Good Friday At The Dogs

Apr6

It’s Good Friday today and yet again all the pubs in Ireland will be closed until just before lunchtime tomorrow. It’s been like this all my life, though I have drank porter in Irish pubs on this day in the past. Two years ago, I did so legally and I’m going to be supping legal pints in a licensed premises this evening as well. Alcohol will actually be available today on trains and at train station bars, but only for people who produce a valid train ticket as proof of travel that day. I’ve no idea why commuters are given this privilege, as travelling by train is the safest form of journey you could take. However, there’s another option available for connoisseurs of drink in four Irish cities today. For some reason, greyhound racing is also exempt from Good Friday restrictions, presumably because it makes the sport more interesting. The four lucky venues are Galway Greyhound Stadium, Limerick Greyhound Stadium, Curraheen Park, Cork, and Harold’s Cross, Dublin. For just under €40, you get a four-course meal, admission & a race programme. You also get a drinks service and someone to take your bets. I was there a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it, though only two of my dogs won. Hopefully, Jesus can bring me better luck today

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Panic on the Streets of London

Aug11

As I watched the recent TV footage of the looting and rioting in London, I started thinking of some of the many songs that use civil disobedience as their subject matter. The first ones that came to mind were by The Clash and I’ve included four below. The band’s 1977 debut included their impressive take on Junior Murvin’s reggae hit from the previous year, Police & Thieves. I’ve also included two covers from that LP that were both released in 1999. Californian band Cracker’s version of White Riot appears on Burning London: The Clash Tribute and Silverchair from Australia offer their take on London’s Burning, which is taken from their Anthem For the Year 2000. From France, Nouvelle Vague’s lounge interpretations of punk and new wave numbers includes Guns of Brixton on their 2004 self-titled debut. Also in 1977, The Clash’s fellow London punks, The Sex Pistols, delivered musical Anarchy in the UK on their Never Mind the Bollocks debut. A year later, Manchester’s Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias came along with their heads down, no nonsense, mindless boogie version on their album, Skite. The final cover version in this selection is taken from London band Chelsea’s Rocks Off album from 1986. It’s Street Fighting Man by The Rolling Stones and it originally appeared on Beggars Banquet in 1968. Echoing Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Jagger sings that “summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy” before highlighting the apathy that existed in London at the time. I wonder what he thinks now

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Bavarian Hospitality

Jul30

It’s taken me longer than I thought to follow up my earlier post about my recent trip to Germany. It’s been two weeks since I returned and I’ve been catching up on reading and watching films in that time. I also spent a few days babysitting my nephews and, even though I really enjoyed it, I needed a few days to recover from it. I had spent the earlier part of that German trip outside Bavaria, but the latter half of my visit was spent exclusively in the area that the locals refer to as Bayern. After leaving Micha’s birthday party in Siegen, he drove us both to his place in Nuremberg. Micha was working the next day and I had had a little too much to drink the previous night, so we took it easy and just had a beer or two as we watched a few episodes of the always hilarious Black Books. The next day I wandered around the city of Nuremberg, though I only made it to a few record stores on Jakobstrasse and to a lovely park called Woehrder Wiese. I had been here before and it’s quite large and clean with a nice beergarden. I ate a fine lunch there and was back again that night with Micha and another friend of mine named Christian and his wife Ria, both of whom also live in Nuremberg. We drank one or two beers and decided to call it a night around one in the morning as the lads had to work the next day

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All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit

Dec21

Today’s Christmas tune is an indie classic from Half Man Half Biscuit. The band was formed in the eighties by Birkenhead natives Nigel Blackwell and Neil Crossley and their debut album, Back in the DHSS (1985), was the biggest selling independent record of 1986. They were favoured by John Peel and then mainstream media tried to turn them into a success. The popular Channel 4 TV show The Tube invited them to appear on the show twice, but the band turned them down both times. Their perfectly good reason was that they would be otherwise occupied at Prenton Park watching their beloved Tranmere Rovers in action. A concern with the minutiae of popular culture in all its forms is the prevailing theme in their songs and the band’s love of football is one they return to again and again. It’s evident in songs like I Was a Teenage Armchair Honved Fan, Bob Wilson Anchorman and their critique of the modernisation of the sport, Friday Nights & the Gates are Low. Their song titles draw on their listeners’ knowledge of popular culture and that is also the case with their ode to table football, All I Want For Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit. This title has been erroneously attributed to a 1963 UK hit for Dora Bryan called All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. In fact, Bryan reached number 20 that year with a song called All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle. Certainly, her song parodied a 1948 US success for Spike Jones that did indeed highlight his desire for seasonal dental work. Half Man Half Biscuit’s request appeared in 1986 on the b-side of their Trumpton Riots single and is now available on a single CD that brings together their first album and the subsequent Trumpton Riots EP

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Publicans Raise Spirits After Nailing Good Friday Opening Hours

Mar26

You remember that the pubs in Ireland used to close every Good Friday? Well, not this year. At least, not in Limerick anyway. On April 2nd, the Munster rugby team takes on their Leinster counterparts in a Magners League game at Thomond Park in Limerick. Due to concerns about player safety and also television rights, the game was scheduled for the unusual date of Good Friday. The publicans and bar owners in Limerick weren’t too happy about this as it meant that the public wouldn’t be able to watch the match on the TV screens in their bars and pubs. In addition, the 26,000 or so thirsty rugby fans who attended the match wouldn’t have the option of celebrating victory/drowning their sorrows afterwards. The publicans and other Limerick business people did their sums and reckoned that they would lose around €10 million if the pubs remained shut. I don’t know exactly where they got this figure from, but it would mean that every adult in Limerick would have to drink ten pints on the day, admittedly not an impossible task. At first, the publicans tried to get an exemption from the State that would allow them to open for a few hours on the day in question. When this didn’t happen, they applied to the Limerick courts on the basis that the match represented a ‘special occasion’. Of course, as every Irish person knows, with only 52 Fridays in the year ANY Friday is a special occasion. Amazingly, Judge Tom O’Donnell announced that he would allow Limerick publicans to open their doors on Good Friday from 6.00pm to 11.30pm. Even more amazingly, Judge O’Donnell’s reason for allowing them to open wasn’t because he felt it was a special occasion, but for “health and safety” reasons! Nice one, Judge

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A Legend in His Time

Oct13

On this day five years ago, John Peel was getting ready to present another episode of his radio show. Unfortunately, it would be his last as a heart attack would take his life a few weeks later while on a working holiday in Peru. He had been best known as a disc jockey and champion of the musical underdog on BBC radio. His Peel Sessions gave many bands their first chance of airplay and a load of them went on to have successful careers in the music business. Sadly, I never got to hear his shows as it was not possible for me to listen to BBC radio when he was around. Nevertheless, I’m grateful to him for giving a first chance to many bands that I count among my favourites. For example, he once announced on air that he was feeling a little peckish. A cheeky chappy from Essex heard this and he delivered a Biryani to the studio along with a copy of his demo! He was offered a session straight away and Billy Bragg has become a very respected songwriter with loads of albums under his belt

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Two Wheels Good

Jun19

This week is National Bike Week in Ireland (June 14-21). According to its website, it is a week devoted to “a series of nationwide events organised by cycling groups, communities and local authorities supported by the Department of Transport.” These events have included initiatives aimed at getting Irish workers to cycle to work instead of taking their cars, free bike check ups, and sponsored cycles and races. In tandem with National Bike Week, the Department of Transport hope to implement the first National Cycle Policy Framework in this country. One of its main goals is to encourage more people to cycle to work on a regular basic. I would hope that another one of its goals would be to make it easier and safer for bikers to cycle in urban areas

I’m certainly in favour of any measures that get more people on their bikes. I cycle to and from work every week and I also use my bike to go into town. As a cyclist, I have to be extremely vigilant as I ride around the streets of Limerick as it’s not a very bike-friendly place. I’ve had a few accidents due to crazy drivers and slippery road conditions over the years. Still, it does a person good to fall off a bike once in a while. Some of my friends have had bikes stolen a few times, but it’s only happened to me on one occasion and that was my own fault for not securing it properly. I’m not too sure if there are any events taking place in Limerick for Bike Week. In any event, I won’t be taking part in them. I wouldn’t like my bike to be exploited just so the government could pedal their policies

Here are twenty songs about the highs and lows of cycling, broken and stolen bikes, brand new bicycles, tricycles and tandem bikes. You can find over twenty more cycling tunes here, and a French mix of songs about bicyclettes ici. There’s also a whole blog here called Rock’n'Bike that’s completely devoted to songs about bicycles ;-) Happy cycling!

01 Riding On My Bike – Madness

02 Rockin’ Bicycle – Fats Domino

03 Tour De France – Kraftwerk

04 Wheely Wheely – Early B

05 The Pushbike Song – Mungo Jerry

06 Stolen Bike – Ox

07 Apology Song – The Decemberists

08 Bicycle – Mark Olson & Gary Louris

09 The Acoustic Motorbike – Luka Bloom

10 Black Hole – She & Him

11 On A Bicycle – Marcel Dadi

12 Les Bicyclettes De Belsize – Englebert Humperdinck