Someone got me Bare Trees at the dawn of MacMania in the late 70s, having already gotten me the eponymous hit (but slightly pre-Rumours, if I remember correctly) and I had no idea what to make of it. Compared with the brash pop of Fleetwood Mac, it seemed soft and subdued, real watercolour stuff. Over the years,…

Of the newer series, I've only seen the Fisher Stevens episode, which I was so unimpressed with I gave the rest a miss.

The one with Donald Pleasence as a wine expert was always my favourite. He's utterly sympathetic and, when caught, Columbo drives him to the police station to turn himself in. and they share a bottle of wine the detective's brought. It's actually a really tender, sweet moment, and Pleasence - so well known for so…

I love "Cage the Songbird" - probably my favourite song from that album.

I had no intention to impugn the character of any fan — this is just the image that sprang to mind, resurfacing years after all the keggers I attended purely to see a live band (and I never got rushed, never was a fratboy myself, either).

I seem to have used an expression or a comparison that is already common coinage somewhere else for something else. Why is it not accurate? I'm happy to be corrected, but I'll need something to go on.

I've no idea — I believe I have one GBV album, but never really took to it and haven't listened to it for many years.

Yeah, sorry — I kind of defused the whole point of the title!

Sorry, is there really a genre called frat-boy rock? I just threw that out there and thought it was original. I stand corrected…

I am, most likely, the only person i the universe who absolutely loathed Boys and Girls in America for its frat-boy rock, the perfect accompaniment to a bunch of fratties waving their beers in the air and going "Woo -hoooo!!". It was my first experience of The Hold Steady, and my last. Having said that, this review…

I seem to remember a documentary being shown on US TV at the time, showing them rambling through the woods and Elton explaining his clothes and his dyed hair. I wonder if that's it.

I remember a DJ in the States saying something like "He could blow bubbles through a straw into his Maypo and it would be a hit at this point!". Personally, "West of the Rockies" was my turn-off point, one of those albums I got halfway through and thought "Hang on…I haven't heard ANYTHING I like!". I had hopes for…

Peter Hammill's "Nadir's Big Chance" from 1974, a punky, spikey riposte to the glam of Ziggy Stardust. Influential enough for Johnny Rotten to cite it as an influence on the Sex Pistols, as well as his work being influential for Mark E Smith, Graham Coxon and others.

I caught up with Sightseers recently and absolutely loved it - the first Wheatley film to really do it for me. What's not to like?

Much, much better than Magnolia. Classier, funnier, with better performances. See also: Dinner at Eight, another great ensemble film from that period.

Yes, sorry, I misread the brief - it won Best Foreign film, but not best picture. Apologies.

I can't believe none of you mentioned the unmitigated piece of crap that is "Life is Beautiful" or: Norman Wisdom Goes to Auschwitz.

I've seen him live a couple of times with Sugar, and I found him rather heavy-handed. All they subtleties and dynamics of their songs were steamrollered out by a wall of noise. I don't want to sound old, but they just lost all their characteristics and pretty much everything I loved about them.

This looks verrrry interesting. I really didn't like The Silver Age, considering it a relapse to the slabs of sound that he'd spent so much time and talent getting away from in the latter days of Husker Du and with Workbook, that it lacked any of the dynamics present in the later Husker Du and even on Black Sheets of…

I saw this when they showed it on TV (the same day it was released in cinemas and on DVD) and I think the review's actually being rather generous. While "The Guardian" newspaper over here raved about it, it's sister Sunday edition, "The Observer" called it something like "largely unwatchable". I found it incredibly…