"Santa doesn't understand sanctions," said Thor Magnusson, the charity's founder, "so it's very difficult to tell him he can't fly." Illinois: weighs 350 pounds, has snow-white hair, twinkling blue eyes, a red suit, an antique sleigh and a few deer. Santa Claus Iceland: is having problems getting clearance to fly to Iraq at Christmas. The Reykjavik-based charity Peace 2000 International has plans to fly a to Baghdad on Christmas Day to bring gifts and medical aid to children, but the flight requires United Nations agreement. play Manchester MDH, tonight; Bradford University, tomorrow; Shepherd's Bush Empire 11 Dec; Glasgow QMU 12 Dec and Dublin Redbox 13 Dec Tickets for usual outlets.. "If getting your instrument to a show is ridiculously difficult, do you think you're going to make any compromises once you get there?" says Ben Fold.The album sleeve notes hit back at their critics with, "The lyrics or text were created to detract from the repetition inherent in modern instrumental pop music." Sounds like American teen spirit is about to hit Britain. There will be no messing with guys who belt out lyrics like "Song for the Dumped", with it's uncompromising chorus, "Well fuck you too/ Give me my money back, you bitch".

However the album sleeve notes show that for all their twisted lyrics, they are sincere. It is littered with such earnest promises as "The band and producer are confident that your money was well spent on an album relatively free of major sonic and musical problems."Aside from their often obscure and bitter lyrics, have also reintroduced classical instruments to their sets. Self-described as a "piano, bass and drums power-trio", the misleadingly named threesome's piano-led sounds have gained them UK chart success with the Top 40 hits "Underground" and "Battle of Who Could Care Less" from their second album Whatever and Amen.The song titles are an insight into 's serious intentions. Tantalised, according to Days, by the prospect of infinitely receding value at an ever greater discount, we live our lives in a struggle to grab things we don't really want in case some rival shopper gets them first. Grotesque as it is, Lovegrove's vision bears the stamp of a peculiar authority. He is the grandson of one of the founders of Bourne & Hollingsworth; and the great-nephew of the other.(Phoenix, pounds 6.99). Ben Folds Five Manchester University may take their rock sensibility from the Rolling Stones and jazz beats from Squeeze, but at least they try to make sure that everything else is original.

The boundary dispute between Books and Computers enters its final phase.Outside, the unnamed city rots Beggars haunt the traffic lights The parks are full of underage alcoholics. Beneath the opulent windows of Days, where living mannequins act out ecstatic pantomimes of consumption, the homeless and starving congregate. Elsewhere, in the suburbs, social status is measured by the grade of one's account card; the humble Aluminium, the enterprising Silver, the lordly Gold, and so on up into the celestial reaches of Platinum, Osmium and Rhodium.The daily takings may have fallen behind those of gigastores in other lands, and the seven sons may have already sequestered the whole top floor of the building for luxurious apartments of their own Nevertheless, Days remains a haven of prosperity and peace. The odd minor explosion and the riots known as "shopping mauls" are easy enough to contain, and shoplifters won't usually be shot unless they run away.In a cool, measured style, Lovegrove's totalitarian allegory interprets the state of the nation as one of abject submission to a deteriorating cornucopia, a perpetual Christmas rush. There is a lightning sale in the Doll department, and another in Ties. Now, in these latter days, the imperial emporium is in the hands of the seven sons that Septimus directed his wife to produce, one for each day of the week. Mungo, Chas, Wensley, Thurston, Fred, Sato and Sonny may not always agree on the interpretation of their father's edicts.

Still, they rule this grandest of grand bazaars as the old man did, absolutely. Days tells the story of a day in the store: the first day of shopping for Linda and Gordon Trivett, proud possessors of a new account; the last day of employment for Frank Hubble, disenchanted security guard; the last day of existence for one of the seven brothers Celebrity shoppers come and go. "If it can be sold, it will be bought, and if it can be bought, it will be sold." With this decree, Septimus Day, the piratical old patriarch of James Lovegrove's novel, took seven million hectares of wasteland and built the world's first gigastore: a shop with seven floors the seven colours of the rainbow, and 777 departments selling everything from toothpicks to tigers. The Time: 9 December The Place: World premier of the new Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, London The Essentials: If you fancy yourself as a budding special agent, you'll need all the gadgets that Bond relies upon to turn you into the real thing. For the first time you can buy many of the gizmos he uses in the movie, right down to the mobile, cufflinks, transmitter pens and clock cameras,In the film, 007 opts for classic Alfred Dunhill accessories like these stainless steel and 18ct gold cufflinks (pictured right) which cost pounds l95 from the Advantage Jewellery Collection and although it's not very politically correct, he uses the gold plated Unique Sports Lighter, price-pounds l75 Telephone: 0171-290 8600.. Driving techno passages, for instance, suddenly dissolve into a loping hip-hop beat. A submissive audience seems more than happy to jump when required but what comes across as measured on record seems restless before so many.On the backdrop behind the Brothers, the hyperactive geometric and psychedelic visuals resolve at one point into a film loop of a man repeatedly being kicked in the head You know how he feels..

They deliver storming expansions on their two albums as faits accomplis - and they're quite right to. Given their head live, for instance, the pared- back recorded versions of "Leave Home" and "Setting Sun" run riot and a willing crowd isn't so much invited to dance as press ganged into duty.But Simons and Rowlands barely squint over the parapet, and what the pair gain in authority they lose in personality.You can't really blame the Brothers for failing to read the crowd - in a venue the size of the Brixton Academy, the lowest common denominator is trampled into the carpet - but the carefully structured set occasionally wrongfoots us. Even though the have obviously outgrown the student disco ethos you suspect underpins big beat's visceral appeal, the pair don't look entirely comfortable up there, more equal than the rest of us. If anything defines the big beat movement which the head it's a reaction against just such a sterile relationship. Sweaty pub backroom sets at the "Sunday Social" laid the foundations for the Brothers' mainstream success, the night's dressed-down boozy egalitarianism served its soundtrack courtesy of the Chemicals' relentless eclecticism.Rather than the music itself, then, nights like the various Heavenly thrashes and Sonic Mook Experiment thrive on an atmosphere of free-for- all intimacy.And it's this sense of parity you feel is missing from tonight. He's actually waving at us - the semaphor dance equivalent of rock's "Hello, London!" - but it still seems incongruous that from such apparently domestic tinkering come the swarms of techno, hip hop and furious bass engulfing the Academy.Of course, endeavouring to look sexy at the controls of a musical Moulinex is a problem common to most dance acts plonked in front of their fans. Chemical Brothers Brixton Academy, London From down in the stalls, the live performance of "Dig Your Own Hole" looks more like "Wash Your Own Pot".