maelzoid

Not even close. I went to see Eagles' Farewell 1 tour in 2004.... They're still playing.

That's great. But depressing that the vinyl (a double) seems to be going for £40 at most places. This seems to be a trend with big rock releases. I still haven't got the most recent Pearl Jam because it is always over £30. The new Maiden is going for about £50 - it's a triple, but still I think i'd go for £30 for that, and at 82 minutes it could fit comfortably on two discs. What a swizz!

Well, sexy social democrat actually…

I don’t think so. Landlords will always charge the maximum the market will allow. If their expenses go up, they can’t simply up the rent and expect their tenants to magic more money out of thin air. A huge number of renters don’t have any disposable income to eat into and that acts as a lower limit on what they can pay.

Hard agree. I think some people here need to accept that this country is far more right wing than they would like it to be. Tony Blair is the only person who isn't a tory to win GE in 50 years. Labour's only shot at power is with a relative centrist. I sympathise with people voting Green. I voted Green once, and the result was we ended up with a Tory MP and he was awful. So, be careful...

You could well be right. But as of today, their monthly listener numbers are bigger than Taylor, Kendrick, Coldplay, Macca. Huge. I'm not saying that this translates into real cultural impact or a long career. And actually listening to their latest (I wanna be your slave) it doesn't really rock, it sounds more like a standard pop song with slightly more guitars.

Are we not four months early for this thread?

If you don't think Maneskin are big, have a go at the "guess how many monthly listeners they have on spotify" game. I did. And I was surprised.

Not a good look. I thought they were meant to be cool.

That's pretty poor company for Haim. Can I not enjoy them anymore either...? What did they do?

Florence's singing is like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

I think one of the reasons that people don't seem to oppose the NI rise is they don't understand how it will affect them. Someone - either Labour, or a sympathetic paper - needs to spell out the impact in a way that people understand. For example, the 1.25% increase looks like this: And next April when people see their wage packets decrease, they'll know for sure.

Yes, it was.

A pretty low-stake bet then... amiright?!

Sorry, I had a few shandies in me when I typed this. But the outrage is coming from the fact that the tories are choosing to raise a tax which affects low earners the most while the rich are proportionally less affected. There are so many other ways that the funds could be raised that would be more equitable, ie. increasing income tax, increasing inheritance tax, or increasing the upper threshold for NI would be better for low earners. The idea of labelling it for the NHS is a swizz. NHS and social care spending historically comes form general taxation. By saying the raise pays for this it makes it sound good, but the reality is just an increase in tax and an increase in spending. By removing the burden of the NHS from the general tax fund, they are now free to spend that money on what they want, rather than cutting spending elsewhere. If for example they suggested an increase in NI to pay for trident or overseas aid, people would really be up in arms, but the net result is exactly the same.

Don’t be a c**t, yeah.

I disagree. Social Care should come under general taxation in a similar way to health care via the NHS. To claim a pension you need to pay into NI, and I don't think that social care should be available only to those that have enough NI years. In fact, many people who need social care cannot work at all so it should come from a totally different system (ie the larger tax budget from income and business taxes). NI was set up with very specific goals and the tories are trying to adjust those goals because it's an easier sell than just raising income tax. In 1975, the NI rate was 5.5%. It has slowly risen to 12% since then with most rises coming under the tories.

Yeah I’m not surprised that 2/3 support it. The tax will mostly affect 1/3 of the population…. National Insurance absolutely should not be used for things like social care, it was set up to provide pensions and unemployment benefits, and you’re only able to claim those things if you paid in to start with (more or less). If anything, income tax should be raised, but the tories know that looks worse to the public, even though on a practical level, it’s the same thing.

Tories targeting lower earners for tax increase and going back on an election pledge. This really should be an open goal for Labour. They should also be asking about all that extra cash for the NHS promised on the brexit bus.

I'm going to that too. V. expensive and under normal circumstances I would opt out, but I got my ticket in the height of lockdown when I just wanted something to look forward to. I expect the setlist will weigh heavily on the 80s stuff, which I quite like so will be good for me. The only suggestion I could make about setlists is that they have another greatest hits set released to coincide with the tour, so I expect that will offer some clues. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/genesis-collection-the-last-domino/ You probably won't be hearing Supper's Ready...

This begs an obvious question...

After 20 years and with over 2,400 US soldiers dead, a lot of people will be asking what is the point of it all. Some will see the withdrawal as a positive act of protecting US forces, others will see it as abandoning the Afghan government in their war against the Taliban. I am surprised that Trump didn't do it already though. He clearly doesn't care about Afghanistan and the withdrawal would have appealed to his base. Although that base will be hyper critical of Biden for doing exactly the thing they would have praised trump for. My own personal view is that I simply don't know enough about it to render a worthwhile opinion. I can see how these decisions play politically, but I just don't know if they're the right decisions that could lead to lasting stability in the region.

After nearly two years without gigs (the last being the Pilton party with Wolf Alice and Supergrass) I saw Sam Fender in Bristol last night. It may be due to the absence of gigs and the last 18 months, but this was one of the most exciting gigs I can remember. The atmosphere was charged and the crowd of mostly young people sang their hearts out. This was the first time I'd seen him too. He was brilliant and already packing a repertoire of big memorable songs. I really think he is potential headliner material.

Not digging that Macca / PSB / Manics clash one bit... especially as there's nowt for me on Friday night... Therefore it must be 100% accurate.

I don't see an issue. If cashflow was an issue, they could easily bring forward the balance payment date. After all, we were all geared up to pay for it in April 2020.