Quote from Adam Jones, Welsh prop, definite first pick for the Lions in Australia:
“I have always found beer is the best thing for these sort of things to be honest. I think people get caught up with team-building exercises but if you lock 35 guys in a bar, I think that is probably the best way”
Adam, you are the man!
Wisdom.
Quins went up to Leicester for their Premiership playoff semi final. The prize for coming third in the regular season. Lost 33-16. Season over.
It was a good game. Quins really took Leicester on in the first half. Good defensive linespeed (favourite commentators’ word these days, along with physicality), winning the rucks and the forward battle. But they just couldn’t finish off the chances that their possession gave them. Danny Care, who was really buzzing, nearly made it over, but a superb tackle by Tom Croft just forced him off the pitch.
Nonetheless, it was 9-6 to Quins when forty minutes was up. They won possession – Mike Brown with the ball. He could have just booted it out for half time. But, adventurous in spirit, he launched forward. He lost possession. Leicester took it up got it out to brick house winger, Goneva, who powered over for a try. Flood converted. Suddenly it was 13-9 to the Tigers. They went in ahead, instead of Quins. The dynamic of the game had changed in an instant. Quins would be playing catch up instead of consolidating.
The second half went Leicester’s way, big time. It didn’t help when Danny Care was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, which looked harsh. Ten points were shipped while Quins were down to 14. And soon after, the killer blow. Ben Botica, on for Tom Casson spilled a ball he was chasing down. Leicester got it out wide, where, flanker Tom Croft showed an amazing turn of speed to burn off all the Quins defenders. That made it 28-9. Game over.
So Leicester win their ninth successive play off semi. This is a club that has winning trophies in its DNA. Quins are getting there, but still have a bit to learn. But it has been a good season. Not quite as good as last season, when we won the whole thing, of course. But looking across the piece it’s impressive: third in the Premiership, Heineken Cup quarter finals, LV Cup winners and A league winners. The latter two are especially encouraging, because they were won with mostly young players who have come through from the Academy. The future is bright.
While I’m still pontificating on the rugby…. I’m not happy with the Lions selection for Australia and especially – of course – the omission of Captain Fantastic – for Quins and England – Chris Robshaw. Man of the match in so many of the Six Nations games, leader by example in the defeat of New Zealand in the Autumn of 2012. Deemed not as good as two Irish back rowers who helped Ireland to fifth place in the Six Nations. And a Welsh back row that is certainly pacey. But when did Wales last beat Australia? Oh well, the choices are always difficult. Fingers crossed that Robbo might get out there when the injuries kick in. Maybe Danny Care too. And Mike Brown? Would have been a great choice as a utility back. Sorry mate, not Welsh.
Anyway, pleased to see Quins’ young hooker, Rob Buchanan, making it into the England squad for the tour of Argentina, along with Mike Brown and Joe Marler. Robbo and Danny rested – I suspect because they are first in line for Lions replacement call ups. Luke Wallace is unlucky not to get the England call. He has been brilliant as the A Team and LV Cup captain, and really whenever he plays for the first team. Against Leicester today – with Robbo injured – he again did the business. First to the breakdown, then on the wing, then nicking the ball at a line out. The new Neil Back?
Yeah, the future at Quins is very bright indeed!
Sir Alex Ferguson has announced his retirement. It looks like David Moyes of Everton is his successor – hewn from the same Scottish block.
Like most football fans not of the Man Utd persuasion, I’m normally at best ambiguous about the club and the manager, in an envious football fan way. But today is not the time to dwell on that.
I just want to say that Fergie has been a magnificent manager of Man Utd – and Aberdeen before them, and we should all acknowledge that. His passion for the game, his love of attacking football – always United’s ethos – has been admirable over all the years of dominance. His success in terms of titles and trophies is obviously unarguable. He is the best manager of all time, in this country.
What I’ve admired over the years is how he has regenerated the United team. Never resting on laurels, always thinking ahead. Not just in the way he’s changed players, but in the way he’s brought in staff to assist him. This is where the contrast with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal is so acute. Wenger is the whole show – all are subordinate and don’t change much. As a result, relative stagnation. Fergie appears to be much more of a delegator, much more willing to bring in people with fresh ideas. It has worked brilliantly.
Phew! That’s as much praise as I can give Sir Alex and the Reds in one go. I feel almost traitorous. But today is a day to acknowledge greatness. And Sir Alex Ferguson has undeniably been great.
Even if you hate him and his team, you cannot deny that.
Atoms for Peace are Thom Yorke, from Radiohead, Flea from Red Hot Chili peppers, Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s producer, Joey waronker, who has played with Beck and REM, and Brazilian musician Mauro Refosco.
“Amok” is essentially Thom Yorke’s second solo album, after “The Eraser” in 2006. It was released in February this year.
It is essential listening.
It’s a new Radiohead album, really. Without most of the band. It is redolent of the electronic beats of “Hail To The Thief” and “King Of Limbs”. It has a harder edge than the latter, and is more rhythmic than the former. It reminds me a lot of some of the amazing sounds we enjoyed at the Radiohead concert at the O2 in London in October 2012. See my review of that concert here. It was brilliant, and some of the best stuff was when the band really went for the industrial beats. “Amok” takes that sound and spreads it over a whole album. The more you listen to it, the more it gets to you. It’s not a singalong sound. It’s an electro-dance concerto. Well, I’m not sure you’d dance to it, other than flinging yourself about in Thom Yorke style. But it has a serious and powerful beat.
So many great sounds. “Ingenue” has a video, so here it is.
Yes, Atoms For Peace are different to Radiohead, and the musicians on this album make the sound their own. There are some wonderful, mazy bass lines, courtesy of Flea, I assume. But because Radiohead are so experimental these days, I could imagine them making exactly this album.
Or something else completely different.
Which is why I think Radiohead are, right now, the best band in the world.
And Atoms For Peace will do in the interim.
All hail, Thom Yorke!
Readers of this blog will know I love the Staves and have seen them a couple of times in the last year. So of course I had to go and see them on their latest tour. My friends Jon and Shane came along too. We started with a couple of beers in the excellent new pub in the revamped Kings Cross station, the Parcel Yard. It’s on the site of the old parcel depot and retains plenty of the old features. It’s airy and has some great views of the new station. And being a Fullers pub, the beer is, of course, excellent.
The Scala is just up the road from the station. It’s one of those slightly worn, but characterful venues. A place where the punks used to play, and I doubt it’s changed hugely since those halcyon seventies days.
The support band, were a threesome called SIVU (I think). Two women, on violin and cello, and a bloke on electric guitar and vocals. The songs were understated, atmospheric, quite intriguing. They worked well in the live environment, but I wondered how they would translate to a recording, with no drums or bass. Good stuff though.
And then the Staves. The music as good as ever. The singing and the harmonies as captivating as ever. A touch of world-weariness in the introductions. They’ve been on the road for some time, supported some big acts, like Bon Iver. Was this tour just a bit of a step down? It’s the first specifically promoting the album, “Dead & Born & Grown” though (which I reviewed here), but they’ve had a taste of bigger things.
Pretty much the whole of the album got an airing. I did keep a list of the songs on my iPhone, but somehow managed to delete all recent data from my notes the other night. Grrr! But I do recall a lovely start, with “Gone Tomorrow” and then “Icarus”, an “old” favourite from an earlier EP. Highlights, for me, included my favourite new song from the album , “In The Long Run” (about being away from home, on tour), the full version of “Wisely But Slow” with the African/ Fleetwood Mac drums in the latter half, and “Winter Trees”, which almost veered into prog rock. Or should that be prog folk? It wasn’t the only song – “Eagle Song” and one of the new tracks were others – that made me think that the band might develop into a sixties-style psychedelic folk band. Fairpoint Convention the benchmark, I guess, but also a band like Espers, of more recent vintage, whom I really like. Maybe Jessica will let her guitar playing rip, get some electric solos going.
It will be interesting to see – and hear – what next steps the Staves take. The current sound, which is wonderful, and could just catch on with the youth, in the same way as, say, Mumford and Sons, or Ben Howard, is more likely to achieve a decent hardcore following, but not a massive audience. It’s kind of folk, after all. So is the direction something rockier, with a bit more of that prog sound? It feels like a natural progression. It will require a full band – and things are moving that way already, live.
I’m torn, because it was the beautiful simplicity of the early records, the purity of the harmonies, that attracted me to the music. But I can see that they need to move on, develop the sound, attract new and larger audiences.
It’s going to be a trip!
When I lost the data on my iPhone, I also lost a few photos I took. But these two websites have snaps, a video and authoritative reviews of the gig too.
Brentford FC are my local football team. Most of the time they are in League One, English football’s third tier, though back in the 1950s they spent time in what was then known as the First Division. A few years ago they had a great season, including an FA Cup run which peaked with the defeat of Sunderland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/4634288.stm
That January, poised to win their league, they sold their star player, DJ Campbell, in the transfer window for a pathetic £1/2 million to Birmingham. He spent the rest of the season in Birmingham reserves, while for Brentford the goals dried up. They missed out on the automatic promotion places and flopped in the play offs. Never really had a sniff since.
Always a finger on the self-destruct button.
Until this season, under the management of German Uwe Rosler, who starred for Man City in his playing days. He’s got them playing decent football, and they excelled against Chelsea in the FA Cup, before being knocked out in a replay. (See my Sportsthoughts 60). And it all came down to the last game of the regular season yesterday. Against Doncaster. A winner-takes-all-game. Automatic promotion for the victor. Play-off agony for the losers. The draw would favour Doncaster.
What happened in added on time, after a tense 0-0 struggle, was scarcely believable. I wasn’t there – I was watching Man City beat West Ham on Sky and then flitting between Leinster v Biarritz in the Amlin Cup and cycling’s Tour of Romandie. Before settling down to the Clermont – Munster clash in the Heineken Cup semi final.
But I switched to the Sky Sports football news as the final scores approached. This is the programme where we watching people watching football on a screen! And get reports from key games. The ex Luton and Liverpool striker, Paul Walsh, was at Griffin Park, Brentford’s ground. He was getting very agitated as the final whistle approached…. and then Brentford got a penalty! Score it and Brentford were promoted. Surely, it was going to happen? The anchorman, Jeff Stelling, was going bonkers. (He always goes bonkers, but maybe goes up a gear for the season’s denouement).
This is what happened next, with thanks to Youtube. The penalty and subsequent events begin just before 1.00 on this video.
Disaster for Brentford, ecstasy for Doncaster!
Playoffs for the Bees, starting with two legs against Swindon. More agony. But Brentford must hold their nerve, remember they are better than the other play-off teams.
Come on you Bees! You can do it!
So my stats tell me this is my 200th post!
What better way to celebrate that than with a ROCKING selection.
So get out your denim jackets, puff out your chest, lace up your Doc Marten boots, grab your air guitar and transport yourself back to the mid seventies.
I give you the Bad Company Top Ten!
Courtesy of my fifteen year old self….
Some things don’t change much!
10. Good Lovin’ Good Bad, from Straight Shooter
![[Straight Shooter | cover picture]](http://www.turkku.com/graf/lp/shooter_cover_big.jpg)
Let’s start with a fat riff, a man with his pride, and some lovin’ (note the missing g) that has gone bad. The guitar solo is angry! Mick Ralphs, ex Mott The Hoople, laying down the riffs.
9. Silver, Blue and Gold, from Run With The Pack
“Run With The Pack” was Bad Co’s third album. Each album was not quite as good as the one before it. But there were still some top tunes on this one. “Silver, Blue and Gold” was one of those lovely ballads that highlighted the soulful voice of Paul Rodgers. I loved the slow ones as much as, if not more, than the rockers. This was one of those soulful tunes.
8. Bad Company, from Bad Company
The title track , from the classic first album. The rebel soul. A sound that came close to that of Free, the band from which Bad Company sprang. As a fifteen year old, I maintained that Bad Co were better than Free. I wrote a letter to Sounds newspaper stating the case. It was published. I now disagree with myself!
7. Feel Like Makin’ Love, from Straight Shooter
Well, there’s not much subtlety in this song, but it rocks like the God of Rock. A slow bit and then the hammer descends. Strut and thrust. You know what it means.
6. Seagull, from Bad Company
Like I said, I always liked the slow ones. Paul again showing off his soulful tones. A spacey, mellow vibe. Takes you to a higher place.
5. Simple Man, from Run With The Pack
In which Paul Rodgers expounds the trials and tribulations of the man who wants to be free. The classic rock’n’roll fantasy. Being yourself, not abiding by the rules. But oh, it ain’t easy. Easy to mock, but Paul’s voice turns it into a hymn.
4. Wild Fire Woman, from Straight Shooter
Oh yeah! There’s a bit of Free’s bluesy stride in this one, and just a lot of the lovin’, rockin’ man. Going down the highway, getting closer to your love. I’m there!
3. The Way I Choose, from Bad Company
My sentimental streak has been there from the very beginning as far as music is concerned. This song was always one of my favourites. Not so much for the notion of doing what you choose, as for the soulful feel of the music, complete with a soaring saxophone and a tender guitar solo. Bad Co were rockers, but they were also rooted in soul and the blues. This was the song that told you so.
2. Shooting Star, from Straight Shooter
Oh God, I know, the story of this one is such a cliched tale of the rise and fall of a rock’n’roll star, but it’s played with such a combination of tenderness and triumph that I always found it irresistible. Bowie called his version Ziggy Stardust. Bad Company only managed “Johnny”. But there is a similar epic quality. And listen to the outro. The ringing guitar, Paul Rodgers absolutely going for it. Wonderful!
1. Can’t Get Enough, from Bad Company
It couldn’t really be anything else could it? The opening track on the great debut album. The riff, the rhythm, the song. One of the rock anthems. No matter how much you might have a laugh about it, when it’s been hijacked by the Simpsons and countless others, you always come back to the fact that it is just a brilliant rock’n’roll tune. So imagine what it was like in 1974. It sounded like the best rock song ever made. The best.
Enough to write to Sounds and say Bad Co were better than Free…
(Even if it was wrong. I was 15.)
OK and here’s a video. Courtesy of Youtube. The band in all their seventies glory:
I went to see the band, British Sea Power, at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire last Wednesday, 17 April, with my friend Jon. He’s a big fan; I’ve been an occasional acquaintance. I’d forgotten I owned one of their albums, “Open Season”. The one with a profile of a bear on the front. BSP like bears. They have eight foot versions roaming around on the stage. Brown and polar. Bizarre. BSP like a bit of the bizarre. They do shrubbery as well. Which lights up in the dark.
I saw them once before. I think it was also at the Empire. My diary tells me it was 2004. Blimey! The bears were there then too. And I recall the singer brandishing some branches. I remember less about the music.
So I went into the concert last week with a clean slate. Yes, indie. Yes, some interesting guitars. Yes, a bit quirky, a bit intellectual. I mean, you wouldn’t call yourself British Sea Power without a bit of knowledge of history, would you? And a desire to be not quite rock’n’roll.
And I couldn’t remember any of the music, so I was listening afresh.
And it was good, very good. A really entertaining evening. The cavorting bears and shrubbery add to the jollity, but it was the music that made it. Some big guitars, big tunes. Some wistful moments. Some panoramic sounds. A real mix, intriguing and engrossing. A very receptive crowd too, which made for an excellent atmosphere.
I couldn’t resist my usual approach to what was essentially a new band for me. Who did they sound like? Well, there was a hefty dose of Echo and the Bunnymen, some roots in Joy Division, a bit of shoegaze, Ride maybe, a touch of the Boo Radleys. The latter in the way they’d go from all out noise to some gentle warblings in the flick of a guitar switch. There was something of an anthem with the fans called “The Great Skua”, with a sea bird video, which took me into Sigur Ros territory. And, being a seventies child, I even heard a bit of Be Bop Deluxe in the adventure of the guitars and the musical switches within the songs. Dare I say even a touch of U2 in the ringing guitars?
Quite a mix, but with a distinctive sound of their own. BSP are a band with their own vision, without doubt. I was really impressed. When I got home, I added to my collection of BSP albums. First album, “The Decline Of British Sea Power”, which has a punkier feel than the music now. “Do You Like Rock Music?”, a rhetorical question if there ever was one. And the new one, “Machineries of Joy”. Bit of a clunky title, but classic soaring indie sounds.
British Sea Power have always been a band I knew I needed to listen to more. The concert confirmed that. So many bands you see live benefit from the fact that you already know their music and you are there to celebrate what you know. So even if the sound is a bit crap, or they are a bit off form, you still like it. With BSP I was listening fresh and liked what I heard.
Here’s another review of the concert, from a blogger who knows a bit more about the band than me and also took some decent photos.
British Sea Power Panda To The Shepherd’s Bush Empire – Live Review
I’ve just finished reading ‘The Hunger Games” trilogy. The books have been absolutely brilliant. Utterly gripping. The number of times I almost missed Victoria station, where I get off the Tube for work, because I was so engrossed in the books, I couldn’t tell you.
So, a brief synopsis of “The Hunger Games”. First book only, which has also been made into a brilliant film, starring Jennifer Lawrence. Because the others are also going to be films and I don’t want to spoil the fun. Next film is out this November, I believe.
A post-war USA in which a dominant power – the Capitol – has subjugated 12 “districts”. The price the districts pay is that each year two of their children – one boy, one girl – are selected by lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, in which the 24 “tributes” fight to the death, until there is one survivor. The Capitol provides an arena, a televised build up and all sorts of hideous tricks once the Games begin. It’s essentially a parody of the game and reality shows that pervade television today. Humiliation in our TV today becomes death in “The Hunger Games”.
A girl from District 12 – Katniss Everdeen – volunteers for the Games when her sister Prim is drawn out of the hat. This is allowed. The boy selected is Peeta Mellark, a baker’s son, who, it transpires, has always had a crush on Katniss.
Katniss has a history of hunting for game in the grounds outside District 12, with another boy called Gale. It’s illegal but they are able to trade their products for other food in the black market. This way their families, devastated by the deaths of both fathers in mining accidents, can survive.
Thus are the three key characters – Katniss, Peeta and Gale – established. Two in the Games, the other one there, always in Katniss’s mind. And a major player as the story progresses.
So, when I’ve said how much I’ve enjoyed the books to friends, colleagues at work, some say, “Aren’t they teenagers’ books?” With a subtext, “why are you reading them?”
The answer is that the books are brilliant stories. Age doesn’t matter. What makes something a book for teenagers? Is it concision? Vivid prose? Great action? Characters they can relate to? Er, yes, I think we can all sign up to that. Maybe teenagers demand it. Maybe authors and publishers know they have to get it absolutely right for the teenage market.
Some of the best fiction I have read in recent times has been ostensibly for young people. Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy was quite extraordinary. And then there is Harry Potter. I read all seven books with my son Kieran. We loved them. The books and the films. Completely captivating, iconic. Tell me what is better.
And so in “The Hunger Games”, Katniss and Peeta become the stars of the pre-games show. Katniss becomes the icon, the girl on fire. And then the Games begin. The author, Suzanne Collins, takes us through them superbly. The tension is unbearable at times. I read the books mostly on the Tube to and from work. I’m sitting or standing there – on the Piccadilly Line – sometimes having to put the book down, to absorb the moment, the fear. It’s almost too much. And sometimes I’m having to pause because I just feel the emotion between Katniss and Peeta. There are moments when I am trying to hold back the tears.
So what I’m saying is that Suzanne Collins has succeeded on all levels. The plot is engrossing. The progress of the Games is agonising, the tension almost unbearable. The characters have depth and are truly sympathetic. When Katniss hurts, you hurt.
Katniss and Peeta survive the Games. Their pact outwits the intentions of the Capitol, in particular the evil President Snow. But he is ready to strike back in Book Two… and Three. But it isn’t just him.
Complex…
And at the end of the first book, Katniss and Peeta’s relationship is unresolved. It remains that way for much of the story over the next two books. Gale features heavily too.
The next two books take us on an incredible trip. I will not describe the story right now. You must read the books if you want to know. There is no way you will be able to predict the denouement.
When I finished the third book I had that sense of emptiness which was about coming to the end of a great experience. What will I read now? How could it possibly be as exciting? That is genuinely how I felt on finishing ‘The Hunger Games”.
So if you haven’t read the trilogy, get them now and live the Hunger Games!
Thoughtsfromwestfive 