Category: sheffield

The Perfect Setlist

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It’s always a toughie when a band is touring. They’re out there promoting their new material, but the fans turn up wanting to have a good night listening to their classics. Finding a suitable balance is always going to be difficult, but apparently, there is some thought that goes into it.
Here’s how my hometown boys and recent 6000 miles… featurees work it out, their strategy revealed by lead guitarist Jamie Cook to NYMag.com.

“The View From the Afternoon”
“When I saw the Strokes at Madison Square Garden, they started with the first song on their first album, and it was great. I thought we should do the same.”

“Brianstorm”
“To start off the set, we play stuff people can dance to.”

And then, that awkward moment discussed above:

“Don’t Sit Down ’Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair”
“This is the first new one, five songs in. Some people are waiting to hear it, and some people are going to be like, F*** this! Why can’t they play an old one?

Before he demonstrates that he’s been to gigs as an audience member as well:

“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”
“I imagine a fan bringing a date to our show who doesn’t know us that well. We play loads of new stuff, and when we get to ‘Dancefloor,’ he turns to her and says, ‘You’ll definitely know this one.’ If she says, ‘I don’t know this one either,’ that’s when maybe you shouldn’t see much of her again. We’re helping our fans: If they pass this test, it must be love!”

Acknowledging the difficulties of introducing new music on tour:

“She’s Thunderstorms”
“We’d love to go out and be able to play twelve new songs, but that’s not really fair, so there are five new ones on here — this one opens the new album. At the first few gigs, the idea is to test them out and see how they go.”

And ending on the right note:

“Fluorescent Adolescent”
“It’s good for singing along. For the last song, that’s what you need. That’s it! Let’s hope the sun shines, but just in case, bring an umbrella.”

And I agree with most of what he says, but let’s be honest, his hands (and those of every other band on tour promoting a new album) are tied. That might account for the “interesting” guitar work on the new album, incidentally. The fans are not there to hear the new stuff – even when it becomes a hit some way down the line, they won’t remember seeing it live.
There’s no familiarity with a  favourite lyric, no personal link to an event or events in one’s life; there’s no emotion attached to it.

But  – against what the Arctic Monkeys told us “There’s only music so that there’s new ringtones” – without new music, there would be no tours and the whole argument would be rendered invalid anyway. Thus, it looks like the age old recipe of the 70:30 split of old to new. And working on a set of about 20 songs, that still means that you’re going to get 14 of your favourites in.

It’s probably still worth the price of a ticket.

Suck It and See is the fourth studio album from the Arctic Monkeys and is released on 6th June.

The band recently announced two hometown gigs at the Don Valley Bowl on June 10 and 11. They will be headlining the annual V festival occurring August 20-21 with Eminem, Rhianna and Plan B and will also be headlining the T in the Park festival with Coldplay and the Foo Fighters which runs from July 8-10.

FA Youth Cup Final tonight

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Sheffield United’s much-vaunted Academy side goes to Old Trafford tonight in the second leg of the FA Youth Cup Final. Now that might not sound like a big deal to anyone else, but the first leg at Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane last Tuesday attracted a crowd of 29,977. For a Youth game. Put that in perspective against two other games that week: the Championship play-offs for a final at Wembley and a place in the Premiership (allegedly worth £40m), which attracted 19,816 and 24,081 respectively.

The first leg finished 2-2, (with the usual controversial goal awarded to Man U), so it’s all to play for this evening, and the Blades are taking an amazing 6,000 fans over the Pennines for the game.

Unsurprisingly, it won’t be broadcast in SA, but should we win, I’ll surely fill you in with a few details tomorrow!

COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WIZZZZZZZZARDS!

So close…

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I’m getting a little tired of writing hard luck football stories: England, Sheffield United, Sheffield United, Sheffi… look – you get my point, right? But here’s another hard luck football story anyway.

It concerns local boys Ajax Cape Town, who, thanks to the wonder of mathematics, were guaranteed the PSL title should they beat Maritzburg United at the Cape Town Stadium today. The mathematics also meant that if they drew and Orlando Pirates didn’t win, they’d still win the PSL title.  And even if they lost and Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs didn’t win, Ajax would still win the PSL title.

It didn’t seem that difficult.

And that’s probably why the fans went in to the game so full of optimism. The merchandise store was already selling replica kits with the trophy and “PSL Champions 2010/11” on the back. Dangerous chicken counting.

However, once the game started, you could see the gulf in class between the teams. Ajax were all over Maritzburg like an aggressive moss. But chance after chance after chance went begging. Then, just when I was about to remark that this had all the hallmarks of a 0-1, player of the season Thulani Serero, playing his final game for Ajax before heading overseas, passed to Khama Billiat who danced though the Maritzburg defence and slotted a shot low into the bottom corner.
[thanks It’s Still Ayoba for the correction on this]

At half time, it was all looking ever so good. Pirates were drawing, and who cared what Chiefs were doing, cos Ajax were ahead and fully in control, china.
But nerves crept in, passes went astray and Maritzburg worked their way back into the game. And then came 9 minutes of second half madness. Firstly, with the ever-dependable Hans Vonk being strangely undependable and doing… something… with a backpass that wasn’t a backpass and which he should have just simply picked up.

He didn’t pick it up.

And by the time he tried to kick it out from under his own crossbar, ex-Orlando Pirate Gert Schalkwyk was right on top of him. Goal Maritzburg. 1-1.
But rather than coming out and playing the dynamic, attacking football that put them within reach of the PSL trophy, Ajax continued to sit back. And it was to cost them dearly. A shot, an arm, a penalty. No complaints from the Ajax players and Diyo Sibisi stepped up and scored confidently from 12 yards.

Finally, Ajax remembered what had got them where they were this season and it was all guns blazing for the last 20 minutes of the game. But Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Shu-Aib Walters was virtually unbeatable. And though Sameehg Doutie got the equaliser with 3 minutes to play, it was too little, too late as news was already coming through from Orlando Stadium that Pirates had gone into a 2-1 lead.

At the end of it all, it was the end of it all. The were tears, but there was pride as well. For Ajax to get another opportunity next season will be asking a lot, with their irrepressible manager Foppe de Haan retiring, captain Hans Vonk on his way as well and the mercurial and magical Serero also leaving the club. Half the players made it out to acknowledge the fans – the rest were littered across the pitch and down the tunnel, utterly shattered.

Critics will point to Ajax’s capitulation in April against Mamelodi Sundowns, where they let a 4-1 lead slip and drew 4-4. Others will think that the 4-0 beating they took at Kaizer Chiefs a fortnight ago did for them – and that -4 goal difference did turn out to be critical. Me, I look waaaay back to October 2010 and the world’s dodgiest penalty that cost Ajax a win over Santos.

Had any of these games gone differently, Ajax would be PSL champions this evening.
But then you could say that about today’s game as well.

One final message from those who care in Cape Town, as displayed by my little boy, who was as disappointed by the result as anyone else there today and put on the bravest face he could:

All in all, it’s been a pretty rubbish year as far as my football choices are concerned.

Doesn’t mean I won’t be back next season though…

A few more photos here.

Don’t sit down…

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Feels like someone should have suggested that for me this week. Busy.

But no, this is the new one from the Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys: Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair.

I’m getting heavy Beatles, I’m getting dark Oasis and there’s a soupçon of The Smiths and a hint of The Pixies in there too.
What an utterly splendid blend.

P.S. We don’t recommend doing the things that Alex Turner is suggesting: Wearing a shellsuit on bonfire night is downright dangerous and heavily unfashionable and you should certainly check that your medical aid is in order before kung-fu fighting on roller skates.

Bravery in the face of defeat

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(post title borrowed from The Streets’ track Has It Come To This? [youtube] which is also quite apt)

After the upset of Saturday evening, it was heartening to read the first few paragraphs of this:

Instead, the team went to every corner of the ground, acknowledging the supporters who had stayed behind to sing ‘We love United’ and cheer them to the rafters.
As the team finally disappeared down the tunnel, the strains of Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley drifted through the emptying stands like a sad mist. It was a very special moment indeed.

Which confirms what I said here and is in stark contrast to our neighbours across the city whose fans have never seen anything happen after the 85th minute, because they’ve gone home already. Pride and passion often seems limited to S2.

The rest of the article, however, makes for grim reading.

This week the board will go through the club’s budget, line by line. Nothing will be safe. The club’s highest earners — players such as Ched Evans, Darius Henderson, Richard Cresswell and Mark Yeates — will be moved on.
The owners have made positive noises about building a team around the youngsters who have got the team to the FA Youth Cup final this month, but the truth of the matter is that if a decent price can be found for the likes of Jordan Slew and Harry Maguire, they will go too. These are bleak days indeed.

So we need some continuity.

One man who may be staying put is manager Micky Adams. Adams has two years left on his contract and it would cost the club around £500,000 to sack him, as well as the ignominy of having to appoint a fifth manager in the space of a year.
If he stays, Adams will be forced to build a promotion-winning side virtually from scraps, but it was a challenge he was prepared to take on.

“I’ve had a history of taking football clubs to a higher division,” he said. “I’m determined to resurrect our fortunes. But it won’t be my decision. Those types of discussions are not for the public at the moment.”

It is hard not to sympathise with United’s plight, especially when you consider their wonderful fans, 10,000 of whom have already signed up for a 2011/12 season ticket.

“Keep the faith, keep coming,” Adams urged them. “There’ll be better times around the corner. Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward.”

Look, while I agree with Micky’s sentiment, I cannot think of many situations in which it would be beneficial to take a step back to go forward. This seems like a bit of a… well… backward step to me. No gold medal has ever been won by the Olympic athlete who took a step back at the starting pistol before heading off down the (now) 101m track, has it?
Management speak like this is utter BS. The Blades are in a horrible situation and they don’t need to “make the best of it”, they need to accept that this is where they find themselves and start fighting to get back up right from the first whistle of the new season.