I think I own one "Concept Album" as "Setting Sons" by The Jam is often described as such and a damn fine album it is too. Are there any other good ones out there?

Mourinho and the Diamonds
The Dion Dublinners
Lady Gazza
Any others?

This song has been rattling around in my head for the last few weeks. On a lazy Sunday afternoon and in the spirit of the "Sundays like they used to be" thread it seems a perfect time to share it.

I've given in to my cold and come home early from work. I would like to take the time to share the story of a middle aged man and his pink guitar. It took 42 of my 44 years to finally decide I wanted to learn how to play guitar, so with my usual care and consideration I bought a pink acoustic from e-bay for £80 as I thought it would be more wife friendly and The Usborne "Learn To Play Guitar" book. "This will be a piece of cake" I thought, the Usborne book expected me to be patient and learn each stage before I moved on to the next, pah! So I typed Del Amitri into www.ultimate-guitar.com and began trying to learn "Tell Her This" and so it has continued for 2 years. I can now play A, C, D, G, AM, EM and a few other simple chords. I cannot play bar chords, if I place my index finger across the first fret I cannot get the rest of my fingers anywhere near the neck, it's like there's a magnetic field that I just can't breach. I can't pluck, only strum I just don't have the mental agility or dexterity to co-ordinate my fingers to hold strings down with one hand while plucking with the other and what's more I can't be arsed to learn. I've also had to fit a capo on the first fret because the strings are so high it hurts my fingers to the point that the ends were almost bleeding, I don't think it helps the tuning. Suffice to say I've learnt half a dozen Dels songs (occasionally exchanging an F for AM) and a few others. Among them an acoustic version of "Livin On A Prayer" and my current favourite an acoustic version of "Poker Face". So my guitar playing, with a voice like a drain brings a resigned indifference from the wife and innocent patronising from the kids that is unbearable "sounds great Dad" as they close the door to their room and turn up Vampire Weekend. Despite this I have an ambition to appear on "Britains Got Talent" under my Dave Amitri pseudonym because although in my heart I know I am bloody useless, in my head I sound like this.

The obligatory end of post question is this, are there any other popular yet simple tunes you can recommend I should learn. No bar chords or difficult plucking allowed.

Got a stinking cold, just in from work, straight out in a minute to take under 14's football training and I've got to go into work tomorrow (really I'm no hero, it's what anyone would do).Any remedies that will work better than my vodka and Paracetamol method or my wifes "get on with it you wimp" approach?

Well I can tell you. I work with a beer drinking, rugby loving Irish girl who is forever having nights on the lash seeing a band in various pubs, clubs and bars in West London. It turns out they are The Bible Code Sundays fronted by Elvis Costellos brother, Ronan. They have been described as "The Clash on Irish steroids". As I know there are some hardcore EC fans here and a few London Irish I thought this might be of interest.

www.biblecodesundays.co.uk

Talking about booking the family holiday tonight, probably me and the wife taking a tour of Cornish skate parks again with our boys. It got me thinking about the very different holidays of my youth and this. Of course if you would like to share yours........

Gran Canaria 1988

Eric B and Rakim "Paid In Full"

It's late, I'm catching up on the cricket and I have a tube of EXTREME Fiery Wasabi Pringles to compliment my beer. How the fuck do I get the last ones out? I can't get my hand in the tube and as soon as I tip it up both me and the lap top get covered in crumbs! The wife has gone to bed so I'm resorting to tipping the tube back and drinking them, hasn't really helped. What idiot put crisps in a tube? Any other modern designs that are really stupid?

In the short time I've been part of our little community I have followed and contributed to threads on almost every major act of the last 50 years. The Beatles, Stones, Cliff, Dylan, Springsteen, Bowie, Prince the list goes on right up to Gaga. However there has been very little if anything written about Elvis Presley. Is he irrelevant now? Do we just remember him as a fat Vegas sideshow? Has he just moved out of our sphere of reference? Is he more relevant to an older generation? I have vivid memories of my dad's friends and his generation with the bad Elvis quiffs that they continued to wear as their hair thinned, much like the footballer Frank Worthington. I only know the songs we all know, seen the films we've all seen and the stories we've all read maybe that's it, there's nothing left to be said. What I do know is that of all the "moments" of poular music history the one I would most like to able to say "I was there" about is the beginning of the Elvis phenomenon. Just Imagine being a teenager in the 50's and hearing this for the first time? Completely mind blowing

Reading through todays username amnesty thread it appears that some of us desire internet anonymity. Indeed my name change is partly paranoia that someone, somewhere might put me and my inane witterings together but mainly it is work related. By coincidence my name came up today on the monthly internet usage report at work, bearing in mind it can only be used for social purposes before 9, between 12 and 1 and after 5.30 it's quite an achievemnet, no doubt I'll be called into my managers office to explain. Anyway that's very mild and I'm sure some of you can do better. So let's open the confession box again for your internet misdemeanours.

I heard this today for the first time, it is an unexpected treat. Acoustic with a great melody, good lyrics and an interesting vocal from someone best known for a more agressive delivery.

It's been a long winter, there has been a dark grey cloud overhead all day and my boys have had another football match called off tomorrow because of a waterlogged pitch. I've had enough, so I'm taking off on a musical trip around the world, in true Phileas Fogg style I'm going "Up Up and Away In My Beautiful Balloon" care of The 5th Dimension

And my first stop is "Paris" care of Friendly Fires, where next?

Paul Weller has a new single out, he won the God Like Genius award at the NME's, there will be headlines about The Modfather. Why just mod? What about other musical genres, do they not deserve a father figure? Who's The Popfather, The Jazzfather or The Progfather? In the interest of equality what about The Discomother or even The Rockmother? Who's the head of your favourite musical household?

I was trying to describe my thoughts on Midlakes “The Courage Of Others” on another thread and it occurred to me that Jilly Goolden would have done it so much better.

This interesting little album makes me think of sitting in a dark damp forrest, the smell of woodsmoke in the air and the feel of a moss covered rock on hessian clad buttocks. It has an essence of
Tubular Bells, there’s a hint of Radiohead in there with a slight Clannad aftertaste. It evokes memories of some of those old 70’s favourites your dad used to enjoy with his pipe in his sandals and kaftan. It‘s probably best enjoyed on your own with a mug of mead and some roast boar in a wild mushroom sauce in front of an open fire. It’s not an instant favourite but if you persevere it’s a delicious treat you will return to again and again.

Or something like that. There are some wonderful wordsmiths here that I’m sure could do a much better job than me so take a big swig of an album from the racks in your cellar and come over all Jilly Goolden and tell us what you think of it.

I thought about this a couple of weeks ago when one hit wonders were being discussed and it came up again during the "Time to Grow" thread. There is a history of bands or artists that were the best since....., best breakthroughs, best newcomers or the future of music. They produced one great album with 3, 4 or 5 hits that we all bought and then they vanished, gone forever and destined only to appear in the line up round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, to let us know that they are "working on new material". In some cases there may have been a second album but it never registered and we probably wouldn't recognise a single song on there. My One Album Wonder nominee is Terence Trent Darby, one truly astonishing album "Introducing The Hard Line According To TTD" then nothing, he vanished completely off my radar after that. A quick Wikipedia search shows there were other albums but he never reached those dizzy heights again. Who's your one album wonder?

"Wishing Well" from that album was and still sounds brilliant.