2010

The year we make contact. According to Arthur C. Clarke.
Well hopefully it will be better than this year, which has been a disaster the like of which I cannot remember. Annus Horribilis is what the Queen called one year - oh, boy, this was it for so many of us.

Here's to next year.

Ouch!

When Saturday Comes have nailed Liverpool's problems. Truth hurts. "We just need another 9 good players". Indeed.

The glamour of travel

That will be the bit when I slept for 90 minutes on the marble floor of the zone between gate check in and the water bottle removing security station at Schipol airport. Ah, yes. That glamour.

The future is already here

It is just unevenly distributed - William Gibson

Dubai skyline 2009

Up

I almost cried. Up is the funniest and saddest film I have seen in ages. Mrs Breadcrumb cried - the breadcrumbs laughed, and didn't really notice the aching poignancy. Plus, talking dogs.

Strongly recommended.

And a reminder of my increasing age ("time travel one day at a time") is the increasing length of time I have to spend in the bathroom getting ready for the day- teeth, floss, shave, moisturise, anti-net shampoo, foot powder, verucca salt. It all takes time!

3 down

The defeat at Chelsea killed off the season for the mighty Reds.
Last season I gave up all hope in April. This year in September. Cruel times.

This is personally a year not to remember. No money, no work, no titles for my team, hard times at work for Mrs Breadcrumb.

Enduring is the hardest. And being blunt soccer is just soccer.

2016

Hard to believe that it is more than 4 years since London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics. What a thrill it was, coupled with a certain Schadenfreude at the French disappointment. London 2012 made a great pitch - pointing out the UK is such as young country, and that London is one of the great international cities. Maybe only New York has that same And now less than 3 years until the Games themselves.

not getting my hopes up

Just in case they may begin to rise after 4 successive victories, Man Utd beating City 4-3 with a goal from Michael Owen is a reminder that realistically our chance was last season. I shall not be becoming optimistic. Oh no, not me.

Happy Eid to everyone.

TS Elliot was wrong

April is not the cruellest month - August is.
One match down, a loss to Spurs, and already the season is over for the Mighty Reds. I'm not joking. That is it. We will never catch up.

So, here's to the 2010/1 season.

50 gigs

Following on from Jude Rogers and David Hepworth...
1. The Pirates in Hull – my first at the Ritz or similar grotty nightclub
2. Human League – meant to be the second but eventually at GMex on an 80s package
3. The Beat/Au Pairs – first uni gig, and still one of the very best
4. The Beat – last year at a grotty pub in Bradford– amazingly brilliant
5. The Beat – Last Year at a grotty pub in Bradford – somehow it all failed second time around
6. Beck – Manchester Apollo - the best I’ve ever seen
7. Bruce Springsteen – Roundhay Park 85 – first big gig. Ok, but put me off festivals
8. Radiohead – Warrington – next big gig. And worth it
9. Thom Yorke – Latitude 2009 - my first festival and a wonderful experience
10. Pere Ubu – Carlsberg free festival in Copenhagen, following the Blue Brothers Band and just before Kool and the Gang. Who booked that?
11. The Undertones – Hull – just happened to be passing
12. The Undertones – supporting Peter Gabriel at Crystal Palace, their last English appearance – we slept on the streets
13. The Go-betweens – Leeds, when I drank in the pub with them and Tracey Thorn beforehand
14. The Eagles in a corporate box at MEN, with an Aussie friend of the Go-betweens
15. Alanis Morrisette at MEN – amazingly disappointing
16. Symbol at G-mex, good but even he can’t ignore Prince’s back catalogue
17. Robert Plant – and evening of swing jazz at Leeds Uni – god how they called for Stairway
18. The Waterboys in Newcastle – fine until they turned up the volume
19. REM in Newcastle city hall – Nick Lowe supported- can you believe I didn’t know what they looked like?
20. The Who in Newcastle – but Keith was already dead, and really so was the band.
21. Pixies in Newcastle – my 27th birthday with the girl I loved and her new boyfriend. Now out on bootleg
22. Dr Remi Engala and the Orchestra Super Matimbele – Stockton Riverside Festival – every year and totally brilliant
23. They Might Be Giants – Redcar Bowl 1989 with the woman who I would date and marry 7 years later
24. Sisters of Mercy- Leeds Uni -3 shows in one term, moving up the venues each time. They lived round the corner from me
25. Motorhead – Leeds Uni – never saw them for more than a minute, but I HEARD THEM
26. The Pogues – Leeds Uni – I delayed starting work for a week to see them
27. Gil Scott Heron – Boston, USA 1990 – found out he was on by accident and drove 50 miles on the off-chance
28. Gill Scott Heron – Newcastle Riverside – met him backstage, but the drugs were taking hold
29. David Byrne – Nottingham – that’s near Cambridge isn’t it? Oh, not really. Worth the trip
30. David Byrne – Newcastle – he’s actually good said the people I dragged along
31. Husker Du – Leeds Uni – these guys had a plan
32. Julian Cope – Riverside on the Peggy Suicide tour – my female friends all wanted to have his children. Did I really meet Courtney love at a previous JC gig?
33. Kitchens of distinction – riverside – why were they not big? Why?
34. Smashing Pumpkins – Newcastle night club – they have anger issues. Really.
35. Fatima Mansions – Middlesbrough crypt – another one with anger issues.
36. Sugercubes – Newcastle night club – curiouser and curiouser said Bjork. Who’s the twat with the trumpet said everyone else.
37. Jesus and Mary Chain – Leeds Uni for 15 minutes. It was only a small riot
38. Jesus and Mary chain/Blur/My Bloody Valentine/Dinosaur Jnr – Rollercoaster tour on an Ice rink in South Shields. Bloody cold. Bloody loud. Blur surprisingly good
39. Blur – MEN greatest hits tour – and got better. That Boy Coxon can play.
40. Richard Thompson - a tent in York – and so can this boy. First time was such as surprise
41. The Velvet Underground in Edinburgh. The first reunion gig. I never thought I would see that, and could not understand how few people wanted to see them.
42. Billy Bragg – Bradford Uni 2006 – he was as drunk as the rest of us, but we had a good time. Phil Jupitus sang Beastiality
43. Franz Ferdinand – Bradford St Georges hall – the homecoming show. Mach shau!
44. Aztec Camera – Newcastle – how can he reproduce it all so perfectly, so effortlessly?
45. Tinariwen – Bradford st Georges – guardian reading worthies have supreme pleasure
46. The Mission – Leeds Uni – more tins of hairspray than booze
47. Steel Pulse – Leeds Uni – no need to bring your own, get high just breathing in
48. The Streets – Leeds Uni 2007 – is that what rave was really like? I got it for just a song
49. The Smiths/Red guitars – Leeds Uni - and the Smiths were blown off stage
50. Madness – Leeds Uni – 2 hits, a new song, repeat for 2 hours of delirium

Is that the time?

The summer rain is still lashing down. England are still throwing it all away in the Ashes. The breadcrumbs are with their grandparents in the obviously superior nation. It still seems like it should be summer. But next Monday is the Anniversary of Middlesbrough 3 Liverpool FC 3. Or to put it another way our wedding anniversary. 13 summers. And time for another season of soccer.

Time for hopes to rise, and disappointment to lurk. To be honest - I can wait. It's only when the season has started that I get carried away. I am quite happy now before hostilities begin, when all is possible once more.

Come on you Reds...

harry potter 6

Well I enjoyed it. The Breadcrumbs were suitably terrified, there were jokes about young love that went completely over their heads, and Mrs Breadcrumb and I could forget our crummy lives for 2 1/2 hours. Result.

Phineas & Ferb

The breadcrumbs prefer The Suite Life, but I like Phineas and Ferb. There, I've said it.

No Power in the 'verse

I'm still a Browncoat. Firefly still rocks.
Dare I finally start watching Dollhouse?

Technically it is the other fascist - but you get the point.
You can buy this on mugs and t-shirts if you click here.

No, I don't get a cut.

Oxymoron

There are posters around saying "vote for change - vote conservative". Don't they actually understand the English language?

Anyway, a bloody awful result in the European elections, and the loss of Richard Corbett as an MEP in place of a BNP candidate. The very best we can hope for is that they will show themselves up badly.

all ends in tears again

MUFC were just to good for us over the season. I would have like Arsenal to have won to take it to the last day, but at least we were in it until almost the end.
So another season without silverware, another season without the Premiership - and I don't think we will have a better chance. It all comes down to individual moments - that last minute winner for MUFC against Villa, compared to us putting on Lucas rather than Mascherano with 10 minutes to go against Everton, and the referees error gifting Stoke a point. Small differences, but in the end we did not have either the luck or the ability.

Star Trek

Another rave. Brilliant. Far better than I could have hoped. Far better than all the previous films (except possibly 2).
Go see. Now. We are going again. Soon.

American Flagg!

Just read this again for the first time in 25 years. Brilliant stuff

Hillsborough

On the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough I was in Paphos in Cyprus, and surprised to see an organised memorial service being conducted at the waterfront. People were asking me what was going on, and I explained.
There were about 50 or 60 people (including me and the breadcrumbs) who followed a couple of priests down to the water to throw a wreath to commemmorate the 96.

After all this time it is still emotional. There was a photo on the memorial at the Shankly Gates of one of the victims - forever frozen in his 80's tache (ala Soueness). The victims and their families can never move on. Looking again at the memorial it reminds me of how young so many of the victims were - just teenagers. Now they would be in their 30s. Never grew up and had families of their own.

It is too late for justice, but there are still the badges saying "Don't buy the Sun".
And let's hope it never happens again. And let's not forget the victims of Heysel either, or the Bradford fire.