pulphack

jeez, mh, that's basically how i feel about beng english. except i've faffed around and not been so succinct! it would be about time holland won it - robbed blind in 74&78 when they were the most beautiful side in each finals - the concept of total football being all that kept me goin through several dire years at brisbane road. the moronic clive tyldsely was rambling on about it being too early for this dutch side to win it as they aren't at their peak yet as a team... how many years does he think ruud has left at the very top? commentators, eh? tyldseley is an all-time low... him& pleat paired is a 'reach for the mute' marriage. i'd love to be proud of an england performance, but so far it's been the whole being less than the sum. erickson wouldn't know how to get off the back foot if you showed him a diagram written on the body of a naked blonde. meanwhile, back in the real world - simpson may regret that move. preston is a bit of a poisoned chalice in my view - after moyes and so many play-offs, anything less than promotion (and automatic at that) may be seen as failure. as long as carlisle don't make a move for lingy... maybe martin allen? only an idiot would go to mk franchise fc (go on, tell me he's signed and i missed it!)

pedant! shall we re-phrase as who HAD the larger nose? i think durante, ahead in the same way the gees are at the tape, as it were.

yeah, isn't this a bit too close to the 'didn't think they were still alive' thread? if there's supposed to be a difference, perhaps it should be defined. for those of us who are a bit slow, like. 'cause i can't see much difference at all.

godot old son, you're right and i wouldn't dispute it. of course the media go on about it because it's popular. and of course there's no shame in being proud of being english (viz the countryside, the writing, vaughan williams, etc), which i am. my point (though i concede that you might not have been directing anything at me specifically) is that a lot of people are xenophobic when it comes to footy, and it spoils it for me. i do support england, as it goes, but i also have respect for the other teams, especially when they include english born or based players (i'm more likely to have seen the t&t team playing than england, as i go to league 1&2 games, not premiership). and that's sorely lacking in yer average boozer or tabloid rag. two more things - i'm a media F*****t, too. and i am not a grumpy old man - i'm a grumpy middle-aged man, thank you. and you're spot on, too, slave. all countries do it, because we're all still less civilised than we'd like to think.

first the important stuff - mccarthy for preston? are they MAD? just spent the night watching england-trinidad and then sweden paraguy. most people emptied out of the pub after the first game. surpise. the second was actually more interesting. i'm english and i like being english because its my heritage, i love pg wodehouse and vaughn williams, and i love the terrain, from dorset to the lake district. i hate the england team because they're tossers, and also because W**nkers who sit in pubs and sing the theme from the great escape when their heroes put a goal past a third division defence (literally) are kinda missing the point. owen hargreaves = canadian. chris birchall = born in F*****g port vale. mexico are fielding a brazilian. jack charlton's republic of ireland (who now snap up every player with an irish granny to ensure they get first dibs - they even fielded a player recently who's 17 and only played for spurs reserves). do i have to go on? i will. i recall zaire playing in the 74 world cup and being the first to be called naive - which they were, as probably none of 'em had played outside africa. now look at togo, ivory coast, etc -nearly all premiership or serie a players. yet still african teams get patronised and called naive. international footy has nothing to do with national pride, and everything to do with xenophobia. i saw it tonight, i see it every day in the british press, and i saw it four years ago when i was in italy. it sucks. hugely. let's get this crap over with and get back to the leagues. there's some great play (spain's fourth goal yesterday comes to mind for sheer team interplay), but the attitide of most fans is why wars happen.

what's atragic scene? why don't drive-by's post any sense? anyway, 'fool' was alright when elkie brooks did it. and i'll fight anyone who says different about mrs bookbinder's daughter.

this is what happens when your dad doesn't come up with string theory.

most of it is bollocks, but i'd walk over broken glass for thom bell. when i was at primary school a pub across the road was london's 'home of philly funk and soul' according to a sign in the wall, and pumped it out. i've loved philly ever since, and he was the main man. just listen to philly tunes and their amazing use of string charts. incredible music. the rest are tossers, though.

that's so unoriginal - it's stolen from a snub pollard silent movie! anyway, currently part way through richard strange's autobiography. i remember some dim distant lit class where i was told that minor poets have the most interesting lives. certainly true of strange, who was nearly famous in the doctors of madness, then solo, and spent the rest of the last quarter century making neglected music and being a bit part actor, yet rubbing shoulder with tons of interesting people he wouldn't have encountered if the doctors had been - say - u2, and so took him into the closed environs of rock stardom. it almost makes you glad to be a failure - at least you can try to claim an interesting life! he's not a bad writer, either, which always helps.

exactly - why else be called the 'straight' man? without the counter-balance of seriousness to go up against, the kind of comedy that terry scott and hancock - to wildly varying degrees, admittedly - espoused becomes useless. stone me, they'll be saying everyone's a clown next. is that funny - i ask you, is that funny? etc etc (continued somewhere in hancock script...) anyway - hugh lloyd fulfilled a similar function opposite peggy mount in 'lollipop loves mr mole', which must be early seventies as i remember it as a kid. he wasn't funny, she was (debatable, i know): he was the foil for her to rant against in the manner proscribed as funny. actually, he's a cracking droll, and would probably have been brilliant in beckett or pinter.

thank you, mystic mary

i'm thinking you should persuade your mum to sign up here (if she isn't already) as he does look rough. by contrast, scroll down to look at al molinaro, who's 87 this year and unless that's an old photo looks pretty healthy. other things that came to mind - ralph & potsie have aged well, and how scott baio to have a pneumatic blonde on his arm in his picture! bosley might not be ill as such, but he looks like he's ageing badly.

best gig i ever saw was cheap trick at the garage a few years back. they had three nights,. and did the first three albums in order.my night was heaven tonight, and roy wood came out for california man. i was never a great fan, but they were phenomenal for a bunch of old blokes. and then my mate's girlfrien, who was behind the bar, spoilt it by refusing to serve roy wood! 'i don't care who he F*****g is, he don't talk to me like that. twat.' she said when we berated her later. never did find out what he said, but honestly... got tickets for tom verlaine at the 100 club, end of july. saw television at ULU on the reunion tour, and they were up there with the ct night. verlaine and lloyd in full flow was an awesome sight. last gig i saw, by contrast, was alan clayson and the argonauts at the 100 club, about a month or so back. clayson is better known as a writer of rock books, but he's kind of viv stanshall-meets-sane-syd in songwriting terms. it was a good show, but there were only about 12 people there, and that included the support band and the singer-songwriter who came between!

it's in the thread where we all tried to out-namedrop each other. Jimmy Page - I mean - ATJ mastered a simple tactic as i recall - he dropped several 'occupations' without naming the famous person, leaving us to puzzle it out. a master-stroke of one-upmanship. lemmy was on that ozzy thing last night - you can't fire me i'm piers morgan, or something. wisely telling us that it was different in the old days as 'no-one was telling you to drink bottled water'. doesn't look funny in print, but the delivery had me in stitches. and it was filmed this year, and he looked great (well, by lemmy standards). just like he's looked for the last decade, actually. i suspect that his body chemistry really has mutated (more dja vu - didn't i say that last time i posted on this thread?) and he's discovered the secret of immortality. which is cool, but i don't think i'd like the warts.

careful, bhb - remember what mrs bhb did when she caught you just looking (at least i hope that's all you were doing) at pictures of the bird from BB. a genuine blind aussie barmaid (if her dad owned the brewery she'd be perfect) may just tip her over the edge (it's that cliff-walking again). just to stay vaguely on topic - i'm sure dame vera would NOT approve.

you can't just say that! back it up, man! where's your proof, what sustains your argument! it's an insult to CLS to be so academically sloppy in his thread!

oh god, then i AM turning into him...

interesting to note that chelsea players in the world cup so far haven't been diving as they usually do (hello mr's robben, crespo, and drogba) with the noteable exception of joe cole! best part of the england game was, frankly, hearing that senile drooling cretin motson claim that cole never goes down that easily! or maybe that's just in his senile old motty dreams... (bring back barry davies, for god's sakes. sh*t, i think i'm turning into brian glanville...) seriously, though, it's been great to see drogba, crespo and robben really play, without worrying about tumbling over to please mr mourihno.

of course he doesn't - he's a drummer. next thing you know, he'll be saying uriah heep have got better over the years...

and who, in the last nine pages, are you referring to? if you're going to insult someone (and your phrasing suggests you have one particular poster in mind) it does help if you actually name the object of your affections. as for the specific charges - eh? lots of interesting AND informed debate going on in there. speaking of which - here's something that's bothered me on and off (i have no life, ok?) since this thread was really active. we've been discussing how some bands/artists 'lose form' as they age. but what about those that were crap to begin with? for instance, i've always loathed uriah heep - but are they more sh*t now that they wer in 1975? how can i judge? obviously i can't, as i'm shallow and ill-informed. damn! he was right...

especially as most of their team toil in league 1&2, so are more english grass roots than any of the england players. even dwight 'i like birds, me' yorke and shaka 'i AM a bloody rocket scientist' hislop are more roots than... owen hargreaves (plays in germany, and is canadian or something... never quite followed his labrynthine history without falling asleep - lik watching him play!).

i'm just astounded that he's kept going so long. i love that story about him and the manager - there's a beckett play in there somewhere... how did this thread ever get so weird in so few pages? i know i'm not exactly on topic, but c'mon - longthorne is a resonably voiced old-skool belter who could do a few impressions. out of time and not exactly original, and noteable only for his amazing stamina in the face of the big C. i suppose we all realise that it won't actually be cancer that kills the bugger - he'll just fall down stairs or walk under a bus, quite unexpectedly. as for 'chicken-in-a-basket' being for Hackneyed entertainers - what about those from Homerton or Haringay?

thanks for the mention of allan prior - i would have missed this otherwise, and it proves the worth of this thread. most people dont look at the names of writers and directors on drama programmes, but without the likes of prior and his talent and craft, the popular culture of any country would be poorer. ok, i'll stop being serious, now - but guys like him have always been my 'heroes', as such.

athy is the opposite of dethy, and much beloved of lisping fans of aussie hard rock.

i have a soft spot for Nash (even graced him with a capital). read crosby's autobiography years ago - well, most of it was oral history and biography as he couldn't remember much - and Nash was a total diamond: paid for croby's kids to go to school, paid for crosby's rehab, was there when everyone else gave up. well, either a diamond or a mug... he's always been a bit useless though - have you seen all those old clips of the hollies where he stands there with a guitar that isn't plugged in? songwriting and harmonies only, our graham. he does seem to have been the glue for CSNY and its combinations over the years - whether that's a good or bad thing i leave to you.