The South Today Team Not Attacked by Giant Cats!

The South Today team with Sally Taylor's dancing lemurs

Relief for the South Today team last weekend, as they were not bothered by giant cats at all!

Pictured above, relaxing at the trendy Unit nitespot, are transport correspondent Paul Clifton, weather girl Reham Khan, sports reporter Roger Johnson (not the Birmingham City footballer Roger Johnson), Sally Taylor, and rockabilly DJ Tony Husband.

Also pictured are Sally Taylor's troupe of dancing lemurs - always a big hit at Unit!

The Notes on Bandcamp

A band called The Notes recently introduced themselves in the Southampton thread on the Anorak forum. Not an easy name to find via search engines - however, through a bit of sleuthing, I eventually managed to find some tunes of theirs on Bandcamp.

In exchange for your e-mail address, the six-song Introducing The Notes is available as a free download. The song that I have been playing on repeat is Dancing Shoes, which reminds me of the days between post-punk and goth, when gloominess was exciting. Psycho-twangin' guitar, echoing, throbbing, headmunching beat music. It's a two-minute gloomthrill. Excellent stuff.

South Today Attacked By Giant Cats! Again!

The South Today team relaxing at Unit.

Reports have reached us of more bad luck for the South Today crew.

Whilst the team were winding down at Southampton's trendy nitespot Unit, after a stressful week reporting on the tribulations of the good folk of the BBC South region, they were startled by the appearance of an enormous cat (seen here stealing Sally Taylor's pink wine goblet).

Resident rockabilly DJ (and South Today sports reporter) Tony Husband, told us that he had been petrified by the prodigious puss, but at least the colossal kitty had left his valuable box of original rock n' roll 7" vinyl singles alone - "the monstrous moggy only seemed to be interested in having a drink".

Transport correspondent Paul Clifton, who had had a previous encounter with a giant cat, was said to be both shaken and stirred by the incident.

South Today Attacked by Giant Cats!

South Today's transport correspondent Paul Clifton.

It was supposed to be a normal, everyday kind of assignment for South Today's transport correspondent Paul Clifton. Reporting on a spate of giant trucks being stolen by under-fives in a quarry just outside Petersfield, he suddenly became aware of the look of dread on his cameraman's face. Turning around slowly, he froze in terror as he saw a giant cat staring back into his eyes.

The terror turned to amazement as the cat spoke: "Miaow! I only want a drink of filthy truck-water!"

It was Hello Kitty's fiancé, Minty!

Apparently, the quarry had been the site of a nuclear waste dump in the 1960s, and Minty had drunk some radioactive water, which had caused him to grow to the size of a house! Not only that, but he could talk like a human too!

How they all laughed when they realised what had happened!

Minty and Hello Kitty have had kittens!

Lovebubbling news reaches us today from Kitern Villig (Minty and Hello Kitty's secret lovenest)!

Hello Kitty has given birth to two healthy kittens! One of them looks very much like Minty at a few weeks old, whilst the other is said to look just like the young Hello Kitty before she dyed her fur completely white.

The mother, father and kittens were all said to be doing well. Awww!

Pleasure City Hip Parade, August 2010

The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray!

Now, there's a song I've been humming to myself for the past several decades at regular intervals...

However, the Pleasure City Hip Parade records what's been tootling around inside my head over the previous month. And this month, I have mostly been tunelessly warbling...

1. (-) Best Coast - Goodbye (in which the singer wishes her cat could talk - I understand 100%!)
2. (18) Liechtenstein - Passion For Water (in the absence of a Mo-dettes reunion, this will do very nicely! A "grower", as they say)
3. (2) The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Longsocks (would have been a shoo-in for the Festive Fifty number one in Peely's day - my tip for a high placing in Dandelion Radio's version this year)
4. (9) Rote Kapelle - These Animals Are Dangeroos (the highest "old" song this month - I only need two more Rote Kapelle singles to complete my collection!)
5. (6) Best Coast - Happy (the illustration is from the CD version of the Crazy For You album - I was standing just to the left of this photo, unless it was taken during the soundcheck, in which case I was probably about two miles away on the number 17 bus)
6. (1) Helen & The Horns - Freight Train
7. (-) Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - The Rain Fell Down
8. (5) Withered Hand - New Dawn
9. (3) Best Coast - Far Away
10. (-) Rote Kapelle - Sunday
11. (-) Best Coast - Boyfriend
12. (-) Heavenly - Wrap My Arms Around Him
13. (-) The Chiffons - When The Boy's Happy (The Girl Is Happy Too)
14. (13) Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - I'm Up Here
15. (4) The Farmer's Boys - All Of A Sudden
16. (-) Betty and the Werewolves - David Cassidy
17. (17) Tender Trap - Do You Want A Boyfriend?
18. (-) Bubblegum Lemonade - Caroline's Radio
19 (-) Summer Cats - Pinhead
20. (-) Misty's Big Adventure - There's Someone At The Window

Ten new entries! 50% turnover in a month! 60% "new"/40% "old" songs! It's a statistician's dream!