Yes Sir, I can boogie

Have decided I should have a title for my blog page, as in Ton Harris' 'And Another Thing' and Hopi Sen's 'A Blog from the Backroom' - which I inadvertently saved as 'A Blob from the Backroom' when I first added it to the links - sorry Hopi! I might call it 'Hmmm....' But maybe not.

I've decided that all politics and no play makes for a boring life, so will be adding some non-politics blogs to my links, starting with Dave Simpson's music blog for the Guardian. His inclusion is merited for at least two reasons: his favourite album is Closer by Joy Division (although mine is Unknown Pleasures, which he seems to think is wrong) and he hates the Beatles. I've tried, honestly I have - I spent three years at uni in Liverpool being blasted with the stuff everywhere I went - but sorry, I agree with every word Dave says.

It's not that I only like miserabilist stuff - the only gig I went to last year was Billy Ocean (a hero of mine from the mid-70s and it was immense fun; I am now the proud owner of a Billy Ocean mug which I accidentally took into a meeting with Ed Balls once. He didn't notice. Ed is into choral music. I had a conversation with him about it at the NPF. I don't understand at all.)

In my view the best music either has a bit of edge, a lot of soul, or a whole helping of cheese. (Or should that be Cheezly?) I have 'Yes Sir I can Boogie' on my iPod: it's a masterpiece. And Dolly Parton's 'Letter to Heaven', in which a little girl writes a letter to her Mummy in heaven, saying how much she misses her and wants to be with her, and is hit by a truck on her way to post it - I think the last line is something like 'the little girl's prayers had been answered at last'. Good old Dolly.