Posh are going up!!

What can I say. Darragh Macanthony(our Chairman) was right I was wrong. We are in the Championship.

Its Posh we are
And Posh we feel
United we all stand
I'm telling you
Support The Blues
The best team in the land
Peterborough Peterborough Peterborough
La La La

Passionate Embrace

I have been married 24 years. It doesn't seem possible , does it? I mean where did those years go? How did we get so old (We're both 48).When did I get so jaded, bitter and cynical? Well, maybe I have always been a bit jaded , bitter and cynical. At least that is what Mrs Cowhut says and she has known me for 30 years (this year).

Anyway lately , as is the way with old married couples, we have sort of drifted apart- not in a nasty way- just in a comfortable pipe and slippers type way. We don't share the same interests, or more accurately we don't pretend to anymore. We did both used to like more or less the same type of music.Nowadays I don't even know what she likes or even if she ever listens to music.She doesn't when we are both together and she definitely doesn't like my musical taste anymore.

Our last great shared musical passion was Embrace. Who? Yes them. We loved them at Newcastle Uni with all the students in the early days. We loved them , standing in pitch black night at Leeds Festival with rain pelting down and us getting soaked whilst they played The Good Will Out and we sang along. We missed them when they disappeared for three years and then rushed to see them 3 times on their Out of Nothing tour. We didn't even really mind that they needed a Chris Martin song to get mainstream attention, the song was good, like a renaissance.

We both had tears in our eyes when they played Newcastle City Hall and Danny's voice was in its best form ever. He came down into the audience that night and sang Glorious Day. It didn't get much better than that.That was the peak, the high point. It dipped after that.We didn't like the next album that much(This New Day), sort of resented the stadium tour (although we went) but mainly it dipped because Danny's voice (always fragile) was shot. Chris Moyles picked up on them and overdid it as he overdoes everything and that seemed to make it worse. Danny's honesty seemed contrived and showbiz. World at Your Feet was OK but it wasn't great Embrace. We still bought all formats though.
The last gig for us was at the Newcastle Academy. I ended up going on my own, my wife didn't care enough anymore.
It was a bit sad. Richard and Mickey had to sing along with Danny on all the songs. There were people there who obviously didn't know the early stuff- Fireworks or The Good Will Out. They'd stopped ending with that one anyway.
And now they're gone again. Will they return I don't know. A part of me still cares and wants them and that passion back.

Part of me knows that love affairs don't last a whole lifetime.

Gravity

Random Post

Interpol are a band that have made me sit up and take notice since the first time I heard Turn On The Bright Lights. Seen them live just the once. They were pretty damn good. Cool and stylish and obviously in love with Joy Division, intelligent rock music doesn't get better.

I love this song. This is from a show in San Diego in June 2007

Evil- Interpol

They should be bigger than they are maybe the next album will make them superstars.Here's hoping.

Funerals and running home

I went to a tenant's funeral yesterday at the Crem. I don't usually do this but she was a good person. I don't get to see many of them so I thought I would make the effort and celebrate a good one. The service was a humanist one with a lot of friends and family participation- songs and poems as well as the usual tributes. Perhaps because I wasn't really emotionally involved in it I found it all very uplifting and life affirming which is maybe a strange feeling to get at a funeral. Made me think of my own life- would my friends and relatives be so moved about me dying?

Ran home from work for the first time in 6 months today. It was hard work but I did enjoy it. I like the spring/summer time I feel more alive and active. Not that today was anything like spring or summer at all. The three days of sunshine over Easter have given way to really miserable cold, damp foggy cloudy autumnal weather.

Spring Again

The cows are back on the Moors in Newcastle. For those of you who don't know, Newcastle has large Moors in the middle of this City. The Town Moor (the largest)which separates the City Centre from Gosforth and parts of Jesmond, and Nuns Moor which provides a gap between Fenham and the town.Traditionally the Freemen of the City (a mysterious bunch) have the right to graze cattle on these Moors. It is weird to be walking less than a mile from the City Centre across a vast open space with herds of cows and bullocks grazing around you. At this time of year its charming, the young cows are frisky and charge about the place, by the end of the summer you are cursing the cowpats and the smell.

Bobby , our dog, first notices them. He stands stiff left paw held up, sniffing the air, you can see his brain thinking "They're back!". When he was younger he would chase them, now he mostly ignores them on our walks around Nuns Moor.

The return of the cows means its running time again for me. This year its my 10Th Great North Run- the half marathon between Newcastle and South Shields that takes place each Autumn here.I have been running again for a week, just 20 minutes each run. I will build it up gradually until the end of June when I will start my "proper" 12 weeks of half marathon training.I joined a gym in the week after last year's GNR to try and maintain my Winter fitness. I was only partially successful, but did find out that I hate gyms. The gym I became a member of was Greens, part of the DeVere chain. Couldn't fault the facilities and the amount of equipment and machines available was astonisihing. I just found it a bit boring to be in a room full of people running, cross training, stepping to the sound of MTV.

I love running though. To run all you need is some shorts a T shirt a good pair of running socks and decent trainers. I prefer New Balance trainers, mostly because they are made in England (in the Lake District)so not by small children chained to radiators and beaten with sticks for a penny a pair.

They have great shops in Keswick and Shap both of which are only a couple of hours drive from here. Apart from the humanitarian concern, they are damn fine trainers.I have tried others but always come back to them.

Anyway, must go as my son has arrived back from his American Football tournament in Amsterdam,so have to go and pick him up from North Shields Ferry Terminal.
The sun is shining again (three days in a row at Easter - its akin to a miracle)Its good to be alive!

Easter

I don't know about you but when I was growing up Good Friday, was boring and long and deadly dull. No shops were open, The Greatest Story Ever Told was on the telly, it was always pissing down with rain, none of your friends nor you were allowed to play out,you had to have fish for dinner (if you were lucky it was fish and chips from the Chippy, if not it was boiled cod)and there were still two days to wait to get your Easter Eggs that you knew were somewhere in the house.
Nowadays all the shops are open and you can stuff your face with chocolate and eat what you want. Still pisses down all day though.

Easter is an end (to the Winter) and a beginning (to the long warm days of Summer), a funny transitional time.

My son is in Amsterdam this weekend with Gateshead Senators playing in a pre season tournament. He left on Wednesday afternoon on the Ferry from North Shields. He comes back Easter Monday.



My brother in law has been sacked again, after one month into his new job. Poor bastard he is not having any luck. He and my sister in law are up this weekend bet they wish they weren't now, he doesn't feel like playing happy families and I can't blame him.

Still there is always music. This is another Faith Brothers song. It's topical both because of the time of year but also because troops are returning home from Iraq with their own homecoming parades. This song although written about the Falklands war all those years ago still has resonance today.Billy Franks sings the story of a young soldier sent to fight and wounded so he "can hardly shuffle" and is kept away from the victory parades so as not to upset the cheering crowds. It makes me think of the hundreds of young men maimed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan in the phony war against terror. This Iraq war is the main reason I will never vote Labour again. The lies and half truths and the lack of apologies for this. Oh how we wanted something new in 1997 and oh how they pissed themselves laughing at us and they still do.

MP3 The Easter Parade- Faith Brothers

Cheering Myself Up

When I am down or feeling pissed off with life and its many vagaries, or I am feeling miserable because I have been reminded by a random phone call of one of the less than glorious periods of my life and the hurt I caused my beloved wife I listen to music to cheer me up.

Listening to music was never better than when it was your favourite band in session on John Peel's show. So perhaps, if like me you love The Wedding Present and you're down this will cheer you up.

MP3 The Wedding Present- Queen Anne
This was from a session they did in September 2004, their first as the reconstituted Wedding Present (or rather Cinerama renamed). If you like this buy Take Fountain where this song ended up. That album, along with Cinerama's Torino are in my opinion the best work Gedge and his band(s) have ever made. Hats off to Simon Cleave the guitarist on both whose ear for a melody and riff is unmatched. Also Kaari Paavola's drumming and percussion were outstanding on these two albums. Buy them , make David Gedge as rich as he deserves to be.

Guilt is a terrible thing

I feel bad about Saturday's post. Is it just because The Toon got stuffed? Possibly. More so its because one day my wife will read this and be upset. She has been saying all season that I want NUFC to go down. I, of course, have denied it but, as you have read in reality I have all my fingers and toes crossed that they do. I will for a short while get a childish sense of being right.I will also genuinely look forward to NUFC playing Posh next season.

Today is Paul Haig day in the music Blog world. I personally don't like his music but read The Vinyl Villain (see the link next to this great piece of prose)to find out why.

I do however like Billy Franks and his Eighties nearly band Faith Brothers. Google and my space him and them for more info. Here's a taster. I bought this single at the time.

MP3 Choose Something Like A Star- Faith Brothers

A Cockney in Newcastle

So much for Spring. Flippin' freezin' today. No doubt the sun will come out later for the match. The sun always shines on the righteous and here in Geordie land there's nobody more righteous than Shearer. The Big Match today Newcastle v Chelsea.

In case you missed it NUFC have gone mad(again)and brought Shearer in to save them, like Sir Trevor Brooking was supposed to do for the Hammers a few years back.
Sir Trev didn't stop West Ham going down and I predict Shearer won't stop Newcastle from going down either.

I hope relegation will bring an end to the madness of the last 15 years of success being just round the corner and how good The Toon are, how passionate the fans are, how important it is for the region etc etc. I blame Sky Sports for indulging this sentimental nonsense. I love living in Newcastle but as a "Cockney" (i.e. anyone from south of Newcastle) any vestiges of feelings for both the Team and a sizeable part of the supporters (i.e.that is a sizeable part of the Toon and surrounding areas) was blown away by the "Cockney Mafia out" banners that started to go round St James Park after Keegan bottled it again and walked off in a huff cos he couldn't get his own way. Even the usually sensible www.nufc.com lost it. For that alone I hope they go down like Leeds and don't come back up for a long long time. You've never won F*ck all

As I'm typing the sun has come out!!