I've just bought, on eBay, the Flying Burrito Brothers album The Last of the Red Hot Burritos. Vinyl - I've never seen it available in digital format. This is an album from which I've only ever heard one track once - on the radio nearly 40 years ago (on John Peel show actually), which in my memory was a blistering version of 6 Days on the Road. It's been in my mind to get hold of this album ever since, but has taken me this long. I was just idly browsing eBay, going through a vague mental list of wanted music and this item was first up under the Burrito Brothers, so I felt compelled to go for it. I hope I'm not disappointed !

Football ‘s been a fairly regular topic on the site lately and generates some strong opinions. Clearly perspectives can be coloured by the team you support – and even more so by clubs you despise. Are you prepared to declare your interests ?
Speaking for myself I’m a West Ham follower with a particular dislike of the current version of Manchester United (Ferguson, Ronaldo, the general arrogance that seems to permeate the club, Rooney’s petulance, the fact that they keep winning trophies etc).
Which team do you support – and which ones most irritate you ?

In the latest Word mag Keifer Sutherland (I wonder if anyone ever calls him Keef ?) says he doesn't own an ipod because he'd rather listen to individual albums. He mentions Rumours and a couple of Elton John records as examples of albums which make sense throughout, ie where "each song informs the next one" and where the overall album has an individual feel. As opposed to selecting only certain songs "and stringing them together on an ipod"

Apart from the fact that in practice you can obviously listen to complete albums in their entirety on an ipod if you choose, I have mixed feelings on this.

When I was young and had relatively few records I tended to play both sides of a record all through and appreciated the album as a whole. This was partly because I didn't have that much choice then of what to play anyway, but also probably because the old 40 minute LP had less filler and albums were generally stronger. But even at that time I'm not sure that the majority of albums really held together consistently (though old favourites like Blood on the Tracks, Desperado, Astral Weeks, Ziggy Stardust etc clearly did). And in recent years there have been very few albums released where I could be bothered to play every track.

On the other hand I also enjoy the random quality of an ipod on shuffle, for the same reason that I've always enjoyed the nature of radio, where you don't know what's going to be played next.

Apologies if this has been debated before on this site, but any thoughts ?