British Pubs

Interesting article from the BBC: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35917816

"The typical real ale drinker is male, aged at least 55 and from the north".

So, 2 out of 3 there.

The scene could not have been more Eastern. A sweet smell of incense in the air drifted over the small lake and the bridge across to the old city was covered in lights. The road in between had a steady flow of bicycles and ladies in nón lá hats passing by and as the gentle rain continued and night fell, all the colourful hanging lanterns reflected in the puddles.
To be sitting watching this, having a so called 'happy hour' drink, whilst listening to very Western music was a strange contrast. The guitar rock music being played in the 'Funky Monkey' bar had simply been getting better with each new song. Gary Moore > Bad Company > Deep Purple > Lynyrd Skynyrd > Santana > ZZ Top, one great track after another. We sat listening for much longer than an hour. 
There was one song played, 'Belladonna' by UFO, I'd never heard before. Off the band's 1976 album 'No Heavy Petting'. Star Track material for certain.

It's Good Friday. But then it's always a good Friday with the Music Spot.

Talking Points… !

As a mate so concisely informed me on Saturday night, it's official Chelsea can no longer win the Premiership this season. And thank you for that, but he's right. Leicester are 25 points ahead of us, with only 24 available. We're Champions no more. It's been a poor season and there's no getting away from it. Yet we are just 10 points of a Champions league place, though our form doesn't suggest we'll nick it.

Not every foul is a yellow card

Despite this becoming something of a normal reaction and a card even expected by all commentators, there were two examples of a second yellow card (and therefore a sending off) being sensible not given. Cissokho of Villa and Smalling of Man Utd, both spared the early bath. There is hope.

Holding at corner kicks

This largely unpunished activity reached new heights this weekend with Scott Dann of Crystal Palace managing to totally remove Robert Huth's shirt. 
Play on said the ref?  Well at least he didn't book Huth for taking his shirt off.

Another tribute to another rock star sadly no longer with us.
One of my original favourites and probably the first band to completely blow-my-mind. Keith Emerson, then of The Nice and later Emerson, Lake & Palmer died last week. The video is from 1968, The Nice on BBC 'How It Is' show.

I can only follow that with Comedy writer, producer and radio DJ Danny Baker's tribute to Emerson, who he described as "the maestro". He tweeted "ELP, Pavilion Piccadilly 1971. Still got the ticket still got the program still got the sound in my ears. RIP Keith."
Ditto…

As the Friday Music Spot takes a holiday for a few weeks this should keep you going… 

Aussie comedy trio the Axis of Awesome deliver a four chord medley of 38 songs. Song titles appear on screen to help you recognise them. Great fun !

*Parental Guidance warning: Contains swear words. 

5th Round of the FA Cup

Plenty of London teams still in this seasons competition, 5 in fact and following the draw for the 6th round, there could conceivably be four going through to play the semi-finals. Full-house ?



Mask Men
Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink says he has a "team of Zorros".
It's quite a rogues gallery:-

Nemanja Matic, Cesc Fabregas, Cesar Azpilicueta and inset Diego Costa.
'En garde'.

Amazing 

Observer story (not on website?): EVERY Man Utd FA Cup game since 2005 has been picked for live TV. Run hits 50 on Monday against Shrewsbury.

A few weeks back I listed some of my favourite Scottish bands and somehow left out The Proclaimers. Last weekend we saw a film called 'Sunshine on Leigh' a rarity of recent times as it's a British Musical. Set in Edinburgh and based around the songs of The Proclaimers you just knew that at some stage "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" would show up. This clip from the movie, filmed by the galleries at the Mound, Edinburgh involving a cast of 500 who sang and danced to the Proclaimers hit, was simple brilliant and I had to pick it for this week's track. This will brighten your day, I'm sure.  Da da lat da (Da da lat da).
Definitely hit Full Screen [   ]

Warning or two:
1. This is actually the end of the film, but I don't think it's really a spoiler.
2. You may find this song is in your head all weekend.

Let's Go Surfin' the web

It started by clicking on a news item on the Chelsea FC website entitled "Premier League Live to visit Cape Town".
At the end of the story was a link to the Official South African supporter's club. This listed two meeting places, one a certain Mitchell's Scottish Ale House in Cape Town.

Naturally I wanted to know more so I googled said Mitchell's Scottish Ale House and discovered it's in the Waterfront, the redeveloped docks area in the city, beside the Table Bay harbour. Turns out Mitchell's Beers were started in 1983 by Lex Mitchell in Knysna, in the East of the Western Cape. Sounds like I've been drinking their Old Wobbly (lager) already! The brewery has changed owners many times since but is now South Africa's second biggest brewery.
Anyway a number of other search results lead me to Your Beer Info > and a list of 83 Western Cape breweries, most of which, aside from a couple, I'd never come across before. In fact far to many to investigate fully, so I looked at those in areas I knew and made notes - for when I'm there next !
Stellenbosch Brewing Co. and Stellenbrau, unsurprisingly are in Stellenbosch, the wonderfully named Atlantic Storm Brewery, down the road from Hout Bay in Kommetjie and of special note Sir Thomas Brewing Co. brewed in Somerset West, but named after Rear-Admiral Thomas Pringle, naval station commander in the late 1790s and commemorated in the naming of Pringle Bay (our link) - the place where the owners had the epiphany (while surfing) to dream up the whole beer brewing/drinking idea. 
Mine's a Sir Thomas Hangklip IPA… cheers.

"From Stamford Bridge to Pringle Bay, we'll keep the the beer flag flying' high".

Massive weekend for the top four teams in the Premiership.
Massive games, massive referee decisions, massive red card, massive handball, massive penalty awards in both games, massive late free-kick, massive goal. Massive results…?
But with a mass of matches still to play - 46 more encounters (but only two between the current top four) - let's hope the masses don't collide before the end is nigh … 12 games each > it's going to be ma… marvellous, isn't it ?

Man City, Spurs and Leicester all still have to come to Stamford Bridge…
Arsenal still have to play at Spurs and Man City !