Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal - White Hart Lane, London - Saturday 29th October 2005

It's never fun going to this place as an Arsenal fan, the estimated half million miles from Tube station to ground is an annoyance, and the less than welcoming attitude of the natives is a danger. I say "natives", most of the real natives of N17 are too busy shooting each other, taking crack, and unlocking stolen mobile phones to give a toss about Spurs. The welcoming party I mean are mainly based in such gritty places as Hertford, Cheshunt and Enfield. Still, a 1pm kick off meant that they couldn't get too drunk before kick off (an evening game up there, if we're ever allowed one again, could be really interesting, such is the sheltered life we have led recently on this front).

With no away wins in the League so far this season, and with Spurs seemingly making their annual resurgence last slightly past August, it was also the last place we wanted to go to try and get a result. The first half showed why - Spurs pissed all over us for the majority of it, and took a deserved lead, much to the clear delight of the idiots.

But, and it never looked like coming, the second half saw a different Arsenal. One that took a while to get into its stride, but by the 70th minute was fully up and running. I remember this Arsenal from previous seasons, and occasionally still from home games - they are really quite a good football team. Pires scored (for the hundredth year in succession at the cess pit), home fans threw missiles at him, and also at any other Arsenal player that dared go near the touchline (again, as ever), and had the game gone on for another 15 minutes, we probably would have won it. But it didn't, so draw a fair result, and only our second away point.

After the game, and after the long, dangerous walk back to the Tube, I went for a few drinks on Upper Street, back in the safety of Islington. A few drinks then turned into a lot of drinks. At about 9pm (over 6 hours after the game had finished), lots of police vans started to show up. Yes!! The mighty Spurs fans were storming Upper Street! Er, on a normal Saturday night, when very few people there give a flying toss about football - the mighty Tottenham certainly made their mark that day!!

Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, The Cribs - Brixton Academy, London - Tuesday 25th October 2005

So, the latest NME tour rolled into London, and a very good tour it was too. Apart from the obscene queue to get into Brixton - I think it was my first trip there since the 7/7 bombings, and there certainly seemed to be heavy searches going on. I think that, combined with a hardcore of fans looking to get in early, contributed to the queue that stretched around 2 sides of the venue!

The Cribs opened up, sounding very promising indeed - I'd heard a couple of their songs before, and there were several more that had me interested during their set. They sound great live, but how that will translate onto an album I'm not sure. Still, we should get more chances to see them in support slots in the near future - they could do very well.

I had been listening to the Maximo Park album sporadically, so knew a few of the songs in addition to the obvious 3 singles. Their set was played in front of a surprisingly empty venue, a lot of people seemed to head for the bar after a couple of songs from them. I really liked the set, it ticked all the right boxes in including all the best tracks from the album, which is well worth a listen. Luckily, I'm seeing them in Lille in a couple of weeks, and I'll now look for tickets for their solo December tour.

Kaiser Chiefs were very, very good indeed. They really do carry off all of the showman's tricks very well. Playing Money For Nothing to build the crowd up before they came on was a masterstroke, as was their very good video "documentary" of London. I Predict A Riot, and Modern Way were my (maybe obvious, but still very good) highlights of the gig.

At the end of the last song, Ricky did his vocal, then ran off stage. The band finished playing, and all went quiet. Somehow, Ricky had got to the mixing desk, in the middle of the venue and was standing on the corner, thus......

Cue a crowd surf back to the stage, and a cracking encore to send everybody home happy.

Arsenal vs Manchester City - Highbury, London - Saturday 22nd October 2005

This game will probably be remembered forever, for Pires and Henry's crazy attempt at a penalty routine. Crazy not because it couldn't have worked, but because Arsenal were "only" 1-0 up at the time, with 20 minutes still to play, and Man City coming back into the game. For a full 5 minutes fter the incident, the stadium was echoing to the sound of 38,000 people muttering about it under their breath, and paying no attention to the game. I was in the North Bank, at the opposite end, and must confess that I totally missed it. About 18,999 other people also missed it, and the other 19,000 were busy explaining it to them.

I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that at a game before, and probably never will again. That sentence is something that you can say more often than most if you watch Arsenal, and I appreciate how lucky I am, but sometimes I wish they would just dispense with the theatrics, and concentrate on the more boring job of winning games!

We won 1-0, so no harm done in the end. I hope Arsenal get a royalty every time the footage is shown on TV again - that will build 5 new stadia.

Work Trip to Versailles, France - 19th to 21st October 2005

I've been in Versilles for a 3-day work meeting this week. As well as the usual joys of meetings, and the annoyance of (unsuccessfully) trying to connect my (crap) laptop to the internet; we did some fun stuff. A couple of nice meals, as you would expect, and an obligatory trip to the Palais de Versailles, where the French kings used to live before they were overthrown, beheaded, burned, that kind of thing.

Now, when you see the (some might say over-the-top, not me!!) level of gold bling in the king's bedroom (above), one might understand why the French people decided that they didn't want a Royal family any more. I know our royals live in luxury, but even they don't take the piss to this extent!

The king's garden looks quite reasonable as well - all in all a very nice place - I'm not surprised that the French revolutionaries got jealous.

Magic Numbers - Shepherds Bush Empire, London - Tuesday 18th October 2005

So, the zillionth Magic Numbers gig of the year! Before that though, Arsenal were playing away at Sparta Prague, so we went to the pub near the venue to watch the game. After initially hearing at the weekend that Thierry Henry would not be back for this game, Monday's Evening Standard said that he was travelling with the squad. Tuesday afternoon brought the news that he would be on the bench! And, 15 minutes into the game, an injury to Reyes meant that he was unexpectedly on the pitch.

Given that Henry started the game 1 behind Ian Wright's Arsenal goals record, I was caught in two minds - did I want Henry to score and help us to 3 points, or to not score so that I could witness him equal and break the record. Well, after 5 minutes on the pitch, the argument was dead, he scored with a sublime flick with the outside of his boot, to equal the record.

Come 9:15, we left the pub with the game still at 1-0, to get into the venue for the Magic Numbers. I had just got in and got to the bar when I got a phone call - Henry had scored again to break the record. Double annoyance! Not at the game, and not even watching the record breaking goal on telly either!

The Magic Numbers were predictably good, tight, and happy. And that was the problem - I'd seen it so many times before, that much of the surprise had gone. What wowed the audience here, many of whom were seeing the band for the first time, was no longer exciting for me. The set included some new highlights that I'd not heard live before (the Chemical Brothers collaboration was fantastic), but through much of it, you could tell exactly what was going to happen next.

Maybe you can have too much of a good thing after all.

West Bromwich Albion vs Arsenal - The Hawthorns, West Bromwich - Saturday 15th October 2005

A disaster, again. As seems to be usual this season after the dreaded international break, Arsenal didn't show up to a potential banana skin away game. And, that being the case, we got what we deserved - nothing.

True, our players had returned from the international break with a variety of injuries. True, we only had one point from our previous 3 league away games this year. And true, we missed Vieira today (come to think of it we missed any kind of leader whatsoever today).

West Bromwich is never the nicest place for an away fan to go. Its very handy for the motorways, and very convenient to park in the car park of an anonymous factory near the ground. Lots of teams now choose to build new grounds on industrial estates - West Brom were well ahead of that trend, completely by accident. On the way out, away fans have to walk down a pathway which leads in the complete opposite direction to where 90% actually want to go. They then have to walk around 3 sides of the ground, by which time everybody else has buggered off home.

To make that walk after having taken 3 points is not so bad. To make it with 25,000 home fans swarming around, jubilantly celebrating a deserved home win where they played one of the biggest teams in England off the pitch, is slightly more irritating.

Arctic Monkeys, Milburn - Astoria, London - Thursday 6th October 2005

What can I say - a truly historic gig, and a real "I was there" event. It's already been written about endlessly since it happened, by the usual likes of NME, and XFM, as well as the majority of the broadsheet press.

For the record, the gig was better than the already very high expectations of it. I had heard a good number of Arctic Monkeys songs, but it was my first time seeing them live. I expected them to be good, but they were much, much better than that! And, most of the rest of the audience agreed - for a band that has sold only 1,000 records in their whole career, the majority of the 2,000 here tonight knew most of the words to many of the songs. For the penultimate song, the band even let the audience sing for a verse, and they knew every word.

Occasionally, you see a band live at the start of their career, and just know 100% that something really, really special is happening. The last time I felt it quite like this was at this same venue in 1994, seeing Oasis play. Arctic Monkeys deserve the comparison.

An amazing band, who are actually better than all of the hype! They will be the band of 2006.

The Subways, The Rifles - Astoria, London - Wednesday 5th October 2005

A trip to the Astoria, partly as a warm up for tomorrow's Arctic Monkeys gig, but also to see The Subways on their first UK tour since their album came out. Having seen the band a few times earlier in the year, I was interested to see how they would go down in front of a big audience that by now had heard the majority of their material.

I arrived early, and went to bag a table upstairs in the venue - right at the front of the balcony.

Support band The Rifles were very polished, and played an excellent set which went down very well indeed. Definitely one to watch, and I'll be looking to see them in a smaller venue some time soon. Most of their songs were good, with a couple of real standout tracks that had the whole crowd going.

The Subways have been doing this for a while now - obviously what they get up to seems less surprising and spontaneous the more they do it, but they have done very well to keep the punk rock feeling, whilst performing on cue at much bigger gigs.

In a set which ran through most of the new album, the band absolutely rocked throughout, and were very very good indeed.

At the end of the set, the singer went for a climb of the speaker stack. Funny, because when he got to the top, it looked like he was shitting himself!! Still, he got used to it up there, played a few riffs, jumped off, and finished with a blisteringly loud version of "Rock and Roll Queen".

This is a band that seems to be able to cope with all the hurdles their career has thrown at them so far. A great band, long may they continue to succeed!

Arsenal vs Birmingham City - Highbury, London - Sunday 2nd October 2005

The start of this match report from Arsenal World sums this game up well. Birmingham are an extremely dull team - I am amazed that people the world over love to watch the Premiership, it must be in spite of rather than because of teams like them.

Another game where the opposition came for a draw or 1-0 win, so played 1 up front. They had a player sent off very early on, so they shut up shop and stifled the game even more. When teams play like this, it really does strangle the match as a spectacle, and turns it into a boring stalemate.

Despite this, Arsenal did seem to rise above it all, creating lots of chances, but not putting any of them away. Some classic annoying Arsenal moments though - missing a penalty again, and several instances of trying to pass the ball into the net instead of just trying to score a simple goal. All that huffing and puffing, and it looked like we might not get anything to show for it.

But, with about 10 minutes to go, the breakthrough eventually came. Not the best win in the world, not at all convincing really, but we got there in the end.