Trip to New York City, USA - 12th to 13th December 2009

Work trip to Philadelphia, USA - 7th to 11th December 2009

After a long period of not being able to travel for work (thanks partly to my daughter being born, but mostly to the recession), the credit card tentatively came back out again for a pre Christmas trip to Philadelphia. My office is right opposite City Hall with its statue of William Penn on top, so I snapped this picture as I was heading from one floor to another. Despite the cold starting to arrive for winter, my stay there had nice clear days - and even a day where the temperature got up to 15 degrees, which was a nice surprise.

After almost a year of not going to the US (after a while of going there very regularly), I was surprised at how easily I got back into the swing of things. I made an early visit to Old Navy to stock up on some cheap jeans, and generally found it very easy to slip back into eating burgers and drinking Vitamin Water all day long. A couple of nice meals (complete with over attentive and falsely "happy" service), and it all seemed very familiar again.

The highlight of the trip (not difficult, since the rest of the time in Philly was spent either in meetings, sleeping or eating) was my office Christmas party (or "holiday" party as they insist on calling it. A free bar for 4 hours was certainly as good as you get anywhere else - and by 9pm when the bar ran out, an impromptu pub crawl broke out. I got to see an excellent selection of Philadelphia bars, and luckily managed to remember it all too.

Arctic Monkeys, Screaming Females - Terminal 5, New York, USA - Thursday 10th December 2009

Whilst I was on a work trip in Philadelphia, Arctic Monkeys were due to play a club gig in nearby New York. I wasn't really a big fan of their latest album, and had also spurned the opportunity to see them in London the previous month (I didn't fancy a trip out to Wembley Arena). But, with the excuse of an evening in New York thrown in, I bailed out of work an hour early, and headed up to New York on the train, taking in some of New Jersey's highlights on the way. On arriving in New York, the temperature seemed to have dropped by 10 degrees from Philadelphia, making it a memorable trip as the wind blew through my coat like it weren't there. VERY cold indeed.

We eventually made our way up to 56th street, to Teminal 5. There were a good number of touts outside and in the nearby streets, suggesting that an Arctic Monkeys gig was a bit of a big deal at least. After an obligatory ID check, we got into the venue, a large hall with a couple of levels of balcony around the edges. The crowd was pretty young, with lots of New York high school kids, college students, and a fair number of English voices around also. There were also lots of the kind of people you expect to see at a gig like this in New York - people who thought they were ultra cool, but in reality came across as a bit self absorbed and/or coked up.

The support band were a three piece called Screaming Females, who came from New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had a strange looking woman on lead guitar and vocals, who was the only female in the band. Their guitars sounded pretty fantastic (I would expect you need to see them live to appreciate this, as I doubt their recorded stuff is as good), but sadly the same couldn't be said of the vocals. For the vast majority of the songs I heard, I found myself wishing that the singer would concentrate on just playing the guitar as well as she was, and would get somebody else to do the vocals. Despite that, the songs were good, and the quality of that lead guitar made you willing to forgive quite a bit.

After a short break, Arctic Monkeys appeared, looking very different to the last time I saw them. Longer hair, more rock star looking, and generally looking the part much more. Their first few songs drew quite heavily from Humbug, featuring quite a few false song endings which drew applause, only for the song to kick back in again with more noise than before. Throughout the set, I thought the sound was fantastic - both from a technical point of view inside the venue, but also the way the band set themselves up to play live. When they played some of the older songs, they sounded very accomplished indeed, with some excellent new twists on the way they were played. Despite not having really liked the new album before this evening, the songs they played from it sounded really very good - forcing me to go back for another listen to the album.

As well as the new songs, there were obviously some of the old favourites - I thought that Still Take You Home was amazing in particular. The best audience reactions seemed to be for Brianstorm and I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, the latter of which featured some very enthusiastic crowd surfing. The band ended their main set with a reworked and brilliant sounding version of Fluorescent Adolescent, which also featured an interlude where the drummer sang Last Christmas. Great stuff. Throughout the show, the crowd were roaring their appreciation between songs, and Alexa Chung was busy dancing on the balcony. All in all, the band went down a storm.

Despite the very late night, I was really glad I went to this. Arctic Monkeys had been getting muted reviews for their latest album and live shows, so I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy it. But, the gig was so much better than expectations, and confirmed just what a good band they are. I also feel lucky to have seen them in such a small venue (rarely possible these days in the UK), which is how they come across best. A fantastic band, playing a set that sounded really special.

The Cribs, Los Campesinos, Sky Larkin - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 3rd December 2009

This was the night when Wichita Records took over Brixton Academy. Having seen The Cribs recently in Kentish Town and been very impressed, I took the plunge and bought tickets for this gig, part of a tour of some bigger venues. I was then delighted to see that they had pulled off their "lets get great support acts" trick again. After Adam Green at the Forum, this time it was the amazing Los Campesinos!, and Sky Larkin.

Sky Larkin were up first, playing songs drawn mainly from their criminally underrated album The Golden Spike (and the BBC seem to agree about it being underrated too). The songs were catchy, and the band managed to not get completely lost in the largeness and emptiness of Brixton Academy (when you are on first and playing to an empty venue) - their sound filled the venue nicely, and their set was well received.

Next on were Los Campesinos!, a band I'd seen before in the most amazing circumstances, and have loved ever since. They kicked their set off with Death To Los Campesinos!, which ensured the audience were right into what they were doing from the word go. As well as a selection of the best tracks from their first two albums, they also played a clutch of new songs from their forthcoming album, Romance Is Boring. These sounded excellent, quite a bit rockier than some of their older stuff, but very good. All in all, I was gutted when their set ended, so good it was.

But obviously The Cribs soon made up for any disappointment caused by the loss of Los Camp - their set was once again full of power and energy, and never dipped below being fantastic. Again they dropped pleasant surprises (in the form of older songs) into the set at various points, my highlights of this set were Emasculate Me, the obvious Be Safe, and City Of Bugs which is becoming one of those awesome set closing songs. A brilliant set (again) from a band who, if there is any justice in the world, will be getting bigger and bigger as they continue to get better and better.

Arsenal vs Chelsea - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 29th November 2009

A depressing realization took hold in North London today. That was the fact that Chelsea are a significantly better football team than Arsenal. Five years ago, these were even matches, and Arsenal tended to have the edge when it came to the result. Now, the gap is getting embarrassing. I know that Arsenal had injuries, most notably to Van Persie - but I don't think many Arsenal fans will seriously suggest that it would have been different had he been there.

For most of the first half, it could have been different. Arsenal controlled more than their fair share of possession, all the while without really creating any decent chances. Whether that was because of a lack of decent forwards in decent positions, or committed Chelsea defending, or something else, who knows. But by the time 40 minutes were on the clock, things seemed to be going fine from an Arsenal point of view.

Then it all went wrong. 2 goals in the last five minutes of the first half. Both from Ashley Cole crosses, one finished by Drogba, the other an own goal, and neither that the defenders will be proud of. All of which won the game for Chelsea, and made the story all about how Chelsea soaked up all we could throw at them, then beat us - and beat us pretty clinically. As the second half came and went, there was no obvious way that Arsenal were going to get back into it - the gap was too wide. Wenger (to his credit) threw on alternative attacking options quite early, but Walcott had a wretchedly ineffective game, and with 7 Chelsea defenders every time we went forward, there wasn't likely to be much of a way back into the game. Dismal stuff.

As an aside, it absolutely was not why Arsenal lost the game, but the referee was appalling today. Over officious in moving free kicks a yard to the exact spot he wanted them taken from. Willing to book Traore for his first foul (thus blunting his defensive game from the first quarter hour), but totally overlooked a litany of Mikel's fouls until the 70th minute. Picked up and ran the width of the pitch to give the fourth official the "missiles" that came from the crowd at Lampard and Drogba - of course they shouldn't have been thrown, but if any referee had done that at Stamford Bridge five years ago when Vieira was getting pelted, they would have done little else for the whole game. Over picky, and it seemed like he gave Chelsea lots of small advantages, and denied those to Arsenal.

Still, none of this takes away from the fact that Chelsea are in something of a different league to Arsenal at the moment, and that is upsetting. It seems hard to imagine Arsenal having a spine with the strength and power of Cech, Terry, Essien and Drogba. We are a million miles away. They soaked up all we could throw at them, and still had plenty more. That's Arsenal out of the title race (as Wenger admitted after the game), and until we have players that are more than just skillful but lightweight, you can't see us winning the title. A big wakeup call, we are still some way away from where we want to be.

Dead Social Club, Nerys Joseph, Jon Paul Palombo - The Enterprise, London - Saturday 31st October 2009

After the excitement of beating Spurs, what could improve the day more than an afternoon's celebratory drinking, followed by a gig in the evening? Being Halloween, there were lots of people out and about in fancy dress, and being a warmer than expected (for the end of October) evening, the streets seemed to be busier than ever around Camden. My destination was the Enterprise, where a few decent bands played. Last time I went to a gig at the Enterprise, the band were amazing and the floor almost caved in, so expectations were high!

First band on was really a solo guitarist and vocalist called Jon Paul Palombo, who had a backing vocalist here to help him out. His full band are supporting Glen Matlock a few days after this gig, and he was just filling in for another band at this gig. The songs were pretty much all decent, and you could see that they would work a treat when played with a full band. Put simply, they were obviously far too good for a "bottom of the bill" slot at the Enterprise - so it was a treat to see them there - I suspect their normal home is playing bigger slots at bigger venues.

Next up was a lady called Nerys Joseph, who sat behind a keyboard and played what I guess you could describe as "angst ridden" songs, about things that angst ridden females write songs about. Played on a piano, they sounded nicely melodic, and her voice was quite powerful too. She had a flautist and a guitarist for some of the songs - and although it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, she obviously had some talent for singing and songwriting.

Even more "not my cup of tea" was the next band. I don't know what they were called, but what they were doing didn't float my boat at all. Its probably a good point to remember the phrase "if you have nothing good to say, say nothing", to suffice to say that the bar was calling loudly after a couple of songs of their set.

Finally, the band I had come to see, Dead Social Club. They had got into the Halloween spirit, arriving on stage in white t-shirts that they had drawn on, plus face makeup. Quite a few of the audience had dressed up as well, all of which made for a good vibe. The keyboards at the beginning of their opening song built the atmosphere up from the very beginning, and they benefited from excellent sound in the venue. They played songs I hadn't heard the last time I saw them - including Calm It Down, and the excellent Let Love Die. For a couple of those newer songs, I thought the guitars were excellent, and really made the band sound like a true crossover between a synth band and a guitar band. I hate to compare bands to The Killers, but I mean it as a compliment in this case! The final song of the set was the excellent The Bridge, and with no encore, they left the audience wanting more - always a good result. I was really impressed by Dead Social Club again, and will be aiming to see them again soon.

Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 31st October 2009

After what seemed like an eternity since I last made it to an Arsenal game (well, it was almost two months ago), the biggest game of the season so far was not one to be missed. The baby was packed off to her grandparents, so Spurs at home could be enjoyed in full. I attended the game on 7th November 1999, which was the last time we lost to Spurs in the league - and avoiding defeat in this game would ensure we got to the 10th anniversary. Of course, in the run-up to the game, Spurs players, manager and fans were giving it large about how they are ready to overtake Arsenal now - but then, don't they always say that?

Going into the ground, it was good to see the results of the recent "Arsenalisation" in the lower tiers - lost of fantastic decoration, which makes our stadium more like a museum or art gallery in some respects - and a definite cut above any other stadium I've been to. Arsenal are leading the way once again.

Arsenal started the game very sluggishly, for the first half hour things just weren't clicking. Although David Bentley could have been booked a couple of times in the first 20 minutes, Spurs seemed to be doing a good job of containing Arsenal. Of course, certain Arsenal players didn't help with that, namely Diaby who had an awful first hour or so, and Almunia, whose distribution I thought was very poor, losing the ball pretty much every time. Bendtner seemed to be putting in the effort and playing pretty well, but even that didn't last, as he limped off after just over half an hour. And the man we all look to for inspiration, Cesc Fabregas, seemed not to quite be clicking to begin with.

Then, in an awesome 90 seconds just before half time, the game exploded into life. Robin Van Persie managed to steal in front of Ledley King, turning what seemed like an innocuous chance into the first goal. The celebrations were enthusiastic, both on the pitch and in the crowd. Then, straight from the restart, when we hadn't even properly finished celebrating, Spurs gifted the ball to Fabregas, who ran 30 yards from the centre circle and scored. The stadium went absolutely crazy, one of the best celebrations I've ever been a part of - and I think the sheer surprise that we had managed to go 2 goals up in 90 seconds, without really having threatened until then, was a big part of what was making everybody so happy. Half time arrived, and the celebrations continued in the concourses, with everybody looking shellshocked but happy.

Those 90 seconds basically won the match. Unlike a couple of annoying examples from previous weeks, Arsenal showed no signs of screwing this one up. In fact, I was surprised by how much Arsenal dominated after that, and by how poor Spurs were. Maybe I made the mistake of overestimating them (an easy mistake to allow yourself to be fooled into). There were decent spells in the second half where Spurs just couldn't get hold of the ball, and the "ole" shouts started with a good 20 minutes to do. They even almost gifted us the third goal too - inexplicably stopping playing when the referee had clearly waved play on. Their stopping almost fooled our players into stopping play too, but luckily we went on to get the goal. We even had the opportunity to miss a couple of complete sitters later on - and at 3-0 up, even Diaby started to stroke the ball around, now that it didn't matter any more.

Any win against Spurs is always received well in N5, so when the final whistle went, it provoked an afternoon and evening of celebration around the pubs of Holloway Road. By normal standards too, this was a decently emphatic victory - we never seem to stick 5 past them, which is a shame, but this was as emphatic as we tend to get against them. Just what the doctor ordered, and our incredible average of over 3 goals a game continues.

Kasabian, Amorphous Androgynous - Forum, London - Wednesday 21st October 2009

Off to the "HMV" Forum for the second time in a week, for a Q Awards gig. Despite Q magazine being possibly THE most out of touch and "dad-rock" loving publication in the world, their interests do occasionally manage to happen upon decent bands. So, a chance to see Kasabian in a much smaller venue than they would ever normally play (at least in this country) was a gig I was quite excited about.

I got into the venue in time to see a decent amount of the support band, an act called Amorphous Androgynous. When I arrived, they were playing a strange cover of Oasis track Falling Down. I say a "strange" cover, because the band had 9 members, playing an eclectic mix of instruments - kind of a hippie band, and a new version of the Polyphonic Spree. I was utterly unsurprised to see that they are supporting Hawkwind later this year. A few of their songs actually sounded pretty good, but they were a weird, weird band to watch, especially to watch in support to Kasabian.

After what seemed like an unreasonably long changeover, with Kasabian's old roadie guy having some good banter with the crowd, the opening bars of Underdog kicked in, and provoked the obvious enthusiastic reaction from the crowd. When Tom came on stage to start singing, I thought two things. First, that he had had a much needed but very dubious haircut. And second, that the sound was screwed to the point that you couldn't really hear much of the vocals or guitar on Underdog. A shame, because its a great song, but luckily the sound improved hugely after that.

The set itself was a fairly standard one for this year, very similar to what they were playing when I saw them in July. One thing that is obvious when watching Kasabian is the number of excellent singles (or otherwise very strong songs) they now have. There are a good half dozen from their most recent album (like Underdog, Fast Fuse, Fire, Where Did All The Love Go, etc), and about the same again from the previous two albums combined. That means they have a good dozen huge tunes to play, which means you don't end up with too much album track filler. That probably goes some way to explain why their live sets are going down so well.

Of course, as well as having the dozen excellent songs, they also have the two or three truly massive songs, that are becoming amongst the songs that this decade will be remembered by. So, when they kick into Club Foot as the last song of their main set (a song that is all over the TV and at football grounds, despite being five years old now), you know you are watching a band who aren't just making music for now - they are writing songs that will still be being played in ten and twenty years time. That, as well as their ability to put on an excellent live set, makes Kasabian gigs a pleasure to attend - you get to watch a band writing themselves into guitar music history, and UK popular culture. Great gig.

The Cribs, Adam Green - Forum, London - Thursday 15th October 2009

Having just released what is possibly the best album I've heard in 2009, I snapped up a ticket to see The Cribs at the Forum in London. As the gig approached, I was even more pleased to see that Adam Green was supporting them - they certainly seem to have a knack for picking incredible support bands sometimes. All of this, plus Comet Gain opening up, meant that the area around the venue was pretty busy much earlier than normal for a gig there.

We got into the venue just after Adam Green had come on stage, so got to see most of his set. He seemed to be playing most of his hits, and I was very pleased to catch Jessica soon after I came in. He had something of a band with him, so it seemed like a full (but a bit short) Adam Green show. He seemed to go down quite well with the audience, and I certainly enjoyed his set.

Then to The Cribs. This was a relatively small gig for them (certainly by comparison to what they had lined up for later in the year), and it was all the more exciting for it. They are certainly one of the more exciting bands out there at the moment, especially when you watch the obvious chemistry between Johnny Marr and the rest of the band. They walked on stage to cheers, and launched straight into the fantastic opening track from their new album, We Were Aborted.

Cribs gigs are always full of nice surprises in the setlist, and this was no different - Hey Scenesters coming along right after the opening song. They play two or three songs at a time, without speaking in between, which just adds to the sense of delight when they kick into a song you really love. And a lot of people really do love a lot of their songs - the earlier ones especially getting great reactions from the hard core.

By the time the set was breaking down to some of the later songs like Ignore The Ignorant, Be Safe, and Men's Needs, you got the feeling that you were watching a truly exciting band, playing at the peak of their excellence. The crowd loved it, the intensity never seemed to dip for a minute, and the whole thing was quite brilliant from start to finish.

Setlist: We Were Aborted / Hey Scenesters! / I'm A Realist / Emasculate Me / Girls Like Mystery / Last Year's Snow / Cheat On Me / We Share The Same Skies / We Can No Longer Cheat You / Direction / Hari Kari / Save Your Secrets / Our Bovine Public / Another Number / Ignore The Ignorant / Be Safe / Mirror Kissers / Men's Needs / City Of Bugs.

The Pixies, Art Brut - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 8th October 2009

As reforming bands go, there aren't many bigger than The Pixies. They had a crack at reforming a few years ago, and played a load of concerts to generally rapturous audiences and reviews. This time, they got back together to play a series of "20th Anniversary" gigs, to celebrate the release of Doolittle - their most popular album. With tickets at £30 a go, merchandise at high quality and high prices, and £15 CDs of the gig on sale - it was safe to say that they were being paid quite well for their efforts.

This was one of four shows at Brixton Academy, each of which had a different support band. The support for my night was Art Brut - they played to a half empty venue, most of whom had never heard of them before, but I enjoyed every minute. Eddie Argos shambled on stage during thr opening riffs of Formed A Band, in a suit which looked like he'd just come from work (like most of us actually had). He looks like a very unlikely band frontman, but the cleverness of their lyrics and the quality of the guitar riffs, make them a mesmerising band to see live - if you "get it". I do, but I suspect that a majority of this audience did not, and were probably thinking "what the hell is going on here". So, I really enjoyed the set, but it played out in front of quite a few bemused onlookers, especially those in their late 30s as most Pixies fans seem to be.

After what seemed like an eternity, during which anticipation in the venue was almost reaching fever pitch, the film Un Chien Andalou (or at least an edited version) started up - at the end of which the band walked on stage and played a couple of b-sides. They then proceeded to play the whole of Doolittle in order. The opening bars of first track Debaser witnessed cheers the like of which I don't think I've ever seen at a gig before, it was like the venue was going to explode with happiness. One of the good things about this particular album is that the "hits" are fairly evenly spaced throughout, so there was never too long to wait for a real crowd pleaser.

Overall, I have to say, the album sounded great, the band really seemed to be enjoying playing it, and the crowd certainly enjoyed listening to it. After Doolittle, we were treated to a couple of encores - some more b-sides, and a couple of hits from other albums. This was a pretty expensive night out, to hear some admittedly fantastic music - you get the feeling that the Pixies could spend a good many years yet, just milking the cash from an adoring fanbase. Gig review here.

The Lemonheads, The Loose Salute - Forum, London - Saturday 19th September 2009

It never seems like often enough that The Lemonheads visit the UK. The last time the full band were over here was last summer, for an outdoor gig on a blazing hot day. Before that, the last time I had seen them was in a bar in Chicago, on a freezing cold December day. Although it always seems like too long between chances to see them, luckily they always seem to come back to play another gig - hopefully they will never retire.

The audience at this show, unsurprisingly, were a bunch of 30-somethings who were reminiscing 1992 by coming to the show. The support band, The Loose Salute, played their set to general indifference, given that few would have heard of them, and that they weren't all that similar to The Lemonheads in terms of their songs. But then again, support bands are fairly irrelevant at shows like this, it is all about seeing the main band.

So, after what seemed like a very long wait for the roadies to set up 3 instruments, the band appeared. Evan said hello, then they started playing Tenderfoot - a song which, when it is the first song of a gig, always bodes well for the rest of the gig. How good Lemonheads gigs are can depend on Evan Dando's mood when he is on stage - they only really vary between "utterly amazing" and merely "good", but how up for the show Evan is can have quite an impact. Luckily for this gig, he seemed to be having a good time! The first half of the set was drawn mainly from Its A Shame About Ray, Come On Feel The Lemonheads, and Car Button Cloth, before the band showcased three songs in a row from recent covers album Varshons. The highlight of the three for me was undoubtedly Layin Up With Linda, for which Evan's vocals were outstanding.

As is usual for Lemonheads gigs, there was a short acoustic interlude, where we were treated to Different Drum - a rare pleasure indeed. With the band back on, they finished up with a fantastic version of Rudderless. Fairly standard Lemonheads show - but when your standard is that good, its always going to be a good night. Please come back to London soon!

Setlist: Tenderfoot / Down About It / Confetti / Pittsburgh / My Drug Buddy / Alison's Starting To Happen / Style / Bit Part / Its A Shame About Ray / Big Gay Heart / Hospital / Layin Up With Linda / I Just Can't Take It Anymore / Dandelion Seeds / Its About Time / Hannah And Gabi / If I Could Talk I'd Tell You. Acoustic: The Outdoor Type / Frying Pan / Favorite T / Being Around / Why Do You Do This To Yourself / Frank Mills / All My Life / Different Drum. Encore: My Idea / The Great Big No / Rudderless.

Mumford And Sons, King Charles - The Scala, London - Wednesday 16th September 2009

Mumford And Sons gigs in London are like buses in London - you wait ages, then they all come at once. Only a few weeks since their excellent Borderline gig, the band were back, this time at the Scala for what is probably their biggest headline show to date. The show had actually been set for April, and almost sold out since then, so it is fair to say that anticipation was high. You know you are getting somewhere as a band when there are touts outside your gig, and by this yardstick, evidently Mumford And Sons are starting to get big.

Inside the venue were a lot of what seemed to me to be London students - lots of checked shirts, cardigans and floppy haircuts, and a fair few female fans. I wrote after their Borderline gig that Mumford And Sons reminded me of the Magic Numbers in the early part of their career - and the crowd at this gig definitely seemed to bear that out. There were lots of couples there to see a band that will probably become a very acceptable band to take a girl on a date to see.

Anyway, enough about the audience. I managed to catch a few songs from the main support band, a band whose name makes them quite difficult to find with a simple Google search. King Charles isn't the easiest band name to find online, but there we go. Their singer was wearing a very tight and bright stripy leotard type thing - and with crazy dreadlocks, he looked generally very "alternative". No, actually, he looked like a total state. So, at first glance, I thought "I am going to hate this lot" - which meant it was a very pleasant surprise when I heard their songs. They played some decently catchy, quite funky songs, with a drummer that looked a bit like Boris Johnson, and this singer leaping madly around the stage. He generally seemed a bit needy of attention, and everything he did screamed "LOOK AT ME" - but the songs sounded good, and that's all that matters I suppose.

By the time Mumford And Sons ambled onto the stage, there had been quite a wait since the support band, which meant that the anticipation had built to quite a level. They walked on stage, and stood fiddling with their instruments for a minute or so, as the spontaneous cheers and applause filled the venue - without them even having played a note. When they did play a note, it was to kick off with the incredibly powerful and atmospheric Sigh No More, the title track and opening track from their new album. The way that this (like many of their songs) starts off quietly, then builds to such a rich finale, can send a shiver down your spine when you are watching and listening. Fantastic band.

This was one of the first gigs where the band have been touring their album as such, so it gave a good opportunity to hear how those excellent early demos and EP tracks have been translated into an album. They had an extra 5 musicians at the back of the stage, so the sound was definitely deeper and more complex - but for me, this took something away from the beautiful simplicity of 4 people playing acoustic instruments. In a way, the extra musicians added bits to the songs, and meant that the real band had to work a bit less hard - but it seemed to take away from the intensity of it all, to some degree. Still, with songs as good as they have, I'm sure their album and their live set will win them a huge number of fans on this tour. I'll definitely be aiming to come back, the next time they play in London.

The Hold Steady, Nic Dawson Kelly - Islington Academy, London - Thursday 10th September 2009

After an enforced travel ban, during which I haven't been to America for 9 months, a Hold Steady gig was always going to make me nostalgic. As part of a short trip to the UK to play the End of the Road festival, they also managed to find time to squeeze in a London date - and it was a relatively small one, at Islington Academy. Knowing that when they are in London, they stay at the Jury's Inn around the corner from this venue, I couldn't help thinking that this played a big part in the choice of venue.

I got into the venue just in time to see a bit of the support act, a guy called Nic Dawson Kelly. He played typical singer songwriter fare, leading with his guitar and some interesting sounding vocals. His voice didn't seem to be all that powerful or distinctive (although of course this could have been thanks to the sound), but a couple of the songs were interesting enough. Whilst his set was going on, the venue was slowly filling up with a few hundred balding men in their 30s or above - just the core audience for a Hold Steady gig then!

When the band arrived on stage, it was pretty obvious from the outset that they were very up for the gig, and were on very good form. Kicking off with Constructive Summer and Hot Soft Light, the venue became suitably hot and sweaty within five minutes of them starting the show - and of course, that was the way it all continued. Just what the doctor ordered. The band seemed to be having fun from beginning to end, so the gig became one large party, soundtracked by Hold Steady songs.

We also got to hear a couple of new songs in this set - a couple of which sounded really rather good indeed. Presumably this was a warmup for their festival set a couple of days later, but hopefully the new songs may mean there is a new album coming in the not too distant future. Good though the new stuff sounded, it was the old favourites that really sent the venue crazy, Your Little Hoodrat Friend in particular seeing bodies flying around at the front. As the encore drew to a close (including a rare treat of a rendition of How A Resurrection Really Feels - one of quite a few songs from Separation Sunday that were played), Craig Finn left us all with the words:

We're The Hold Steady, you're London, England, and we fucking love you.

On this showing, there is an increasing number of committed people that love this band too. This was a relatively small gig for them, but their fanbase seems to keep on growing in size and fervour. Quite justified it all is too, The Hold Steady on their day can put on a live show that few bands can top. This was one day where they were on incredible form, and it was a fantastic gig as a result.

Setlist: Constructive Summer / Hot Soft Light / Multitude of Casualties / Magazines / Our Whole Lives (NEW) / Sequestered in Memphis / The Swish / Massive Nights / Party Pit / Goin' On A Hike (NEW) / Stevie Nix / You Can Make Him Like You / Heaven (NEW) / Sweet Payne / Same Kooks / Separate Vacations (NEW) / Little Hoodrat Friend / Stay Positive / Slapped Actress. Encore: First Night / Stuck Between Stations / How A Ressurection Really Feels / Killer Parties.

England vs Australia (1st ODI) - The Oval, London - Friday 4th September 2009

After completing the Ashes victory at The Oval, it was (almost) straight back there for the first of a seven game one-day series. I say "almost", there were 2 T20 games, neither of which produced a result, so we had been starved of cricket for a couple of weeks. Obviously, some of the personnel were different for this game than for the tests, with people like Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara back in the lineup. Joe Denly sadly missed out, after being tackled in a football kickabout the previous day (by the aforementioned Mr Shah), and Adil Rashid was somebody that most fans were looking forward to seeing.

After winning the toss and putting Australia into bat first, England did a decent enough job of restricting them to a not too damaging total. The Aussies started well and finished well, but the middle of the innings saw England restricting them from scoring too much. Rashid and Swann were the pick of the economical bowlers, and Paul Collingwood weighed in with a couple of useful wickets. They picked it up at the end of the innings, but 20 overs in the middle where they hardly scored ensured that England had a very gettable total of 261 to chase.

Having done some of the good stuff first, England then did what they often do in 1 day cricket - failed to finish the job. The target of 261 was always in sight, but we were always behind the pace in trying to chase it. It meant that England were never out of the game (literally until the last ball, where they needed a six to win), but we never really kicked into gear and started scoring quickly enough. So, there was the hope that we might make it, but an ever growing sense that we would not. Ravi Bopara was probably the pick of the top order batsmen, making a good 49; Luke Wright and Adil Rashid also weighed in with useful runs towards the end - but they were fighting against a tide that wasn't going their way.

England's one day side isn't a patch on the Test team, and in some respects, it isn't hard to see why. Shah was out hit wicket, Wright was out on a silly run out, and at least 2 batsmen pulled stupid shots to get caught. When we make mistakes like those, it isn't a surprise that we don't win games. Some bucking our ideas up is needed for the rest of the series.

Arsenal vs Celtic - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 26th August 2009

This was a relatively straightforward game for Arsenal, to book an all important place in the Champions League group stages. We went into the game having won the first leg 2-0, with 2 fairly lucky goals - despite that, we had looked by far the better side, so 2-0 probably wasn't an unfair score. We won this game 3-1, with a dodgy penalty to get us on our way, and 2 very well worked second half goals to round off a pretty comprehensive victory over the 2 legs. All simple and boring enough.

But of course, what this game will now be remembered for, thanks to the media's stupidity, is the fact that our penalty for the first goal should probably not have been a penalty. Did Eduardo go to ground easily? Probably. Was it the most blatant dive ever? Not really. Is he the only player ever to have done so? No. Will the media scream as loudly the next time Rooney, Drogba, Gerrard or somebody from one of their favourite clubs does the same? Of course they wont!

In the media's eyes, Eduardo became the first player in English football to dive for a penalty, since Robert Pires did so in 2003. When Rooney did it in 2004 to end our 49 game unbeaten run, they said nothing. When Dirk Kuyt did it in the Champions League in 2008, they said nothing. When Steven Gerrard does it, they say nothing. I really don't like being paranoid, but the media's reaction (along with all the talk of UEFA investigations, retrospective bans and the like), just smacks of some kind of anti-Arsenal agenda. When other players from other teams do the same, it just never seems to get the oxygen of publicity to keep the story alive for so long.

So Eduardo will now be held up as the symbol of everything that's wrong with football (even in a week where hundreds of West Ham and Millwall fans had pitched battles outside Upton Park, like something from the 1970s); and all the fuss may even provoke a UEFA investigation and ban. No problem, as long as the same applies to all other players who are found to be doing the same. The fact that has absolutely no chance of happening is the annoying thing - some players and clubs seem to be immune from this kind of treatment in the eyes of the media. Hopefully, Arsenal can use this to their advantage - to build a mentality that everybody is against us, to use that to build a great team spirit, and do good things this season. That would annoy all of the anti-Arsenal idiots more than anything else.

Mumford And Sons, Alan Pownall - The Borderline, London - Monday 24th August 2009

After what seemed like a while waiting, the wonderful Mumford And Sons finally played a London headline gig, in the intimacy of the Borderline. I had first got into them a year ago, seen them play a short set at Pure Groove records back in December - but then fate had conspired to make me miss all of their London dates since. With their gig at The Scala next month sure to be a triumph, this was a great chance to see them somewhere smaller first - in front of what looked like an audience of family, friends, and diehards.

Support came in the shape of a short set from Alan Pownall, a long time friend of the band. I say "short", it probably lasted no longer than 20 minutes, to the extent that a trip to the bar accounted for most of it. He played quiet acoustic songs, to a mainly respectfully quiet audience. It all sounded good enough to me.

Mumford And Sons took the stage at 9:30pm sharp, to a wild reception. They kicked off with the title track from their forthcoming album, Sigh No More, immediately followed by lead single Little Lion Man - both of which got the crowd going nicely. Of course, many of their songs follow a similar format, starting quietly with vocal harmonies, then descending into a riot of loud vocals and instruments, before ending suddenly. However, this never seems to get boring in the slightest, such is the hard work that all four band members put in - switching instruments, and generally doing a number of different things on any one song.

At times, this gig reminded me of some of the early Magic Numbers gigs I went to - a very tight band, with vocal harmonies, songs that sound instantly familiar even on the first listen, and a feeling that the band is about to become pretty famous. I would certainly be surprised if Mumford And Sons aren't very well know in a year's time. Tunes like Roll Away Your Stone and Dust Bowl Dance show that as well as the folky stuff, the band can also provide the soundtrack to a party.

The best thing for me about this gig was hearing some of their songs for the first time - like Timshel, Thistle And Weeds, and encore Whispers In The Dark. The last of these was an unfinished new song, that showed what the incredible future for this band might be like. A true indie rock classic, it deserves to see them see significant success. I'm really looking forward to their Scala gig next month now, but was really pleased to see them at this gig - if there is any justice in the world, it will be one of their last in a venue this small.

England vs Australia (Day 2, 5th Test) - The Oval, London - Friday 21st August 2009

Lots of interesting side stories to set up this test nicely. Obviously it being the vital last test of the Ashes series, which England needed to win to secure the series, was interesting enough. Add in the fact that it was Flintoff's last ever test match, and may turn out to be Ricky Ponting's also, and there was a fair degree of interest in the game. On the way out of Oval station in the morning, I lost count of the number of people that thrust things into my hands - it seemed like everybody with something to advertise was there. Compared with the heights of the same game in the last Ashes series, and this game had a decent amount to live up to.

On the strength of this day's play, it most certainly did live up to the previous heights that the Ashes has provided. The initial session was standard enough, dull even - Australia removing the last 2 England batsmen for about 25 rune, with relatively little fuss - although Steve Harmison did provide some entertainment with a couple of boundaries. A brief rain shower prompted early lunch, then a 50 minute delay of the start of the afternoon session.

That afternoon session, when it did eventually get started, was possibly the most incredible couple of hours of Test cricket I think I've ever seen (certainly from inside the ground) - and will hopefully turn out to be the session where England won the match and the Ashes. Australia collapsed completely, going from 70-0, to 160 all out. Broad and Swann did all the damage from England's point of view, the Aussies were 8 down by tea, and finished off completely quite soon after. So, it was an excellent few hours in the sunshine, watching Australian wickets tumble at a very pleasing rate.

Whatever happened after that afternoon session, it was always going to be the story of the day. England lost a few wickets of their second innings, but finished the day with a lead of 230. On a wicket that seemed to be doing as much as it was, I don't hold out much hope for using my ticket for Monday - and if I were Australia, I really wouldn't be looking forward to batting last, whilst trying to save the series.

Kasabian - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 16th July 2009

Five days after seeing Kasabian blow away a packed Wembley Stadium in support of Oasis, it was time to see them play a headline show of their own, in a much smaller venue. In London, this was one of what seems like increasingly rare opportunities to see them in venues as small as Brixton Academy, as they are stepping up to arenas now. So, a chance not to be missed. On what was an absolutely baking hot summer day, the humidity levels had crept up to an almost unbearable level, even before getting into the venue.

Once inside, it was hotter and even more humid - definitely the hottest gig of the year for me, and rivalling the hottest gig I've been to. One of those where you go to the bar intending to get a beer, then decide that a Coke might be more useful, and you actually end up getting a Coke and a pint of water. I know, lightweight. Not for the first time at a Kasabian show, I was offered pills on several occasions, by scally twats in tracksuit bottoms - maybe showing that the band are the natural successors to the Stone Roses as well as Oasis!

So the set itself - it was pretty similar (although obviously longer) than the set they played in support of Oasis, starting off with an incredible version of Underdog, the bass of which ripped through your stomach. Shoot The Runner and Processed Beats provided the old stuff in the early part of the set, but much of it was of course about showcasing the songs from the new album.

The best of those songs, judging by the 2 sets I've seen this week, is undoubtedly Fire. A real crowd singalong favourite, and a song that works excellently both in the recorded and live versions, it is one of those that has people singing the riff long after the gig is over. Like LSF in that respect, but different, more complex, and possibly better. All in all, an excellent set from an excellent band, who are getting huge before our eyes.

Oasis, Kasabian, Reverend & The Makers - Wembley Stadium, London - Saturday 11th July 2009

Occasionally, Oasis decide to do a series of absolutely massive gigs, and 2009 was decided to be the time for the latest set. With Kasabian and The Enemy supporting on every date (in theory), and 500,000 tickets selling out in a few hours, they really do still know how to do these things on a ridiculous scale, and to shift an awful lot of concert tickets. In the UK, there are still few that can match them.

Obviously, one thing about Oasis gigs, especially big ones, is that they can tend to be full of complete tossers in the audience. A Saturday at Wembley Stadium was always likely to live up to your worst expectations on this particular score. That, coupled with a light but determined drizzle, could have made this something of an annoying day. So, it was all the more fantastic to get into the Golden Circle at the front of the standing area - offering protection from the worst of the rain, and from the most idiotic of the crowd, piss throwing and all.

Reverend & The Makers were the first band of the day, a band who I'd seen once before, on home turf a few years ago. I wasn't very impressed with them then, have been largely unimpressed with their recorded output since, and was not terribly enamoured with them tonight either. They do have a couple of decent songs, Heavyweight Champion of the World being the obvious standout - and their live show definitely seems to add something to the songs as they would be on CD. That said, what they do still doesn't really grab me - I can see how they would be entertaining at a festival, but can't ever really see them attracting huge crowds to their own gigs - their songs just don't seem good enough for that.

Next up were The Enemy. Oh, hold on, The Enemy pulled out of a gig, AGAIN. They are starting to look like the Pete Doherty of the modern era, pulling out of shows all over the place - this being the second on the Oasis support tour alone. Now fair enough, people occasionally get ill and can't play gigs - although when you look as pasty as The Enemy, eating some fruit and veg might be advisable to avoid getting ill quite so often. But when you hear that they played a great set at Somerset House the previous night, then hit the aftershow party, and were fine to support Oasis on the Sunday at Wembley - that just sounds like a hangover, which is not really being very respectful to anybody. Not to the fans that paid good money to see The Enemy play, and not to Oasis who gave them a great opportunity to increase their fanbase. Quite what they were playing at, crying off probably the biggest gig they've ever played, I'm not sure. Poor show, and if I were Oasis, I might not invite them back in a hurry. Such a shame, because when they do show up, they are really good!

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, the silver lining was that Kasabian got to play a longer set to fill the time. So, we headed into the Golden Circle, and before too long, the opening riffs of the amazing Underdog started booming from the speakers. This kept going for a good couple of minutes, building the excitement nicely before the band came on stage and launched into the song proper. A fantastic opening song it is too, and of course it was immediately followed by the likes of Shoot The Runner to build the crowd up more.

As the set went on, you were reminded of just how many decent singles Kasabian have made across their 3 albums. Their latest album of course provided most of the album tracks to fill out the set, but these were all pretty decent, the highlight being a raucous version of Fast Fuse. But it was the singles you had almost forgotten about, that provided the most excitement when they appeared - songs like Empire, latest single Fire (which sounds absolutely incredible live), not to mention Club Foot and LSF. All in all, this was a fantastic set, probably one of the best support sets it is possible to see, and it would have eclipsed most headliners.

Oasis, however, are not like most headliners. When they are on form as they were tonight, they are one of the best live bands it is possible to see. I guess it helps that I liked them from the start, and that I was at University during the 2 years when they were the biggest band in the world, but still nobody can do it quite like them. Songs like Roll With It and Live Forever made welcome returns to their setlist this time, and My Big Mouth was being played live for the first tour in a while. It was a largely brilliant setlist, there were always songs that could have been added, but what they played sounded great.

Noel Gallagher thought it was a good night also, writing later:

"Saturday was altogether a different kettle of fish. What a night. One of THOSE nights. What an atmosphere! It pissed down but that only added to it. Easily one of the best nights ever. There was some moments, let me tell you. If you were in that crowd, and if I wore a hat I'd doff it in your general direction. I wouldn't go as far as Mr Bruno saying, "You're the best fans in the world". As Arsene Wenger once said, "Everybody thinks they have the most beautiful wife", or even more ludicrously (is that a word? ..it is now!!), "You're the best human beings in the world!"?? Nonsense! My kids are the best human beings in the world. Fact. BUT the version of "Don't Look Back In Anger" was very special indeed."

This was a fantastic show from a great live band, made all the better for me by that magic Golden Circle wristband. This made the show like being in a 2,000 capacity venue to see Oasis, which is a rare treat. The fact that there was a stadium of 80,000 people behind you, just made the stage show and sound even bigger for the benefit of those at the front. The performance of the band, and my experience on the day, mean that I'll remember this one for a long time. One of the better stadium gig experiences you could wish for, that's for sure.

Setlist: Rock 'N' Roll Star / Lyla / The Shock Of The Lightning / Cigarettes And Alcohol / Roll With It / To Be Where There's Life / Waiting For The Rapture / The Masterplan / Songbird / Slide Away / Morning Glory / My Big Mouth / The Importance of Being Idle / Half The World Away / I'm Outta Time / Wonderwall / Supersonic / Live Forever. Don't Look Back In Anger / Falling Down / Champagne Supernova / I Am The Walrus.

Trip to Haute Vienne, France - 1st to 8th July 2009

A week's holiday, and I went to stay with my Aunt in France. She lives in a tiny village in Haute Vienne, a rural département in the region of Limousin, slap bang in the middle of France. So, a week of doing very little, in the middle of nowhere was on the cards. We arrived in France on a shuttle at about half past midnight, and planned to drive through the night whilst the roads were quiet. One lesson from doing this is that France is big! Even if you average 80mph, which is quite possible on the excellent motorways, it takes ages to get anywhere - a good 2 1/2 hours to Paris, a couple more hours to Orleans, and a few more to where we were going. There is no real way to do it much quicker, you just have to bite the bullet and accept that it will take an age. Starting the trek at midnight was probably not the best idea ever - by the time we arrived at 8am, we were beyond tired, and wishing we had started the journey those few hours earlier.

When we eventually reached our destination, it was the classic small, remote French village. The photo here is of a petrol station that had obviously closed down a while ago, but was still there (albeit a bit tatty) - with pumps pricing their petrol in Francs. The village had a couple of bakers, a cake shop, a few bars, and a couple of general shops - so all you could need for a few days relaxation away from much going on. The village was very close to Lac Vassiviere, and also had its own small lake as part of a big village green - really beautiful, and a nice place to spend a lazy week.

One thing about places like this in France and Spain is the number of other English people there. Some nice ones have worked hard all their lives, and are retiring to enjoy the weather. Others seem to have screwed up their lives in the UK, and burnt all of their bridges with other people - so are running away to start afresh. Because of this, there are quite a few English people around who don't exactly do the country proud - who are busy repeating all of the mistakes that made them leave the UK in the first place. Something that is strange to see, and that makes you feel somewhat sorry for the locals who have to put up with some of them.

Surrey vs Middlesex - The Oval, London - Saturday 27th June 2009

After watching Kent beat Surrey just a few days previously, I was back at The Oval on a glorious Saturday afternoon for the dead rubber of the Southern T20 group. The game between the two most useless teams in the group, who couldn't seem to win a thing this season - and that despite Middlesex being reigning T20 champions. I was on a stag do, where not many of the participants were especially interested in goings on in the middle of the pitch - more of an excuse to drink beer in the sunshine. But with a game this irrelevant, it was hard to care too much about what was happening.

Surrey batted first and scored 160, a total that turned out not to be good enough. Brown stayed in for pretty much the whole innings, scoring 77 but probably taking too many balls with which to do it. It was strange not to see Mark Ramprakash batting, but then he was probably being saved for matters more important. The Middlesex run chase looked pretty easy from the moment Owais Shah came in and started to run the show - his unbeaten 61 saw Middlesex home with 10 balls to spare, which is a decent margin in this form of the game. So, a nice day out in the baking sunshine (although 15 minutes after the game, the heavens opened all over London, and there were hailstones to be had), to watch a game that will not be remembered for very long at all.

The Killers, The Kooks, Howling Bells, Passion Pit, Air Traffic - Hyde Park, London - Friday 26th June 2009

With a 4 month old baby, Glastonbury is obviously out of the question for this year at least. So, to get a safe, clean, nearby and non time consuming festival "experience", I headed for Hyde Park, for one day of Hard Rock Calling. Having already announced Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen as headliners (following in the vein of their usual super oldies like Aerosmith, The Police, and The Who), it was slightly surprising to see a third day announced, with The Killers and The Kooks headlining. A "full supporting bill" was also promised, which then disappointed as a few uninspiring bands were grudgingly announced about a fortnight before the show. In any case, it was a gloriously hot day, so a decent opportunity to sit in the park.

I arrived just in time to see Air Traffic's set on the second stage. They have obviously been writing a few new songs in the last couple of years, which sounded like they were very much in the same vein as their debut album. The set was a good mix of new and old - whilst they worked the crowd very well, and sounded OK, they didn't really inspire me. I have compared them to Keane before (with the improvement of adding a guitarist and some guitar based songs), and I would completely stick by that assessment on this showing. Interesting to watch, sounded nice, would fit really well on Radio 2, but no more exciting than that. Maybe my general disappointment when I see Air Traffic is mostly my fault for expecting something more "rock and roll".

After Air Traffic, I moved back into the sunshine of the main stage, where Passion Pit were playing. I had heard good things about them, and was interested to see what they were like. Overall, I was impressed - they reminded me of an interesting cross between Black Kids and MGMT - playing songs that combined indie rock with an element of a dance beat. All in all, they had a fair few decent songs, and sounded like a band that are perfect for festivals. Hopefully many people will walk past their sets this summer, and be suitably impressed. As well as that, I also thought they would probably sound incredible in a small indoor venue, their gigs are probably real party events.

An excellent Passion Pit set over, the next support band were Howling Bells. I have heard some (but not all that much) of their stuff, and was interested to see them live. Generally, I was reasonably impressed, but not much more enthused than that - I would certainly not be walking over broken glass to get to a Howling Bells gig any time soon. They were fine, they passed the time, the odd song stood out as being better than the rest - but they just didn't really grab me any more than that.

Next up were The Kooks, who predictably prompted lots of screaming from the zillions of teenage girls that had by now entered the venue. Putting The Kooks and The Killers on the same bill is always going to attract that particular demographic I suppose - this was generally a very safe, very middle of the road gig. That said, I was surprised how good I thought The Kooks were, they seemed to be well fired up for playing the gig, and they all bounced along merrily throughout. The set never really seemed to dip for the whole hour, and that length was just about right to not need to include any of their weaker songs. The girlies loved them it seemed, and I thought they sounded good also. They are now a band where you think "where do they go from here" - they are pretty big, but not likely to be selling out a gig like this as headliners, and with the added risk that people will just get bored of a third album of the same kind of music. We will see.

Finally, The Killers - it wasn't even dark properly when they came on stage, which meant that the show definitely improved in atmosphere as it went on and got darker. They started with Human, which seemed to go down a treat - one of the songs from their third album with which I'm not really very familiar. The set overall seemed to play most of that album (I could tell when a song started that I didn't know, that we were listening to something from the new album), so most of it got an airing. As well as that though, there was plenty of room for the stuff I went to see - basically their first album! The set seemed to abruptly switch after about an hour, when the band totally stopped playing any new songs, and turned instead to single after single from their first two albums. Almost like 2 sets - a "new album" set, and a "greatest hits" set. I preferred the second, of course, but the first wasn't half bad either.

Surrey vs Kent - The Oval, London - Wednesday 24th June 2009

A sunny Wednesday afternoon, and an excellent opportunity to bunk off work a bit early, and head to The Oval for a Twenty20 game. The T20 World Cup just having finished, everybody had been impressed by the quality of the 2 week tournament - so an excellent time to resume the domestic tournament. Kent had been having a decent season so far, despite being robbed by floodlight failure in Sussex in a recent T20 game. Surrey on the other hand were doing terribly in their T20 group - with little to nothing to play for by this stage.

After getting into The Oval, sadly it was my turn to get a beer. With a sellout crowd (including lots of people there on corporate jollies - times must be tough if the Lords test matches have been abandoned for £12 T20 games), you would have thought that Surrey might have opened a couple of bars. Unfortunately not, so I spent half of the Kent innings waiting to pick up a few drinks. Surrey don't seem to employ the brightest people in their food and drink outlets, which I suspect was the cause of the lengthy wait. Poor - they like the money people spend, but aren't willing to employ enough staff to give those people a decent experience.

I arrived in my seat just in time to see Martin van Jaarsveld reach his half century, then get dismissed shortly afterwards, with Darren Stevens and Rob Key following him back to the pavilion soon afterwards. After a couple of slow patches, followed by a decent bout of scoring, Kent got to a total of 168, from which you really thought the game could go either way - you could see Kent defending that, but you could also see Surrey making it.

Surrey's run chase did not start well, they lost Newman and Ramprakash very early on, and things were looking great for Kent. But then, a decent stand including Afzaal getting a half century, got them right back into the game. Like any good Twenty 20 game, it swung both ways right until the end, and at the end of the 19th over, Surrey needed 14 to win, and Kent looked to be in a decent position.

At that point, the umpires intervened - giving Kent a 6 run penalty for a slow over rate, and reducing the requirement to 8 from the final over - very achievable. I must confess I don't quite understand how the time allowed to bowl your overs can be just a flat 75 minutes - if you take 9 wickets, that is a very different ask, compared to taking none. Anyway, 8 runs needed from the final over - which made it all the more incredible that Surrey failed to do it, especially as they got themselves to needing 3 runs from the last 4 balls. An excellent Kent run out cost Surrey their final wicket, and won Kent the game - a fantastic finish, and a great T20 game all in all.

Kings Of Leon, Glasvegas - O2 Arena, London - Tuesday 16th June 2009

With a free evening on the horizon, I headed to Scarlet Mist, to see what if any gig I could pick up a late ticket for. I was very excited to see a Kings Of Leon show, with Glasvegas supporting them - but less happy that tickets seemed to be like gold dust. Nothing on Scarlet Mist over the week or so I was checking, and tickets being touted for silly prices on eBay. So, I was rejoicing when, having almost given up hope of getting a ticket, one popped up. A couple of quick emails and texts later, and it was mine. All good stuff.

Before the gig, I headed down to the O2 early, to have a bit of a better look around - last time I'd been there, I'd been whisked in and out, and not really had much chance to nose around. The venue is like a little piece of America, with seats like a big multiplex cinema, and lots of identikit eating and drinking places. Nando's, check. Frankie And Benny's, check. More than one Starbucks, check. A minimum of Four English Pounds for a beer, check. The American owners must be very proud, they have created the ultimate corporate venue, in the richest market in the world for that kind of thing.

Anyway, with the £4 beers, I got settled into my (very comfortable) seat for the show. Glasvegas were on first, and although they played an excellent set, it got lost a bit in the hugeness of the venue. There seemed to be a few people up at the front who were getting into what they were doing, but for everybody else, it looked like something vaguely exciting that was happening a long, long way away. The lights were up a bit too high (maybe to help thousands of people find their way to their seats), the air conditioning was on full blast, and the sound was echoing around the venue. If you didn't already know and love Glasvegas, you wouldn't have been converted by seeing them here (and through no fault of theirs). Even for a convert, it was a struggle to enjoy their set from half a mile away.

Kings Of Leon, on the other hand, were altogether much easier to enjoy. The venue filled up by the end of their first song, and although there were a lot of what you can only describe as "new fans" (you know, the kind that had heard Sex On Fire on Capital Radio, and decided to come along), the atmosphere was pretty decent. They opened with Closer and Crawl, before throwing in a load of songs from their first 2 albums. California Waiting, which had been missing from the previous night's set, made a most welcome appearance as well.

Generally, when you watch Kings Of Leon playing live, the thing that strikes you is how damn good they are. A few years ago, they were a well kept secret - now, with 3 sold out nights at the O2, and festival headline slots, they seem to have accidentally become one of the biggest bands "in the UK", (at least for UK audiences), and have attracted a crowd who seem to hang on every word from all four of their albums. They have undoubtedly courted the mass market recently, and it seems to have responded, in a big way. Sex On Fire is the biggest selling download track ever, and that is a huge achievement for a guitar band - KoL are a real mainstream band now.

Anyway, this was a very accomplished gig as expected, from a band that are now well and truly in the big league. Apparently their home country is also starting to realize what a great band they are now, so they will be busy in the Autumn, touring US arenas. We can only hope that they remember how well their UK fans have treated them, and helped them on their rise - we hope to see them back soon.

Trip to Valencia, Spain - 11th to 13th June 2009

After being there not very long ago, I returned to Valencia for a wedding (congratulations to Matt and Diana!). Again flying via Madrid, I found the weather a damn sight better this time - when I landed at lunchtime, it had just hit 30 degrees for the day, and there it stayed for the rest of the trip. No rain in sight this time, which was a bonus.

The night before the wedding, a group of us headed for the wonderful El Tornillo bar, scene of some good nights in the past. This being a Thursday night, there was not much going on there (especially as early as we were around), but despite the general lack of people and slightly strange music policy, we did manage to hear a few decent tunes. The following day was wedding day - because of the heat in Spain, these things don't kick off until about 8pm, so we had the day to go to the beach. In the early evening, everybody gathered at a country house, where the short formalities happened. Because the house wasn't licenced to actually do the legal marriage, our friends had got "legally" married a couple of days earlier. The short ceremony was therefore to confirm this, and to kick the party off.

This being a Spanish wedding, party was the order of the day (or night) - drinks, food, dinner at midnight, then a free bar until 4am - it was rather a heavy evening and night. Nobody really moved before midday the next day, the English contingent made the most of a late night, putting the Spanish tendency to stay up late to shame! When I fell onto the plane home, it was a most welcome chance to sleep!

Arsenal vs Stoke City - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 24th May 2009

This was the last game of a season that has been frustrating for the most part, but with a few signs of encouragement along the way. We were playing catchup for most of the season, having lost to Fulham, Hull, Stoke, Villa and Man City by the end of November. The last 3 of those defeats came in November, truly an awful month for Arsenal fans, which also saw William Gallas stripped of the captaincy, and the media loving all of our troubles.

After that, we went 20 or so games unbeaten, but with far too many 0-0 draws in a frustrating 6 or 7 game spell in January and February. Then Andrei Arshavin came along, some injured players came back, and we all got excited again. Two very disappointing semi final defeats, and a 4-1 capitulation to Chelsea in the League, and we were all down in the dumps again.

In reality, we probably overachieved in a lot of respects this season. With the inexperience of our squad, and some of the injuries we had, we actually did pretty well. But the squad strength is ultimately the cause of our problems - they may be a world beating group of players in a few years, but they have weaknesses at the moment. I like many Arsenal fans fear that the "promised land" will never arrive - that the players won't improve, or that other clubs will keep picking players off during transfer windows, so that we are forever running to stay in the same place. But, I guess we need to keep the faith.

So, last game of the season, in the sunshine, and with nothing to play for. In those circumstances, Arsenal may just be the best team in the world, so we strolled to an easy 4-1 victory, which was all wrapped up by half time. The Guardian report tells the full story, but it was a decent day for Robin Van Persie, who scored 2 goals. So, another season over, and we "look forward" to a long summer of boringness. Thank God we have the Ashes to distract us, but it will still be a long 6 weeks until that all starts.

Arsenal Youth vs Liverpool Youth - Emirates Stadium, London - Friday 22nd May 2009

Everybody knows that Arsenal have some great young players. So, it shouldn't really be a surprise to see the Arsenal Under 18s team in the FA Youth Cup Final. What is probably more surprising is why they haven't been there over the previous years - this being their first final since the early part of the decade. In any case, it was a good opportunity to see some promising kids play, all for £3 admission too. As expected, there were plenty of fans there who were a fair bit younger than the players, and a good few local kids there too - always a good thing to see.

I had the unmissable opportunity to watch this game from the Diamond Club - the very exclusive area in executive box level, which is home to under 100 members, who each pay £25,000 a year for the privilege of watching their games from there. It has a Raymond Blanc restaurant (at a price!), and a "free" bar - not free of course for those paying £25k a season, but free for us for the evening. It isn't often that Arsenal buy you a beer, so I took as much advantage as possible.

About half an hour before kick off, Lukasz Fabianski walked into the bar where we were waiting for the game. A few started to bombard him with autograph requests, and I just stood and gawped, not really too interested in his autograph. A few minutes later, though, Cesc Fabregas arrived, and for him, I was interested. After fighting through a few kids, I managed to get a photo with the man himself - something decent to remember from an otherwise disappointing season!

So to the match. The view was obviously fantastic - the best view I've ever had at a football match. We looked down onto the Directors Box, with Arsene Wenger, Pat Rice, Liam Brady and a host of others there. The view for me was like watching on a huge widescreen TV, it was a TV perfect angle, right on the half way line. Very much like watching on telly, except you had the added bonus of being there. The roof of the executive tier comes surprisingly far down, so it feels quite cosy in there, almost like you are in a room with one open wall, if that makes any sense.

The game itself was full of good news - Arsenal won 4-1, and looked by far the better team throughout. Knowing him from the first team, I was keeping an eye on Jack Wilshere, and he was fantastic - setting up 2 goals, and drilling in a penalty himself. Watching the kids is always a bit weird in that they play exactly like the first team - it seems that the layout and style of play is exactly the same in every Arsenal team, just the players are different. So, it was like any Arsenal game where the team are on song, the play is fluent, and the result is the right one. A pleasure to watch, and we should be able to finish the job next week in the second leg.

The Guardian, to their immense credit, sent a reporter to cover the game (although, being based in Kings Cross, and living in Highbury they probably didn't have to travel too far!), so we can at least read a vaguely professional match report - not one that is more interested in the view from Diamond Club. As for Diamond Club, you could really get used to watching games from there - but the £25k a year required to do so may be a little hard to find!

Work trip to Valencia, Spain - 12th to 16th May 2009

Over the past 4 years, I've been doing a lot of travelling for work. In fact, until very recently, I'd barely gone a month without leaving the country at some point. Then my daughter came along, along with a recession induced travel clampdown, and I have been in London for the last 3 months. After constant use of the passport for a few years, I have to admit I've been going a but stir crazy. So, a sneaky work trip to Valencia for a conference was most welcome - especially as it was Valencia, which is obviously a great city.

The trouble with recessions is that everybody scales back their travelling. Which means that airlines scale back their flight. Which means that travelling gets harder. There are 3 direct flights a day from London to Valencia - 2 on Ryanair, and one on EasyJet. None were at the time I needed to go, so I found myself going on Iberia, changing planes in Madrid. One advantage of this was that I got to see the fantastic new airport terminal there, with a nice executive lounge, which enabled some early sampling of some Spanish ham.

Eventually in Valencia, it was scorching hot (and still only lunchtime). Our venue for the week was the Palacio de Congresos, a modern venue with lots of glass on the outside - which meant you could easily enjoy the Valencia sunshine from inside the building. Of course, during the week, we also got some time out in the sun, which was a welcome change from windy London. Wearing a suit in 30 degree heat was not a huge amount of fun - but its always a nice problem to have!

The congress centre was a block or two away from the New Mestalla, the football stadium that is being built for Valencia CF. Construction has slowed down recently, because of Valencia's money troubles, but what is built so far looked really impressive indeed - almost like a flower shape. On my taxi ride between conference centre and hotel, we spent much quality time stuck in traffic, looking at the new stadium. Looking forward to going there before too long.

My hotel was in a completely different part of town, in the City of Arts & Sciences. So, good views to be had, and it was an easy stroll to get out into the riverbed, to look at some of the fantastic architecture. There seem to be new buildings still springing up there too, as they develop the whole area from the city centre to the sea. One one evening, we had a tour of the Formula 1 circuit, the pits, and the Americas Cup area. There has been a ton of development in Valencia over the last 10 years, but I was struck by how empty much of it is - the tourists are not here (although of course this is still only May), and you wonder how many white elephants the city will be left with in a few years time.

Arsenal vs Chelsea - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 10th May 2009

After the extreme disappointment of the Manchester United game on Tuesday, there was at least something to cheer Arsenal fans up the following night. Chelsea's last minute exit to Barcelona, after having had 25,000 penalty claims turned down, was highly amusing. The intensity, bitterness and sheer sour grapes of their complaints, just underlined for many people how pleased they were to see them go out of Europe. Some of the dissent at the end of their game was just symptomatic of their "win at all costs" mentality, instilled in them by Jose Mourinho - his shadow still looms large over them.

So, we had the opportunity to laugh at Chelsea. Looking at their team sheet for this game, it was amazing just how many detestable players they have - Cole, Drogba, Anelka, Terry, Mikel, etc. Frank Lampard isn't that likeable, but came a poor sixth in the hate stakes - and would have been seventh if Michael Ballack had made the starting XI. Incredible. By contrast, the Arsenal team wasn't all that hateable - Adebayor being left on the bench saw to that. Fabianski bizarrely came in to face Chelsea after screwing up against them last time, and Arshavin again missed out, with a virus this time.

Arsenal started off OK, lots of possession, a few decent chances, the best of which fell to Theo Walcott to miss. Overall, the first half hour or so was a tale of much Arsenal possession, but relatively little to show for it. Against teams like Chelsea, that is always something that makes you nervous you might get punished. And, before too long, punished we were - Alex getting up relatively unopposed for a header, and the ball bouncing in off the underside of the bar. Again a soft centre in defence, and the keeper may have done better, but it was 1-0 to Chelsea, against the run of play.

Before half time, it became 2-0, a decent Anelka shot from outside the box, which swerved a bit, but was still nowhere near enough to the corner for the keeper to have missed it. It was a fair shot, but should really have been saved, and I think it needs to go down as a(nother) keeper error. Not good, and you have to question Fabianski's future at Arsenal now.

Just after half time, it was 3-0, an own goal from Toure. A good header from Nicklas Bendtner pulled one back with about 20 minutes to go, but Arsenal were never likely to get themselves back into the game. A late Malouda goal made it 4-1, for Arsenal's heaviest home League defeat for over 30 years, and what was something of a hammering all in all. The Arsenal players didn't really seem to show up - players like Van Persie and Nasri were rather anonymous, Walcott missed everything that came his way, Diaby was absolutely useless - and the few that did seem to be up for the game were always going to struggle against that background. It was pretty much the same starting team that had beaten Chelsea earlier in the season, and it just underlined the size of the gap between Arsenal on form, and Arsenal on a bad day. That gap is too big, and needs some experience to bolster our "bad day" performances so that we can get results from those games.

So, a depressing game. Despite the season being over, it could get a whole lot more depressing next week, as Manchester United could win the League against us - a grim possibility. It was all looking so hopeful about a month ago, but this will turn out to be a frustrating season for Arsenal fans. Thank God there is a long summer with no football, I am just about sick of it for now.