Stage 16 sees the Tour arrive in the Alps. Supposedly a ‘gentle’ start – the Tour website describes it as ‘medium mountains’ – with just one climb and then a long descent to Gap.
So despite being a mountain stage, the climbers and the leaders of the general classification seemed to be thinking ahead to the ‘high mountain’ stages of the next two days. Contador did attack, seemingly as much testing out his rivals as anything. Evans covered every move with an economy of effort that suggests he’s ready to protect the time his has over the other main contenders, pushing on to take 21 seconds out of Contador and Samuel Sanchez and over a minute from Andy Schleck on what’s supposed to be the Schleck’s preferred racing terrain.
But with bigger mountain stages to come Andy Schleck claimed to unperterbed. Meanwhile that left the door open for breakaway stage win. Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal led over the final climb, but once Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, of Team Sky, caught the Garmin-Cervello rider, that gave the pursuing Thor Hushovd the green light to chase down the leaders.
As a team mate of Ryder Hesjedal, Hushovd would have left his colleague out in front if he was heading for a lone stage win. But now Hushovd proceeded to give a master class in mountain descending. Reaching speeds of almost 70mph Hushovd caught the leaders and outwitted fellow Norwegian Boasson Hagen to take the stage, his second of the Tour and his first ever mountain stage victory. The big Norwegian is starting to rival Voeckler as man of the Tour. But not quite. The Frenchman even tried to stay with Contador today and lost just 15 seconds, to remain in yellow.
As the Tour de France heads through the Alps some people are asking if Mark Cavendish will make Paris, but there's another survival struggle unfolding for those of us keeping tabs on the Tour via Eurosport.
Judging by the last couple of days the real question is will James Richardson make it to the conclusion of the Tour?
TV’s most under-used sardonic sports presenter is clearly battling a dose of manflu. On Thursday his voice was barely recognisable and today he couldn’t complete a link without accompanying coughing and spluttering before there was time to close the mic.
So according to a couple of ex-News International managers, James Murdoch might, just possibly have fibbed a bit, when he was being so helpful to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.
Gosh. Really? No, that can't be right. What's that? Humpty Dumpty, he was fat you say. That Pope chap, he really is a Catholic and you're quite sure about the bears doing poo poos in the woods. Phew, who'd have though it eh..?
Inevitably the high drama of Murdoch & Son appearing before the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee yesterday grabbed all the headlines and in between some of Murdoch senior’s Pinteresque pauses he really did say ‘I must not prejudice the cause of justice’, which was worth the two and a half hours of theatre alone. Although his claim that Singapore is the example of democracy and freedom we should all aspire to does run it a close second.
However, it was ultimately an anti-climax, in part due to the apparent amnesia and lax management claimed by Murdoch senior and the patronising obfuscation of Murdoch junior. But just as much it was due to the poor quality of most of the questioning, which was all too often convoluted, rambling and failed to pick up or challenge the unlikely answers offered to the committee.
Honourable exceptions were – unsurprisingly – Tom Watson MP whose pressing of Murdoch senior had James Murdoch desperately trying to intervene and Louise Mensch MP, whose closing questions finally asked direct questions about Rupert Murdoch’s own responsibility as CEO. Which of course he denied.
Far more revealing and forensic was the Home Affairs Select Committee, that was relegated to a support act. Which was a shame, as, in the course of three sessions with senior Metropolitan Police figures the dysfunctional nature of the Met. Police was laid bare. Each witness contradicted each other, passed blame around and showed a remarkable lack of knowledge of their own processes.
As various sometime News Corp employees are getting arrested - although not charged - in connection with police corruption, as well as phone hacking, has anyone else wondered if the Metropolitan Police isn't getting into conducting an investigation into themselves..?
We are assured that the judge led inquiry will look into police corruption, as will an MP's Select Committee and quite possibly the Police Complaint Commission for that matter, but any actual prosecutions will come from the same police force as any likely suspects.
Meanwhile there are now a growing number of inquiries set to be launched into the whole affair, 6 according to the BBC News, but an hour later Channel Four news was claiming it was 10! the term 'inquiry spaghetti' is already being bandied about and with good reason.
So, as the top Met Police bosses are resigning, while claiming to have done nothing wrong, I was thinking it might be worth bringing in an outside police force.
At least until I heard an interview on the radio with a former Detective Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, who was so dismissive of the phone hacking at News International (and by extension the alleged bribery of police officers) that I thought he was an News Corp spokesperson.
Oh dear, they still don't get it, or is it just they don't want to?
Oh dear, my last TdF post turning into stage by stage reflections, has made a rod for my own back - guess I’ll have to finish the job now.
But I can think of worse things to do...
So after a rest day, which we were told repeatedly wouldn’t be much of a rest as most of the cyclists would be out on their bikes for an hour or two, just to keep the muscles supple, it was back for another one hundred miles round France on stage ten.
Remarkably both Fletcha and Hoogerland started stage ten, the latter in the king of the mountains polka dot jersey and with thirty stitches in his legs and backside. Despite a long breakaway and an attempt by Philippe Gilbert to pinch a solo win off the front of the peloton, the stage came down to a bunch sprint and a Cavendish win. Er, no actually, despite the usual HTC lead out train Cavendish seemed to misjudge the sprint and lost out to former team mate Andre Greipel, who had to leave HTC to get a ride in the Tour.
Greipel, who really ought to be nicknamed ‘the muscles from Rostock’ had plenty to say about being second string sprinter to Cavendish. Cavendish of course gave as good as he got, on and off the track. Apparently the two buried the hatchet after Greipel’s win, helped by Cavendish conceding that Greipel had produced a near perfect sprint.
Overall, little changed as the leaders came in together ahead of the Pyrenees.
Noticed that both the Open golf coverage and the Tour de France included some cutaway footage of wind farms this weekend. In both cases drawing negative comments from the commentators, Wayne Grady and Phil Liggett (I think) along the lines of how ugly they are and they wouldn't want to live near one.
Really? Well each to their own. I'd take a wind farm over a new nuclear power station on my door step any day.
The Guardian's Barney Ronay with a nice closed season riff on Redknapp junior's limited vocabulary... not the only one by a long chalk, but he appears bereft of any kind of opinion or insight. An easy - although deserving - target, for those irritating holiday advertisements alone and a top, top article from the boy Ronay.
A review of week one (and a bit) of the Tour de France, up to the first rest day and it’s business as usual, only more so...
As if determined to hang on to the black skull and crossbones jersey as the sporting event that ‘goes up to eleven’, to slightly misquote Nigel Tuffnel, the Tour de France continues to cross the line between genius and madness like it’s the pedestrian crossing by my local newsagents.
Before it even started, you got a sense that all would not be well over the 3 weeks of sporting sadism that is Le Tour. At a slightly surreal ‘introduction to the teams’ held in what appeared to an old Roman amphitheatre, defending champion* Alberto Contador was roundly booed. Why? Well it’s all in the asterisk. After last year’s Tour it was revealed Contador had failed a dope test. The Spanish cycling authorities accepted his claim that it was due to eating some contaminated meat and cleared him to race on.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) weren’t so easily satisfied and wanted a new hearing before this year’s Tour. Lawyers for Contador got the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing postponed, so he’s free to take part this year, but nobody knows if he’s the defending champion or not!
Everything I could hope to say on the News of the World/Metropolitan Police/phone hacking story has already been said, written, blogged and tweeted. And no, I’m not just using this as a weak link to The Jam’s ‘News of the World’. I did think about it, but seeing as it’s now better known as the theme tune to a TV comedy quiz show...no, it’s been done.
Of course there are a wealth of songs aimed at journalists or the media. Straight off the top of my head – Adam & The Ants ‘Press Darlings’ and The Cramps ‘TV Set’ spring to mind, but that probably says more about me.
Oh, yes, back to the matter in hand. The demise after 168 years of NOTW. You almost have to admire the sheer arrogance of Murdoch in sweeping away a title he’s owned since 1969 as soon as it becomes a problem.
That’s almost. But not quite. While the staff are coming to terms with being summarily dismissed by managers who remain in place and data is wiped from hard drives before the boys in blue have moved in, it seems like another case of the elite pulling up the drawbridge.
Just like the bankers and the MPs a few sacrificial lambs will be offered up and an awful lot of good and blameless people will lose their jobs. Meanwhile take a look at whose running the media in six months time. Just like parliament and the banks, I suspect there will be a lot of familiar faces. A few job titles may have changed and some nice fat pensions will have been cashed in, but is it really a pivotal moment, when power shifts and we have a ‘step change’. (What is a ‘step change’ by the way? I’m sure we never had such a thing when I was a lad...)
So now we’ll get a properly regulated press externally controlled by the body that comes out of the Public Inquiry that’s just been announced. Sounds like a good thing right? Erm no, actually that’s the irony of this whole sorry mess.
There is a real danger that politicians and/or business interests will find it far easier to gag the real news that a free press should be digging up all because we liked hearing about celebrity gossip.
I've written about Guile before and considered them one of the best unsigned bands around. Well there is some justice in the world as they're now signed to a small Birmingham label and have a single due in September.
If you're quick you can hear Guile in session on BBC WM's 'Introducing...' here doing stripped down acoustic versions of some of their live favourites including forthcoming single 'Deep By The Dockery' - highly recommended! For a more typical indication of the full on Guile live experience though, you might want to try this as a starting point...
Or here for a free download of one of the tracks on the forthcoming album.
Guile play London, at the Islington Academy, with Suzerian and Civil War on 23rd July, before a full UK in September.
Remember when Myspace was Facebook? The site everyone just had to have a page on? Seems a long time ago now, but there really was a time. In fact those of us of a certain age and disposition – i.e. anyone involved with an unsigned band – can remember the angst and worry going round when News Corp bought Myspace.
Was every channel on Myspace now just a small part of the News International empire? Well, yes, probably... Would Rupe have a claim on all the music we were uploading? Perhaps, although push never came to shove on that one.
That was 2005 and £362 million changed hands. Last week News Corp sold all but 5% of Myspace. For £22 million. Still a considerable chunk of change, but you don’t need to be an accountant to spot it isn’t the best bit of business the ex-Australian paperboy’s done.
But then, getting burned on a social networking site deal is probably not top of Rupert’s agenda right now...
The moral of this story is, the value of shares can go down as well as up. Terms & conditions apply.
A band that can open with 'The Light Pours Out Of Me' can't really go wrong and as this latest incarnation - dubbed Magazine version 6.0 by Mr Devoto - showed, they've got the back catalogue and they're not afraid to use it.
When Magazine reformed in 2009 there was a sense of it being an exercise in experimentation, rather than a full blooded reunion. Always too arch to do the obvious, God forbid 'play the game', you got the impression that Magazine needed a reason to justify breathing life into the old corpse again after twenty odd years. And we're not talking pension plan top ups here (although I'm sure it's a pleasant by-product).
Here at the pleasingly full Slade Rooms - that's pleasingly full of Old Men - we got our answer. Alongside, 'Permafrost' 'Thank-You' and 'Motorcade' we get a brand new shiny song. A new Magazine song. A new Magazine song in 2011.
OK, let's rewind. It's been reported for some time that the band were working on new material and no doubt an album's in the works. But in amongst a 45 minute greatest hits set (this was a warm up for their Hop Farm Festival appearance supporting Iggy & The Stooges and Morrissey, in Kent...you couldn't make that up, could you?) up pops one previously unheard of song to confound us.
On one listen it owes something of a debt to Joy Division, with a naggingly familiar Hookyesque foundation. Time will tell, but it fitted in with a set that illustrates why Magazine have stood the test of time so well, why they are so often referenced and why they will probably bear listening to in another 20 years.
Having said all that there is still that element of cabaret as with all reformations. Barry Adamson's other commitments mean that Jon 'Stan' White has stepped into the old Jazz Devil's shoes for this tour. Big shoes to fill and while White can't hope to be the same character as Adamson had become by the 2009 dates, he certainly did a good job musically (although I know others would disagree).
It's the same dilemma as guitarist Noko faces. Clearly a good musician in his own right, but how much is he (can he) give of himself, when he's got the sizable task of filling in for the late, great and criminally under-rated John McGeoch? To a lesser extent Noko is also covering for 'Correct Use Of Soap' era guitarist Robin Smith, [edit: see comments for correction to my schoolboy error] but it's McGeogh's work that always fought with Dave Formula's keyboards for attention. Both running through Magazine's back catalogue like the greeting on a seaside stick of rock.
So how good are Magazine 6.0? I've no idea and to be truthful nobody will have until we get to hear the result of those new recordings.
What I do know is that live they're doing justice to a great and much neglected body of work and if the version 6.0 lineup can recapture some of the magic of those first three albums then Magazine will have found their reason to justify their reformation.
Badly shot clip from way too far back, but you get the picture.
One man band Lewis Floyd Henry really does look like the most genial of New York buskers – think a down on his luck Hendrix trying to make a buck playing Heavy Trash with a pram mounted amp and a tiny bass drum and cymbal. If that sounds dodgy, it’s the guitar that saves it all. Loud, dirty and played with casual abandon. Lewis is having a party and he really doesn’t seem to care if the audience are with him or not.
In fact most of the audience are. His brand of fucked up street, punk & blues, gets a deserved good response. A well chosen support act, worth checking out. Oh yeah – he talks to the pram as well!
Unless you’ve spent the last 18 months under a rock you’ll know that The Jim Jones Revue have married the maniac piano driven rock ‘n’ roll of Jerry Lee Lewis and the er maniac guitar driven rock ‘n’ roll of the MC5 to magnificent effect on latest album ‘Burning Your House Down’.
For the full Jim Jones Revue effect, of course you have to see them live. Right from the off you know this band fancy themselves. And rightly so! Anyone who comes on to ‘Raw Power’ has to be able to deliver in full and with guitarists circa London Calling era Clash and frontman Jim Jones giving Grinderman a run for the title of ‘sleaziest suit wearer in rock’, they look the part. But can they cut it?
The answer comes in 2 minutes 30 seconds dead, in the shape of opening number ‘Dishonest John’. As a statement of intent it doesn’t come much better than this, screaming guitar riffs and falling down the stairs piano hammering compete to demand your full attention. If this doesn’t give you an immediate adrenalin rush then you’d better get your coat.
Yes it’s clichéd, dumb rock ‘n’ roll, with all the cock rock posing you can handle. And then more of the same. But it’s done with such messianic zeal that it works. It really works. The twin attack of guitar and demented boogie-woogie piano soon has the band and audience working each other into a sweat as they run through ‘Cement Mixer’, ‘Burning Your House Down’, ‘Shoot First’ and ‘Elemental’.
All that and they have seamlessly brought in a new keyboard player. With the piano being so fundamental to the band’s sound, it’s a real credit to new boy Henri Herbert that there’s no discernable change to the Jim Jones Revue live onslaught. Just to prove it the band finished with a devastating version of ‘The Princess & The Frog’ from their debut album. Still a remarkable song, still a remarkable band.
However, to be absolutely honest (John), this may not have been Jim Jones Revue at their absolute peak. Being a rescheduled show it felt like it took the band a while to get up a head of steam as they seemed to be battling with a less than perfect onstage sound.
That quibble aside and despite (or because of?) all the obvious referencing in their music – and along with the usual suspects, Gallon Drunk really ought to get a nod – it’s hard to disagree with the current thinking that right now The Jim Jones Revue are the best balls out rock ‘n’roll band in the country. Simply unstoppable.
Spotted this exchange on Richard Dawkins You Tube channel a while ago, but it still makes me laugh:
Comment 1:
Humans are not the "end product" of evolution, we are not the "goal" we are still evolving and growing (well, some of us are anyway.) aside from a larger brain, what difference is there between us and "animals"?
The media here in Blighty has been full of calls for FIFA to be investigated and / or President Sepp Blatter to stand down or face re-election against an ‘anti-corruption’ candidate. I'm not even sure what a world football 'anti-corruption' candidate would look like. Does such a person exist... somebody call Martin Bell.
Perhaps it's just a new way of keeping our attention in the closed season, along with frenzied 'speculation' - you might like to add words like 'guessing' and phrases like 'making it all up' at this point - but I couldn't possibly comment. Let's face it, the international window didn't even open until July, so in the meantime, it's be mean to Sepp time.
Don't get me wrong, he's a very appealing target and there may well be a whiff of something less than transparent to some of FIFA’s dealings, whether it’s Qatar’s winning 2022 World Cup bid or the ‘Goal’ project, but the rest of the world isn’t listening.
If the allegations have any weight at all, why isn’t the story being picked up abroad?
The sad truth is, it’s England's own fault. With no friends in World Football, England always comes late to the party and then complains about the rules, before reminding everyone that as the home of football the next World Cup should be hosted in England, before adding that England is also home to the most commercially aggressive league in the world.
Yet England still took part in the rather opaque bidding process for two recent World Cups – losing out to Germany and Russia – and for all I know employing some of the questionable lobbying tactics now being complained about. In short, England are seen as sore losers. Unfortunately, with good reason.
England need to start developing and coaching much younger, move the focus from winning at all costs to taking part and encourage a real passion for the game. Then maybe in 20 years time we might start to see some results...
Players? Well yes they could do with all that too, but I'm talking about administrators here.
Of course we could just take our ball home and set up our own 'World Football Union', with er, the USA, Scotland, Australia and Wales. Better odds I'll grant you, but here's two words of warning; boxing and darts.
OK, all a bit do bears shit in the woods I know, but I'm not the only one in the greenhouse chucking bricks.
For a much more considered view of this - and most other football related issues, for that matter - you could do worse than check out When Saturday Comes (WSC 293 in particular).
Enough of footballers lawyers (actually, there might be a Channel 5 series in that...), it's time to squeeze out a quick post about the weekend on the pitch, before Sky Sports subscriptions are cancelled en masse and we all scramble to find a favourite summer sport.
Talking of Sky, they will inevitably be dubbing tomorrow 'Survival Sunday'. As usual. I rather liked the alternative 'Black Sabbath' I heard suggested on the radio earlier this week. Then the usual montage of how the protagonists reached this sorry state could be sound tracked to 'Paranoid'. Perfect!
Tedious as this is becoming at one level - the identity of a millionaire footballer playing away from home ZZzzzzz - it is becoming something of a lightening rod for the whole issue of the control of information and the rights of the individuals involved.
It's also setting the battle lines for a fight between the judiciary and Parliament as legal experts - such as Vera Baird QC (Solicitor General 2007 - 2010) - queue up to 'deplore the use of Parliament to wreck the properly decided judgment of the court'.
While MPs such as John Hemming point to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights which he says make it clear that the dealings of Parliament cannot be questioned. In effect, Parliament remains sovereign, which was certainly what I was brought up to understand. Of course it's not hard to find someone who will take the opposite view, especially where British and European law collide. But it is a serious point - who has primacy, the those who make law or those who interpret the law?
It's the story that won't lie down. Big Brother 'star' Imogen Thomas has been back in court seeking to get the superinjunction stopping her publishing details of her affair with a footballer, amid counter claims of blackmail demands.
She lost. The footballer - whose identity is already known to anyone who wants to know - won. They sound like lovely people.
Meanwhile Lord Stoneham, the Liberal Democrat peer (yes, you know, that Lord Stoneham - er no, me neither) waded into the whole mess naming former Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Fred Goodwin as having taken out a superinjunction to prevent publication of his affair with another high profile banker at the time RBS was collapsing.
The argument used by Lord Stoneham is that Goodwin's affair meant the CEO did not have his mind on his job at the time RBS collapsed and required bailing out with tax payers money.
A very weak arguement in my book. It looks like a case of using Parliamentary privilege to blow a hole in superinjunctions as a whole. Fine. A laudable aim and Lord Stoneham picked a good target. Even if it feels a bit like 'we can't get you for anything else Fred, so let's at least embarrass you in public.' Still there are lawyers all over the radio complaining about it, so Lord Stoneham must have done something right!
Is this what Nick Clegg means by 'muscular liberalism'?
If it's worth doing it, it's worth overdoing it seems to be The Yams attitude. Three guitars and keyboards crammed onto the stage at The Rainbow does seem ambitious, but with all the guitars and some growling bass present in the mix, they quickly show their audio arsenal is not just for show as they quickly reveal a capacity for some heavy slabs of sound.
Opening with a song that sounds like it's about to break into a cover of ‘California Uber Alles’ gets the attention, although it never does launch into a full blown version of the Dead Kennedys classic, it quickly settles into a pleasing riff of its own.
But the beauty of The Yams is their disciplined sound, simple in terms of finding a heavy, stoner rock groove and sticking with it, but take a closer look and beyond the initial pull of the heavy riffing and there's a lot more going on.
Each guitar contributes a different layer to The Yams sound, making is surprisingly clean, for all the weight it carries. Keyboards however, were sacrificed before the wall of guitars. Or perhaps the keyboard player has more of 'Bez' role, playing in the hole just behind the strikers, as it were...
Impressively build riffing is the hallmark of The Yams, if they can get past the inevitable Queens of the Stone Age references and perhaps convince people they're from southern California rather than South Staffordshire, they might get the audience they deserve.
Next up are Guile stretching their legs and taking some new material out for a run, giving us a tantalising peek into their work in progress, while delivering a haunting set of beautifully crafted psychedelic blues punk, drenched in slide guitar and held together by thundering bass and drums. Over it all the cracked, wounded voice of Neal Sawyer, sounding like a man with the weight of world on his shoulders and the pain of rejection in his heart.
Kicking off with the repeated jab in the face that is relative new song 'Kill Your Dreams' Guile then tore up the set list to preview new material for a small but attentive audience.
Showing a willingness to experiment with rhythm and texture that suggests a capacity to add a whole network of B road detours to the Guile motorway, this set at The Rainbow certainly offered some intriguing glimpses into the future.
One thing we do now know, is that the insanely infectious 'Deep By The Dockery' will be released as a single in September. Yes a single. You know, complete with b-side tracks. Proper old school!
Tonight 'Dockery' was played with glorious abandon, competing with a stretched out epic improvised take on 'I Wish I Was Heartless' for highlight of the night. Although both may have been eclipsed by a tight, nasty, urgent take on the set closing howl of alienation that is 'Alone On The West'.
Which is a good place to leave things, 'Alone On The West' is also going to be the title of Guile's forthcoming album. For my money their potent mix of blues, country, punk and psychedelia, continues to mark them out as one of the great unsigned hopes. Only problem is, I'll have to find something new to say once the album does come out!
What to make of Our Mountain? They try, they really do. And in places they almost pull it off. Mainly with some dirty, '60's garage rock & roll with a set closer that felt like they finally dropped their art-house guard.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The nucleus of Our Mountain hail from Australia and the rhythm section could easily pass for Nick Cave alumni. Which I'm sure they are sick of hearing, but it's the sound of the Bad Seeds that's playing as they take the stage. If the cap fits...
Well there are certainly echoes. Our Mountain seem to have one foot in performance art and the other in a greasy garage doing up old motorbikes. Frontman Matthew Hutchinson comes on like the man who was thrown out of The Monkees for being too rock & roll - the man in the silk shirt and pudding bowl haircut is a ball of energy, pulling a variety of unlikely guitar hero shapes before exiting the stage mid-song to continue playing as part of the audience.
But then he has to, with statuesque, blond Abbey Lee, doing her ice queen, keyboards and er, dustbin lids routine, stage right, there's a fight for attention going on. Which is no bad thing!
Our Mountain have some good ideas and better riffs, but ultimately didn't quite convince on this showing, perhaps trying a little too hard, while Guile and The Yams gave us honest from the heart rock & roll.
Currently enjoying the Wonders of Iceland season of programmes on BBC Four (rapidly becoming my favourite channel!).
Which is a good excuse for some pictures of the Hugin longship, which can be found at Pegwell Bay in Kent.
It's actually a replica, built in Denmark and sailed to England in1949, to mark the 1,500th anniversary of the voyage taken by Hengist & Horsa which is considered the starting point of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.
When I was a lad, I just knew Hengist & Horsa as cross channel car ferries. Ah the ignorance of youth!
I quite often take video clips when I'm at gigs. Among the bands I've 'bootleged' - their description, not mine! - are Guile. I've never made great claims for my clips, it's just a way of sharing the gig with friends as far as I'm concerned, but this professionally filmed clip of Guile really does put my amateur efforts to shame!
Hopefully more this footage will see the light of day. It really ought to, for my money, Guile are as good an unsigned band as you'll find right now.
Here's what Clash magazine said about them:
"...fine gritty, dirt-smeared blues that occasionally delves into the dark reaches of Doors-esque psychedelia. With menace and melody cramped into one tight space, it’s like the aural equivalent of the black lung....."
Meantime you can check out more of Guile on You Tube here.
It seems this is all it takes to grab the news headlines in our celebrity obsessed media...
...these six tweets seem to be dominating today's news. I've edited out the names of the actors, TV presenters, footballer and TV chef that are mentioned. Not because of the super injunctions or the claim that some of the names are not correct. I just can't be bothered to feed the profiles of these z list 'celebrities'.
If you do want to know, a quick Google of 'super injunction Twitter' should sate your curiosity. But that isn't really the point, I couldn't give a monkey's about what people off the telly are doing behind closed doors. The worry is that this kind of legal gagging order is becoming common place for those that can afford it.
And while I don't care what chefs, actors and footballers get up to off duty, I do care what MP's and oil companies are doing that prompts allegations that they also take out this kind of super injunction.
Have already seen at least one member of the legal profession claiming that super injunctions are not the provision of the rich / famous / influential, on TV today, but are open to us all. Which is interesting, when injunctions covering two famous people seem to cover both parties, while other injunctions only offer protection to one side, while the other is left in the media spotlight to fend off questions s/he is not allowed to answer.
It's a situation that will only get worse if the proposed changes to legal aid go through, warping the legal system even more. You remember that? The thing we're all supposed to be equal before...
I'm not in favour of a privacy law per se, far too much already goes on without multinational corporations, politicians or any of the people who have real influence over our lives being answerable for their actions. While rumours abound on the 'net, the truth gets lost in the kerfuffle.
The current situation is rapidly becoming a farce. Unless of course you're one of the lawyers involved - they just keep charging by the hour!
Just finished watching series 3 of 'Spiral -The Butcher of La Villette' - on BBC Four. It didn't quite fill the hole left by the excellent Danish thriller 'The Killing' but it was another example of gritty European television, full of flawed but believable characters that refused to give us a neat and tidy conclusion.
Quite a few similarities between the two though, strong female leads in Sarah Lund (played by Sofie Gråbøl) and Laure Berthaud (played by Caroline Proust). Both obsessive about their case to the point of bloody mindedness. Both scruffy and apparently unconcerned about their appearance. Both drive their colleagues and bosses to distraction, with their refusal to follow any sort of rules or protocols.
All good so far and of course both benefit from being set in cities - Paris and Copenhagen - that lend themselves to being filmed and have uniformly strong supporting casts. (The acting in 'The Killing' in particular, is exceptional.)
Both series also seemed to take great delight at unpicking the flaws where politics meets the judiciary and law enforcement. In fact that's a common thread you can trace back to 'The Wire'. Which I suspect influenced both programmes and probably explains why they work so well, even without a detailed knowledge of the French or Danish penal systems.
Spoiler Alert - don't read on if you've yet to finish watching both season 3 of 'Spiral' and season 1 of 'The Killing'.
I find myself feeling surprisingly sad at the news of Seve Ballesteros passing away. Not that I'm a huge golf fan, but perhaps that just shows the impact of Seve. A mercurial talent who woke up the golf world with his brilliant attacking style. Never one for the efficiency of 'playing the percentages' as so many of the modern players seem to, he could be wildly undisciplined one moment and utterly brilliant the next.
Of course everyone will be remembering his famous shot from the car park, in the 1979 Open. He always seemed to be in the trees, or the rough or in a bunker, but the thing was, his recovery shots were so good, that he often went on to win. As he did at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1979, becoming the youngest Open champion in the process.
I'll leave it for others to do the full scale obituaries, that's not what this blog is supposed to be about (although what it is about is a very good question...), I guess I just liked the fact that Seve seemed to me to be a bit of a maverick, doing things his own way and that's something that should always be applauded in my book.
I did think of linking this post to an appropriate piece of music, but my favourite golf related song - 'Fairway To Heaven', might be misinterpreted. Or even cause Peter Allis to sue if he ever heard it - I very much doubt he was sampled by Gaye Bykers On Acid with permission!
Went out and 'exercised my democractic right' yesterday. A wasted vote in the local council elections and probably much the same in the voting reform referendum. It looks like less than 40% of the population have decided that the system is just fine, while the 60% who may have a different view, chose to vote with their feet.
Was it all a waste of time? Pretty much on the face of it, but I still think that if you can vote, you should. Partly down to idealism; I still think it's the least we should do after what others went through to get us the right to vote in the first place. But also, voting gives you the right to complain. If you can't be bothered to vote, why complain about the government?
Still, a nice sunny day and the walk down to the polling station will have done me no harm...
I guess that must be 'British democracy' for you. We know a song about that, don't we children?
I found myself in the unusual position of being driven back home after a weekend away recently and decided to take a few pictures from the car, just to see what would happen.
Here's a few variations on a couple of the shots I took, after a bit of Photoshopping...
Found myself in Whitstable last Bank Holiday, and I have to mention this place...
...it's the Whitstable Oyster Company's restaurant on the beach. Absolutely superb fresh oysters and stout. Walk along the seafront a couple of hundred yards and you'll find a modest tin shack called The Forge, where you can get equally high quality doughnuts. But don't take my word for it...
...sun, sea and top quality nosh!
Can't seem to find a website for The Forge, but you can find out about the Whitstable Oyster Company here
Asked about the Royal Wedding by John Wilson in an interview for Radio4's Front Row, Morrissey showed he's still able to come up with a quote:
"I don’t think the so called Royal Family speaks for England now, I don’t think England needs them. I do seriously think they’re benefit scroungers...ask people in the street if they love the Royal Family and they will laugh at you."
I've just read about the passing of Poly Styrene, yesterday.
Although I would never claim to have been a great fan, I do still have a copy of 'Germ Free Adolescents', admittedly on CD. At the time I probably just got a few of the singles as shelling out for a whole LP was a big investment, back in those days.
Rediscovering it a few years ago was great, it's a remarkable album even now and one that perhaps couldn't have been made at any other time.
