Not your typical girl

The great myth about late 70s UK punk bands is their inability to play. In fact, The Clash and Sex Pistols could play pretty well, and the Buzzcocks and The Damned were more than proficient.

But The Slits really weren't. Formed in 1976 by Arianna Forster (Ari Up) who has died aged 48, and her friend Paloma Romero (Palmolive), their lack of musical skill and tender age presented no barriers. Arianna was just 14, but thanks to the do-it-yourself spirit of the time, their amatuerish performances were regarded by many as being most authentic if not particularly listenable.

That Thursday feeling ...

The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from Dickenson Road in Rushholme, Manchester in 1964 and featured the Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Dusty Springfield. It was presented by Jimmy Saville.

We can’t watch it now. It was the BBC’s habit to wipe broadcasts of ‘no particular significance’ and that first
show was a victim of that policy. From that debut, TOTP ran until the Summer of 2006, when it was pulled from the schedule (barring a Christmas Day edition).

Trouble rap

The Guardian’s Weekend magazine recently featured Jay-Z as its cover star and interviewee. In the piece, Jay-Z explains the lyric to the song ’99 Problems (But A Bitch Aint One)’ is actually a decoy. Apparently it has been crafted to cause alarm in the narrow minded, prejudiced critic who may well be enraged by the use of the word ‘bitch’ to describe women, when the bitch in the recording is actually a police dog.

The Man Who Fell To Earth

Some things are hard to admit. Pilfering cigarettes from your Mum’s dinner party would be one. Using the same train ticket for six weeks would be another. But admitting David Bowie hasn’t been much cop for about 25 years – well, that takes real emotional courage.