Michael Head & The Strands - ‘Something Like You’
I have seen Michael and John Head live in their various band incarnations and as solo artists more than anybody else over the years. First alerted to the work of the brothers by positive press in When Skies are Grey, whose online presence is now sadly limited to Twitter, I invested in HMS Fable, which I loved, and worked my way backwards from there to the Pale Fountains. To be frank, aside from one or two notable exceptions such as the sparkling ‘Thank You’ and the cover of Deniece Williams’ ‘Free’, I’ve never really taken to the Pale Fountains for some reason, but the subsequent one-off Michael Head and The Strands album and the Shack recordings, including ‘HMS Fable’ and the brilliant ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’, are superb. There is some similarity in investing money watching Everton and Mick Head – it would be unfair to bring John into the analogy, as he is rarely less than spot on – live. Very occasionally the whole occasion will be a massive unexpected letdown due to Mick’s well-known love of a drink and stronger, whereas on other instances what you are expecting to be a run of the mill night is lifted into something far more majestic and uplifting. Their lack of fame in the face of many inferior alternatives is maybe just further proof that much of the most worthy art lies on the periphery of popular culture.
From all their recordings, this is my favourite individual track; a lyrically stunning string-led emotive affair, encompassing all that it is great about their work over the years. Although they’ve taken criticism for their continued slavish devotion to the brothers, who both are apparently due to release solo offerings this year, I’m probably one of the few who feels there isn’t enough about them in the average edition of WSAG.
Thursday 27 January 2011
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Random great Everton goals #8
Leon Osman - Everton v AE Larissa
Goodison Park, October 25, 2007
At the time of writing there are under two weeks of the two weeks remaining and our financial predicament appears so delicate that any players not nailed down are disappearing to enable the club to try and bring in new faces. While the departures of Yakubu and Vaughan (not confirmed but looking increasingly likely) are lamented; in the case of the former for talent lost through injury, for the latter talent never quite fulfilled due to injury, it is the loss of Steven Pienaar that appears the most wounding for the team. A lovely footballer, whose partnership with Leighton Baines has often, particularly this season, represented the team’s most potent threat, the South African is now subject to the classic jilted-lover supporter revisionism – “he wasn’t that great anyway”. While this is 95% horseshit and doesn’t reflect his tireless contribution over the last three seasons, the only small kernel of a point might be the suggestion that his final ball or shot was too often wasteful, which would appear to be backed up by a mediocre goal return and lack of recorded assists, to use a depressing modern method of player assessment.
Whatever the truth, if Pienaar’s replacement is to come from within the squad then one of the most likely candidates is Leon Osman. In many ways, his performance the 2-2 draw at Anfield on Sunday could be seen as an excellent summary of his curate’s egg Everton career to date. Large stretches of the match were marked by an inability to impose himself on the game, giving the impression that things were just too quick and powerful for him. However, when in possession around the box his quick feet and brain allowed him to cause Liverpool problems, most notably in his perfect hold up and layoff for Jermaine Beckford’s second half goal, a passage of play that caused tight-trousered irritant Jamie Redknapp to correctly (for once) point out that had that been Iniesta or Xavi we would be talking about it for months. In many ways he would be far better suited to a slower, more technical league, and his better performances have often come when he has had more time on the ball as part of a central three man midfield in a 4-5-1, as opposed to stuck out wide on the right where his lack of pace has told. While not ideal, being used as a ‘false’ winger on the left and cutting inside, allowing Baines to bomb past down the wing, would seem an obvious short-term measure for David Moyes, and has already been used to decent effect in a number of the team’s better results this season. This goal from the 2007-8 European campaign is one of the best team goals of recent years and highlights the clear footballing ability the 29 year old possesses.
Goodison Park, October 25, 2007
At the time of writing there are under two weeks of the two weeks remaining and our financial predicament appears so delicate that any players not nailed down are disappearing to enable the club to try and bring in new faces. While the departures of Yakubu and Vaughan (not confirmed but looking increasingly likely) are lamented; in the case of the former for talent lost through injury, for the latter talent never quite fulfilled due to injury, it is the loss of Steven Pienaar that appears the most wounding for the team. A lovely footballer, whose partnership with Leighton Baines has often, particularly this season, represented the team’s most potent threat, the South African is now subject to the classic jilted-lover supporter revisionism – “he wasn’t that great anyway”. While this is 95% horseshit and doesn’t reflect his tireless contribution over the last three seasons, the only small kernel of a point might be the suggestion that his final ball or shot was too often wasteful, which would appear to be backed up by a mediocre goal return and lack of recorded assists, to use a depressing modern method of player assessment.
Whatever the truth, if Pienaar’s replacement is to come from within the squad then one of the most likely candidates is Leon Osman. In many ways, his performance the 2-2 draw at Anfield on Sunday could be seen as an excellent summary of his curate’s egg Everton career to date. Large stretches of the match were marked by an inability to impose himself on the game, giving the impression that things were just too quick and powerful for him. However, when in possession around the box his quick feet and brain allowed him to cause Liverpool problems, most notably in his perfect hold up and layoff for Jermaine Beckford’s second half goal, a passage of play that caused tight-trousered irritant Jamie Redknapp to correctly (for once) point out that had that been Iniesta or Xavi we would be talking about it for months. In many ways he would be far better suited to a slower, more technical league, and his better performances have often come when he has had more time on the ball as part of a central three man midfield in a 4-5-1, as opposed to stuck out wide on the right where his lack of pace has told. While not ideal, being used as a ‘false’ winger on the left and cutting inside, allowing Baines to bomb past down the wing, would seem an obvious short-term measure for David Moyes, and has already been used to decent effect in a number of the team’s better results this season. This goal from the 2007-8 European campaign is one of the best team goals of recent years and highlights the clear footballing ability the 29 year old possesses.
Monday 17 January 2011
Across 110th Street (1972)
Recommended on Amazon as a blaxploitation classic, I added Across 110th Street to my Christmas list, despite knowing little more than it had a soundtrack penned by Bobby Womack and featured the ageless and superb Yaphet Kotto as the young, liberal Lieutenant Pope. Pope is forced to team up with the older, tired Captain Mattelli (Anthony Quinn) when a $300,000 money exchange between two Mafioso and three Harlem blacks is hijacked by three robbers - one of whom, Antonio Fargas, is so annoying he might as well be holding an badly written banner and singing 'Poor Scouser Tommy' - who kill the five, and two police officers during their getaway. Pope and Mattelli attempt to reach these three before the unholy alliance of local Harlem crime boss Doc Johnson (the excellent Richard Ward) and wannabe Mafia don Nick D'Salvio (Anthony Franciosa) catch them first.
Almost unremittingly dark in tone, the film is a real period piece; both in terms of its portrayal of the sometimes brutal life on the Harlem streets, and the changing face of the NYPD. The film came hard on the heels of the Knapp Commission and reflects the internal divisions experienced as the force began to attempt to clean itself up, no more so than in the scene where Doc Johnson reveals to the newcomer Pope that Mattelli has been in his pay for a number of years, but fails to reach the same arrangement with Pope. The relationship between Pope and Mattelli also characterises the growing changes, the modern-thinking Pope (a relative rookie promoted, in Mattelli's eyes, through positive discrimination) horrified by a battle-hardened Mattelli's efforts to coerce information from suspects through overt violence, a juxtaposition revisited recently in 'Life on Mars'. The theme of racism also runs strongly through the whole film, whether underlying, as with Pope and Martelli, or in the disparaging and uneasy relationship between the Harlem blacks and the Mafia, which simmers with distrust.
Despite one or two flaws - the ending is a bit contrived and some of the acting a bit hammy, particularly in the slightly cartoony Mafia gang, this is a broadly superb piece with well-rounded characters - even the cold-eyed and ruthless John Harris (Paul Benjamin), the most vicious member of the three man robbery team is given a shred of humanity. At the price of a pint of Peroni from Amazon and others, it's well worth a look, standing up well against 'Dirty Harry' and other cop movies of the time.
Thursday 6 January 2011
5 Talk Sport irritants
Like the Daily Mail online edition, Talk Sport has become an unavoidable part of my daily routine that I can’t quite shake off. And, whisper it quietly, some of it is good. Paul Hawksbee and Andy Jacobs’ show on a weekday afternoon is, by virtue of not taking it too seriously, funny and genuinely interesting at times. Similarly, the brilliant Danny Kelly appears to be unable to find a permanent slot in the schedule but regularly pops up like a chubby supply teacher and is often an eloquent, lone voice against the ‘Premiership is biggest and best’ bandwagon. And, although an utter tool, I have a certain grim admiration for Adrian Durham’s seemingly unending ability to adopt a hardline view that he appears to seriously believe for whatever issue he needs to get people to call in on (at premium rate), especially having held the exact opposite position two days earlier. But to get to the better stuff, there is much shite to endure:
MICKY QUINN
‘Everyone’s favourite Scouser’ is how one of the station’s trails describes him, although this is no truer than Ian Huntley being ‘everyone’s favourite caretaker’. A clear advocate of the concept that bluster and volume is preferable to intelligence and analysis, he wears his Liver bird close to his chest and is a persistent exponent of the tiresome ‘we won it five times, the Kop speaks as one, we don’t sack managers, unique atmosphere, best supporters in the weeerld’ horseshit heard from pub bores in ecru away kits the length and breadth of the world. And Alvin Martin is no better.
DARREN GOUGH
Living proof of the ever-increasing depressing trend toward employing former sportsmen before first checking they can speak coherently (on which note Sky must surely be receiving a grant or fulfilling a quota by giving Dean Windass air time) Gough appears barely capable of sustaining a consistent point of view through a three hour show, during which he is careful not to insult anyone he may bump into on the ‘celebrity’ circuit. Makes Ian Wright seem like John Arlott.
MARK SAGGERS
Co-host of the weekend breakfast show with Micky Quinn and anchor of much of the weeknight output. Came across quite well while performing a similar role at Radio 5, elevating himself in the minds of most right-thinking people by his clear dislike of Alan ‘this is woeful’ Green. However, on arrival at TS was clearly told he needed to be more opinionated, which he is not remotely suited to. His ‘oh get on with it’ outburst at the staggered announcement of the 2022 World Cup hosts, in reaction to England not getting 2018 a few minutes earlier (despite England being in his opinion the only show in town because, well, ‘we’re England’), was pure, unfiltered, glorious Partridge.
MIKE PARRY
Almost single handedly ruining the name of Everton fans every time he opens his mouth, his mid morning show is a great clunking mess of a current issues discussion show, seemingly sponsored by The Sun, in which little Englander Parry attempts to win arguments by making words up and taking up entrenched positions too odd to make for a proper debate. Still miles better than predecessor Jon ‘Political Correctness gone mad’ Gaunt, the obnoxious love child of Richard Littlejohn and Margaret Thatcher.
RONNIE IRANI
See Darren Gough
MICKY QUINN
‘Everyone’s favourite Scouser’ is how one of the station’s trails describes him, although this is no truer than Ian Huntley being ‘everyone’s favourite caretaker’. A clear advocate of the concept that bluster and volume is preferable to intelligence and analysis, he wears his Liver bird close to his chest and is a persistent exponent of the tiresome ‘we won it five times, the Kop speaks as one, we don’t sack managers, unique atmosphere, best supporters in the weeerld’ horseshit heard from pub bores in ecru away kits the length and breadth of the world. And Alvin Martin is no better.
DARREN GOUGH
Living proof of the ever-increasing depressing trend toward employing former sportsmen before first checking they can speak coherently (on which note Sky must surely be receiving a grant or fulfilling a quota by giving Dean Windass air time) Gough appears barely capable of sustaining a consistent point of view through a three hour show, during which he is careful not to insult anyone he may bump into on the ‘celebrity’ circuit. Makes Ian Wright seem like John Arlott.
MARK SAGGERS
Co-host of the weekend breakfast show with Micky Quinn and anchor of much of the weeknight output. Came across quite well while performing a similar role at Radio 5, elevating himself in the minds of most right-thinking people by his clear dislike of Alan ‘this is woeful’ Green. However, on arrival at TS was clearly told he needed to be more opinionated, which he is not remotely suited to. His ‘oh get on with it’ outburst at the staggered announcement of the 2022 World Cup hosts, in reaction to England not getting 2018 a few minutes earlier (despite England being in his opinion the only show in town because, well, ‘we’re England’), was pure, unfiltered, glorious Partridge.
MIKE PARRY
Almost single handedly ruining the name of Everton fans every time he opens his mouth, his mid morning show is a great clunking mess of a current issues discussion show, seemingly sponsored by The Sun, in which little Englander Parry attempts to win arguments by making words up and taking up entrenched positions too odd to make for a proper debate. Still miles better than predecessor Jon ‘Political Correctness gone mad’ Gaunt, the obnoxious love child of Richard Littlejohn and Margaret Thatcher.
RONNIE IRANI
See Darren Gough
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Gerry Rafferty (1947-2011)
"Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters
You’ll find a way to say it all someday"
Having written of my admiration for Gerry Rafferty before, I was sad to hear of his death yesterday. The many obituaries that have appeared in the last few hours will no doubt do him better justice than I can, but I would say only that hopefully the coverage following his passing will inspire a few people not overly familiar with him to download or pick up a copy of ‘City to City’ and ‘Night Owl’ (surely due a proper release on CD) and enjoy the man at his peak.
You’ll find a way to say it all someday"
Having written of my admiration for Gerry Rafferty before, I was sad to hear of his death yesterday. The many obituaries that have appeared in the last few hours will no doubt do him better justice than I can, but I would say only that hopefully the coverage following his passing will inspire a few people not overly familiar with him to download or pick up a copy of ‘City to City’ and ‘Night Owl’ (surely due a proper release on CD) and enjoy the man at his peak.
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