The Daily Tonic: All Killer, All Filler

With the Greater Manchester area having moved into Tier 3, we’re giving today’s daily issue over to some of our favourite Manc legends. But with Wales starting their fire-breaker fortnight later this evening, South Yorkshire getting upgraded to Tier 3 at the weekend, and Liverpool and Lancashire already there too – we’d like to extend the same sort of courtesy to these areas (and any others that endure the same fate).

So in lieu of a single question today, this is more of a call-out for stories from any of those areas.

If you’ve got any good celebrity or showbiz memories of anywhere currently (or soon to be) in lockdown, send them to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll reward the best with digital goody bags.

Although Liam Gallagher would prefer to be remembered for his swaggering, don’t-give-a-fuck, rock’n’roll attitude, the defining Liam Gallagher story comes from a hilarious flounce he once had at Carnegie Hall in 2001. Not at an Oasis gig, but a Spinal Tap one.

Liam is a huge fan of Spinal Tap. Or he was at least, back when he thought they were a real band. Sadly, the scales only fell from Liam’s eyes when he saw them in concert and was horrified to discover the same three actors performing as Spinal Tap’s support act, The Folksmen, before the evening’s main attraction.

When Noel confirmed the bad news – that the band was a comedy act – he shouted “I’m not ‘avin’ that” and stormed off. And has never watched the film again.

Among Shaun Ryder’s many addictions at the height of the Happy Mondays’ fame, one of the ones that caused Factory Records the biggest headache was his habit of calling premium charge sex lines. Shaun racked up thousands of pounds in bills before Tony Wilson hit upon a way to stem the problem. Not by having Shaun cool it on the wanking, but by getting people he knew to call Shaun to talk dirty to him over the phone instead.

People including Rowetta. And Rowetta’s mum.

PJ writes:
“When I was a small child my parents were friends with Robert Powell (who played Jesus in the film Jesus of Nazereth). His parents lived in Salford and we visited them once. They had photos of their son everywhere, which is quite normal.

“What wasn’t normal is that every single one was of him as Jesus of Nazareth, none as just Robert Powell.”

To make ends meet when he wasn’t playing with the Inspiral Carpets, the band’s late drummer, Craig Gill, used to give musical bus tours of Manchester. His Morrissey and The Smiths tour was particularly well-attended – the highlight of which was this joke that Craig would tell on the trail:

Q/ What does Morrissey have in his sandwiches?

A/ I don’t know, but Marr might!

In keeping with the theme, today’s ten tracks are all from Manchester-based acts. You get a point for naming any of the artists in question. You get a point for naming any of the tracks you can hear them performing.

With ten songs, that’s a possible twenty points up for grabs.

[Go get ’em]

The Rudy Giuliani scene from Borat 2
[See what you think]

Cracking the redactions in Ghislaine Maxwell’s deposition
[Read on Slate]

“I think you misheard me”, I said. “I said I wanted to look like a Count…”