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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Air Traffic - 100 Club, London - Tuesday 31st October 2006

A trip to the "legendary" 100 Club, to see rising band Air Traffic - signed to a record label recently, and with a couple of decent singles under their belt already. As ever at the 100 Club, the gig was pretty packed, and pretty smoky also - there never seems to be any possibility for any air to move around in there. This was the last date of a nationwide tour that had seen them fully exhaust the club circuit.

After a support band whose name I didn't manage to catch (because the singer was guilty of some random mumbling between songs, and that was about it), Air Traffic came on stage. In a good mood because the tour was finishing, they engaged in good banter with the audience. They seemed to alternate between playing piano-led songs, and guitar-led songs, which meant that their sound didn't get a chance to get boring.

Already playlisted on Radio 2, their piano-led songs make it easy to see why. They could be as annoyingly omnipresent as Keane in a few years time. However, the guitar-based songs really add something that Keane do not have, they can rock out as well, and so probably Coldplay is a fairer comparison. The songs are good, it is all very safe and nice and friendly, but they seemed to be a decent enough band, with some reasonably catchy tunes. Their style means that I am not wildly enthusiastic, but they will probably do well in terms of sales and radio play.

Arsenal vs Everton - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 28th October 2006

Similar to other home games this season, this was a 1-1 draw. Everton took an early lead, and then sat back, with men behind the ball, and made it very difficult for Arsenal to get an equaliser. As they would, because they are not expected to just come to our stadium and roll over for us. Arsenal had 91% of possession in the second half of the game (a Premiership record, apparently), but could "only" equalise, not find the winner.

Another frustrating game, but if we aspire to win the League, we really need an answer for when teams come to our ground and play like this. At the moment, that is the difference between Arsenal and Chelsea or Manchester United. It is all very well saying "they didn't want to play football, they just sat back and defended", but the best teams should be able to overcome this.

Aside from the game, I am really growing to dislike Arsenal's new stadium. Arsenal have clearly tried to build the ultimate santised corporate football experience, for all their new "customers". This involves throwing people out for such terrible things as standing up, singing, shouting and swearing - all things that are to be expected at football matches. People will say "just because they are expected, doesn't make it right" - and there are a lot of very sheltered individuals saying exactly this - and complaining to stewards and police about it. Those stewards and police then take it upon themselves to throw people out for very little reason at all.

Apart from anything else, throwing out your "customers", that have spent £35+ on a ticket to get in (which is not exactly cheap), you have to be pretty sure that they deserve it. But Arsenal seem to be turfing people out at the drop of a hat, in some parts of the stadium at least. It is deeply annoying that they seem to be going to war against some of their most loyal fans - all in the misguided pursuit of some new money from some new fans who weren't there 10 years ago. There might be 30,000 people on the season ticket waiting list, but that does not justify the imposition of a police state in the stadium.

This is not just confined to Arsenal, of course - much of the Premiership is trying to create a sit down, shut up, happy clappy sanitised atmosphere. Which may well be the future of football in this country, but I absolutely cannot stand it. When the new fans, that cannot stand a bit of standing, swearing and shouting, get bored and find a new pursuit, we will all be a lot better off. What they are complaining about is not exactly even close to the football experience of old, there are hardly people fighting, ripping up seats and chanting racist abuse - just people that want to support their team vocally.

In the meantime, I am seriously considering not renewing my season ticket for next year - if I had to do so now, I would not. I just want my "matchday experience" back. Going to the stadium and being forced to sit down, be quiet and not shout and scream, is not what I pay £35 a game for. Football will kill itself if this continues, and I won't be around for the funeral.

Work trip to Leverkusen, Germany - 26th to 27th October 2006

A flying visit to Germany, to see a client in picturesque Leverkusen, which is near Cologne. Leverkusen of course is famous for Bayer Leverkusen, and not much else. After a nightmare flight over to Frankfurt, I collapsed straight into bed when I arrived.

Getting to Leverkusen from Frankfurt is about a 200km journey, which happened in a new Mercedes B Class car, driven by a German colleague. I really got to experience the fact that there are no speed limits on German motorways, with a hair-raising ride there and back. It veered between sitting in a traffic jam, to routinely getting up to 200kph (that's about 125mph). Exciting stuff, occasionally stupidly dangerous, but a good journey nevertheless.

On the way back to Frankfurt, we made a stop at McDonalds by the motorway - where the McRib seems to be permanently on the menu. Far from being like the French and Spanish, who shun such bad food, the Germans are incredibly like us English, they are "lovin' it" - pretty much every big motorway exit has a McDonalds about 2 minutes away, which you can usually see from the motorway thanks to a huge M on a very tall pole.

The trip was over pretty quickly, I got to see Leverkusen's stadium which looked pretty spectacular, and a good experience at high speed on the Autobahns.

Little Man Tate, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah - ULU, London - Wednesday 25th October 2006

Four weeks to the day since the last time I saw them, at Kings College, I went to the slightly larger ULU to repeat the experience. A typical Students Union, with pretty slow bar service, sticky floors, and more than a few wacky students, with strange clothing and haircuts. Oh, and Steve Lamacq, hero of all students, in attendance as well.

Supporting Little Man Tate were Dustin's Bar Mitzvah, a trashy punk band from London. They have been playing around London for a while now, and I have seen their name a number of times on the bill at small venues. They were fantastic - sounding reminiscent of the Sex Pistols, but with some great poppy parts to some of their songs, and with excellent punk guitars. I will definitely be looking to see them again soon. A very good song in particular, Young Pretender, which has a pop at the BNP's Nick Griffin - in a very amusing way.

Little Man Tate came on to Carter USM's Sheriff Fatman (again), during which you could see people asking their mates what it was, some people telling their mates, and others just shrugging blankly. I was significantly less inebriated for this LMT gig than either of my previous ones, but they still sounded excellent from start to finish. As well as the usual songs about going out and trying to pull, they also played a few more tonight, that showed a more mature songwriting side to their game - and were also very good.

Towards the end of the set (which again had no encore - they are still at that exciting stage where they don't play them), they again finished with Down On Marie. The singer discarded his guitar, and had just the microphone, going mental on stage. A good feature of ULU is that crowd surfers are deposited on stage, and have to walk off stage to get back into the crowd. A good number of people did this during the last song - security hated it, and you sensed that the singer was loving it for that precise reason. A stage dive later, and the band left to rapturous applause after another excellent set.

One observation about this gig was the huge amount of poor gig etiquette in the crowd. Students! Lots of barging people all over the place to get past them (in a venue that wasn't even really very full), and students with stupid haircuts talking loudly at the back of the venue. Worse, students that are so used to cheap beer, that they think nothing of spilling it all over the place as they barge to the front for House Party At Boothy's. Respect the beer, please!!

Reading vs Arsenal - Madejski Stadium, Reading - Sunday 22nd October 2006

After the lower division football yesterday, came a Premiership trip to Reading. They have had a good start to the season, and have been looking like a very useful team, especially at home. Chelsea and Man Utd have both struggled at the Madejski so far this season, so we were expecting a tough game. I used to live in Reading, so took the opoortunity to reacquaint myself with the pubs in the town centre, including the lovely Three Guineas at the station!

The Madejski is an impressive stadium for a "smaller" ground, and was packed to the rafters. I was amused to hear the Reading fans singing about following their team over land and sea, because I seem to recall crowds of 10 or 11,000 for their games when I lived there about 5 years ago. Wonder if so many people will be there if they get relegated again.

If you are expecting a difficult game, it certainly helps to be in the lead within a minute. So it was, and that goal after 50 seconds or so, helped to kill the excitement, and the game as a contest. So, the competitive part of the day lasted less than a minute.

The rest of the game was one of those vintage Arsenal performances, which has pundits and journalists drooling over the quality of the passing, movement, and the way that Arsenal can make decent sides look stupid. Fabregas in particular was amazing, again, and people are starting to notice this in a big way. He signed an 8-year deal last week, and by the end of it, he could have become the best player in the history of the world, and our best ever player - all before he hits 28 years old.

Towards the end of the game, with their team losing 4-0, those loyal Reading fans started to drift out of the ground in their droves. This picture, taken only about 30 seconds after the final whistle, shows nowhere near enough people in the ground to even get close to filling the seats. Over land and sea indeed!!