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Nufc new stadium- stay or go?

I dont just want NUFC to have the best team in the world. Like our chairman I want us to be number one for everything. Best team, best stadium, best academy, best training ground. People might say I'm deluded but so what. Before I go into detail on my thoughts on whether NUFC should stay or move from St James’ I have to stress that my preference is to stay on the current site. And keep the name St James too. History and tradition is important and no club in the country has a ground in as good a location. A new stadium outside of the city is unthinkable. I first went to St James in 1990. It was a very different place. No roof on the Gallowgate. The Leazes end, the traditional home end was an embarrassment having been ripped down a decade earlier. I wont mention the bogs. When I first started going the crowds were poor - understandably. we were awful. But what about the atmosphere? I remember my first match versus Plymouth, 25k there and it was amazing. I was hooked. As one of the 10...
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A life with Music

Having done a Desert Island blog and playlist I thought I would go one step further and chronicle each year of my life in songs from the age. These are songs that either remind me of that year or I listened to the most that year. Some were easy to pick. Others more difficult, either because I couldn't choose which song to represent the year as there were so many to choose from but sometimes because the year just wasn't really that memorable or I wasn't into music that much at that point in time. Anyway, here's the list... Age Year Song Youtube link 10 1987 Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1Q8ZkXZ1Q 11 1988 Transvision Vamp - I want your love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpEmHajlCt4 12 1989 Stone Roses - Made of Stone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70AUM5GL3Do 13 1990 New Order - World In motion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re4aDJL3heA 14 1991 The Farm - All together Now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRgtzZ-mOQo 15 1992 Prim...
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Desert Island Discs

After much contemplation my chosen eight songs are.. Lindisfarne - Road to kingdom come  Growing up one of my first experiences of listening to music was playing old Beatles singles on a stereogram in me mam and dads house. The Stereogram was this huge wooden ottoman type piece of furniture that had loads of storage and a record player, wireless and speaker built in. I remember me mam used to have all her Abba albums stored there and my sister had a few records in there too (Debbie Harry ??). There was also a box where lots of cassettes were kept and this is where I stumbled across this song, my dad had a copy of the Lindisfarne anthology and I used to play it loads - I found it hilarious that Fog on the Tyne had a line in it about having a wee on a wall. The song I kept coming back to and played over again and was the first ever "ear-worm”  I can remember is this one. I can remember riding round the streets on me bik...
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Mannions Blueprint for football

Fan Ownership As per the German model clubs must be 51% fan(member) owned whereby members elect a chairperson and members can be elected to represent fans at board level League Structures A British league of four divisions made up of teams from England, Wales and Scotland Division 1 - 18 Teams, Division 2 - 20 teams - Division 3 - 22 teams Division 4 - 24 teams (Division 5 North and south) 3 teams relegated/promoted between each division. Two relegated from Division 4, 1 promoted from each of Div 5 North and South) A merger of the PL. FA and EFL (and Scottish equivalents) A new body to oversee football governance  Cup Competitions FA cup played on a Saturday- replays in every round. Europa place for winners. League Cup - Midweek competition, only teams NOT playing in Europe can enter. Two legs for every round. Europa place for winners Semi finals NOT to be played at same location as Final. European Competition Champions League places to top 3 A Play-off for ...
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I know music is music (Part 2)

Part 1 can be seen here... 11) Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible This is one amazing (but very dark) album. The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards while he was suffering from depression and he disappeared not long after. At first it can be a difficult listen but every time I listen to it I hear something different or I pick up on something I haven't noticed before. You can learn stuff from this record. Images of perfection, suntan and napalm Grenada - Haiti - Poland - Nicaragua Who shall we choose for our morality Im thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy Big Mac, smack, Phoenix, R, smile y'all Cuba, Mexico can't cauterise our discipline Your idols speak so much of the abyss Yet your morals only run as deep as the surface 12) Radiohead - How to disappear completely I can understand why people don't get Radiohead, they're not the most accessible of bands and anyone hoping they are going to release another song like "Creep" ...
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Memorable Matches

I wonder how many football matches I have been to? I watched a highlights compilation the other day from a few seasons ago, I hadn't missed a home game for years and had been to a few aways that season yet had forgotten almost all of them. Maybe thats because Ive had to suffer Souness, McLaren and Carver teams over the years or maybe as a Newcastle fans we don't get as many highlights as we would like. The most memorable game was my first one and Ive discussed this already here , but what about the others? England 1 -1 1990 I wasn't there (obviously - I was 13) but this game from Italia 90 featured the best England team of my generation, full of brilliant players it really should have won the World Cup. This was also the first team to teach me to get used to being disappointed, I was absolutely gutted at the end of this game, by the manner of the defeat as much as anything. The Germans fluked the first goal from a deflected free kick, Gazza cried, Lineker scored, Waddl...
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Going to the pub

Ryton Village and Crawcrook When I first started drinking (at an age a little younger than legally allowed) if we were not going into Newcastle, the local pubs of Ryton and Crawcrook were where we would go. There was a set route that we would  follow starting in the Half Moon in Ryton village before heading along to Crawcrook where we would catch last orders in the Lambs Arms. We took up this route again a few years later when we had all moved back from University. The Half Moon 7 o clock every Friday this was the meeting point. There are (were?) three main rooms to the Half moon, a bar for "older" folk, a pool room and a bar for younger folk. (When we used to meet up we were still classed as younger folk but not anymore), we  had never arranged anything by phone or text (no such thing) it was a case of just turning up at 7 and finding out who was out that night, there was always someone you would know there if the usual group wasn't out. I can't remember th...
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