The Daily Tonic: Ayrton Senna Speed Bumps

With Boris Johnson peppering his conference speech with lines he’s pilfered from M People, a quick reminder of how Heather Small finds the hero inside herself.

Before she takes to the stage, Heather has a simple little pre-show ritual she likes to engage in. She bolts back a shot of neat vodka, says “LET’S DO THIS FUCKER!” then goes on.

Know of any other celebrity rituals? hello@popbitch.com

With Trump’s big Covid adventure taking up so much of the news cycle, it looks like we’re never going to get to the bottom of that weird tape that leaked of Melania Trump slagging off Christmas. But it’s got us thinking about other newsworthy incidents that got shunted to the sidelines, overtaken by other big events (Mother Theresa popping her sandals in the wake of Princess Diana, for instance).

Today’s Question: What are the best stories you remember – and the rest of the world seems to have forgotten – that took place in the shadow of another scandal?

Send us your stories of sidelined scandals to hello@popbitch.com and we’ll send out goody bundles to our favourites.

albert_o’balsam writes:
“I used to live in Reading just round the corner from Winslet Place and that [Kate Winslet] story is 100% true.

“Also true is that Reading Borough Council rather liked the idea of naming streets after famous local residents and, as such, honoured the late Ayrton Senna who used to live in Tilehurst at the start of his career. So we have Ayrton Senna Road, complete with speed bumps.”

[See on Google Maps]

Eddy Tor writes:
“I used to work for a famous satellite ‘repeats’ channel. With a brilliant lack of foresight, to commemorate the showing of Scottish TV detective series Taggart, the marketing department issued a number of miniature bottles of whisky, with the name of the series proudly imprinted on the label.

“A series named after the lead character. Played by a man who was an alcoholic and, in fact, died from the disease…”

KB writes:
“In the late 80s there was a shop in Leeds that sold surplus books, cassettes and LPs that no-one wanted. There was a full rack of ‘Royal Wedding: HRH Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’ LPs – so I bought one for a laugh. Needless to say it was utter crap so was left behind when I moved house as a gift to the next tenant.”

NB: If you want a copy, someone’s selling one on eBay.

[£12.99 and free postage]

Today’s ten tracks have all been UK Number One hits in various Octobers over the last 50 years. You get a point for every correct artist you can name, plus a further point for every title you get too.

Ten songs; twenty points.

[Play it here]

Lemmy facemask anyone?
[See on Consequence of Sound]

Votes are now open for Penguin Of The Year 2020
[First round closes soon!]

As so many of you liked the Minute Silence Mascots yesterday, here’s some of Japan’s finest…
[Mondo Mascots on Twitter]