Anorak

Anorak News - Pop culture, media, sport and weirdness

24th, April 2014 Flashback

1966: When Harry Roberts Killed Coppers And A Dalek Looked The Other Way

ON 12 Dec 1966, Harry Roberts, John Witney and John Duddy were convicted of the murders of David Wombwell, Christopher Head and Geoffrey Fox... More »

24th, April 2014 TV & Radio

BBC Three Was Killed Off To Make Room For New Versions of Old Versions Of Older Books

WHILE the world moves on at a terrifying speed, there's one thing you can always rely on - the BBC's fondness for wheeling out the cadavers of old books... More »

24th, April 2014 Flashback 1

1973: Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' Played At 33 RPM Reveals An Unexpected Secret

IN 1973, Dolly Parton released the song Jolene. It would become a smash hit. But did you know that when played at 33 RPM, it sounds like this.... More »

24th, April 2014 manchester united

Manchester United Balls: Daily Mail Leads Contest To Write The Most Useless David Moyes Story

MANCHESTER United are without a full-time manager. The players are running wild. Order has broken down. The Daily Mail's Richard Arrowsmith spots the truants tearing up the shopping precinct... More »

24th, April 2014 Flashback

1984: New York Subway Commuters Giggle At Nude Walter Mondale On A Penthouse Magazine Cover

No longer can visitors to Coney Island plunk down a few coins to play the unsettling attraction called "Shoot the Freak." And seedy, edgy, anything-might-happen Times Square? These days, it's all but childproof... More »

24th, April 2014 Music

Arcade Fire Are Arcane Dire: Guitar Band Takes Swipe At Electronic Music

Arcade Fire - the very definition of catholic rock 'n' roll music - hit out at Coachella for the amount of non-guitar acts on the bill. Of course, attacking electronic music has an implied 'that's music for stupid people - they don't realise how much more they'd like 'real' music... sheeple.'... More »

24th, April 2014 Reviews 1

Are You Having Sex For The Required 7 Minutes?

THE latest from yet another of that long line of "sex doctors" who would tell us all how to do it. Which is that you might be having sex that average number of times, two or three times a week, but you might also not be having sex for long enough... More »

24th, April 2014 Books 1

Tormented And Alone: The Neurotic Dreams Of The Ladies Of Romance Comics

READING old romance comic books is like slipping into the subconscious mind of the mid-century female. It was a time when their entire well-being and happiness revolved around dumb men; when every single action and decision was predicated on pleasing oblivious males. Thus, in comic after comic, with rarely an exception, you have the requisite scene of the beautiful female lying in bed pining desperately over some clueless oaf.... More »

24th, April 2014 Key Posts

Josie Cunningham Wants Stabbing, Punching And Shooting, Says The Righteous Twitter Mob

JOSIE Cunningham is the victim of a Twitter hunt. Righteous of Twitter is in favour of shooting the mum-of-two who said you would abort her child to appear on Big Brother... More »

24th, April 2014 Reviews

Stephen Sutton: Dying Teen's 'Final Thumbs Up' Nets A Fortune

STEPHEN Sutton, 19, has terminal cancer. He aimed to raise £10,000 for charity. Then he posted a "final thumbs up". He said he was "nearing the end". People noticed. And the donations began to skyrocket... More »

23rd, April 2014 Strange But True

Botfly Removed From Boy's Eyeball (Photos)

LIES. Why? Let's take the dermatobia hominis, a species of botfly which lives off humans. The botfly traps a mosquito, lays sticky eggs onto it, and let's it go.... More »

23rd, April 2014 Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann: £2m Becomes £20,000 And The 'Prime Suspects' Sought

More news... More »

23rd, April 2014 Fashion

1978: Beauty Tips For the Disco Dancer

IT'S 1978. All the cool kids are disco dancing. But how to get the look just so? Look no further... More »

23rd, April 2014 Reviews

Justin Bieber: Tribute To Japanese War Criminals Embarrasses Japanese War Criminals

The Canadian pop star has been to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo which marks the lives of Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals who committed atrocities when they occupied large parts of China and South Korea.... More »

23rd, April 2014 Celebrities

Top Gear Race Row: BBC Velly Solly For Calling An Asian Man A Slope

ON Top Gear's colonialism-in-a car-style trip to Myanmar, Jeremy Clarkson looked at the bridge their had built over the River Kwai (did you see what they did there?) and observed the "slope" on it... More »

23rd, April 2014 Flashback

The Rise and Fall of Les McKeown and the Bay City Rollers

THE BBC say it’s 60 million while The Guardian wrote that it was 120 million, The Scotsman, no doubt proud of the band’s Scottish roots, guessed 300 million.Whatever the amount was the Bay City Rollers certainly sold a lot of records although they still grumble to this day about how little they saw of the profits. Forty years ago the band was just about to become massive. The lead singer, Les McKeown, who was just eighteen when he joined the band late in 1973, had his name inked onto a million school bags and notebooks. He was the Harry Styles of the day, maybe even more popular - there was less music to go round in those days... More »

23rd, April 2014 Music

Should We Boycott Record Store Day?

Paul Weller, complete with his old lady's haircut, has called for a boycott on the event, after copies of his limited 45 'Brand New Toy' were being sold on eBay for hiked-up prices... More »

23rd, April 2014 Flashback

Mobile Canteens Of World War 2 (1939-1945)

THEY say an Amy marches on its stomach. But food isn't all about going on the offensive. In World War 2 it was about relaxing. We've raided the archives for these photos of canteens in WW2... More »

23rd, April 2014 In Pictures

Artist Crams Jars With Raws Meat To Turn Your Stomach

ARE humans just meat bags full of meat bags we've eaten? Per Johansen casts an artist's eye on consumerism in Mæt (trans: Full), a study of plastic bottles filled to overflowing with raw meat. Does looking at the pictures make you hungry? ... More »

23rd, April 2014 Film 3

The Five Most Underrated Slasher Films of the 1980s

FOLLOWING the incredible box-office and critical success of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), the slasher film quickly became the go-to-format for up-and-coming horror filmmakers in the 1980s. These films had titles like Happy Birthday to Me (1981) and My Bloody Valentine (1981), and most of them concerned bloody massacres on holidays... More »

23rd, April 2014 manchester united

Manchester United Balls: David Moyes' Failure Earns United A Fortune

THE Guardian is not a tabloid. Mindful of that, Simon Godley talks of Manchester United: Manchester United face loss of more than £200m over David Moyes' sacking... More »

23rd, April 2014 Reviews

1,000 Weapons Confiscated From School Children, Include Knives, Scissors And Secateurs

SO. How did the Independent illustrate the story "Nearly 1,000 weapons confiscated from schoolchildren in the past three years"?... More »

23rd, April 2014 Politicians

Enemy Of Free Speech Jim Ardis Executes The 'Beyond Parody' Defence

THE Journal Star has caught up with Jacob Elliott. He was arrested in the war on free speech. The Mayor or Peoria, one Jim Ardis, was very upset at the fake Twitter account, @Peoriamayor. He called the police.... More »

23rd, April 2014 Celebrities

Peaches Geldof: The Caring Sun Trails Its Long Lens On Her Grieving Husband And Sister

PEACHES Geldof has died. Her funeral has been held. So. What now for the paparazzi's long lens? Why, how about a picture of her widow and his sister-in-law out for a walk?... More »

23rd, April 2014 manchester united

Manchester United: When Assistant Manager Jimmy Murphy Took Over From Matt Busby In 1958

THE last time Manchester United had an interim manger was after the Munich Air Disaster. United's Assistant Manager Jimmy Murphy didn't travel to Belgrade with the team due to his commitments as Welsh national manager... More »