The world won't listen

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...

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 ...

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" ...

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...

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...

By the end of September '90 going to the match was just something that I did and all other hobbies and interests had lost their importance. The second game of the season was at home to Millwall where I would experience a defeat at home for the first time. We  had decided that rather than standing on "the corner" our regular spot on the Gallowgate would be "the scoreboard" to the right of the goal as you look at the pitch. It was £2 to get in and the trip to turnstile 8 would follow a weekly routine. I would call on Andy and Gaz and we would get the half past one 610 bus to town, the others would join us on the way at Crawcrook and Ryton. We would all get off the bus at Haymarket (following some "banter" with the sock seller on Clayton Street) and visit the supporters club shop, quite often we would sell programs in the Farmers rest pub just across the road. By the time of our third game (a 1-1 daw against West Ham) it had already sunk in that ...

I loved football when I was a kid, not watching it (I found it boring) but I would play in the streets for hours and hours.  I always had my Newcastle top on which was a hand me down from my older cousin  - I had the Bukta home kit and the yellow away kit.  Other than actually playing I thought football was something that should be avoided -  Newcastle seemed to get beat most weeks and it just put everybody in a bad mood - what was the point? Saturday afternoons had a routine, we would play outside and then tea would be made just in time for when the football scores would be announced in the evening. I remember we had to be silent as the scores came in on the TV while my dad checked his pools coupon. I used to amuse myself by trying to find the places of the football teams on a map of the country as they were read out, my knowledge of geography and where places are in the UK has always been quite good as a result. I was always intrigued by the names of the c...

Music is the best thing. Ever. I like (no love) music more than I like football and am a little bit obsessed with it. Im obsessed with knowing the correct lyrics, about stories behind songs and love how songs can mean different things to different people and different things to the same person depending on when they listen to them. To me music is a time machine, I have a funny memory and there are some songs which can literally take me back to another place and time. In this blog I've picked out a few pieces of music that are worth anyones time to listen. 1. Life on Mars - David Bowie. I wasn't born when this song was released and I don't have any memories attached to it as such but whenever I think about my favourite ever songs it always makes the top three. I can't pinpoint what it is that I like about it so much, its just an amazing song. I love the way the piano builds. I love the way the lyrics sometimes make sense and sometimes don't.  It's genius....