ok, so I'm going to sound old, bitter twisted and slightly mad but that's fine as I'm at an age where that's entirely okay and fully expected, lol! what's with the freaking Grammy's - like what a motely crew of dysfunctional, bogan, useless fools this whole mob seems today...I cannot fathom their obsession with looking like trailer trash...seriously when did that start...Beebs looking like he's ready for bed...wtf?! Like, why...? Chapelle with that...can we call it a dress...didn't finish, they stopped half way...jeez! Sonny's one time other celebrating forgetfulness at best, dementia at worst...luther vandross, he's been dead for like 20 years but don't let that stop anyone confusing his name for someone entirely different...do they ply them with grog to a) agree to present in the first instance, b) to then get them onstage or c) to deliberately make fools out of themselves...lol! Do they look to shock...? guys, you can't shock us any longer...you can make us embarrassed for you...that happens so many times these days...you can make us feel sorry for you as we think what tha when we see how you're presenting and we realise the 'outrageous' look is a mask for not a lot else going on...and you can make us cringe...but you really can't shock us, so maybe just give that up, don't try...just relax, take a deep breath and get a better stylist for sure!

not sure about folks who go outside when there's stuff going on which they know could lead to their safety being severely compromised... why go looking for trouble...why get involved in something that's not going to be fixed just because you're 'filming' and walking around in an unsafe environment (and in all honesty where you shouldn't be as whatever is going down it's not within your jurisdiction or pay-grade to 'fix'...) gonna be a hard rains a gonna fall...stay off the streets and don't add to the situation, escalate it or incite it... whatever you think you are doing, you're not equipped nor qualified to enforce any form of 'law or order', you're actually causing things to spiral out of control...

the world's always got a lot goin' on but just noticed in these very early days of 2026 that there's a real lot, a helluva lot going on...like when I open my news feed there's just so much happening and it's like every 12 hours something new is added to the mix (and it's not just something mundane or ordinary, it's like supa charged dramatic stuff...heavy stuff going down...) we accept that change happens but we perhaps don't fully understand that seismic change, once in a century change might actually just be happening now...our '1939' moment where everything we knew before this year was erased and reset button was activated after several years of complete mayhem (WWII)...I'm not suggesting WWIII as I'm not sure we'll ever have one of those ever again...but yeah, we're definitely in a pivotal point in time where what we knew and experienced for the last 80 years is no longer a guarantee of what to expect for the next 2 years (let alone 80....) the world feeds on change (good or bad) and if thought about for a while it's a little odd we stayed as we did for as long as we did after the last world war...but yeah, there's a lot goin' on for sure....

man, so the new year starts in Switzerland at least with considerable death in a ski resort due to a nightclub which given the nature of such can accommodate a lot of folk in a small confined space with limited exits...all for making a perfect storm in the instance a fire does break out... these things unfortunately happen and no doubt inquests and investigations will be undertaken...but here's the reason for the blog...the amount of kids on their cells taking video even as naked flames were seen coming from the ceiling is sad and truly a reflection on a generation that has only known to 'film' everything... has the mobile smart/dumb phone really dulled the senses of a generation so much that the first instinct, when confronted with a life threatening situation, is not to ensure one makes every attempt to leave the premises and get out onto the safety of the street, BUT to stay put and start filming flames from above your head whilst being oblivious to the fact you're actually subterranean with a very narrow stair well as your only exit... what survival instinct kicks in if your first instinct is to make sure the happenings around you are recorded on your dumb phone...it's really sad and I totally believe it's ingrained into the younger generation's mind now to reach for the dumb phone over all else...what's happening inside the minds of these kids...the footage will be great Instagram fodder? maybe WKRP Channel 8 will buy it from me...? I know we're way older than these kids and were lucky to have lived our 20 something lives without the dumb phone but it really does beggar belief to think when confronted with something as scary and threatening as an underground fire in a confined space with lots of fuel (alcohol and wall/ceiling cladding) that the first instinct is to film, not walk briskly toward the exit.... the psychological term 'to take flight or fight' gets an addition from hereon replaced with a more appropriate saying for these times...'to take flight or fight...or film' ...kinda sad

okay so, punk and disco came and left in about the same length of time as the maximum parliamentary term (disco maybe a little longer but certainly nothing comparable to that of rap and hip-hop which have lasted decades). But, without punk and disco we wouldn't have had new wave and as Paul Simon once said every generation throws a hero up the pop chart and mostly everyone had had enough of disco (it's a great genre, love and respect it totally now but didn't always then...) and well, we didn't drop Punk as they actually killed themselves and went the way of the dinosaurs... Okay, so if no Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' then no Human League's 'Love Action' and if no Clash's 'Rock the Casbah' then no critical evolvement of seminal artists and bands like XTC, Elvis Costello or B52's. The Clash were perhaps the best at fusing punk with emerging new wave sounds and technology, inspiring many bands thereafter ('London Calling' and 'Combat Rock' prime examples). So, the first we realise of something 'new' is afoot is the brilliance of Trevor Horn's 'Video Killed the Radio Star' and we think, 'hey this ain't no disco...', it's different...sounds brilliant even tho it's excessively poppy but that's okay with most of us, - it's actually the start of synth pop and new wave and it appears at the same time as Ronnie Biggs ends his infamous stint as lead singer of the Pistols Mk III and also that of Summer and Pete Bellotte giving us 'Hot Stuff' (brilliant disco track that'll never see Summer sound this good (or way) ever again). So, there was a sense of some things coming to an end and being replaced with well, stuff like Trevor Horn (go on to create FGTH soon thereafter) and the undervalued genius of Gary Numan (who was most definitely inspired by Bowie's ground breaking synth albums 'heroes' and 'low', much to Bowie's lack of enthusiasm for such adulation...) 'Are Friends Electric' and 'Cars' are both walls of synth sound which sit on equal footing with Bowie's 'heroes', but they weren't disco or punk, they were synth pop/new wave classics emerging at the right time (and right place, UK) and with that the rebellion was on and a lot of others would soon follow; - Human League (Phil's version), Heaven 17, Japan, XTC, Dave Stewart, Duran (cut these guys a lot of slack for writing 'Planet Earth' and being there when it counted, lol), Ultravox, Depeche, Yazoo/Vince Clarke, Spandau, Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds et al etc etc.