Glasto Blasto

Glastonbury started the other day, with Jay-Z the headliner and Amy Winehouse the ’star’ attraction.

Having watched a bit of both of their sets on BBCi, i’m struggling to see how people claim that Amy Winehouse performed well. The presenters on the BBC coverage of Glasto seem to all agree how good she was, but all I saw was someone barely able to sing words, or even stand up unaided!

She’s a crack addict and a smackhead, and it shows. Rather than let her come to Glastonbury, the organizers should have done the right thing and decided not to let her perform. She needs help and it shows - badly. According to the beeb, she actually threw a punch at an audience member. Hardly the actions of a sound mind?

Problem is in this country, we like it when celebrities lives start unravelling. Rather than say that she performed really badly, we say how amazing her performance was. All that will do will uphold her belief that her lifestyle is fine, she can continue taking drugs and killing herself because she’s getting told how good her performance was.

She had talent, and there is a unique voice there, but it’s all getting chucked away.

Jay-Z on the other hand, the guy who isn’t a smackhead and isn’t a tabloid staple, was the guy who was getting the stick. Not the drugged up bitch, the rapper who came to Glasto to do something different. Noel Gallagher didn’t help matters by claiming that Glastonbury was more of a rock festival and less about the hip-hop. Jay-Z hit back, claiming that the whole festival is about variety and he should really see his show before commenting.

I’d seen Jay-Z on Jonathon Ross the previous night and was surprised that he made a good guest. I’ve seen Eminem interviewed and he’s nervous and uninteresting, Jay seemed a nice guy. So I watched a bit of his set last night, to find out that he started it with a cover of Wonderwall! An inspired move to hit back at all the doubters. 

Now, I don’t know much about his music, but I know he put on a decent show. The Foo Fighters had the crowd in the palm of their hands at Live Earth last year, and Jay-Z was doing the same. He even covered Estelle’s American Boy and did a decent job of it!

I’m glad he answered his critics in the way he did, but I only wish the media wouldn’t encourage Amy Winehouse - the Independent say “A relatively polished performance”. A relatively bollocks performance would’ve been more apt.

Unrelated Natterings

I’ve finally paid off the last remaining forty quid to Going Places, meaning the holiday to Malta now seems all the more real. I couldn’t get excited about it until it was all paid for, as I had visions of something, somewhere, going wrong!

But as it is, all I need to pay now is the holiday insurance. I also need some sun lotion, and a book on Malta. I feel that if i go there without a guide, i’ll get lost. Now that the holiday is paid, I can put all my efforts into paying off the HDTV i got on credit too. And then after that, maybe I should stop buying things on the never never! lol

I’ve been watching Euro 2008 these past weeks, and all it has done is confirm the belief that we would’ve been utterly humiliated at this tournament. Several former players (notably Jamie Redknapp) seem convinced that Rooney and Gerrard would’ve helped lighten up the tournament, much like the Dutch and the Spanish have done, and Fabio Capello would’ve led us onto glory.

Slight problem with that logic Jamie, because had we got to the Euro’s, we’d have still had Mr McLaren in charge. Plus, why is it always such a belief that this ‘golden generation’ of international players are so good? We’ve been consistently average for a long while, convincing ourselves at every major tournament that we can win this as we’re ‘far better than any of the other teams’. 

That’s something I won’t miss either, stupid soundbites from players who tell us they can win us the trophy. As we’ve known for a long time, while we fill the Premier League full of foreign imports, we’ll never win us a trophy. Simple as.

I’ve also had time to listen to the new Coldplay album. All the old Coldplay habits remain, big string laden choruses, really bad lyrics (example - “You thought you might’ve been a ghost, you didn’t get to heaven but you made it close”) and some pretentious meaning behind the album title/cover. There are some good songs on there, but quite a few rubbish ones too. Still, it’s worth buying. The latest single, Viva La Vida, is probably the best song on there. 

Free ride on the choo-choo

I took advantage of East Midlands Trains’ troubles yesterday to bag a free lift into Nottingham!

There have been strikes by conductors at the rail company in the past week as they strike over something or other, but whatever it is doesn’t affect me as I rarely travel by train. But of course in the past week they’ve decided to re-tarmac the A52, the big bastard dual carriageway that takes me into Nottingham!

The road is closed at night and down to one lane in the day, so of course it slowed down traffic somewhat - namely my bus. Previous experience has told me that if trentbarton bus drivers are late, they decide to take the bus out of service and refuse to pick you up. So, wanting to get to work on time, I decided to use the often forgotten Radcliffe railway station.

It’s only ten minutes into town, but in the afternoon the trains are almost non-existent. Thankfully, the summer seaside timetable meant that the train pulling in at 2pm was barely a third full of families working their way back from Skegness, it was also three carriages long - meaning I got a table for the super short trip! I sat, money in hand, for the conductor to take the fare but no-one came. People were stood up ready to get off in Nottingham, but no-one was working their way down to train for “fares from Radcliffe!”

I got off in Nottingham, fully expecting to get stopped at the barrier they have once you’ve got to the top of the stairs in the station, but no-one was there. A free train ride! And to top it all off, someone offered me their paper to read (which I took with me to work - 35p saved! ) I’m not sure what the train staff are striking about, but if it means free train travel then they can strike for as long as they want!

Livin’ La Viva La Vida

I’m a Coldplay fan, I’ve got their last three albums and I thoroughly enjoy their music as it reminds me of certain points in my life, but Chris Martin’s odd behaviour/odd dress sense has really left me non-plussed about their new album. Until the other day.

Since he got married and became mega-rich, he has become a bit of an arse. What put me off the new material was a supposed new direction that they were to take after their last album X&Y. I’m a traditionalist, i like my Coldplay a la ‘Shiver’ and ‘What If’! 

But then I heard the new single ‘Violet Hill’, and have seen the iTunes commercial featuring the song ‘Viva La Vida’ and am now eagerly anticipating the new album. I dunno how Mr Martin does it, but I really like Violet Hill and word is that the album isn’t too far removed from their earlier stuff. It just sounds like X&Y minus the rubbish lyrics but plus lots of ‘world music’.

Just a bit concerned about the Ricky Martin style album name. Then again, X&Y featured a ‘code’ as album art that no-one bothered deciphering, so the crazy album name doesn’t come as that much of a surprise.

Roll on the 12th!

 

Robbie Rocketpants

Forest set their stalls out early for the coming season by splashing nearly three million quid on Robert Earnshaw. With the goals he’s scored at Championship level not in doubt, it seems a bit strange that Derby were so keen to let him go - for less than they paid for him. Falling out with the manager maybe?

It was annnounced a day or so ago, and a picture of Earnshaw completing the deal appeared on the official Forest website. Now with Robert not being the tallest of guys, and with our chairman Nigel Doughty being a bit of a giant, it probably wasn’t the best idea to get them to together…!

I’m certain that Earnshaw will do well, and hopefully with him banging in the goals we’ll at least stay up next year. 

Other than that little nugget of news it has been rather quiet for both Forest and for me. Back to work is always a drag right after two weeks off, but more time off is looming on the horizon!