From The Jam At The Aladdin

Though the idea about a Weller-less Jam embarking on a world tour playing the songs that made them famous over 25 years ago may seem like a bad idea to some (out of hand, I was thinking along the lines of "dubious, at best" (see my INITIAL THOUGHTS at the news of their U.S. tour), I'm quite happy to say that the From The Jam gig at the Aladdin on Wednesday night was indeed a great night out.



It was clear from the enthusiasm that Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler showed while performing that this undertaking was indeed a labour of love, an acknowledgment of classic songs that still mean something to a lot of people, including the band themselves. Guitarist Russell Hastings, the new "Weller" I suppose, told the crowd that "this songs means more to me now than it did back then" while introducing When You're Young. Hastings and fellow new man in the band, guitarist/keyboardist Dave Moore, did a great job in fleshing out the live sound of the songs.



I had also worried a bit about the size of the crowd beforehand, considering they had never played here before, but it was a decent audience indeed, a nice mix of long time fans and those younger ones keen on good music that was around at the time they were barely born, with the majority showing a knowledge of the band's past repertoire.


Songs from every album were played, though the first two albums were only represented by their title cuts on the night. Happily, All Mod Cons and Setting Sons were the eras with the most tracks played, along with a great selection of non-album singles and tracks to provide a complete overview of their work.


A couple of tracks that I hadn't really thought about in a while, It's Too Bad and Little Boy Soldiers, were welcomely played and sounded great, in particular the latter song. If When You're Young was a moment of contemporary revelation for Hastings, mine came in the middle section of Soldiers, a chill went down my spine hearing the lines about the lullaby and tales.



Other personal faves of mine that were got played were Butterfly Collector, Strange Town, and Private Hell. Hastings told a man who had been holding a Woking F.C. scarve that "this is for you!" before the band launched into a fierce version of The Eton Rifles, with Foxton's bass rumbling so much one could feel it in their chest.



All of the tracks played, from what I can remember, and they're out of order after the first four: In The City, Modern World, All Mod Cons, To Be Someone, It's Too Bad, David Watts, In The Crowd, 'A' Bomb, Tube Station, Little Boy Soldiers, Private Hell, Smithers-Jones, Eton Rifles, Pretty Green, Start!, Town Called Malice, The Gift, So Sad About Us, Butterfly Collector, Going Underground, News Of The World, When You're Young, Strange Town. A frentic set with about the only respite being In The Crowd; Hastings chucked his suit coat fairly early, and I was amazed that Foxton kept his on as long as he did what with his tireless leaping about.




Hugh Cornwell, ex-singer of the Stranglers, played a well-received opening set composed of half Stranglers songs and half of his solo material; of course the Stranglers stuff was better received, but his new material sounded excellent, apparently an album is coming out in a couple of months. His band consisted of a couple of a young male drummer and a young female bassist; the drummer was in constant motion while the bassist did a good job of anchoring the sound of the band together. Couldn't tell you what the solo tracks were, a new one with the name of Trowbridge in it was the only one I heard, but we did get worked-over takes on Grip, Peaches, Nice n' Sleazy, Tank, No More Heroes, Down In The Sewer and best of all, a manic version of G.m.b.h (Bear Cage) that I never wanted to end. Well done Hugh, it was an excellent show from you as well!

Man Utd. 3 Tottenham 1, Sheffield Utd. 2 Man City 1

A good effort today from Spurs wasn't enough to hold off a brace of goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and one from Carlos Tevez as the Red Devils came from behind to knock Spurs out of the FA Cup at Old Trafford on Sunday.



Spurs looked good early on and took the lead midway through the first on a fine Robbie Keane strike from an excellent Aaron Lennon pass, though some good defense had stopped a Dimitar Berbatov shot on the goal line a few minutes earlier.


Tevez's shot came just before halftime as he pounced on the ball in front of the goal as players from both sides fought for it, and he delivered an angled shot that got cleanly past goalie Radek Cerny.



Man Utd. goalie Edwin Van der Sar then ended the first half by knocking away a shot from Jermaine Jenas, a shot in which Jenas knows he should've have done much better in getting away.


Spurs problems were compounded midway through the second half when Micheal Dawson was shown a straight red on a handball in front of the goal, which afforded Ronaldo the opportunity to put Man Utd. ahead.



While it has been noted that part of the rise of Spurs fortunes of late may be attributable to the replacement of Paul Robinson with Cerny, the latter proved himself as capable as giving up a howler as the former by letting a shot from Ronaldo slipping by him after initially stopping it in the moments before stoppage time, effectively put the game out of reach.



As for the other FA Cup match, Sheffield United got a fluke goal early on, as a bunch of celebratory balloons still on the pitch obscured the view of City defender Michael Ball trying to clear a cross from United's Lee Martin, making him miss the ball completely and allowing Luton Shelton to get the ball home in the 12th minute.



Just as many minutes later, Jonathan Stead doubled the lead by knocking in a shot after City failed to clear the ball in front of their goal.



18 year old City striker Daniel Sturridge tried to get things going early on the second half with a lovely strike, but the visitors failed to mount any serious challenge for the rest of the way, and the Blades found themselves on the way to the next round.



To add to their woes, it was discovered that various City personnel, including players, had a substantial amount of money stolen from the locker room at Bramall Lane whilst the game was in progress, the story for indignity is HERE.
Some City fans may think that the team stole their money after their SHAMBOLIC, GUTLESS performance though.



MAN UTD/SPURS REPORT


UNITED/CITY REPORT

MST3K: Pants UP!

Daddy-O remains one of my most watched MST3K episodes, a 50's b-movie crime flick that might've remained in obscurity if not for the Best Brains folks back in the early 90's. It's still not been re-released on any of the great Rhino DVD's for who-knows-what reason exactly (more than likely issues with whomever owns the rights to this movie though).



The first host segment of the show also remains one of my favourite things from the series, with Joel and the bots be-bopping about the pants of the hero and the way that he wears them in the movie. TV's Frank and Dr. Forrester are also seen doing what they do in this segment. Dig it baby, it's solid gold! (thank you Samtaco!)

Tottenham 5 Arsenal 1: One Small Step

Yes, it was "just" the Carling Cup. Yes, the home side wanted it more. It still doesn't detract much from a lovely afternoon of football as Spurs hounded the Gooners 5-1 before a raucous White Hart Lane crowd, and booked themselves into the Cup championship against either Everton or Chelsea, the opponent to be determined on Wednesday.



Unfortunately, I could not watch this one in person, having to be on the road for work, and I forgot my mobile to check in on the results, of which I expected a match in that Spurs would take an early lead only to lose it late in the game, same as it ever was in terms of recent Spurs matches versus the Gooners.



I was flabbergasted when I checked the score of 5-1 and had to rub my eyes to make sure that it wasn't actually 1-5. Wow! Jenas in just the third minute and an own goal from Nicklas Bendtner midway through the half. Goals from Robbie Keane just after the break and from Aaron Lennon at 60 minutes! Perennial thorn in Spurs side Emmanuel Adebayor gets one back 10 minutes later, but Steed Malbranque taps one in at the death for the final score.


Having seen the highlights though, it was certainly a well-deserved victory for Spurs, who were passing the ball around in style, particularly the goals for Keane and Lennon, and the Gooners were certainly a bit unlucky not to have scored another goal when Bendtner's bicycle kick hit the bar early on in the second half. However, the Spurs played sound defensively in all aspects while goalie Radek Cerny, who made some fine saves, seems to have replaced Paul Robinson as the number one keeper on the team.




As alluded to in the title, there are other factors to consider when placing this game in context, such as Spurs current place in the EPL table, the ability of getting into the Champions League, the fate of Berbatov, the defensive questions, etc. but thrashing one's rivals in this manner is something to be enjoyed. Immensely. COYS!




SPURS REPORT

SOCCERNET REPORT

Blazers Get It Done In Atlanta

Unfortunately, some of us still had to work on this national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. and weren't around the television sets to watch the Trail Blazers take on the Atlanta Hawks in a MLK Day NBA matinee (it was still in the morning here when the game tipped off, so I had to make do by listening to the game on the radio in-between stops). In the end, the Blazers won an exciting game that went to overtime, 111 to 109, on a last second shot from Travis Outlaw.



There was also a nice story on ESPN today about the trip that some Trail Blazers took on Sunday to visit some of the sites related to Dr. King in his hometown. Looking back and reflecting is always nice, but there are still miles to go in some things.




GAME RECAP



BLAZERS IN ATLANTA

Tottenham 2 Sunderland 0: 100th Keane Goal For Club

Glad I avoided the web this morning and waited until FSC aired the replay of this match from White Hart Lane in the early afternoon. Spurs scored a goal at either end of the match, the first at the 1:51 mark of the first half by Aaron Lennon and the last coming in the waning moments of stoppage time by Robbie Keane, which was his 100th goal for Spurs.



In between the scoring was an exciting match that was roughly defined by Spurs absolutely controlling the first half and with the Black Cats going after the suspect Spurs back line in the second.



Jamie O'Hara took advantage of a poor clearance in the left corner by drilling the ball in toward the goal, where upon Dimitar Berbatov neatly clipped the ball toward the center of pitch in advance of a swiftly reacting Lennon. A quick and simple goal that clearly set the tone for most of what was to follow in the first half.


Jermain Defoe started alongside Berbatov up front and kept the pressure on the Sunderland defense, peppering them with some nice shots. There was also the usual amount of good passing as well, only to come up short, for instance, on the shot by Berbatov from Jermaine Jenas that barely made contact with the post and still wound up outside of the net. The possession percentage at halftime showed Spurs with having had the ball 62% while the visitors struggled with just one striker, Kenwyne Jones, up front, unable to create any chances at all.


Michael Chopra came on for Sunderland toward the end of the first half, and the offensive side of Sunderland began to move with a bit more purpose almost immediately. The chances for the visitors became more pronounced in the second half , especially early on as they found themselves in the same position as the home side by scoring a goal on a defensive mix-up in almost the same spot Spurs took advantage of. A ball from Micheal Dawson hit Paul Stalteri and bounded in front of Daryl Murphy, who took a couple of steps and blasted a shot that curled around the right side of the net thankfully.



If Sunderland goalie Craig Gordon made a few nice saves in the first half to keep the score close, then Spurs goalie Radek Cerny was up to the task in the second, combined with some good solid defending from the Spurs. It certainly made for anxious viewing for Spurs fans as the visitors continually sought out the equalizer, but any hopes of rescuing a point vanished as Keane took a long pass and put enough force on a shot to Gordon that allowed the ball to slip by the goalie after it had initially been stopped, and the celebration was on for the historic Keane goal.



A good solid victory in all aspects, and even though Sunderland may be in the relegation fight, the three points were sorely needed. COYS!




SPURS RECAP

Don't Mess With Us: Bad Ass Bugs

Lists of things are usually a fun thing to peruse and debate, but CRACKED has one of its top 5 horrifying insects, the choices of theirs are kind of hard to argue with.



I've seen documentaries on a couple of their choices. Taboo, a series on National Geographic, in its Initiation episode, featured a segment on bullet ants, and the initiation ceremony that certain people in South America use for a coming-of-age trial. Which involves wearing a glove that has these stinging buggers woven into it, and must be worn for ten minutes at a time.



They've also shown an episode about the Japanese giant hornets and the damage they can inflict.




The other choices are linked below.




ENTER THE LIST

Oh No! Hasbro Vs. Facebook/Scrabulous

Potentially bad news for fans of the popular Facebook application: lawyers for the makers of the Scrabble game have asked that the application be withdrawn from the site due to copyright infringment.


Count me as one Facebook user who's happily passed a bit of time playing the game with people in various parts of the world, as well as a user who's grown more than a wee bit tired of spam applications and the attendant invitations one must send out in order to use it; the former has certainly outweighed the annoyance factor of the latter from my view, an informal chat with the opponent about whatever is happening on that day (or days). Hopefully, a licensing arrangement, talked about in the BBC article, can be forthcoming.



STORY

Harry Says 'No', Man United Deal A 6-0 Blow

After the news, sensible to most people except for perhaps Newcastle fans, that Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp had turned down filling the Toon job vacancy, the woes of Newcastle continued in a ghastly manner as Manchester United delivered a merciless second half pummeling to the Tyneside visitors at Old Trafford 6-0.



A goalless first half that featured a couple of nice saves from Newcastle goalied Shay Given hardly hinted at the carnage that was to follow in the second half almost from the start. Cristiano Ronaldo, who tallied a hat trick, got things going with a grass-eating free kick underneath the Newcastle defense four minutes into the second half. Given compounded the problems of the team five minutes later with a poor clearance that Carlos Teves, who scored twice, knocked into the back of the net, and for all intents and purposes the match was truly over, as Newcastle could hardly stand to muster the same kind of offensive attack that the Red Devils displayed.



It wasn't just defensive failures for Newcastle on this evening though, there was some excellent passing and total team football on display from the home side as well as a bit of good luck on the last goal by Ronaldo (as to whether or not it actually crossed the line; former Red Devil Alan Smith complained too bitterly about that and was rewarded with a straight red card). Also, to be fair, Newcastle were denied a goal after a poor offsides call against Micheal Owen went against them in the first half. but it was all too clear that a manager-less club wasn't about to put up any kind of effort that might net them their first win at Old Trafford in 36 years.





Still, the combination of the coaching search with today's awful performance, coming on the heels of a lackluster FA Cup draw against Stoke City on Wednesday, a match in which home side Stoke were unlucky not to have won, does nothing to help the belief of the Newcastle fans who still think their club is a top destination by being a big club (the same thing could apply to the UCLA college football coaching job as well).







RECAP

Aston Villa 2 Tottenham 1: Same Ol' Same Ol (Not For Much Longer Though?)

Maybe it was the hangover effect from the Reading match or, more likely, the inability to enjoy prosperity on the pitch. The result is still too familiar though: a late goal conceded on a corner kick to give Villa the home victory in this New Year's Day match.



Spurs found themselves under attack almost the entire first half, and were not really able to sustain any kind of offensive momentum to generate any real scoring chances, definitely a 180 degree turnaround from the last couple of EPL matches, though a Martin O' Neill-coached team is one that generally tends to limit quick scoring strikes by the opposition.



Spurs were a bit lucky to down only 1-0 at the half, after Olof Mellberg netted a goal just before the half, as somehow Martin Laursen managed to boot a gift ball sitting in front of the net well over the bar into the crowd.




The second half was a bit better in terms of overall football, as Robbie Keane replaced Aaron Lennon and Tom Huddlestone came on for Kevin-Prince Boateng, but I got the feeling of a hardly deserved point when Jermaine Defoe, who started the match, beat a Villa defender to a carom in front of the Villa net and elevated himself to blast the ball home just before the 80th minute.



However, those good feelings were gone just a few minutes later when Laursen easily slipped in between the scant Spurs defense to head the fateful kick home, and the same old gloom that Spurs fans have grown accustomed to returned. Complacency on this team? Who knows, but assistant coach Gus Poyet was more than a little bit peeved afterward, promising that change will be made, the video for that exchange is HERE.




ESPN RECAP