On Richard and Judy today was a person called Pamela something or other. She was an uber-groupie apparently. Scarcely had Judy mentioned that she was in a band called the GTOs than I said I'd heard of them and didn't they have something to do with Frank Zappa? Immediate vindication. I know all about popular music. Pamela Miller (for it was she) with her band was Miss Pamela and the GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously). There was also quite a disappointing film on a new film about Hitler. The premise was that it wasn't the right time to "humanise" Hitler. My immediate reaction was that any time is the right time to draw attention to the fact that Hitler was human. Otherwise you might get the idea that people who do terrible things are sub-human. Obviously we're not like Hitler. This is complacency and deceit. James said Mark Shea has already said this many times. Well he's right to do so. It turned out that the film was actually straight out anti-Semitic, which is a different issue.

I liked TotP2 today. It was a tribute to a producer called Mickie Most, who has passed away, may God rest his soul. While he was still with us, he produced records such as these:

• Mud, The cat crept in


• Kim Wilde, The Kids in America


• Suzi Quatro, Can the Can


• Animals, House of the Rising Sun

Those were my favourites. Mud and Quatro both are representative of, guess what kids, fun! Mud looked like morons - they were wearing pale blue sequined suits - but they were enjoying themselves, and despite dealing in a half-arsed pop-rock 'n roll genre, they had smiles on their faces, and one of them played guitar behind their head! Similarly, Suzi looked like she was on top of the world in her full-on leather get-up, which I'm given to understand was the subject of many an adolescent fantasy. But she mostly looked like a young woman very happy to have the chance to be on a stage making noises with guitars. Whee! I refer my esteemed readers to an analogous article by the Mekons' Colin "B" Morton. It's primarily a rant against Coldplay, but it's the bit about eX-Girl which seems a particularly valid point to me. Kids in America is a great track, and Mickie's production sounded flawless too. Have you seen the 'video' for The House of the Rising Sun by the way? It is an absolute study in less-is-more. Well worth a look. I'll take it above Men in Black anyday. It's simple and elegant - just the singer and two guitarist processing round the percussionist (off-handedly chewing gum) and keyboard player. Effortless cool, with great 60s mise-en-scene.

When music is fun, it is good music. This is my position. I expect that the more levels of marketing and management you take out of the production of a record, the more easy it is to retain this, but it's not impossible. Vive le fun!