Underground, Overground

Is this what we went through the Sixties for? It's difficult to decide whether the sleeve of Atom Heart Mother being adorned with the Queen's head and stuck on a stamp is a win or a lose.

This is the conundrum posed by a new set of official UK postage stamps dedicated to Pink Floyd.

The Floyd once appeared to be the epitome of the counterculture. Have they now been fully subsumed by the establishment? Or have they simply made a mockery of it?

On balance, maybe we should just smile and move on.

A set of Sex Pistols stamps next? With Johnny Rotten alongside the Queen's head...

Royal Progress

Playing gigs across the UK tends to mean driving back through the night late. The more gigs we play, the more of a ritual it becomes. And the radio tends to be one's only companion on the road.

Whenever the National Anthem used to come on at 1am, I always used to switch it off. It was the last thing I wanted to hear, then — or at any other time. (Anthems don't really do it for me, unless it's Hendrix playing The Star Spangled Banner.)

But then a strange thing happened. I found myself leaving it on and allowing it to become part of that nocturnal post-gig ritual.

For the past two nights, after really wonderful gigs, I've let "God Save The Queen" mark another minor musical success. I've found something positive in it — rather than something negative.

And that's a pretty amazing turnaround.

Mind you, I still prefer the Sex Pistols...