Bravenet must have gone down last night Cliff, seems to be working okay this morning.

Changing the subject completely (and just to keep Steve happy!), does anyone else think band names these days are incredibly boring or is it just me? Travis and Oasis appear to have spawned a plethora of short, uninspiring 'one word' bandnames - Doves, Elbow, Feeder, Vines, Hives, Westlife (sorry, that last one just slipped in!) - that unlike the Clash, Stranglers and our beloved Undertones before them don't appear to offer any real representation of the ‘feel’ of the music they're playing or the mood of the times it’s being played in. Not sure what this says about Coldplay if this were true (boring name, boring band) though I could hazard a good guess based on cold=uninviting. At least BRMC showed a bit of originality.

Could the band name issue be yet another part of the way music has moved. In the old days you could see kids getting together putting a lot of enjoyment in to it and spending their lives building the band. I'd guess a lot of thought would go into the band name and they'd fight to keep it even when record industry execs tried to make them change. Nowadays everything seemed manufactured for them - and probably even the name. Consequently everything gets watered down and the names become ones that managers or music industry bosses think might appeal to the mass public - watering down the names just like the music. In some cases I bet the name is thought of beore the people are actually chosen to be in the band.

Of course that is a vast generalisation for certain bands only. I am sure there are 'proper' bands building like in the old days. Maybe all the good names have been used.

1 week to go. Counting down the days now. Got a few work things to sort before I go but starting to think very clearly about those hazy Cornish skies, beaches full of glistening bodies, kids playing happily in the distance. Then I wake up and realise the haze is very dark from the black clouds overhead, the glisten is from the rain that blasted down before anyone had chance to get back to their raincoats and the kids aren't in the distance, they're constantly next to you asking to play this game and that. Oh how I'm looking forward to it. Wonder how Wilke's getting on?

I agree about stupid short one syllable band names but I think it started over 10 years ago with Ride, Lush, Pulp, Felt, James, etc. These one word, one syllable names became de riguer for most indie bands ever since.

Lee, I'm being a bit over optimistic packing 3 bikinis and the sun lotion then?

There once was a Scottish punk band who never became famous. I wonder if it had anything to do with their wonderfully in-the-spirit-of-the-times, but commercially suicidal, name of F*ck (without the asterisk). Seems they couldn't get any gigs cos no-one would advertise them. Shame.

I remember seeing a band from Bradford in the 80s called B*st*rd. They didn't do very well either.

Siouxsie & the Banshees (nice long name) were good at Barrowland last week. All very serious stuff and all that, but glad I went. No HKGarden though. It wasn't as busy as I thought it would be (David Byrne was busier), but then they don't have any new records out, which may have something to do with it. Now when The Undertones release the new single (soon?) there will be a good reason to play some UK gigs, and the punters will turn out! C'mon!!!

Whatever happened to Tommy Tate & The Torpedoes? Personally I don't mind bands with one name,I mean who could deny the influence on society today of 'Wham'

Yeah okay, unclench! But there's always Squeeze who were excellent.

Kids jokes vol 12: What do you get if you cross Al Capone with a vampire? .... A (wait for it).... Fangster.

I couldn't get on to Bravenet either last night, but to be honest I wanted an early night anyway. 3 bikinis and sun lotion, are you going for a month Lindsay? Did Siouxsie play any songs by the Creatures?

Bad move Arthur, my postings are going to go through the roof If we're doing kids jokes. My only concern is that I have to explain them to donald all the time! :)

Two pieces of string meet one day in the park and while one goes on the slide the other goes on the swings. They're having a great time until one string decides to go on the roundabout. After a while, the string feels really dizzy and falls off, scraping across the tarmac and making as tangled mess of one end and falling in a heap. The second string looked at him and sighed 'you're not very good on that roundabout are you?' The first string looked at himself and said 'I'm a frayed knot'. Whaaahhaaayyy

Ok Arthur (have you been on the shandy tonight by any chance?!) What's a vampire's favourite animal? A Giraffe. Who's the biggest gangster in the sea? Al Caprawn. How do you make a glow-worm happy? Cut off it's tail, it'll be de-lighted.

'Mummy' said the little lamb, 'can I go to an all-rams school when I'm five?', 'Don't be silly, darling' said his mother who was a very aristocratic sheep. 'That would be frightfully non-U'.

Just before the Ark set sail, Noah saw his two sons fishing over the side. 'Go easy on the bait, lads' he said. 'Remember I've only got two worms'!! Saved by BB....

Three mice were sitting at a bar talking about how tough they were. The first mouse slams a shot and says, 'I play with mouse traps for fun. I'll run into one on purpose and as it is closing on me, I grab the bar and bench press it 20 to 30 times.' And, with that, he slams another shot. The second mouse slams a shot and says, 'That's nothing. I take those poison bait tablets, cut them up, and snort them, just for the fun of it.' And, with that, he slams another shot. The third mouse slams a shot, gets up, and walks away. The first two mice look at each other, then turn to the third mouse and ask, 'Where the hell are you going?' The third mouse stops and replies, 'I'm going home to shag the cat.' DaaDaa

Before this site degenerates any further into sillydom, I'll try and get us back on track shall I! Alex, sorry but with the chatroom down last night I never got chance to ask your question about Oldcastle. I don't think anyone's going though are they? Is Vinny or Scottish Derek? Vinny's away so I doubt you'll get an answer in time. Not long now though - are you all getting excited yet?

I'm struggling to get a room in Oldcastle, everywhere is full. I know I left it late, but I'd be well pissed knowing they were playing 45 mins up the road and there was a chance of Vinny buying a round!!