"Girls Aloud was a bit unexpected but it wasn't really work to be honest, " he said.

BBC: Newsbeat - Music - Ex-Smiths star hails The Cribs

Some commentators on Mr Thom's work question whether the momentous events of history can really be called catastrophes, using the word in the sense that they were totally unexpected interruptions of an ordered existence.

ECONOMIST: Ren�� Thom