Seven Days In

In Defence of Mike Ashley

2012-02-19T11:37:00.000Z

Mike Ashley is percieved by man as a fat arrogant cockney git who knows nothing about about football and is the worst think to happen to Newcastle since the architectural abberations of T-Dan Smith in the 1960s. Ashley with able help from Derek Lambias certainly manages to continually shoot himself in the foot while it's still in his mouth , and look at what has happened since he came:

Sacking of a perfectly good manager in Sam Allardyce
Bringing back Keegan , let having Dennis Wise as director of football , a great player but a rubbish manager (Leeds , Millwall etc)
The debacle of trying find a manager afetr Keegan , resulting in JFK (Joe 'king Kinnear) and Alan Shearer
Relegation
The attempted sale of the club , that no one wanted to buty because of the mess Ashley had made of the place
Chris Hughton's appointment because no one wantted the job
The sales of Andy Carroll , Jose Enrique , Kevin Nolan , sacking Joey Barton who they could have sold for a decent return , if not a profit
The sacking of Chris Hughton and replacement by Mike Ashley's cockney casino buddy Alan Pardew
The attempted commercial rebranding of St James' Park - yeah the Sportsdirect Arena sounds cheap , charver and nasty

So basically with this catalogue of horrors everyone in Newcastle is wondering what the hell is coming next , after all this . I mean look at Portsmouth, Hearts and Rangers , is Ashley any better than these owners deemed fit and proper by the English and Scottisf Football Associatians?

Well really you have to look at where the club is now . Mike Ashley expressed a desire to make the club lik Arsenal , to bring players through without spending a fortune on players and make the club a viable financial proposition. On thing Ashley can do is make money , look at Sports Direct. So where is the club now?

After relegation , the club won the Championship under the leadership of Chris Hughton at a canter.
In their first season in the Premiership things were going OK until the sacking of Hughton and appointment of Pardew
This coincided with an influx of French unknowns and the sale of Andy Carrol for £35 million on the final day of the transfer window last January. Pardew was promised the money but it never seemed to materialise
Apparently it has been invested in undersoil heating at the training ground. Have you noticed that under Ashley's stewardship Newcastle's only injuries happen on the playing field.
The team have take 4 points off Manchester United , and lie a comfortable fifth in the Premiership
Demba Ba a free transfer replacement for Andy Carroll - well compare the scoring records
Papiss Demba Cisse the biggest buy under Pardew at £10 million scored the winner on his home debut
Hatem Ben Arfa , Yohan Cabaye, Tim Krul have all progressed under Ashley's overall stewardship
Apparently the naming rights for the stadium would pay for Cisse , whether that's right or wrong is another question

Basically the thing is the club is in an apparently better state under Asley that I can ever remember . John Hall's stewardship with hindsight could only ever have been temporary , but if at the start of the season you'd have said Newcastle could have a good shot at European football next season , I think you would have got a few laughs.

Basically Ashley is doing more right than wrong , and expect more gaffes , but beware of getting rid because there's not that many decent club owners out there

World Book Night 2012 - For Me It Starts Here

2012-02-18T13:27:00.004Z

Last night I got my email confirming me as a World Book Night Giver for 2012 , The book I've chosen is "Notes From A Small Island" by Bill Bryson , and it will be great to try and get people to read this book. Like last year I'm going to base it around Newcastle and Tyne and Wear's Metro system and hope we dont get hit by the fact that there were no flights in or out of Newcastle Airport and the stretch between Tynemouth and Byker being clsed , meaning I couldnt do Wallsend, with it's Latin signs!!

The date is April 23rd.

Most people are enthusiastic , but a lot of people get very suspicious of anyone offering something for nothing , especially if they are alone on the Metro despit , there being other passengers in the vicinity. Last year Stephen Fry gave his away in Trafalgar Square , but mine will be much lower key. But it is a great initiative to be involved with m, and now need to recruit a few helpers ......

Below is a preview for last years event

Getting Older With Hall & Oates

2012-02-18T10:47:00.004Z

I do find it amazing the number of people who refuse to acknowledge birthdays , or the fact they are getting older . Surely a birthday is an excuse for a celebration . And its funny when I was young people wee old after thirty , had grey hair , smoked pipes , wored cardigans , slippers and cords, and sat in a chair to await their inevitable demise.

These days if you take reasonable care of yourself you can go on for a very , very long time and have great fun doing it. Itook delivery of the first Hall & Oates CD this week and compared the pics of these two with the latest of their CDs that I have "Do It For Love" , on the first CD Daryl Hall looks like an androgenous afghan hound hybrid , with John Oates looking similarly bestial , but this was the seventies and that got the girls and helped sell the records . I wish that I looked like that in the seventies , I might have even got a girl!! . On the more recent CD the guys look very good and this is 35 years or so after the first photographs were taken , so while we'd all like to be younger I think we'd rather go for the current look.

This then led me to the discovery of the excellent Live From Daryl Hall's House site , so the guys are obviously enjoying life , and having a good time. A definite lesson for us all , always look for the good things , and be positive , and generally life will be better and make it easier to deal with the dross and crap that comes our way!!

Now That's What I Call Whitney

2012-02-12T15:30:00.000Z

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Sad to hear of the demise of Whitney Houston , a more than capable singer that inspired a million wobbly lipped X-Factor imitators . It's not waht she was , but what she caused that annoyed me , a diva of the first degree and lot's of aspirant imitators thought the behavious was OK without the talent to back it up . At least Whitney could sing and control her voice.

Which brings me to my second gripe , I have neevr owned , and never will own a Whitney Houston album , I don't find her music particularly engrossing , but due to compilations like the Now series , and various soundtracks and what have you I have the odd Whitney Houston track corrupting my collection. Still you knew she'd made it when she was name checked by Half Man Half Biscuit in "Everything's AOR" -

"Mary oh Mary
Quite ordinary
Tell me how does your CD collection grow
With Sade and Whitney
Vandross and T’Pau
Everything’s AOR"

CHRISTIANITY UNDER ATTACK!!

2012-02-11T14:26:00.002Z

Saw this Daily Mail headline in the newsagents this morning. I thougt , has David Cameron done a Henry VIII and annexed the priories again , after he does need to fund his mates bonus payments. But no , it it's usual disregard for actual factual reporting , the Daily Mail was screaming about these two incidents:

The council at Bideford have been stopped from saying Christian prayers at Council meetings, something that has gone on since the middle ages !! Well pardon me , what have Christian prayers to do with council business? And just because something has been going on for a long time does not make it sacrosanct. I would be very uncomfortable if I had to say prayers in a meeting at work , unless I were working for an eclesiastical organisation. This is not an attack on Christianity , but a reflection of our multi cultural society and the separation of religion and government , nothing more than that.
Secondly a Christian B&B owning couple have lost their case to discriminate against gay couples by not allowing them to use their B&B. This not anti Christian but anti bigotry . Simple as that.

The Daily Mail again shows blatant disregard for facts in search of a headline.

Musical Boxed

2012-02-07T12:38:00.000Z

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While a great deal of music and now books are downloaded and in e-format , I still like to have something I can hold in my hand. Also by getting a physical item it's probable that you have paid for it and the artist will get their rightful royalties . One of the issues I have withillegal downloading is that children are brought up believing they don't have to pay for music.

Anyway I'm getting sidetracked . The display above has loads of recent , box sets of CDs which are available for under twenty pounds , in some cases under ten , meaning that the individual CDs working out around £2 each and you have a beautiful package as well . Leonard Cohen and The Kinks have had decent retrospective reissues out recently , and not forgetting Chris Rea's superb Santo Spirito Blues 3 CDs and 2DVDs for £15 !! In the display above are loads of great value boxes that should keep you occupied for a long time

These are the sort of reasons why I will always by music that has a physical presence. I'm not against downloads , and infact downloads are a great way of getting music out to people , like Amazon Free MP3 section and iTune's single of the week. Included a video of Emerson Lake & Palmer's Hoedown , just noticed it when searching for something else , a brilliant deconstruction / reconstruction of a classical piece , wish every ELP song was as good as this!!

Well That Was An Anti Climax

2012-02-05T18:44:00.001Z

Our Garden with Frosting

Outside at The Stand

So much for the snow , blizzard , sub zero temperatures forecast in the Mail and Express,. In Fenham it was cold but we got but a dusting of sleet . On the plus side Newcastle's Senegalese strike force returned with a brace of goals , and on Friday The Stand served us well as a town centre watering hole , with one of the best outdoor smoking areas in town.

Superstition

2012-02-03T09:15:00.001Z

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This is my fourteenth post of the year , and as soon as I'd written my thirteenth I thought I best write another one quickly , then couldnt think of anything to write about . I still can't but obviously started thinking about how society conditions us to be superstitious even though usually there's no basis to do whatever you need to do to cure it.

Take the number thirteen , various reasons for this one being that there were thirteen people at the the last supper and the thirteenth person was either Jesus (who got crucified) or Judas (who betrayed Jesus) , but surely all the others could have been the thirteenth person , then what about the people serving etcetera.

Also you get thirteen loaves or cakes in a bakers dozen , in case one is not up to standard. Most of the time all thirteen will be up to standard so in this case thirteen is a very lucky number.

Then there's don't walk under ladders , well that's surely rooted in common sense as ladders aren't exactly stable and if someone's up there they could drop something on you , got that from an argument between Batman and Robin in the sixties TV series where Robin comes up with various superstitions and Batman explains how they may actually have some foundation.

Then there the magpie rhyme , lets face if you see a single magpie , anything that happens like missing a bus , or the lights changing to red could be interpreted as sorrow , similar to horoscopes. Incidentally , apparently astrolgy apps are very big on smart phones , although that's not surprising given the sort of people I've seen with smartphones. Anyway I've now done fourteen posts this year so it won't bother me til this time next year.

Signs of Age

2012-02-01T06:47:00.000Z

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On Monday (30th January 2012) Leonard Cohen released his new LP "Old Ideas" .. Leonard Cohen is 80 and just about to take up smoking again , really he can do what he wants . The voice is getting deeper , and often the songs are almost spoken , but he's well aware of his vocal limitions , skitting them in one of his compositions "The Man With The Golden Voice". BBC6 Radio 6 made it album of the week last week , and I'm just wondering how far it will permeate into the mainstream with most people's exposure to the man limited to Alexandra Burke's wobbly lipped bleating of "Hallelujah".

Thi sgot me to thinking of some signs of age , we only get old when we give up enjoying life and having fun , but certain things happen which shouldnt happen in your 20s:

That lovely young thing at the bar is your friend's offspring
You go into a record shop and you think you have everything worth buying
If you hurt yourself it takes longer to heal
Your children's friends have children
You know the speed a record plays at

I'm going to add to this list , but while my years are increasing I still act and feel as though I'm 15! I've just remembered this appropriate Neil Young song!

Isn't Hindsight A Great Thing?

2012-01-31T18:44:00.000Z

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Just currently reading "The Olivetti Chronicles" a compilation of John Peel's articles over the years and came across on from 1975 . In it Paul Simon just makes up the numbers in a very bland American Top Ten , Bruce Springteen , is reponsible for some jolly type rock , but nothing to get excited ablout , Patti Smith is a pretentious poseuse (well she still is , but that has resulted in some cracking albums and music).

He also hopes that Queen , Thin Lizzy and Be Bop Deluxe will make stratospheric breakthoughs , and he couldnt have foreseen how successful Queen would go on to be , Thin Lizzy rock legends , and Be Bop Deluxe have left a respectable legacy with Bill Nelson still plying his trade.

I recommend the book to anyone who can read and has even the most cursory interest in music!!

The Vinyl Solution on The Move

2012-01-31T06:55:00.000Z

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Market Place

App in Action

I was reading Mojo this morning and came across an article detailing an app for iPhone or Android that will give you the address of your local vinyl retailers (records not wallpapers) in the UK , Europe and the USA , apparently in has about 600 outlets listed. You can track down the app on your phone market place and there's more information on their website here.

Now an app for vinyl is to me about as innaproppriate as a chciken omelette (which I wouldn't turn down) , because your average person who listens to music on their phone doesnt even know what they are listening to , because it's on shuffle or it's a Spotify or Last.fm mix channel , but it will be useful to people who DO use their phones and are trying to track down that rare Erasure 12" or Rosebud's 1970s album of Pink Floyd covered for the disco!!

My total vinyl collection

Weekend In Harrogate

2012-01-30T21:45:00.000Z

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Never been to Harrogate before and the first thing you realise (if you go by car) is that there is too much traffic for the roads . The white line down the middle is merely a guideline to centre your car on . You cannot hesitate or you will cause a traffic jam (calls to mind the great Bill Hicks sketch). Once you get there park up , then walk or taxi everywhere. The photo gallery from the weekend is here.

Bay Tree Guest Housr

Based at the Baytree guest house means that you are within walking distance of the town centre, although if it's raining taxis are always an option. But the walk is well worth it to take in the magnificent houses

Harrogate is expensive , but theres obvious big money about, and it is chock full of great restaurants, most of which you need to book at . We passed the Imperial Chinese and it looked basic to say the l;east but it was rammed with people .

Visited Jinnah Indian Restaurant on the first night and the Chicken Chaat starter was a meal in itself. We booked , went for a drink to Bed (see below) , and when we came back Jinnah was rammed . they were catering a 16th birthday party as well as numerous other gatherings. It's also loacated in an old church making it a very impressive place to eat.

Then had an excellent meal at Graveleys fish and chip eaterie during Saturday , followed up with vegetarian "Magic Mushrooms" at Bed (Burnsey Eat & Drink) on the night. The staff at Bed are really friendly and the food is excellent . While waiting for food we were treated to Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album which shows they also have excellent taste in music.

Sunday was the last day and we ate our mid day meal at William and Victorias , which provided huge amounts of excellent food and very reasonable prices , then finishing up at Betty's which is very expensive , but it has to be done and the staff and surroundings were perfect.

The Montpelier Quarter of Harrogate is worth exploring from a point of seeing the buildings and being home to the excellent Montpelier pub.

On the saturday sayw this guy busking outside Hoopers , he is awesome:

I've forgotten loads but will be back there again, later this year.

London / Darlington

2012-01-30T19:31:00.000Z

This is a very short rant as I have just priced a train journey to Epsom from Newcastle , Epsom being effectively London . The cheapest price is £124 though a normal return is £250 . The trip is a 500 mile round trip.

Waiting for a train at Newcastle

A 100 mile round trip to Darlington costs me £12 return . If I apply this rate to Epsom I should pay about £60 return , instead I have to 100% to 200% premium. Is it any wonder that people think they have to travel by car?

A Musical Dilemma

2012-01-24T20:15:00.000Z

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I was shocked to discover I have NO Black Sabbath Studio CDs in my collection . I have two compilations , the live "Reunion" and that's it, admittedly six CDs of Sabbath . But I was surprised . As a teenager I remember having "Master of Reality" , "Volume 4" , "Sabbath, Bloody, Sabbath" and "Sabotage" on vinyl and was sure I had "Never Say Die" on CD whoich I bought for the excellent "Hard Road" track.

Here's the dilemma , I can buy the CDs and rip them and listen to them on my MP3 player or my network , but I can also listen via the excellent Grooveshark , which costs me nothing. I have though about it and decided I will buy the CDs as that gives me lots more options what to do , but below is a Grooveshark Black Sabbath Playlist , enjoy !!
Blackest Sabbath by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark

Apple Corps

2012-01-17T10:05:00.000Z

I was quite surprised to see that the most tagged thing on my blog is the word Apple. A lot of people are under the impression that I am anti Apple , because I don't own any Apple products . Never had or wanted an iPod or and iPhone but was tempted by an iPad. My own website integrates with iTunes so thats the nearest I get to endorsing Apple.

Apple are great at appropriating other people's ideas , and produce some of the most desirable products on the market . so desireable that people oftemn don't even know why they want an Apple product , they just do , which is great for Apple.

The other thing to remember is that Apple was the label set up by the Beatles to distribute their records and anyone else they signed, resulting in some minor litigation between the two. So another case of Apple nicking someone elses idea , they couldn't even come up with an original name (Steve Job's Apple as opposed to the Beatles' Apple).

In the team of six I work with four people have iPhones , one has a Blackberry and I have an Android device , I wonder how long before I just go with the flow and get one , but then again the new Samsung Galazy looks very nice!!

IT Support, Larry Niven's Inferno and Brazil

2012-01-16T20:52:00.003Z

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It amazes me how in modern life , things like service provision take a back seat . There's a saying that the customer is always right , but not apparently when dealing with government or IT Support. The pretext is that these organisations are her to serve us , but so often just try to stop us from actually doing anything constructive by laying down impossible to follow conditions , just so they can get away with not actually do anything.

I recently received a letter from the DVLA saying that I wont get a refund from the tax disc I sent them when I scrapped the car because I hadnt told them why I wanted a refund , despite sending me a separate letter saying that they had received confirmation of the transfer of ownership for scrapping the car.

When you work somewhere you build up a history of rights and privileges required to do your job . These should be cetrally recorded to be checked and cross checked when required , but it seems that they can disappear in an instant when departments decide not to bother with keeping records.

I've come up against many IT support departments who's attitude is that their life would be ideal if it were'nt for those pesky users . And amazingly a lot of them get away with it!!

The only way round this is to take your own copies of any document that gives you rights , and just hope you can get backing when you need to go up against the bully boys.

Ithe book Inferno by Larry Niven (his take on Dante's Inferno) , one of the levels of hel requires the hero to fill in forms in triplicate on tissue paper with a blunt pencil. This is how I feel sometimes going against the faceless foe.

Terry Gilliam's Brazil is another example where Jonathan Pryce has to continually form fill to get the slightest thing done . Maybe one day things will click into place and the world will run smoothly , but I think there a lot of people who will do anything to make sure that doesnt happen!

Old Typewriters and Football Shirts

2012-01-16T20:20:00.001Z

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It's funny how our magpie like society convinces us that we need to have things . I can't remember why but while perusing Amazon I became aware of a book called "The Olivetti Chronicles" which I thought was about John Peel , for some reason I assumed someone had written another book about him , which is notunexpected given the importance of the guy to modern music.

Today , three months after receiving it as a birthday present I finally started to read the said book , and discovered thatit is actually a collection of John Peel's writings for many publications , unearthed by his family when they finished "Margrave of the Marshes" , the man's autobigraphy.

The title alloudes to the Olivetti typewriter that John produced his articles on , despite the difficulties in procuring ink to allow him to type , , but still his wife Sheila and son William have brought together over four hunderd pages of delightful and insightful prose , including stuff on his beloved Liverpool Football Club , and of course lot's of music .

His son Tom Ravenscroft presents a show on Radio 6 and sounds incredibly like his dad in his manner and taste in music , and sense of humour.

So that's my reading sorted for the next week or two!!

Hacked By Islamic Propagandists (Possibly)

2012-01-13T13:17:00.001Z

This week was the first time that my main web site has been hacked , possibly by Islamic Propagandists or just jokers who replaced the home page with a fetching Islamic Jihad flag animation on a black background. No hardm was done as the bulk of site visits go drect to information pages , although anyone then visiting the home pages may have got a surprise to say the least.

I dont go security mad , but it is amazing the legths people will go to , just to prove they can beak something.

Queen Elizabeth The First and The National Lottery

2012-01-11T10:36:00.001Z

Just a very short post . Yesterday we were and a works sales conference. Tables were named after iconic figures such as Mother Theresa and , our table, Queen Elizabeth The first. Somehow Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had slipped in there , although they feature heavily in the film "The Iron Lady" just on national release.

All tables were given a pound as an illustration of a point one of the speakers was making . What can you do with a pound . As the team leader for the table of ten I appropriated the coin with everyones agreement and put the following numbers on the lottery for tonight , 11th of January 2012. Below is the ticket , and above is an illustration of a good use of web slide controls when trying to sell products. Anyway the numbers are 32 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 39.

If you want to play yourself follow the link below!!

And The Dust Has Settled

2012-01-08T09:39:00.001Z

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A week into the New Year , and finally had a good night's sleep . I've visited the Valley Junction in Corbridge for the first , time an absolutely stunning restaurant with food to match and it's own curry train that runs for Newcastle or Carlisle!!

The Christmas decorations are packed away , and work has restarted , looking forward to lots of events and festivals this year , hopin Evolution get their act together , and glad for dicovering the wonderful Lord Rochester over the Christmas break. at The wonderful Central Bar in Gateshead , and having the good fortune to watch Newcastle beat Manchester United starting with Demba Ba's wonder goal.

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Am planning my first ever visit to the Star and Shadow Cinema , oh and Sherlock series 2 started on BBC after Benedict Cumberbatch , Martin Freeman were given time off from the Hobbit by Peter Jackson!

One thing that 2012 promises not to be and that's boring

New Year's Day

2012-01-01T01:19:00.001Z

This is probably the earliest blog post I've done in a year . We're 75 minutes into 2012 , I've made the same resolution I always do and I'm going to stick to it , which is:

"to make myself as happy as possible and try and spread that to my friends and family"

I hope your year improves beyond belief , and 2012 is filled with happiness for you.

Just realised this takes the blog into it's sixth year now , six years writing about not much and still havent come up with an idea for my book , and no excuse now as you can easily self publis on Amazon

Just gonna keep this one short

A Christmas Century

2011-12-30T22:38:00.000Z

Well it's not New Year yet , one more day left in 2011 so it's still Christmas time . This is the forst year I've done a hundred posts on this blog , though not sure if thats a cause for celebration, still it's a sort of milestone. I have a lot of friends who started blogs and posted some excellent stuff , but they got bored and the blogs are now just as they were a few years back.

A hundred posts , one every three point six five days, or two a week , roughly eight a month. You'd think it would be easy to keep that rate up , but even when blogging you can have nothing to write about, and this post is a case in point , it's all about the fact I'm writing my hundredth post and it's New year's Eve's Eve!!

Well it's the twefth post in December , suppose I could get to fourteen before this year plays out , but who knows.

My first post was February 18th 2007 and my 100th was about Apple autobuying music for me here on 7th July 2009 !!

Anyway Happy New Year!!

Six Point Eight Millon Phone Activations On Christmas Day

2011-12-30T13:07:00.001Z

Thats more than one phone for every ten people in Britain , given the saturation of mobile phones in this country , that's quite amazing , obviously sales campaigns are being amazingly successful . Apple are the greatest marketers with the abiltity to create want and need in people , and their target market don't even know why they want the damned thing (iPhones and iPads especially) , hell I nearly bought an iPad so that's how good they are!

Anyway this must create a lot of disused handsets which companies like Boots will take off your hands and give you a couple of quid in return. Anyway I didn't get a mobile phone , my trusty San Francisco 1 still going strong and enabling me to make calls , text , surf the next and take bad pictures!!

Christmas Resistability

2011-12-28T15:36:00.001Z

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Well I managed to resist the excellent Orange Christmas box offer (free Angle & Curve Headphones worth £60 with any PAYG phone over £30) , and am soldiering on with my first generation San Francisco that fulfils the main requirement of a phone , which is to make phone calls!! It also is fairly good for texts , and OK for internet access . Camera and processor are barely adequate but I can live with them

It seems to me that me are zooming to a point of no return with theese handheld devices . Unless there's another quantum leap in power storage , or distributed power becomes a reality mobile devices will become anything but that if they have to be plugged into a power source!!

No doubt Apple will come up with a marketing idea and Samsung will come up with an innovation , but I cant see for the life of me what it will be . We'll have iPhones 5s , iPad 4s , Galaxy IIIs and some new Blackberry , but we shall see .....

A Playlist For Christmas

2011-12-27T18:51:00.000Z

Am quite impressed with Grooveshark , not sure how exactly it works , but thought I would try this playlist I put together in "Crimbo Limbo". Hope you enjoy it , I certainly do!

If You Dont Listen To This , You Won't Ever Hear These Songs #1 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark