Guile – The Tackeroo, Cannock, 10th February 2012

Hometown gig, expectant crowd.  The last thing any band want is a string to go on the bass about 6 seconds into the gig.  With no spare bass guitar.  Which is exactly how Guile’s return to their Cannock roots kicked off.

A lot of bands would have been thrown, or perhaps just walked off until running repairs could be made.  No such easy way out for Guile.  While bassist Adam ‘Fish’ Shaw, showed commendable grace under pressure restringing and tuning up with the minimum of fuss, the remaining members of Guile simply slipped into dirty, vaguely threatening, blues jam.  Shut your eyes and you’d believe Link Wray was about to walk onstage.

Underground Rhythm + Noise

A curious one, this was given away with a short lived magazine, I'd guess some time in the 1980's, which I think was called 'Underground', hence the title.

Featuring the likes of a nascent Shamen, before the disco biscuits took a hold, and the record that started it all off for Mute - Daniel Miller AKA The Normal, with the seminal 'Warm Leatherette'.

Miller tells a great story of once being refused entry to a club which was playing his song.  Apparently the door staff refused to believe that he was The Normal!

d/l

Blue Monday..?

TdF3 - Mountains, mountains...and Paris

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.

The real race for Paris

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.  

Poor old Jimbo, let’s hope he makes it to Sunday.

As the man himself would – and indeed does – say;

Woof!

Bears... woods...

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..?

Talking heads...once in a lifetime?

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.

Er, am I missing something..?

Hacking scandal pt 194...

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?