Last weekend was a 'Lost Weekend'. Did you see it ?
The BBC in all its wisdom handed over the reigns of its BBC4 tv station to none other than Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Now this may seem foolhardy at the very least: 27 hours of viewing over 3 nights under the influence of a rock legend! Titled 'Keith Richards' Lost Weekend', it was anything and everything he found interesting. A mix of documentaries, cartoons, videos and favourite films interspersed with philosophical musings, while being semi interviewed by Julien Temple.
Plenty of music as you'd expect > there's a playlist posted by NME and many of the programmes are currently available on catch-up tv* > I was torn as to which song I'd pick from the many played, but I've finally gone for this. From his recent LP 'Crosseyed Heart' this is 'Trouble'. Old rocker, new song.

*The 'Keith Richards - The Origin of the Species' was a particularly good watch, as was 'London: A Modern Babylon'. Try to catch them.

Coming Home

Click: http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/club/new-stadium/index.aspx

Sports Desk

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Following Chelsea's dismal display in losing 3-0 to Arsenal* over the weekend, it would be easy to ignore this result. So that's exactly what I'm going to do !
In an attempt to be cheerful, the news of a number of Chelsea players out on loan makes far better reading than dwelling on the first teamers.
Bertrand Traore scored a great goal of Ajax in a 5-1 win: 

Lewis Baker scored for Vitesse, also in the Dutch Eredivisie. 
Michael Hector on loan in Germany scored and injury time equaliser for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundersliga.

Back in England in the Championship Tammy Abrahams continues to 'bang 'em in for Bristol City' (interesting phrase that, no rhyming slang intended) by scoring his 10th goal of the season in a 4-0 win at Fulham. While Izzie Brown also scored for Rotherham against Cardiff.

Congratulations to…

Peter Bonetti on his 75th birthday. Still looking as lean as his 'The Cat' nickname. See: 
http://www.chelseafc.com/news/blogs/boilerplate-allincfc/allincfc/top-five-peter-bonetti.html


*Interestingly MOTD choose to focus on how well Arsenal had played and not so much on the shambolic Chelsea performance.

High time we had some beautiful lyrical guitar playing from one for my favourites Mark Knopfler. I only discovered this track last week, so a real missing gem, until now. 
It's the opening track off the 2000 album release 'Sailing to Philadelphia', called 'What It Is'. 
Great 'driving' song, the video is simply a still of a long open road and because my friends from Long Island are 'On the Road' right now I want to dedicate this week's Star Track to them, particularly as Toni is one of my main listeners.

5 minutes not quite enough, here's some more Dire Straits… you'll know this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJwJ11-pmxg

TimeZones

Early hours of this morning Scott embarked* on another trip with his girlfriend, along with a mate, taking the scenic route all the way to Japan.
All you Facebookers can no doubt follow their trail East, but for those of you incurable travellers, like me, who want to play TimeZones I've concocted this map. As there are 10 different time zones between London and Tokyo plus the confusion of Japan actually being one hour back again after being +10, this may help you have some idea where in the world they are. Their dotted Red route on the map is: 
Tallinn>St Petersburg>Moscow>Yekaterinburg>Irkutsk>Vladivostok>Tokyo. All aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, then a flight to Japan, where they should arrive about three weeks from now. I for one am not going to miss the opportunity to imagine I'm right there with them.
Happy travelling everyone…. 
(useful website if required: http://www.coolplays.com/timezone/timezoneclock.html#

*Stansted

Anyone from South London looking for further evidence that Stansted Airport is a pain in the arse, check this out. I dropped them off at the Express Set Down > we unloaded the bags, said goodbyes and bon voyage, I never even switched off the car engine. It cost £3 to do this ! 
Given that the option of using the train from London costs £19 per person (it's cheaper to go to Norwich, 3x the distance), and a bus is more like £13 than the £5 often advertised. Stansted is taking the proverbial, I think. Be warned >> moan over !

Sports Desk

Another weekend full of Premiership action and surprise results. Step forward West Brom and Watford. While West Ham and Stoke continue to haemorrhage goals and disappoint their fans. Man U clock up a third defeat in a row… and there was Friday night letdown at the Bridge.
For those of you thinking City look as good as champions already (after just 5 games) take heart from the fact that last season they also started by winning their first five league games of the season (see table below) and without conceding a single goal. And we all know what happened after that…

Elsewhere

Brave effort in the tennis Davis Cup losing to Argentina and top marks to Team GB at the paralympics. While extraordinary scenes at the Triathlon World Series in Mexico. Click: Brothers Brownlee  and watch the video.

A few days ago this song popped into my head and it's been there ever since.
I'm sure the reason for its recollection has all to do with my son and his girlfriend about to embark on their travels once again, conjuring up thoughts of my own. Bob Seger and his Silver Bullet Band always seem to be there in the background during those times. "Still The Same", "Hollywood Nights" and this track, one of my favourite then as it still is today, the title track off the 1980 album "Against The Wind".
Video shows the songs lyrics against some wide open skies.

"Seems like yesterday"

You may remember this song was playing, all to briefly, at the end of the running sequence in the movie 'Forest Gump'. Fabulous backdrop scenery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKKmzmeU5-0

Think I'm going back to 1976 once again.

While the UK was still reliving the music of The Beach Boys (their "20 Golden Greats" LP was still at No.1 in the Album chart) across the pond in the US of A they were going crazy for a 26 year old Londoner. His 'live' LP had topped the Billboard Magazine chart on three separate occasions already, before hitting the top spot again on 11th September for a further 5-week run. 'Frampton Comes Alive!' would be the best selling LP of 1976 in America and voted album of the year by Rolling Stone Magazine readers. But rather than pick something you've heard dozens of times already, how's this? From his equally brilliant, but less heralded 1994 album called helpfully 'Peter Frampton' this is a 'live' version of the track 'Waiting For Your Love' filmed at The Fillmore, San Francisco in 1995.

Like much of 'Peter Frampton' this has some very tasty guitar playing.

Want to go back to '76 as well ?  Click Mr Peter Frampton

This week I have mostly been listening to 'Power Pop'.
A few weeks back on BBC radio 6 Power Pop fanatic Katie Puckrik hosted two shows all about its history and highlights. Music from Cheap Trick, Blondie, The Undertones, Teenage Fanclub, the Cars and the Raspberries all featured. Plus a number of bands I didn't recall: The Jags, The Posies, Dwight Twilley and The Records.
English band The Records, formed from the ashes of the Kursaal Flyers in 1978, debut single 'Starry Eyes' is their best known song, though history remembers it fondly it was only a minor hit, faring better in America than in the UK.
Chiming 12-string guitar riff, even if it sounds remarkably like Eddie and the Hot Rods 'Do Anything You Wanna Do'.

A lot of name dropping going on above, and lots of videos available on YouTube too. Expect more 'Power Pop' very soon.