I woke up this morning feeling the need to listen to Mansun. Not sure why, really. They're not a band I've followed over the years; Richard gave me a copy of 'Attack of The Grey Lantern' for my birthday back in 1997, and I liked it a lot, but I was never impressed with any of their other albums, which seemed a little overblown to my taste.

They also have the dubious distinction of being the first band I saw live at Manchester. Long queues and people dressed in army surplus jackets outside the Academy. They looked so cool and scary to a person who had only been in Manchester for a few weeks and hadn't managed to find anybody who wanted to go with him to a concert. This was a long-running story in Manchester — I went to a lot of concerts, but had problems finding people with similar tastes. There was one concert in the first year that I could have gone with someone, but the band got rather popular in the week between me finding this out and actually going to the ticket office. I then spent another week kicking myself in the head, but I learnt my lesson and, after that, I got to the ticket office well in advance of a concert (I was secretly proud when, for my final Manchester concert, seeing Black Box Recorder, I got ticket 00001. However, the concert was only two weeks away, and I was a little worried that I'd be the only one turning up).

Anyway, Mansun. Still hate Taxloss with a burning passion. But this, this is good:

Mansun — Mansun's Only Love Song