In The Shadows Of The Wine

As I may have said oft times before ‘Well it’s been awhile’. So here I am again, I thought I needed to blog at least once before the end of 2013. I have been busy trying to re-catalogue my entire digital music collection as it was all over the place on my external drives. I still have far too much music to listen to and will probably never hear the half of it but nevertheless as a lifelong collector every new album, every new track, every new artist entering my radar is a must have if it meets my musical criteria, which is very large and wide as you will already know as a life-long viewer of my blogs.

So that reminds me to give a big ‘up’ to my other internet dabbling on Tumbler with Spunky Onions and Outside The Mainstream, I still manage to post the odd track, video, and picture for both yours and my own pleasure.

Anyway since last time we have lost a great statesmen in Nelson Mandela, a great actor in Peter O’Toole, a great actress in Joan Fontaine and a great guitarist in John ‘Gypie’ Mayo……..

I suppose this being the season of goodwill I should mention Christmas, so there you have it I have finally mentioned the 'C' word and will say no more except to say I have never been much of a fan of this time of year as the unrelenting march of capitalism meets the rise of consumerism and we all pay the price. Let’s charge a £1 per plastic bag from 1st January that might make the majority of shopaholics stand back and ponder for a moment before they buy something completely pointless again and again.

 

 

 

A big Ho Ho Ho and a Merry Xmas to all my readers and listeners.

I leave you with a six-pack of top tracks today.

The Man Who Rode !!

 

 

Enjoy

Drive By Truckers - The Weakest Man

Jerry Lee Lewis - Turn On Your Lovelight

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Painted On

The Pogues - Turkish Song Of The Damned

Jeff Finlin - Woke Up Inside A Revolution

Screaming Trees - All I Know

Hey, Careful, Man, There's A Beverage Here !

I am a beer snob, I have no problems admitting it and I wish the average beer drinker in the UK was a beer snob just like me. I say this because just lately I never seem to go to a public place without coming across the ubiquitous empty can of Stella Artois lying on the pavement or in the gutter. Last week I came across an obvious homeless man sitting or just managing to stay upright on a bench outside a church with a can of Stella clutched in his hands. I also was walking in some countryside on an old railway track with no other rubbish lying around when a can of Stella appeared in the bushes followed by another about 50 yards further on as if an individual was trying to create an empty Stella can trail across Public Footpaths. Personally I cannot stand Stella as a drink it’s too strong too chemical in flavour and has little or no taste, yet as a product it flows out of supermarkets by the case load everyday into the homes of students and other likeminded individuals who are charmed by the cheap prices and the appeal of a foreign-type strong lager.

It had also gained an infamous nickname as ‘Wife Beater’ which basically sums it all up really as an honestly as anything could.

 

“Ideal accompaniment to aperfect dinner party. The discerning choice of lager. Stella Artois is a beautifully balanced golden poils style lager with a distinctive taste of Saaz hops. It’s pronounced bitterness and crisp dry finish make Stella Artois the perfect choice for those special occasions”

The above paragraph is a direct copy and paste from Tesco’s website where you can purchase a box of 12 for £9.00 at 4.8abv. It’s bought for a perfect drunken Sunday afternoon with a bunch of loud mates in the back garden or the Saturday night party where you need to bring some drinks, maybe you will have a few cans before you even leave home, just chill it in the fridge and away you go. I can see no reason to buy the stuff other than it’s alcoholic and it’s cheap but the worse thing of all is how it’s a transportable, throwaway drink littering our streets and countryside so if you want to bring back attention once again to our lack of personal responsibility and our current throwaway society attitude then Stella Artois really is the standard bearer drink to measure it by.

By the way AnheuserBusch In Bev there is no such thing as Cidre. The British make the best cider in the world, we have the best apples and the most knowledge and it is called CIDER. Cidre is piss, a marketing ploy to make the ‘Wife Beaters’ think they are sophisticated, so just stop with those ridiculous faux-French adverts now and go home and make yourself sick drinking such crap.

 

Enjoy

Lil' Cap'n Travis - 3.2 Beer Of Love

Porter Wagoner - The World Needs A Washin'

North Mississippi Allstars - Drinking Muddy Water

The Popes - Loneliness Of A Long Distance Drinker

Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please

The Night Bleeds Hope

So my least favourite day of the year is long gone, good riddance to Halloween for another year. Goodbye to one of the most over-commercialised, over-hyped, fright night- shite days of the year. Unbelievably a reasonably civilised society such as the USA has built this tripe fest to massive proportions and then transplanted it back over here so we all have to suffer this nonsense. Why can’t we just celebrate our old-fashioned pagan ways ourselves without all this Hollywood scary movie, vampire slaying, Boris Karloff bollocks every 31^st of October.

Anyway moving on, this week I caught up with two fascinating documentaries on the making of ‘Tommy’ & ‘Quadrophenia’ by The Who. Two wonderful rock operas that still sound as cool and fresh today, even though they came out of Pete Townsend’s brain more than 30 years ago. Sitting watching these docs, really brought it home to me how clever and literate Townsend was and the fact that the band all came from my old area of West London makes them rather special. It made me smile watching Pete being filmed having a discussion about ‘mods’ in the Pie & Mash shop that is still there in Shepherds Bush. My Nan used to go there every Friday for a takeaway to bring it back on the bus (no 117) I think and we would have the pie, mash and liquor re-heated for a fabulous weekly treat.

 

Also this week saw the end of Lou Reed, I always appreciated what he did and what he was to modern rock music history without being a big fan although I do own a smattering of his albums. I always really liked ‘New York’ from 1989 which was his 15^th solo album !! for it’s great guitar riffs and acerbic lyrics. I only saw him play live once at an odd venue, The London Palladium and the gig became more memorable to me for the location rather than the music. 

Enjoy

 

 

RIP Lou Reed

 

The Who - Bell Boy

Lou Reed - Strawman

Mott The Hoople - Thunderbuck Ram

Screaming Trees - For Celebrations Past

Don't Turn Your Heater Down

 

Autumn is definitely back again, the trees are a glory of different colours and the atmosphere seems to have constant dampness in the air.

Here in the UK our Big Six Energy companies who control the power have started their annual remorseless price increase for us consumers. They really are a bunch of inconsiderate, fraudulent charlatans with no shame. I wish it was that simple to say ‘bollocks’ to them all but clearly it isn’t as we all need gas and electricity to fuel our modern world. Then the  Tories finally got their wish and part-privatised the Royal Mail leading to a mass scramble for shares and the tainting of my  political beliefs as I fell along with the crooked hedge funds and city capitalists and bought a few for myself to maximise a quick gain on the profit margin. I sold them back after a week and I now want to move on again and hide my shame !

Breaking Bad finally ended after six series and I was as amazed as ever by the acting and the great writing that made the show one of the greatest ever made. Homeland and The Walking Dead have returned to lessen the blow and see me through these darkening days.

This week I saw the return of Graham Parker with The Rumour touring Britain together for the first time in around 30 years or so. Considering how old they are now it was a really good gig and they are obviously still loved dearly amongst 40,50,60 year old music fans judging by the large turnout in Leeds on a Tuesday night. It led me back to Mr Parker’s classic songs and my soul shoes have been on all week since the gig.

 

Enjoy

Danny and the Champions Of The World - BreakingOut

Black Joe Lewis - Dar Es Salaam

Graham Parker and The Rumour - Don't Ask Me Questions

Todd Snider - Money, Compliments, Publicity

Roky Erickson - The Interpreter

I Can Feel The Heat Closing In

 

Just over two weeks ago the famous crime writer Elmore Leonard passed away. I have been a fan of his writing since I was a teenager and have already read over 30 of his books. I must admit that his death started me thinking a little more on the kind of books I like to read and my favourite authors over the years.

I suppose Crime Fiction has been the most popular subject of my reading experience. When I was younger I managed to read many of the so-called modern classics, (Slaughterhouse Five, Catch 22, To Kill A Mockingbird, Concrete Island, Tropic Of Cancer, The Great Gatsby, Tropic Of Capricorn, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, The Catcher In The Rye, The Outsider, Brave New World, The Naked Lunch. On The Road, In Cold Blood) this list could go on and on but I’m sure you get the picture of my adolescent reading material. Then I moved onto Crime novels especially Mr Leonard’s then came George Pelecanos, James Lee Burke, Daniel Woodrell, Jim Thompson, James M.Cain, James Crumley.

I expect you have noticed that they are all American writers and this fixation stayed with me as I then read everything by Charles Bukowski, Paul Auster, Pete Dexter, Raymond Carver, Harry Crews and Tim Gautreaux.

When it comes to British authors I lean towards, Magnus Mills, Jake Arnott and David Peace. Generally I have a pile of at least six books to be read and I am in the process of beginning on the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole detective series as I have read a few of Henning  Mankell’s Wallander books  and Scandinavian Noir is very popular these days.

 

My favourite book is probably Bukowski’s ‘Post Office’, the best series of books was definitely ‘Games Of Thrones’ and my current read is ‘Yellow Birds’ a book written about the Iraq War.

 

Enjoy

Gil Scot-Heron and Brian Jackson - Ain't No Such Thing As Superman

Glen Campbell - Galveston

The Coral - Pass It On

Medicine Head - One and One is One

Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini

Straw Man Red Sun River Gold

The whole world has been concerned about debt for quite awhile now since the financial crash in 2008/9 and if you read a daily newspaper or watch any news programme on TV then there is always an article or some coverage of the state of the Euro, the Dollar, Sterling, Mortgage rates or the crisis in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland etc.

On a personal level I try to avoid debt at all costs. I try never to be overdrawn, always pay off my outstanding amount on my modest collection of two credit cards and even actually try to save some money for my retirement, which in my case can’t arrive soon enough. I do understand that many people are suffering with all the benefit cuts, unemployment and the minuscule increases too most people’s wages. I am quite lucky that my pay generally increases every year, but that is only through Union negotiation because if it was left to the management of my company they would give me nothing at all. Union’s generally have a bad press and admittedly I do not agree with everything they try to do but overall I would not be in a workplace and not join the Union if there was one in situ.

Unfortunately this financial crisis has not hit the top level that governs and makes decisions that affect our daily purse; they often own mega-companies are chief executives, board members and are the higher ranks in our financial services. These people earn far too much and do not distribute their wealth, talent, benevolence to the benefit of the people they just continue to exploit the system which they have created in their favour to make more money. I would like to ask this question of these types of individuals, when do your large amounts of money become irrelevant ? you surely cannot spend it all, and it must get to a point where it becomes meaningless.

We are currently run by a bunch of toffs from Eton, who have never worked in a Greggs, a call centre, a mine, driven a bus, removed your bins, sat in an office in front of a pc for seven hours a day week in week out etc etc. Yet these Tory toffs are making decisions that have no consequence to them at all. I am at Socialist at heart and despise them all but when it comes to voting again I expect I will not vote because there is no political party that represents my general view of the world and our society.

As per normal I started one topic and moved into another.

As an old Labour supporter  I say to Ed Milliband sort it out mate or Labour are as doomed as the Liberals who sold themselves down the river when they made their coalition deal with these devil’s.

Enjoy  

Ha Ha Tonka - Problem Solver

The Black Lillies - The Arrow

Dr. John - Kingdom Of Izzness

Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band - Harry Irene

Two Days Til' Tomorrow

Today let’s talk about music, as this is mainly a music blog.

 

When I was younger I travelled a lot more especially to the South of the United States of America. I was always into music so through my travels I would buy albums, cassettes, cd’s and try to get to as many gigs as I could. I remember seeing Evan Johns and The H-Bombs at the Antone’s blues club in Austin, Texas sometime around 1986. My mate Paul and I were going to see Omar & The Howlers and Evan Johns was the support act, he was a giant of a man and his band really rocked so as an obsessive collector I had to go out and buy all the H-Bomb albums I could get my hands on. I have five or six albums but none beats his 1986 effort “Rollin’ Through The Night” on the Alternative Tentacles record label.

 

A few years later I was back in the states in New Orleans attending the wedding of my friend Yvette and I was loitering in a few dusty old second-hand record shops when the Schramms “Walk To Delphi” album caught my eye, I now can’t remember whether I had heard of the band before because the leader of the band Dave Schramm had been an early member of  Yo La Tengo but I bought the album and I have always had a soft spot for the LP especially the title track. Bucket Of Brains magazine review said it was ‘a record with a heart of gold, classic Americana’. I still have the review as I cut it out and put it in the record sleeve. I paid $6.50 for it back in 1992.

 

 Last but not in any way least ladies and gentlemen I give you the MC5. I was playing these tracks yesterday and I decided that these two tracks certainly get my vote as the best ever band introduction thanks to their manager and White Panther party activist John Sinclair the band then go straight into two of the best heavy guitar riff’s you can ever hear. Recorded live at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit over two night in 1969 the MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams” is a classic of it’s kind and should be higher than 294 in Rolling Stone’s greatest of all time list.

 

 

 Enjoy

Evan Johns and The H-Bombs - Rollin' Through The Night

The Schramms - Walk To Delphi

MC5 - Ramblin' Rose - Kick Out The Jams

If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog

Modern Times = Loyalty cards

How many of this annoying little pieces of stamped cardboard do we need ?

I was struck by this thought again today whilst shopping with my dear wife in a local farm shop.

We go there occasionally maybe once every couple of months, I generally buy some beer and we buy fresh produce, we never spend more than fifteen quid and every time we get to the till the polite assistant always asks us for our loyalty card, which of course we don’t have. They have now given us a form to complete on at least three occasions but we cannot be bothered because basically how many of these little cards do we actually need in our wallets and purses at any one time ?

Nearly every coffee shop, supermarket, retail chain, farm shop, petrol station has a loyalty card, they all ask you, they want us to have them but you just can’t have them all plus what do you actually get back for your so-called loyalty ?

Some points, discounts, money off, yes all of these apparently but if they didn’t have these cards would anybody really care, I don’t think so. As a very young lad I remember collecting Green Shield stamps and filling up books and books to take them along to the store to get a new kettle or tea tray or something else usually accompanied by my mum or my old gran because it seemed to be a very non-male environment and like everything of that era in the 60’s and 70’s it died away and now people want to collect air miles or discounts to Alton Towers or get a free tea towel.

 

What’s the point……………….

 

RIP J.J CALE

 

Enjoy

J.J Cale - If You're Ever In Oklahoma

Leon Russell and the Shelter People - Home Sweet Oklahoma

Bonnie Bramlett - Atlanta Georgia

The Beat Farmers - Texas Heat

Jepp - Las Vegas

A Thousand Gigs Ago Part 2

Well, tonight on a whim I did a bit of Internet crate digging and confirmed that my first gig was a tour date on Johnny Winter's 1974 European Tour and I now remember the support group were British rock band  Nutz. The date was Saturday 26th October 1974. I was thirteen years old and went with my Dad and this was all because I bought Johnny's 'Still Alive & Well' LP in 1973.

 

Memories...

 

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/winter/Timeline/winter_timeline_1974.html

Otis Redding - I've Got Dreams To Remember

A Thousand Gigs Ago

 

Everyone has regrets in their lifetime, some are pretty major ones I’m sure but for now I want to mention one of my more annoying regrets. As a big music fan I am also a collector of certain stuff (or in a posh sense some memorabilia if you will).

I used to have a collection of concert tickets going way back to my first proper gig in the mid-seventies, ‘Johnny Winter And – Live At The New Victoria Theatre, London’, I don’t think the place exists today but I know I was there and can still prove it. So I always kept my tickets, torn stubs, wrist bands etc from gigs and festivals but about a year before I moved away from London I stuck them all on a bedroom wall alongside my collection of gig posters and at the time I wasn’t too bothered but now about 15 years later I would like to have them in my possession again but alas I know they were painted over by the tenants who moved in after I left the premises so that's a no go on that one…

 BUT… I did manage to keep the Johnny Winter ticket stub and as you can see it’s now on display on the internet alongside a creased ticket of one of my favourite R&B bands from the eighties ‘The Inmates’ and also alongside these is the napkin I have kept when many years ago my parents spotted Paul Jones eating in the same Indian Restaurant as we all were in Paddington, London and asked him to autograph said napkin and it’s still here today!.

Plus I can’t believe it only cost £1.50 to see Johnny Winter, how times have changed.

RIP T-Model Ford

 

Enjoy

T-Model Ford - Chicken Headed Man

Oblivians - Call The Police

Johnny Winter - Still Alive And Well

The Inmates - Mr. Unreliable

Augie Meyers - You Ain't Rollin' Your Roll Rite

Your Revolution Is Over....The Bums Lost !!!

Certain events this week seem to have all come together for me to form this thought 'The Ignorant are Ignorant of their Ignorance' basically. I hope that makes sense in a week where a checkout assistant refused to serve a customer because she was on her mobile but the supermarket went and apologised to the customer and offered vouchers for her upset. Certain callers to a radio show felt that they had a right to speak on their mobile at a checkout because quote 'the staff work for me' apparently !!

I then found out that it was a more or less the norm these days for people to use their mobiles in libraries and of course we all know the abusers who still use their mobiles whilst driving their vehicles and those that have conversations out loud on public transport but this is not just about ignorance it is also about respect for an individual and the property of that individual.

In my case this week I have had to walk out of my parents house to 'have a go' at two youths who pulled up in a car in her road a leafy suburban cul-de-sac so that one of them could relieve himself against a lamppost in full view of their house and many of the neighbours if they happened to be watching, of course they thought they were not doing anything wrong but I was having none of it and gave them my personal point of view in no uncertain terms, then yesterday some neighbours that back onto our property were out in their yard and this morning my wife found an empty coke can lying in our garden obviously thrown over the wall into ours, I immediately returned the said item

this morning back to the home it came from. I will not be disrespected especially by the Ignorant so there !!!

Plus I would promote the checkout girl to manager and then still could put a ban on phones at the checkout in her store permanently so let the fightback against Ignorance begin.

 

 

On a more musical note I was sad to hear of the passing of Bobby 'Blue' Bland, he always had one of my favourite singing voices and should have been much better known in his lifetime, also this week I was privileged to see JJ Grey & Mofro live for the first time.. what a band and what a frontman JJ is, he is superb, so check them out for the best soul, blues, funk, rock, Florida Swamp sound around in fact it's really Mofro !!

 

 

"A BIG SIXER"

JJ Grey And Mofro - Hide And Seek

JJ Grey And Mofro - Country Ghetto

Bobby Blue Bland - Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City

Bobby Blue Bland - Road Of Brokenhearted Men

Estelline - Save Us From Our Ignorance

U.S Ape - Ignorance Is Bliss

Cold Facts

 

Gaps between posts seem to be getting longer and I have to find the time to come up with something new each time. So today is more of a personal news bulletin of sorts. My Dad has been ill again and has caused my mum a certain amount of worry and wasted time. I have been continually updating my digital music collection and to a large degree I have been helping my wife finish our Country Cottage garden project which has been an ongoing joint effort since I singlehandedly dug up about a ton of old broken tarmac about 3 years ago. I have then joined forces with my neighbours to fight the ‘Great Old Town Residents Parking Battle With Our Local Council’ and I am on the committee, so let battle commence !

I have also watched some great documentaries recently, a couple on BBC4 regarding the life and times of soul singers Charles Bradley and Bobby Womack. Then I finally caught up with ‘Searching For Sugarman’ the award winning film on the obscure Detroit singer-songwriter Rodriquez which deserved it’s critical acclaim and to finish off my cultural tour I saw the documentary on war photographer Don McCullin whose exhibition I saw a couple of years ago in Bradford, again I recommend this to anyone who is interested in politics, art and history.
 Then I have watched two films that left me slightly perturbed 'Kill List' and 'Valhalla Rising', I think I understood them but I've not quite convinced myself, following those I then watched the Coen Bros 'A Serious Man' a film I have been hoping to see for quite awhile and to be honest I thought it was piss-poor and I've still yet to see their version of 'The Ladykillers'.

Listen boys if your reading this then just film the Big Lebowski II and I'll be happy again. Plus a big thumbs up to Modern Toss, god you make me laugh, check them out, just Google it and make them even more money to not pay their taxes on (that's Google not Modern Toss !)

 

 

Enjoy

 

 

Charles Bradley - Hurricane

Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

Rodriguez - Inner City Blues

Dolorean - Violence In The Snowy Fields

The Game Of Life

The sun continues to shine, work is still a chore and I stopped taking my medicine. So that's a summation of my last few days. I have been getting headaches like my brain is stuffed with cotton wool, I've felt nauseous and have gone off beer, so all in all I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself.

I have even lost the urge to hurl my wrath at an unfair and cruel world but I haven't lost the urge to find and download music across the "interweb". This past week I have been filling the gaps in my Van Morrison and Flamin Groovies mp3 discographies and now that I am satisfied I can move on to someone else. I am addicted to collecting music. always have been always will be (I'm typing this listening to Bobby Whitlock - 43 tracks).

I've collected LP's, cassettes, mini-discs, CD's, singles, books , tickets and magazines. Over time though I have let a lot of this go mostly for money not for free because I had found my modus operandi I found the computer music library a fascinating and useful tool. My preferred software is WINAMP I use this to select my play lists and monitor all my music libraries. I keep everything on external hard discs , I now have three in case anything terrible happens. I'm on nearly 75,000 tracks and rising I have so much I can't possibly ever hear it all but I keep collecting it's my drug. I just feel better knowing I have a track or album that I can refer to at any given moment, it comforts me, it is my passion. Yes, I often doubt myself, question whether it is all ultimately pointless but I won't stop because the next band, the next song could be the best music I have ever heard, so my road goes on forever.

By the way I still have about 1000 vinyl albums these are my own big red book, as Eamonn Andrews used to say The Man That Time Forgot (me that is !) ' This Is Your Life'........

Enjoy  

Bombino - Amindinine

The Nite Riders - Pretty Plaid Skirt (And Long Black Socks)

David Byne and St. Vincent - Road To Nowhere (Live)

The Nomads (Sweden) - Showdown

Music Was My First Love

The love of live music isn’t shared by everyone I know but the gig experience is still something I really enjoy and I always feel that I was glad I made the effort on the majority of occasions.

My next book to read at home is Simon Armitage’s ‘GIG’ published in 2008. It explores how music intertwined with his work and life in general. When I was a much younger man living in London I would go to gigs every week. The Half Moon in Putney, Dingwalls in Camden Town , the Town & Country Club, Kentish Town etc, etc, me and my mates would go all over to see and experience live the bands we liked. We never went to discos or nightclubs we liked live music, therefore we never met many women at that time ! but we learnt a hell of a lot about good and bad musicians and we knew the history of rock inside and out.

These days I go to gigs infrequently due to where I live now and the travel involved but this week I saw the Handsome Family and it reminded me of why live music is the best way to see a musician or group you really like. I had already tried to listen to their new album ‘Wilderness’ before the gig but I find my concentration to listen through from the beginning to the end of any new release very difficult as I admit I have become a bit of a ‘Shuffle Man’ by the way I listen to music so hearing the same new tracks live brought out the real meaning in the songs and the lyrics so when I went back to the album the day after I understood it  and could listen to it in a much more relaxed way. Next week I am off to see Charlie Parr, so let’s hope for another good ‘un.

Enjoy

 

Charlie Parr - God Moves On The Water

Charlie Parr - South Of Austin North Of Lyle

The Handsome Family - Owls

The Handsome Family - Glow Worm

Home Of The Blues

 

I’ve been very busy at work since I returned from my holidays and haven’t really found very much to moan about other than my work and that is hardly very interesting to anybody anyway,so I thought I might talk about football. This week my team Chelsea won another European trophy and it was a great night. I have now missed both wonderful occasions in Munich and Amsterdam but as I no longer want to travel to see my beloved Blues as much as I once did and have eventually given up my old season ticket I have to follow them mostly through the wonders of satellite television and the internet these days. I also became a victim of the high ticket prices you now pay to watch 90 minutes of football so I can only manage about three games a season now but I can still find myself jumping up and down on the living room floor and shouting myself hoarse in support of my team especially with situations like the drama of Wednesday night.

This has been a great week for the team, with next season’s Champions League qualification almost confirmed and last week Frank Lampard beating Bobby Tambling’s goalscoring record at Villa Park and then the good news Thursday of his extended contract, although I always despair when other club’s supporters have a go at ‘Fat’ Frank (jealousy, such petty jealousy lads).

The man is a legend and compared to that other weirdly tattooed male model who has just retired this week after playing about ten minutes football in France for Paris St Germain to win yet another medal for doing almost nothing well then compared to him our Captain Frank is a giant of the modern game (my opinion obviously and one not widely shared I understand)…..

Plus JT stop embarrassing yourself and keep your kit off once and for all as if you don’t manage to play the actual game then let the other players lift up the cup and you celebrate with them later at the end.

Anyway

 

Super - Super - Frank - Super - Frankie - Lampard – Come on you Blue Boys…………

 

Enjoy

Bobby Bare Jr - I'll Be Around

Gangstagrass - Dollar Boss

Kevin Coyne - Blame It On The Night

Wild Billy Childish And The Spartan Dreggs - Lemonade Stand

Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire

 

Finally the sun has come out and remained out for more than one day so Spring has arrived here with a hot Summer to follow (possibly who knows these day's).

What does this really mean you might ask, where are you going with this post you might say ?

Well if the sun is out in the UK then it can only mean one thing our sad obsession with the bar-b-q begins. Personally I just can’t see what all the fuss is about. Yes, enjoy the good weather, enjoy the sunshine and your gardens, backyards and municipal parks but please why spoil it all frying large pieces of fatty meat on a fire just because you feel it is the right thing to do or if you don’t have a bar-b-q  then somehow you are not British or not enjoying yourself properly.

So go on then and get pissed, make too much noise, annoy your neighbours and sacrifice your weekly food bill to the great outdoors god of Aus, because really that’s the place for it and that’s the place it should stay, it’s not British it’s ingrained in Australian and American culture where it is generally very hot and dry every year. As a nation we can’t do it properly but we are now indoctrinated to the point where most people can’t ignore the problem and head of straight to the nearest supermarket of DIY superstore as soon as we get one day of sunshine. So off you go and get too red sitting all day in the sun, talking too loud and filling up your arteries with half a cow. Where's the salad !!!

 I pity you all

Enjoy

 

ZZ Top - Bar-B-Q

Jon Dee Graham - A Place In The Shade

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - Choctaw Summer

Kermit Ruffins & The Barbeque Swingers - Skokiaan