New Reader for Spraying the Rays!

Hello readers!

And a specially big "Hello" to Spraying the Rays’ newest reader, A. Banerjee of Mumbai, India.

On 21st August 2006 I wrote a post extolling the virtues of the Matchbox Motorway slot car system. You can read the original post here. It was my 2nd ever blog posting.

The Photon family at play

And at 10.29 on 30th July 2010, after long and careful deliberation, Mr. (or could it be Miss? Hmmm…) Banerjee replied:

“I own a Matchbox Motorway Set purchased in the UK in 1973.It is in working condition. Is anyone interested to own it?

A. Banerji, Mumbai, India”

See? I knew someone still read this thing. Wait till I show Mrs P.

Next Week: Internet speeds in third World "worse than Virgin Broadband"; Spraying the Rays investigates.

Pope in Photon snub shock

Legendary blogger and philanthropist Stray Photon was today said to be outraged when His Holiness the Pope failed to attend a prearranged meeting on the Twickenham leg of his state visit to the UK.

“I’m outraged,” Photon told Spraying the Rays’ religious correspondent insert funny name here. “There I was left sitting on my own in the beer garden of the Rifleman and he never showed up. I’d even got him a pint of Twickenham Fine Ales “Naked Ladies” in so that he could sample some authentic local produce. I had to drink both pints myself.”

When we asked whether he thought the Pontiff’s absence might have been related to the fact that Mr Photon was not a Roman Catholic, Stray looked surprised and said, “Oh. He’s a Catholic then, is he, this Pope bloke?”

Next Week: Deputy PM Nick Clegg joins Strictly Come Dancing line up. “David said to me ‘You might as well, there’s nothing for you to do around here…’”

Book Review

The Fallen: Life In and Out of Britain’s Most Insane Group

by Dave Simpson


Dave Simpson, Guardian journalist, sets out to track down the 50 odd ex-members of Manchester’s legendary group The Fall. A bloody good read. A fascinating insight into the workings of the band and in particluar the modus operandi of their enigmatic frontman Mark E Smith.

After reading it I found myself going back to my record collection and listening to all of my Fall record (Live at the Witch Trials).

But it also made me wonder, why was I never in the Fall? After all I can do Dour and Northern along with the best of them…and as for untrained and haphazard musicianship, I’m the Master!

But the Fall Call never came.

(TV tip: don’t miss the documentary on BBC3 tonight at 21.25: The Strange and Frightening World of Mark E Smith. Of course if you’re watching the repeat of this blog you’ve missed it. It was very good.)

In the spirit of The Fallen, Spraying the rays decided to embark on a similar project We set out to track down all of the rockstar ex-partners of Patsy Kensit, actress, singer and now contestant on the new series of Strictly Come Dancing! (Yes dance fans, it’s back, and starts tomorrow! – or last Thursday if you’re reading this on UK Gold…)

Kensit: "oh no, they've not found Photon, have they?"

We all know about Jim Kerr, Liam Gallagher and Bert Weedon, but less is known about the stormy two week marriage Ms Kensit embarked on in the early Seventies with a slightly lesser known pop legend.

Spraying the Rays managed to find Patsy’s first rock’n’roll hubby, Stray Photon, in the less than glamorous surroundings of the Rifleman public house in Twickenham apparently under the influence of several pints of Twickenham Fine Ales. He spoke exclusively to our Showbusiness Correspondent, Horizontal Dave:

“Yeah, man, I knew Patsy, we was both very young in them days though, shame it didn’t work out. Lovely girl. Very big feet.”

We also spoke to the current Mrs Photon. She told Spraying the Rays, "Are you still doing that stupid thing? Blogging is so 2007. Why don't you Twitter like everyone else? Then at least you'd be limited to only 43 char


Next Week: Spraying the Rays speaks to Liam Gallagher. He tells us to f**k off.