Freelance Writer: comedy and pop culture2024-09-21T23:35:52+01:00

Freelance writer specializing in comedy and the geekier end of the pop culture spectrum.

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Expletive Deleted, Deletion Retreated

It's a bit late in the day, but I can't talk about The Pogues without at least mentioning the recent brouhaha over the re-release of their classic seasonal hit Fairytale of New York (AKA The Greatest Goddamn Christmas Song Ever).In case you missed it, BBC Radio 1 hit the headlines exactly a week before Christmas Day when they announced that they would censor the song for broadcast. The offending lyrics were embedded in the song's penultimate verse, in which Shane MacGowan memorably exchanged a barrage of earthy insults with the late Kirsty MacColl: You're a bumYou're a punkYou're an old [...]

The Pogues, Birmingham Academy, 16th December 2007

I went to see The Pogues the other week. Really, I did.I suppose I should write a review or something, but it all seems a bit redundant. A Pogues gig is everything you'd expect a Pogues gig to be, only moreso. It was boozy, bawdy, boisterous and - by bloody bejaysus - it was a whole lot of fun.This wasn't the first time I'd seen them live, and it won't be the last. At least, I pray God it won't be the last. Shane turned 50 on Christmas day and has spent most of those years living on a diet [...]

I’ve been quiet again

Enjoy the silence, because it won't last. There's a reason for this, of course. There's always a reason.I'm hammering the keys of my bruised and woe-begotten laptop at 3.15 am on Christmas morn. There's a reason for that, too, but it's not what you might think. I've just finished building my brother Rob's Christmas present. I hope he likes it. My brother Rob - AKA, Brother Younger - is somewhat more practical and pragmatic than me. He's a carpenter by trade, and a very good one at that. He enriches people's lives through the medium of wood and when he [...]

Retina Burn

Rol tells it like it is:And finally, why is it that when you get one of the aforementioned crap-headlight types behind you, and slowing down to let them pass has no effect, they're always going to the exact same place as you? You keep thinking, they're bound to turn off here, they're bound to turn off there, but no, they're with you all the way. All the way to your office parking space, all the way home to your very driveway / garage / onstreet parking area. I'm surprised they don't follow you inside and ask for a cup of [...]

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