Another day, another moan, another reason to decry the modern state, and more ramblings of a fool.

With sadness I read in the newspaper that The Word will cease publication after the next issue. For those of you who don't know The Word is an insightful magazine who's feet are firmly rooted in music, arts and culture. With interesting and informative articles on the record business, artists and bands alike it was a monthly magazine worth waiting for.

As with everything that happens nowadays, it seems that useless bankers (step forward Bob Diamond) seem to get away with anything they…

Recently I had a comment on how cool it was that I still wore a watch! As ridiculous as I thought this comment was, it is incredibly true as people tend not too have watches as they look at their mobile telephone for the time. In work I have become a demigod for having staff (who aren't allowed phones on the shop floor) continuously seeking my pearls of wisdom, yes it's 3.15 no you can't go home yet.

In modern day media circles how many of you have a cassette walkman still? How many know what a cassette walkman is?…

Every Tuesday morning I would go to school very tired due to loosing sleep on Monday night. You see I've never had sky (apart from when I look out of the window) so watching Gary Crowley circumnavigate a cameraman while introducing another new band I may like or allowing me to see those bands I read about in the Melody Maker perform live. It was definitely worth it, I may not be the brightest bloke on the planet, but I am a wealth of music knowledge (apparently).

It wasn't just The Beat that entertained me, on a Friday night for…

Yes I worked in a record shop, in some way it was like achieving a lifetime ambition. I got paid to talk to people about records all day and listen to new albums. Until redundancy, thanks Mr. Brown and bankers.

It was a difficult job at times, usually when your person that listens to radio 2 comes in and decides that they want to buy the single of the song that they heard but has no idea of what it is called or who it is by. After humming it for a short while they will look at you with…