Weather: Cloudy start, turning into a very sunny, very humid, very sticky day. 26 is the top temp. It's all over for tomorrow, thank goodness.

Travel: A close shave this morning, as the train finally turns up 710, and only just makes it into the platform before Walsall wants its connection. But we make it, and no problems this evening.

Track of the day: Holler, the new Spice Girls track. So it's not jangly. So?

The revolution continues... panic buying drains most of the filling stations as most of the oil refineries are being picketed by arrogant lorry drivers. There are already reports of people throwing bricks and stones at the illegal blockades, and I can't see them carrying the public's sympathy for more than a few days. Give it till Thursday, perhaps, then Blair will send the big guns in.

chelle
i would like to refute k's claim that raspberry beret was a bad song, for no other reason than the fact that i dig it. :+)
Ah, this could be awkward. The Duke Of Darkness is venturing to suggest that the title, "Raspberry Beret," is amongst the worst of the decade. As I understand it, he is not commenting upon the content of the opus. I must concur with the Duke, and with the First Lady of Cool Things, that the tune in question is, undeniably, rather cool.

Now, if it's a crap title from the 80s you want, let me suggest such works as "The Birdie Song," "Agadoo," "Stars on 45," and "Atmosphere" (Russ Abbot, not Joy Division.) Silly names, and unforgivably naff records.

Kris lists her rotten songs from the 80s. 14 US entries, 11 Brits. There haven't been eleven Brits on the US charts in over five years. How times change, and not for the better.

The Tide Is High - Blondie
The title is horrible. Wait, the WHOLE song was horrible.
Erm, well, it wasn't the greatest, but it's not the worst song of the year. "Stars On 45," anyone? And a quick message for anyone trying to win The Wolf's Secret Song, and the 164 CDs, *it's not Blondie*.

Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
[k]>wind was a good song
You're scaring me!
Ah, c'mon, it *is* Bette. And if you've ever heard soap star Stephen Houghton's abysmal version, this becomes fantastic.

k
"Turtle Power" - i forgot who did it, the rap song from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie....
Partners in KRYME. Dr Pop offers 20 Pop Points for anyone who can recall the acronym behind KRYME. Answer at the end. But, sorry, Turtles I was a 1990 production. This was a 1990 hit, and the first UK rap #1, four months ahead of Vanilla Ice.

Thankfully, PIK have not planned a comeback tour.

Yet.

Keeping Rhythm Your Motivating Energy

Weather: Far nicer than yesterday. Sunny spells, high cloud, a fresh breeze, 21. Wonderful!

Travel: Alarmingly good, with the only delay the 1710 to Wolverhampton, just a couple of minutes, late enough for me to catch it.

The Revolution Continues as oil blockades begin to bite. Most petrol pumps are now dry, but Tony Blair isn't backing down. In his best schoolmaster's voice, he tells the protesters to grow up, stop acting like a bunch of schoolboys, and let normal service resume. The police start giving ultimata to clear, but the protesters say they'll act against the army. Wouldn't like to tangle with a Sherman tank meself...

Who had Chelsea in the sweepstake? Gianluca Vialli is the first Premier League manager to be sacked this season. No-one predicted this, but the side languishes eigth on the league ladders.

Also... EU sanctions against Austria are abandoned as ineffectual... the bank who were to buy the Millennium Doom pull out...

European League, Round 1, week 1: Group A - Upsets all round as Spartak Moscow (ru) beat Bayer Leverkusen (de), and defending champ Real Madrid (es) drew 2-2 at Sporting Lisbon (pt).
B - Lazio (it) wins 3-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Arsenal (eng) 1-0 at Sparta Prague (cz).
C - Valencia (es) downs Olympiakos (gr) 2-1, Lyon (fr) betters Heerenveen (nl) 3-1.
D - Galatasaray (tr) and Monaco (fr) combine for a great game, the Turks winding up 3-2 winners. Five goals also at Ibrox, where Rangers (sco) beats Sturm Graz (at) 5-0.

Weather: Similar to yesterday; cloudy, mainly, with a decent wind and 18.

Travel: Again, OK all ways.

Track Of The Day: Well, not so much track as show. The Radio Two Roadshow, with Terry Wogan live from a car on the A40 heading into London. Our hero had been delayed by a bunch of truckers (at least, I think that's what he said, the mobile phone was a bit crackly.)

The Revolution Continues. A few tankers leave, but the government wheels out the fragile state of the NHS, and says that people are dying, the economy is crumbling, and the people involved really ought to pull their finger out and do something. Tony Blair makes his daily statement, telling people to grow up and get on with it.

European League, Round 1, Week 1: E - Juventus (it) and Hamburg (de) tie 4-4, Panathaniakos (gr) and Deportivo la Coruna (es) 1-1 after the Greeks led for most of the game.
F - Bayern Munich (de) wins 3-1 at Helsingborg (se), but Paris St Germain (fr) suffer an upset 3-1 loss at Rosenborg (no).
G - No problems for Manchester United (eng), 5-1 over Anderlecht (be). PSV Eindhoven (nl) beats Dinamo Kiev (ukr) 2-1.
H - Barcelona (es) betters Leeds (eng) 4-0, AC Milan (it) overcomes Bestiktas (tr) 4-1.

Jadea
Anyone have a clue as to the innerworkings of idiot men's minds?!
Er, no. You might have to ask an idiot man. I'm sure we can find plenty of examples round here.

Well, a fair few.

One? Is there an idiot man in the house?

Grr. Foiled again. Sorry, you'll just have to look someplace else. I see no idiot men here.

Weather: Wet for much of the day, though dry round sunset. 18C.

Travel: Utterly fine on the morning, in spite of the train being down some lights. Coming back was not so good, get the 1707 ex New Street. It's meant to be two cars, but is just one, which gets packed at BNS and brimming at Wolverhampton. Finally into Codsall at 1757, 24 minutes behind the train's schedule, though still 11 ahead of mine.

Track Of The Day: The Whole Of The Moon (Waterboys, "The Whole Of The Moon", 1985) Classic.

The petrol crisis begins to end, with the blockades lifted early in the morning, and fuel beginning to spill out into the public domain. Some oil companies hike their prices for a few hours, but think better after a blasting from St Tony. If there are any further hiccups, there *will* be major problems.

Jadea, on Birtney (well, not literally... I think...)
The only bitch I have with her is that she claims she hasn't had a boob job...she's a damn liar
No, it was a ruptured tendon in her knee. She said so on Top Of The Pops, showed the bandage and all, so it *must* be true.

Steph
maybe she wears a wonderbra or something....lol
I'm just waiting for one of the chaps to really rage against Ms Pears, just so that I can say "Ha! Britney's knockers!" and get away with it.

No, the only way to answer this is going to be to have someone independent give a site report. Cory, how's the grilled cheese going?

Coleen speaks of Mandy Moore
I think she is the sweetest, cutest one of the singers around now. I also think she's the most talented. And look at her. I don't think she has shown her belly once. And she certainly isn't stripping on-stage.
You speak of Mandy, I speak of the DumDums, a great British band, who *can* play their own guitars.

Bridget
Kids would dress like Elton John if their friends said it was cool.
I'm going to have nightmares now, you realise? Kids dressed like Elton John. Yick!

Quoting Shirley Manson of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
"the enemy is NOT Britney. It's Christina Aguilera. Because she takes herself so seriously, fakes modesty and actually believes she is as thought provoking and ground breaking as Madonna).
Good point. Very good point. Aggie only has a hard-to-pronounce surname.

"Her and that Vitamin C opportunist with that hideous Graduation Song.
Ah, there we must differ. Examine Eve's Plum, or the rest of the C album, and the opinion may come up for revision.

"Give me a break."
OK, Ms Manson, we'll take you out of your talented-but-underperforming Edinburgh collective, give you an anodyne backing band, introduce you to a famous producer, and see what happens.

Weather: Wet for most of the day, 17 but a chill wind

Travel: Alarmingly good again.

Track Of The Day: One Headlight - The Wallflowers (Bringing Down The Horse, 1997). Jing only had to mention it for the accolade.

Debut for Angel (Mutant Enemy on Channel 4.) Yadda yadda Buffy spin-off. We know. We don't much care. It rocks, and that's more to do with the wit of the script, and the editing, and the fast-forward effect through the boring bits, than with the characters. I never cared for Cordelia, nor really for Angel, and the Irish guy is still too sketchy.

Allan
In the meantime lets hope Tony Blair gets the public humiliation he deserves!
You [wags finger] are the people who voted them in. Not Sara, she wasn't allowed to vote at the time. Not Roy, Jamie, Matt, they were all too young to vote. Not I, who was the far side of the Atlantic on election day. It's *your* government, don't go round blaming me for the mess you've gotten yourselves into.

Sara
I SO agree with what they are doing, but I just wish it didn't have to affect ME
Well, for the record, I completely disagree with what they're doing, and it's not affecting me. And, seeing as how the worst may be over, I can deliver a slightly more reasoned analysis. It's not a post mortem, coz the news corpse is still twitching. But it's getting there.

oil refineries are being blocked by someone (Iain will probably know more than me)
Not much: it's a collective of lorry drivers, farmers (a group that's been jumping on every protest going for three years) and assorted rent-a-protest types.

the price of gas over here is about 80-85% tax, and after you convert it, they pay about 3-4 times what we pay in the USA.
Now tell the whole story. About how the cost of petrol - at 85p per litre - is still only 60% of the actual cost to the economy. About how a reduction in fuel tax would have to be made up somewhere else - a penny on income tax, or higher purchase taxes. About how a reduction would risk serious investment in semi-essential projects, like better hospitals. About how these taxes are just approaching the level where they start being a *real* disincentive to the use of the car.

We've seen Saint Tony appearing on a nightly press conference, telling the protesters to grow up and let the tankers roll, otherwise the economy will be in recession by November. We've had protesters appearing on the news, fulminating about the higher taxes they're being charged, and moaning about not being French. Why they don't exploit EU rules and move over there is never adequately explored. Could it be because they'd then be subject to road tolls, higher taxes on labour and profits, and wind up making smaller net profits? No, couldn't be, at all.

Just to add spice to the mix, lorries and tractors are going up and down the motorways at very slow speeds. 1) What's the point? What is this going to achieve, other than to annoy the hell out of people? 2) Shouldn't you be doing something more constructive, like actual work? 3) Where are you getting *your* fuel from? 4) Where are the police, as it's an offence to impede the flow of traffic on motorways. Which will be the first force to pull these selfish plonkers over and arrest them for lack-of-speeding?

In all this mess, another concession to the roads lobby has been totally ignored. On Monday, the EU ruled that bridges and other toll roads were liable for VAT. The government said that it would foot the bill, with a net result that the EU gains 50 million quid from the general tax pot.

The nadir was on Wednesday morning, when Lord Terry of Woganford presented the first half hour of his Radio 2 breakfast show over a mobile phone, from the back of the car bringing him into the BBC studios. He was delayed by a bunch of truckers. At least, that's what I *think* he said.

Many commentators cast blame to the government. Others have looked askance at the antics of the fuel companies, feeling that both parties Could Have Done More. But hindsight is 20/20 vision, as George Benson said.

No, the problem is the free-loading British Public. Happy to applaud Chancellor Brown spending huge wodges on the piss-poor health service, on a disfunctional education service, on building more roads. Yet carping that they actually have to *pay* for this largesse. Yes, income tax may still be low, indirect taxes are low, government spending overall is (by European standards) low.

But if you want the government to spend money, you've got to let them have it first. This simple truth is too obvious for most of the British public to appreciate.

Weather: Sunny spells, and windy. 18.

Track Of The Day: Minority - Green Day. Their first new track in yonks, and it's more stripped-down and acoustic that before. Great stuff.

Vic
Macy Gray's 'I Try'
Single of the year, 1999. Just to remind you all.

or Moby's 'Natural Blues' would have been a better choice for video of the year than Eminem.
Channel 5's fab series, "When Wet Paint Dries" would have been a better choice.

I hope [bubble-gum pop] dies soon, it's taken all the joy out of music award shows for me. Though it does provide plenty to ridicule.
It's not gone here yet, but it really is going. The teen pop mags haven't broken a band here since Westlife, almost 18 months ago. Every band launched since last summer has flopped. Most of them have been dropped already (Scooch, goodbye. Made In London, your chart career was shorter than that of "Amazed".)

More importantly, the record companies seem to have figured the game's up. The only junior act to have succeeded this year was Daphne & Celeste, and they appeal as much to the ironic "student" type as to the pre-teen. Real music is making a bit of a comeback.

Besides, judging by the people here, country could be the new pop. CMAs at the start of next month. The revolution continues apace.

But back to the point. Bridget
What was before grunge?
Guns n' Roses. Metallica. Iron Maiden. Deacon Blue. Del Amitri. Suzanne Vega. They Might Be Giants. Billy Joel. Madonna. Prefab Sprout. Pixies. Wonder Stuff. Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Kate Bush. James. All had top 10 UK albums between 1.1.89 and 9.9.91. All released darned good albums.

NKOTB and company. Belinda Carlisle, stuff like that.
There was that, too, but good taste will always come out in the end.

A new revolution is coming!
The revolution has always been amongst us. It's sometimes hard to hear it over the mindless hubbub of the crowd, but it's there.

k
don't knock belinda....she was a go-go
So we've heard, though I'd rather not discuss these things in public. Might scare the chickens, you see.

silverchair's "Ana's Song" got played on TRL for awhile....nver beat out the top 5 i don't think, but it was there.... and when fiona's album first came out, they played a lot of her vids again too....for a few weeks
See? Even MTV:US is an improvement on the tawdry UK version. Bet you don't suffer Richard "I'm So Modest, Me" Blackdeath, either.

Football: MUN goes further clear at the top, beating Everton 3-1. Ipswich caused the day's big upset, winning 2-1 at Leeds. Other upsets: Charlton bettered Spurs 1-0, Southampton overcame Newcastle 2-0. Also: Arsenal downed Coventry 2-1, Villa over Bradford 2-0, and Sunderland got Derby 2-1. In Sunday's matches, Leicester keeps pace with MUN, downing Chelsea 2-0. West Ham and Liverpool, Man City and Middlesborough all score once.

Weather: Cloud all day

Track Of The Day: Absolutely Everybody - Vanessa Amoriso. She may have been at the Olympic gala on Friday, but that cuts no ice with me. Being a great tune does.