Thursday, December 15, 2011

Punk's not dead, its just criminal . . .

Scary news this. This was in today's papers & me really felt fer those who got hauled up. Blatant abuse of human rights which the "moral police" seem to think its ok.

Similar thing happened here when the Malaysian authorities decided KL needed a clean-up pre-Commonwealth Games. A couple of my musician friends who were at the wrong place at the wrong time (ie Central Market) were herded (along with several hundred others) into FRU trucks & sent to rehab/jail fer a couple of weeks.

Not even a phone call to family/friends, nevermind legal representation or informing employers. If you've got long/dyed/spiky hair, wear denim/leather & have piercings/tats, ye is fooking vermin & has absolutely nay rights at all. That's the prevailing message here & some people wonder why the fook we are viewed as backward.

Beware, in a police state, you could be next . . .






Punk rock fans jailed, ‘morally rehabilitated’ by Indonesian sharia police
Agence France-Presse Dec 14, 2011 – 11:35 AM ET

Police shave the hair of detained Indonesian punks at a police school in Aceh province on December 13, 2011
.by Nurdin Hasan

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Indonesian sharia police are “morally rehabilitating” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province’s image.

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

“We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities,” Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, told AFP on Wednesday.

“We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent.”

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day “moral rehabilitation” camp run by police.

A girl cried as women in headscarves cut her long unruly hair into a short bob, and some of the men groaned as their heads were shaved, according to an AFP correspondent at the camp.


Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images
A group of arrested Indonesian punks are jailed in Bandah Aceh police station, December 13, 2011
.“Why did they arrest us? They haven’t given us any reason,” said Fauzal, 20.

“We didn’t steal anything, we weren’t bothering anyone. It’s our right to go to a concert.”

A 22-year-old man from Medan city, who did not want to be named, said he feared he would lose his job for staying at the camp for 10 days.

“I’ve just started with a bank in Medan. I don’t even know what to tell them because I don’t know why I’ve been arrested.”

Police said the objective was to deter the youths from “deviant” behaviour.

“They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers,” Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan told AFP.

“We need to fix them so that they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour.”

A local rights activist Evi Narti Zain said the arrests breached human rights.

“What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don’t break any rules or harm other people,” she said.

Mr. Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation programme was merely an “orientation into normal Indonesian society.”

Aceh, on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.

Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.

Nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Coolest facial hair in footie - Socrates RIP



"That's how you play when under pressure. Brazil have replied."

Even though me was a wee lad during Espana 82, me can still remember the commentator's words when Socrates strode into the Italian penalty box & slid in that goal.

Though Brasil lost that classic tussle with the Italians, many football fans of a certain vintage will always have very fond memories of that team. Classy & reckless in equal measures, they were the closest thing to the great 1970 side that truly played football as a "beautiful game'.

And with his 70s style neo-Afro & headband, Socrates looked like the coolest thing on planet footie. Socrates famously sat fer his medical exams whille being a full time pro & he is also famed fer his pro-democracy campaigning whihc helped overthrow a dictatorship.

Alas, the Smoking Doctor who captained Brasil passed on today at the age of 57.

And to quote a narrator on one those 'great Brasilian world cup' videos who said, "these men have truly bestowed on us a golden almanac of memories."

RIP.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Holy Smokin' Bassist, Batman!



Bought a copy of Bass Player mag (I know, I know - gotta look the part) with this Jonas Hellborg dude on the cover. A quick search on youtube yielded plenty of smack me fooking forehead & jaw on ground moments.

Inspired stuff.

Just the stuff to make ye wants to pick up an instrument or pawn it in disgust.

Again, apologies to anyone still reading fer the delay in between posts & hopes ye enjoys the vid.

Am off to put in some much needed practice minutes . . .

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Thrilla In Manila - RIP Smokin' Joe Frazier

Boxing legend Smoking Joe Frazier passed away yesterday after losing the battle against liver cancer.

A giant of the sporting arena & someone who got way too much crap from a peer who he had beaten in the Fight of the Century in 1971.

Those who are wondering wot the fuss is all about, please watch the absolutely BRILLIANT documentary below (made by the same team who gave us Oscar-winning When We Were Kings about The Rumble in The Jungle).

Remarkable film about possibly the most brutal fight in the history of pugilism.

Smokin' Joe Frazier - a truly great champion. RIP . . .









Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Grindcore - The Meaning of . . .



Watched this very entertaining vid many many many years ago.

Highly entertaining & very educational, if ye wants to knows more about the grindcore scene.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Truth . . .

Incredibly the controversy rages on & it has taken the Hillsborough victim's familes 22 long years to get to this point. Which is to get the UK govt to acknowledge its failings & its part in the cover up of the aftermath of that tragedy that claimed 96 Kopite lives.

FFS says:

Fook the police . . . in this case the Yorkshire constabulary who made grave mistakes on that day & fer all the subsequent lies.

Fook the UK Sun fer printing shite regarding the incident.

Fook Maggie Tatcher & her Conservatove govt which treated football fans like lepers.

Read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/17/hillsborough-disaster-legacy-lies

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Master of Frets



Imagine wot would the history of metaldom be if Metallica had actually hired this dude to replace Cliff?

Les Claypool had actually gone fer the auditions but the Metalligang found him just a little way too out there.

Perhaps they wouldn't have gone all shitty soft rock if they had replaced an unconventional bass legend with a totally off the wall character like Les.

Shame . . .



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Shanks The Man



Part of the reason why me writes in a pseudo-Scots accent ala Irvine Welsh is as a tribute to this great man. All dem ye, didnae & cannaes isn't me thinking me is some fooking gwailo. Though Shanks had left by the time became a Kopite, listening to his interviews were nothing usch of awe inspiring (see above).

Gone but never forgotten.

From The Telegraph


Bill Shankly was speaking and Cally was spellbound by his master’s voice all over again.
Here was a newly unearthed old cassette recording of Shankly holding court in one of his last interviews, responding at 67 to a question about whether there were any mistakes he had regretted during his great career. “No,” he had scolded his questioner.

“I don’t call them mistakes, never mistakes! That’s too negative. I call them ‘happenings’. Aye, you have to learn from ‘happenings!’”

Callaghan could only look and smile at Ian St John, Chris Lawler and Ron Yeats. Ha! As if Shanks would ever have admitted to fallibility!

“Eerie. You could feel the same aura, how he compelled you to listen when he spoke,” reckoned Callaghan. “It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, like he was there in the room with us.”

But then maybe Shankly is still with us all. The spirit of the extraordinary people’s manager who took Liverpool FC from a nowhere club to global phenomenon largely through the sheer galvanising force of his personality and footballing passion seems to be more all-pervading by the year, reckons Callaghan.

“His values and what he stood for only seem to get more precious, more important to people here.”
Saturday’s Merseyside derby comes in the week of the 30th anniversary of his death and Karen Gill has, as ever, received hundreds of e-mails, texts and letters celebrating the memory of her granddad. From New Zealand to Mauritius and, yes, even back to Everton.

“I get more every year from all over the world,” she says, overwhelmed at how the cult just grows. “I don’t know why? Maybe, he symbolises good times, positive things about Liverpool. It’s a unique phenomenon.”
At her home in Greece, she reads from the tribute the Liverpool Echo offered on his death. “Shanks was not just a soccer genius, a charismatic, inspirational force.

"He won Cups and titles, yes, but he also won the hearts of men, women and children the world over. He walked with the high and the mighty but was never deluded by grandeur.

"His love was rooted deeply among the ordinary folk of Liverpool. He enriched the city immeasurably.”

A city, mind, not just a club. How astonishing, thinks Karen, that 30 years on, he still keeps enriching.

She was only 16 at the time and, to her, he was just the lovely, gruff, storytelling grandad who was so obsessed with the game that when the local kids came round with a football after Sunday dinner to ask if “Mr Shankly can come out to play”, even at 65 he just couldn’t say no. Of course, he had to be on the winning side, too!

On the day of his funeral, when she saw the unbelievable crowds lining the route from his home in Bellefield Avenue to the church, she began to truly comprehend what he meant to Liverpool.
“Including plenty who were wearing Evertonian blue,” she recalls.

Remember the fabled Shanklyism: “If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, I’d draw the curtains”?
Well, Karen relates how, actually, he had respect for the old enemy. When he took his dog for a walk, it was usually down to the nearby Everton training ground and he even got physio treatment there.

“Respect, but he still loved to beat them!” she smiles. And, of course, they made a perfect punchline for a bloke with the timing and delivery of a top stand-up comic.

Today, Karen is the chair of the Liverpool FC supporters commission, representing all fan bases and designed to give a direct line to the club’s new owners.

“In this day of corporatisation of football, at least there’s an indication from the club that they do care about supporters and I’d like to think that has stemmed from my granddad. For me, this feels like a chance to do something in his footsteps. It makes me proud.”

Next Friday, extracts from that cassette tape of him being interviewed by former headmaster Frank McFarlane, the recording which has transfixed Callaghan and co at rehearsal, will be interspersed with the four players giving their memories in a special “Bill Shankly Anniversary Show” at Southport Theatre.

The show is written by John Keith, who had the privilege of hearing Shankly’s wit and wisdom at Anfield on a daily basis as the Daily Express’s Merseyside man.

For five years now, it has played to full houses from Norway to Ireland and Keith notes: “We do get a lot of Evertonians coming too. They say ‘we hate Liverpool, but we love Bill Shankly!’ You see, he transcended the game.”

It is as the inscription on the base of the statue of the scarf-wearing Shanks, which guards Anfield with bronze arms outstretched like some angel of the north, puts it with perfect simplicity: “He made the people happy”.
And, to this day, the very thought of him still does too.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Stylo Milo




Apologies to anyone still reading this blog fer the infrequent updates. Have been rather preoccupied with a new hobby.

As am sure many of ye are familiar with that Malay proverb, "Biar Mati Eksyen, Jangan mati accident". Taking that sound advice to heart, me has been trawling the classifieds in search of a battle axe to feed me inner metal child.

This is one that has caught me eye. Made in Land of the Rising Sun and of a vintage when hair was big & spandex tight. American made BC Rich instruments costs a fooking bomb and even this three decade old instrument commands at least a couple of Gs.

Pricey but it still is tempting.

Apologies fer the bass porn. Just me state of mind right now . . .

ps: Any feedback from the musically inclined is very much appreciated.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Interview with Evile



If ye digs early/classic Metallica, ye should check out Evile. These lads from Huddersfield have honed that early-80s thrash sound into an artform without sounding ham-fisted or cliched.

please do check out the interview this humble scribe did with the guitarist here: http://www.spadesmagazine.com/2011/09/15/evile-interview-with-ol-drake/

Thrash fooking Rules!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Overkill



There's four, five & six-string basses but this is just fooking overkill . . .

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Free Bassing



Sexy or wot?

This midlife crisis is sure making life very difficult fer me small wallet . . . (*sigh*)

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fiat Coupe Merdeka Run 2011 - pix

Decided to make use of the long break by organising a run to Ulu Yam with some other Coupe owners. Had to get up at a God forsaken hour (4am!!!) but it was worthwhile.

Great fun. Plenty of camaraderie & loads of very very nice cars . . .




















Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pictures of you



Brought home the office DSLR camera & the pix above was one of me better results.

Quite pleased with this actually. So much so me thinks me might just invest in one.

Ahhh, this mid-age malarkey is getting to be quite expensive . . .

Monday, August 22, 2011

Football & Pregnancy

Women keep telling us we don't know wot its like to be pregnant.

Well, me begs to differ.

Every year, fer as long as me can remember, many men folk suffer from sleepless nites, nausea, sweaty palms, anxiety, nervous fits, wild mood swings, euphoric highs followed by severe depressions.

Yup folks, its the nine months that make up footie season!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Calling all Kopites!



And so it begins. The palpitations, the sweaty palms, the nervous anticipation & the huge expectation that comes with the start of every new season.

So all ye Kopites reading this, ye is invited to come sink a few cold ones, make some noise & wear yer Kopite colours on yer sleeve @ The Bank, Plaza Kelana Jaya.

YNWA!!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Music Collection - hobby of a bygone era?



The Flea market @ Amcorp Mall.

Despite increasing prices of collectible vinyl & Cds, me still feels its a great place to find affordable music.

Just last Sunday me managed to find a CD copy of Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic. Remastered edition no less fer just RM25. Also found Mahavishnu Ochestra's Birds of Fire LP fer RM35.

Bargain me thinks.

How come me don't see very many youngsters there browsing fer sounds? has shopping fer music become an old codger's hobby?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Dream Gal of Yesteryear . . .

Couldn't log on to me blog fer a few days. Dunno wot the problem was but to make up fer the sudden disappearance of Fer Fook's Sake, please allow me to brighten up yer day with a few nice shots.

Came across these when me was searching fer Whitesnake vids in anticipation of their upcoming KL gig (30 Oct 2011, Stadim Negara). Am sure many of ye remembers the vixen that was in the bands' vids circa 1987.

The one & only Miss Tawny Kitaen.


Ye can see why she represented the teenage (& most likely adult) fantasy woman.


These were taken when she was a 19-year-old model.


Alas, me will not spoil yer day with more recent pix of Miss Kitaen. No one stops ravages of time . . .

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Times They Are A'Changing



Have always complained loudly about certain friends who cannae be bothered to register as a voter. Well, met one of them over the weekend & this time there was nay brushing aside the issues.

If anyone doubted the effectiveness of Bersih in waking up the masses, me friend is the perfect example. Self-made, young & successful, he was the archetypal apathetic urbanite.

But this time even he was disgusted by the bias & slant of the local media. He now sees BN & its leadership fer wot it is . . .

C'mon people, we can make a change. Ye don't need to march in the streets, be a radical blogger or join a political party. All ye need to do is visit yer local post office to be part of the your country's future.

Monday, July 11, 2011

In Awe of Madam Liberty



“Why do we have to feel so scared in our own home land . . . and by own countrymen,” says Madam Ooi dubbed "Lady Liberty of Malaysia".

Well said.

Unlike some people me knows who still buy BN's propaganda, is this the pix of a "terrorist / Indian thug / troublemaker" ?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Why Italian car owners are a breed apart . . .

Some time ago, a thread appeared on Italia Auto Malaysia website & apparently, an unfortunate Alfa owner had his Bella stolen.

Car was later found abandoned & stripped of vital parts & ICE.

The bangkai of said Alfa was towed to Subang Jaya police station & left out in front.

Some of the members were wondering whether the car could be bought or taken away to be used for spare parts.

They enquired & were told that it was being held as evidence in a theft case. Car has been written off by insurance company.

So whilst waiting fer the case to go to court, one of the IA members took great pity on seeing such a magnificent car's interior fade due to a broken window.

This is wot he did . . .



Respect la this dude . . .

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Chuffed to bits!



Yup, this humble scribe managed to do a extra-short interview with Barney Greenway of Napalm Death after their brilliant gig on Monday nite at 1Cafe, Kuala Lumpur.

Please do visit http://spadesmagazine.com/ to read the gig review as well as watching some hand held camera footage.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Paul . . . The Biopic



This was in yesterday's Guardian, whicxh in me mind highlights just how maddeningly popular footie is compared to any other sport known to mankind:

The Life & Times of Paul the Octopus

While eight new Paul the Octopuses go head-to-head during the Women's World Cup to choose a successor for the late tipster, his legacy has been preserved on celluloid, reports Der Spiegel.

Filmmaker Alexandre Philippe has captured the mighty one in a documentary entitled The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus. Philippe spent four days with Paul and spoke to cephalopod experts, statisticians and bookmakers. "I think the world is always craving stories like this; an underdog story - or rather an underoctopus story."

"No one has really been able to do what Paul was able to do. It's charged with positive energy and feeling, and people couldn't help but embrace it," he said.

As the search continues for Paul's replacement, Phillipe is unsure he can ever be replaced. "There have been a lot of animals who people have tried to get to do predictions," he said. "They're pretty bitter about the fact that Paul could do it. He could do something that no other animal or human could do."

Perhaps Paul really was unique, the film-maker himself does not want to rule out any possibilities: "There's the significance of the number eight — eight tentacles, eight matches predicted correctly, eight goals scored during the tournament by Spain. It's all very interesting," he said.

Intriguingly, however, it's not the only film underway, as a Chinese company is also at work on a black comedy entitled: The Murder of Paul the Octopus, although Phillipe's movie has the superior tagline: "One mouth, two eyes, eight arms, nine brains … Two BILLION fans."

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Dark Art of Cookery



This is fooking cool.

Who would've thought that combination of extreme black metal & vegan recipes would be such a hit?

Over a million hits fer each of his vids so dar, vegan black metal chef proves that not all metal fans are po-faced, glum freaks with nay sense of humour.

Brilliant!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bad Case of Duderock



Have belatedly caught a bad case of duderock. Canadian prog legends Rush seem to be dominating me stereo at home, in the car & at work.

Is turning 40 led me to develop a love fer complex drum solos?

Am a bit spooked. . .

ps: To anyone reading this, me humbly request that ye visit our music website at http://spadesmagazine.com/ & also 'like' our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/SpadesMagazine)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Old Outlaw of Grass Country



78 years old & still going strong. A true outlaw if there ever was one . . .

Willie Nelson gets fine for marijuana possession

June 09, 2011SAN ANTONIO, June 9 — When Willie Nelson is on the road again, he will be travelling without a Texas drug charge hanging over his head.

A West Texas prosecutor said yesterday that the legendary singer and songwriter has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour charge of possession of drug paraphernalia and has agreed to pay a US$500 (RM1,500) fine plus court costs of about US$280.

“I have given him the option to do it by mail,” said C.R. Bramblett, the county attorney in remote Hudspeth County, where Nelson (picture) was charged with marijuana possession last November.

A Border Patrol officer smelled pot inside Nelson’s tour bus when it was pulled over at a checkpoint.

Bramblett said he has spoken with Nelson’s attorney, and the singer has agreed to the plea deal. Bramblett expects the case to be settled within two weeks.

“All he has to do is sign the papers, and get me a cashier’s cheque for the money,” Bramblett told Reuters.

Bramblett said the case will be dismissed entirely if Nelson stays out of trouble for 30 days.

He says officials have determined that there was a “little bit less than two ounces” of marijuana inside the bus, which allows the case to be treated as a misdemeanour.

Officials had initially reported that as much as five ounces of pot was discovered, which would have made the case a felony.

“He got the same thing I’d give to anybody,” Bramblett said of the settlement. — Reuters

Monday, June 6, 2011

Gaji buta?



Can ye fooking believe it? This dude is on 120,000 sterling pounds a week @ Anfield.

Wot a fooking mess. Fer all the optimism that King Kenny has brought back into the club, reports like this concerning over-inflated wages & disastrous signings really puts things into perspective.

Besides Milan Jovanovic & Joe Cole who are picking up the proverbial gaji buta, we've got to contend with a whole host of players who nay longer fit into our plans & are looking to be shipped off fer nothing or at a considerable loss - see Aqualani, Insua, El Zhar et al.

Fer all those Kopites who think we is gonna be splashing cash like there's nay tomorrow this summer, me thinks the new owners are gonna be looking at the names above & be very circumspect on how they spend the dosh.

Lest not talk about champion's league qualification or title challenges just yet, clearing out the deadwood alone is gonna be a huge test of King Kenny's resolve . . .

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Greatest Brasilian Ever?



Anyone know where me can gets this?

Monday, May 23, 2011

Alternative

Nay more waxing, nay more fooking stone chips, nay more agonising over faded paintjobs.

This certainly looks like a very viable alternative.

Shop is new & is offering attractive price schemes to draw in patrons.

Anyone game to try this?









Thursday, May 12, 2011

Giving canines a bad name . . .

Have had it.

Am absolutely sick of this shit.

Dog shit to be precise.

Especially Big Dogs that fooking poop in public.

Flea- & tick-ridden mongrels that do nothing but make a mess in public.

In front of yer house. On yer car tyres.

Yeah. Ye knows wot me is talking about.

Maybe its time to put these Big Dogs down with a lethal injection.

No . . . that would just be too humane . . .

Permanent nozzle & a pair of bricks to the bollox would seem more appropriate . . .

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Wot's in a Name?

Sorry. This is a Spades-endorsed rant. But what is it with indie bands & fooking silly names? Local bands in particular seem to subscribe to the three-parter, nonsensical name formula most rigidly.

Ever since Old Automatic Garbage broke through mainstream radio in Malaysia, there have been a slew of outfits with similarly rubbish names. Seven Collar T-Shirt? Nice stupid Playground? Citizens of Ice Cream?

Fer fook's sake. These monikers just scream 'we is just too clever by half' & are particularly irksome fer the simple fact that it showed band had no originality beyond throwing a group of syllables together. It also reeks of hipster bullshit

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Magnificent Seven

Me has always lamented the utter lack of sophistication & fun amongst Malaysia's backward car-buying public. As South East Asia's largest car market, Malaysians (save fer small minority) are decidedly mundane when it comes to their choice of wheels.

The obsession fer mini-tanks &/or Japanese saloons with zero character has meant we are deprived of choice. Many marques & models never make their way here (eg Ford Ka).

Only the other day, me was showing the wifey a copy of Octane magazine & the report on the latest incarnation of the Caterham Seven, saying how nice it'd be if we had a choice of buying something like that.

And today, me wipes me blinkers in disbelief as news filters through that Dato' Tony Fernandes has bought 100% stake in the lil' sports car manufacturer.

YES!!!! And double fooking YES!!!

There is now a chance that the magnificent sevens will find their way onto our shores & may even be within reach of an average salaryman. These are truly incredible machinery which have largely remained unchanged since Colin Chapman designed them as the Lotus 7 half a century ago!

"Lightness = Speed" was Chapman's mantra & we may just be able to sample one of the fastest track & road cars ever made fer ourselves.


To start drooling, click here: http://www.caterham.co.uk/


ps: Please excuse the rather obvious header . . . But blimey, me is as excited as 7-year old on a trip to the fooking toy store. To Dato' Tony, me says "Caya La, Macha!"

Keyboard bashing of the highest order


Found this piece in the Guardian commemorating When Saturday Comes' recent 25th anniversary. Wish me could write like this.

But more importantly, it celebrates a true fanzine which has remained unchanged in the face of football's continuing evolution. Sticking righteously to the principles of this being the people's game & all articles should thus be written by dyed-in-the-wool supporters who live & breathe the sport.

You will find the link to WSC on the sidebar (under footie news) of this blog.

Long live WSC!

When Saturday Comes – eyes and ears of football, and voice of the fans
WSC provided a voice for an outlaw sport back in 1986 but its relevance is as great as ever


When Saturday Comes has been in existence for 25 years and has become a bastion in a sea of greed and inanity. Photograph: WSC
We really are spoilt these days. Football: it's everywhere. And not just in its shoutiest, most broad-brush incarnation. Intelligent comment, learned discourse, frenziedly pedantic obsession: they're all not just available but forcibly thrust into the gaping cavity of our collective footballing gullet. The progress of football into, through and beyond the mainstream is still a striking thing. Perhaps it is this endlessly barfing nature of the sport's media – under- and overground, paper and screen – that makes us take these riches slightly for granted.

Last month, When Saturday Comes celebrated its 25th anniversary as the UK's leading – and now only – independent national football magazine. This milestone passed without a great deal of comment beyond the immediate environs of its readership and the industry itself. The magazine is commemorating the achievement with a series of special issues over the summer. Most commercial anniversaries are largely meaningless – and rightly ignored – but with WSC there is a sense that this really is a moment worth reflecting on, at least in my own partial opinion as a long-standing on-off contributor.

Over its quarter of a century WSC has spanned, chronicled, and even perhaps spurred along the entire period of football's recent fast-forward evolution. Like a slightly mildewed Victorian keystone buried within the sparkling bowels of a craning new-build mega-city, it has remained essentially unchanged as football has mushroomed around it.

To get a sense of WSC's significance it is necessary to tinkle the wind chimes, smear your screen with Vaseline and time-tunnel back to 1986. Strange as it might seem, in WSC-year-zero football was still considered a kind of outlaw pursuit. Not a charismatic outlaw pursuit either, but instead a kind of dunder-headed yobs' circus, to be laughed at and not with – albeit only at those moments when it wasn't bull-necking its way around your town centre throwing darts at pensioners and conscientiously rioting in Wimpy.

There was no real mainstream football presence: in the broader media the game was usually portrayed as a kind of urban affliction, like planning blight or unlicensed mini-cabs. Nobody expected the players to be role models or the face of a new range of edgy urban menswear, perhaps because they all looked like angry junior butchers. Football had been, by turns, assailed and ignored. It lurked touchily in semi-leftfield.

It was against this largely unanimous sense of righteous and hierarchically sanctioned alienation that WSC first emerged. It was a DIY-ish production, an echo along with its many fanzine contemporaries of the moment 10 years earlier when punk musicians had decreed that lack of a recording contract, an instrument – and indeed talent – need no longer be an obstacle to getting yourself heard.

Founded by the journalist Mike Ticher, occasionally of these pages, WSC was initially an offshoot of the music fanzine Snipe, which was published from a small press in a semi-derelict shed in Upper Clapton Road, east London. Issue one of WSC was a giveaway with issue two of Snipe, a piggybacking that soon gave way to outright historical ascendancy as Ticher's spiky, likeable, unashamedly cerebral football magazine struck a chord with an unexpectedly voracious audience.

By 1988, WSC had shed its hand-stapled adolescence and blossomed into a national monthly magazine covering both the domestic leagues and international football, its popularity spurred in part by coverage of the African Cup of Nations through the 1990s. While louder, more expensively backed, more cravenly ambitious football magazines bubbled up and disappeared with predictable regularity in the coming decade of mainstream footballing land-grab (what we might call the Lovejoy Years), WSC has continued along its way.

Its longevity is perhaps grounded in the unwavering refusal of its editorial staff to bend with fashion, agree to go on TV, pop up as a talking head in a year-end countdown clip-show, cash in with a series of annoying and hastily scrawled books, or basically extend far beyond their own pages. The magazine has still only been edited by two people: Ticher, who now lives in Australia, and the current editor Andy Lyons, also an early contributor.

WSC has changed very little. It remains infused with that founding fanzine spirit, its default setting as ever a football supporter's eye view. It is quietly and constitutionally political: the running man emblem on the cover since issue one (tagline: "The People") no empty boast from a magazine that has backed supporter campaigning from the early days of the Thatcher government's reflex demonising of the football supporter to campaigns for justice for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, to providing a dissenting voice in the last decade and half of galloping financial chicanery.

Where WSC has been most prominent is in its ambient influence. Before its rise to prominence the wider media – outside of the thriving club fanzine network – simply didn't write about sport the way it does now. The fanzine culture that WSC popularised was a template for the new vocabulary of puckish humour, critical scrutiny of football's hierarchies and the promiscuous eliding of football with other parts of the popular culture.

Beyond newspapers this voice has evolved further, finding expression in the massed cyber-rhubarb of the eclectic, unstoppable – by turns arch, rabid, ill-informed and chasteningly refined – new frontier of the footballing blogosphere. WSC first brought this into the mainstream, and it did other things first, too: the football-humour bits, occasionally spot-on, occasionally excruciating; and the publication of more literary or tangentially related writers – John Peel, Mark E Smith and the pre-fame Nick Hornby have all contributed.

There have been tricky times along the way, with periodic near-foldings plus issues of tone and outlook too. Football has transformed itself completely over the past 25 years. The founding oppositions of WSC's genesis – football versus the enemy – have melted into gurglingly inclusive triumphalism. It is now the non-football fan who is marginalised. Even the title When Saturday Comes looks terminally outmoded, redolent with unintentional nostalgia. When Tuesday Night Comes might be more appropriate; or When Saturday Comes: Only 24 hours Til Super Sunday. At times during the last decade the magazine has even risked becoming a little crabby and defensive.

No doubt this is the price of remaining eternally vigilant against bogus and transient. It is also one of the reason WSC should be treasured. English football needs all the cussedly unbending sense of conscience and duty it can get these days.

It is, though, still perhaps easier to praise WSC by saying what it isn't. This is the only place where you will find no sponsor-driven interviews with a captive star (in fact one promised one-to-one with a top Premier League player was abandoned when the player concerned answered a succession of probing questions with "I'm just here to talk about Puma boots"); no celebrity-driven features, of the James-Corden's-Top-10-favourite-player-mucus-expectorating-incidents; no forced gaiety or feigned interest in the passing clouds of the day; and best of all, no barriers.

Twenty-five years on, WSC is still an open forum, open to contributions from all and still ploughing its entirely unbeholden furrow. If it is still with us in another 25 years we can be sure at least that there are one or two bits of football yet to be annexed by the forces of greed and inanity.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Never too old !!!



Though wifey & meself have seen this noisy lot twice, me is still fooking chuffed to bits that that they are coming to our shores again. Have once again tried contacting two of me former gig-going buddies from varsity days to join us.

One is too wrapped up in his business while the other seems to have become the very definition of middle age fuddy-duddiness.

Fer fook's sake, dudes, how bad can things have degenerated to if ye cannae spare an hour or two fer dinner & a ear-splitting gig to relive wasted youth?

Success & a comfortable family life means being able to do some silly things like going to see Napalm Death Live on June 18!!!

Otherwise, wot's the point?

Monday, April 18, 2011

A Moment's Silence

Another Spring & perhaps memories are not as fresh.

But the pain lingers on.

Will not try to pretend me understand wot it was like to lose someone @ Hillsborough.

All we can do spare a moment's though & a silent prayer fer those who went too soon & fer their families & loved ones.

To watch the Memorial Service, click here: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/video/Features/Hillsborough-Me-25718.php3

JFT96 . . . YNWA!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Flares, Hairs & Football!



This has been making the rounds again on Astro & me would definitely recommend it to all footie fans.

The Damned United tells the tale of Brian Clough's ill-fated appointment as manager of Leeds United. Fourty four fooking days is all he lasted.

This has got to be one, if not the best, films on the beautiful game. A damn fine performance from Michael Sheen as Ole Big 'Ead & Timothy Spall as his partner in crime, Peter Taylor.

The scenes of muddy pitches & flamboyant sideburns really did bring back some fond memories of watching footie from a bygone era.

The actual footage of Liverpool's King Kev clash with Leed's Norman Hunter in the 1974 Charity Shield on its own is worth the entry fee.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Built fer F1, broken by . . .



Tarox is a company founded by Gianni Taroni in 1976 & specialises in making high performance braking systems. Its reputation was greatly enchanced when it powered Williams to F1 victory in the 1982 season.

D'Yella Beast came fitted with a set of these magnificent brakes & the previous owner assures me they are in very good nick.

So how is it possible fer me demure wifey to wear out a set of these THICK, BIG ASS pads in less than a year??!!??

Monday, March 21, 2011

Cure fer the Monday Blues



From The Band's Last Waltz farewell sessions.

Abso-fooking-lutely brilliant.

Most certainly brightened up me day.

Hope it does the same fer ye.

(*goosebumps*)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Xcuse me while I kiss the sky . . .



Wot a life . . .

Owsley Stanley killed in car crash
LOS ANGELES, March 14 — Owsley “Bear” Stanley, a 1960s counterculture figure who flooded the flower power scene with LSD and was an early benefactor of the Grateful Dead, died in a car crash in his adopted home country of Australia yesterday, his family said. He was 76.

The renegade grandson of a former governor of Kentucky, Stanley helped lay the foundation for the psychedelic era by producing more than a million doses of LSD at his labs in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

“He made acid so pure and wonderful that people like Jimi Hendrix wrote hit songs about it and others named their band in its honor,” former rock ‘n’ roll tour manager Sam Cutler wrote in his 2008 memoirs “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Hendrix’s song “Purple Haze” was reputedly inspired by a batch of Stanley’s product, though the guitarist denied any drug link. The ear-splitting psychedelic-blues combo Blue Cheer took its named from another batch.

Stanley briefly managed the Grateful Dead, and oversaw every aspect of their live sound at a time when little thought was given to amplification in public venues. His tape recordings of Dead concerts were turned into live albums, providing him with a healthy income in later life.

“When it came to technology, the Bear was one of the most far-out and interesting guys on the planet,” Cutler wrote. “The first FM live simulcast could be, in part, attributed to his vision, as could the first quadraphonic simulcast on radio.”
The Dead, a fabled rock band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 known for its improvisational live concerts, wrote about him in their song “Alice D. Millionaire” after a 1967 arrest prompted a newspaper to describe Stanley as an “LSD millionaire.”

Steely Dan’s 1976 single “Kid Charlemagne” was loosely inspired by Stanley’s exploits.

‘COMMUNITY SERVICE’
According to a 2007 profile in the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanley started cooking LSD after discovering the recipe in a chemistry journal at the University of California, Berkeley.
The police raided his first lab in 1966, but Stanley successfully sued for the return of his equipment. After a marijuana bust in 1970, he went to prison for two years.

“I wound up doing time for something I should have been rewarded for,” he told the Chronicle’s Joel Selvin.

“What I did was a community service, the way I look at it. I was punished for political reasons. Absolutely meaningless. Was I a criminal? No. I was a good member of society. Only my society and the one making the laws are different.”
He emigrated to the tropical Australian state of Queensland in the early 1980s, apparently fearful of a new ice age, and sold enamel sculptures on the Internet. He lost one of his vocal cords to cancer.

Stanley was born Augustus Owsley Stanley III in Kentucky, a state governed by his namesake grandfather from 1915 to 1919. He served in the US Air Force for 18 months, studied ballet in Los Angeles and then enrolled at UC Berkeley. In addition to producing and advocating LSD, he adhered to an all-meat diet.

Cutler, speaking on behalf of the family, said in an interview that Stanley and his wife, Sheila, were driving to their home near the city of Cairns along a dangerous stretch of highway when he evidently lost control during a storm. He died instantly; his wife broke her collar bone.

Stanley is also survived by four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. — Reuters

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Ace of . . .


Yer all cordially invited to check out the new music & gig review site set up by Nicko & meself.

Please do drop by & share our passion fer good sounds at http://spadesmagazine.com/.

Maiden gig review has been posted & would appreciate yer feedback.

Cheers!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Can it be true?



Wifey's favourite Filipino Boy Band is headed this way! Got email confirmation from the band's management.

Scheduled the day after they hit Bangkok, this would be a great chance to see these thrash metal titans in the flesh.

While it may be a trip down memory lane fer some, their newer material does live up to expectations.

Frolic in the fooking park, anybody?



Friday, February 18, 2011

Well said, Ian!


Spotted in the Guardian today, an interview with a real LFC No9 - Ian Rush. He had this to say:

Where's your favourite destination? Malaysia – I go there every year. The people are friendly, the scenery's lovely. You have to go. I took my family last year and they fell in love with it as well.

Yer welcome around these parts anytime!

To read full interview, click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/feb/18/ian-rush-small-talk-interview .

Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Crying Shame



Well, Nando, the pix above shows ye wot kinda club ye just fooking joined. One which has fans blindly copy our banner without even bothering to remove the Shankly Gates motif from the design . . . wtf??!!??

When ye was playing shite, we said, "give the lad a break, he's been playing non-stop fer two fooking years."

When ye sulked on the pitch, we said, "rafa/roy didnae know how best to use ye & the tactics put too much strain on yer frail shoulders."

When ye fell on yer arse against piss poor defenders, we said, "Leave it out, he's recovering from injury."

One game in & already yer being compared to that doyen of crap & expensive strikers - Adriyv Schvenko . . . Hope ye likes it down there.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Better than Viagra!



Dropped by AutoConnexion's showroon in Jln 13/2, PJ last weekend & me is still having a fooking raging stiffy. Was told that there are some pre-reg 159s fer sale at a hefty discount & fook me, this is one seriously nice car. From the hand stiched leather interior to the triple headlamps, me very nearly creamed meself from the sheer beauty alone.

Most have fairly low-mileage on them as they were only used fer some promo work last Nov. Buyers will get RM20k knocked off the price tag (ie RM178k), nice number plate as well as six months free road tax.

Yes, it is a LOT of dough. But once ye've seen it . . .

The words 'beg, borrow or fooking steal one' come to mind.

ps: Ye can call Mazmi @ 0183765100 fer a test drive. Go on . . . ye won't regret it!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

A Career in Modelling


Am sure some of ye tune in to Astro's ch734 regularly & would've noticed one of the trailers that goes something like this:

"It's not easy being a top model. Sure, there's the girls, the photoshoots & pampering. But behind the scenes there's the workouts, the extreme makeovers & the greasy fan boys. But at the end of the day, its all worth it."

Well, me is pleased to say D'Yella Beast got to experience just that when it was invited to be part of Italia Auto's calendar shoot.


The shoot took place @ Jemima Films on Jln Tun Razak which houses loads of vintage cars (that's another blog posting on its own when me has sifted thru the tons of pix me took). Five cars (Mito, 155, classic GTV, Bravo GT & yers truly) were invited plus a super rare Dino from the Jemima collection was used fer the shoot.


All in it was great fun & made the hours of muscle ache-inducing waxing D'Yella Beast worthwhile. Cannae fooking wait to see the finished product.

ps: A big TQ to Sherman of Time Studios & Nik Azwaa fer organising this. It was a fooking blast!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Welcome Back


Dear Mr Dalglish,

Welcome back to the dugout. Ye should never have left in the first place. And me will refrain from using words such as 'messiah' fer fear ye may be crucified fer not meeting unrealistic expectations.

Suffice to say, whilst me is overjoyed ye has returned, deep down there is a fear that we are turning into the Toon with the fervour fer club legends / hometown heroes, or worse, fooking Everton & the multiple returns of Howard Kendall.

But thank ye. The club needs ye. We need ye.

Ye'll Never Walk Alone.

Anfield Devotee

ps: Shame ye had to lose the first game to the manc's star performer - Howard Webb . . .