Fulham vs Arsenal - Craven Cottage, London - Wednesday 29th November 2006

After losing at Bolton - again on Saturday, what better than a nice trip to Fulham to make things all seem better. Not too hard to get to, friendly, nice pies and beer in the ground, loads of tickets, and the fact that we always beat them, not having lost since 1966, means that this is usually one of Arsenal fans' favourite away games of the season.

So, there were groans all round when Arsenal went behind inside 5 minutes, after a sluggish start, and caught out by great pace in attack from Fulham. That pace didn't really let up all game - Fulham comprehensively out-ran Arsenal, and we were struggling to keep up. An overly fussy referee didn't help (continually stopping quick free-kicks being taken), booking several Arsenal players for seemingly innocuous fouls, but the fact is that we were some way off the pace throughout.

After the second goal went in on 18 minutes, leaving us 2-0 down at Fulham of all places, many in the crowd turned on Alexandre Song - who was quite clearly well out of his depth. Singing "We Want Cesc Fabregas" (why Wenger didn't play him from the start, especially when Song is nowhere near good enough as a replacement, I have no idea) - that wasn't too bad; but some of our fans then started to boo Song - utterly unacceptable, and yet another sign that too many Arsenal fans have no idea.

A goal pulled back before half time, set up a thrilling (for a neutral) second half. Fulham could have scored from at least 3 fantastic chances. Arsenal had Senderos sent off with 25 minutes to go, and Fulham clattered the crossbar from the resulting free kick. Henry had a goal ruled out for offside, when it was marginal at best. Arsenal peppered the Fulham goal, but in truth were giving the ball away far too cheaply, and were beaten to every loose ball by a Fulham team that deserved the victory.

This means 3 away defeats in a row, with vital games against Spurs, Porto and Chelsea coming up. We have always struggled in November, so the fact that it is now over is some relief at least. But, 16 points behind the League leaders means that out title challenge is well and truly over, and the questions of "where do we go from here" are very relevant.

The Killers - Brixton Academy, London - Tuesday 28th November 2006

When I got the tickets, I was really excited about this gig. Then I heard The Killers' second album, and the excitement faded a bit. It is OK, and the songs definitely start to grow on you after a few listens - but I guess everybody was expecting an instantly fantastic album (especially after hearing When You Were Young), rather than one that requires effort to start to like. So, I went to the gig very excited about hearing the older songs, but much less excited about the new stuff.

As it turned out, it was indeed a gig of two halves. But rather than a difference between the old and new songs, it was really the difference between the beginning and the end of the show. The band walked on to an elaborate stage set, and were sounding incredible right from the off. When You Were Young (quite possibly the best song they have made yet), Somebody Told Me, and Smile Like You Mean It appeared early on, and even the songs from the new album were sounding amazing.

Then, the set seemed to lose its way slightly. A few too many new songs, and some slowed down and slightly lacklustre versions of some of the older ones, and the set was seeming to flag somewhat, about 2/3 of the way through. Obviously, this sometimes happens, and I definitely got the feeling that the band had blown many of their best cards right at the beginning, except for the few that they were obviously saving for the end.

When the end came, there was a magnificent version of Mr Brightside, which had pretty much all of the crowd singing. The encore included what was apparently the debut performance of their new christmas single, which sounded very promising indeed. The band finished up with All These Things That I've Done, which as ever was fantastic.

Definitely a mixed bag - outstanding at the beginning, outstanding at the end, but lacking something in the middle - and for a 75 minute set from one of the biggest draws in music right now, you may have hoped for something better.

The Kooks, Plan B, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - Union Chapel, London - Monday 20th November 2006

This was a unique gig, in a unique venue - the Union Chapel in Highbury holds only around 500 people, and they are all seated on church pews. It felt like a very hushed, reverential experience, to be sitting in church, watching such a stripped down, quiet, acoustic gig. In fact, the complete opposite to the over-the-top Flaming Lips show from the same time the previous week! People were whispering, not wanting to make too much noise in such an amazing venue.

First on stage were Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, whose lyrics and melancholy songs were probably ideally suited to an event like this. Getting the "swearing in church" barrier out of the way very quickly, they went through a 7-song set (I know because I got the setlist afterwards), which included a fantastic cover of Hot Chip's Over And Over. The chat in between songs was all about musicians being in a position to stand up and support what they believe in, which seemed like an appropriate message for a charity evening.


Next up was Plan B, possibly the act I was most excited about seeing - having not had the pleasure before. His lyrics are incisive, but very dark to say the least - and he did tone down some of the more gory excesses for such a nice venue. He really showed off his range of vocals and song styles during an excellent set, and proved to many that he is a real songwriter across a number of genres, not just a rapper. Playing solo with an acoustic guitar, he even burst into a rendition of the classic Tracks Of My Tears at one point in the set. A truly varied set, which won a great many of the audience over, and showed that Plan B is a very talented songwriter indeed.

Jo Whiley introduced The Kooks, and predictably, the crowd erupted - even in church! 2 members of the band arrived on stage, and launched straight into Seaside, appropriate really, since their normal opening song at gigs was perfect for this event. They played a good number of songs from their album, but also a clutch of new songs - the vast majority of which sounded very catchy indeed. I had wondered how their new songs would stack up against the old ones, but on this evidence, their second album should be great - I can't wait to hear more of some of the new songs.

In the middle of their short set, the band were joined by Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, for a Bob Dylan cover, during which the singer seemed to be rather trashed - he didn't seem to know what day it was. Increasingly slurring his words when talking in between songs, luckily this didn't affect the vocals! After a brief exit from the stage, The Kooks returned to finish with a version of Naive that was as riotous as you can possibly get in a quiet acoustic show!

All in all, a very special gig - and a great opportunity to see some fantastic songwriters in an amazing venue.

Arsenal vs Newcastle United - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 18th November 2006

This was an identikit football match, in pretty much exactly the same vein as the Aston Villa, Boro, and Everton games already this season. Games against teams that we most certainly should be beating at home in the League. But, games in which we have gone behind (against the run of play), and then struggled to break down the opposition to even equalise, let alone to win the game.

Our 4th disappointing 1-1 draw so far, and this more than anything else is costing us a decent crack at the title. Julio Baptista made his starting home debut (I think), today, and looked totally off the pace, which was a good summary for the team's performance really. Chances were created, possession held, but crucially, goals were not scored!

I was sat at the opposite end to my normal seat today, right next to the away section. This part of the stadium is for match-by-match ticket holders only, so there were far more "tourists" with cameras in this part of the ground. However, the view was fantastic, considering how easy it is for Silver members to get tickets here for most games - even though my row was so far forward as to have the crossbar in the way a little bit. Nevertheless, a good position. It also brought home just how big our stadium is, and how bad at keeping noise inside. Sitting in the opposite corner to the Red Section, I think I heard noise coming from there on maybe one or 2 occasions at most, even though I coculd see them up and singing for much of the game. The away fans sounded loud and were pointing out that we were quiet, but I blame the size and acoustics of the ground!

Arsenal really need to address this issue of how to win at home, or this could be a very long and difficult winter. I thought that we had turned the corner with the Liverpool win last weekend, but when another struggling team comes along (Newcastle started the day in the bottom 3!), we seemed to revert to struggling just as much. The next home league game is Spurs - surely we can beat them??!

The Belgrave Scandal - Cafe de Paris, London - Friday 17th November 2006

This was a big Belgrave Scandal gig, at the Cafe de Paris in London's famous Leicester Square. By the way, if you want to know what it feels like to be completely ripped off by a venue, I recommend this place. £3 for a bottle of beer (on happy hour!), £4 otherwise, and draught beer available at £3.50 for a HALF pint.

I know that their rent must be expensive, but is there really any need to mark the cost of beer up by quite this much? I had a distinct feeling that they encourage bands like the Scandal to play here - giving them half hour sets, so that they bring dozens of mates that the venue can then rip off.

The Belgrave Scandal, wearing their suits again, came on stage at around 8pm. Initially they were plagued by a big sound problem - which kept cutting the lead guitar out - how to make a band happy from the word go! Once this was sorted, however, the band tore through a largely familiar set, although they did also debut an excellent new song. This new song was so excellent in fact, that it could possibly be better than any of their others, given a few more listens. Always a very encouraging thing for a band, when their new songs sound as good as their older stuff, even on the first listen - their songwriting definitely seems to be going in the right direction. Shockingly missing Take That Train out of their set, the band finished with a fantastic and energetic version of Soul and Power, to leave the sizeable audience of friends very happy. There were even loud shouts for more, which sadly was not possible, as I would have been up for another half hour encore! Getting out of that expensive venue asap afterwards became a priority, so we relocated to a cheaper drinking venue nearby. Great band and a great performance, shame about the venue.

Work trip to Stockholm, Sweden - 14th to 15th November 2006

A work trip for a night to a very cold Stockholm. I arrived at about 3pm, by which time it was already starting to get dark - and by around 3:30, it was pretty much completely dark. Everybody seems to take this as a cue to do everything else very early as well - we sat down to dinner in a restaurant at 6pm, and room service in my hotel gave up for the night at 9pm. There is pretty little to do apart from go to bed and try to keep warm!

In the morning, the "early" theme continued - it got light earlier than in the UK, and I was woken up by builders hammering in the room above me, at about 7am. All very strange, and not being a "morning" person, most unwelcome.

On the way back home, we were the subject of an interesting breach of airport security. We were sat on the plane, about to puch back, when the captain told us that 2 people had managed to walk into the departure lounge, through the baggage reclaim and arrivals areas. They were seen on CCTV, but not caught in time, so they managed to walk onto my plane without clearing security.

The plane was evacuated, everybody had to go back landside and clear security again, then the plane was thoroughly searched before we were all allowed back on. Somewhat worrying, but I'm glad they noticed before we set off! So, a 2-hour delay meant leaving a meeting in central Stockholm at 2:30, and arriving home at midnight! Who says that international travel is great fun?!

Flaming Lips, Midlake - Hammersmith Apollo, London - Monday 13th November 2006

Lots of people go to see bands live, and describe the experience as "amazing". I have even done it myself, on many occasions. But, the word "amazing" simply does not do this gig justice - it was without doubt the most incredible gig I have ever seen, by any band, ever. I am not the hugest fan of the Flaming Lips' music, but their live show is so magnificent, that this does not really matter at all - I defy anybody not to enjoy this.

I had even seen the Flaming Lips play on a couple of occasions before - once at Reading at around the turn of the century, and once at Glastonbury in 2003. Even that didn't properly prepare me for how good this was.

The support band were Midlake, an all-American band who had made the day trip to London from France, just to play support. They sounded very much like Mercury Rev, and took advantage of the video screen to deliver some great visuals during their set. They certainly didn't rock, with keyboards and soft vocals preferred to heavy guitar usage, but they were very good.

The Flaming Lips set started during the interval, when the band came on (as they always do), to tech their own instruments, so that the sound is exactly as they want it to be. Then, after a brief gap, a town crier appeared on stage, telling us how the band had been in trouble with the health and safety police on their tour so far. A dazzling video show later, and Wayne Coyne appeared at the side of the stage, in his giant bubble, and proceeded to go for a walk/stumble across the heads of the crowd. Racing straight into Race For The Prize, it really hit me how good the sound was. The visuals just got better, with streamers, smoke, tickertape, and giant green balloons released into the room. Looking around, it was an almost overwhelming experience, with so much madness going on all around. There were a dozen dancers dressed as Santa Claus on one side of the stage, a dozen dressed as elves on the other side, and people dressed as superheroes running around all over the place - truly mad. The highlights just came too thick, and too fast, for any words to do them justice. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song was "dedicated" to George Bush, and sounded incredible. She Don't use Jelly featured a fantastic reprise, and again sounded amazing. For the encore, they played a blinding version of Bohemian Rhapsody, with both sound and visual completely overwhelming. Then, after almost 2 hours, they fired a ton of tickertape into the audience, and walked off stage.

It is impossible to do a show like this justice, there are not enough superlatives I can use to describe it. U2's Zoo TV tour took live shows to another level, back in 1993, combining sound and visual to create an amazing show. The Flaming Lips take this several steps further, quite unlike anything you could possibly experience elsewhere. Amazing, incredible, fantastic, they deserve all of these words and more. If you haven't seen this band live, you have no idea of just how unbelievable a live gig can be. Beg, steal or borrow a ticket next time they are in town.

Arsenal vs Liverpool - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 12th November 2006

This was the first reasonably big game at the new stadium, against a Liverpool side who were struggling with a poor away record so far this season. They were without an away win, but had admittedly played Man Utd, Chelsea, Bolton and Everton, so some pretty tricky games - nevertheless, they had lost all of them. Coupled with Arsenal's difficulties in winning at the new stadium, and this was a potential disaster waiting to happen. I was eager to see how the crowd would perform, and also how the players would react to their first big game in the new home.

As it was, this was probably the worst performance by a Liverpool team that I remember seeing. Things were reasonably even until Arsenal opened the scoring in the first half, but after that, Liverpool (and Steven Gerrard in particular) just seemed to disappear. All three Arsenal goals were bad goals for any defence to concede, especially one which has hopes of winning the League.

The crowd seemed much better for this game than any of the previous games - although this was really a "warmup" big game, before the real big game against Spurs in 3 weeks. More people standing, more singing, and generally a crowd more up for it. Although, you can still only very rarely hear the sound made at one end of the ground from the other end - sound just seems to evaporate in the stadium.

This result leaves us 10 points behind Manchester United, admittedly with a game in hand - so whilst a morale boosting win, we are still some way off being genuine title contenders, at least at the moment. Still, wins against Liverpool and Man United prove that we could be at least.

We Are Scientists - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 9th November 2006

Brixton Academy, for the excellent We Are Scientists. Last time I saw them was in Philadelphia in June, in a much smaller venue, where few people had heard of the band. Some contrast then, with the first of 2 sold-out nights at Brixton, ending a mammoth UK tour. Brixton Academy was the emptiest I have ever seen it for a "sold out" show - it was busy, but there was plenty of space to move around at the back - actually a much better experience than normal.

The main support act were Hot Club De Paris - I had heard great things about this band, and they certainly seemed to have a hardcore of fans towards the front, who gave them a great reception. A three piece from Liverpool, they sounded to me like a watered-down version of the Futureheads - with both vocals and music not as strong as them. Part of that could have been the sound, especially playing in such a big venue - but I thought that their sound was quite lightweight. Some of the songs were Ok enough, but they didn't really capture my imagination.

For We Are Scientists' walk-on song, the sound of Against All Odds by Phil Collins started to wail out from the speakers. A classic tune, and as the band walked on in the dark, the crowd was going mad. After the first chorus of the song, a big drum beat comes in, and the band started actually playing the song from this point. The guitars sounded grinding, the vocals sarcastic, and everybody was loving it - you can tell a good song if it is possible to cover it well in a different style, and they pulled it off amazingly well.

After that early highlight, the rest of the set didn't disappoint at all - the band went through their debut album, and played a good number of new songs as well, which sounded mostly excellent, especially given that it was the first listen to them. I did notice that many of their songs are played slower live, which was slightly annoying, as I think their songs sound better when they are played nice and fast. But no matter, they sounded excellent, and their banter between songs makes them one of the funniest bands around as well.

Saving This Scene Is Dead until near the end, the place erupted when they started playing it - with good reason, a rocking version of an excellent song. The Great Escape was their last, before another cover for the encore, which the NME Review of the gig seemed to particularly love. What a good band We Are Scientist are, good tunes, and they really rock - a good recipe for a great night out.

Work trip to Bornem, Belgium - 6th to 8th November 2006

Another trip to sunny Bornem, this one was defined by the incompetence of a certain British airline - that is almost their name in fact - British Airlines or something. They managed to cancel my flight, then to "misplace" my bag.

Never mind though, it only took them 2 days to reunite me with it, by which time I picked the bag up, and carried it straight back home again. In the meantime, there were at least a dozen flights between London and Brussels, most of which they failed to put my bag on. And, I also spent about 2 hours on hold on the phone to them, trying to find out what on earth was going on. So, a 2-night trip to a very small town, with just the clothes I was standing up in, and no toiletries - not ideal.

One experience I did unexpectedly have was of Belgian railways - who unsurprisingly seemed to be much better than their UK counterparts. Even a small town like Bornem, on a single-track branch line, has 2 trains an hour to connect to busier lines into Brussels and elsewhere. The trains are on time, clean, and reasonably fast given the number of stops they make.

The place was a good degree colder than London, with a real wintery air - foggy and crisp in the air. Coupled with the fresh country air, this was a good way to clean the system, even if I was unable to wear any clean clothes! British Airlines, you should be ashamed of yourselves!

West Ham United vs Arsenal - Upton Park, London - Sunday 5th November 2006

There can't have been much police leave allowed in London today. Spurs played Chelsea, but before that, Arsenal travelled to the salubrious surroundings of Newham, to play against the market traders and jellied eel merchants of West Ham. Every time I go there, I am reminded that shitholes are not just the preserve of northern away games - we have them in London too! See also: Tottenham.

On the back of a frustrating couple of games, with dogged opposition defending and wasteful Arsenal finishing on show, there was a sense of optimism that we would put things right in this game. If only because West Ham had spent most of the previous 2 months losing to anybody they could find to lose to. With blinding lunchtime sunlight hampering our view, the game kicked off.

Unfortunately, though, this was a classic example of sod's law. Arsenal just didn't really turn up for the game. I don't know who was wearing out number 4 and 14 shirts, but they didn't look anything like Cesc Fabregas or Thierry Henry, judging by the performances. Arsenal spent the entire game huffing and puffing - not really doing very much at all - not really attacking, not really creating chances, just having their midfield play broken down by very determined West Ham players.

After about an hour, West Ham chucked 2 strikers on, clearly sensing that all was not well with Arsenal. Shame that one was Teddy Sheringham, because a sense of dread came over the away section, as if it was obvious that he would score against us. As it turned out, he didn't - he just set up the winner, a classic sucker punch with about 3 minutes left on the clock.

Nobody really deserved to win the game I thought (especially as Arsenal had a stonewall penalty turned down), but our insipid play was just asking for a late winner like that. Rosicky looked OK in parts, Toure gave 100% as usual, but as a team, we just weren't at the races today.

In fact, the only result of the day was that Fabregas punched Teddy Sheringham in the stomach, just after the final whistle. The boy is doing everything right to become an Arsenal legend - played badly today, but punched our most hated player of the last decade. Well done Cesc.

Lucid, The Belgrave Scandal - Pleasure Unit, London - Saturday 4th November 2006

Saturday night, so a night out. It is a very rare occurrence that I go out on a Saturday night, unconnected with football. Despite living in London and all that, there just isn't much call for a big night out on a Saturday, when everybody else is out too. But a Belgrave Scandal gig in East London managed to tempt me out of my hovel for a couple of hours.

The band were wearing suits tonight, and went on stage to an almost completely empty Pleasure Unit. This is known as a decent, if slightly dodgy, gig venue, Mr Doherty and Good Shoes are amongst the people to have played there fairly recently. Maybe the suits were homage to the mod history of the venue, or an attempt to create themselves an image.

Very soon into the Belgrave Scandal's set, the venue started to fill up, so that by about the 4th song, there were a good 50 people in there (which is pretty full for a venue of that size). The newcomers hadn't come to see this band, so it was a good chance to test them out on some unknowns. In general, they went down very well indeed - there were people dancing, clapping and cheering - all for a band that they had never seen before, nor heard before. That was my first time testing them on a new audience, and they went down very impressively. Those songs must be good!

This was a Scandal set like the Bullet Bar 6 weeks ago - get on stage, bash the songs out with minimum fuss or chat, then get off again. I like it when they do it that way, and now an independent jury seemed to like it too.

After the Belgrave Scandal came a band called Lucid - fronted by a very young-looking guy, they sounded very American, reminding me of early 90s grunge bands. They sounded very good, bit a little too much into the formula for my liking. After they had finished, I headed home, to leave the East Londoners to the rest of their Saturday night out - newly converted Belgrave Scandal fans and all!

Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 1st November 2006

One of those nights, for sure. Over twenty shots on target, plus at least another 6 opportunities that went right across the face of goal - had anybody touched them, they would have gone in. Seriously, Arsenal could well have won 5-0 or more this evening. The fact that they didn't was mostly down to wasteful finishing, not helped by CSKA's resolute defending - they have still not conceded a goal in the competition this season. So, an annoying 0-0 draw, and work still to do in this group.

In his programme notes, Thierry Henry had a well-justified dig at some sections of Arsenal's support (myself NOT included, I might add), who keep shouting "shoot" whenever a player gets within 2 miles of the goal, and who start moaning when we are not 3-0 up after 20 minutes. Stick together and support the team, he said.

Quite right too. The bloke that sits behind me, who I am growing to completely detest, said to his mates towards the end "we have played completely shit tonight". Yes mate, we dominated posession, had well over 20 shots on goal plus countless other opportunities, played some brilliant football, and in fact did absolutely everything but score. I know that putting the ball in the back of the net is quite important, but to call a performance like that "shit" really shows how much many Arsenal fans know about football.

That is now 2 home games in a row where we have struggled to break down a team that defended well in depth. To be fair, we created more than enough excellent chances this evening, it was "just" the finishing that was missing. Breaking down and killing off these annoying teams like Everton, CSKA Moscow, Middlesbrough, and Aston Villa, could be the conundrum of our season, just as "winning away from home" was the big issue last season. We seemed to have solved the away victory problem, only to replace it with a distinct home victory problem instead.