Pay up Pompey - the first elite to fall

Well, yesterday's news came as a surprise to very little; Portsmouth FC have entered the dark world of administration. Just under 2 seasons ago, they were on their way to Wembley Way and to eventual FA Cup success.

Now, after 4 owners have taken the reigns this season, the axe hanging above the club dropped and they have become the first top-flight side to be deducted the dreaded nine points.

So what's gone wrong?

Effectively everything. The blame firstly should be placed firmly at the board, specifically Peter Storrie who somehow has been ever-present throughout the issues (akin to Risdale at Leeds in my opinion)

Four chairmen in one season is just ludicrous. It's clear that none of them were invested in the club for the long haul and wanted to make a quick profit. That shouldn't be how a club is treated, but unfortunately it's a sign of the times. On the flipside, some owners of other clubs have outstayed their welcome and have worsened the financial situation.

The blame could be directed at the Premier League for their fit and proper owner policy which previously has been called into question for not being strict enough. The best example being the Glazer takeover in 2005 on borrowed money leaving the club with reported debts of £700million today and Thaksin Sinawatra's takeover of Manchester City in 2007, who today had his assets seized by the Thai government. (Admittedly, the latter of these stories led to another takeover, which helped City in the long run)

But its clear the policy needs looking at if so many owners's dealings in the past are being brought into question. Simply, the Premier League needs to tighten the policy to avoid situations like this one.

On a personal level, I feel really bad for their fans. As soon as they were promoted to the Premier League, the fans probably felt like on Cloud Nine and they've endured hardship over the years. People like John 'Portsmouth FC' Westwood show their enduring passion for the club and created a party-like atmosphere in those first few years of Premier League. Some critics may say Mr Westwood is obsessed and out of touch with reality. Not at all the case, if you've got the passion, flaunt it.

I have a sort of affinity for Portsmouth, I took the club to the Europa League final on Football Manager (John Utaka was Europe's best player, how Pompey fans must wish this was real ) but these dreams seem so far in reality. Under Redknapp, Pompey were knocking on the door of Europe, 24 months later they are knocking on the doors of potential investors.

I really hope the club find a buyer. I don't like to see clubs going under, even Leeds who I should despise. The Leeds case is eeriely parallel to Portsmouth's and I think the club are nowhere near rock bottom yet unfortunately.

So in conclusion, the borrowing culture of the Premier League's club's needs to be stamped out before more clubs follow Pompey into the dark abyss of adminstration

Photos courtesy of Sir Pix-a-Lot and bhardinge

Harvey Birdman - Who's the man in the suit?

Just thought I'd review another recently purchased TV boxset for my minions . Rather than go for a drama, like the Wire, I plumbed for the Adult Swim animated comedy, Harvey Birdman:Attorney at Law

But wait, does the name Birdman sounds familiar? No? Well I'd never heard of him either despite being a aficionado of 70's animated cartoons. He was the lead in Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, which obviously passed me by having being made in 1967.

The hilarious premise for the show is that Harvey (voiced by Gary Cole, who's best known to me as Cotton McKnight in Dodgeball) takes various cases for other cartoon characters as part of a superhero law firm

Just to prove how genius and ludcrious this is, here are some examples of cases taken by Birdman.

• Defending Scooby Doo and Shaggy for possession.
• Defending Boo Boo from Yogi Bear, who is suspected of being an eco-terrorist.
• Defending the Jetsons, who come from the near distant 'future' of 2002, to sue Earth for global warming.

Without doubt, my favourite episode however is where Harvey helps fund Fred Flintstone's Mafia businesses, in a terrific parody of The Godfather.

The pace is so fast that you will be forgiven for missing jokes. The voice acting is solid throughout with special praise going to satirist Stephen Colbert, who plays Harvey's boss, Phil Ken Sebben, who is already in my top 5 cartoon characters of all time.

The series was cancelled in 2007, after Colbert left to commit full-time to his excellent Colbert Report, but I suggest that you check this out; there are some moments of genius littered throughout. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is Space Ghost, another great animated show.

Here's the first episode I saw which got me hooked to this intelligent and surreal show. One of my mates described it as an acid trip. He ain't wrong.

The Wire, best show ever? 'True dat'

I'll warn you here, this blog won't do this TV show justice. Why? Well firstly, its been too long since I've blogged and second, I feel like this bite-size blog on why you should watch The Wire won't cover everything and will miss out key things. That's the problem with this show, I could talk about it all day, and have much to the annoyance of people who haven't seen it. It makes me look like an educated buffoon if you will

I bought on a recommendation of a mate. That recommendation was "It's the greatest TV series I've ever seen, it's like a novel." I was sceptical, surely it can't be that good and off the back of watching Season 1, I look very foolish.

The Wire, set in Baltimore takes a intricate look at the city's infrastructure. You get to see both sides of the law: the police and the drug dealers that plague the streets. In further seasons, the shift focuses on to other aspects of Baltimore, such as politics, media and the school system. It soon becomes clear though that this series isn't as simple as good vs evil. Each character has his or her flaws and other psychological issues to deal with. All the cast are fairly unknown which is amazing considering the level of acting on show, which shows how well people are cast.

Here's a quick look at the main characters in the show.

The main protagonist within the series is Jimmy McNulty, played by Brit Dominic West. He is quite possibly the most annoying hero I've ever had the misfortune to know. His policing method is unorthodox (and he's specifically told to be orthodox), such as using his kids to stalk drug dealers, and due to this he's hated by the majority of his fellow homicide detectives. He's also a womanising alcoholic. But you still like the guy, at times, which is credit to the writers, since he's such an arsehole.

His right-hand man is Bunk Moreland played by Wendell Pearce. He's also known for his drinking and infidelity, but at least he keeps it secret unlike McNulty. The man is probably my favourite 'good' guy in the series, purely for the lines he has and the fact he's always smoking a cigar at investigation scenes. The essence of cool.

My favourite scene of the season involves these two investigating the scene of a murder


The main player of the drug dealers is Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) who controls the Barksdale organisation on the West Side. His second in command is Stringer Bell (another Brit, Idris Elba) and the two have built a massive empire of businesses off the back of the drug trades. They work a very complex system in the towers and in The Pit, where Avon's nephew, D'Angelo (Larry Gillard Jr) leads the rest of the foot soldiers.

There's so many other characters within the show, all of which deeply thought out. Two great characters are Omar Little (above played Michael K Williams) who is effectively a Robin Hood type of character who steals from the drug dealers and is always toting a shotgun around the streets. He's gay and is probably the only character who prefers poetry to profanity. My other favourite character is Bubbles (Andre Royo) who's a snitching drug addict, who'll find any way to get his fix.

The plot is too deep to mention in full detail, but, in Jens Lehmann terms, it is about squad of police officers try bring a case against Barksdale's drug empire but within that there are so many subplots that thinking about all of them makes my head explode. Plus I wouldn't want to ruin any of this great show for you. (Intrigue is the best thing trust me)

It doesn't hold back; it's as raw as it can possibly get. Drug taking, gangland shootings, sex scenes, none of them at all censored and in as much gory detail as possible. But that doesn't mean the script isn't rock solid and intellectual. Its one of the best thought out screen-plays of certainly this decade, possibly of the last 30 years. At times, it is so complex that I put the subtitles on (and that doesn't make me stupid, I like to hear everything just to be sure).

So in conclusion, watch The Wire for gritty drama that will keep you hooked for the best part of several weeks. Stay tuned for my series 2 review of the Wire which I will do at some point.

Pictures courtesy of Roo Reynolds on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rooreynolds/

and soulsick http://www.flickr.com/photos/suslik/

Forza Motorsport 3 review

I've had this game for about a week now, after effectively an impulse buy last week. What a great decision it was. I realised I didn't have many racing titles on the system, which is strange considering it was the genre I got to play first when I was younger.

Simply put this is without doubt the best racing game I've played on the Xbox 360. But I'll break it down into several categories.

Gameplay

The game physics were astounding in Forza 2, and provided the gamer with arguably the most realistic driving experience on the 360. Forza 3 improves it. The game offers a plethora of different
variants of driving settings. For example, you can turn off the racing and braking lines if you are a more experienced driver, or even further turn the ABS and traction control off, to give the races more unpredictability.

Lets talk about the cars. There is a wide selection, 400 to be precise, which range from the latest Fiat 500 to the Bugatti Veyron. Every single car (of which I used) has different handling, which adds to the game's replay value. Theres also several race cars on offer, such as the Holden V8 Supercar and both Peugot and Audi's Le Mans cars. The sheer amount of cars, from several countries makes this game great alone

The season mode is incredibly in-depth as well. Unlike in Forza 2, the season mode follows a calendar is mainly focused on World Championships, with several specific race tournaments in between, like car manufacter trophies. I finished the first season really quickly but each season adds a month, which I think is a great idea.

Graphics

It is stunning. Every car is done justice with 10 time as polygons on each vehicle, giving a glossy finish. Over 100 tracks are on the game, and each one is recreated with brillance. Its the little things like trees and backgrounds make the game an immersive experience.

My main issue with some racing games is the fact that some tracks don't account for gradients of the tracks and Forza 3 comes the closest to getting that right. Corners such as Laguna Seca's corkscrew and the Carousel at Nurburgring look fantastic.












Sound

A must for any driving game, do the cars sound like they should? An emphatic yes. Just some of the grunts and growls certain cars make, add to the realism of the game. This is a game best played loud. The background music in the race must be turned off though unless you like the same repetitive beat over and over.


Track List


As I've already said, there's over 100 tracks in Forza 3, some created by the Take 10 team such as Maple Valley Raceway, but theres some great real life tracks such as Mugello, the Ferrari test track in Italy and Silverstone, the UK's premier venue for motorsport (not the best track in the UK, in my opinion). My favourite tracks are the aforementioned Mugello and Sebring. Some tracks are downright irritating, the Almafi Coast track making Monaco look as a wide as a airfield.



Longevitity

Theres so much to do on this game. I haven't been able to try out online multiplayer or auction house, which adds to the in-game cash, but I'm certain that if it's as good as Forza 2 online, then it will be great. No lag, frenetic racing, what more do you want? (the Lawroism of the week there)

I haven't even mentioned the in-depth customisation mode, where the player can effectively put any design and manufacturer decal onto their respraid car. Theres also a offline multiplayer mode.

Verdict

The best racing title on the 360 to date, which is a vast improvement on Forza 2. A must for any racing game fan. There are little niggling issues, such as some rare races being easy due to class glitches but it easily forgivable when its such a good game.

4.5 out of 5

Images from flickr courtesy of orwar, Morten M and dave.scriven

Premiership preview

Well, it's that time again. No, not Hammer time, that was ages ago, and best left there. No, of course it's the start of the Premier League season this weekend.

It seems only a few weeks since Manchester United once again lifted the trophy for the 11th time since the league was revamped in 1992. The fact is in football in 2009, you can never get away from the game, due to the insane amount of coverage by Sky Sports during the summer, with all the amount of transfer gossip, much of which never materialises into much and leaves the club's wanting better players (yes this is Arsenal).

But anyway, here's my,unlikely to be brief, look at the 3 main groups of the league, the Top 4, the also rans and relegation candidates.

The Contenders

In my opinion, the usual runners and riders are going to be up the top end of the league. In all honesty, I don't see Manchester City being amongst them. Yes, they have spent a shed load of money this summer, but at the end of the day, these players (mostly strikers) have to gel and it won't be an overnight success. I think they'll do well, if they manage to get some away form for once, and will likely finish 5th, in which case, 'Sparky' Mark Hughes will lose his job. Oh well. Then again a cup run would be a success for City, they don't tend to do anything in the domestic cups.

Out of the top 4, I think that Chelsea, on paper, look the strongest. They have a aging team but if there is one manager to get the best out of them, it is clearly Carlo Ancelotti, who had great success at AC Milan with veterans in the side. Manchester United will of course run them close, even without Ronaldo. If United start badly, the press might write them off and claim the Ronaldo deal was a bad idea. History shows us that United often start badly and still win the league. Wayne Rooney will hopefully become the talisman of the side and bang in the goals in time for the World Cup. I expect Anderson and Frederico Macheda to figure heavily in Sir Alex's plans at some point.

I think Liverpool have bigger problems, the loss of Xabi Alonso will hurt them, even with Alberto Aquilani as his replacement, he tends to get injured a fair bit. I'm not saying Liverpool won't be near Chelsea or United but I think they might fall away towards the end of the season.

Arsenal will surprise people, I think. They may have got rid of two influential players and everyone thinks that they will become the fall guy for Manchester City. Don't bet on it. If Andrei Arshavin has anything to say about it, Arsenal will be up there. There are some great youth players coming through at Arsenal, who are English (shocker!) such as Wilshere and Ramsey. If they sort out their defence, they will be fine.


The Relegation Candidates

The team out of the promoted Championship teams I fear for most, are now Birmingham. A few days ago, I would have said Wolves, but they've got Michael Mancienne on loan for the season, who was inspirational for them last year. Birmingham City, however, haven't really added to their squad from last year. They've got some good players, no doubt but a lot of 'past it' players, who had their glory days in the Premier League a long time ago. The addition of Joe Hart is a good one, he should get some practice with a mediocre defence.

The other two teams who I think will go down are Stoke and Hull. Yes, those teams who had great success last season, well for the most part. Stoke, to me, will suffer the dreaded 'second season syndrome'. The majority of their goals will come from Rory Delap throw-ins and James Beattie (he better, he's on my bench of my fantasy league team). There's not much variety and many teams will work out how to play against them, similar to Bolton a few years ago.

Hull, who had a great start last season, followed by a Phil Brown pitch team talk, were only saved by their early form and the Newcastle debacle. They will struggle majorly if they don't find some players with experience quickly. I don't really see where the goals will come from, or how will lead the defence well. Harsh, I know.

Other teams to be around the bottom: Blackburn, Burnley, Wigan, Wolves and Portsmouth. Portsmouth will be the survival by the skin of their teeth award winners, if they sign anyone and get rid of their current manager. Expect them and Burnley to prop up the table early on.

The Best of the Rest

I'll keep this short, Spurs. There we go. This of course depends on whether they decide to play like their squad suggests. Last season, under Ramos, they couldn't kick a ball. Under Redknapp, they looked very good. Also expect Luka Modric to have a key season and in the words of Alan Partridge, "thrike" some goals in. Their success is depending on the amount of injuries they have and if Ledley King ever plays. And that's not a load of Tottenham in my book (good luck with the reference)

Conclusion

If I was forced to make a prediction of the league table, here's how it would look

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
---------------------------------
5. Manchester City
6. Tottenham
7. Everton
8. Aston Villa.
9. West Ham United
10. Sunderland
11. Fulham
12. Bolton
13. Burnley
14. Blackburn (Lancashire club league round here)
15. Wolves
16. Wigan
17. Pompey
18. Stoke
19. Birmingham
20. Hull

Other Cups and Awards

FA Cup - Spurs, to break "the year ends in 1" hoodoo
League Cup - Arsenal
Champions League - Inter Milan, as Mourinho might focus on it
Manager Sack Race - Paul Hart by a country mile
Overachievers - Spurs
Underachievers - Liverpool/ Arsenal
Player of the Year - Nemanja Vidic, he was robbed last year
Player who didn't do so well of the Year - At a random guess, and hope, Steven Gerrard

Don't quote me on those predictions, I don't have the Almanac from Back to the Future

Image courtesy of Jason Bagley

A quick Oasis Wembley gig review

Right, first things first, I've been a massive Oasis fan for as long as I can remember really, thanks to my parents playing What's the Story Morning Glory repeatedly for about a year in 1996. I'd put that album in my all time top 10. As Westwood would say, heavy hit after heavy hit (note to self, never, and I mean never use Tim Westwood in future blogs). So obviously I was very excited about seeing them at Wembley, at their final date of a sell-out UK tour. And, for the most part, they didnt disappoint.

Wembley Stadium itself is a great venue for music. I imagined it to be a lot bigger than it actually was but there must been at least 50,000 people there, all anticipating the arrival of the Gallaghers. No idea why people would choose seating at a gig like this, because to get the real atmosphere, you really need to stand, just to take in the experience

Lets talk about the support first. I missed Reverend and The Makers and the majority of The Enemy, because quite frankly, I dont really care for either band and neither did my friend, Mr David "I love Blur" Stubbings, who is quite possibly the only person to see both bands this summer.

However, I saw Kasabians set, which was quite frankly fantastic, and really got the crowd pumped up. I thought they'd stick to a lot of stuff off the new album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (yeah I still don't get that album title.)

But they just played the songs that made them one of the UK's best bands of this decade such as Club Foot, Empire and LSF plus new tracks Fast Fuse, Fire and Underdog, which if you haven't heard on any advert recently, I'd be very suprised. The highlight of the set for me though had to be The Doberman, which I think is criminally underated from the second album.

But on to the main attraction. Lets get the negatives out of the way and maybe people will call me critical here. Liam Gallagher doesn't move. He could have died and I probably wouldn't have noticed. You would think at a gig of this stature, he might just move around the stage a bit. Nope, he just stood there staring at the crowd. Yes I understand its his gimmick to lean into the mic and think everything is above him, but after two hours, it becomes very tiresome. Even the graphics were more entertaining, especially the rolling car as Mr Stubbings pointed out.

The 2 hour set itself was almost perfect. They started with Rock and Roll Star, which I think is a great opener for them really, although I would have gone for Morning Glory. Then Lyla, which the less said about the better, one Oasis song I can't stand. They threw in the odd track from the latest album, Dig Out Your Soul such as The Shock of The Lightning and I'm Outta Time. To Be Where There's Life though felt a bit out of place, and I dont see it is as a great track.

Every hit was there, but I would have liked to see more tracks that weren't big singles such as Shakermaker and Cast No Shadow, but I'm really nitpicking as they played Whatever for the first time in 10 years according to Noel

The highlights for me were definately in Noel's acoustic stuff. The entire crowd with their hands in the air and singing in unison for Half the World Away and The Masterplan, not to mention Don't Look Back In Anger. These moments really made the gig for me, it was a sight to behold.

The last two tracks were also brilliant, Champagne Supernova, which to me is the definite Oasis song and a cover of I Am The Walrus, which made the gig near perfect.

Overall, Oasis were on near top form, just let down a bit by the fact the gig wasn't great visually, but music-wise it was spectacular.

Heres some other more in-depth reviews of the gig, including a review of both Britpop bands by some guy from down south:

Dave Stubbings' review of Britpop gigs

www.itsgoodtobefree.com/2009/07/14/itsgoodtobefrees-review-of-oasis-at-wembley-stadium-12-07-09/
www.thelondonpaper.com/going-out/whats-new/live-music-review-of-oasis-gig-at-wembley-stadium

Images courtesy of becca_ca_ca at Flickr

Spikey proves laughter is the best medicine

It's been a while since I last saw some live stand-up (in fact the last comedian I saw live was Bill Bailey at the M.E.N and I don't think anything will top that performance) but as soon as a mate told me Dave Spikey was appearing at the legendary Bolton Albert Halls, I thought I'd check it out.

I've always been an admirer of Spikey's work, especially the sensational Phoenix Nights, which he co-wrote with Peter Kay and Neil Fitzmaurice, but he also starred in the show as everyones favourite compere, Jerry "The Saint" St. Clair . But before Spikey turned to the comedy circuit, he used to work for the NHS, and this forms the basis for his observational material and the tour name itself "The Best Medicine: Repeat Prescription."

Now here's my first problem with the gig, it was effectively the same stuff churned out from his last tour (the repeat prescription being the clue there) and that was fine with me as I hadn't seen the previous tour, but after checking Youtube after the show, I saw effectively the same routine. This surely would annoy several people and the fact it shows laziness on his part that he can't be bothered to write new material. It seems he may have copied a certain trick of his former friend, Peter Kay.

To be fair, Spikey did two hours straight, something Kay hasn't done since 2003 probably. However, It did tend to drag quite a bit as he focused for what seemed like 30 minutes on the class clown from his school days. But the beginning and end of the material was brilliant. To start off, Spikey focused on local newspapers and how rubbish the headlines and stories usually are. There's nothing better than lampooning the industry that I want to be a part of.

He ended with some great audience interaction as he did a pop quiz, which focused on artists terrible lyrics. No one was exempt including the classic Pink Floyd lyric "we don't need no education" which of course is a double negative and also Des'ree's Life, which has the line "I don't wanna see a ghost. It's the sight that I fear most. I'd rather have a piece of toast (yes that song did reach the top 10)."

Overall, I enjoyed the performance although some of the jokes just seemed obvious and I could tell where they were headed. But the audience, being from Spikey's hometown, made up for that, with some great responses to Spikey's questions.

3 stars (yep I'm not creating a new ranking system, I'll stick with the good ol stars)