Some great pictures from Alex Soulsby taken during rehearsals for the upcoming show at Royal & Derngate, which opens tonight at the Northampton theatre. A striking new take on Under Milk Wood marks the start of the celebrations marking the 125th anniversary of the marvellous Victorian auditorium.

Young Welsh director Adele Thomas brings together a cast of Welsh actors to reinvent this touchingly comic riot of a play, presenting humanity in all its mad glory.

Jeremy Kyle nearly made me fall off a treadmill at the gym. Not just me, either. The legendary June (who parks in the same spot on the overflow car park every day, and waits for the same treadmill to become free every day and gets off and stretches her quads - that's thighs to most of us - precisely 20 minutes into her fast walking routine) stumbled as well.

It wasn't Kyle so much as the full screen caption that flashed up on one of the three giant plasma screens we all watch as we jog, walk, sprint and stagger on Lifestyle's finest pieces of equipment. It read: I paid for my girlfriend's new breasts, but did she repay me by cheating?

Featuring not one but two tracks off the new 'Betty & The Id' album here's Brumcast 121, also features post rock, indie, techno, ska, punk, circuit bending and God knows what else....Download it free and direct by clicking here
Here's this show's playlist :-
1. Betty & The Id - Oregon Trail (2:24)
2. Tantrums - Mek Ya Feel Hype (2:23)
3. Through her Eyes - Battlecry (4:43)
4. Inertia Blooms - Mega Tsunami (6:52)
5. The Concept:MK - Enigma (8:25)
6. Flesh Eating Foundation - Godless (Digicore remix) (3:54)
7. Weatherbird - Declaration of Era's (2:34)
8. King Singh - No, go away. (6:48)
9. Screaming Guns - This is Music (4:13)
10. MISPELT2pointzero - Junkfood Generation (3:46)
11. Rhino - HOOV (7:18)
12. Sonic Delays - Are We Here (5:01)
13. Crystal set - a long trip (2:48)
14. Pressure Tones - Pressurized (2:42)
15. Windscale - 23,000v (4:43)
16. Betty & The Id - End is Nigh (5:41)
Enjoy!
Little Chris
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At first I thought the Strangest Man in Britain was playing some kind of trick. That's my old mate Leigh Banks, who you can find here. He's the weirdo who gets a bit involved in apparitions, faces seen on walls a la Turin Shroud, sensible stuff like that.

We're sitting watching the fountains behind Jurys Inn in Milton Keynes, not far from the station and just across the road from the big new Sainsburys. Sunny Sunday morning, waiting for GBK to open for lunch. Our bikes (three good Treks and a getting-old Raleigh) are chained to a silver birch tree outside the restaurant in a square full of restaurants.

If you thought you could get away with it, would you steal? If you thought there was no way that you could get caught would you take something that didn't belong to you? I know most if not all of you will say no, so what would make anyone think that theft was right? It's a serious question what would make you think that stealing was ok? If no one was getting hurt? If it didn't take from someone who couldn't afford? If they could afford it?
You know what all of that is crap, right is right and wrong is wrong, no gray area, people teach their children that stealing is wrong, yet so many people think that buying, downloading or watching a bootleg DVD is perfectly ok, you know what? You can't have it both ways.

Over the last few weeks there has been a huge story regarding the leaking on the internet of an almost completed copy of X MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. I first found out about the story when browsing the Harry Knowles website Ain't it cool.com and found a headline stating that it was not interested in posting any reviews of the Wolverine because they could only have come from an internet leak. I started to look around and it didn't take me long to find a site where I could download the film, I have to admit I was shocked at how easy it was to find the site, I have a fact for you, not for one second did I ever think about downloading the film, its not something that I would do, not just because I think film Piracy is wrong, more because I think film piracy is completely and utterly wrong.
Why would some one take something designed to be shown on the big screen and chose to see it via some tiny, nasty stolen copy, incomplete with bad sound, distorted pictures, digital break ups in the picture, and the property of some film company stamped across it every few minutes or worse still have someone stand up and walk across the picture to go and buy popcorn or use the toilet.
I had a conversation with a guest today who was very proud of the fact that he had downloaded a copy of the film and launched into telling me about it, I stopped him and asked him why? One of the first things he said was it was good but it didn't have all the special effects. I stopped him and asked him why? He just looked at me blankly and continued, why would you want to watch a film without all of the special effects completed? On a film like Wolverine it would be like buying a Porsche without the engine. I was so glad to hear that the industry had really gone to town in how hard they plan to attack anyone involved with the theft of the film and that is exactly what it is, theft. I am glad that the FBI have been called in to investigate, I am glad that Fox News fired Roger Friedman, a reporter with 10 years service who wrote a review of an illegally down loaded copy of the film. You know what, he deserved to be fired, you work for an industry reliant on films, the studios and the people involved, yet you steal from all those people, you deserve everything you get.
So to all of the people who this week have told me that they hear Wolverine is not that good, you know what I say? Did I ask you for an opinion on stolen property? I will wait for the film to open and see it in the manner it was intended and as always make up my own mind.

I got a new neighbour this afternoon - a very pleasant girl in South Africa. I spent the morning communing with another neighbour not a million miles from Melbourne. Yesterday it was Faith in Alabama.

One of my other neighbours, my daughter, lives just across the market square from my flat. There's my other daughter, now back in Palm Springs, a mate of hers from nurse training days, who now lives in Florida, and various others - several of them West Midland hacks and PR people, even another blogger on the Post, a gent of a sporting bent.

Inspired, as ever, by Twitter.

More specifically, this tweet from mandyrose1:

"Anyone got any good news I'm fed up of listening/reading about the budget, credit crunch, global warming, death, bombs, pensions help me!!"

I've heard this sentiment echoed from many people recently; across various channels of conversation. (Not just social media, I must add. I do occasionally associate with real flesh and blood too. If I must ... ) It seems to be what a lot of people are feeling at the moment. With my Journalism 2.0, (or indeed 3.0) head on, I immediately started thinking "Hear, hear! Why are we subjected to the same depressing repetitive drudgery from the media all the time? It's time they actually serviced the communities they broadcast/publish to and give them the news they want. Or, hell, even let them create it!"

I have an enlarged prostate. And when I die, it will probably be cancerous. That's the case with most men, I understand.

Well, that's one intro my journalism lecturers would be proud of. It's fine. I'm a bus pass holder after all (and I now get to swim free as well) and it's a widespread problem for older chaps. I'm on minor medication and if I'm careful about the amount of liquid I drink and when I drink it, it's all perfectly controllable.

Caught the latest, longer version of Later this morning thanks to the merciful BBC iPlayer - it allows me to miss all the Jools Holland bits, particularly those cringe-making interviews.

Two things struck me very strongly: that Jez Williams, of album-pushing Doves, currently bears an uncanny resemblance to Rab C Nesbitt, and Marianne Faithfull is becoming with each passing year like a female George Melly. There was an absurd guitar player and a couple of great singers I wouldn't wanted to have missed.

So, things get back to normal, whatever that is, this week with the kids returning to school and elder daughter returning to Palm Springs to start her new life as a 41-year-old widow.

I have found out the answer to the vexed question of who should cough-up when you throw-up in a taxi. The answer is that I should pay - but certainly no more than £40 plus the fare.

Thank you to all who contributed to my previous post on the matter. I appreciated your views, not least because there was such a spread of opinion, ranging from Caroline and Selina who thought I'd done everything I could and been incredibly decent to clear it up, to Jackie and Clifford who thought I'd not done very much at all.

More than a week after Arch, my two-year-old, was sick in the back of a private hire vehicle, the issue was still unresolved in my head so I put in a call to Chris Arundel head of the licensing team with Birmingham City Council.