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The Saturday miscellany: Radiohead vs Jay-Z; Nigel Farage; London's Brewing; Making It Up: Photographic Fictions; The Marine Quarterly

 

Thursday 02 May 2013 22:13 BST
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Controversial choice: Jay-Z performing at Glastonbury in 2008
Controversial choice: Jay-Z performing at Glastonbury in 2008

Culture clash: Radiohead vs Jay-Z at Glastonbury

It's the Big Gig: a headline slot on the Pyramid Stage at the UK's best-loved, largest festival is proof an act has achieved that rare combination of both critical and mainstream success.

Radiohead may have been the apotheosis of this. They headlined both 1997 and 2003; obsessive fans were legion. Their Nineties performance – coinciding with the release of era-defining album OK Computer – is remembered as one of Glasto's greatest ever.

Jay-Z in 2008 was a controversial choice: a US rapper? Really? In the face of pre-fest dissent, Jay-Z pulled it off, convincing both crowd and critics.

So, top marks to Jay-Z for irrepressible spirit, but somehow Thom Yorke's alienated electronica worked even better in a field.

The winner: Radiohead.

Holly Williams

The deleted emails of Nigh Farage (as read by John Walsh)

From: n.farage@hofcommons.gov
Sent: Tues, 23 April 2013
To: n.ohooligan@55.com
Subject: Local elections

Dear Nobby,

Relieved to hear you're still in circulation after the unpleasantness in Solihull. Those youths from Unite Against Fascism can be savages at the old unarmed combat. (I wonder if any of 'em are relatives of Luis Suarez!)

The answer is that (once the teethmarks have cleared up!) I'd love to have you stand as our man in Hammersmith in next month's elections. Your robust integrity, strength of character and hard line at the Bee Enn Pee will be invaluable to our great party.

But let discretion be our watchword, old boy. Schtum about yr dad's 3rd Reich dinner service, silenzio about the Scrubs (we'll say you were on a fact-finding tour of, I dunno, Wales) and not a word about your rejected articles for Bulldog ("Bizarre and dangerously extreme" forsooth! What a pussy that editor was). Let's discuss our strategy soon over a pint of British ale. See you in the Dove!

Dear Ellen: Do I have to tip for a pedicure?

Yes. Especially for a pedicure. Forget waiters, tell hairdressers where to get off, save all your money – and triple-tip for pedicures. These heroes touch other people's grisly feet for a living. It would be exploitation at 10 times the price.

Ellen E Jones

What to do

What better way to pass the Bank Holiday Weekend than by sunning oneself in London Fields while sampling more than 100 London beers? 4-5 May, londonsbrewing.co.uk

What to see

Check out Making It Up: Photographic Fictions, new at the V&A, a retrospective of photographer as storyteller featuring Gregory Crewdson and Cindy Sherman. Until 12 January

What to buy

Described as “the thinking sailor’s sea journal”, The Marine Quarterly is a handsome mag for readers of the nautical persuasion. Year’s subs, £40. Marinequarterly.com

The Indy Index

By Imogen Blake

*18 Carlton Terrace on the Mall in central London has become the most expensive house on the UK market with a price tag of £250m

* The buyer, who will be neighbour to the Queen, will have to pay stamp duty of £17.5m

* In March the average house sale price in the UK was £162,606

* Derelict houses, mainly two-bedroomed terraces on sale in Stoke-on-Trent, could be yours for just £1

* The number of thatched properties in the UK is 60,000

* The number of thatched-roof fires every year is between 50 and 80

* 60: the percentage of Britons who own homes

* 0.4: the percentage of Britons who live in a caravan

* On average, the size of a new-build home is 46sqm

* The UK’s smallest house is in Conwy, north Wales, and measures 10ft x 6ft

* Fisherman Robert Jones, the house’s last tenant, was 6ft 3in

Sources:

1. Evening Standard - 'The £250m home next to the Queen: London property smashes UK price record as it goes on sale'

2. The Week - 'Britain's most expensive house: Five facts about £250m mansion'

3. Daily Mail - 'The £250MILLION home: London house set to become UK's most expensive property ever sold as it is put up for sale'

4. BBC - 'Stoke-on-Trent £1 houses: hundreds express interest'

5. Thatch Advice Centre - 'Listed properties'

6. Thatching Advisory Service - 'Thatch Guide'

7. ONS - '2011 census: Key Statistics for England and Wales'

8. ONS - 'Dwellings, household spaces and accommodation type:local authorities in England and Wales'

9. Daily Telegraph - 'Average one bedroom new build 'no bigger than an underground train carriage'

10. Visit Llandudno 'Smallest house in Great Britain'

11. Attractions North Wales 'Britian's smallest house'

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