Still typing...

...on that old Olivetti. Plus I bought a new one! And I will do another typecast v.soon, promise. Until then, please accept this, from me...

Charlie Williams - voice of reason

Hi, this is David Hasselhoff disguised as Christopher Lillicrap, guest-blogging for Charlie Williams. I just wanted to applaud Charlie's earlier post about the Pogues and Fairytale of New York, which has resulted in BBC Radio 1 going back on their censorship decision and reverting to the original version of the song, which includes the words "faggot", "slut", and "cunt". Charlie deserves a lot of credit for wading in on this row and bringing home the right result. You should go out and buy his books as a gesture of gratitude.

You cheap lousy homosexual

I mean, for fuck's sake. Presumably they deem it OK to say "you're an old slut on junk?" But fret not, you can get it in all its terrifyingly offensive glory here:

The Smiths

With great pleasure I announce that my story SWEET AND TENDER HOOLIGAN is going to be in the Smiths-themed anthology PAINT A VULGAR PICTURE (edited by Peter Wild and due from Serpent's Tail some time). The idea of the antho was to take a Smiths song and use it as inspiration for a story, using the title. I think I came up with one of my best stories. Look out for other music-themed anthos from The Fall and Sonic Youth.

Maximo Park

I don't often blog about music here, but today, just briefly, I will. These guys are fucking marvellous. If you're in Britain, hopefully you know that already. If not, check em out. I'm a fan of the Smiths, but I sometimes wish they could rock it a bit more. You feel Johnny Marr begging to go for it, and Morrissey putting a clammy hand on his arm and saying: "Johnny, that's unseemly." Maximo Park DO go for it. APPLY SOME PRESSURE is the biggest full-on rock out, while THE COAST IS ALWAYS CHANGING is probably the most Smithsonian.

Like a lot of other new bands, they leapt forth out of Later With Jools Holland. I'm often bored to tears with the stuff Jools puts on, but I keep watching in the hope of finding something decent. A lot of this "new new wave" (or whatever) guitar bands just don't have it for me - The Bravery, Kaiser Chiefs, etc... It all seems a bit "Hey chums, let's dress up in snappy suits and rip off a lot of stuff from circa 1980". To be honest, I felt that way about Franz Ferdinand when I first saw them, but I've been proven wrong there.

Anyway, I didn't get that with Maximo Park (despite one or two very dodgy haircuts). This may or may not be because of lines like "I'll do graffiti if you sing to me in French". Or maybe it's to do with the broad and undiluted accent of lead singer Paul Smith. Or maybe it was because they simply rocked the house (and put the hugely dull Robbie Williams well in the shade).