Arsenal vs Fulham - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 29th April 2007

With 4th place and a Champions League place already secured, made certain by Bolton and Everton dropping points yesterday (but pretty certain even since last weekend), this was real end of the season, nothing really to play for territory. The end of the season is always nice as the sun comes out, and outside drinking is possible. Of course, it is always better if you have a cup final to look forward to, or a trophy to polish, but it is still a nice part of the year.

The end of the season does also have a habit of producing some rather dull games, mainly because some teams have nothing much to play for. This was definitely one of those games that can be filed in the "uneventful" category, certainly for the first half. Baptista scored inside the first 10 minutes or so with a good header, then, er, nothing much happened for the rest of the half. Arsenal passed the ball around a bit, but didn't really create very much; and Fulham showed why they might still go down this season, they were too crap to do anything much at all really.

The second half (actually, just the second half of the second half) livened up a bit more as Fulham had the cheek to equalise! Or rather, Jens Lehmann (who looks flappier by the day it seems) rushed out of his goal, missed the ball, and gifted Simon Davies a fairly easy chance. Lehmann is definitely one of those players that needs a kick up the arse this summer, although Hleb of course deserves one somewhat more.

So, having been coasting to a 1-0 win, Arsenal found themselves needing to step up a gear again. Luckily, they did so immediately, and within five minutes or so, a through ball cut through the Fulham defence to leave Adebayor one on one with the keeper. A great finish, and it was 2-1. Given that both times the game was level, Arsenal managed to score within five or ten minutes, you got the impression that they weren't really trying too hard, and that Fulham were such inept opposition, they could have scored any time they wanted to. 2-1 became 3-1 a few minutes later, as Hleb found himself in the box, and a Fulham player tackled him clumsily. Given that he would probably only have lost the ball anyway, falling over for a deserved penalty was probably the best thing he could have done. Gilberto tucked the penalty away for his 10th goal of the season, and the victory was wrapped up.

This was really just something of an end of season kickabout for Arsenal it seemed - nothing too eventful happened, and Arsenal barely looked like they could be arsed to do much. But, to be fair, they probably didn't need to do much, because Fulham looked like one of the more useless teams that have played at Emirates this season. I can't see them getting another point this season, and it may only be the fact that there are a couple of even worse teams than them, that will save them in the Premiership. One thing is for sure, the game against Chelsea next week will be a little more intense, especially if Mr Cole has the balls to make an appearance.

The View, Towers Of London - Forum, London - Saturday 21st April 2007

The View seem to have been continuing their unstoppable march to superstardom lately, and this was one of the final gigs on a sellout nationwide tour. They took part in the (excellent) trend for bands to hit London and play a number of dates in 2000-ish capacity venues, rather than one big Brixton date - great for those that get in, because small venues (apart from Shepherds Bush Empire) obviously kick arse. So, this was part of a Forum and Shepherds Bush double header, and I went for the decent venue.

Support band (apart from the excellent Underground Heroes, who I missed because it all started too early) were the Towers Of London. Their singer is famous because he went on Celebrity Big Brother, and pranced about for a couple of days, before deciding it wasn't "rock and roll" enough, and leaving. He is basically a very polite and posh boy called Patrick, who adopts the stage name "Donny Tourette", then flicks v-signs at people. The Sex Pistols should be ashamed at being responsible for such a disgracefully awful tribute band in their image.

The Towers Of London set can best be described thus - the band played a song, the singer baited the crowd, the crowd booed and threw stuff, and this was repeated for half an hour or so. The band actually didn't sound all that bad (although they were playing pretty simple 3-chord punk songs), but their whole way of working seemed to be solely to try to create some friction and controversy that didn't really exist - very sad really. The set reminded me of a pantomime, with the Towers Of London as the comedy pantomime villains - a joke band.

The View came on to a significantly better reception than their support band had received or deserved, it was a heroes welcome in fact. They launched straight into Comin' Down, and the whole venue erupted. They played their set with the minimum of fuss, and the shortest of breaks in between one great song after another. I think it helped that this gig was on a very sunny Saturday - most of the audience had clearly been drinking in the sun for most of the afternoon. This meant that everybody was battered by the time The View came on, and their set was therefore very riotous indeed!

This time, and better than the NME Tour last time I saw them, the band had enough time to play all that they wanted to play. This meant almost all of the album, some b-sides, and their cover of Up The Junction. They finished up with Same Jeans and Superstar Tradesman towards the end, walked triumphantly off stage, and did not come back for the encore that the crowd were demanding.

This was probably the most accomplished performance I have seen from The View - having been watching them half a dozen times over the last six months or so, they get better every time. Their fame and success is growing by the month (even The Sun reviewed this gig, proving that they are attracting lots of attention!), but they seem up to the challenge of anything that extra fame throws at them. They carried this London show off with ease - The View are becoming one of the big guns of the UK music scene, and they seem to be doing it quite effortlessly.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal - White Hart Lane, London - Saturday 21st April 2007

After all of the excitement of the Camden Crawl, it was the annual (League) trip to Shite Hart Lane. Arsenal fans are forced to ditch their red shirts for this trip, because there is nothing that Spurs fans like more than surrounding individual Arsenal fans with 15 or 20 people, and kicking, punching and shoving them. Such brave warriors they are, and so little police protection to do anything at all about it. It is one of those days which reminds you that, as a football supporter, normal rules of a decent society often do not apply to you.

The way into the ground was as nasty and intimidating as ever, with Spurs fans generally allowed by the police to do whatever they wanted, including staking out the away turnstiles to sing their lovely songs about our manager being a paedophile. Possibly the scummiest collection of individuals one could ever hope to encounter, and it isn't just Arsenal fans that seem to think so.

The first half of the game was quite like most of our recent trips to the Lane - Arsenal remaining asleep whilst Spurs came flying out of the blocks during the first half hour or so. Arsenal scarcely seemed to put a decent attack together, apart from once, somewhat against the run of play, where we had a goal disallowed for offside. After some ridiculous Lehmann theatrics at a corner (the old routine where somebody gets too close to him, and he goes ballistic), Spurs managed to score. Given their huge ability to lose games from winning positions, I did think Robbie Keane went a little bit too far in his celebration, he looked like he thought they had won the game already.

Then, just before half time, Arsene Wenger seemed to spot that our midfield was being overrun. So, with Ljungberg pulling up injured, he put Cesc Febregas on instead. From then on for most of the rest of the game, Fabregas ran the show, pulling most of the strings, being behind almost everything good that Arsenal did, and setting up both goals (more of which in a minute). He didn't start the game because of a virus, in that case I'd love to have seen what a fully firing Cesc could have done today! Undoubted man of the match, despite starting on the bench.

The second half saw Arsenal cranking up the pressure, and Spurs struggling even to get possession of the ball, let alone to do much useful with it. We were level when a Fabregas free kick sailed over most of the defenders, and Toure stole in at the far post to poke the ball home. Then we took the lead when Adebayor rose above the Spurs defenders to head in another dead ball from Cesc.

I was saying after the last game that Adebayor really deserved a goal - he again worked tirelessly for the team, and it looked like he wouldn't get his reward again. His confidence has been dipping for several games now, and he really needed and deserved a goal to change all that. So, when he scored, the relief, and the intensity of his celebration, were obvious for all to see. He is alleged to have been screaming "I love this club", whilst trying to rip his shirt off. Great stuff, and well done and well deserved.

So, Arsenal won 2-1. Except that they didn't, because Jenas equalised in the last minute of injury time. Some have questioned where the referee got his four minutes of injury time from in the first place - it was mainly from Eboue's timewasting in the last 10 minutes whilst pretending to be injured, and a needless substitution in injury time which added another 30 seconds to the clock. Oh, and some more Lehmann timewasting which the referee added more time on for. So although we were not 100% blameless, Spurs were nevertheless very, very, very lucky to have got a point from the game - they dominated the first half hour, but it was all one-way traffic once Fabregas came on, and Arsenal could have won by four or five goals. Games like that feel more like a defeat than a draw, just as coming back from 2 goals down last time felt like a victory.

After the game and the usual High Road hardmen (who only say a word when they have a 10 to 1 numerical advantage), it was the long walk to Seven Sisters, which was duly closed when I got there. So, a further walk to Manor House tube station, which is practically the entire way back from Spurs to Arsenal. One of the more annoying hours of my life, starting with the loss of a last-minute equaliser, and ending with a nice comfortable seat on the Piccadilly Line.

Jack Penate, Friendly Fires, The Dykeenies, Kate Nash - Camden Crawl Day Two, Various Camden Venues, London - Friday 20th April 2007

After stumbling out of the Rumble Strips gig, into the Camden sunshine, there was time for just one quick beer before the second day of the Crawl started properly. First up for me this time was a trip to the Electric Ballroom to see Kate Nash - a female singer/songwriter about whom some good things have been written lately. She has also been compared to her mate Lily Allen (which is not a good thing for me), but I decided to give her a go.

Like Jack Penate the previous evening (and indeed later the same evening!), Kate Nash played with a band, having 2 other musicians on stage with her most of the time. Although I can see where the Lily Allen comparisons came from, I thought she was exactly like a female Jamie T, in all the good ways. Very London-centric, but very funny and clever lyrics, about going out and having a good time, fancying members of the opposite sex, and generally singing about real life for many young people.

Kate was musically very talented as well as lyrically talented, dividing her time between sitting behind a piano, and standing up with a guitar. Her set was fantastic, some really catchy and charming songs, and I would say that she was the find of the Camden Crawl for me - I will definitely be looking out for her next London gig (which unfortunately isn't for ages).

After Kate Nash, I headed off to Dingwalls to see a band called The Dykeenies. I had heard one of their singles, Waiting For Go, and been quite impressed, so decided to check out some more. Despite the venue being quite empty, there was a queue outside, which was quite annoying - presumably they did that to make people think that it was really popular. Unfortunately, The Dykeenies didn't really justify the queue, I thought they were OK, but really pretty average all in all. Waiting For Go was an absolute highlight, along with one other song - maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I was utterly underwhelmed.

After the Dykeenie experience, we headed to the Cuban Bar nearby, to get in position early for Jack Penate, who was due to be headlining later on. We arrived and encountered an absolutely massive queue, which thankfully did seem to move fairly quickly. Once inside, we just about had time to get a drink (given the amazingly slow bar service), before the Friendly Fires came on. The venue went mad for them, as obviously the majority were there to see them. They sounded very dance-like, but kind of a dance-indie mix. Not sure if that qualifies as "indie rave", but they reminded me more of a band like The Music, or Sunshine Underground. They were not bad at all.

Amazingly, most of the venue emptied out after the Friendly Fires, and more people did not really flood in to replace those that left. I was really surprised by this, so by the time Jack Penate came on stage, the venue was far from full. It was even more surprising given that his set was again fantastic - his band really keep the set ticking along well, and they are a real good-time band for a good night out. All of this was far too much excitement for one day, so rather than brave another huge queue to watch Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, I got the tube home - a shockingly tame end to the Camden Crawl!

Rumble Strips, Illustrated Youth - The Crescent, London - Friday 20th April 2007

Although the Camden Crawl proper does not start until the early evening each day, there is always going on in Camden during the afternoon. And, because the big crowds have not descended yet, it is often more intimate, entertaining and exclusive. Yesterday saw the incredible Babyshambles gig in the afternoon, and today we were promised an exclusive affair at the Crescent pub during the afternoon. Unlike the evenings, where queues are the order of the day, we walked straight into the pub just after the doors opened at 2:30.

The first band on were a young four-piece from London called Illustrated Youth, who certainly looked the part - especially the drummer, who was a dead ringer for a young, clean-cut Pete Doherty. They played a 20 minute set which was a classic example of how to win over a crowd that has never heard of you. I wouldn't have thought that anybody in the pub had heard of them when they came on, but by the end of their set, everybody wanted to know who they were, and to grab a copy of their CD. Their music was classic guitar indie, with good riffs and catchy tunes. The applause at the end of their set was huge, and I'll definitely look out for them playing in London again soon. A real gem of a band to discover, so thanks to whoever spotted them and put them on!

After Illustrated Youth had done their stuff, the Rumble Strips played the headline set - starting at about 4pm. The sun was properly streaming through the pub windows at this point, and it was very strange to be watching a band play whilst it was so sunny outside. I had been very undecided on the Rumble Strips before, so was interested to see what they were like live.

Happily, the Rumble Strips set was also very good indeed, they were certainly not going to allow their young support band to upstage them! A band of multi talented, multi skilled musicians, they put on a riot of a show, which showed off all of their musical creativity. The bassist doubled up as a second drummer at one point, putting a tambourine on top of a drum, and hitting it with all the strength he could muster. The singer fell over his wires, prompting a huge reaction from the crowd, and lots of good banter. There were horns galore, as trumpets and saxophones made appearances in a number of songs. And, when they weren't doing all of this, some of the songs were just very good rock songs.

Throughout the show, a crowd was forming outside the pub, looking in through the window and trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the small stage area. You could sense that the band were attracting a buzz outside, as the pub reached capacity there were quite a number crowded outside. And with very good reason, I was very impressed by the Rumble Strips all round, and can see why people were craning their necks for a glimpse. The NME were there too, and so were Gigwise, along with a pub full of very happy but sweaty people by the end of the gig. As we streamed out of the pub into the sunshine, ready to start the Camden Crawl proper, it struck me what a perfect summer band the Rumble Strips could be - horns, pop songs, and drinking in the sunshine - roll on Glastonbury!

Ash, Air Traffic, Jack Penate, Ox Eagle Lion Man, I Was A Cub Scout - Camden Crawl Day One, Various Camden Venues, London - Thursday 19th April 2007

After the extreme excitement of the secret and tiny Babyshambles gig, it was time to get on with the Camden Crawl proper - a great event which has expanded itself to 2 days this year. Basically, you buy a wristband which allows you entry to 15 gig venues in Camden, to see a load of brilliant new bands, with some well-known headliners chucked in too. There are a couple of venues that hold 1000 people or slightly more, but after that, the remaining venues are very small indeed, most in fact are just pubs.

To calm down from the buzz of watching Pete Doherty trash a venue, we went for beer at the picturesque Camden Lock. The fact that the sun was shining of course helped the beer to sink down much more easily, and the fact that there were fellow Camden Crawlers everywhere also made it much more of a laugh. Camden Lock in the sunshine did remind me that there are some lovely parts of London beside canals, with summer coming up, I may try to visit a few more of them!

Anyway, the bands started properly at around 6:30, and the first band I saw was I Was A Cub Scout, at Dingwalls. This is a 2-piece band, just a guitarist / vocalist and a drummer. The drummer played the show wearing only a pair of underpants, and the singer had a pair of tight cycling shorts, with a checked shirt, fully buttoned up, tucked into them. It was a very strange look, more than a little bit gay. Their sound was very good, many of the songs featured frenzied guitar riffs, funny lyrics, and there were many decent sounding indie-pop songs on offer.

After I Was A Cub Scout, it was into Camden Town proper for the next band, Ox Eagle Lion Man. They played at a very small venue, basically a pub called NW1. The place seemed to be full of bands, or at least people in bands, and you could see the singer from the band milling around before the set. I had never heard anything by them before this set, but I was impressed with what I saw. The singer looked like a great frontman, commanding the stage, and having the audience eating out of his hand by the end of the set. Very impressed, and I hope to see them again soon - Gigwise also saw them here.

After this, I went to the Camden Tup to try to see Pull Tiger Tail - a band I have seen before and quite liked. But, a big queue quickly built up outside the venue (which is a big feature of Camden Crawl - because there are so many small venues, you often have to queue for a while to get in), which trapped some of my group outside. So, we went to the Electric Ballroom instead, which has a big capacity and therefore much less of a queue. Getting in there, I caught the last 4 songs of Jack Penate's set, which was quite frankly incredible. Male singer-songwriters often have a bad reputation now, mainly thanks to David Gray, but Penate was awesome, his songs really fizzed along, and the fact that he plays with a proper band meant that they really rocked too - much better than a soloist getting all melancholy with a guitar.

After Jack Penate, I decided not to brave any more queues, and just to stay in the Electric Ballroom instead. Next up there were Air Traffic. I have seen them before and been distinctly underwhelmed - very radio-friendly but not all that appealing. So, I had pretty low expectations in advance of their set. But, possibly partly because of my prior expectation, they were much better than I had thought. They kept the chatter in between songs to an absolute minimum, and just concentrated on bashing out one song after another. They also seemed to be much rockier than I had ever remembered them being before, so all in all they were pretty decent, and certainly better than previous experience with them.

Headliners in the Electric Ballroom were Ash, busy in the middle of promoting a comeback single and album. Very little new stuff tonight though, as they blazed through an incredible set of their greatest hits. Starting with Burn Baby Burn is a pretty mental way to kick off any gig, and it sent the whole venue crazy. Listening to their set, it always amazes me just how many cracking singles they have made down the years, and of course how they can always pull out a classic indie song like Girl From Mars, to make a venue erupt whenever they feel like it.

Hearing songs like Kung Fu, Oh Yeah, and Angel Interceptor reminded me of the time when going to gigs was not as normal an occurrence as it is now - but the reaction to the band was amazing. First time I saw Ash was at the Reading Festival in 1995 - that day, Girl From Mars basically saw the entire tent as one massive moshpit. It was no different this evening, even stood at the back and the side of the venue, the crowd was crazy. It takes a special band to do that, and Ash reminded everybody what a good bunch of pop songs they have up their sleeves.

Babyshambles - Studio 88, London - Thursday 19th April 2007

Wow - massive thanks to MySpace Secret Shows for putting this one on! It was announced a week in advance, as a secret kickoff to the Camden Crawl. Only Babyshambles MySpace friends were to be allowed in, and getting in was first come first served at the wristband exchange for the Camden Crawl. So, me and 3 mates got there at about 10:15, and waited until the exchange opened at midday.

As midday approached, we found out that only around 100 people were going to be let in to the gig - so a really small, as well as exclusive, affair. We were about 70th in the queue, but obviously the front was being infiltrated by attempted queue-jumpers all the time. We eventually got in, and picked up the wristbands and free Babyshambles t-shirts that acted as our tickets for the show - the last of our group grabbed his t-shirt when there were 4 left.

We were told to meet for the gig at Koko at 2:30pm. As Koko holds around 1500 people, we immediately started to suspect that the show would probably not actually be there, unless it was in a side room or bar. Over a celebratory lunch and few beers, various possible alternative venues were suggested - Pete Doherty's flat of course being the preferred option. The fact that we were one of 100 people to get into this Babyshambles gig only slowly sunk in, but it was a very exciting few hours as we waited.

Arriving at Koko, there were a few dozen people queued up along the side of the venue, all wearing their green t-shirt tickets. MySpace people were walking up and down the queue filming and taking pictures of all of us, as well as running a few interviews. As 2:30pm became 3pm, lots of rumours started flying around the queue - that the band were not turning up, that we were being taken somewhere else, that it was really a Libertines reunion, and all sorts of others.

Then at about 3:15pm, a big bloke with passes around his neck, came out of Koko and started hailing taxis in the street next to the venue. The first cab parked up, was sent to the front door, and the first five people in the queue jumped in, being filmed as they went. Very exciting, and the fact that we had no idea where we were going, made it even more so. Whilst waiting for our taxi, we found out that only 90 people were in fact getting into the gig, plus another 30 staff and guestlist. Amazing.

Our cabs arrived, and we were taken to a small venue at the other end of Camden, called Studio 88. Nobody would tell us where we were going, not even the taxi driver, and the 5-minute ride through Camden was full of very high spirits. When we got out of the taxi, we were filmed and interviewed again by MySpace, it was a bit like a load of VIPs arriving at an event, the way the cameramen and photographers sprung into action when our taxi arrived. Once that was done, we were ushered into the building, through the bar, and into a tiny cellar downstairs. To get into the room, we walked past an absolutely tiny stage, and the whole room was the size of a decent living room - possibly the smallest room I have ever seen a band play in.

Shortly after 4pm, there was an influx of guestlist people at the back of the room, and we could just about see something happening at the top of the stairs in the venue. About 15 minutes later, Babyshambles bounded down the stairs, Pete Doherty said hello, and they immediately started playing Fuck Forever. The tiny room was absolutely rammed, there was literally not an inch of space in there at all. Pete was going mad, the crowd were screaming and singing every word, and it all got even more riotous when Pete dived into the crowd.

After Fuck Forever came Killamangiro, which made the venue erupt even more. The sound was technically awful as the band were basically just playing through their amps, but being so close to the band kind of meant that it didn't matter too much. When Albion started as the third song, I was just stood there thinking "wow, this is incredible". The performance of Albion in particular, answered the constant suggestion that Babyshambles aren't all that good at writing and playing songs, and are more about Pete Doherty's antics.

After those first three songs, the band played Back From The Dead, during which I spotted Kate Moss at the back of the room, with her daughter on her lap. Most strange.

The fifth and final song of the set was The Blinding, which in fact the band got about a minute into before Pete Doherty went completely mental. He picked up his amp and threw it into the audience. That was followed by half of the drumkit, and then by a couple of cymbals. When the drumkit went into the crowd, I kind of thought that would be game over for the gig, and indeed it was. After throwing the remainder of the stage into the audience, Doherty legged it up the stairs and out of the venue, followed by the rest of the band. An incredible end to the show, which apparently had only been due to last for 25 minutes anyway - I guess they just couldn't be bothered to finish the last song, so decided to trash the venue instead! Much more fun!

Here is the Daily Mirror Review of the gig from the following day's paper, which captures what happened with great tabloid shock and horror! The NME Review tells it a bit more calmly. In all we spent just over 3 hours queuing to see this show, half in the morning at the wristband exchange, and the other half waiting for cabs, and for the band to appear on stage. In return, we were treated to a 25 minute set of the most amazing intensity, and one that truly what rock and roll legend is made of. An absolute pleasure to have witnessed it, and the queueing led to a nice suntan too!

Work trip to Lisbon, Portugal - 18th April 2007

This was a day trip to Lisbon for a meeting, which meant a fantastic chance to experience the hell of Heathrow airport twice in one day! The alarm went off at 5am, and a journey by taxi and train across London in the dark, put me at the airport for a surprisingly smooth ride through security on this occasion.

Arriving at Lisbon airport, which is pretty new, we were taken off the plane and put onto buses – then driven on about 4 laps of the airport, before seemingly ending up at a door to the terminal which was right by the plane we had just got off! Why people even bother building new airports without those airbridge things, I have no idea, maybe they want to keep dozens of bus drivers in useful employment.

The meeting I want to was in Parque das Nacoes, a very modern part of Lisbon, right on the riverfront. As it was around 30 degrees outside, there was a great opportunity to go for a wander and soak up some early summer sun. The riverfront area in Parque das Nacoes has shopping centres, restaurants, bars, hotels, and all sorts of other leisure activities, and there is some fantastic architecture on show. This picture shows the main shopping centre and train station, with some pretty decent modern architecture there too.

That was about all I saw during the day trip, although there was time at the airport on the way home, to be thoroughly disturbed by the Portuguese liking for Jose Mourinho. I had already experienced the unhealthy passion for Queen - you hear a Queen song on Portuguese radio about every five minutes, which makes taxi rides especially upsetting. But, on getting through security at the airport, I was quite disgusted by the sports shop which seemed to be a Mourinho shrine - only tempered by a corner devoted to Cristiano Ronaldo. Most un-called-for, and a grim reminder of the dangers of national pride.

Arsenal vs Manchester City - Emirates Stadium, London - Tuesday 17th April 2007

After the awful and extremely worrying defeat against West Ham, came the vital, much needed and altogether much more encouraging victory over Bolton. This set us a long way towards securing 4th place, the loss of which would be a total and utter disaster for the club. Victory tonight against Man City would pretty much complete the job, barring a strange end to the season at least. With Man City having a mixed time of things lately, and with winning and scoring becoming familiar things for Arsenal once again, it was eminently achieveable.

Everything started quite strangely in the first half - Arsenal scored first. Most unusual. However, Man City equalised, so we went in at half time level, which was a bit more normal (actually a bit better than some recent home games). In all honesty, the first half wasn't all that much to write home about - some good chances, some good posession, but nothing too remarkable all in all. This was of course the first evening game since the clocks went forward, so many around me were just enjoying the warm weather, rather than paying too much attention to the game.

The second half was familiarly frustrating - many chances created and missed, and a few scary moments at the other end, where we almost conceded on a couple of occasions. Then, with around 20 minutes to go, Cesc Febregas scored the winner, a fantastic volley from outside the box, that would have deserved to win any game. It was one of those ferocious shots that you could tell was sailing in from the moment it left his boot. He went mental (as he did after his goal in the Bolton game), and the sense of relief was obvious in the crowd.

Clearly, though, with a defence as shaky as Arsenal's at the moment, that did not make the game safe, or calm nerves completely. It took a third goal on 80 minutes to do that - Baptista scored it, giving him a goal which his performance did not really deserve, pedestrian as he was after coming on as a substitute midway through the second half.

The person that was similarly unlucky not to score was Adebayor - again. He works tirelessly for the team up front, often on his own, and his hard work really deserved a goal again. He hasn't scored in the League since December, and it is fair to say he really needs a goal right now, to get his confidence back. At some points you could see him getting frustrated when things just weren’t falling for him – given his performances and hard work in holding the fort up front on his own, lets hope the goals come along soon for him – against Spurs on Saturday would be a most excellent place to start.

Trip to Leeds, UK - 13th to 15th April 2007

A very strange weekend, this one - going away for the weekend, but actually staying in the UK - no passport necessary! With lots of different sets of friends in and around Leeds, and with it being an all round decent place to go out, it was off there for a couple of days of fun - starting with an amazingly efficient train journey up there. Being the middle of a working day helped, I'm sure, but I was genuinely surprised that the train was on time, clean, quiet, and a fairly pleasurable experience.

Friday's activities revolved in large part around food and drink, with several drinking boozers visited before it even got dark. Getting hungry, we proceeded to the legendary Akbars Restaurant in Leeds city centre, for some curry. The highlight of this was the family naan bread pictured here - a massive piece of bread that arrives on a stand of its own, and is obviously then promptly demolished by all at the table. I have to say that the Karahi curry was possibly the best curry I have ever had - very evil and chilli-laden indeed, but absolutely fantastic. Pakistani rather than Indian, full of chilli, and bloomin' lovely.

After burning my mouth off on curry, much of the rest of the evening was spent at the Baby Jupiter bar, which was playing some quite marvellous indie music, and serving very nice beer to accompany it. At kicking out time, I was disappointed to see the famous Majestyk club closed down, but then it was a completely tacky dive, and I had no intention of setting foot in there.

The following day was football and Grand National day, spent both picking losing horses, and trying to keep track of the Arsenal vs Bolton game. All of this was done whilst enjoying the sunshine (I didn't think the sun came out up north!) at Harewood House, just north of Leeds. This stately home was built by a business family who got very rich thanks to the slave trade (which they don't mention too much as you go round). Nevertheless, it is a beautiful building, with great gardens, a lake, and a bird garden. The locals do insist on pronouncing the name "Harrwood", which is somewhat distracting, but there you go - a good way to get some culture and to spend a day in the sun. The Northern part of the Wireless Festival is held here, so it was an entertaining thought to imagine the White Stripes playing on the lawn in a couple of months.

More food and drink for the remainder of the weekend was followed by a quite awful train journey home to London. The sun was blazing through the window, and of course the air conditioning was broken, there were a few very noisy and annoying kids in the carriage, and the train was full to standards of overcrowding that third world railways would be proud of! Still, the memories of nice curry managed to tide me over until we got back to London. A good weekend away.

Arctic Monkeys, The Little Flames - Astoria, London - Thursday 12th April 2007

Being a band of the people, Arctic Monkeys do not like ticket touts. So much so in fact, that they actually go out of their way to sell their gig tickets in a way that makes it as difficult as possible for touts to get them. They could just sell out the show and bank the money, then not care about the secondary ticket market. So, credit to them for trying to do the right thing, and hopefully more bands, promoters, venues and ticket agencies might follow suit one day.

Tickets for this show were made available by a random ballot of all those signed up to the band's e-mailing list - and my name was pulled out. I was able to buy 2 tickets as a result of this luck - a policy which did mean that there were loads of pairs of people at the gig! They were going for £100 a pair outside - although the band have been away for a while, they are still one of the biggest draws out there, partly because of their shyness, and reluctance to sell themselves to the highest bidder. They are also reluctant to play gigs in London, this was only their 9th ever show in the capital

Support for this gig was from the Little Flames, a band that are kind of known about mostly by association with the Arctic Monkeys. Alex Turner fancied their blonde female singer, so much so that the song You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Looking Straight At Me is purportedly written about her. She looked OK, and her band were OK, but really not much more remarkable than that. They had a decent sound, but it really wasn't very much to stand out, to the extent that it was very difficult to remember any of their songs after the set. They had good stage presence and the guitarists in particular were great performers, but the songs just didn't really do all that much for me.

The Monkeys came on to a rapturous reception, but then this was really only ever going to be a gig in front of an adoring crowd. The set was about half from the new album, which is louder, heavier, darker and generally faster than the debut. The incisive lyrics are still there, but some of the songs are a bit more complicated, so take a little bit longer to get into. Having heard the album a few times before going to the gig, it is definitely a more complex effort, but very good nonetheless. What did surprise me was that, of the new material, two of the absolute instant standout tracks (Flourescent Adolescent and 505) didn't get an airing at all. This surprise was shared by the NME Review of the gig, especially since the former seems likely to be a future single.

Of course, the other half of the gig was made up of the familiar songs from the first album. Highlights for me were (still) From The Ritz To The Rubble, and Fake Tales Of San Francisco, as well as set closer A Certain Romance - great songs all of them, and proof that this band are rightfully seen as one of the very best of recent years.

One word about the audience. Given that the band are about to release a new album, it was amazing how few people seemed interested in the new songs, most seemed to have only come along to listen to the stuff they knew. Consequently, all of the older songs got a great reception, but the interest in the newer stuff was much more muted. I'm not sure if this was a result of the "random" distribution of tickets, but it seemed strange to have effectively a small album showcase gig, played in front of people that only really wanted to hear the songs they already knew. The ticket distribution did manage to cut out many of the touts, but it got tickets to quite a number of passing, rather than hardcore, fans of the band. Which won't seem fair to the hardcore fans that didn't get in.

Obviously given the high demand, infrequency of Arctic Monkeys gigs in London, small venue, and the sheer quality of this band when they play live, this was an amazing gig to have been at. The second album has an awful lot to live up to, given the extreme success of the first. I suspect I was like many others in overdosing on the first album when it came out - I listened to it far too much, and then haven't listened to it all that much for the last 6 months or so. This gig was an excellent way to remind everybody just how great that first album is, and to introduce what seems like an excellent (although slightly more demanding) second..

Work trip to Milan, Italy - 11th to 12th April 2007

My second trip to Italy so far this year, both of them for work, and very upsetting to be travelling during a Champions' League week whilst every English team except Arsenal was in action. Anyway, some of that was relieved by the beautiful weather in Italy, and the chance to spend time eating nice food, and being in a city as nice as Milan.

I was staying right by the main railway station in Milan - stations are rarely in very nice areas (in fact, stations and shitty areas go completely hand in hand), so it was a very pleasant surprise to find Milan station (and my hotel) on an absolutely lovely square, with trees, fountains, benches, and no tramps, alcoholics and drug addicts all around.

Although I was only there for around 24 hours, the obvious highlight of any trip to Italy is what you get to eat whilst there. This trip was no different, and no disappointment, and before leaving, I felt compelled to go to a deli and spend 10 Euros on some nice ham to enjoy at home. Worth every cent.

Arsenal vs West Ham United - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 7th April 2007

There have been some very disappointing performances from Arsenal this season. We have dominated games but failed to win them, usually through not being anywhere near clinical enough in front of goal. We have created loads of chances in games but failed to take any of them. And we have been guilty of defensive lapses which have cost us goals, and put us onto the back foot against teams that were then happy to defend for the rest of the game. Sometimes we have just not showed up for games at all, and have had too many performances from players that either didn't seem interested or good enough. That is why, by the beginning of March, we were out of the title race and out of all of the cups too, our season effectively over bar the fight for 4th place.

This game featured bits of all of this, so was like the story of an entire season condensed into one depressing 90 minute football match. It was our first defeat at our new stadium, strangely against the team that were also the last to beat us at Highbury. We had 29 shots on goal during the game, and failed to score a single one of them. Many of them were truly excellent chances, not just speculative shots, but we still could not convert any of them. With practically their only shot of the game, West Ham scored a goal which might have been offside, certainly contained huge slices of luck other than that, but ultimately won them the game.

With no home game for the previous month, the clocks having gone forward, a 4 day weekend, and the sun out, everybody was full of the joys of spring in the run up to the game. It actually reminded me of the first day of the season, great weather, and a chance to catch up with people you hadn't seen for (comparatively) ages. Despite our abject performance at Liverpool the previous week, and the obvious trouble scoring goals without Henry and Van Persie, people seemed reasonably confident that we could get a result.

So, losing this game was the low point of our season for a number of reasons. West Ham are in the bottom three and have been all season, and this means that they have now had the maximum 6 points from us this season - a complete joke for a team of Arsenal's aspirations. The performances from some players summed up their seasons, and underlined why they ought not to be at the club next season. Baptista, Hleb, Aliadiere and Ljungberg in particular seemed to be playing like they actually want to be fired in the summer. Baptista especially needs to either lose a few stone in weight, or go back to Madrid.

But for me, the most worrying aspect of the game was the sheer lack of confidence in front of goal, which seemed to evaporate even more as each chance was missed. The three best chances fell to Fabregas (thundered a shot against the bar), Gilberto (hit the post), and Adebayor (had a header saved at point blank range by Robert Green) - and as each chance was missed, you could see players heads go down. These three were probably our best players on the day, but none seem to believe that they can score, and each time they are proved right, it just gets even more difficult. We created enough chances to have won this game several times over, but our inability to do so is the story of the season. Actually losing the game was even one step worse than that.

Amidst all this, it is unfair not to acknowledge the outstanding game that Robert Green had in the West Ham goal. Not the first keeper to have had a great game against us this season, but his performance was worth the 10 out of 10 that many reports gave him the following day.

I do not go as far as many Arsenal fans, who viewed this game as an unmitigated disaster, and the culmination of a run that should see Arsene Wenger sacked, and the stadium bulldozed (or whatever some of the more kneejerk of our supporters go on about). We have had a bad run of results, but we lost to a last minute winner against Everton (these things happen), Liverpool admittedly was a disaster, but in this game, we could have won by 10 clear goals! The fact that we didn't is undoubtedly a cause for significant concern, but we are doing mostly the right things.

It is a huge concern that we seem totally unable to score at the moment (to be honest it is hard to see where our next goal might come from, or indeed whether we will ever score a goal again). The race for 4th place now looks difficult, especially given our current run. The consequences of failing to finish 4th do not bear thinking about. All of which makes next Saturday's game against Bolton (our main challengers for 4th place), a massive, massive game, where we quite simply must do better than this.

Maximo Park, To My Boy - 100 Club, London - Monday 2nd April 2007

Some gigs are special because they happen at really short notice - you find out just a few hours or days beforehand, which makes the pre-gig excitement all the greater. Some gigs are special because they feature bands playing in small venues that they could sell out 20 times over. Some gigs are special because you don't have to pay a penny to get in to them. And some gigs are special because they co-incide with big events in the band's career - they are the first gig of a tour, the last gig of a tour, are big one-offs, or are played on the day a record is released.

This gig was all of the above. I won tickets from a competition in one of the freebie newspapers that you pick up outside Tube stations. I entered the competition on the afternoon of the gig, and got the all-important phone call at about 5pm, with doors opening just under 2 hours later - a very excitable 2 hours indeed! The show was in a 300-capacity venue - when this is a band that sold out 6,000 tickets for London shows in half an hour, when they went on sale a couple of months ago. And, their second album was released earlier the same day. It got a lukewarm NME review, but having heard it myself beforehand, it is a good album, perhaps just dampened by the expectation created after their debut (or perhaps the predictable NME backlash is starting - it is inevitable at some point).

Support band were a 2-piece called To My Boy. I can see how they got the gig, because lyrically they were very similar to Maximo Park - lots of long and clever words, and intricate rhymes. Because there were only 2 of them, they got their drums and bass guitar from a backing track, and concentrated instead on both playing guitar and singing. They sounded good, especially the guitars which sounded furious - I couldn't help wondering, though, if they weren't trying to be a little too clever at times.

After what seemed like a never-ending changeover, Maximo Park bounded on stage, and piled straight into a fantastically loud version of Graffiti. Paul Smith seemed to be going extra crazy whilst singing the vocals, with even more mad jumping around than usual. Or maybe it was just because he was so close to everybody, which could have just made it seem more mental. This carried on at the same intensity for the whole gig, the band definitely seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Paul Smith was definitely giving it 100%.

The set was split fairly evenly between the first and second albums, and was longer than I had expected - the band played for around an hour and a half. The big highlights from the new album for me were Books From Boxes, By The Monument, Nosebleed, and Parisian Skies, the last of which made an appearance as the centrepiece of a 4-song encore. In all, 10 songs from the new album were played, which is pretty much the whole thing, and they were played by a band that definitely looked as if they have moved up a league.

A great performance all round by Maximo Park, but a quick word about the venue. For a place so small, where everybody is basically guaranteed to be able to see and hear pretty much everything, the 100 Club does a good job of making this as difficult as possible. From the massive pillar in the centre of the room, about 1 metre in front of the stage (which of course obscures about half of the stage, from a wide variety of viewpoints), to the strange shape of the room, which means that the sound is muddy and muffled if you stand too far off centre - this is not a great venue for a rock gig for me. I know that some legendary bands have played here, but you are essentially faced with a choice between getting shoved and crushed at the very front, or not being able to see everything if you stand in the middle, or not being able to hear very well if you stand to the side. Most strange - a historic venue, but far from being one of the best.

Having moaned about that, it seems foolish to dwell on it for too long. Maximo Park put in a great performance, and I am now looking forward even more to seeing them on their UK tour next month. It was one of those gigs that is a pleasure to have been at - partly because of how small it was, but also because it was on the day Maximo's second album came out to the world. It is an album which, rightfully, should see their popularity rise even further.

Setlist: Graffiti / Girls Who Play Guitars / All Over The Shop / Our Velocity / A Fortnight's Time / Coast Is Always Changing / Russian Literature / Books From Boxes / By The Monument / Your Urge / Apply Some Pressure / Nosebleed / The Unshockable / Going Missing. Encore: Kiss You Better / Parisian Skies / Distance Makes / Limassol.