really. And Morrissey didn't give birth to 'emo faggots' as fineintent put it - he inspired bands like Radiohead, Suede, Shed 7, the Cranberries and a whole host of other early-90s bands like them, all of whom I like. They lead the way for the 'emo faggots' of the world, especially Radiohead and Suede. As for his music, it's something people won't ever agree on because such is the subjectiveness of music, but for what it's worth I think he's the best songwriter since John Lennon, and the best British songwriter alive today, if not the best in the world. That's just IMO, though. Although if you hate him and have never listened to an album all the way through, I'd recommend The Queen is Dead by the Smiths, or the solo album Viva Hate as both include some of the best songwriting/music of the 1980s.

There's a Dr. Who novel, featuring the second doctor, which is essentially a Captain Scarlet/Spectrum rip-off thing, featuring what are Mysterons but not actually called Mysterons. The Doctor just drops in for a bit. It's weird. I'll try to find the title out for you, NBT.

Only in this bizzaro-world, Russel T. Davies-written series would the Time Lords be bred from humans, probably to make it more acceptable that he fancies Rose, which is a whole other chestnut. One of my neighbours' brothers is a real Dr. Who nut, he writes books on it and stuff, and he's having a field day with continuity fuck-ups in every episode of the new series. To put it in his words, as I spoke to him at a barbecue the other day, "this new series is good for a bit of light entertainment, but it's about as accurate as the Hitler Diaries." So, yes.

Ah, but nobody suggested Blink 182 or the 'Cotton Eyed Joe' people were anything other than overhyped comedy acts, did they? Well, a lot of kids did with Blink - although I did like their last 2 albums, the 'grown-up' ones - but still... It just hurts my soul when people verbally felate Chris Martin for having had 1 half-decent album, 1 over-produced soulless piece of commercial twattery, and what looks set to be a third album full of riffs stolen from their own songs. Yet this man breaks America? Egads.

So all those people are now Time Lords? Or his race will be re-built by the nanogenes? Either way is just implausible enough to be Dr Who, actually.

The Crazy Frog caused you to break your TV? Could you sue, d'you think? Or at least tell BBC Points of View?

Meaning what, exactly? I doubt the Doc is gonna end up getting with Rose, is he? That's too obvious, Russel T. Davies wouldn't do something like that surely? Besides, the Doc is half-human. If he made it with Rose, the kid would only be 1/4-Time Lord anyway. Not exactly something to base a race on. Unless you mean something else entirely?

Yeah, as bubble-pop goes they were tolerable. I'll agree with you about Akon though. The weird chipmunk-style voices on his "Lonely" song annoy the Hell outta me. Perhaps the album is full of better material?

Clasically-trained in the sense that I was taught the traditional, "pay lots of money to a guy and he'll teach you" rather than the more modern "I'll teach myself" way. Perhaps a slight misuse of the term, probably. So yeah, I played some 'classical' stuff when I was learning piano, but I mostly play piano within the context of my own music now. It's not great, but that's the problem with writing music of your own - you can be as 'technically' talented as you like, but it means nothing when it comes to being creative with it! Alas. I'm not really into classical stuff myself, although I'm quite fond of Bach. His B-Minor Mass, if you haven't heard it, is incredibly moving. RK/ZB

Bastard Yank. I hate punk, RW, well - anything that calls itself punk these days, at least. I have a very strong, seething hatred for Green Day and suchlike. 12 years on the guitar isn't supposed to impress anybody, it's supposed to provide a background to what I'm talking about, ie - the level of music training I have. Just a fact. And there's nothing pseudo about my intellectualism, biatch. RK/ZB!

Excellent. Next time I have a spare twenty quid and am in Bristol, I shall nose around Game for 'em. RK/ZB!

Ah. Bad console conversion? Figures. How old are they? My new PC was upper-middle-of-the-line when we bought it in January, but I'm already seeing games out that have a minimum RAM of about twice what I have. RK/ZB!

I've never played the Fallout games. What format are they on? If they're on PS/PS2/PC, I might check them out now that I'm getting paid more. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has quite a nice opening sequence, IMO. It's a bit kitsch, but I like that sort of thing. GTA: San Andreas. Better than the other ones, hands down, because you actually care about your character once it's over. RK/ZB!

Doom metal? Interesting. A lot of more 'alternative' artists don't get the recognition because their style is very far removed from what seems to be your basic "this is a well-written song" theory (ie: the Lennon/McCartney mould, arguably) or whatever. Which is why I included Muse, Hope of the States, and Patrick Wolf in there. Has anybody else heard of Patrick Wolf, or is it just me/my friends? RK/ZB!

Ooops. Well, most then. Grr. You either love or hate Doherty it seems, so I won't argue with you on that one. I like Kapranos' style a lot, he's very witty and good at what he does, so that's where I'm coming from there. Martin just annoys the Hell out of me, really. Alas. RK/ZB!

I like the Rock Box. ZE MAN SPEAKS SENSE. RK/ZB!

Don't play the "musical ear" card with me, RW. I've played guitar for about 12 years now, and piano for 6, and I can safely say that whilst, yes - Coldplay's songs obviously aren't exactly the same, that's an exaggeration, and they have the odd shift in tempo - the overall mood of the songs are incredibly similar and dull. It's not about the technical construction of the song, which seems to be all Chris Martin and his classically-trained ilk (ie: Athelete, etc) can really aspire to, it's about how the song sounds and the feel of it, and IMO Coldplay are incredibly samey. They use the same piano scale for almost the entire second album, there's a bit of classically-trained music trivia for you. As fineintent noted, commercial success doesn't equal talent, else we wouldn't even have this thread bitching about the fucking Crazy Frog in the first place. The majority of the British public wouldn't know musical talent if punched them repeatedly in the face, as evidenced by our charts, our choice of Eurovision entry, and the fact that the Spice Girls have sensed that the musical climate is right for them to reunite. I don't think I'm particularly funny for playing the "Coldplay release second tune" card, no, but it's a point that has some weight behind it. Chris Martin's songwriting is flawed at best, IMO. He's got a lot of weaknesses, which he usually hides behind his elevator music/easy listening piano licks and guitar-by-numbers guitarist (who isn't him, it's a different member of the band) to get by. I quite liked "Trouble" and "Yellow" as songs, but once you realise that they're essentially a one-trick pony, then it loses its appeal for me. When did the British people become so neutered to passion, emotion, and raw talent that Chris Martin become some sort of demi-God for songwriting to aspire to? Jesus H. Christ, that's a sad situation. If you want better songwriters, in Britain/British, than Chris Martin, then I'll name a few here, in no particular order... Morrissey, Peter Doherty, Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Patrick Wolf, Nick Drake, Kele Okerke, Thom Yorke, Robert Plant, Robert Smith, Alex Kapranos/Bob Hardy, Matt Bellamy, David Bowie, Sam Herhily, etc. That's just a few off the top of my head. Most, if not all of them, are still writing songs/active today, so there's no excuse for saying Chris Martin is our best songwriter. RK/ZB!