So I was (probably) the only English person in an Aussie bar in West London last night to see England lose miserably in their 3-1 defeat to Australia. As the final whistle went, they turned the sound off the football and started playing that song that starts: “I come from the land down under…” Oh dear.

Continue reading

“We’ve never done an encore, and we’ve never sold our soul and done a TV advert like all the other bands you play either… Some bands still have principles. We’re one of them.” [Nicky Wire, November 2002, the Jo Whiley show, BBC Radio 1] I guess that must be a different Manic Street Preachers who recorded the song Australia, currently being using on a UK TV advert for, ahem, Australia.

Continue reading