Richey Edwards

We need to sign a backup for Hare-Reid.

Nice one. Marillion are great.

Was there not a war on m8? Draft dodging b*****d.

Biggie and Big L were great. ODB maybe wasn't the most gifted and was very unorthodox but he was funny and a unique character who was part of one of the best rap crews of all time. Eazy E - didn't even write his own songs. All of his lyrics were written by any of Ice Cube, MC Ren or Knocturnal (I think?). I know he's respected for being a figurehead but I find it hard to take rappers who don't write their own words seriously. Surely the whole point of rapping is to come up with your own lyrics?

No he was just the most obvious example.

No. If you want specific names I was referring to 2Pac who, while good, is nowhere near as amazing as people make out. I could probably name at least 15 rappers better than him.

Elvis Costello tonight.

The 2016 playoffs were two years ago. Get help.

BOOM BOOM

Have a Cee-Lo.

People should be judged for their actions rather than automatically canonised upon death. After all, death happens to everyone and the idea that people who are dead should not be condemned or criticised for their behaviour is ridiculous.

Finished the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Shamefully I had not read it before. Thoroughly enjoyed it though and plan on reading the rest of the series. Currently reading The Count of Monte Christo.

As your namesake once said.

Has our scout friend suggested Andy Leishman yet?

There is (or at least there used to be) a tendency for people to raise up dead rappers as some kind of martyrs who are above all criticism, despite: a) them being awful people who have made poor life choices and decisions that lead to their own deaths and b) not being anywhere near as good as their posthumously acquired reputation might suggest. I didn't know this guys music, but it appears that he is no real loss to the world.

I had the pleasure of meeting Xxxtentacion at a charity do. He was surprisingly down to earth and VERY funny.

I'd agree. For some reason people seem to think Messi is the greatest, but for me it isn't even close. CR7 pishes and shits all over Messi.

Manic Street Preachers Marillion Joy Division Dream Theater Genesis Big Country The Clash Dire Straits Elvis Costello Fish Faith No More Gazpacho a-ha

I was looking at Ariana Grande earlier but that doesn't mean I can get her.

I spent two years going to AA meetings, made friends and listened to people's stories but had no notion to do their programme. It took a moment were I was sitting in the living room in the dark, depressed as f**k, swigging from a half-bottle of Glens when a sudden thought of "what exactly am I getting out of doing this?" caused me to stop trying to mask the depression with alcohol and do something about it. I poured the almost full half-bottle down the toilet and haven't had a drink since. I come from a big family, I have an uncle and two cousins who all have mental health problems. For years they have been self-medicating with substances ranging from alcohol and cannabis to cocaine and heroin. I have seen them change from lovely, outgoing, kind and fun people to hollow and withdrawn shells of their former selves. I didn't want that to happen to me, which is why I sought treatment for depression. A very awful thing happened to me when I was a child and I was haunted by it for a long time. I drank to try to stop thinking about it. It was only when I underwent therapy last year that I was able to discuss what happened for the first time and was able to overcome it to the extent that it doesn't trouble me anymore. It's a hard lesson to learn, but I eventually got it through my thick skull that alcohol doesn't make your problems go away.

I can appreciate that people can get a lot out of the meetings, programme etc but it wasn't for me. I know a lot of people who haven't drank in decades but still go to meetings, so they obviously enjoy the social side of it and still get something out of going. Maybe because they are self-confessed alcoholics they could get something out of it that I couldn't get, because I was just a depressive who tried binge-drinking to kill my depression. Now that my depression isn't there anymore I don't feel the need to drink.

I used to be what might be called a "problem drinker". I was never an "alcoholic", but was directed to AA meetings. I didn't stick around at AA because of similar things like avoiding places that serve alcohol, not associated with friends who drink etc, counting the amount of time you've stopped drinking for, the denial of personal responsibility, the demonisation of alcohol that is prevalent in their literature and "step programme" and the idea that only a belief in God can save me from dying of an alcohol related illness. I make a simple lifestyle not to drink alcohol and haven't drank in over a year, and I didn't need any "recovery programme" to do that. I can still go out and associate with friends that do drink without any problems. The difference is that I can remember everything and am not dying for days afterwards.

I never quite reached that stage. I was smoking two packets of fags a day at some point though. Stopping smoking helped improve my mental health too, though I was an irritable b*****d for a while afterwards. It's well over a year since I stopped, I stopped counting the weeks, months etc quite early on when I decided it was probably counterproductive.

When I used to work 12 hour shifts in a psychiatric unit it was a lot more than five-a-day because there was always coffee on the go. All the staff and patients were always drinking coffee. How do you manage to drink 20+ coffees a day? Where do you put it all? You must need a pish every 5 minutes.