Apparently REM played a cover of TK in Belfast last Friday as a tribute to Peel but Michael Stipe had to ask the audience to sing it because he didn't know the words. Shame on him.

This just appeared on the NME web site : THE UNDERTONES’ classic ’TEENAGE KICKS’ is to be released in its’ original 7” four-track vinyl format. The track, late DJ John Peel’s favourite song of all time, will be issued to herald the arrival of a double CD, also titled ’Teenage Kicks’, featuring a host of songs from the punk-pop era of the late Seventies. Both are out on April 4. The EP, limited to 1,000 copies, will feature the original 1978 tracklisting – the title track, ’Smarter Than U’, ’True Confessions’ and ’Emergency Cases’

David has just phoned me to say he can specify his start date for his new job. Thinks it might be a good idea if he has a couple of weeks off and goes over to the states after I've gone back to work in April. Grrrrr. THINK he was just joking.

Anybody checked flights to Chicago or California yet? Are these the full dates? If so, presumably the band will spend the extra days in New York after the concerts there and not San Jose.

Flights to NY from £206, Chicago £370 and San Fransisco £290. Also know there is a race in Central Park on the Sunday morning. I had planned to have a European holday in April but haven't found anything cheap yet, so the temptation is definitely there for NY. Don't need to do as much sightseeing either.

George you are turning into the Alan Whicker of the .net site :) Where did you see NY flights for £206????

What on earth is Jo Boxers and Dexy's Midnight Runners doing on the Teenage Kicks CD? Not exactly punk as I remember it.

Quick job update. Boss got as angry as I've ever seen his yesterday because I’d asked the person who beat me in the redundancy pool at work what score she got and she told me. He was so pissed off! Very satisfying. The man’s an idiot sometimes. It's all a charade anyway. I’m going to end up like Yosser Hughes.

And Blink 182 has split up. I hate February so much. All the crap things happen in February. Which month did the Undertones split up in originally? I seem to remember it was around April, but I was (of course) so traumatised that it could have been any month. However, I bet it was in February.