1. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA ….. What A Life
2. Wonder Villains – Zola
3. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Blinded By The Light
4. OMD – If you Leave
5. The Kooks – Is It Me?
FIVE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SONGS
It was Bruce Springsteen’s birthday last week, so, five Springsteen songs for you.
1. Badlands
2. Waiting On A Sunny Day
3. Dancing In The Dark
4. Born To run
5. Human Touch
Just to let everyone know, i’ve set up a new Flickr account.
I’d reached my limit on my fourth one, so i’ve set up a new one. I don’t upload enough photos to justify getting a Pro account, so I just set up a new account when my present one expires.
It usually equates to one per year, so it’s not too bad.
This photo here was my most popular photo on my first account, with over 3,000 views (mainly due to being used in a political blog) and is also one of my favourites.
This photo of a mural of David Healy has over 400 views and is the most popular on my second account.
This photo of Michael Owen is the most popular on my third account, and one of my favourites
This photo of Sara Quin is my most popular one on my fourth account.
Going to finish by posting links to my five accounts and some of my favourite photos.
FLICKR SITES
Andrew Stewart Show
FAVOURITES
Linfield Fans In Zagreb
It was during an episode of Outnumbered last week, which i’ve recently become addicted to which started this nostalgiafest.
It was a scene when Pete challenges Jake to a game of Subbuteo, to which Jake just looks confused. Poor Jake, he never got to experience the joy of Subbuteo.
It was Christmas 1991, perhaps the greatest Christmas of all. That year, I got my first football top (Man United Adidas) , went to my first football match (Glentoran v Linfield at The Oval) and I got my first ever Subbuteo kit.
I got a pitch, but not just any old pitch, an Astropitch, which didn’t need to be ironed before a match. It came with the goalposts and ball, but not just that, a scoreboard.
From then, my mum used to check charity shops for bits and bobs, be it teams of equipment, such as a stand. Yes, I had a stand.
Mind you, this stand only had about 20 people in it. Neither my mum or dad would buy me the boxes of people (Yes, supporters were sold as accessories) required to fill it, so I had to pretend that all my Subbuteo matches were being played at The Oval.
Of course, a football stadium with only one stand looks a bit silly, so I used empty boxes to pretend that they were stands being built, as was quite common at the time as Premier League grounds were being made all seater as a result of the Taylor Report and in preparation for Euro 96.
I had various teams including Manchester United (91/92 home, 92/93 home and away), Norwich City (92/93 home), Aston Villa, Juventus, Feyenoord, West Germany, Holland, Scotland, England, Italy, Soviet Union and Wales.
There was one tragic incident when I accidentally stood on three Aston Villa players. Thankfully, quick thinking and a supply of blutac meant that they were able to resume their table football careers.
When we were playing, we could multiteam, if there were sides with similar colours. For example, Wales v Italy would become Portadown v Linfield, and so forth.
It is, of course a trivia question, but there is a UK Top 10 single which references Subbuteo in it’s lyrics. Just the one mind.
The answer of course, is ‘My Perfect Cousin’ by The Undertones. The artwork to the single is based upon this reference, where a Subbuteo player wearing a red and white striped shirt, the colours of The Undertones hometown club Derry City, with the band’s name on a pitchside advert while the crowd holds up a banner bearing the name of the song.
Of course, if there was a band doing a similar song today, it would probably go “He always beats me at Pro Evo, as he had a cheat code and I didn’t know”
They don’t know what they are missing out on.
Was at Windsor Park yesterday for the Irish League match between Linfield and Carrick Rangers, and well, the less said about it, the better.
Carrick came for a 0-0 draw and never looked like scoring. The sad thing is, when the score was 1-0, I was almost wishing them to score simply to waken Linfield up.
It was like a training match of attack v defence with the defending players being told not to cross the halfway line.
If it really was a training session, i’d have made my forward players to stay behind.
Spent some time experimenting with the Fisheye option on my camera. It didn’t really work. as a result, my new series of “Fisheye Football” won’t be happening for the time being.
Managed to get some OK photos, nothing special, but Carrick’s bright Amber/Orange kit did make some photos better.
Enjoy
Managed to get free tickets for the Arthur’s Day concert at Ulster Hall last Thursday, headlined by Ash, The Enemy and Kelis.
It was the first time the event came to Belfast, having been created to mark the 250th anniversary of Guinness with a toast being made at 5.59pm (or 17:59 – the year Guinness was founded)
To be honest, and I guess i’m not the only one, i’m not really that fussed about Guinness, but it was a good music line-up i’d hoped to see.
I’d hoped to see Ash. I’d previously seen them twice at a New Year’s Eve concert in 1998/1999 and an instore signing in 2004 at HMV, having neither paid to see them, I was hoping for three in a row.
Rather disappointingly, they were on first rather than last, so that they could be on to do a toast at 5.59pm, and I arrived at about 6.30pm.
With Ash being on earlier, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to get up to the front of the stage, although the Ulster Hall isn’t the most friendly of venues for amateur photography.
Kelis was on first, backed by a DJ rather than a live band and was a bit disappointing, reeling of a karaoke set with her big hits and samples of other artists such as Beyonce and Madonna.
DJ Fresh was on next, and his set was dogged by sound problems, as well as really struggling to transfer the record onto the stage. Ironically, he would have been better DJing rather than working with a live band, the opposite of Kelis.
Next up, was local act Cashier Number 9, who were excellent, as were The Enemy, who I had previously seen in 2008.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay behind for Horslips, who were headlining, which was a bit surprising as I thought it would have been Ash.
On Friday, I headed to Belfast Culture night, like Arthur’s Day, established in 2009.
I was there in 2010 and loved it, it brought a real “Edinburgh Festival Vibe to Belfast.
Last year, I attended “Stormont Teacup”, a Q and A event organised by The MAC where MLAs answer questions and provide a glimpse into what life at Stormont is like.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t on this year, but there was still plenty to occupy yourself.
After checking out the street performances and a couple of exhibitions at the University of Ulster, I eventually headed for The Oh Yeah Centre, to take in a local music showcase, headlined by Wonder Villains, who were excellent.
Didn’t manage to get any good photos of Wondeer Villains, but did get one of festivities outside UU and of Kelis, Cashier Number 9 and The Enemy at Arthur’s Day.
Enjoy
Kelis Photos
Cashier Number 9 Photos
The Enemy Photos
The Enemy Belsonic 2008 Review
The Enemy Belsonic Photos
Wonder Villains Photos
1. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA …… What A Life
2. Oasis – Hindu Times
3. Kasabian – Days Are Forgotten
4. Ash – Envy
5. The Enemy – No Time For Tears
FIVE REM SONGS
Seeing as REM have split up, thought i’d post five songs for you to enjoy.
Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of their albums, but they did amazing singles.
The singles compilation “In Time”, released in 2003 is well worth buying.
1. Stand
2. Orange Crush
3. Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
4. What’s the Frequency Kenneth?
5. At My Most Beautiful
Was at Shamrock Park today for the Irish League clash between Portadown and Linfield.
It was my fifth visit to Shamrock Park, and the third time I have witnessed Linfield lose there. Something tells me i’m a jinx.
Poor game and poor performance from Linfield, with too many players being below par.
The game looked like being set fro a 0-0 draw until a soft penalty gave Portadown the lead, from which they won the game 2-0.
On the plus side, Portadown is a handy ground for amateur photography, and I managed to get some Ok photos.
1. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks
2. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA …. What A Life
3. Girl Crisis – The Sign
4. Snow Patrol – Called Out In The Dark
5. Ryan Adams – New York, New York
FIVE MARC BOLAN SONGS
Seeing as today marks the 34th anniversary of the death of Marc Bolan, here’s five songs for you to listen to.
1. Metal Guru
2. Children Of The Revolution
3. Solid Gold Easy Action
4. I Love To Boogie
5. 20th Century Boy
Apologies for the lack of football photos in recent weeks, but simply, I haven’t taken any worthwhile photos in recent weeks.
If you click the link to the photo album, you can see photos taken in recent weeks.
Was at Windsor Park today for the match between Linfield and Crusaders, which was painful to watch at times, but thankfully, when Linfield went 1-0 up, there was only one winner.
Long-term readers may remember, that when I used to blog on Bebo, I would post up the five songs i’d been loving the most over the past week.
Since moving to WordPress, i’ve never done that, apart from a Top 50 of the year so far, and a Top 100 in December, as well as periodic “The Sound Of …..” blogposts.
So, i’ve decided to start doing a Top 5 blog each week again, the Friday five. Enjoy.
1. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Bird – AKA What A Life
2. Scala and Kolacny Brothers – With Or Without You
3. Hayley Westenra – World In Union
4. Snow Patrol – Called Out In The Dark
5. Kelly Clarkson – Mr Know It All
FIVE QUEEN SONGS
Seeing as this week marked what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday, I thought I would take my role as a self-confessed Queenologist to give you five Queen songs you need to listen to.
1. Innuendo
2. Seven Seas Of Rhye
3. Let Me Live
4. Save Me
5. Play The Game
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 
