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 !

No surprise to find this weeks  STAR TRACK  comes from my record collection as a direct result of having dusted off a number of albums earlier in the week uncovered a couple of Jefferson Starship LPs.
Wise elders will remember Jefferson Airplane who disbanded in 1972 only to upgrade their mode of transport. Co-foundering member and leading light of Jefferson Starship Paul Kantner I have only just discovered past away two weeks ago. So this is in his memory.
Off the 1978 release 'Earth' this track closes the album. 
"If only the music would keep on playing, All Nite Long, All Nite Long". Sing along…

This is classic get-in-the-mood for the weekend music. Real California Dreaming.

Photo © Bill's Records 2016

For those of you still holding on to your vinyl record collection, whether for sentimental reasons or simply because you have the space and a record deck on which to occasionally play them, maybe thinking is it worth it. The current return of interest in vinyl music sales may have you wondering if you have 'cash in the attic' that is worth a bit more than you possibly thought.
On the other hand record collector's or dealers will offer to buy your entire collection for a lump sum, knowing full well there lurks within a gem or two of surprising value. A little knowledge therefore could be useful. I recently went into 'Sister Ray' record shop in Berwick Street, London and in a downstairs room their walls were covered with LPs that had some interesting price tags. Here's three examples:

 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' by the Small Faces.
£250.
The sticker says 'Original UK lilac label. Near Mint !'
Obviously this was an early release on Immediate Records, the pink or lilac label being significant and probably contributing to the value.
On this occasion my copy has a white label and is a mono version.

'Liege & Lief' by Fairport Convention.
£120.
The sticker reads 'Original Island Pink label.' 

This time I found that my copy meets this description. Kerching !
My record has been played, so isn't in mint condition but the sleeve is as good as new.

'Led Zeppelin 1' by Led Zeppelin.
£150.
Says 'Original Red & Plum label.'  Again this must have been the original pressing from 1969, as opposed to a later release or re-issue of this famous album. 


I'm glad to announce the copy I have is this original version. Dazed and Confused, you bet I was ! 






That's £270 for just two LPs! Naturally this is the tip of the iceberg and while it could be the majority of your collection is of little value, it's certainly worth checking, you never know what might be hiding away.
A friend recently told me he'd sold his entire record collection for £175. He knew he'd been ripped-off. I was mortified. No more sad stories, please.  

The main photo at the top, taken by me, shows about 140 LPs, not even half my collection.

The Oscars

Last week there was a strange performance at Watford. I thought video replays and their evidence had put an end to all this, but there was Watford's Juan Carlos Paredes acting out an injury worthy of any Oscar. As commented on by Giles Smith "Paredes rolled across the pitch clutching his face, after which he was given a yellow card although an additional British Comedy Award may also be in the post."
It was a blatant attempt to get Diego Costa into more trouble than he usually manages quite easily all by himself. Luckily the ref didn't buy it, but the comparative lack of fuss this caused in media circles would have been interesting if it were Costa who'd been play acting.
Paredes was sub'd second half and his replacement, Nyom, not only replaced him on the field of play but also (took over) in the art of amateur dramatics (his 6 foot plus frame) going down under a challenge from, appropriately Oscar, with such ease it defied belief and possibly gravity all in the one move. 

And on that note we move swiftly onto Leicester City: still top of the league and now with a 5 point gap. It's getting very interesting. Manager Claudio 'the Tinkerman' Ranieri has currently used less players than any other Premiership team.

The amount of money currently being spent by clubs from the Chinese Super League is startling. Jiangsu Suning bought Ramires from Chelsea for £25m, now they have Alex Teixeira at £35m. Plus Jackson Martinez went to Guangzhou for £31.5m. There's plenty of familiar faces working out there too: managers Luis Scolari, Sven-Goran Eriksson, and Dan Petrescu.   

So where is Jiangsu Suning? 
It's in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in Eastern China, about 300 km up the Yangtze River from Shanghai.

Finally to reflect on the MOTD 2 highlight show that on Sunday night, suggested that Manchester United's Borthwick-Jackson had a great game and that just before Chelsea's late equaliser United should have taken the ball into the corner to eat up time.
Truth is Borthwick-Jackson was roasted by Willian in the first half. While with six minutes still on the clock, there was not only time for Chelsea to equalise, but also nearly score a winner as well. Couple of  Red  Cards there for MOTD 2 !

It's Friday !
I've realised that recently I've been selling you somewhat short in the video department. This week there's a great video to watch, with re-enactment flashbacks to the 60s in a song from the 80s by the Moody Blues. See if you can spot the Triumph Herald car.* 

"Your Wildest Dreams" is from the band's album "The Other Side of Life". I must have heard this previously, but have only just re-discovered it. 
The music video received a Billboard Video of the Year Award in 1986 and featured frequently on MTV.

*the first car I drove was a Triumph Herald.

Fantasy Champions League.

Once upon a dream, I see Chelsea score a late late winner against Paris St. Germain, after trailing the French champions for most of the tie, an away goal from Paris takes us through in the competition. 
Immediately the next round of the Champions League materialises in the form of an English team. Chelsea are not favourites to progress and the whole occasion is strangely un-european. The games are like normal league matches played under floodlights, with the Champions League theme music, oddly out of place. Two low scoring games settled, not by a 'ghost' goal, but by a Chelsea full-back charging forward to smack in a brilliant winner.
As the picture refreshes we are now in the semi-finals and another showdown with Barcelona comes sharply into focus. Yet this time the temporary manager has a plan. A plan to frustrate the brilliance of the better team. And it's working, until penalty after penalty is denied only for the sight of a Barcelona shot arrowing into the top corner, with just minutes left on the clock, to bring despair and heartache around Stamford Bridge. 
The dream has become a nightmare. I wake up, spared of an ending in which the final goes all the way to penalties and the Germans win, of course.

Just as well it was only a dream. Such things never happen, not once, so hardly twice! And certainly not this season.

Or could they ? 





JOHN TERRY TO LEAVE CHELSEA
Back to reality now and given that Dennis Wise and 'his' song still gets an airing, lets hope we've not heard the last of "Double, double, double, John Terry has won the double".