Billy Bragg

I went to see Billy Bragg a couple of weeks ago in Liverpool. He's always good value. This tour was under the banner of Hope Not Hate and was aimed at raising awareness of the threat of the BNP in the local elections. Unfortunately, as the results subsequently showed, the voters in his home town of Barking did not heed his call and elected 11 BNP councillors. The party appeals to people's baser instincts and preys on their fears by portraying immigrants and ethnic minorities as bogeymen stealing jobs and benefits from 'true' English people.They appear to have managed to divert attention away from their inherently racist policies and attitudes.

Support was from Seth Lakeman. I was disapointed not to hear more from him as we only got to the venue in time to hear the last three or four numbers but what I did hear was excellent.

The venue at the Academy is a great one and Billy seemed really fired up on the night. As usual he interpersed songs with a lot of chat andsome funny stories - he really is a natural comic. Some of the set was just Billy and his guitar with Ian MacLagen on keyboards for the rest. He played a good mix of old, new and cover versions (including one of the Faces song 'Debris'). For the second encore he came back on and stormed through the complete Spy vs Spy mini album, finishing with A New England - absolutely brilliant.

There are many Billy Bragg live recordings available at a free (and legal!) website called www.archiv.org, which I can thoroughly recommend.

Five Words you Might Have Used ...

... instead of 'literally' :

1. completely
2. kind of
3. almost
4. not at all
5. figuratively

Preston Beer Festival

As usual a 'bit' behind on this whirl of social events that makes up my life. The end of March saw the annual Preston Beer Festival held at St Walburge's Church Hall. This is one of my favourite festivals, not least because I can walk there and stagger back. I usually try to get to two sessions, on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon but this year I was unable to make the Thursday due to childcare commitments. Mind, even if I had been able to go I would have hopped over to Wigan to the Beer Festival there which was inconveniently taking place over the same time period.

The Friday evening at Preston is notoriously busy, with it generally being 'one out one in' so I have avoided Fridays for the last few years. This year our representation was down on the usual with just me, Caroline and Tosspot Tim (pictured):

















For some reason I was slightly disappointed with the Festival this year (and not solely due to the presence of Tim). This may have been because two or three of the interesting sounding beers (Bryson's Wammelors Wheat being one) which were in the programme were not available. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the afternoon - I certainly did.

My top beer of the Festival was Edinburgh Gold from Stewarts Brewery (in Edinburgh surprisingly) which was 'refreshing, balanced and full of flavour ... combining a continental hop aroma with moderate bitterness'. Honourable mentions to Spring Ram from Okells Brewery on the Isle of Man, Lino Ritchie from Fyfe Brewery, which had hints of blackcurrant, and No Angel from Clarks in Wakefield.

After leaving the hall at about 6:30pm we made a trip to a newly opened pub, Bitter Suite situated where Strettles Bar used to be. It is run by the lady who used to run the New Britannia in town and had five or six guest ales on. The pub is not tied to any brewery but has links to Thwaites who seem to supply the German draught lagers (Warsteiner and Kaltenberg if I recall correctly). I can recommend the place and as a bonus it could not be more handily situated for a pre-gig drink if you are attending something at 53 Degrees at Preston University. The Levellers were playing the same night and although I was supposed to be going a mix up over tickets meant I didn't in the end. The next night Caroline and I went to see Stiff Little Fingers there so popped in for a couple of beers first. It was amusing to see the forty-something punks in their costumes. I was slightly disappointed (the buzz phrase for the weekend it seems) with SLF - I thought they were going through the motions a bit. This may have had something to do with a pint of beer being chucked at Jake Burns halfway through the first number (Tin Soldiers). He had a right paddy (if you'll pardon the pun) - I don't know what his beef was as most of it seemed to go over me as I was strategically positioned on the front barrier.

Nice shirts though (ahem).

Tracklisting for the Imaginary New Morrissey Album

Collated from www.stereogum.com:

1. My Teachers Were My Torture

2. My Enemies Are All I Have Left

3. Newsreader In Peril

4. Step Over to My Side of Melancholy

5. We're Waiting For Your Answer, Tony

6. Cherish Is A Word I Use To Bury You

7. Half-Cocked in Hackney

8. Ignorance is a Luxury

9. Oslo is Never the Answer

10. The President Must Die and You're Not So Great Either

5ives

Inspired by www.5ives.com I thought I would post the occasional list of 5 things - either my own or nicked from there.

A boring one to start - 5 Top Cities Visited:

1. New York
2. Glasgow
3. Manchester
4. Edinburgh
5. Oxford

... and a nicked one - 5 Fake Dickens Characters:

1. Henrietta Troubleknickers
2. Jackson Splotch
3. Prof. Wiggenstodgy
4. Pennyfarthing Mushroomwater
5. Felch Cracksbottom

Liverpool Beer Festival

The Beer of the Festival (possibly)



I had a great afternoon at the Liverpool Beer Festival yesterday. A great setting in the crypt of the RC Cathedral and some excellent beer and food.

I got the train over at about 10am - the others went an hour earlier but I thought that was just too early. They wanted to see the model of the original plans for the cathedral at the Walker Art Gallery but when they got there it was not on display. Another good decision by MickeyMo! I met up with the two Steves, Ronan and John and we wandered up to the crypt taking in the bombed out church and the RC cathedral (where I made my last confession 27 years ago!).





John and Ronan had gone to queue up and we joined the queue about 11:45 (see pic)








The doors opened at 12:00 and we got in and grabbeda table by one of the windows. There was a fine selection of beers available with a commendable concentration of local brews from Liverpool, Prescot, Southport, Ellesmere Port and Rainford. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty until quite late about whether the festival would go ahead there were no commemorative glasses this year but we did get vouchers for a half of a Cains brew and a half of Wapping Gold (another Liverpool brew).


The view from our table (right)













One thing certainly worth mentioning is the large pork pie on offer at the food table. I bought one at £2.50 and had it cut into five. I took it back to our table and it lasted about 5 seconds. It was closely followed by two more - a testament to their quality!



John ('the Mountain Goat')












The quality of the beers was excellent and I can recommend a few good uns. Top of the session for me were Natterjack from Southport and Drunken Duck from George Wright in Rainford (nr St Helens).




Ronan and Steve (2) deciding what to have next.











Steve (1) doing the same


I also met a mate I was at school with (junior and secondary) whom I see intermittently at Saints games. We had a good drunken natter.




Me and Phil Rignall (left)













While we were chatting one of the Mums from the RL club I coach at came over to introduce herself.




Phil and Cath (left)












Cath (right)















Steve 2 had the idea that eating Hula Hoops between beers would cleanse your palate. Hmmm ....











Discussions about the merits of Steve 2's beer.
















Me, feeling very mellow after about 3 hours imbibing.



























2 monks who seem to have wandered in by mistake.

John doing his Eric Morecambe impression.

Towards the end some fellas that the others had met last year brought some food over for us to try - there was a tremendous game terrine that one of them had made that didn't last very long.




The Providers of Quality Game Terrine. Meandering back to the Station

I'm glad in a way that the session only lasted 4 hours - any more and I would have regretted drinking so much but the time was enought to allow me to sample a good selection of brews, half of them local Merseyside beers. On to the station to get the train to St Helens where Saints were hosting Castleford in Super League XI. But that's for a different post.

Saints v Harlequins (pt 2)

Ickle Rabban (Luke) refusing to show his face - LittleMo2 looks suitably confused

And so to the game. Saints started with a couple of errors but nothing that the Londoners could capitalise on and it wasn't long before debutant Jason Cayless, sporting Rio Ferdinand-style locks, took a flat ball from Keiron Cunningham and crashed over under the sticks. Jamie Lyon added the easy two. Not long after Saints succumbed to an old weakness - the high ball to the left wing. This time, with the 'Barrow Arrow' (copyright Ron Hoofe) on the right it was new boy Francis Meli who misjudged the ball and allowed Tyrone Smith to score. The conversion made it 6 apiece. Not long after Paul Wellens took a pass from the impressive James Graham and spun out of the tackles of three Harlequins players to go over. Lyon's conversion made it 12-6. When Wellens went under the sticks after some fine handling and Lyon converted it looked like the floodgates would open and Harlequins would go under. 18-6. Just before half time your correspondent had the splendid idea of popping off to the bogs and the bar to 'beat the half time rush'. I was successful in that aspect but unfortunately missed the best move of the match in the process. Sean Long kicked to the corner for Jamie Lyon to chase. It looked as if the ball was going to bounce out of play a couple of yards from the line but with an incredible piece of skill Lyon got both hands on the ball and flicked it inside into Gardner's hands before it went dead and left Ade with an easy 4 points. Lyon duly converted and Saints went in 24-6 to the good. LittleMo2 and LittleMo1 at half time

Half time was passed with a conversation with 'Saint Rabban' (Paul) and before we knew it the second half was upon us. Harlequins needed an early score to stay in contention and it duly arrived when Ade Gardner took a chance on an interception from Leuluai's pass. If he had taken it he would have been under the sticks 80 metres away but he missed it, allowing Ricky Sherriffe to go over unopposed in the corner. With 25 minutes left Wellens took a great pass from Cayless around halfway and stepped the last line of defence to complete his hat trick. Long then set up Hooper to stroll in under the posts before Lyon completed the Saints scoring picking up a loose Harlequins pass on halfway and outpacing the defence, finishing with a cool hand-off on (I think) Haumono. This was the only kick Lyon missed all afternoon. Quins got a late consolation when Sykes went over following a nicely angled run from Purdham. Full time finished 40-16 in favour of Saints.

My man of the match was Paul Wellens for his positional awareness and support play. Jamie Lyon picked up where he left off last season and Pryce and Cayless had sound debuts. With Paul Sculthorpe and Vinnie Anderson set to return this Friday against Cas things are definitely looking promising. The only downside is injuries to Paul Anderson and Jon Wilkin.

LittleMo2's Liam Gallagher impersonation (Oasis not Shameless version)

Back to Euston in good time to take advantage of the bar in the First Class Lounge, only to find it closes at 3pm on a Saturday. Oh well, a good excuse to visit the Head of Steam and introduce the young uns to a decent boozer before purchasing a couple of bottles of beer from M & S for the journey home, which was much enlivened by the score updates from France where the Pie Eaters got beaten by the new boys, Les Catalans. Allez La France! Slight delays on the journey but nothing too serious and even the boys seemed too tired to argue or bicker so a fairly quiet return with a good few Saints fans also in attendance.
The Card Sharks

A great day out and meeting Saint Rabban and Ickle Rabban was a definite bonus. Roll on Friday when I will be at Knowsley Road following my attendance at the Liverpool Beer Festival in the afternoon. I will let you know how much of either I remember shortly.

Colin Welland

Click on the image to enlarge.

Saints v Harlequins (pt1)

A thoroughly enjoyable day out in London. LittleMo1 and LittleMo2 came along and we joined a surprising number of other Saints fans in First Class from Preston, courtesy of Mr Branson. After spending much of the journey separating the two youngsters and trying to stop them winding each other up it was a relief to pull into Euston to start negotiating the London Transport system. To be fair everything went well travel-wise and we got to Twickenham Station around 1:15pm. Hunger was kicking in so we queued up at the nearest chippy for the driest chips I have ever eaten. They tasted as if they were made from reconstituted potato and I wished I had taken Peter Kay's advice and got summat moist on them.

The Stoop is a great ground for watching rugby and I was impressed with the staff in the East Stand Bar who were many and speedy. Ok, £6 for a pint of bitter and a pint of Guinness is a bit on the pricey side, but at least it was a cask ale. There were also a number of staff walking round with beer dispensers for those not wishing to venture as far as the bar. There was a good turnout from the Saints fans and the North Stand was more or less full, with pockets of supporters elsewhere around the ground 3 -4,000 I reckon.
Saints warming up before the game

Day Out at Harlequins

Meeting Saint Rabban at last!

Boffin

I just watched Balderdash and Piffle on Teleport Replay and they were discussing the word Boffin. Someone caled Armando Pacono Rabano (or similar) who seemed to be from the Anglo-Italian side of Brian Sewell's family, claimed to be a boffin because he knew rather a lot ... about history.

Balls.

Everyone knows that there are three characteristics of a boffin:

1. He must have a 'high forehead' (technically, Tefal Man Syndrome);

2. He must wear a white coat; and

3. He must be involved in science in some way.

History? Pah! The archetypal boffin is Profesor Patpending from Wacky Races. (ok his coat is beiger than Terry Wogan's trousers but that's not the point, honest)

Sponsoring the Moshpits

Went to see Half Man Half Biscuit again last night, this time at The Mill in Preston. It's a completely different venue to the last time at The Academy in Liverpool - probably a quarter of the capacity - but it was very busy last night. As usual the set was very varied with the surprise oldie being Sealclubbing. Unfortunately the cover version was the same as Liverpool - I Think We're Alone Now - introduced with a curt "Tommy James and the Shondells" to distance it from the Tiffany version presumably! We also got an airing of It's Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas which was seasonal. It's a while since I've been in the moshpit but there were about 15 of us bobbing away, with a combined age of about 2,100 years. Plenty of greying or bald heads on show. And you have to be a special sort of fan to buy some white oven gloves and write 'Joy Division' on them in marker pen as the guy behind me had done!

Incidentally the Pringles at the 24 Hour Garage were an outrageous £14.20 this time.

Probably not quite as good as Liverpool but excellent nonetheless.

Set list as follows:

Restless Legs
Sealclubbing
For What is Chatteris?
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Third Track Main Camera
Monmore Hare's Running
CORGI Registered Friends
99% of Gargoyles
Foot Up in Europe
Deep House Victims Minibus Appeal
Uffington Wassail
Vatican Broadside
San Antonio Foam Party
Albert Hammond Bootleg
Twenty-Four Hour Garage People
PRS Yearbook
Look Dad No Tunes
Running Order Squabble Fest
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
Four Skinny Indie Kids
If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day
Lark Ascending
Twenty Seven Yards of Dental Floss
Fred Titmus
I Think We're Alone Now
We Built This Village on a Trad Arr Tune
Trumpton Riots

Encore

It's Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas
Joy Division Oven Gloves
Everything's AOR

Listening Post

And this week I have been mainly listening to …

GORILLAZ – Demon Days
PAUL WELLER – As Is Now
PATTI SMITH – Horses and Horses (live)
THE JAM – All Mod Cons
RICHARD HAWLEY – Cole’s Corner
THE NIGHTINGALES – In The Good Old Country Way
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES – Peel Sessions 1 and 2
THE DAMNED – Damned Damned Damned
Some GO PRODUCTION Mash Ups (go to www.goproductions.co.uk)

HMHB Lyric of the Day

… and thanks to ‘Stainto’ for the HMHB Lyric of the Day:

“My grandfather's clock was too big for the shelf, so I sold it and opened up a store....selling Joy Division Oven Gloves!”

‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ from Achtung Bono.

More Gigs

Just to round up the recent gigs I’ve been to I saw the blessed Half Man Half Biscuit at their (almost) hometown gig at Liverpool Academy. I’ve seen them seven or eight times and I think this is the best I have been to. The place was packed and I reckon a third of them must have been on the guest list. It’s the first gig I’ve been to in ages where the touts were genuinely wanting to buy rather than having loads to sell. We missed the support as we were in the pub and managed to get quite close to the stage. The set list was as follows:

The Light at the End of The Tunnel
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
CORGI Registered Friends
Running Order Squabble Fest
If I Had Possession Over Pancake Day
Restless Legs
Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off
For What Is Chattteris …
Monmore Hare’s Running
Them’s The Vagaries
99% of Gargoyles
Hallelujah/Vatican Broadside
CAMRA Man
Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
PRS Yearbook
Paintball’s Coming Home
Wrong Grave for 23 Years
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
Them’s the Vagaries
Letters Sent
The Len Ganley Stance
Footprints
Look Dad, No Tunes
I Think We’re Alone Now
We Built this City on a Trad. Arr. Tune
Everything’s AOR
Twenty Four Hour Garage People
A Country Practice

Encores:

Venus In Flares
Joy Division Oven Gloves
Trumpton Riots

And yes, that was a cover of the Tiffany song ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’.

I’m seeing them this Thursday as well, this time in a much smaller venue – The Mill in Preston. It’s walking distance from home; even better!

A couple of weeks ago I went to see The Damned and Wreckless Eric at the Mill – veterans of Stiff Records in the late ‘70s. Eric was on when we arrived and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one man get so much noise out of one guitar! I’ve always liked his stuff and he was a great performer – funny too. The Damned were incredibly tight and put on a really good show with most of the hits. They are real crowd pleasers and got a great reaction. I’d forgotten what a good guitarist Sensible is.

In October it was The Fall at The Mill, supported by John Cooper Clarke. As expected it was all recent stuff from MES and they only played about 50 minutes in total. The set list was:

Theme From Sparta FC
Pacifying Joint
Clasp Hands
Ride Away
Assume
Wrong Place Right Time - I Can Hear The Grass Grow
What About Us
Midnight In Aspen
Mountain Energei
Touch Sensitive
Bo D
Blindness


Again, the band were really tight but it was spoilt a bit by one arsehole in the crowd trying to touch MES all gig. A workmanlike performance rather than anything spectacular although as MES constantly looks on the verge of doing something weird and wonderful it is never dull.

Ian Brown

The following day I went to see Ian Brown in Manchester and after Paul Weller he would have a lot to live up to. We drove over to friends in Stalybridge and got the train into town, but not before a couple of pints at the excellent Buffet Bar on the station. We sampled a few of Manchester’s watering holes but we seemed to be jinxed all day – whenever we ordered pints of cloudy beer we hit problems. The Kronenbourg Blanc in Wetherspoon’s was coming out of the pump at the rate of a pint every three hours and was eventually declared “off”. The Edelweiss Austrian Wheat Beer in All Bar One (or Allbarone [in an Italian accent] as one acquaintance thought it was) was similarly unavailable and the Hoegaarden in another pub (The Wellington?) went off after a pint and a half had been pulled. We also paid a visit to the German market where we sampled hog roast, spicy sausages and banana and chocolate pancakes.

I’m not a fan of the MEN Arena – I much prefer more intimate venues. We got there just in time to see one of the support acts; a street magician named Dynamo. Now I don’t know which bright spark decided that someone doing close up magic tricks in a massive warehouse like the MEN was a good idea but even with the two big screens it was impossible to see what was going on. The poor fella lasted about five minutes before being booed off. Ian Brown opened with Elizabeth My Dear then I Wanna Be Adored which in my opinion was a mistake as his own material doesn’t really stand up next to The Stone Roses stuff. His voice, which I expected to be quite weak live, was actually ok but I felt the show flagged a bit. The hometown crowd went wild all the way through but for me it fell flat as the weak Carlsberg I drank. I will stick with my memory of seeing him with the Roses playing in the foyer of the Preston Guild Hall in 1989.

Paul Weller

Well, I have shamefully neglected my blog for two and a half months so it’s probably time to make a new entry and then forget it for another six months. On Friday I went to see Paul Weller in Blackpool with Caroline. The support was The Ordinary Boys and I was keen to catch them as I thought their album was half decent. I can tell you that the last song they played was good. I can’t comment on the rest, as they were just finishing as we got there at about 8pm. They must have been on at 7:30pm – not a situation I am used to at gigs. I imagined we would have a long wait for Weller to appear but at 8:25pm he strolled on to a rapturous reception. I’ve not seen him live since the live debut of The Style Council in about ’82 or ’83 at a CND Rally in Brixton so I was looking forward to this and to be honest I was totally blown away – the boy played an absolute blinder. He was on for 2 hours and 20 minutes with barely a duff tune in all that time. He really seemed in a good mood, contrary to his ‘miserable bugger’ persona and the whole band seemed to really enjoy themselves. I will post the set list later but we got a good mix of Jam, Style Council and solo stuff with the highlights for me being In The Crowd, Changingman, Gilded Splinters, Come On/Let’s Go, That’s Entertainment, Wild Wood and a storming Town Called Malice to finish. It ranks as one of the best gigs I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a fair few in my years. Additionally he looks brilliant – he has aged particularly well and his voice has that gravely feel that too many fags has done. Fortunately it suits his songs. Thoroughly recommended.

Half Man Half Biscuit Lyric of the Day

The new HMHB CD came out this week so expect a few nuggets from it in the near future.


"In the kingdom of the blind, they say the one-eyed man is king.
In the kingdom of the bland it's 9 o'clock on ITV."

'Corgi Registered Friends' from Achtung Bono!

Holidays pt 2

After leaving Bowness we headed up to the North East for a spot of house-sitting for some old college friends. Steve and Paula live in a fantastic house in the middle of nowhere (otherwise known as Cornhill) next to a farm. It was ideal as there is a massive garden and the kids played cricket and football at every opportunity. Steve and family were off to Scotland for a week's camping leaving us in charge of the animals (two cats, some hens and some ducks). Fresh eggs every morning were a luxury I could get used to.

as soon as we got there on the Friday I took the boys down to the cricket club at which Steve coaches. It's a lovely setting in the village of Etal and it got better with a trip to the local pub, The Black Bull, which is the only thatched pub in Northumberland apparently, for a pint of Deuchars IPA - exceptional.

We waved off our hosts and Saturday was spent shopping and stocking up for the week, and finding our way around the place. Fortunately Steve is fully Sky-ed up so I was able to watch the Saints v London game in the evening.

The next day we went to a local Sheep Dog Trials at Kirknewton, which was interesting but the kids soon got bored. There were a few stalls and pastimes and the lads had a go at Archery, but as Dan said "It's a bit like the Craggy Island Fun Day". All that was missing was the Cat-a-Go-Round, with a cat on a turntable. The best part was being introduced to the local ice cream made by Doddingtons - the vanilla is great but the Double Ginger is out of this world.

Later in the week we went on a walk up a local hill, Yeavering Bell, which has the ruins of a Saxon fort at the top. The kids whinged about the walk as usual but all were proud to have made it up there. They enjoyed the descent more.

We also took a trip to Bamburgh and looked round the castle and played on the beach (rugby this time) before heading into Seahouses for fish and chips.

On the Saturday Ian and Leslie (from the first part of the holiday - are you keeping up?) came up with the two lads and we played cricket and watched the Challenge Cup final. We returned the compliment on the way home on Monday, calling to see them in Whitley Bay before returning home pretty tired.

We had a great time over the two weeks but it didn't prepare us for the disappointment of having to return to work!

Holidays

We started off with a few days in Bowness which was just what we needed. We played a lot of cricket and managed to get in a couple of walks - nothing too strenuous as the kids whinge too easily! On the first day we met a family from Newcastle who got involved in the game of cricket we were playing after which they came back to ours to watch the conclusion of the third Ashes test from Old Trafford. They had actually gone to Old Trafford that morning but along with thousands of others had been unable to gain access to the ground. We met up with them again at Fellfoot Park on a glorious Wednesday when the sun was beating down. Surprise, surprise, more cricket was played. We went out for a meal with them on the Thursday and had a few beers back at the house. We also met up with them when we were in the North East on the next leg of the holiday(more on that later). Hi to Ian and Lesley and their two boys Matty and Benjamin.

We were really fortunate with the weather in Bowness and had just one shower of rain, on the Thursday evening. The conditions were good for walking, although it was a little warm when we walked to Sawrey and I was grateful for the pint of Hawkshead Bitter half way round!

We had promised the kids a trip to the cinema during the week but we kept that busy with other things that we just didn't have the time or inclination to go.

A great start to our holidays and it was going to get even better as we ventured up to Northumberland.

To be continued ...