So, what is going on here? A surprisingly huge demand for the Beach Boys new box set Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surfs Up Sessions 1969-1971 has resulted in Amazon, HMV and other outlets entirely running out of stock on the day of its release here in the UK. My Amazon pre-order was suddenly cancelled a week before it’s due delivery because they were out of stock even before its release date! Finding copies of this superb 5 CD box set is becoming increasingly difficult just one week after it was released.
HMV sent me an email at 1.20am this morning telling me they now had more copies back in stock, by 8.30am they had sold out again. It is now available on Amazon who are giving an unusually long 3 week delivery lead time. It would appear that this item is like gold dust. Why?
The Yes Album was the bands third album release and the first to feature accomplished guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Tony Kaye. The album retained close harmony singing behind Jon Anderson's remarkable voice. Kaye's Hammond organ, Howe's acoustic and lead guitars along with Bill Bruford's drums and Chris Squire's melodic bass played progressive rock material that covered various musical styles including jazz piano, funk and acoustic music. All of the band members contributed ideas and tracks that were extended in length to allow music to develop.
It's a 70's lockdown...on the turntable today we have the critically acclaimed Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel. Released in January 1970 this was their fifth and most successful long player, it's hard to believe that the duo actually only released five albums before they split later that same year.
The album opens with the magnificent tour de force title track with that sumptuous lead vocal from Art Garfunkel. It truly is the voice of an angel and it's heard here in all it's majesty in this gospel tinged beautiful ballad. Written by Paul Simon it was released as the lead single and went straight to the top of the charts worldwide, it's probably the duo's most well known and loved song. It may have been a mistake to open the album with this track as it was going to be an impossible act to follow, however they very nearly managed it with the opener on side two.
This album is heaving at the seams with great songs from Paul Simon. After the glorious magnum opus opening cut on side one we have the Spanish feel of El Condor Pasa (If I Could), then the jaunty Cecilia followed by a very up tempo Keep The Customer Satisfied (flip side of the Bridge single). The final cut on side one is the delicate So Long Frank Lloyd Wright, said to be the writers hidden final farewell to his partner prior to Simon leaving the duo to embark upon a successful solo career.
Side two starts with the epic The Boxer, a brilliant song that is almost as good as Bridge to my ears. The musical pace motors along with Baby Driver before falling back into a more gentle groove with The Only Living Boy In New York, a song written by Paul Simon and inspired by Garfunkel temporarily leaving the duo to act in the hit movie Catch 22. We continue into a more pop vein with Why Don't You Write Me and a live version of the Everly Brothers hit Bye Bye Love before the album is brought to a close with the quietly gentle Song For The Asking.
This album saw Simon & Garfunkel go out at the top of their game. With Simon's songwriting and Garfunkel's angelic voice the album hit a popular note with the record buying public who bought copies of Bridge Over Troubled Water in their droves. It proved to be a majestic swan song for the duo.
This is my team in a nutshell: Brighton play attractive, free flowing football with lots of possession but until recently the team lacked that killer instinct in the final third, they needed to be more ruthless. Sometimes you have to win ugly when you're near the bottom of the table. There have been too many draws and narrow one goal defeats for the fans liking, compounded with the managers tendency to frequently change team line ups causing even more frustration. However, it's also true to say that Brighton are a very hard team to beat and as a fan I would far rather be watching attractive attacking football than a boring defensive style of play. It's not often Brighton have been well beaten, Leicester away springs to mind, but fans can get notoriously fickle when things aren't going the way they would like or expect.
Brighton manager Graham Potter tends to look at things as a long term project even though some fans are impatient for results and look worryingly at the league position. Relegation is not something the Albion board desire but they, and particularly chairman Tony Bloom, have every faith in their manager and getting rid is not an option in their eyes. They believe in what Potter is trying to do. The manager is not afraid to introduce younger players into the starting eleven, his brave decision to let first choice goalie Maty Ryan move on loan to Arsenal and bring in rookie Robert Sanchez as his replacement showed a remarkable amount of bravery and confidence in the 23 year old shot stopper.
So it was that Brighton travelled to Anfield on the back of some good results having recently taken seven points out of a possible nine in their last three games against Spurs, Fulham and Leeds. Perhaps more significantly Albion hadn't conceded any goals in those three matches. Having only lost one game since the turn of the year (a narrow 1-0 defeat away to Manchester City) Brighton fans were beginning to wonder if the tide was about to turn. And so it proved to be.
In the pre-match press conference the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for Graham Potter and the style of football that he is trying to introduce on the Sussex coast. Indeed, Klopp was more complementary than many Albion fans of late about what the Brighton manager is trying to achieve. The possession based brand of football played out from the back is attractive but not always fruitful in terms of results in Brighton's case.
Was this to be the match where some of those doubting Albion fans began to believe in the Potter project? The team took to the pitch to show what they were capable of and to a man they were strong, calm and magnificent. They passed the ball consistently well all game, they outplayed Liverpool for large spells and defended like lions when they had to with a solid wall of blue shirts between their goal and the Liverpool forwards. And for once Brighton took their chance when it presented itself after some beautiful intricate one touch passing movement which led to young midfielder Steven Alzate thumping the ball into the corner of the Liverpool net in the 56th minute. It was 1-0 to the Albion and Liverpool never really looked like they were going to score as their lackluster front line huffed and puffed but found no way through. The Brighton players worked their socks off, with Adam Webster looking particularly assured in the solid back line of three centre halves. Even Dan Burn had a wonderful game, foraging forward from his left wing back position to create several opportunities for himself and his team mates. It was a pleasure to watch this team at last realise the potential that they have.
Believe me, this was no lucky win, it was fully deserved for a Brighton team who showed courage, commitment and a sense of belief in the plan that their manager had given them. They were not overawed or intimidated by the Premier League champions. The team finally showed us what Graham Potter knew all along, that they can play attractive football and get the desired result. It was an outstanding performance that will live long in the memory and will surely raise the players confidence levels. They visit Burnley on Saturday and that will be a physically tough battle, Albion will need to work hard and be on their mettle if they are to gain all three points. The victory at Liverpool pushes Albion up to 15th in the Premier League with a comfortable 10 point cushion between them and third from bottom Fulham. The team now need to carry their recent good form into their upcoming matches, in particular the home match against Crystal Palace on 22nd February which all Albion fans will want to win.
Brighton have generally been playing well all season but just not taking their chances. The defence is now starting to look rock solid and the team appear to have learned how to grab their goal scoring opportunities when they come along. Onwards and upwards, hopefully.
Click on the image below to watch BBC's Match Of The Day analysis of Brighton's performance. Look out for pundit Danny Murphy saying that Brighton were 'phenomenal'. Who am I to disagree.
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I have to say that I’m not a great fan of the blame game, it’s more important to me that politicians recognise what lessons they have learned from this awful pandemic so that the same mistakes will never, ever be made again when the next one comes along.
You may not be surprised to read that I’m not a huge fan of this government but I do give credit to them for the furlough scheme and to the NHS in getting the vaccine program roll out moving so quickly. I would question some of the judgement calls made by our government during this pandemic and some ministers have been extremely poor in getting their messages across.
I could mention the dreadfully belated response the government took in responding to the explosion of Covid that swamped our care homes early on, the shambolic world beating track and trace app that became a laughing stock, Dominic Cummings who broke all the rules and managed to come up with such a lame excuse that nobody (except his boss) thought was acceptable or 'Operation Moonshot' that disappeared into outer space never to be seen or heard of again. Nope, you won't hear me mention any of those moments of madness during the coronavirus crisis.
However to be fair and balanced it’s also probably true to say that no matter which political party was in power at the time of this pandemic it was inevitable that mistakes in dealing with it would have been made.
It’s time for politicians to accept and acknowledge that mistakes were made in their decision making, albeit under extremely difficult circumstances in a worldwide pandemic. There’s no shame in admitting those mistakes, anyone with common sense can see it’s been an almost impossible job trying to manage the country in these unprecedented times.
Over 100,000 lives lost in the UK due to Covid is such heartrendingly sad news. It is not the time for recrimination, for now it is more important that lessons have been learned from the way this pandemic has been managed so that we can prevent such a dreadful loss of life in the future.
I get the crucial ‘stay at home’ message Priti and I understand why you have to get the point across to those who don’t but please, please answer the journalists questions. It’s a pointless exercise to have a press briefing if you don’t properly answer questions that the press throw at you.
If our politicians want the great British public to get the important messages in these challenging times then they need to answer questions directly with clarity, transparency and honesty. Unfortunately these are not traits that come easily to most politicians, no matter which side of the house they are on.
The great British public doesn’t want bluster or repetitious statements from politicians who fail to address the questions put to them.
That’s the end of Tuesdays rant, time for a cuppa.
The world saw disgraceful and shocking scenes of violence yesterday as mobs of Trump supporters stormed the White House, the citadel of American democracy. Their leader, the President of the United States, refused to condemn their actions telling them instead that he 'loved them' and calling them ‘special people’. Havoc and chaos reigned as these thugs showed such remarkable disrespect and disregard to the democratic process. Perhaps we should all be shocked but not surprised as these scenes were stoked by mad conspiracy theories, rants and lies from a deranged and outgoing president.
Strategic and planning failures by White House security chiefs allowed these violent events to happen, perhaps a deliberate act by Trump to encourage the use of mob force to stand behind his false and unproven claims of a ‘stolen election’. Gun wielding and ignorant thugs (not the brightest tools in the box it has to be said) listened to Trump as he implored them to march on the US capital and ‘fight like hell’. And so these morons followed like sheep and did exactly what he told them to do.
Trump supporters, anarchists and white supremacists took to the streets and blindly followed their leader’s instructions, taking their guns and pipe bombs with them resulting in four dead. It was mob rule.
Imagine what the reaction would be if it were a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who stormed the White House yesterday. Would the security arrangements have been the same? I suspect President Trump would have not hesitated to quickly use the national guard to forcibly protect US democracy resulting in many more dead, and he would have called the protest an insurrection and threat to democracy.
Is this the way to make America great again? America needs a President who shows decency and will respect the office, who will respect the democratic process and who has the respect of those around him. Not a rude, ill mannered, ill informed narcissistic bully who has an ego the size of the White House.Too many of his aides were grovelling yes men, either through fear of him or because they chose to crawl up a ladder of ambition.
In the words of President Elect Joe Biden, speaking as protesters stormed the capitol "The words of a President matter, no matter how good or bad that President is. At their best the words of a President can inspire, at their worst they can incite". How true.
Unbelievable scenes at the White House, Washington on 6th January, 2021
