Pseudonym

And the costs escalate drastically once research for a case gets under way. Not only that, but a lot depends on who is paying the bill. I write for a living, so I maintain healthy liability insurance that covers relevant risks. I think I'm insured for about $5 million or something like that. If someone were to bring an unjustified defamation action against me, for example, my insurance company would underwite the costs of my case. It would be in their interests to shut down any frivolous claims very firmly, not least as a deterrent. Insurers sometimes settle nuisance suits out of expediency, but woe betide the plaintiff who brings a weak case against a defendent with a robust backline of professionals. People who play games with defamation law very often regret it. Remember David Irving? His libel action ended up costing him his Mayfair flat and bankrupting him. And the 2013 Defamation Act has changed conditions in the UK a great deal. I also wonder if issuing repeated threats to sue might be construed as harrassment in some circumstances, such as a situation where an action would constitute abuse of process? I wouldn't like to take my chances with that possible vulnerability. At £250 an hour, or even £25 an hour, answering these questions gets very expensive very quickly. Even the least disciplined gambler might conclude that the odds are well and truly against him in this complex area of civil law.

What I find particularly amusing is that he thinks his penny-ante sense of money will scare people. It mostly indicates that he is utterly out of his depth where legal costs are concerned. It doesn't seem to occur to this chappie that legal action would invite reciprocal civil action. As things stand, he and anyone covering for him have a certain amount of legal exposure should they initiate proceedings against anyone here, or against anyone with a legitimate claim related to deception. And he (and possibly any of his friends or associates who have aided him in any way) would find it hard to avoid giving evidence under oath in a civil matter. Also, he simply doesn't have the means to prevent his identity and criminal history becoming very public indeed should he initiate court proceedings. He would find himself fully exposed in public reporting by facts that he would be unable to suppress. Sometimes, people who are desperate think they have nothing to lose, but that is seldom the case. (I agree with others that his brave words about visiting people "for a chat" are so much noise. That said, any such "suggestion" from him in the future should perhaps be passed onto the local constabulary, just in case there is a pattern of behaviour that warrants police attention. I'm 5000 miles away and very well protected, so he certainly doesn't intimidate me -- but desperate and inept people are inherently unpredictable, and can pose risks to public order and the safety of others. I would hope that anyone reading this would take any possible threats seriously, even though they might be hogwash.) Ped, please let me know if he does ever follow through on his threats of legal action. I might be able to help in some way.

I suppose everyone needs a hobby. Perhaps it is worth noting at this juncture that "Jason Lear" might be aggravating any offences that might have been committed. Should any of this get to court, that might bode ill for a defendant. This is becoming very serious indeed. It is well past time to stop playing games with people online, or by any other means, if the purpose of doing so could in any way be construed as intimidation of potential witnesses. Also, I recall from my days as a snot-nosed legal lackey in Britain that judges and magistrates really dislike people who hurl around nonsense threats about libel, especially when those threats appear to be designed to conceal culpable behaviour. Still, tant pis.

He's played all over the world, has he? Well, thanks in part to the prominence of this thread (and the inflammatory behaviour by Mason that seems to have led to it), he is much more likely to be barred from entry into the United States than he was even two weeks ago if he is indeed the individual identified in the Leicester Mercury article. Convicted fraudsters and their ilk are inadmissible (we have plenty of our own), and US authorities welcome information about anyone planning to enter improperly. Worthless threats of defamation action are even more worthless if the supposed defamation has legitimate law enforcement value. Happy Christmas Mick. Happy Christmas everyone.

Sooner rather than later, I expect, Everything Changes are going to need a replacement bassist as their current bassist might be temporarily unavailable. I hope as many Basschatters as possible will schedule auditions for that coveted showbiz role, and then mess the band around endlessly with tranparently worthless excuses before failing utterly to turn up.

There is a great deal of discussion these days in rarefied creative circles about how best to preserve an artistic legacy. That can involve astonishingly complex questions of intellectual property, considerable wealth in various forms, long-term revenue, the integrity of a body of work, locations of archives, and philanthropic choices that can be set out during the lifetime of the artist. There have been too many episodes of heirs and trustees arguing over estates, and particularly over assumptions regarding the wishes of the deceased. Dylan's decision settles a lot of questions and frees up a great deal of wealth than can be used effectively. For example, the amount involved could establish a slew of programmes geared towards emerging musicians, or performance venues. Perhaps Dylan has something like that in mind, perhaps not -- but it would certainly be easier to devise such programmes using the proceeds of selling intellectual property than it would be to rely on royalties for funding. I know that Dad and others are philosophically opposed to extreme accumulation of surplus wealth. Fair enough, but that wealth exists and does not simply disappear unless it is truly based on a bubble. It matters a great deal, therefore, what arrangements wealthy individuals make. Perhaps it would be reasonable to wait until we see what arrangement Dylan makes before passing judgment.

Advice from 2020 might fall on deaf ears. The OP might need less anachronistic persuasion: I reckon they're alright with you getting a Ric as long as you get it from the right people. Don't be a fool to yourself.

Most Christmas songs shred my nerves because I only hear them in supermarkets. Three exceptions: 1. The version of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" that the Cure played on the final night of the Kissing tour in 1987. Well worth missing the last train home for. 2. Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". As a small child, I loved the Prokofiev passages, and the song always reminded me of mid-'70s Christmas mornings with my elder brother as we compared our pre-breakfast cocoa-related swag. Not long after he drank himself to death about fifteen years ago, I flew from Washington DC to England for my mother's 70th birthday. She was terminally ill and at the time I did not really expect to see her again. "I believe in Father Christmas" was playing in the terminal at Heathrow while I was buying Bittermints to take back to the US. There's a plangent quality to the song and the sound engineering that sets it apart from the usual run of Christmas-related emotional manipulation. It certainly got to me that day. 3. "Last Christmas" by Wham! I didn't care for the song in the slightest. It's a favourite, however, because the video induced my mother to make a very ill-advised wager with me regarding which member of the duo had had a nose job. My mother's grasp of pop-culture trivia was not as solid as was her insistence on honouring bets. That one paid for my first car.

Possibly the witless and superficial BBC report fails to convey the nature of the composition, the project, the site, the rationale, the technical construction, the historical semiotics, the aesthetic precepts, the metaphysical allusions, or the implications for numerous modes of ambient or experimental music. I went to a gig once. Won't do that again. Eight quid spent, and it was over in no time with nothing to show for it. What a con.

I got a new Thumb 4-string two days ago. First bass I have owned since the late 1980s. Today is my first anniversary as a Basschat member, and it took me that long to settle on the right thing to buy. It was absolutely worth the wait. It chimes like churchbells unplugged and loses nothing when amplified. I didn't expect such smooth, resonant warmth or harmonic complexity. A fitting way to mark a year since I joined this truly remarkable site. (And many thanks to @Ricky 4000 for pointing me towards this thread.)

Strictly speaking, MLK was shot just after midnight - and therefore early morning -- Dublin time. However, it was by then April 5th in Dublin. Poor old Bono. He can't catch a break here.

One pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small Not in 1967, Ms Slick. Also, had you known my mother, you wouldn't have been so sanguine about her sense of phamacological responsibility.

I feel you, brother.

I'm unbuttered, unadorned Ryvita. Plain and adequate, especially when there's nothing else. Occasionally the right dose of austere crispness. On guitar, I'm a fry-up in a four-star hotel. Untidy, filling, and a little bit too arty for most tastes.

This is a vague memory, and possibly wide of the mark, but I seem to remember seeing a list of banned songs in the free magazine Making Music that music shops started distributing in the mid-1980s. At least two shops I frequented (one in London's Denmark Street, the other in Aigburgh in Liverpool) had the same list. "Stairway to Heaven" was top of the list, and I think "Smoke on the Water" was at number two. I never played either of those, but I did once play a passage from "We're Not Gonna Take It" by the Who when I was choosing my first good guitar after months of adolescent agonising. The owner burst out laughing, and said, "That's the perfect song for you, because you never [obscene gerund suppressed] buy anything!" Shop staff got testy if you roadtested Boss effects pedals with the intro of "She Sells Sanctuary", too., but I can't remember if that was actually on the list. Those shops were extremely patient.

Well, I tried to recreate the infamous lost Spinal Tap album cover, and now I'm very much in the doghouse at Chateau Pseudonym. All privileges withdrawn.

I expect mods to deliver tight rhythms, stylish insolence, and sharp tailoring. I expect skins to deliver steel toecaps to my bonce, going by experience.

One of the upsides of social distancing: the impracticality of ensemble charity recordings. We can be pretty sure that Little Steven ain't gonna play Sun City, either.

"I only indulge at weekends."

No, he ain't. I pity the fool.

Good hints, Dave. 1. Sgt. Pepper was the first record I bought. I was nine. The Beatles certainly defined my parameters and horizons. 2. A mate got me into The Damned via Phantasmagoria and their 10th anniversary concert in Finsbury Park. That got me into punk, new wave, indie etc in a big way. 3. The Cocteau Twins. My first real girlfriend, 1980s squat scene, draw your own conclusions about why it's burned into my head. Part of me is always pursuing the sensations I associate with Treasure.

I did when I first arrived, but it was rolled into my visa category anyway. The process towards permanent residence and naturalisation was gruelling then, and I gather it is even more demanding these days. Could have bought a Porsche for what it cost me. Worth every penny, as things turned out.

Ambient, my friend, I don't think the polarisation with diminish anytime soon, and I don't think your life is likely to align successfully with the policies that the UK has decided to pursue. Much as I love Britain and sometimes miss it terribly, I no longer contemplate going back -- and I live in the Cheeseburger Republic. For people who operate primarily in the realm of information-rich creative innovation, there is little need to be tied to one locale. There's still room at the top.

Dood, many congratulations on your writing gig. That first appearance in a dream publication means a great deal. Unsolicited suggestion offered in good faith: I might have missed a detail, and different publications/fields have different conventions, but I should have thought that the magazine would send you at least one author's copy gratis. If not, or if one isn't enough, I don't think it's out of line to request from the publisher a couple of copies of each issue in which you appear. Apart from anything else, it's legitimate to have it for your records (and very important in the event of any legal or tax problems). I enjoyed your video reviews, by the way. Very effective and engaging.

My reading of Dave's original message to you was that he found himself in an invidious position related to friendship. That could happen to most of us. You are , however, rightly interested in these people as a band, not as a bundle of friendship dynamics. I think you would be completely justified in making it clear that you'd like to make this work, but only if they are willing to commit and respect that commitment. There are diplomatic and less diplomatic ways of making this point. I'd give them a chance, but would walk immediately if there's a recurrence of the "mates in the room" stuff when it isn't appropriate. Either this misfire was a one-off -- in which case it's probably worth granting a little latitude -- or it's a pattern of behaviour, in which case it won't change. Good luck.