Has politics eaten entertainment? What’s ‘perfect sound’? Plus Brian James & how to make a speech

Tyres pumped, engine cranked, chromework winking in the Springtime sun, the two-man conversational jalopy sets off on its weekly spin and visits …

 

… the day America broke the news and showed its dark side.  

 

… Brian James RIP and Stiff’s brilliant ad campaign for the first Damned album: “Play it at your sister!”

 

… has entertainment been dwarfed by world events?

 

… why the Oscars were invented and what it said about American life.

 

… “negative publicity is the first response to everything”.

 

… why Adrien Brody’s speech set back the cause of actors being taken seriously by about 40 years.

 

… Will Smith v Chris Rock, Chumbawamba v John Prescott, David Niven and the streaker: Awards show bombshells and what today’s media would make of them.

 

… The Wizard Of Vinyl and his mission to “save the world from bad sound”.

 

… the days when Hi-Fi was considered a hobby.

 

… are musical memories mostly about context? David relives ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ on a jukebox in the Shady Nook café in Wakefield.

 

… how not to make a speech.

 

… and the band that called Nick Lowe “granddad” (when he was 27).

 

Plus birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth on the worst and most insulting Greatest Hits compilations of all time.

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