We are the Cheeky girls

Following my last blog entry, you need to know that while my Boxing Day cooking duties were made all the more fun by listening to streamed music, there is one event that needs telling.

Having been dancing round the kitchen (not a pretty sight - eldest son "that's why you're single" - charming!) to Snow Patrol, the next song to come on was "we are the cheeky girls", which I was pretty certain I don't own! For a good ten seconds I stood transfixed to the centre of the kitchen with a "what!!" expression on my face.

Then I realised, Matt had gone into my room and found "les Cheekies" on You Tube and then hit play at the appropriate moment. 

Panic over, but well done Matt you got me!

Rocket man

A while ago, my good friend Steve, who lives in Newport, Kentucky, (and on his blog describes himself as " an Englishman living amongst the American lumpen proletariat") very kindly gave me a Rocket FM transmitter. 

At the time I may not have been as grateful as I should have been, as my then laptop was, to be honest, useless on most things requiring some intuitiveness from the software. Suffice to say after a small amount of playing with it, it sat on a shelf, looking good, but not much real use.

I rediscovered it, however, about 4 weeks ago and with both my new laptop and the iTunes remote application via my iPod Touch, it is without doubt a completely genius piece of kit and Steve thank you very very much for that gift. 

What I am now able to do is effectively stream music from my iTunes library, via "the Rocket" to any radio in the house (88.1fm) and using the iPod and the remote application change what I'm listening to, without leaving which ever room I'm in! 

I'm as happy as Mr Happy from Happyland on the day his lottery ticket came up with the top prize and his football team won the Premier League!

Licence to ill

Through the power of the Internet you can now watch the BBC live on your PC, laptop or (if you've got the right one) your phone.

Now that got me thinking about the licence fee and what it covers and more importantly how they can now police it?

If I'm sat at home watching TV then I should have a licence and i guess if I'm watching at home on my laptop then equally I should have a licence. But what if I'm in McDonalds (using their free wifi) & watching on my laptop, or on the bus watching on my phone, how do the licencing authority know whether I've got a licence or if so whose name it is in? Equally at present each house hold needs to have one, but can an 18 year old son use his parents licence, when he's at the other end of the country, say at a football game?

I'm a huge fan of the BBC and don't want it funded in any other way, but the way we watch the BBC is only going change further and get less TV focused and more multi-platform. Is the licence flexible enough to keep up?

Music

...is my first love! Like most people my buying pattern has changed over the years. First it was vinyl, then cassettes, then CD's and now mainly downloads. My online store of choice is iTunes, but on Wednesday a new online store opened to give Apple a real threat to it's market leading position.

The new player is Amazon, who now sell MP3's on line and unlike iTunes they have MP3's from all the major labels. They also have a handy little download tool, which automatically adds the purchased music to your iTunes library, with no additional effort required. It's very impressive! It's also very impressive that they have new release albums for £3, I presume that the low pricing is for this week only to encourage us all to give it a go, but it's a really good idea and I guess numerous copies of the new Take That album will be purchased for £3!!

Monopolies are always dangerous, so a real alternative can only be good for the choice (and price) of downloads going forward.

While my heart is still beating

Last Saturday I watched Saints lose at home to Wolves, who are run away leaders of the championship. It was a good game ruined by a referee who did his profession no good by his performance. We lost 2-1, but for the ref could we could have had a point.

Today we went to Reading, who just don't lose at home. They were a Premier League team last season and in many ways still are and were before today's game third in the league and had the best goal difference in the league by some margin. We won 2-1! While the commentary on the radio is as biased as it can be, we seemed to play really well and showed Reading no respect and in the 1st half in particular played them off the park. 2nd half sounded more even but we managed to hang on for a win that could just turn our season on it's head. (Yes I know the important word in that sentence is "could"!!!)

QE2/QE2 Finale

As a young boy, aged 10, the arrival in 1969 of the luxury liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, in Southampton was a huge event and I'm pretty sure that my school took us to Western Shore on the edge of Southampton Water to see her first voyage. This was in the same way that they had taken us to the same beach to see the last voyages of both the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary.

Forty years on, last night the QE2, as she is affectionately known, sailed from Southampton for the last time. It is the end of an era as for most of my life the iconic funnel has been visible to all visitors to the docks and seeing her sailing in and out of the port has been a regular sight.

She left with a fitting tribute, accompanied by a flotilla of small craft, with a massive firework display and just in case there were a few people who were unaware of her departure earlier in the day as she arrived from a final cruise, she briefly ran aground!

She is replaced by two even bigger liners the "Queen Mary" and the "Queen Victoria" both mighty fine liners but not the QE2.

Her final resting place will be Dubai, where she will be turned into a floating hotel. Who knows maybe one day I'll get a chance to stay "on board".

Slow train

There are a series of TV adverts running at the moment about the foolishness of jumping crossing gates across rail lines. This driver. I would suggest, hasn't been paying attention. This is the aftermath of his van being hit by a train on the Salisbury to Bath line this morning. You can read the full story here.

How do I know this? Well I was on a train on this line this morning. Not the one that hit the car but the one going the other way that stopped in the middle of nowhere for 10/15 minutes. The one that then had to go back to Bradford-on Avon (as unsurprisingly the line was blocked) so that we could get off and stand in the cold for 50 minutes, get on a coach , be driven into Bath and then get another train to Bristol and then arrive two hours late for a meeting!!!!

All because some "red van man" didn't think that he would come second against a train!

Genius!

Pride (In the name of love)

President elect Obama - Great news and great acceptance speech!

John McCain - dignified in defeat, consigned to history.

Sarah Palin - say she wants to run in 2012. Surely (please) her only chance is to train for the Olympic marathon?

Joe Biden - hopefully not the next President Elect.

W - sat in the White House knowing that people outside are partying that he's leaving. Has 2 months left though, so not over yet, what could he still do?!? Somewhere in Texas a village is about to get it's idiot back!

Two little boys

There have been many many words written, spoken and filmed about the late night phone calls made by Messrs Brand & Ross to Andrew Sachs answer machine.

What started as a puerile school boy prank (with only two "at the time" complaints) has snow balled into a media feeding frenzy, which has resulted in both being suspended by the BBC and tonight Brand resigning from the Corporation.

What they did was stupid and insensitive, but containable if it had never been broadcast, which the BBC had the ability to achieve. Once, however, it did go out (and what was the person making that decision thinking of?) the two perpetrators had the misfortune to tap into a feeling increasingly held, that attitudes and language on the BBC had got out hand. I have enjoyed some of Ross's guest on his TV show, but his (and his guests) constant swearing does get boring after a while. Lets be honest, it's not big or clever. Their actions have now become the catalyst for 27000 (and counting) complaints and for the BBC to decide that as a publicly funded broadcaster they have standards to up keep and that actually this was their chance to take a stand. Hence the suspensions and Brands resignation.

I doubt either will be missed from our TV's for long, as commercial TV will snap them both up quickly (I'm assuming Ross will leave the BBC as well). They may find, however, that it will be not appearing on Radio that will harm them most. There just isn't an alternative to BBC Radio and in both cases their radio shows under pinned the TV appearances they made. Even in the digital age Ross or Brand on Capital radio or Virgin will have 10% of their Radio 2 shows.

Silly silly boys.

Hurry up Harry

While I try and see the best in everyone, Harry Redknapp is someone I have a problem with, mainly through his inept attempt at keeping Saints in the Premiership when he was our manager. (There is a school of thought that he was in fact very successful in that role...as in "agent Redknapp your job is complete return to base" I.E Pompey, where he returned as manager after our relegation)

Well now he has done it again! Walked out on Pompey (7th in the league, 13 points) for Spurs (bottom of the league - 2 points). Spurs have allegedly paid Spurs £5m for Redknapp and good luck to them, because if they do get relegated it is unlikely to be Harry's fault. He will have a whole list of excuses already lined up - top of which will be "they were already down when I took over" or "I didn't realise quite how bad things were when I took over".

Runaway

The BBC series "Merlin" is good Saturday night TV with heroes and villains, magic and mystery.

Not great acting or script but the stories are well enough written to appeal to the ready made market generated by the previous successful series "Robin Hood". It also has Richard Wilson and Anthony Head as well as the voice of John Hurt. Finally each week one well known soap or TV star appears.

Unfortunately I'm of the generation that is waiting for "Camelot...it's only a model" to be uttered by Arthur. This week, if they had wanted to, they could have used both that line, had a "Knights of the Round table" song routine and had the knights all fleeing the Gryffin shouting "run away run away!!". In addition why is the theme tune not from the classic Rick Wakeman album..you know "whosoever pulleth this sword for this anvil is the true born king of ...." and then lots of keyboard wizardry.

Mind you it will give lots of parents a great line to use to justify dragging children to "Spamalot"!!

A day in the life

Today, Sunday October 12th has been an odd one. Full of ups and downs.

It started with a missed radio programme, but more of that later.....

This morning Will, my Mum and I (Matt was away with the BB in Torquay) went to church in Shirley in Southampton, to take part in the St James Road Methodist Church's 80th Anniversary celebrations. I went to that Church for most of my childhood until I moved to Jersey when I was 20, so much of my faith and "growing up" memories have that church as a backdrop.

Going back is always poignant and today even more so, but again more of that later! It was great to see everyone and especially to see two friends Rosemary and Mark who had been very good friends when I was a teenager, but who I had lost touch with since. E-mail addresses have been exchanged and it will be good to keep in regular touch.


The service itself was very good. with one of my favourite preachers, Rev Tom Stuckey, delivering an excellent sermon. The choir sang a very uplifting anthem and the organist, David Woodman, played one of my favourite pieces as we left the church.

After that there was a lunch (three course) for 200 which was great fun and again stories and memories were readily swapped.

The only concern I have is that many of the church regulars who were there when I was are still there and when they aren't there, who will be? As Will said to me "there's a lot of grey hair here today"

After that we went to Southampton General hospital so see my Dad, who is quite seriously ill at present. He has leukemia and while it has been treatable, over the last two weeks it has got worse, to the point where he has been in hospital now for nearly two weeks. He has had chemotherapy, which seems to have worked, but his blood is generally "in a bad place" and on top of that, as can happen, constant bed rest has brought on a dose of pneumonia. Last Thursday I was seriously concerned that, this was it, but he has rallied and now while still unable to walk has been sitting out of bed and is more like his old self. He tires easily and 90 minutes is as long a visit as he can cope with. We're not out of the woods yet but "Dad" is on an up at present.

He should, of course, have been at Church this morning, so it was sad knowing that he would have loved it and he was missing out. He was remembered in the prayers and we turned up to visit this afternoon full of messages of love and support.

This evening while dropping Will back at his Mum's I saw my friends Steve & Luanne who are over on a visit from Newport, Kentucky and plans were made to hook up later this week to "chew the fat" together. They are good friends and seeing them ended the day on a high.

The radio programme I missed was "The Tim Daykin Show" on BBC Radio Solent, which featured this morning, the 1st Chandlers Ford BB brass band featuring my son Matt on Drums! It's on at 6am, so it's not a surprise I missed it. As I write this blog, I am listening to it on the BBC "catch up" service via my lap-top. The star performers are on at 1 hour 46 minutes into the programme!

Downside up

Let's get this clear! You can't "part nationalise" anything! It's either nationalised or it's privately owned. Fleet street editors please note!!!

Our mutual friend

Over the last few weeks, there is little on the TV that i have made an effort to watch. In fact they only thing I have really followed has been the BBC series "Mutual Friends"

A kind of "Cold Feet" for this century, it starred Alexander Armstrong, Marc Warren, Keely Hawes and Sarah Alexander (all pictured) and the story revolved around their various love lives. The star for me was Alexander Armstrong who stole every scene he was in and most of the time he was on his best "Pimms o'clock" form.

While it dealt with serious subjects like IVF, the death of a young husband and affairs and the damage they cause it was mostly a comedy and had various laugh out loud moments.

You can catch the last episode on the BBC iPlayer ot buy episodes on iTunes.

Take that to the bank

The global banking crisis is effecting everybody it appears and I have tried twice to write a blog that expresses my feelings..but nothing I can say seems to hit the nail on the head.

I just don't think that we should overlook the fact that however bad the current situation is (and it is bad), the cost to the US taxpayer of the conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan is predicted to be c$752billion by the end of the year. No one seems to be mentioning that and the impact that the hole that has created is also having on the US spending plans.

Misfire

I have every Queen album in some shape or form and have usually bought them, from "Day at the Races" on,  within days of them being released.  

In the 70's they were "my band".  I cut out interviews from Sounds, Melody Maker & NME. I watched Top of the Pops when they had a new single out just in the hope they would be on and my mates Gray, Nigel, Ian, Kev & I went to each others houses to listen to the albums while we played board games (I  recall Colditz, Risk, Monopoly and Mousetrap featured regularly). In May 1976 I went to the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton to see them live for the first time and that concert is still one of the best five gigs of my life.

Over the years my love for the band has waned with other bands music meaning as much if not more to me. That's as a result of Queen albums changing direction and quality diminishing and my musical knowledge also expanding. I still went to three more Queen concerts, in 1978 at Earls Court, 1982 at Milton Keynes Bowl and 1986 at Wembley Stadium on what would be their last ever tour. 

Freddie's death obviously ended the band and while a couple of albums of material he recorded with the band, were released after his death and showed he worked almost up until the end, they effectively ceased to be after the Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium.

That is until a couple of years ago when Brian & Roger hooked up with Paul Rogers and toured as Queen + Paul Rogers, playing concerts full of Queen songs with the odd Free & Bad Company classic thrown in for good measure.

Now they have recorded a new "Queen" album and this week on the day of purchase I bought it! Now let's get this clear right now...It's not a Queen album! John Deacon plays no part on it and listening to it it doesn't have the "Queen" hallmarks (operatic vocals, banked guitar tracks and a sense of fun).

It is, however, quite good! Paul Rogers has one of the best "rock voices" ever and they have written songs which make excellent use of it. On all albums Brian May & Roger Taylor have written some of Queens best songs and they also produced some good solo albums as well. What they have done here is put those songs they had earmarked for future solo stuff and used some of Paul Rogers material to produce a good rock album. It has blues and country influences as well and lets all three of them demonstrate how good musicians they are. It does have odd bursts of the "Queen" sound and Brian May's guitar playing is always going sound like only he can sound.

The lyrics are also a big change from Queen albums. While Queen songs always had differing standard of lyrics (Another one bites the dust!") there are songs on this album that Freddie would have laughed at singing. When Paul Rogers sings them they work but because he sings them but they're not "Queen" songs for that very reason.   

So, its good but not a Queen album! Maybe they should call themselves QPR? 

Lucky

This is a slightly different blog. This is me watching Saints play QPR and my thoughts and feelings "as it happens"

5 minutes before kick off - Team changes mean average age even younger than previous game. Svensson out with knee injury, doesn't bode well and Perry dropped to the bench. Midfield stronger with Wotton in for White. Sky write us off so we'll see!

40 seconds in.....disaster! QPR score, long throw, defence all at sea and Dexter Blackstock (ex Saints player) scores with the crowd nearer to him than any Saints defender. It could be a long afternoon!

5 min:  better, passing it around but no real chances yet... Won a corner and QPR's keeper punched when could have caught it. Such small things are vital to cling on to..!!!!

10 minutes: we have more possession, a couple of half chances and I cheer up as I remember yesterday Liverpool let in an early goal yet went on to win. 

20 min: We look the better team, although the commentators get very excited whenever 

QPR attack. Lee Holmes gets a bad injury and leaves the pitch almost unable to walk. Nathan Dyer comes on in his place. QPR get another long, throw this time we keep it out...just! 

25 min: QPR's lead is flattering to deceive. They've really done nothing so far. And the fourth richest man in the world is in the crowd.

30 min: Olly Lancashire completely mistimes a tackle...red card...10 men.... back to depression again.

35 min: Good play by QPR, shot by Delaney, great save by Davis. Corner comes to nothing. Pajero the QPR player (on loan from Real Madrid!!!!)  does look a good player. 

40 min: Another good save from Davis. If we can get in at half time only one goal down that will be good. Ref may have QPR shirt on under his black one. Very few free kicks in our favour so far.

Half time: If it could go wrong it has....yet we are still in this game. One goal down but we created chances and Dyer has lots of space on the left. We need to come out believing and we could take a point out of this.

47 mins: Good start we have a free kick on the edge of the QPR box...it hits the wall and goes to safety, but the ref did give us a free kick.

53min: 1-1 We score a great counter attacking goal. When we play like that we are great! A big contribution from Davis with the initial distribution from the back. Commentator says if Arsenal had scored that goal we'd be talking about it for weeks. Lallana with the finish to a flowing move.

60min: QPR make a double substitution. Dowie clearly rocked by our equaliser! 

62min: QPR take the lead again and the scorer is clearly 2 yards offside from the free kick. It's not even close. Unbelievable!

65min: We are losing our discipline two quick bookings and QPR are on top again. But it may be the ref has to up his "bookings per game" ratio as he's just booked two QPR  players!

70mim: We're going for this. We bring on Thomas Peckhart a big six foot centre forward who starts off winning a good free-kick and causes chaos from the resulting cross. 

76min: Game over 3-1. Davis makes an amazing save but the rebound falls to Blackstock who makes no mistake.

80min: If we could pinch one now it could get interesting but it's a big if. Davis makes another amazing save, he has played really well.  

86min: Dyer has great chance, but puts his shot over the bar. It's not our day.

90min: 4 added minutes. QPR make it 4-1, football can be a harsh game at times.  Dowie's substitutions seem to have been the difference. Since the second goal their extra player has made a big difference and while we have tried to play football that has left gaps which QPR have exploited.

Full time: We scored the best goal, but going behind so early and losing a player after 30 mins were big hurdles. We did what we needed to and equalised, but the QPR second (offside) goal knocked the stuffing out of the team and in the end QPR had a comfortable victory.

We are now second bottom of the division.

 

Unbelievable

Lest it gets forgotten in all the hysteria, Theo was discovered and given his start in this great game at Southampton!!!!!!

The photo shows him predicting one day how many goals he will score in Croatia......

From a distance.....

Like most British people with an interest in politics, I watch the coverage of the US Presidential race with a mixture of bewilderment, amazement and a slight sense of panic. After all the winner effectively gets to run the world!

This race is, for all sorts of reasons, the most interesting for a long time. 

Firstly the Democrats. Obama seems the real deal and having seen off Hilary Clinton and thus confirmed that the next administration wouldn't have a Clinton or a Bush in the White House, appointed Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden, a well regarded mature politician with lots of foreign policy experience, appears just what the Democrats were looking for and they left Denver in good shape. True the stage that Obama made his speech on was still too grand (and that was after they allegedly toned it down), but his speech seemed genuine and most importantly "Presidential".

The Republicans arrived in St Pauls in the middle of Hurricane Gustav as it bore down on New Orleans. First day cancelled and George W cancels his visit and speech. Day 2 sees him send the speech by video, but the mere fact he's not there to me some how distanced McCain from his administration. Then the bombshell, McCain's running mate will be Sarah Palin, at which point all of America ( except Alaska) went "who?". Suddenly the phrase "hockey mom" become the most used phrase in the English language. 

While the discussion forums went crazy, it emerged that her 17 year old unmarried daughter was pregnant. Not good news for the Republicans or her boyfriend who, it was announced, would be marrying Bristol Palin (all her kids have "interesting" Christian names") faster than you can say "if you don't, something very unpleasant will happen to you and you family". Oh and his facebook homepage got a spring clean and refreshed some quotes as to his outlook on life. [As an aside, the Republican background checks on the Palin family didn't seem to go further than "ever been in trouble? No ...good you're in"]

McCain putting Palin's name on the ticket is a courageous decision. It also means that Obama's inexperience is out of play and that the Republicans go to bed every night praying that no further "revelations" about Palin or her family will emerge. (Not sure those prayers will be answered)

Palin's convention speech was a revelation though(three days solid preparation) and she "delivered" exactly as the spin doctors would have wanted and more. Sound bites all over the place, much to Republican central office's delight! Suddenly the Republicans have momentum and a candidate along side McCain who "touches" sectors he can't and the race is currently "too close to call". Hanging chads v2.0 anyone??

There is now, however, a latecomer to the race (ignore the fact that he's British) & a new campaign is underway for a far more rounded political opponent see it here.

And let's remember whichever candidate takes over, if they do a worse job than the current resident we're all in trouble!!!

Complete control

There is a scene in the first episode of the second series (series 2 if you're American!) of Fawlty Towers where Basil is trying to explain to Mrs Richards, a deaf resident, that he is the the owner of the hotel. It goes like this :-

Mrs Richards : "Who are you"

Basil : "I am the the owner madam"

Mrs Richards : "What?"

Basil : "I am the owner"

Mrs Richards : We ll I want to speak to the manager!"

Basil "I am the manager, I am the manager and the owner"

Well this week that dialogue has been at the centre of at least two Premier League managers resigning this week. Both Alan Curbishley (at West Ham) & Kevin Keegan (aka King Kev at Newcastle) quit their respective clubs because the owners were to all intents and purposes managing the clubs as well as owning them. This "managing" took the shape of the owners either directly or through "Directors of Football" deciding which players the club would sell or buy and leaving the "manager" to coach the team of players the owner thinks he should have!

This breaks the traditional model of the Manager having control of all footballing issues, including most importantly, transfer policy. In both instances Curbishley and Keegan had players sold they wanted to keep and  others bought in they knew little about! It is no surprise that both quit issuing statements heavily criticising their former employers.

The majority of British football. pundit and manager (either current or retired), has backed both managers decisions, saying how outrageous it is that both of them had their authority hugely reduced by the actions of the teams owners and that it only "works" if the Manager has complete control and that includes having a Director of Football who does the Managers bidding.

I agree with the first part, in reality Keegan was a resignation waiting to happen from the moment Mike Ashley appointed Dennis Wise (football's "Mr Popular" before all of this!!!) as Director of Football. If you employ a manager under one structure and then impose another, it's not a surprise that they pick up their ball and go home. 

I don't believe that it only "works" however, if the manager has complete control. That surely depends on the manager? Sir Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp are good examples of that model having a happy ending. There are plenty of examples of the opposite being true!

All of the upheaval this week has taken place with the backdrop of the  preparation for the next round of International football, which got me thinking. International managers have to use the players that birthplaces dictate. Apart from the odd "my granny was born in your country  so I can play for you" opportunities, they have to make the best they can from a finite resource and truly coach those players into the best team they can. which is surely all that the new breed of owner is expecting their coach to do. So actually that model has a validation it's just based on a completely different viewpoint. 

That is,  that it's "my club (small country) and I'll tell you who you are going to have to work with". As long as the coach knows that at the outset then it can work, you just need to employ former international coaches, they'll "get it"  (West Ham are strongly rumoured to want Slaven Bilic, who just happens to coach Croatia at the moment!!!)

Finally, not all coaches object to having players foisted upon them! Mark Hughes didn't resign this week, when Robinho was parachuted into Man City this week!!!!!!

Family Life

BBC4 are currently repeating "Outnumbered" a series of six half hour comedies based around the life of a suburban family.

Sounds pretty familiar? Well the subject matter is not earth shatteringly different. What is different is that the real stars are the three children, who are just great. Their acting is tremendous and the script really funny.

The writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin built in to the script room for improvisation and it's really hard to see where the improvisation comes in, but if it is the children's parts then they are truly remarkable.

It is a really accurate description of family life, with children having to be bribed, scolded, loved and disciplined! The phone is never where it should be, vegetables don't get eaten, they're always late and on car journeys both children and grand-parents need the loo when you're in a traffic jam" .

Anyway don't take my word for it! Watch it on BBC4 or on the iPlayer.

Calling all the heroes

Just to let you know that my blog is set up for anyone to leave a comment.

Knights of the round table (Camelot Song)

As a teenager in the 70's Monty Python was part of my formative years and the ability to be able to recite various sketches verbatim was essential to be considered "cool" in the playground or at BB. (I was in the Boys Brigade and Python featured heavily!)

It has been a particular joy to me that the humour has transferred a generation and that my two sons enjoy the same sketches now as I did at their age. Matthew used his first Python quote whilst I took him into hospital to meet his new brother for the first time!

The Pythons are probably best known for two films they made "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian" the latter being regularly quoted in "top ten all time favourite film" lists.

"Holy Grail" was the Python's take on medieval Britain and the King Arthur legend. While the TV series had been a great success, transferring the Python humour to film was a whole new concept and in their autobiography "The Pythons" it is clear that they were unsure for long periods of time over whether it was funny enough. They changed much of it and dropped some things and the end product is nigh on perfect. It's worth remembering that all of them had to mortgage their houses to produce it and had outside funding which included members of both Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

In 2004, one of the Python's Eric Idle, having toured America with a show called "The Greedy Bastard" tour decided his next cashing in ploy would be to put together a musical based on "Holy Grail". "Spamalot" was born!

It opened in New York and quickly transferred to Broadway starring Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce (Niles off of Frasier). It won a Tony in 2005 and is now running on Broadway, in London, in Las Vegas and on tour in the USA.

On Monday night the boys and I went to the Palace Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue and saw the UK show.

It was great! A lot more musical than I had expected (duh!) with lots of full on song and dance routines. They were faithful to the film however with the majority of the plot and script being used. In addition they included references to classic Python sketches (beautiful plumage) and they also managed to sing "Always look on the bright side of life" twice!!

I was really impressed with the "Black knight" scene in which they managed to chop off both arms and both his legs live onstage! The only major omissions were the "She's a witch" & "Spanking" scenes, but they weren't really missed. Some of the well known songs (E.G.Knights of the Round Table) were performed as per the film and then extended into full blown Broadway productions. Additional songs were written including "Not dead yet" which took the basis of the "Bring out your dead" sketch and again turned it into a full on song and dance routine. There is also a whole theme running through the show, which takes the mick out of musicals, it starts with new song called "The song that goes like this". This is a big ballad which basically says that in every show at this point there is a big ballad!

The set was excellent and included projection so that many of the animations could be incorporated into the plot. The acting was very good and Sanjeev Bhaskar as King Arthur managed to "ad-lib" some of the Kumars humour in as well! The language was fine with one or two minor swear words but nothing to really offend.

We were sat in the Upper Circle so our view was not the best but the show is designed so that all can see what's going on and apart from the man in the row in front who needed a good haircut we could most of what was going on.

Would I recommend it...yes. Would I go again... yes.

Rumour has it Eric Idle is working on the follow up "He's not the Messiah"

Czech Suite

As promised here is my blog on part of our London trip - the bit involving Wembley.

Wembley Stadium is fantastic! Getting in was very straight forward and there are escalators to take you to the top of the stadium where we were sat. The view was excellent, loads of toilets (that's very important to some!) and the atmosphere was great. The last bit being despite it wasn't full, but there were 70,000 there so it wasn't exactly empty either. Plenty of leg room and while the photo may make it look like the pitch was a long way off, it is a trick of the photo as we could clearly see all the "action".

The match itself is best described as "when the Mexico wave started after 60 minutes, it was the high-light of the game!" To be honest it wasn't as bad being there as the press described it. The Czech's are a good team and played some good football on the break. As for England....well they had two Pompey (bottom of the premiership) players in the starting line-up so were always in trouble! The main problem seemed to be the midfield. Lampard - ineffective; Gerrard - played out of position; Barry - got booked early on, not sure why he wasn't substituted in 2nd half; Beckham - delivered good passes and crosses BUT can't run very far and his crosses all sailed over Defoe's head, 'cos Defoe is short and not a target man; Rooney - what does he add to England? Doesn't score goals. runs a lot and either gets injured or booked or both. He was the problem as all play went through him and he tries to pass through defenders, who being human block the pass and play breaks down. It won't happen because he's Wayne Rooney but he needs to be dropped to free up Gerrard to play behind the lone striker. Finally why does Theo not get a run out, when Downing, Jenas and Heskey all get a chance.

The injury time equaliser flattered to deceive, but did make Matt jump around like I've never seen him do at St Mary's! In addition it did make all those who left early look mugs, which is a little added bonus.

Leaving the Stadium was also very easy with wide well divided stairwells and we were outside with no problems. As our hotel was at the end of "Wembley way" we were back in our room before many were even on the Tube home.

Coming next ...."your Mother was a hamster and your Father smelt of elderberries"...we do Spamalot!

The future

This week the boys and I are off to "the smoke" for four days, staying near Wembley Stadium. That's the same Wembley Stadium where on Wednesday night we will watching England play the Czech Republic. We'll be sat "up in the gods" in the block to the right of the big screen.

All of us are really excited as none of us has ever seen our National team play live and Wembley is a fantastic stadium. I've seen it at night from the outside, I expect the inside to be even better.

In addition we plan to try to see Spamalot, visit the Dr Who exhibition at the O2 Arena, take in a museum or two and see Nelson's column (a particular request from Matt!!!). Train up and back so no congestion charges either.

Blog and photo's to follow.

Gold

So the Beijing Olympics are in full swing and the four-yearly assault on the BBC schedules means that I'm finding doing anything in the morning a real challenge.

I'm on two weeks holiday at the moment and have my boys staying with me as well, but they are just as hooked as I am.

Over recent mornings we have watched Swimming, Canoeing, Kayaking, Archery, Boxing, Judo, Rowing, Women's Hockey, Beach volleyball (women) and Diving (synchronised)! Oh and Cycling, Tennis, Badminton, Sailing, Gymnastics, Equestrian and football!

I will probably not watch most of them again until London 2012 but who cares it's great.

It certainly has moved on from 1968 when I used to get up early to watch the Mexico games on my parent's black and white TV. Now it's all "red buttons" and websites and even games for the Xbox and Wii.

And the athletics hasn't even started yet!

Killer

A year ago my first blog was about my disappointment that the football season had started and all my hopes about the season ahead had been shattered by two games both of which the Saints had lost.

Today was the first game of this season and we lost 2-1 at Cardiff to a last minute goal so somethings don't change!

While I'm still disappointed, today my hope remains intact as all the reports say we played well, should have got a point and I do believe that we are a work in progress and it will take time for us bed in the younger players. Many teams will go to Cardiff this season and come away well beaten with fans no where near as happy as ours seem to be after this afternoon.

One of the main reasons for my hope is that this season at the heart of our defence we have Michael "Killer" Svensson, who hasn't played football for three years through a knee injury. Last season we Saints fans accepted that his career had effectively been finished by the injury as each "come-back" ended with more treatment/surgery. At the start of pre-season training, however, he rejoined the squad after the latest series of treatment had restored his knee to being able to at least train and start to play again. The last few weeks have been a journey that we have all watched with amazement has Killer has returned to playing as we all hoped but never really believed he would.

His injury was one of the main reasons why we were relegated as with Claus Lundekvam he formed a solid central partnership that was at the heart of our Premiership success. Svensson was the organiser of the defence and without him we were never the same team and relegation followed.

Now he's back! Assuming he can stay fit (and the signs so far are good) he will give the centre of our defence a real Premiership quality player who will instill confidence in those around him, the main thing that our defence lacked last season.

There will be a lot of Championship centre forwards this season who will find that Killer is back and may well find out how he earned his nickname.

Dreaming

Last night I went to St Mary's and watched Saints draw 2-2 with West Ham in our penultimate pre-season friendly. There that's the facts out of the way.

What I saw was, however, a team playing free-flowing, passing football in a manner that I had hoped our new coaching team would produce. As a Saints fan, though, I'm ready to be disappointed but this time my hopes may be fulfilled.

This season we will put our faith in youth and last night that faith seemed well placed. Nine of the team were under 23 and we had pace, desire to win the ball and frankly many of last seasons "regulars" will struggle to get in the team. Morgan Schneiderlin looked a really classy midfield player and together with Adam Gillett, kept three Premiership midfield players chasing shadows for most of the first half.

Lee Holmes on the left wing looked good too and Lloyd James at right back looked the matching pair for Gareth Bale. His cross for the first Saints goal was inch perfect and how we didn't use him last season is beyond me. He can't have got that good during pre-season!

Now I thought that it was just me but tonight's Echo has lots of comments which reflect all I have said.

Maybe just maybe we are at the start of a season that will reaffirm lots of fans belief in the mighty Saints.

The Unforgetable Fire

Sadly it will a long time before my family (as pictured Dad, Sister and Mum) will be able to repeat this photo. This was taken on the Pier at Weston-Super-Mare and today it caught fire and the Pavilion was completely destroyed.

Every time I go to stay with my sister, I always have a big bag of coin as we normally end up on the pier and the boys like to play the machines, housed in the Pavilion. This ritual, will for the foreseeable future, have to be put on hold. It's very sad to see a pier on fire, sadder still when you know it very well and can picture it as soon as you hear the first radio report.

For the people of Weston tonight will be a strange evening as part of the main focus of the town will be a smouldering wreck. I hope they have the fight to restore it to it's former state.

Daddy's home

...again! He's had two blood transfusions , some platelets (that's nothing to do with food) and has been fine since Monday. Hopefully this time he's home for keeps.

Doctor, doctor

...knew I spoke to soon! Dad, hospital, again, in...sort to create the correct sentence! First challenge of course is to find him.

Something's coming

There has been a severe lack of blogs recently but there is a good reason. My Dad has been in hospital for the last couple of weeks and my time has therefore been split between work and visiting him with my Mum (who doesn't drive).

He went in a week last Monday for a routine bladder operation, and was discharged two days later as planned...& re-admitted the next day...and discharged last Sunday....& re-admitted again on
Monday. He has (finally?) come home again today. In that time he been moved almost every day, which means you have to play "hunt the patient" when first you enter the ward. The fact that occasionally they have changed the ward (he was on ear, nose & throat for one night!) just adds to the fun! He did get the chance to ring us and give us a clue as to his whereabouts but a couple of times we had to consult the chart on the wall to find him! While overall the care was good ( and let's not forget - free) a few more nurses (both male and female) who had English as their first language would have helped. One evening a male nurse took Dad's temperature, blood pressure and emptied his bag without uttering one word!

Anyway...to the matter in hand. As the photo shows Ikea's arrival in Southampton is getting closer. This gives me mixed emotions. I'm excited on one hand as no more 120 mile (minimum) round trips to the home of all things pleasurable for furnishing your home ( and a good plate of meatballs).

What depresses me, however, is the location. This afternoon Will & I (Matt's up a mountain in Switzerland with the school) went in to Southampton at about 3pm to go shopping. The traffic was dreadful and what does the average Ikea do but attract cars, cars and yet more cars. I can't believe that the centre of Southampton won't be any thing but grid lock! Oh and add in football traffic as well just for good measure! It might still take as long to visit Ikea in Southampton as it does to drive to either Croyden or Bristol!

Once

If you have not seen this film then you have missed a real treat!

It's only 85 minutes long , was filmed mainly on handy cams and cost c£100k and the music won an Oscar!

It's a simple story, boy meets girl etc..., it's a musical in that it's full of songs. Songs which are beautifully written, well performed and give the film a real feeling of the hope the underpins it. Hope of a future as musicians, hope of love and hope of a fresh start.

You'd have to be mad to starting watching it and not finish it!

Me & Matthew

Next Wednesday Matt has to have an operation on his stomach which will keep him in hospital until Sunday. Next week is likely to be a stressful week for us all.

This song will be one of those that I will be listening to keep me strong.

I'll keep you posted on his progress. Please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

(Remember the days of the) Old school yard

This afternoon, Will and I went to a summer fayre to celebrate his Infants school's centenary. (Matt went there too but he's doing his Duke of Edinburgh's bronze award expedition).

As my ex-wife Sarah also went there it's a big part of my extended family's history.

Chandlers Ford Infants school was opened in 1908, when CF had a population of about 1500 and looked like the photo above, which was taken that year.

Part of the original building remains although much rebuilding and extending has changed it completely. Indeed Will left nearly five years ago and it's changed quite a bit since then!

It was a very well attended fayre and a number of old teachers were there, including Mrs Emington, who taught Sarah & just happens to be the mother of my friend Claire. This also means that Mrs E has Claire's husband Dave (the great DA) as a son in law! Both Dave & Claire were there as well as a number of other friends whose children have passed through it's portals.

The town cryer was there (of which town I'm not sure?) and he was master of ceremonies for the afternoon. He preceded all announcements by ringing a large hand bell which just made me want to shout out "Bring out your dead" but apparently that's frowned upon at a school fayre!

The school had also put together a great exhibition and seeing pictures of both your ex- wife and sons as 5 year olds is a bit weird!

Finally there was a plaque unveiling marking the occasion and then the children sang two songs which we had the words to so we could join in. Hint think 60's Eurovision songs and you wouldn't be far off!

Dreamer

Just watched the complete antidote to the France/Romania dull dull dull 0-0 draw.

An awesome 3-0 victory by Holland over "world champions" Italy. The second goal was truly "total football".

Remember this is the style that we will be seeing at St Mary's this season! (Stop laughing at the back)

New Europeans

• Euro 2008 started last Saturday and my thoughts so far are :-

- Greece winning in 2004 has inspired the "lesser" teams (which is what Greece were in 2004) to copy the Greek style of play. That is defend with 2 rows of four and score the odd goal from a quick break. Well that's what Romania did tonight. This does not make for great spectacle!

- If you're English and your missing the "supporting England depression" watch France and try to will them to win (hard I know but Arsenal fans may find it easier). Based on their first game they had lots of the most talented players of their generation but not a clue on how to break down a well organised defence. Sound familiar? All they really lacked was a "wally with a brolly"

- Talking of which, BBC coverage allows you to watch the BBC pictures, but also listen to the Radio Five commentary. Which is great but every so often the analysis is by said Wally and he's better at team management than he is adding colour to the listening public's aural experience.

- When England failed to qualify, the organisers breathed a sigh of relief as that meant no England fans. Instead they got Croatia and their fans are.....worse than England, they picked a fight with the Austrians!

- Finally, much has been made in England as to who you are supporting as we didn't qualify. Not an easy decision and actually the best advice I've heard was the comedian Frank Skinner's. We all have teams we hate so go through the tournament supporting the teams they are playing and actually you can really get into the whole thing!

Close to the Edge

Those of you who when I blogged on the Yes tour said "oh God no" have had their wishes granted.

A couple of weeks ago lead singer Jon Anderson had a severe asthma attack and as a result has been told not to work for 6 months One cancelled tour later, personally I think the show could be over, at least for big coast to coast tours.

When the tour was announced Rick Wakeman, keyboard virtuoso and "grumpy old man" declined the offer to join the tour as he didn't want to risk the pressure he would put his body under. He also cited Jon's health issues on the last tour and suggested that he shouldn't be undertaking such a gruelling schedule. Looks like he was right. It's difficult to see how they could now commit to the length of tour they had planned and if they tried whether they would get insurance?

Meanwhile I wish Mr Anderson a speedy return to fitness and who knows maybe small tours with all of them on board might be the outcome of this set back.

Double dutch

Well there I am driving to work this morning, when the travel news kicks in and at the end it doesn't turn off so i can go back to my iPod, so I hear "...and for all Saints fans stay tuned we have big news for you all"



Well usually that means "we've got tickets to give away" but as the season doesn't start until mid August, I stayed tuned. This meant that I heard the announcement that Nigel Pearson was leaving the Saints and that Jan Poortvliet and Mark Wotte had been appointed to bring "total football to St Marys. Poortvliet was a member of the 1978 Dutch world cup final team so at least he knows what total football looks like.

This brings to mind a number of points.

Firstly Nigel Pearson. Nice bloke, strong, tough and hard working. BUT when he took over we were 18th and we finished 20th and very nearly a disastrous 22nd. While he had won over the crowd, that was only because he kept us up and actually he achieved very little.

Secondly, reality check. Since Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde have been re-appointed as directors (and Chairmen- one of the PLC one of the football club) they have revealed exactly how little cash we have to spend. The fact that last season our wage bill went UP by 30% when the parachute payments had stopped defies belief, especially when we played so poorly for large parts of the season. Not good enough and expensive too! Therefore cuts had to be made and Pearson was clearly not cheap.

The financial stability of the past has been built on a cracking academy and Lowe has made it his top priority that we invest in it to restore it to former glories. Sounds sensible to me.

Loan signings have been a feature of that last three seasons, during which we were nearly relegated twice. While some have been good, the majority weren't good enough for their own clubs and knew that even if we went down, they would still be returning to the parent clubs. Thus can you ever be sure they are giving it their all?

Nigel Pearson wasn't good enough for West Brom, they replaced him with Tony Mowbray (what's he ever achieved?" they probably said at the time) and he played attractive football and got them promoted.

The new managers want to play football the right way, get a complete style throughout the club and use the young players from the academy rather than loan signings.

Sounds rather exciting to me but only time will tell, but if you read the Saints message boards you thing we'd appointed Harold Shipman and Fred West . I can't help thinking that if we appointed Sir Alex some fans wouldn't be happy.

Art for art's sake

Have just found this web-site, which extends well known album covers so that we can see the whole cover as intended by the artist!

Some are great, some are clever, some feature Gary Glitter are very dodgy, but generally they will make you smile. Some have very naughty words, so if you are under 18 ignore this post. (That means you Matt!)

Welcome to my nightmare

As Freddie Mercury once sang "It's finally happened..... I'm going slightly mad"

Today, Pompey won the F A Cup and despite my best efforts, I did get to watch most of it.

I help run a Youth Club for 8-12 year olds and this afternoon we took them swimming between 3pm and 5.30pm. This should have meant that I missed the whole game but as the viewing area was as hot as a sauna and there was a Costa coffee at the pool, that's where I took shelter. This, however, had a big screen TV and guess what they were showing?

From what I saw it was a pretty dull game, the winning goal was a goal keeping howler (but Enckelman the Cardiff keeper has form in that particular area) and now Pompey are in next season's UEFA Cup.

My only hope is that Harry Redknapp, the Pompey manager, wakes up tomorrow, thinks he'll never top this achievement (which he won't) and promptly resigns and Pompey appoint Steve McLaren as his replacement.

All I want for Christmas is a Dulka Prague away kit

...cos I'm not sure you'd want this one!

This what the Saints will be wearing next season. My problem with it? The socks, they are horrible, horrible, horrible! They should be red in my view any way (or black?) but if they have to be white then white is what they should be not red and white hoops.

On related news, now that we are signed up to Umbro, we will be having a new kit every season, so parents better have deep pockets. (who shouted rip off?)

You can see more pictures of "the candy man" here.

The Great Escape

My pulse rate has just returned to normal and the great news is Saints will NOT be playing League One football next season.

It was, however, very tight, and with 23 minutes left we were going down.

The afternoon went :-

1. Sheff Utd score 0-1 (relegation beckons)
2. Saints equalise 1-1 (still relegated Leicester drawing so not good enough)
3. Saints take lead 2-1 (safe)
4. Sheff Utd equalise 2-2 (relegated)
5. (2 mins after 4. above) Saints take lead again 3-2 (safe again!)
6. Final whistle (definitely safe)

There were 21 finger chewing minutes between 5 & 6. Had Sheff Utd scored to make it 3-3 then we would have been relegated, yes it was that close!

Now we need to sort out the ownership of the club and then probably get a new manager. The later because the owners will want their man. I do not want to be threatened with League One football ever again!

Vultan's Theme (attack of the hawk men)

Last night's "Have I got news for You?" (Hignfy) was hosted by Brian Blessed and it was a corker!

He played the whole show as if he was Prince Vultan from the film version of "Flash Gordon", including a very early joke about Gordon Brown's political career not being over which finished with Blessed shouting (and I mean shouting!) "Gordon's alive".

Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, the usual team captains, were completely thrown by his antics and spent the whole show either in hysterics or with a bemused look on their faces.

The whole episode is on the BBC iplayer or you can see out-takes here.

I could be happy

The mighty Word podcast have pulled off a magnificent coup by having Clare Grogan as this weeks guest.

She is great fun and you can hear Dave Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall are all enthralled by having her in the studio/pub/office or where ever they record it!

At one point David Hepworth comments on the fact that most men of a certain age have a crush on her, which she knows but still tries to deny.

You (that means you Steve!) can find it here!

The Tommy Steele story is awesome!

Happy Birthday

Will, my youngest son, was 12 yesterday and so this has been a weekend of celebration.

Friday night we went bowling with my work colleagues at Tower Park in Poole. This was the first time that we had done something like this and it was a test that the boys passed with flying colours. They were just themselves and we had a great evening with my bowling even managing to win me both games.

Yesterday we had the traditional present opening and then after breakfast we went to clean the church! (Will was not impressed but as his Mum puts the rota together he couldn't blame me for that one!) This also enabled him to see one set grandparents so that offset the cleaning to a large extent.

Lunch was held at TGI Fridays in Southampton, which was great but I haven't been for a while so when the waitress did her talky bits all I could think of was The Catherine Tate show sketches.

The day finished with a quiz night at Church during which everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Will who went bright red!

Today was Will's party day! Quaser at 10Pin in Southampton, Will, Matt and 6 of Will's friends with food and cake afterwards. What more could a boy ask for?

Weekends like this are always special.

Ready an' willing

While browsing the Classic Rock website I came upon an entry entitled "see David Coverdale on Loose women again"

Now given the aforementioned Mr Coverdale's reputation you could be fore given for thinking that the link took you to some kind of home made video that only over 18's could view.

But there is on ITV most lunch times a chat show called "Loose Women" and it was on that that he appeared. Boy he must need the album sales!

You can watch it here.

I'm still standing

I had to go to Bristol today on business and being the good son of a Railwayman, I took the train.

At 3.22pm I boarded the FGW train ( comprised of two coaches) to Portsmouth at Bristol Temple Mead station for the return journey. In fact boarded is probably not strictly true as that description gives the impression of striding on board whereas I shuffled on with the dozens of other people as we struggled to find a space to stand for the journey. (Yes you did read that correctly). I then stood all the way from Bristol to Salisbury! That's a 70 minute journey. I did get a seat finally at Salisbury for the final 20 minutes.

Some facts :-

• It was Friday afternoon at the end of the school holidays
• Students were returning to University after the Easter break, the train passes through Cardiff, Bristol, Bath, Southampton and Portsmouth - all have Universities
• A good third of the available seats had reserved tickets on them. (although you had no chance of moving through the train to find your seat so you must ask "why bother?")
• The train to Bristol in the morning had three coaches.
• FGW bought some five coach trains, but mothballed them "as they were unreliable?!?"
• My ticket only gives the right to travel not to have a seat.

My e-mail to FGW has just been sent to express my unhappiness!

After all, as I said to them, next time I'll take the car, I always get a seat in that!