Just google for 'lyrics' with one of the song names, and you'll find numerous sites that have all the lyrics on the album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fame_Monster#Music_structure_and_lyrics

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-fame-monster-album-lady-gaga.html

HTH

I've a pair of (post-mount) Sixes on a P7 (circa '03) – the version with gaitors – and they're definitely 160mm max (I guess 165 too) – I checked with Manitou about running a 180/185 on 'em (nope).

>Front and rear sizing are slightly different so you have to bear that in my mind

*usually* for IS mounts a rear 160 caliper is the same as a front 185 caliper – the mounts on the fork add the offset. (You rarely see rear post mounts, FWIW)

(Having said that, I've got a recumbent which uses identical 160mm calipers/disks at both ends, but that's a little oddball)

We''ve had the same problem. Nut feeder next door – well used. Our seed feeders – likewise. Nuts – no chance.

>who started this alternative No1

I think it (or another one) actually stated out as 'download Journey and f*** x-factor' – earlier on it appeared that the x-factor winner would get to do Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'".
(I caught a bit of the 'Queen' edition of x-factor a few weeks ago, and mebbe one or two did a half decent take, the rest were pretty crap)

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/journey-song-to-be-ruined-by-x-factor-numpty/

To be fair, the guy doesn't make a bad attempt if you look at the youtube footage, but it's a bit weedy compared to the original IMO.

On the Manga front – how about Akira ?

(I'm not a big graphic novel fan, despite loving Marvel as a kid, but a mate lent that whilst I was in hospital some years back and I was rivetted..)

Errr…GT85/WD40 *is* effectively a degreaser – it leaves a little residue but spraying bearings with it is a good way of removing the grease in 'em too (as I discovered after one winter, ruining a loose ball headset). Might be worth looking at them after a few rides to check the grease hasn't gone a bit runny.

I borrowed a Myo XP in march from a ~10hr exmoor night hike thing I do every year – certainly worked well enough (my old one is a Petzl Duo and eats rather more batteries), think there's an improved version out. But whether it's any better than it's nearest rivals I couldn't say.

We've had at least a couple of doves or pigeons hit one of our windows over the last 4 years – but there's never been any evidence of it (or even any post-moggy remains) other than the outline on the glass.

Heard a blackbird smack another one a while back, poor little bugger sat dazed for about half an hour before making it into some nearby ground cover…I hung around in the kitchen 'til it did, since since our sideway's a thoroughfare for the local cats…

>The SPD's kept my feet in line but the flats didn't care.

Same here – got a big chunk of cartiliage missing in one knee, any twisting really upsets it (actually, both to a degree, I suspect years of sitting on my heels whist playing the guitar stretched the ligaments).

No, but I saw him last wednesday at Brixton – a good show…haven't seen that much dry ice in a long time 😉

(Tho' I'm not sure if the oxygen bottle being carted on and off from time to time was 'cos he needed it or 'cos he was being a t1t….)

The support band (Esoterica) put on a good performance too..

>Yngwie can't see the fretboard these days for his moobs.

Just think how bad they'd be if he *didn't* suck in his cheeks 😉

>I've never mic'd my TM30 – always better coming from the XLR

The front end of the TM30 is really a 'Sansamp' by the same company (Tech21) and is effectively modelling an amp, but in the analogue domain, rather than done digitally. The feed from the front end – which is what's effectively the XLR output – goes into a linear (ie transistor) amp which drives the cabinet speaker. ie the front end does all the tone generation (in fact, the xlr out probably also has some filtering to emulate the effect of the speaker/cabinet on the frequency response of the whole lot, 'cos it's intended to go strainght to a mixing desk/PA.
(They also do the 'Power Engine' which is the linear amp/cabinet of the TM series amps, but without the Sansamp front end – the idea being that your Tonelab/Pod etc does the amp emulation and the Power Engine is *just* an amplifier with little tone generation)

>Quite pricey but worth a look.

That's the problem, it all adds up 🙁 – to be fair the VT will cover a lot of bases in one go. I doubt he'll actually be disappointed with the sounds he'll get out of it (I was listening to a bit of Bullet.. on the train earlier, it's more of a dirty rather than overdriven tone from what I heard, and my Tonelab's certainly pretty decent at that).

Problem is, take n guitarists and you'll get at least n+1 opinions on amps/guitar/tone..not to mention they can be a fickle bunch about gear (myself included). So trying to get a consistent opinion on a 'better' option is gonna be as successful as herding cats, I suspect.

FWIW…if he thinks we're all a bunch of old fogies, my listening includes Rush, Van Halen, Scorpions, UFO, Mr Big, through to Dream Theater, In Flames, Killswitch Engage, Children of Bodom, Trivium, Opeth, blah blah blah 😉

>I'm bound to agree with Freddie Flintoff's estimation of the fellow's >character:

>"Tony Blair is a knob".

Surely:
'Tony Blair is a ****'

Edit: yay, the swear filter works 😉

Hmm…can of worms 😉

>As a guitarist your duty is to provide the tone – loudness/volume and relative level to other instruments is someone elses job

Ideally yes – that's fine if you have the luxury of a mixer/PA for anything other than vocals.

Even with an effing noisy drummer I've never needed my 50W (70's hybrid) Peavey wound up very far. Absolutely no idea if that was more or less than 15W, FWIW..

I guess one point of the 100w over the 50w (or below) is it's got and fx loop. But how useful that's likely to be is another matter.

I've settled with a Vox Tonelab (floor unit, uses the same modelling approach as their Valvetronix amps, and very easy to dial-in/tweak ) into my Peavey(set clean) – equally it could drive a PA directly 'cos it's emulating (much of) the amp. I bought it more for a selection of amp sounds, rather than the fx as such, whilst needing soome basic chorus/delay stuff too.
FWIW I'd already tried a Blackstar HT-Dual (mild dirt>overdrive dual channel)pedal – which is excellent in itself, but would be better if it allows a few more channels/level setting (I almost went the ADA MP1 route)

It's pretty straightforward stuff design-wise (so may not be what you're after) but
http://www.corinnedennis.co.uk/

might be worth a try.
You don't see it in many shops – I've picked up a few ls and ss tops from assorted sales in the past, it's very well made, quite stretchy and so doesn't suffer much from velcro/bushes and general abuse. One ls roubaix top must be about 10 yrs old but still works well (shame they don't seem to do quite that material any more), and it's not from lack of hitting the ground or more stationary objects 😉

(Yeah, I'm a bloke, but the 12s/14's they used to do seemed to have longish arms/body – that might have changed tho')

FWIW, spruce as bonsai are a bit of a pain – there's normally only one variety used as such, and you rarely see that other than in Japan AFAIA. With some conifers you can encourage back-budding with the right pruning, but I'm pretty sure spruce aren't one of them (cedars aren't great either), and eventually the older needles die off as they get bigger. You can slow growth to a degree by growing them in a pot (and as mentioned, a period root trim at the right time of the years will help) – you'd probably get several years out of it before it got too big. A plastic pot's not ideal, but the terracota-stylee things don't look too bad and are fairly light (not that it helps much with a few of the things I've got in the garden !)

One thought…yew. Looks vaguely christmas tree-like (a lot of people can't tell the difference between spruce and pine, for example), and you can trim it back to old wood and it'll regrow. Tends to grow a little upright so you'd need to wire, or hold down the branches with guy wires 'till they set, so it might take a few years to get to a more spruce-like shape…

Ta – based on repair/reliability figures I've been looking as Asus and Tosh. – Acer seem to be at the better end too (but in quizzing them on some bios issues the only way to resolve the question is to *phone* the US – some much for the UK/US email support 😮 – and it wasn't *that* hard a question…)

As kinda mentioned above, paying a lot more typically gets features, not more ruggedness. Unless it was *really* cheap it's one of the few things I'd think about getting an extended warranty for – but from the manufacturer, not (normally)the retailer – a lot of manufacturers do relatively cheap warranty extensions (tho' that seems to be where Dell claw back some money IMO). John Lewis cover their stuff with a 2 year warranty (as do Asus with some of their gear, I think) and can be competitive with on-line pricing BUT taking some Acers as an example, if you want to take their 2yr warranty out to three years it costs more than taking out the Acer 2 yr warranty extension on top of the basic 1 yr IYSWIM

On refurbished gear I'd check the warranty period quite carefully (Dell's 1 yr) and whether it can be extended – the company I works for is owned by Creative and the warranty on Creative refurbs is normally only 90 days. (Tho' I'd be interested to see that tested…)

MrMW – what do you n yer colleagues swear by ? (rather than at..)

>SM600 was the one with the 24in rear wheel. Not produced after 88 AFAIK

Edit – yup re 24", wrong re naming.

Generally SM400/500/600/(700?)800/900/1000 referred to the componentry level/$$, but there were a couple amongst that that were BOTE – 600 the year I bought mine (I think 800 too). Tho' that might explain why they wouldn't give me a warranty replacement without more $$ – ie in 91 mebbe only the m800 was a BOTE.

Between retrobike and the online 'dale catalogues (somewhere) you can probably piece it together if yer bothered..

>Last Killer V/Beast of the East era Dale i saw was a 1" 1/4 headset so you'll likely need some reducer cups. 100mm forks worked

Err…they did use the term for several years….

'dales around then used T6061 (mebbe they still do) – it was heat treated after welding, so you can't easily fit disk brakes unless it's the kinda thing thing that has a bar up to the canti boss for support. (Tho' there is the A2Z thing
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=521329&sid=0606d2e59880f4fcde0556274c226524
– dunno if that's better or worse for the frame.

But I'd just fit V-brakes.

IIRC the canti dropouts were around '89-90, but the replaceable ones probably 90 onwards.

I'm not sure anything around '90 even allowed for suspension forks eg here's a '91 BOTE:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36185
And I'm pretty sure > 1" steerers were later than that.

>80mm – 100mm travel.
No more than 80mm, and even that's pushing it a bit I suspect. Most 80mm forks now are about 440mm drop>crown, I think the original forks are probably more like 395.
Some of the few forks you could buy then were Rockshox Mag21s (iirc) or Manitous – dunno what the measurements of those were, but the available travel was something like 60mm or less (50mm on the Manitous?). An old set of elastomer Paces would almost fit the bill, except for the availability of the elastomers nowadays (ie you can't get 'em)

The 24" rear wheel was (I think) before '88 – a mate had an '88 that was 26", after having a go on that I splashed out on an M600 ('89)…600+ quid at the time 😮
Had a wacky white/red/purple paintjob..sadly that croaked (longitudinal crack along the top-tube where it wrapped the seat-tube) about '91.
I wound up with a level top-tube M500 as a replacement (probably should have given them the extra 50 quid or so for the BOTE version – they'd changed the ranges/pricing around…) which I used regularly 'till '97 and is sitting in the garage waiting for it's rebuild (as is my '96 M2 stumpie…)

Worth trying to patch-in any missing paint? – Imron was a bugger for chipping on the chainstay but seemed to stick ok elsewhere…

>taper
Ah, I see.

He mentioned a 27.2 post – he could use 25.0, that'd give a *bit* more insert material to play with (tho' whether that's enough..)

BTW re. welding – IIRC 7000 series ally doesn't generally need heat-treating, whereas 6000 does

Even if you can use an insert on that, I wonder how much strength the whole lot will have – the remaining section of seatpost welded to the frame is now a *lot* shorter, and the section of tubing above the crack, even if it's bonded, is going to add nothing to the strength. (Unless you can get the cracked welded as well, and I dunno how successful that's likely to be.)

Mebbe you may have more joy with getting someone to cut out the whole of the existing post/weld and weld in a new section, if you can find anyone that'll weld thin-guage stuff. (There's more than a few custom motorcycle builders in the uk, but I suspect the tubing they use is somewhat thicker).

I *think* Orange used to handle repairs to ally frames some years ago, perhaps they might have some useful addresses ?

FWIW I've got a mate's old Enduro frame (for the spare stays/shock/link), that's got a similar crack..

Re wiping out the bonding agent – must be possible to do it (tho' you wouldn't want an interference fit). Argos have a service to fix stripped BB shells, which is to ream them out and fit a sleeve – I assume that's bonded-in. Likewise bonding's been used on CF frames for some years, and the Windcheetah recumbent uses a cruciform of ally tubes of about 2" diameter bonded into various ally castings

Good luck, I'm sure it'll go well.

FWIW I've had a bit of trouble with my neck for years (tension headaches, numb(er) fingers from time to time) – but mechanically nothing like as bad, judging from some MRI scans of a few years ago. But just to limit any possible problems I've gone over to riding a recumbent on-road (a normal road bike's a no-no). Guess what…it gives you lots more bike-buying opportunities 🙂

Synthetic.
Bought in a sale 75% off circa '89 for the pricely sum of 15 quid (60 quid was a bit expensive then !) and still looks good, doesn't drop crap everywhere.

>whats this likely to be costing a month ?

Dunno offhand, but judging by the desiccating unit I've got in an outbuilding in the garden (tools/bikes/plants), you may find your flat heating isn't on as much as it would be otherwise. I've found the byproduct of using it, is that it keeps the place at a low but even/frost-free temperature over the winter, and seems a lot cheaper than using the storage heater that's already in there.

>Do they have a zippers/velcro
Serious answer 😉 – bib longs, zipper (usually) – *just* about low enough to lob it over the top for a piddle, or bib shorts, the front's normally a similar height. Anything else and you have to make sure you've gone before. Having said that, I've got some coolmax lusso bib longs (lighter than roubaix) and there's no zip and the front's still fairly high.

>Speedos are perfectly normal for swimming, so presumably you'd be perfectly happy to wander round your office in them after a quick pre-work swim then?

Now you're being silly 😉 – that's like wandering around in ones underwear !
Certainly wearing bib longs is more analagous to women wearing leggings

Many years ago I might have felt a bit selfconcious arriving at a pub in lycra (certainly one landlord use to take the piss in good humour), but most pubs (like work) are full of scruffy arses anyway 😉 Anywhere I'd feel a bit scruffy wearing jeans I would't wear lycra (or indeed, shorts – I'd take a change of clothes or not cycle)

>Oh FFS, wear what you want
Yup 😉

WRT the speedos ban at Alton Towers or anywhere else in the UK, in europe *shorts* are banned from swimming pools since they may well be used for other than swimming, and so may not be clean.

Does the question need a little clarification ?

ie was the product poorly designed/manufactured or was is a 'poor product' in terms of sales (which is quite a few of the above) – the two are somewhat different (betamax being one example).

fancyapint.com
is *far* more reliable as being an indicator of a decent pub – in particular look for the 5 and 4-pinters, tho' the 3s will be pretty decent too. (Many of the 2s are ok too, it's more of a relative measure..) It's also got a useful pub map once you've settled on an area.

The (customer-submitted) reviews on beerintheevening, while they *can* be useful (particularly outside London) often have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. The place we went to after work last week sounded like a dive with useless barstaff, according to a couple of reviews. We ignored 'em, and it actually precent decent. Likewise you'll get larger drinkers complaining about lack of music or lager in a real ale pub. Occasionally you'll get what are obviously partisan postings just to bump up the average.

Yup, there's several nr London Bridge/Borough worth a look (see FAP).
Market Porter has > 10 ales on, only downside is it can get busy (can't think why..) and there's not a lot of seating – but in the week it opens out after about 9pm as the Suits clear off home.

Not far from there is the Royal Oak
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1228.php
– excellent for food

The George Inn (owned by Nat. Trust) worth a look (literally) but there's far better to spend time in.

A little walk from Chancery Lane tube – Ye Old Mitre's worth a try if you're nearby.

Several of the Sam Smiths pubs are worth trying – often interesting buildings – eg Citte of Yorke, Princess Louise (both nr Holborn). Bricklayers (Tottenham Crt Road Tube) and Chandos (nr Trafalgar) are decent too.

Google disagrees 😉 – and:

http://www.trailplus.com/helly_hansen.cfm

– near Camberley, so I must admit it's not what I'd immediately think of as surrey.

BTW – this lot specify 'relacquer fretboard' as a specific job, so mebbe it's do-able
http://www.gtr-nelson.com/repair.htm

Not very helpful, but interesting :
http://maestrorepairs.blogspot.com/

Some luthier recommendations here:
http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=26654&st=0

>DO NOT use products like Dunlop's lemon oil

I agree, I wasn't advocating it 😉

>I know I could probably find that rare
Hmm.
It's not like yer average HMV has a load of unusual albums squirreled away on their shelves.
Pretty much everytime I go looking for anything in the Metal section all I find are albums at 14 quid plus (compared to 10-11 online) or at 10 quid when the slightly 'nicer' digipack versions are the same price or cheaper online. Occasionally there's 'n-for-m' offers but there's rarely enough to make up the m, never might the n.

The online hmv store *is* more competitive, tho' it's still typically a quid more than other online shops – but if it's in stock I'm not gonna grumble for a quid.

Mind you, there's an independant (rock/metal) record shop in Camberley, their prices can be comparable with the online shops judging from when I've been there, but it's a bit of a journey from where I live…

Hmm…I'd try a few different workshops and see what they say – can't why it's not possible to just spot in the missing lacquer – equally, if you're thinking of stripping the finish, do you need to worry about odd chips ?

Pretty sure all maple necks are laquered *after* fretting, not before. Certainly a refret job requires the lacquer to be stripped to be done properly.

>need to be stripped, have the frets removed
Might be how you've written it, sounds the wrong way round to me – stripping it ought to be easier once the frets are off (otherwise they're doing the job you wanted done, first, anyway)

I guess with a scalloped neck there's not much finger<>fretboard contact. I guess there's a couple of reasons they're lacquered is – mebbe gives it a harder finish, maple's gona pick up marks and stains unlike rosewood (or at least, you'll see 'em) And you'd use (lemon) oil on a rose wood neck to stop it drying out. Dunno if neck stability is affected at all – might make it more vulnerable to short-term changes in humidity.

Might be worth mentioning to Fender UK to see what they say – I guess it's out of warranty but they may have a view..

Admittedly I'm not a fan of ensuite bathrooms (in fact, the reverse) – are you gonna be compromising the size of bath in the shared bathroom ? Our predecessors put a short bath in our bathroom (tho' they could probably have kept a longer one with a different layout) and it pisses me off *just a little* – and I'm not *that* tall at 5'10.

(IMO they're a case of estate-agent-tick-box-over-function, I'd rather have more room, and not have a flushing bog near my ear'ole in the middle of the night – we've got a large ensuite bog+shower room and we both use the separate bathroom so we don't wake each other)

I've got a PX4 (latest is PX4D for bass/guitar, at £99, or PX5D at ~150, which has some useful improvements like usb recording and external footswitch(es?) – but that's getting a bit ££).

PX4 has aux in, which is handy, but never much liked any of its distortion sounds, so I find it best used clean. But you probably couldn't go far wrong with one of those – the competition's not really got anything better feature-wise

Although the smaller PODs have aux/mp3 in, they *don't* appear to have a metronome, which is a pity.

Vox don't do anything comparable.

That Digitech dosn't look too bad – I guess one thing it lacks is an aux-in, and its bigger brothers don't appear to either.

The Zoom stuff also appears to lack aux-in, but may be ok otherwise. Boss don't seems to do anything with a metronome either (apart from the JS-08 which is pretty damn expensive)

Straying a bit off-topic, but I did a search for similar stuff a while back (already using a Tonelab LE in the covers band I was in), and came across the Digitech GNX4: stereo aux-in (and mic i/p too), onboard multitrack recorder to CF card, plays mp3s off CF, on-board metronome/midi drum machine (and can play midi drum tracks off CF card iirc), plus assorted I/O routing/compensation options with external amps. Also recording to pc via included S/W. Hence it's related website:
guitarworkstation.com – lots of useful stuff on the related forum (there's also another digitech site for it which has patches and user created mp3 samples).
It's a little old and recently discontinued AFAIA – I picked one up new for 199 recently (normally 300+, list was 500 at one point !) – but sadly not being replaced in a similar form.
Unlike the Tonelab which has pretty decent amp sounds out of the box – and easy to dial in new ones – the Digitech's don't really show it off. There's a sound engineer in the US who's generated amp/fx patches for it based on measuring frequency responses of real amps at various settings, they're supposed to be pretty decent (but more ££).

>As said, its more like the history of a number of religions

Even when I was at school doing RE (35 years ago) it was exactly that – education *about* religions, not indoctrination *into* religion.

What's more, I started secondary school having been brought up as a Christian, and RE made my mind up I was an atheist !
Result 🙂

>****-all german and even less french and yet I passed both courses at standard grade (er, o-level equivalent I think). But even the day after I did the exams I couldn't have done much useful talking to a german

You sure ? Having got a 'C' O-level in German (despite an A in French) – crap bloomin teacher *and* she was German ! – I could make a pretty decent attempt, even now my OH's suprised how much I can still piece together, and that's after 30 years..

I'd say second languages *are* useful – even if it's just at the level where you can go on holiday and make a decent attempt.
It's pretty effing embarassing how shit we are at them in the UK – there's an expection everyone else speaks English so we don't have to.

Language is kinda hardwired into our heads at some level – we all speak English – so it ought to be possible for everyone to get vaguely proficient at least one other languange, even if you have to try a few to find one. It also teaches you more about your own language in terms of construction and grammar, and how many languages are related.

There's been several graduates working in the same company section as myself over the last several years – they haven't been specifically language students – they're electronics/software engineers – but in every case their language ability has been to at *least* a good standard. Can't see how we've got any excuse..

Endura and bioracer might be worth trying, dunno what sort of quantities they deal in tho'.

>Altura Night Vision
windproof or waterproof ? – and if the latter, do they have a separate inner glove? The reviews I've found seem to rate them fairly highly..