Its been a while

First of all, sorry it's been such a long time since I last posted, it's been a busy term at uni.

A lot's gone on in the world of sport and music since I last posted, England's failed world cup bid, (something I'm very happy about), the continued good form of the mighty Exeter city and a huge array of new music, but today I want to talk about last nights sports personality of the year awards.

For a start, I'm a big fan of the awards, the coverage they give to so many sports is brilliant and this years nominee's all deserved their place, except for David Haye (I reckon I could have given Harrison a run for his money).

Thankfully this years award went to the correct contender, AP McCoy.

Now I'm not massively into Horse racing, I enjoy the 'odd' trip to Ladbrooks, but I wouldn't call myself an expert. The one thing I do know, is that AP is the greatest jockey of his generation, if not the greatest of all time. 15 time champion jockey, winner of the Gold Cup, the King George, the Champion Hurdle, and this years Grand National at his fifteenth attempt to top it all off.

Many may question weather it's more about the horse than the jockey, so it's a coincidence that AP has over 3000 winners? I think not. Yes he may get to ride the best horse's, but the reason why is because he is the best at what he does.

His award last night was not just for this year, but to celebrate an amazing career in one of the most demanding sports in the world, Well done AP

The Power Of Games

In my lecture today it was suggested that games could be the future of journalism. Philip Trippenbach suggested that people can learn about news issues through playing games. Personally i disagree with this, Trippenbach suggests that games involve people in the issue which means they will understand it more. I agree that being involved in the story will make you understand it more but i can't see games being the main platform for this.

For people to play games they must be interesting and entertaining, but can you make an interesting game about the financial crisis? Personally I don't think you can. Yes it will work for some subjects, and yes it will appeal to a certain audience but I disagree that it will become one of the most powerful forms of journalism.

The xx

So happy The xx won the mercury prize, just like to point out that I predicted that, which you can see a few posts down, clearly the best album of the year, still sounds brilliant after almost a year.

Now if they would please announce a new UK tour I would be very happy.

Ok I Was Wrong

When the line up for Reading and Leeds was announced I questioned whether the reformed Libertines would be there for the right reasons, if they even turned up. I'm quite happy to say I was wrong.

Ok so they did get paid an extortionate amount of money and I'm sure even Carl will admit the money had a lot to do with it, but they showed up and the stormed it. They loved it, the critics loved it and the crowd loved it, so much so that during both legs their set had to be paused to allow some over excited fans to calm down. Yes they sounded a bit rusty, but The Libertines have always been about more than sounding good.

It almost couldn't have gone any better and although crowd interaction was kept to a minimum, with tunes such as Time for Heros, Boys In The Band and Up The Bracket they didn't need to say anything.

For the first time in years Pete and Carl let their music do the talking, hopefully it will stay like that.

Mercury Prize

It's that time of year again already. This years mercury music prize nominations were announced this morning and The xx and Dizzee have already been named favourites by the bookies.

The list doesn't contain many surprises and this years winner is sure to be more well known than last years winner Speech Deblle. So who's made the cut.

2003 winner Dizzee Rascal is back in the nominations this year and a lot has changed since 'Boy in da corner' won seven years ago. The former grime prince is now king of the mainstream dance floor and 'Tongue N Cheek' has taken the pop world by storm.

The xx may be newcomers to the awards but their stunning debut topped many end of year lists and was always going to be nominated. Personally it's my favourite from the list but will it win? I hope so.

Paul Weller and Foals are the surprise nominations for me. The Modfather's 10th solo album is not his best but 'Wake Up The Nation' has earned him his first nomination since 1994. Foals 'Total Life Forever' was tipped by a few people for the list but it's nowhere near as good as their debut 'Antidotes'. They wont win!

One of Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons were always gonna be nominated, turns out they both have as folk music grows in popularity and Mumford and Son's have to be pretty confident as they spend the summer tearing up the festival circuit.

Corinne Bailey Rae, Biffy Clyro and Wild Beasts have an outside chance and despite being at 10/1 a victory for I Am Kloot wouldn't surprise me.

Villagers and this years wildcard Kit Downes will be hoping for another shock result like last year but the winner is surely to be one of the favourites, isn't?

My Prediction

1. The xx - XX

2. Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More

3. Corinne Baily Rae -The Sea

Festival Season

So we are well into festival season with two of the big four out the way. A heat wave at Glastonbury meant it was already the best one in years and the standard light drizzle at T In The Park couldn't stop the legions of Scottish nutter's having a great time.

So who have been the winners and losers of this summer?

Florence seems to have become a festival whore, showing up in every field with a stage this summer and at Glastonbury they couldn't seem to get rid of her as she appeared 3 times. Now I do like Flo but does she have to collaborate with everyone! I wound't be surprised to see her on stage with Axel Rose the way things are going come the end of August.

Gorillaz bottled it at Glastonbury! I'm sorry but they did, they were never good enough to headline in the first place, and despite having some great tunes they are not a headline act yet. Has anyone even heard their latest album?

Muse did their standard set at T and Glasto, Same old same old but with less laser's. A little disappointing. Although The Edge did rescue them at Worthy Farm.

Kasabian finally stepped up to the headline stage at T and didn't disappoint. LSF in front of a Scottish crowd is always gonna create a "moment" and the Leicester boys didn't disappoint.

Mummford and Sons seem like festival veterans, packing out tents across the country every weekend and making folk music the most exciting genre around at the moment. Getting thousands of drunk twenty somethings to sing along with a banjo is a good effort.

At Isle Of Wight Macca does what he does best and despite being almost a thousand years old he still knows how to delight a crowd. Possibly the best headliner on the planet?

Blondie was pretty tragic and despite still being pretty fucking cool she cant sing, shame but give it up Debbie.

So whats left to come? Florence headlines Lattitude this weekend and Dizzee and Roxy Music play Lovebox in Victoria Park. Kings of Leon will be back at V and then the return of the likely lads at Reading as Pete and Carl give it another go.

What A Summer of Music!

A Bit Of Both

So the world cup is only two days away and this gives me the chance to mix my two favourite subjects. Football and music. Which leads me to the usually tragic world cup songs.

There has been some greats, Three Lions, Vindaloo and the unforgettable rapping of John Barnes in World In Motion, but there has also been a lot of crimes to music in the name of football. Ant and Dec's 'On The Ball', Bell and Spurling's 'Sven, Sven, Sven' and Embrace's one, which was so bad I can't even remember it.

So what makes a great football song?

Something you can chant? A bit of commentary from the 5-1 in Munich? Talking about how much we hate the Germans, the Argentinians or any one else that's ever beat us? (which is pretty much everyone).

Yeah, they are all pretty common in the football compilations which flood supermarket shelves every two years, (if we qualify) and my favourite from this year is no different, apart from the fact its actually a brilliant song.

Dizzee Rascal and James Cordens 'Shout for England' is your stereotypical world cup song, and I love it. Catchy chorus, some quality lyrics from Dizzee and a comedian trying to sing. The perfect formula.

It's bound to be a number 1 hit and if you haven't heard it yet then come Saturday I can guarantee it will be tattooed in your mind.

Why I Love Football Part 2

It's been a while since my last post, I'm not quite sure why, I haven't even been that busy. Anyway, seeing as the Football season is now pretty much over, I thought I'd better write a little about how the mighty Exeter City ended the season.

The situation was simple going into the last game. All they had to do was equal or better Tranmere's result to maintain their league 1 status. After only two minutes though it looked like City would be heading to league 2 as play off bound Huddersfield took a 1 nil lead and silenced a packed St James Park crowd. Meanwhile Tranmere went 1 up away at all ready relegated Stockport and I was already preparing myself for relegation.

Exeter never seem to stick the script though, with 23 minutes gone City got an equaliser through captain and player of the year Matt Taylor. The goal brought renewed hope to the City faithful and even though Tranmere were now two up at Stockport, it only needed another goal from us to maintain are place in League 1.

The rest of the first half passed without drama and as the second half began the St James Park crowd went into overdrive, almost trying to suck the ball into the net. Huddersfield continued to look dangerous and if it wasn't for two world class saves from keeper Paul Jones the game would have been over.

Exeter brought on two more strikers and went for the win, but with only 9 minutes to go we were still staring relegation in the face.

That was until the 82nd minute, when Barry Corr flicked on a goal kick for Ryan Harley to delicately volley in to the bottom corner and spark possibly the most incredible celebrations St James Park has ever seen. I've never celebrated a goal so much, I don't think I ever will. It was the perfect football moment and I will always remember the moment the ball hit the back of the net.

City had to hold on 8 more minutes plus injury knowing that a Huddersfield equaliser would send them down.

Thankfully they held on and as the final whistle blew the sense of relief around the ground was euphoric. A team who was in the Conference only two seasons before had maintained their league 1 status and most importantly, would look forward to welcoming the old enemy, Plymouth Argyle back to the park after their relegation from the Championship.

This season has been great and all the drama of the last day of the season is what makes football the best game in the world. Me and my friends had travelled back from all over the country for the game and we all agree it was totally worth it. For two of our party it was a extra special experience. Two of my American flatmates came along for only their second ever football game and they couldn't have picked a better game to show them what's great about the English game.

It was a day no city fan will ever forget.

Bring on the World Cup.

Tonight
Uploaded by emilyjayne90. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Another quick plug, this is the new music video for the 505's song 'Tonight'. Although it says by Emily jayne turner it was actually by me, on Emily's mac, i promise.

Enjoy

Current tunes

It's been a while since i've blogged, maybe because the only reason i got a blog was for a assignment thats now over, but i enjoyed writing it so I'm going to try and keep it going.

I thought i would quickly talk about some of my new favorite songs from the last week or so.

First of all, brand new Mystery Jets. I'l be honest, my friend Stew made me listen to this, I'm not usually a fan, but their new track 'Flash a Hungry Smile' is a absolute tune! The Twickenham 5 piece have upper their game again for the third album after the success of 'Twenty one' and if this free download is anything to go by it could be one of the albums of the year.

Download it for free at www.mysteryjets.com/

One of my other favorite songs to come out in the last few weeks is 'This Orient' by Oxford's Foals. Their debut album 'Antidotes' made math rock cool and their new single doesn't stray to far from what made them good, it just sounds bigger, bolder and better. It sounds just like it should be in an episode from Skins, which is ironic considering the show gave the band their break.

The new single is released on the 3rd of May with the second album 'Total Life Forever coming

a week later.

Have a listen

And also have to quickly mention The Gaslight Anthem, i've always known about them, but never really took much notice. Got the album the other day and its brilliant, like the Killers, but with a bit more of an edge, a lot more rock n roll.

Plug

I'm gonna be a bit cheeky and quickly talk about my band and our new E.P.

For those that don't know, when I'm back home i play in indie rock band called The 505's, which came about when me and Luke were starting to do some acoustic covers. We added a drummer (Jamie) and a bass player (Tom) and soon began writing songs. We are all at different universities/colleges so don't get to practice that often, but after nearly 9 months we've finally recorded our first E.P.

It's made up of four tracks written by the band and was recorded at Yard 1 studios in Bideford, North Devon.

I'd like to thank Tom Watkins for recording and producing the record and hopefully you will all like it.

Please take 10 minutes to listen to the tracks on our myspace where you can also download them for FREE! or if you want the retro feel ask me for a CD and I'll send you a copy.

http://www.myspace.com/the505s

Cheers

Why i love football, and why i hate it

I did say when i started this blog that it would be about music and sport, so i thought i better do a sport one eventually.

Last night i travelled up the M5 from sunny Devon to Wiltshire to watch the mighty Exeter City take on 3rd in the league Swindon town. And for 90 minutes it went very well, unfortunately football lasts a little bit longer than 90 minutes.

For those who don't know I'm a massive Exeter fan a regular at the real St James Park when back from uni, however the Grecians have been struggling a bit this season after two consectutive promotions.

On the way to the game last night i feared the worst. Swindon have been on fire recently and Exeter had a dull 0-0 draw at home to a team below them at the weekend.

Football never goes to plan though and after 41 minutes James Dunne sent me and 500 other Exeter fan's wild by putting Exeter one up to silence the Swindon faithful. While me and most of the other City fans taunted the rather large bloke on the other side of the divide, Swindon began to dominate the game leading to a string of great saves from Exeter keeper Paul Jones.

Exeter were holding on for a famous three points and the lads on the other side of the barrier had gone very quite, until the ninety third minute when Exeter captain Matty Taylor deflected a shot into his own net, and send 90 percent of the crowd into raptures, and left the traveling city fans silent.

As the final whistle blew, we were taunted with chants of 'going down going down' and the large bloke who received so much abuse had the last laugh. A point was a good result, but when your that close to winning it feels like defeat.

It was a long trip to see City pick up a point, but would i do it again?

Of course i would.

What Ever People Say

“What ever people say I am, that’s what I’m not” The greatest album ever? To many probably not, but to me, it’s a clear winner. When the Arctic Monkeys released their first single back in 2005 guitar music was out, The Strokes weren’t so cool, and the Libertines had imploded, Rap music dominated the charts, and unless you’re a millionaire or ‘wanna’ be gangster you can’t exactly relate. The Arctic Monkeys changed all this. They made guitar music cool again and their tales of one night stands, angry taxi drivers and underage drinking was something that the majority of teenagers can relate to.

The music was great, and the lyrics were even better. Alex Turner mastered how to make everyday events sound like poetry. The words were clever but yet very obvious. They weren’t overly abstract. They were simple, anyone could understand. “These two lads squaring up proper shouting, bout who was next in the queue, the kind of thing that would seem so silly but not when they've both had a few”. Everyone can understand what that means. Combined with killer choruses and tune’s you can dance to it they were on to a winner.

That album made people pick up guitars again, just like, Is This It and Defiantly Maybe did before it breathed life back in to guitar music. Going to gigs was cool again, and all the girls wanted the boys in the band. It gave a passage for other great bands to follow. Even bands like Kasabian and The Killers who were around before the Monkeys reaped the benefits of their success. Sheffield became a hub for music with Milburn, Little Man Tate and Reverend and The Makers all jumping on the band wagon. However they would all be in the shadow of the Monkeys.

It was the most important album in over twenty years, and the album that changed my life. A big statement I know, but if it didn’t happen? I would have been a chav.

You Got The Love

There are loads of versions on Candi Staton's soul record which was made famous by The Source in 1992, but today i think i've found my favourite. Florence's was good, Joss Stone's wasn't and Kasabian did a version on their last tour which was, well, odd. Today though, i heard a new one.

While on the way into town today i put radio 1 on (very rare for me) and they rewarded me staright away when Rob Da Bank played The xx's remix of You Got The Love.

Now i'm a massive fan of The xx, their debut album is amazing, but this remix had some how escaped me until today.

They put their own original sound to Flo's recent hit single and mixed it to a chilled out dubstep beat to give it the unique xx feel.

It's brilliant



and if this is the first time you've heard The xx then check out their debut album, it's a modern day classic.

What Became Of The Likely Lads

It was announced today that The Libertines are set to reform for the Reading and Leeds festival and although I, like most indie rock fans are very excited, i have a feeling the 'likely lads' may crash and burn, and that's even if they show up.

For many of the young crowd that will be in front of the main stage in august it will be the first time they've seen the libs, a band they have heard so much about and a band that inspired a large majority of the NME scene bands that will also be playing that weekend.

Unfortunately though i think the crowd may be disappointed, Pete and Carl's careers have both stuttered since the end of the Libertines and we all know the main reason for the comeback is the money. Which is a reported £1.5million, So when they take to the stage on 27th of august are they really going to be there for the music? I don't think so, which ultimately will result in a lacklustre performance and the most iconic band of the decade crushing their reputation even more.

The General Election... and what it means for music

At a recent gig Lily Allen said a big "fuck you" to David Cameron and she's not the only music industry star who's got a lot to say on the current state of British politics.

Musicians will have a big influence on the election and stars like Lilly Allen are in a powerful position. Although political punk rock is pretty much dead the industry will still have a big say in the outcome.

In the US the backing from artists such as Bruce Springsteen and the Black Eyed Peas helped Obama to power, with Springsteen doing acoustic gigs in towns as part of Obama's campaign.

Although its unlikely that you will see Lilly Allen playing at Gordon Browns campaign events the role of music in the next general election is not to be underestimated.

Oasis, Any good?

Oasis, the best band of the last twenty years? Not according to my lecturer. In fact he claims they are one of the worst. Yes he is a blur fan.

Blur were good, but they very never as big, never as interesting and never as good as Oasis. They may have won the first battle when Country House beat Roll With It to number 1 but Oasis would end the Britpop years victorious.

Defiantly Maybe was the best album of the decade and Whats the Story... was the biggest selling. Add that to the massive "gigs of the decade" at Knebworth they were the biggest band in the world.

Yes they had problems, the drugs got the best of them on the third album and band disputes made headlines, but thats what makes Oasis brilliant. They are interesting. They are proper rock n roll stars.

They are real people and like the Arctic Monkeys who followed they wrote songs people can relate to. Being on the doll, one night stands, a lot of alcohol and dreams they had as children. Ok not exactly the most groundbreaking topics ever, but people can relate and that's what made them a band of the people.

They were the last Rock and Rollers

Hello

Welcome to my blog.

Having never done a blog before i'm not exactly sure what il be writing about, but i'm sure it will include a lot of my thoughts on music and football which you may or may not agree with.

Have fun reading