Anorak

Anorak News - Pop culture, media, sport and weirdness

26th, March 2014 Flashback

13 Off Kilter Songs About Drugs You Missed

SURPRISINGLY, Damon Albarn used to be a smackhead. You'd never have guessed would you? More than that, he said that heroin "completely changed" him as a musician and he's written about being on the brown in a new song on his 'Everyday Robots' LP... More »

26th, March 2014 Flashback

Chelsea FC: The Stamford Bridge Story In Photos

CHELSEA have played at Stamford Bridge ever since 1905, the year after "Mr H A (Gus) Mears and his brother, Mr J T Mears, obtained the deeds, having previously acquired additional land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of establishing a football team there on the now 12.5 acre site"... More »

26th, March 2014 Reviews

Nottingham Evening Post Nails Sacked Nottingham Forest Manager Billy Davies

LOCAL news Watch spots the Nottingham Evening Post exacting a delicious revenge on Billy Davies... More »

26th, March 2014 Reviews

Lancashire Police Officer Who Electrocuted Innocent Blind Man Keeps His Taser

COLIN Farmer was 63 when he was handcuffed by police October 12, 2012. He is partially sighted. He carries a white stick... More »

26th, March 2014 Flashback

1890: The 25 Stages From Courtship to Marriage

IN the late 19th Century, you could buy The 25 Stages from Courtship to Marriage. Presented as hand-tinted stereographs, they tell the story of the Bashful Lover and his pursuit of the chaste maiden.... More »

26th, March 2014 Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann: Daily Mirror Presents 2006 News of The World David Reid Story As Its Own Scoop

MADELEINE McCann: Anorak's look at the missing child in the news. Today the Daily Mirror has a scoop... More »

26th, March 2014 Celebrities

May 20 1976: Elton John Laughs It Up On Stage In Birmingham

Elton John mugs up for the cameras... More »

26th, March 2014 Flashback 1

The Best And Worst Rock Album Covers From Communist Russia

The Iron Curtain rusted away, the Russian pop music scene was as vibrant as a Moscow hooker's eyeliner. Look out for moustache power ballads, Susan Boyle and the Russian Cliff Richard... More »

26th, March 2014 Key Posts

Social Media Morons Of The Day: Ribena For Breakfast

WHAT the Mad Men of advertising's Golden Age would have made of today social media experts can only be guessed at. And our guess is they'd have made them unemployed. Anyone with a spark of creativity louder than a gnat's fart would nowadays be hailed as social media guru... More »

26th, March 2014 Flashback 2

Bands Without a Face: When 70s Rock Stars Went Behind the Curtain

ANY clue who these guys are? They're the band Supertramp. If you didn't know, it's either because you are way too young to appreciate this article or it's due to the fact that almost all Seventies rock acts looked relatively similar - like a generic group of hairy drug addicts... More »

25th, March 2014 Celebrities

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin 'Consciously Uncouple' Their Caravan Of Love - World Rolls Eyes

AND so it came to pass that Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin are no longer together. She made the announcement on her website Goop. They have not split up. They have had a "conscious uncoupling". The message reads... More »

25th, March 2014 Film 1

Bread and Circuses at the Movies: The Six Most Savage Games of the Near Dystopian Future

The latest such film of this type is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), but that popular franchise is far from original in depicting man’s easily-distracted nature. With that in mind, below ares six of the most savage "bread and circuses" games of the near dystopian future, as imagined by filmmakers... More »

25th, March 2014 Liverpool

Liverpool Balls: The Most Inane Michael Owen Commentary Quotes On BT Sports

The collective sigh of a nation was palpable when BT Sports announced that Michael Owen was joining their team in co-commentator capacity at the beginning of the season, as subscribers suddenly realised that they were in for at least a season’s worth of beige footballing clichés and banal, perfunctory observations from a man who more or less talks in binary code... More »

25th, March 2014 manchester united

Manchester City Balls: Moyes Falls For Tabloid Tactics As Pellegrini Makes His Points

THE Manuel Pellegrini story is getting to be a bit like George Bush's plastic turkey. You know that story.? It's the one about the then President George 'Dubya' Bush feeding the US troops a Thanksgiving dinner of plastic turkey. It was utter balls... More »

25th, March 2014 Celebrities

Nick Cannon Kicks Up 'Whiteface' Argument

Cannon then shared and pointed at a picture of Robert Downey Jr's 'Blackface' character from the movie Tropic Thunder. He wrote with the photo, "Shout out to @RobertDowneyJr This is one of my favorite characters of all time! Hilarious!!! There is a big difference between Humor and Hatred."... More »

25th, March 2014 Celebrities

Elton John Trains With George Best And The Los Angeles Aztecs In 1976

ELTON John is 67 years old today. In looking through the archives here at Anorak Towers we cams across what might be the greatest ever picture of the Watford Warbler. Taken on 01/03/1976, The picture is captioned.. More »

25th, March 2014 Money 1

Candy Crush Saga Floats In NY - Here's The Saddest Story About Its Founder Toby Rowland

OK, so he's rich anyway, both from inheritance and also from a previous venture. But $3 million is very different from $966 million, that's for sure... More »

25th, March 2014 Books

ICHIEFU: Fukushima Worker Turns His Story Into Manga

THE Fukushima nuclear power plant failure didn't trigger the end of the world. But it did make lot of news, and now it's a manga cartoon... More »

25th, March 2014 Fashion

1964: Teenage Girls Iron Their Hair Before A Night Out In New York City

Teenage girls are all steamed up these days about straight hair. The steam iron is replacing the huge rollers on which countless teens slept every night to achieve the height and curls... More »

25th, March 2014 Flashback

This 17th century Chinese Abacus Ring Is The World's Oldest Smart Ring

Forget Google Glass, Android Wear, Smartwatches or contact lenses that give you night vision. Instead let’s talk about the awesomeness that is this 17th century Chinese abacus ring. It’s wearable tech from the Qing Dynasty, perhaps the world’s oldest smart ring... More »

25th, March 2014 Flashback

1970: Brighton and Hove Albion Manager Freddie Goodwin 'Run Til You're Too Tired To Puke' Training Rules

Brighton and Hove Albion manager Freddie Goodwin shows off the motivational posters which he pins up in the dressing room... More »

25th, March 2014 The Consumer

The Most Accurate Toy Representation Of A Real Cat Ever

THIS is the most accurate toy representation of a real cat ever... More »

25th, March 2014 Reviews

Flight MH370 Tabloid Fact Of The Day: Daily Mirror Says The Plane Is 23,000 Below The Sea

MALAYSIAN Flight 370 ascended sharply to 45,000 feet, descended to 23,000 feet before changing course again,changed course many times and then crashed into the Indian Ocean... More »

25th, March 2014 Flashback 9

10 Fantastically Awful Retro Toys From Your Corrupted Youth

AS things heat up in Ukraine and the ever-precarious Middle East continues its pattern of unrest, we feel a tinge of concern for our Western economies hanging by a thread and our natural resources plundered at an unsustainable rate. In such a state of affairs it is only natural that we, as a global community, band together and take a look at some truly awful toys. It’s the right thing to do... More »

25th, March 2014 TV & Radio

Gervais Is Bringing David Brent Back To TV?

"It’s just an idea. I want to do a tour, a little tour – and people think they’re seeing a tour. I film it, but actually it’s Brent who thinks he’s making a Scorsese-type thing of On the Road. Of course, behind the scenes, it is so much sadder and more poignant. It’s Spinal Tap meets sad Scorsese meets Anvil.".. More »