My sharp eyed reader will know that I provide an excellent chauffeur service for @stuartamdouglas for our commute to work. This is usually an entertaining jaunt with hilarity worthy of a wider audience*. Over the last week or so we have taken to entertainment to a whole new level by accidentally tripping over a very fun game. I mentioned recently that my robust yet feature challenged MP3 player is used a lot in the car. I set it up to play everything by The Smiths in alphabetical order (coz playlists are a bit tricky!).

By the time we approached ‘M’ in the alphabet we realised there was much fun to be had from guessing what was going to play next. If you guessed it right, you got a point, if you got it wrong you quite often handed the answer to the next one over. It had a certain evil all of its own. You could only score ‘on serve’.

It all went badly wrong for both of us from the S’s and T’s. Especially the S’s where there are quite a few singles that throw you. For the record, I lost ( 13-10 ) but at least I didn’t have to suffer the indignity of forgetting “This Charming Man” whilst, at the same time, giving away “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” in a falsetto squeal. By last minute scream of “The Queen Is Dead” was also a highlight.

All in all, a surprisingly brilliant game that, sadly, you can only really play once.

Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty

The trouble is it’s not a game that can have automatic universal appeal. You need to have fairly extensive knowledge of the entire back catalogue of an artist. And so does your compatriot. We thought about which other bands we could do this with next and, well, there weren’t many. But if you happen to drive to work with someone who has the same good knowledge of a band as you and you have their entire back catalogue on an MP3 player that can play tracks in alphabetical order then I thoroughly recommend it. It’s a hoot.

define:niche

* no it isn’t