Rooney can fail
Goaaaallllll !!!! Nah just kidding, there weren’t any goals in England’s big match and if you laboured with me through the 90 minutes of tedium from Cape Town today you might wonder why anyone would ever want to be a football fan. This was meant to be the World Cup and the best eleven players England could offer, instead we got a feature length advert about poor tactics, lack of creativity and rule one as to why club football is infintely superior to international football (the answer being it just is). Cheering for England is like getting excited about a new McDonalds getting opened, very familiar but ultimately pointless and not good. I learned years ago that we English should be happy that we produce the best rock music on earth and expecting to lead the world at more than thing is both selfish but also unrealistic. If I want to hear flair I’ll listen to Jazz, if I want flair on the pitch I’ll depend on the Dutch and Brazilians as I don’t think its going to be borne of Stoke and be orchestrated by an Italian manager, nothing personal but I don’t watch Serie A for mesmerizing attacking football. I’ll move the topic rapidly back to The Clash but don’t be downhearted about the football if you’re English, be realistic we’re not The Clash on the field – far more like The Alarm.
Opening night at the Ray Lowry Exhibit (Courtesy Idea Generation Gallery)
On a brighter note I’m really excited at the press coverage this Ray Lowry London Calling exhibition is receiving and rightly so. I exchanged the briefest of messages with author Chris Salewicz who was at the opening event who relayed that it was an excellent event, well attended but perhaps lacking in those who were very familiar with Ray or The Clash. That’s what those nights are for it seems, the real fans can start attending today and enjoy its run until July 4th. My thanks to Ian and Hector who both emailed me details of a wonderful audio slideshow via the BBC News website. I can’t encourage you strongly enough to take a few minutes to listen and watch. It features Johnny Green talking about Ray and The Clash and also artist John Butterworth discusses the contributed pieces of art to the exhibition. The link is here so please nip over and enjoy.
Also trying to determine more information about the auction of the contributed pieces to the exhibit although these things often happen quite a little bit later but I will keep you posted. Another question from Betsy asked if there was an official guide or book to accompany the exhibition, I spoke to the gallery and at present no guide has been confirmed but a poster is being published – details to follow (hopefully by Monday).
As ever I’ve a deluge of things to cover so we’ll shortly launch into that news snippet idea (Westway Traffic) over the weekend. I feel like I’m cheating you out of information if I don’t write more but also if I don’t link these stories. We’ll get there in the end.
Finally tonight another wonderful article via theQuietus on The Ruts. Please do read it if you can for the Ruts were a great band though fraught with tragedy. Malcolm Owen died of an overdose at the age of just 25, and Paul Fox passed from cancer back in 2007. The Ruts were seen by some as capable of following the path or even carrying the punk banner said to have been dropped by The Clash. However you feel they certainly made some great music. The article is here so have a look.
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Likening England’s performance to the Alarm is very unfair on Mike Peters who I met again for the first time recently after nearly twenty five years. I’d pick someone like The Thompson Twins or Howard Jones….maybe even…..you fill in the name…..I was lucky enough to see some fairly early Alarm gigs and the one thing they didn’t lack was passion and belief in themselves which is exactly the hole down which Rooney & Co have fallen….
Sorry Pete – It’s just that I think The Clash were the very best…..The Alarm were more the Aston Villa. I know Mike Peters is someone who has leaped in credibility but at the time of 68 guns we all thought it was a bad Clash knock off…didn’t we? A bit unfair….let’s go with Mega City Four….I don’t think England are as bad as Spandau or something. (Yes I know Kemp has a rising star too…)
Point taken about the band analogy, although The Alarm were a very exciting live band. I think, being fair, the majority of football supporters in this country want to see pride and passion when their players pull on the club shirt. 95% of league clubs will never win the Premier League, but that doesn’t stop tens of thousands turning out come, rain come shine every week to support QPR or Tranmere or Carlisle or Brentford. Just look at Fulham this year. Unbelievable ! There’s a certain blind optimism about supporting club football which maybe we miss by being Liverpool and Arsenal supporters respectively. I can still remember being in tears as a six year old when Charlie George netted in extra time at Wembley….my second FA Cup Final.
This blind optimism should not apply for the national teams. Ability, coupled with pride and passion cannot be an issue when playing for your country. I’ll settle for England as Lightning Strike…..Bendtner’s just scored for Denmark….!
Great article on The Ruts. Thanks for the links!