Champions League Night – Arsenal v Porto

Yeah, that tubby goalkeeper scam was a beauty!

Talking of less-than-distinguished midfielders of yesteryear, I used to enjoy a certain D Hillier popping up to do the radio commentaries on Arsenal.Com. Im not sure he’s still doing it. Pretty decent analyst and clearly loves the club, but I wouldn’t let him hold my suitcase on holiday.

… From the storied heights of the CL quarter finals for the first time in aeons via some in-game dubious savoury eating contest to some petty thievery at Gatwick. I’m too easily distracted.

I can’t remember if it was a pie or sausage roll but think it was also sponsorship related. The betting may have come after. Craig Eastmond, I think he played first team games for us, maybe even UCL

I don’t know who was down for the fifth. It’s not something I’d taken note of as I felt fairly comfortable with the options we had on the pitch.

Any team now will be a test but out of self interest, with the new ST structure, I want to spend my hard earned on seeing the big names. If we take them out it means the later stages are made easier. They’ve started clocking ticket usage as well so there’s an element of fomo if attendance becomes a deciding factor in final tickets. I know, way ahead of myself.

Baku was the only final where it was free for all as far as I remember due to lack of take up by away members. I’d been harassing friends and acquaintances with away points before it dropped to gen sale. Others have been logistical nightmares with away members and their historic points cleaning up first. I believe that’s changing too and I’m not going to complain if that particular cartel is broken.

Craig Eastmond was on loan at Colchester together with another Arsenal player. They earnt more per week than the rest of the Colchester team put together.
Hillier had some tricks in his box but never really pushed himself.
Eastmond, JET & Co – Wengers babies – were all on wages way above the norm.

Missed the game which was well past bedtime. But picking up thanks to brilliant commentary guys. Ambarish seemed to be particularly alert last night. Thanks Aitcho, that was a preety good summation

You guys rock
London IS Red 🍒

Aitcho – no long distance travelling to the final this year. We won our last game at this venue.

Lost all sense of football timing with travelling and now down in BKK.

I echo Hoopah’s sentiments with the interesting comments and good post Ambarish.

PL and CL still in our sights so onwards and upwards.

Another trip to Dubai wouldn’t go amiss for a top up.🙏😎🙏

just doing some morning-after reveling…I feel like maybe Ode stepped up for the first time in a big match, by finding a way to marry his vocal leadership qualities and his play on the pitch…last season everyone knew full-well that Xhaka was the man behind the man, but yesterday, when Arteta looked like a deer in the headlights before the penalties, Ode rallied the troops then did what the best leaders do, lead by example…who knows what the future holds, armband-wise, as Rice appears destined to wear it at some point during his tenure, but in the meantime, it’s good to know that the days of the captaincy having more to do with locker room politics/policing appear to be coming to an end

KP-I was listening to The Move and Amen Corner late last evening, after a few, and I was wondering if you have any good Fairweather Low stories…Cheers

TRVL
Andy Fairweather Low – a blast from the past. I seem to remember him being in the line up when I saw Georgie Fame at Ronnie Scotts – would have been 74 – 75? I was surprised how accomplished a guitar player he was.

Norg-what was seemingly so peculiar about his journey was that he went from teenage heartthrob to a backup musician/singer for some of the greatest artists of his era, like Waters, The Who and Clapton…just can’t think of another such story

TRVL
Tony’s the music biz aficionado – I was the modestly paid jobbing diplomat. Frankly, I would give anything to be able to turn a clock back and swap careers with him. Not sure Tony would be up for that though….

No help whatsoever but I liked that track, ‘wide eyed and legless’ by AFL.

Vieira

I thought your recognition of Ode’s oeuvre last night was spot on. The boy becoming a man at AFC.

KP-I was thinking about it more from a Welsh perpsective, but I could wrong with my assumption that you have strong ties to Wales…it was a long evening, which included some other Welsh connections, as I ran some hash BTs, listened to some tunes and watched a good chunk of an old Danny Poyle produced film, Twin Town, with the Ifan brothers…Cheers

I could BE wrong…

Hi Hoopah
Sorry you missed the game. I hope you can get the highlights.

The Alpha-Tross goal was exquisite mainly because of Ode’s through ball. The rest of the actual game was arse-clenchingly tense, so I recommend you skip through to the penalty shootout which was wonderful. It put me in mind of that England – Germany semi final in Euro 96 where each German penalty was unsaveable.

TRVL

There are a lot of fantastic session musicians that never wanted to be in the lime light. The husband of one of my wife’s friends was a song writer and session musician – then in mid life he became a Moody Blue.

Hoopah—as to KP’s point about skipping everything but the goal and the penalty kick session, when I watched the Dazn mini-recap, they only dedicated 4 minutes to the match, which included the lineups, Tross’s goal, Jesus’s late attempt on goal and 3 penalty kicks(2 of which were Porto players that were saved by Raya)…typically CL matches of consequences will get 8+ minutes of highlights

of course, none of that matters to those of us who had skin in the game, but it does likely reflect the thoughts and feelings of the neutral observer

Norg-I get that, as I likewise have friends within the industry, some of whom are well-known, whereas others are complete unknowns, but it’s very unusual to see someone go from Tiger/Teen Beat poster boy to more of a bit part player…I bet there’s a really interesting tale in there

A-ha Vieira. No I’m a relatively recent arrival in Wales (12 years ago, and not overly attuned to historic musical connections to be honest). Ms Kroenkephobe is from Cardiff but we’ve lived in Pembrokeshire since I left the civil service. My favourite Welsh musician is Dave Edmunds who formerly collaborated with people like Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. His big hit was that tune ‘Girls’ Talk’ which was originally written by Elvis C. I just about know and can sing the Welsh anthem but I’m a ‘Men of Harlech’ kinda guy really because of its links to Cardiff City or ‘Yma O Hyd’ which is a favourite of Welsh football fans.

https://youtu.be/S4TzjRFfsJs?si=LvQ8Vtey662V279l

You’ll doubtless know this tune but it still raises a smile.

https://youtu.be/MmcKPVndlTg?si=Yii6Ab4voYShjx7C

Difficult themes in this film but the song is always belted out by Bluebirds before games

KP – well well a very good friend of mine from Pontardawe (where my mother was evacuated to in the war) is / was a friend of Dave Edmunds. Alan is another of those very good session musicians that never wanted to be a star or if they did kept it quiet. He has a magnificent collection of guitars (26 when I last counted) and could play anything. Now he looks after his wife who is a lovely person but dementia has taken over..

KP-these days I always run/walk with the music cranked and on my last playlist I had an old Edmunds song that I’ve always enjoyed, “I hear you knocking” off his 72 album Rockpile

now that you bring it up I do remember the fact that you relocated to Wales more recently…maybe you mentioned your wife’s Welsh heritage at some earlier point and that led me to draw the wrong conclusion…Cheers

Music nostalgia from my time too.

Another really nice guy and brilliant Welsh musician is Terry Williams of the drummer for Dire Straits and Nick Lowe who also played with Dave Edmonds.

This all goes back to Dave Robertson and Stiff records. I was called in to do a Nick Lowe gig I think at the Hammersmith Place across from the main theatre gig at Hammersmith. Playing the Fulham Greyhound pub & Dingwalls was the precursor to getting deals as well as The Hope & Anchor that big John ran. There were always A&R people around that venues.

AFL and many like him as Norg relates to are introverts – many are and throw up before performances because of it. I’ve mentioned this before but never added a link, so you may find this interesting TRVL and you all:

https://www.quora.com/Are-musicians-brains-wired-differently#:~:text=Musicians%20who%20begin%20their%20training,across%20their%20expanded%20corpus%20callosum.

I’ll look for the published paper I read a few years ago to post as it’s really interesting, especially when you know musicians who you can relate to. The new home I’ve plans for include a fully loaded recording studio, so I can go back to do what I feel I do best as an engineer and producer.

John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin was the band’s straight man as Charlie was for the Stones. Someone has to be straight lol. Both very much introverts.

Norg guitarists are very precious about their instruments and talk with real love and emotions about each one from the memories.

As we’re talking music, I had the pleasure of talking back stage in BKK with Sek Loso who I feel is up there with the guitar gods especially with his song writing.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=sek+loso+best+songs&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Have a listen to the selection for his git playing and vocals. He does western covers better tan the originals and is a must to see if visiting.

Sek is bipolar and not so cool off his meds. Because of their brain wiring most musicians are in spectrum in one way of another with the alphabetical soup contained within.

TRVL Amen Corner was great band with so many like them, but on the more soulful production and equally as good was Frankie Beverly’s Maze. As with Motown and the following sound of Philadelphia (brother & sister) cam more polished production music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEopToSWa-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLIdqGiCx7s Al Jarrreau was another of that era.

For me working with Murray Head and his who’s who of session musicians was probably the best collective I worked with.

When I designed and commission the building of my EAVR room I used Wisdom Audio I got to talk a lot with, Luc, Wisdom’s MD who was involved with Steely Dan’s studio owned by Dan Fogalberg and SD members.

Norg by the sound of it Wisdom Audio would be your level of tech. https://www.wisdomaudio.com You are blessed having https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=habitech+UK&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 in the UK.

That and my good friend Steve Rutherford who is regarded as the best room engineer globally he shyly doesn’t agree with, and why Wisdom exclusively use him as their brand ambassador.

Last week he was calibrating Jason Statham’s London him with Wisdom. Apple’s HO studios Steve has calibrated, as well as recent room calibrations in the king of Jordan’s palaces.

Look at their Line Source speakers, but a day out at Habitech in their rooms will soon have you converted and It would be an experience you won’t forget.

The 60s UK sound was raw, but Stateside as with their various sounds from Bill Hayley & Elvis to Motown, BFSM Philadelphia were soon confined to the more selective of music as Brit rock became the global leader in music mucin to the chagrin of the Americans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P4XB3bM9iA

https://open.spotify.com/album/0FTGtHHCnsBUO0f5FN7LUw

Is a good cross section of 60s & 70s music from both sides of the pond.

Back to all things Gooner, I hope we use the time wisely to recharge and keep the free goal scoring mojo going as we are in the right place, but still dependent on others.

Off for my battery of heart checks now with my cardiologist for this year. My Garmin app’s data is good so hoping for good results…..

we weren’t the only CL fixture to go to penalties, so if you’ve got 20 or so minutes to kill checkout the Inter/Athletic match….watch the last 10 minutes of regulation then skip to the shootout…3 things I learned from this affair, (1) Thuram could have iced the game on two occasions but the moments appeared too big for him, which simply confirmed my previously held beliefs (2) I would never pay anything even remotely close to Inter’s evaluation for Martinez, as I don’t think he’s got what it takes to play up top in the PL and (3) Oblak still might be the best Keeper in the world

Tony
Once again an interesting post. I have passed the link of Sek Loso onto my daughter in law – right up her street.
A Wisdom set up would be good for when I stop working but I have no plans to do so for a while. We do have spare rooms to alter but it may need to be passed by the local heritage listing officer first. The stables which are used for my product manufacturing tests could be adapted but I am not sure my wife will agree. Music is not so important in her life.

Back to all things Gooner, I hope we use the time wisely to recharge

Tony
That has to mean one thing only. Road Trip! The Boys return to Dubai!

I didn’t know Nick Lowe was also Welsh. I had him down as a London er. Do you also remember that mid 70s band Brinsley Schwartz?

And NORG – your story about the Dave Edmunds connection and Pontardawe is great. I was reading about Pontardawe the other day – apparently a mad place to go out in back in the day. That creative nexus between Elvis Costello, Dave E and Nick Lowe (and some other geezer called Clive something?) yielded some brilliant songs in the second half of the 70s.

Tony

The very best of luck with the check-ups mate.

Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley… Who may have also had connections to Madness Tony?