Iconic television, or a bloated twat hatchery?

I made a big mistake the other day.

The most frustrating thing is that it’s a mistake I make at least once a year, and every time I tell myself not to make the same mistake again.

Filed under: Nostalgia, Rage, Big Brother, Brian Dowling, Chantelle Houghton, Coolio, Heat Magazine, Jade Goody, John McCririck, Makosi, Nadia, Nasty Nick Bateman, Nikki Grahame, SMTV Live, Twitter, Ulrika Jonsson, Ultimate Big Brother, Vicotr Ebuwa

A long, self-indulgent story that starts in a far-off past and ends in a chilling vision of the future

This is a story about men.  Met who met in a distant age, before everyone had iPhones and laptops and wi-fi and facebook and neither the means nor indeed the inclination for the constant, relentless barrage of shared information which, if we’re all honest, is just another welcome distraction from what we actually should be doing.

It was 1999, and I was starting university.  I had terrible dress sense; a velour luminous orange v-neck Cotton Traders shirt was the worst offender, usually accompanied with black shiny plastic-effect trousers.  Inexplicably I was single.

Filed under: Music, Nostalgia, 1999, All I Want For Christmas Is You, Alvin Stardust, Andy, Bat Out Of Hell, Big Steve, Birmingham, Championship Manager 2, Christmas, Cotton Traders, Custard Factory, David Ford, e-mail, Eastbourne, Eastbourne Hippodrome, Elvis, Ericsson T10, Evans, facebook, Firecracker, Gareth Evans, Gary G-Man Page, Gold, I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused, iPhones, Jersey, Kazaa, laptops, Management Accounting, men, Milk & Cookies, MSN Messenger, New York New York, Nottingham, Rock City, Ryan Adams, Settlers 3: Gold Edition, Shannon Elizabeth, State Of The Union, Stoke, Sugarmill, The Settlers, whatshername, wi-fi, Wildflowers, X-Factor

A fairly pitiful list, malaria tablets and pissing all over my green suit

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} catch(err) {}The first five music tapes I ever bought, in rough chronological order, are:

• WWF Superstars — Slam Jam (Bought from WHSmiths in Alfreton in 1992 at the same time as…)
• HWA (Hedgehogs With Attitude) — Supersonic (Sonic The Hedgehog Theme)
• WWF Superstars — Westlemania: The Album (Can’t remember where I bought this from.  Probably the aforementioned WHSmiths)
• Meat Loaf — Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell (Woolworths, Matlock)
• Gabrielle — Dreams [single] (Our Price, Sheffield City Centre)

 

Filed under: Nostalgia, Chris Martin, Coldplay, dreams, Gabrielle, Ian Beale aka Adam Woodyatt, Liam Gallagher, malaria, malaria tablets, Malarone, Meat Loaf, Noel Gallagher, Oasis, Ross Kemp

Two Welshmen, Gavin & Stacey and a guy in black

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} catch(err) {}This week sees the return of the BBC’s flagship sitcom Gavin and Stacey.  That the show is the BBC’s flagship comedy is more a sad indictment on the state of the current output of television comedy in this country than it is praise for the show itself.  At the risk of sounding like a bitter, hateful bastard, I like Gavin and Stacey.  But I like it in the same way that I like Friends.  It’s watchable, fairly harmless and it raises a few chuckles, but it’s rarely brilliant. 

Filed under: Nostalgia, Friends, Gavin & Stacey, Guto Jones, Hywel Adams, Max Boyce, Rob Brydon, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Star Wars, university, Welsh comedians

Cleaver Las Vegas and The Best Thing I’ve Ever Seen

This weekend the missus and I attended our ninth and final wedding-related event of 2009.  We drove to a lovely picturesque part of the country known as “up north,” for the wedding reception of a very good mate of mine, Richard Cleaver — more commonly known simply as Cleave.  He’s the only person I know with his own theme tune: “Cleaver Las Vegas” sung to the tune of a well known Elvis song of a similar title.

Filed under: Nostalgia, Anything That's Part Of You, Are You Lonesome Tonight? [Laughing version], Burning Love, Cleaver Las Vegas, Consett, drunk, Elvis, Fish Bowl, Guinness, Just Pretend, Kentucky Rain, McDonalds, running, The Best Thing I've Ever Seen, up north, vomiting, wedding, World's Biggest Pencil