Well…well

Time to dust off the blog again. Been quite a long time since I posted anything on here, but as I have started a Creative Writing Course it seems like a good time to breathe some life into the old dog again….lets see where it takes us shall we?

Ok, it has been a mad year….

So the last entry was in November 2011. That is a long time, too damn long in fact so here is a new post to say, yes I will pick this up, I promise, Scouts honour and all that.

Anyway, it has been a mad year, we have seen Madchester reform with Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets all getting back together again. 

I saw them all and had a great time at every one of them. Yes its men who are old enough to know better playing live,  yes its probably for the money, but fuck all that, it was about hearing songs you didn’t think you would hear live again and having a damn good time to boot.

Started a new job, but I won’t bore you with that…..erm….went to Kendal Calling, had a great time with James finishing off the weekend in their usual style.

The Stone Roses in Heaton Park

Oh and FC are still unbeaten going into September. Who’d have thunk it?

Violins and Trumpets…..no chocolate cakes

James live in Manchester.

A couple of years ago, James headlined the Vs Cancer gig at the MEN Arena. It wasn’t a usual set. They had a choir and orchestra. They also had Rowetta and Hooky singing and playing with them, but we will bypass that. The orchestra and choir worked. Then on their last tour, the choir came along again at the MEN show and you know, it worked again. So the natural progression was a full tour with orchestra and choir, and so “An Evening with James” was conceived.

Last night the tour finally hit Manchester and, man, are we glad it did. We had been told by Tim on his Twitter feed to be there for 8pm and leave the hits at the door and we were, well most of us were…..the empty row till just before the interval suggested not everyone is a tweeter but that is by the by.

The Orchestra of the Swan walked on stage, followed by the Manchester Consort Choir, the lights dimmed and the band followed. Tim told us that they were starting slowly and so we should sit back and enjoy as Dust Motes started up, Mark playing the piano beautifully. Hello followed, again with a great piano opening, the song getting a new lease of life freed from its overproduced recorded shackles. Another underplayed, underrated album track followed with Alaskan Pipeline from the Pleased to Meet You album, same rules apply as Hello, much better live in this environment that on record. The Shining, again from Pleased to Meet You followed and I started to get a little worried. Not at the performance on stage, but about how the crowd would start to react when it was clear this wasn’t the usual James gig, but I should give the Manchester crowd more credit as the ovation at the end of the song allayed my fears.

At this point Tim stopped the show to say a few words about a stalker who seems to have been fly posting Manchester regarding doing him harm and Someone’s got it in for me was dedicated to him/her. A favourite of mine from Millionaires and the song showed it’s true class tonight.

One of the best parts of this period of James is their willingness to revisit their past go right back into the midst of time and play really early 80s stuff and this is continued on this tour with Fairground.  The choir really start to come into their own on this song with the backing vocals and it is a song that is more than welcome in the setlist. It was then time for a Tim walkabout. Regular James gig goers know that at some point, Tim will be about in the crowd and on the tour so far, (Just Like) Fred Astaire has been that cue. He started by walking up one aisle, then into the crowd and moved along on top of the seats before being helped back onto the stage. The walkabout allowed for the strange sight of one lady dancing with her head pretty much jammed up against Tims buttocks (there is a sentence I never thought I would type.)

Hymn from a Village was up next, with Jim Glennie basslibne replaced by the harp, it probably shouldn’t work. It does. Within spades. With bells on.

Hey Ma and We’re gonna miss you when you’re gone close the first part of the show, the former built up well with the strngs of the orchestra, the latter showing the choir off perfectly and the acapella ending was superb with both band members and choir continuing to sing whilst back stage.

The second half started with some tomfoolery from Tim trying to conduct the orchestra, ending with a rendition of the William Tell overture, giving the choir time to file back on stage and kick straight into She’s A Star, with just Tim, Mark on piano and the orchestra and choir on stage. Haunting isn’t the word.

Space followed, another underrated Pleased to Meet you track, followed by Lookaway from the latest Morning After album. Possibly not the strongest James song, but certainly not out of place tonight. Old James followed with Riders before possibly the most obscure song of the night, The Lake, which was a Laid era b-side. It is a song that many James fans have said they want to see played live, hopefully after this tour, it will be played more in the set as it was stunning. Utterly stunning.

Fire so Close followed with the male choir members at the front of the stage and Larry duelling with the violin player from the orchestra. Then the moment I was dreading. Say Something. A song I have said previous on this blog that I am not bothered if I never hear again live, but tonight, it was superb. Two female choir members were down at the front of the stage singing with Tim and that made it work well. I just hope when the “regular” gigs come back, they do something different with it. For the last two songs the crowd were up on their feet and Tim warned people not to sit down now. A warning heeded by most.  Tomorrow followed and just when you thought that the gig was heading into familiar territory, Medieval sent it spinning into a different direction, with its refrain of “We are Sound” being sung with gusto by the choir.

Getting away with it finished the regular set and it was time for the encore. And regular James attendees knew that this was tghe time to look round the venue to see where Tim would apprear. The 1st tier was the answer as Top of the World was started. It s a wonderful song anyway, but tonight it was in a different stratosphere to paraphrase the song. Beautiful.

An extended opening to Of Monsters, Heroes and Men could only mean one thing….Tim was lost. A fact confirmed at the end of the song when Saul commented that it was a long time to play one note, but it was his best note.

Sometimes finished the set off with the now customary singalong, including Tim firing up the crowd saying we sounded like a London crowd and ending with a sing off between choir and audience.

Not many bands could pull this kind of show off, and not many would take the risk. Happily for us James fans, the band are happy to do both and as a result, the people of Manchester are treated to something just a bit special.

Tired feet on Merseyside

Me with Tony Benn

I suppose for many the story of conference is full of tales of wild behaviour, drink and drug fuelled binges and illicit liaisons with the opposite (or indeed same) sex. Well happily this is not one of those stories. It’s the tale of traffic jams, tired feet, sore eyes and the inside of West Mids and Northern Rails finest rolling stock.

Here is my report on Conference 2011:

Sunday

I arrived nice and early at approx 9am after negotiating the road works at the end of the East Lancs in Walton to see the Andrew Marr show being filmed. I intended to attend the delegate briefing at 10am, hence the early arrival, but discovered that it wasn’t on site there but at the Green Room which was a fairly decent walk away, and after going through security already, I didn’t fancy getting back in through security so soon, so I left that and picked up a conference paper to read. I then realised that I hadn’t received a conference brochure (not the only thing I needed that I hadn’t got as we shall see later) and so I had to go off site to find conference services and pick one up.

Back in the secure zone, I had a panic that I hadn’t made a note where the NW regional delegate briefing was to be held, but a quick email to Lucy Smith sorted that out. The exhibitors section soon opened, so I wandered round there, got my bearings, picked up some pens etc etc.

The delegate briefing and lunch was held at 12 noon so I got myself off there and found it really useful. It was good to meet other delegates, speaking to my counterparts from CLPs in Chorley, Blackpool South and Worsley and Eccles. We were welcomed by Anna Hutchinson, introduced to the NW regional staff and heard from Luciana Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree, about “Refounding Labour” which was to be debated and voted on later that afternoon. It was at this point, that I realised that a 2^nd important document hadn’t arrived with me as I hadn’t seen the Refounding Labour document. Luckily, I had printed off and read a NEC report on it, so I knew the main headlines. The point was made by a couple of fellow delegates that to have the debate and vote on day 1 of conference wasn’t ideal as all delegates couldn’t possibly have had the time digest it properly.  We had a nice lunch and then off to the main hall for the opening speeches.

Joe Anderson, leader of LCC opened proceedings, which went down well, especially when he pointed out that they had seen off the Lib Dems and there was a short video from “comedian” John Bishop which was as funny as you would expect. Then it was into the opening addresses. At this point I popped out to vote on the contemporary ballots, again it’s difficult to really decide when you are only given the options an hour or so before hand.

I voted on:

• Phone Hacking
• Post Offices
• Public Services
• Services for young people

These were issues I felt were important but as I say, it is difficult to make an informed decision when only given the information on the day and there is much information to take onboard in such a short time period, so as I say, I took the decision based on what was important to me.

I took the time at this point to take a proper walk round the exhibition hall, as the stalls were all pretty much open for business and bumped in John Harris of The Guardian. I told him about when he interviewed me for the NME back in 1992 but hadn’t printed it, so he suggested a quick interview for his videoblog that he was producing for The Guardian site. This appeared in a much edited way, slightly changing the context of what I said, but it’s not the 1^st time a journalist has stitched me up a little so it is something I am used to.

Back in the hall and it was the turn of Tessa Jowell to speak about the Olympics 2012, which led to a great speech by Ken Livingstone to speak about his bid to regain the mayorship of London. The speech he made and the video shown about his campaign was inspirational, which made you realise how important it is that he returns as mayor next year. Then it was the debate on Refounding Labour. It was a good debate with Peter Hain introducing the work he had done on it before the debate from the floor. It was noticeable that there was no dissenting voices chosen from the floor and the delegates chosen to a man and woman spoke in favour of the document. At the end of the debate a card vote was taken I voted in favour of it, based on the information I had seen and it was also announced that that vote counting for the contemporary ballots had been delayed and the results were to be announced on Monday morning.

Once the speeches in the hall had finished, it was time to go to the North West regional reception where again Joe Anderson spoke with passion alongside Ivan Lewis who spoke mainly about the phone hacking. I popped out of the room and missed Harriet Harman but was back in time to see Ed Milliband speak mainly about Refounding Labour and how important it was to the party.

The speeches in the hall had overrun and with going to the NW reception I ended up missing a fringe event about revitalising membership of the party and ending London domination. Had the event been in the secure zone then no problem but it was at the Malmaison which was a good 20 min walk away, so sadly I didn’t get make it, which is something I do regret.

I was press ganged into attending the Compass Rally about building the good society, but this had already started and there were no seats so I didn’t really stay too long but saw Peter Hain speak. I decided to attend the Small Business reception hosted by the Federation of Small Businesses. It was useful to speak to their representatives about what services they offer and to hear Chuka Umunna, the shadow small business minister, who spoke about Labour plans for enterprise which basically gave notice of what Ed Balls was to say the next day.

I had a ticket to attend the Movement for Change event with David Milliband, which advised early entry so I arrived early, stood in a queue for 25 mins, there was no sign of entry and didn’t like the heavy security that even his brother didn’t have so I decided to get back to the car and leave with an early Monday morning in mind.

Monday

It was an early arrival on the Monday thanks to an early train and so I was there in plenty time to prepare for the day, catch up on the conference paper and a quick word with some of my fellow delegates. I was in the hall early also, for the start of the daily business that included a passionate speech from Carwyn Jones, the first minister of Wales and the EPLP report from Glenis Wilmot as well as the result from the previous days vote on Refounding Labour, passed by conference and the delayed results on the contemporary votes, which brought some dissention from some delegates who weren’t happy about how they had been dealt with by the CAC.

I didn’t see Harriet Harmans speech as I needed to stretch my legs, but was back in the hall to see a great speech by Jim Murphy on the armed forces, a speaker I hadn’t seen before but someone who certainly could hold a crowd and was forceful in his points. He introduced Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central who himself had served in the Paras. There followed a speech by Douglas Alexander giving his report as shadow foreign secretary and then the speech most had been waiting for, the start of the Prosperity and Work session, opened by Ed Balls, who laid out the economic plans of the party including his 5 point plan for getting the economy moving again. A speech that went down superbly in the hall and gave people a buzz as they left for their lunch or their fringe events.

I popped into the NUT event “Hands on or Hands off” which discussed the position of local authorities in schools and to what extent they should be involved. The discussion involved various union reps from Unison and NUT, a representative of a local authority in London as well as Andy Burnham. A number of great speeches were made all spoken with passion, and the upshot of the discussion was that local authorities must retain some say in the running of schools, parents would expect it, if they had issues or needed something to be sorted, they would clearly prefer to contact the local authority instead of a Govt dept in London or the school sponsor.

From there, it was back into the main hall for the continuation of the Prosperity and Work session, where John Denham spoke about business and enterprise. This was a decent speech but I do find it difficult to be inspired by him, he always comes across to me that he should have a part in “Minder”. The session continued with Maria Eagle who spoke well on the future of transport in the country. The session concluded with a roundtable discussion with Eagle and Denham with various business people, young labour members and students. This was an interesting session that showed how scared the young are for their work future and how business wishes it could help and do more. Of course this was the afternoon of Rory Weal and his passionate speech which brought the house down. Funny that the speaker straight after didn’t get the same reaction from Ed Milliband or indeed the press, that was probably due to her damning views on his plans to reduce tuition fees to £6K and not scrap them totally etc.

I didn’t see Liam Byrne or the Scottish report as the hall was getting warm and I needed to grab some fresh air and Liverpudlian sun.

In the evening I attended the “Fairness not favouritism for the North” event which was hosted by The Smith Institute. I thought this would be about the party and the North but was about regeneration, which I didn’t find too interesting, made even more difficult by the lack of microphones and so it was difficult to hear what was going on. I did plan to attend an event where Tony Benn was appearing, but again this was offsite and would have been well into its swing by the time I got there and so I decided to get the train so that I got home in good time to relax in order for the busy day ahead, with the leaders speech in the forefront of the mind. On the way out I managed to catch a few words with Michael Crick from Newsnight/CH4 news, a man who I always like to listen to and read his books.

Tuesday

Being a member of the Co-Op Party as well as a member of a supporters trust and supporter of all things mutual I was looking forward to the speaker from the Co-Op party in the main hall, but sadly due to timing changes, he was put off till Wednesday, the only day I wasn’t at conference, so after listening to the opening remarks I made my way to the Blackwells stall where Tony Benn was due to do a signing. It was a pleasure to meet the man and pass a few remarks with him as he signed my book but was sad to see how frail he was, he could barely hold the pen to sign his name.

In the main hall, I listened to Angela Eagle speak about treasury matters. I have to say that unlike the speech made the previous day by her sister, this left me a little cold. It was then the turn of Ivan Lewis to speak on culture, media and sport. I enjoyed his speech, which due to my interest in the media I found interesting and it was good to see him pay tribute to the sterling work done by Mark Watson on the News International phone hacking. As I say, I enjoyed the speech and it went down well in the hall, which is ironic now considering that if the rumours are to be believed, Lewis is due to be moved in the forthcoming shuffle.

I popped outside for some fresh air and bumped into Helen so I thought it a good idea to introduce myself. She took me off for a drink at the USDAW stand and we had a chat about conference and what I had been up to etc, but time sadly beat us and it was time to join the queue for the leaders speech.

I was stood in the queue for 90 minutes to be allowed to sit in my own reserved seats, whilst the likes of David Baddiel, Eddie Izzard, Jimmy Page and Rory Weal were fast-tracked into the hall. There must be a better way of allowing people into the hall, maybe having time slots for delegates, then for people with balcony seats etc.

As for the speech, well you have probably all seen it. I thought it was good and said what needed to be said at this stage of proceedings. I haven’t been a huge fan of Ed over the past 12 months or so, but since the summer with his response to the riots and the Murdoch incidents he has risen in stock in my eyes and his speech only enhanced this. I read the following day or so, that Michael Crick thought there was no buzz in the hall and also as delegates left the hall, and this is the benchmark for a leaders speech, but as I left there was certainly a buzz, many smiling faces and people seemed genuinely happy with what they had just heard.

In the evening, I attended the IPPR fringe event called “New Generation Labour: Can Labour win in 2015?” which was a panel debate that contained Douglas Alexander, Sadiq Khan, Stella Creasy and Rowenna Davis, author of the new book on Blue Labour. I found this debate enlightening and very useful, it debated how Labour can win the next election and what tools it has at its fingers to do it. The outcome was that there is a great chance of victory in 2015 due to:

• The intake of new MPs in 2010, Douglas Alexander stating he thought it was the best since 1997.
• A leader finally finding he feet and starting to say what people on the street are wanting to hear
• A party united. There has been no circular firing squads as with previous election defeats and everyone is working closely with a common goal
• A coalition that is losing touch with the man in the street, showing arrogance and not finding out what people want from their government.
• Labour wishing to work with the public, building relationships with them and actually listening to them.
• Not looking at what the party “is against but what it stands for”

There was however a few flys in the ointment so to speak. The boundry changes cannot be underestimated and will hit the party hard and also the party needs to concentrate on the points above. It was also remarked about the delegates attending conference that were there for the party and not walking round as if they were MPs in the making.

I planned to attend The Observer interview with Yvette Cooper which would have been interesting, but I actually felt physically exhausted and wouldn’t have been able to give it my full attention so I left to catch my train.

I didn’t attend conference on Wednesday as I was needed in work.

Thursday.

And so to the final morning, with a sad feeling. I started to feel that I was part of that secure bubble in Liverpool and was sad to be leaving it. As usual I was in the hall for the early exchanges and to listen to Shaun Woodward give his Northern Ireland report. As someone who visited Belfast for the 1^st time last year and got to see some of the areas that had been affected by the troubles over the years, it was interesting to hear him speak about the province and to hear him speak of how proud he was that Labour had put the Good Friday agreement into place.

It was then time to take one last walk round the exhibition hall to see who was left and what I could still pick up. I had seen the previous day that Helen was hosting an event with Lisa Nandy and Fiona McTaggert so decided to attend, however I when I got there I noticed no one else about so I hung back and the event signs were taken down and cancelled which was a shame.

Back in the hall and the speech and debate was on community and local government, beginning with Caroline Flint who spoke very well and went down well in the hall. She also hosted a round table event with some new and local councillors that was interesting.

It was then time for the closing speeches from Hilary Benn and the final missive from Harriet Harman that sent everyone back to their constituencies with a spring in their step for the weeks, months and years to come.

Of course there was time for a quality piece of communal singing accompanied by two flautists as Jerusalem and a happily restored these days Red Flag.

On the way out I managed to get my songsheet signed by Ed Milliband and that brought conference week to an end.

Ok, Ok

Roca chasing down a BPA defender.

I didn’t update for most of August and indeed September. Well I will do from now on…..promise.

Anyway, in my last post I said that FC have probably the strongest squad they have ever had…I said that but at last weeks game, we didn’t even have more than 2 fit subs out of 4. It’s weird. The season so far is a copy of last year, a good start followed by a bad spell. I look forward to the glorious run in the New Year and a play-off finish.

Next week I am representing my CLP at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. Got to say I am looking forward to it, but I think I need to clone myself. The amount of debates, events, speeches and fringe events I want to attend is basically stupid, there just isn’t enough hours in the week, I intend to have a good sit down this week and nail where I will be going….as well as covering any CLP issues of course. It’s not just a jolly up you know.

Anyway, I will report back after conference (bet you can’t wait)

How shite am I?

Well another  few months have gone by and  no posts. So here is one. With a promise. One I intend to stick to. I will update this thing more often. Life just takes over sometimes. And then I have no time. But I will make time. And that is my promise.

Anyway, what have I been up to? I spent a cracking week in Cornwall back in June, love that place and could very easily live there. Couldn’t afford the plane fare up for football though.  Speaking of which, pre-season is well under way and I reckon this FC squad is the strongest one we have ever had, certainly at this stage of pre-season. Good days ahead.

Anyway, there will be more musings soon and I will leave you with my new purchase, courtesy of United Nations T Shirts.

Kindling away…

Photo taken from guardian.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a couple of months since my last update, so apologies for that. I never seem to have time to sit down and write these days, but as this is the 1st post of the year, here is my annual promise to update more.

So what has been happening? Well I am now secretary of my local Labour CLP branch, so I am responsible for doing agendas, minutes, attending CLP meetings and getting people to also attend. I am looking forward to getting stuck into this, especially with the local elections looming.

FC have been their usual inconsistent selves. Without a win for a couple of months, we went on a 4 game winning spree, finally beating Bob Blackburns lot from Bratfurd, only to thump back to earth with 2 losses in the last week. Typical, but if I am honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way, it keeps it interesting. Can we still reach the play-offs? It’s possible I suppose, but I think its maybe slightly too far.

The big news for me is my new toy. I have purchased a Kindle, the reading device for sale on a leading shopping site, and you know what? It is one of the best things I have bought for myself. The piece of kit is superb ,crystal clear display, rapid downloading, the capacity to hold 1000’s of books. Fantastic. Now I understand the howling out there. “What about books?” “What about bookshops?” etc and yes I can see that, but I can’t carry 100s if not 1000s of books in my bag, I can with this. Weak reasoning? Yes, I suppose so, but how many Ipods and MP3 players are sold these days? It is just the same. It’s called progress, embrace it luddites.

Seriously though, it is as I say fantastic and I can see soon that, like a mobile, I will wonder how I managed without it.

 

Now your grips too strong….

Tim Booth at Preston Guild Hall earlier in the year.

I always look forward to James gigs in Manchester with a sense of excitement and foreboding. You imagine the band always wants to put on a show for their “hometown” but with it usually being at the MEN and at Christmas I worry about the crowd. All kegged up with Christmas cheer and just wanting to hear Sit Down. Maybe I worry too much and on last night’s performance, I probably do.

I missed Frazer King sadly, but had the misfortune to catch most of the Pigeon Detectives set. That is time I won’t be getting back.

At 8.50, the houselights went down and James took to the stage. It took a bit of time for them to get started, but soon enough Born of Frustration boomed from the speakers, for once the MEN sound seemed to be clear and reach all parts. Andy’s trumpet took centre stage, Tim decided to miss out the howling, probably due to the flu he has been suffering, but that didn’t stop him taking the first walkabout of the night up towards Block 114 (I know the block number as that is where I was sat.) Seven and Ring the Bells soon followed, the latter a song that I wouldn’t worry if I never heard the band play again, familiarity certainly breeding some contempt here, but on this occasion, it was lively and for once, I enjoyed hearing it.

Larry introduced the next song as one Manchester always loves and this was proven with the punching of the air from many of the crowd as Mark started up Come Home. It was ragged, it was messy, and it was pure James. This was the point of the gig where the banc decided to slow it down, starting with a beautiful PS and moving onto Got the Shakes, with David playing a drum at the front of the stage, and the backing vocals provided by the Manchester Consort Choir. As a song in a large arena it shouldn’t have worked, but with the heavy beat and choir providing superb backing vocals, it worked perfectly, and proved James can still take risks and pull them off. Tell Her I said So followed, again with the choir and it was great to see the vast majority of the crowd sticking with the band, and the amount of people round me singing the “Here’s to a long life” refrain suggested there are plenty of James record buyers out there. Lookaway followed with Tim on guitar. There were times when the sound didn’t quite reach out to all in the arena and the choir seemed to drown out Tim at times, but the close of the song was epic and typically James pulled the song back from the brink. James by numbers Say Something followed and I personally think that the band should retire this now, or do something radical to it, as it in my view is just the band going through the motions, but from the reaction to it from the crowd, I am probably in a minority. Just Like Fred Astaire was wonderful, Larry dedicating it to his dad in the crowd. A great song on record, it takes on a life of its own live, Marks keyboards sounding superb, a song they should play more often. Jam J saw Jim come into his own with the bass taking over, Tim singing into a distortion mike. It was bedraggled, it was messy, the lighting was superb and the song likewise. Shame more of the crowd didn’t really seem to pick up on it and put in the effort the band were doing. I wanna go Home, a song I loved from the first time I heard it at HMV on the release day of Hey Ma followed and soared and dipped and was as wonderful as it always is, Saul playing the violin as if his life depended on it (more of that later.) Sit Down was stripped down, played by the band all sat down on the stage. It had people running in from the bars and it worked, ensuring the first mass sing-along of the night. Out to Get you followed, a song I will never tire of hearing but just as you think it is going to fade out and end, Saul plays the most majestic violin solo, getting “into the zone” and ensuring a superb ending to the song. The band just stands aside and watches him play, as do most of the crowd, mesmerised. Rabbit Hole was, as it is on record, simply stunning.

The gig ends with She’s a Star, Getting away with it, Sound, with a superb middle part which sees Tim stood centre whist the band seem to totally improvise the song and Stutter, again messy and ragged and totally wonderful.

It wouldn’t be a James gig without a total risk and tonight it comes at the start of the encore. Tim asked the crowd for silence, and acknowledged the risk of playing Dust Motes especially “at this time of night.” Sadly, the silence didn’t arrive and the chatter from the back of the arena was very audible, which is a shame as the song is wonderful and thus it was this evening. You can’t help but feel that the ones not paying attention missed out on hearing something superb. Sometimes followed, with the choir back on stage. I prefer the slow starting version that the band had started to play over the past couple of years, but that is made up for by the mass sing-along by the whole arena. The choir were clearly enjoying themselves, as they had to be shut up by Tim so the crowd could take over. Goldmother followed, complete with Tim invited stage dancers, though the thuggery of some of the MEN “security” staff shouldn’t be ignored. From my seat in block 114, I could see the man handling of some crowd members, who just wanted to get on stage to dance with their heroes. I hope that some of James staff saw what went on and have a word with the MEN about some of their workers. As for the song, it went on and on, it was ram shackled and it was great. Saul started up the first couple of chords to Laid, before being told there was no time due to the 11pm curfew. The crowd booed, they wanted more, someone raced on stage to say “one more” and it brought a fine end to a superb show.

A special mention must be made of the lighting, which suited the gig perfectly and some of the images projected onto the big screen, with the split television screens a particularly innovative idea.

So against adversity James pulled it off yet again. Illness and injury seemed to jinx this tour, but on evidence of the MEN show, there is plenty of life in the old dogs yet.

Tim Booth at Preston Guild Hall earlier in the year.

Who needs Wembley anyway?

The MRE is on fire!!

Ahh well it is all over. The glorious cup run of FC United is over. As usually happens, given a 2nd chance, the league club won the reply in a flattering 4-0 win at Gigg Lane. To be honest, and you probably saw the game, BHA were the better team overall and deserved their win, but FC took the game to them at time, certainly in the 2nd half, and if the penalty curse hadn’t struck, who knows what might have been? Still, there was a great crowd in La Stade, a superb atmosphere, from where I was stood in the MRE, and a squad of players to be proud of.

When you think back to the cup run, you wouldn’t have guessed we have got as far as we did. The run started with a scruffy 3-0 win at home to Radcliffe, and followed by a good win against Gainsborough at Gigg. A great day out at Norton and Stockton Ancients followed, in fact, if you had asked me during that game, when we were 2-1  down and playing poorly that we would reach Rd 2, I would have laughed at you and told you not to be silly.

Barrow was also a good day, the 1st one where the media started to take notice and of course we all know about Rochdale and Brighton. It has certainly made the season for the club. The league form has been, at best, inconsistent, the cup run has given the players the confidence to play the way they can. But now the league form is vital. During the run, we have slipped into the relegation places, albeit with games in hand, and so the climb needs to start against the Evo Stick Champions 2011 (sic) Halifax tomorrow. A good run and you know what? The play-offs may well be in the offing.

The Leigh Branch last week, welcomed the Shadow Education minister Andy Burnham to our meeting and a good night was had. Andy of course was a founder of Supporters Direct and a previous chair, as well as being an advisor to the Football Task Force (containing our very own Adam Brown) and most importantly, the secretary for Media, Culture and Sport when in government. Andy was very candid in his views about fan owned football and it clear that he fully supports what we are doing at FC.  It also transpired that a couple of branch members seem to be closet Evertonians also.

All in all, things are looking up for the club, we know Ten Acres is firmly in the pipeline, the cup run has generated great coverage and much needed revenue for the club and we have just had our record attendance.

Just hope some of them c0me back.

Making friends wherever we go…

FC players going to the fans post game at Brighton just as someone waves a scarf in front of my camera

It has been another good week to be a FC’er. On Thursday we received the news we had been waiting for. Manchester City Council approved our application to build Ten Acres Lane. The light that has been hovering at  the end of the tunnel has hit us all. The ground is now a reality. We await news of how the community shares have gone, as the deadline is on 30th Nov, but with luck, that has done well, the DF ticks over well (but still needs that important push to get to £500K) and we could well start the build next year with a view to kicking off the 2012-13 season in TAL. It is what loads of people at FC have been working towards, none more so that Andy Walsh and Adam Brown and our utmost respect must go with them. But there have been loads of people pulling out their tripe for the DF raising funds, and none of those should be forgotten. Loads have got us near to our destiny, as I believe that is what it is, and hats must be tipped to those people. And to the people of Newton Heath a big thank you. A thank you for having the foresight and vision to see the benefits of this ground to them. They will have a superb sports and social facility at their disposal in the next couple of years.  I hope they use it fully, I am sure they will.

And then onto Saturday. Brighton away in the FA Cup. It was a cracking day out. It started badly with the coaches turning up nearly an hour late, but once we were on our way all was well and we were there in time for a pint in the pub at the ground.

There had been much made during the week or so beforehand as we had only 850ish tickets for the game. This was because we were handed a “Cat C” status, which means the highest possible chance of trouble. This of course was ludicrous and happily was proven to be total and utter shit. Everyone had a top day, the team did their bit and gained a replay at Gigg and on leaving the stewards and police were wishing us well, a safe journey home and even waving us off. Talk about a total change in attitude. Even the Brighton fans who were hostile to us, seemed to totally change their tune and were impressed by our non stop singing, bouncing and attitude.

Making friends not millionaires you see.

This week, FC Leigh supporters branch have a meeting with a specially invited guest in the form of Andy Burnham MP. Andy was of course a previous chair of Supporters Direct as well as a large backer of fan owned clubs. We will be chatting to him about this as well as the plans for TAL. I know from speaking to him, he is very interested in FC United and our future plans, it will be good to show him what we plan to do in the next couple of years.