Posts from December 15, 2009

The first (and probably the last) in a very occasional series.

Channel 5. Thursday night.

Arsenal fans taunting Liverpool on their unwanted appearance in the Europa Cup.

After buying most of my Christmas presents from them, Amazon kindly gave me a £2 voucher to spend in the MP3 download store.

As the festive season of hosting friends and family approaches, I decided on a 'easy listening', 'middle of the road' purchase suitable for all the family to act as a quiet backdrop while we gather to play charades around the fire.

'Killing Joke' by 'Killing Joke' was one of the first vinyl records I ever bought and, as always, I was introduced to the band by the wonderful John Peel. I was intrigued by the cover art which I still think is brilliant.

Killing Joke also used another very striking and evocative image. When I visited a mate in London, I was surprised to see he had a massive Killing Joke poster adorning his lounge of Nazis saluting the Pope. Initially, I thought it was a mock-up but he told me it was a genuine photograph from the 1930's and while he wasn't a right-wing fascist (quite the contrary in fact), he also thought it was a very striking and thought provoking image.

I'm pleased to report the LP sounds as fresh as it did 30 years ago. Deserves to be played loud.