Fox's Classics are a far superior biscuit. You could say that they are the HAL of biscuits

As any self respecting northsider who spent their teenage years in The Grove will tell you, Foxes Classic are THE SPAWN OF SATAN. The only refreshments available were said choco snack and Fanta. Mixed with tins of Stag cider consumed at considerable haste in the Anne's prior to entry, this volatile concoction played havoc with the auld ned kelly whilst moshing to She Sells Sanctuary. SPAWN OF SATAN I tells ya!

Firstly if you think hal are a Beach Boys rip off, i guess thats your opinion and i guess i just dont agree with you. I think one or two of the tracks on the album are not great "my eyes are sore" +another i cant think of, are a bit crap, a bit over the top. as for the rest its excellent and one of the best Irish albums I (i stress I) have heard in the last few years. to call it a beach boys rip off is i believe lazy (and i would differentiate between saying they sound at times like the beach boys, which is true and implying its nothing more than second rate beach boys). you obviously dont like the album or the band (fair enough) but in your attempt to put the band down you use typical lazy criticism, pick out a strong influence and label the band "a .... rip-off". they have far more influences than just the beach boys, beatles, ray davies, maybe carol king, also there is alot of originallity there. undoubtably, there is a strong 60's/70's influence, no bad thing i believe. i had two points about "Music snobs." firstly i would agree that the people writing on this forum are well informed, more well informed than me it appears. the focus of the site I feel, is generally on small bands with little commercial success. that is no bad thing, its good to draw attention to band that you believe are good but which need some publicity etc to gain some success and also passing on tips about small bands that are not well known. what is bad about being a music snob, is that some of these snobs take stock not in being well informed (which is obviously grand) but in knowing bands that other people know just for the sake of it. who can come up with the most obscure band? well thats super! heres a medal! also what really annoyes me is to see these same snobs turn their backs on a band because that band is succesful. when that happens, then its not the individual's band any more, its some heartless mulitnational with, god forbid, SHAREHOLDERS!and i really believe that that is the case on this site. when there was a topic re your first gig, which kinda turned into yr favourite gig, i thought it interseting to see how few people picked Paul mcCartney, granted hes a nob, but most people on this site i would speculate, never saw the beatles live? that was a chance to hear the beatles tracks performed live by one of the main songwriters of the greatest band ever. i mean no one even made reference to it.and to be honest it doesnt surprise me. did you even go? or can you admit being part of such a commecial money making venture, it could make you very uncool. lastly im not trying to negate another's opinion by saying they are not in a band or anything along those lines. what im saying is that its easy for those outside the music industry, and i include journalists (as outsiders), to look at the industry and criticise anyone who makes any concessions or compromises. as i said ambition is ugly.(why cant every act be like Nick Drake!!!) music has become a business. people do it because they enjoy it but also hoping to make a living from it. a good living. a nice house, holidays, no real financial worries. how many of us have comprimised to achieve those goals - in music that is selling out. (there are of course differing degrees of it. ) i think it is small minded to turn your back on a act because they are popular. we've all done it. when you were in school, you liked a band know one knew, then when the idiots who dont even like music started knowing the lyrics, you knew it was time to jump ship! come on be honest. and yes often the artist can go far too commercial and that is never nice to see/hear but in some ways i think the music snobs on this site really dislike anyone gaining any serious success (there exactly is the relevance of pointing out that many of these people are not reliant on making their living from making music). also given that we are no longer in school, its time to grow out of that. i think it also forms part of the irish psyche to knock those that are succesful. to come full circle, re Hal, it doesnt surprise me they get liitle recognition on this site, perhaps that is because they dont need it, or perhaps it is because if someone on this site said they were really good they wouldn't be able to claim they discovered them and hence there is little to be gained. yes i am a cynic. (ps not i dont think hal are "a big succesful act", they are reasonably succesful, and more succesful than most of the bands mentioned on this site, more succesful then most of those bands will ever be, which is perhaps where they went wrong)

i use them purely for illustrative purposes only. i feel you may have missed my point somewhat. also i certainly wasn't implying that the people running the forum were ignoring them or other similar bands (its merely coincidence that Rev Jules is a moderator and my discussion with him was in his capacity as a regular member. there was no personal comment made about Cluas or how it is run, more about some of the members who may or may not be representative of a majority.) for the record i had already read the review, i though it was grand.

surely most music snobs would think Pet Sounds is over-rated?

this conversation is ridiculous. I'm beginning to think that people throw the music snob label around to mask their own insecurity at not 'knowing as much' as the person they label. Which is dumb. No one can possibly know as much as anyone, because information cannot be measured. I remember being on Dave Fanning's show on 2fm, where you pick a mixtape of sorts for him to play, I picked a few random things - an Arcade Fire track (the album hadn't come out here yet I don't think at that stage), The Honeymoon, a Nusrat cover by Jeff Buckley, and a couple of other things including a track by The Cult. Fanning was saying "there's so much 'cool' stuff here, and then you throw in a track by The Cult, what's that about?" I had no idea if The Cult were cool or not, because I kind of missed them the first time around. But I still stand by that being the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said to me about music, and the true source of snobbery.

She's defo worth it at 14/1. I really like her album but it's one of those that is hard to describe to others - if that makes sense.

well i thought the julie feeney stuff was yack. just shows ye.

una: "No one can possibly know as much as anyone, because information cannot be measured." is there something kinda Spinal Tap about that comment?

Without wishing to drag up something that's pretty much blown over at this point some of you may recall a bit of correspondence on this site a number of weeks ago in relation to the Choice Awards. While I didn't intend to, nor believe that I did, in any way cast any doubts as to the integrity of the awards themselves or the people behind them, I have over the last number of days found out that one of the comments that I made was in fact incorrect. In that regard, I think it's only right that I put my hand up and say that I now understand from the parties concerned on my side that my album "Jollity" was in fact considered for the list, and I believe actually came very close to making the shortlist. So to that extent, I went off on one a little early and to all concerned, and particularly the Choice Awards organiser's I would like to record my apologies. As I say, and always have said, not liking my music is absolutely everybody's imperative as is liking it(!!) I just wanted to clear this up so that there's no misunderstanding or any feeling that I've tried to justify saying something that was wrong, although it was borne of genuine frustration and disappointment at the time. If I get something wrong, I am big enough to admit it. And I mean BIG ENOUGH!! That said, I'm going to the Choice Awards and look forward to hopefully meeting and congratulating some of the organisers and nominees on the night. TW.