OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Time It Was, It Was, And What A Time It Was...

Time was I thought Kevin Keegan had a clue. I now think it's time for Kevin to go.

Bye. And take the rest of the sorry bunch of expensive wastes of space with you. Because, if you stay, we WILL be relegated.

Another pointless performance (Heskey for pity's sake?) but the footballing genius had this to say:

"We were unlucky not to get something here tonight. David James made one save and we conceded a goal which I hopes* we would have dealt with," he said.

"We had chances, half-chances and possession, but it didn't run for us. We had pretty much all of the second half."

"I was quite pleased with the performance, though you're never happy to lose a game.

"There are things to work on, but it's early season. We'll probably play like that away from home several times and get results.

"Generally I've been quite pleased with the performances but we've got one point out of nine."

For God's sake GO!

*Hopes? Hopes? Ain't that the type of language Popeye uses?

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Another good weekend (apart from the football of course), but my molecules and stuff then conspired to infect me with something queasy, feverish and extremely loose stool-ish. Bodies eh? Who'd have 'em? And as for microbes.....

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Hey, it's a good job nobody with an ounce of authority knew - or indeed sanctioned - what was going on at Abu Ghraib, or else the USA would have appeared no better than Iraq, Argentina (during the good old days of the 'disappeared'), China, USSR and many other 'enemies of freedom'

Sheesh ! Now that would have been embarrassing.

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So, live music is flourishing in lowly pubs and clubs throughout the land. And yet, this, so-called government 'of the people, by the people, for the people' is still convinced that we need to restrict the number of performers at any one time to two.

Now I have to admit I have an issue with this. For a start off I've performed solo, duo, as part of a 5-piece blues band and sat in with ad hoc assortments of musicians all over the North West. I like to think live musicians perform a historical service in some ways. Showing kids who know no better that music is organic and not produced as a result of pressing play on a CD player, MP3 player or - heaven forbid - mobile phone.

So why are the Government insistent on bringing this legislation in? Apparently to regulate live music, attract more people to it and to restrict noisy purveyors of the stuff. How? How do you do the former by requiring an expensive license is purchased, and how do you stop noise nuisance by restricting an acoustic trio but allowing ONE DJ rapping along to 'beats' blasting out from his or her decks??

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A bit like Kevin Keegan and his 'management team', I reckon Tone and the sycophantic yes-men/women hanging on his every word have stopped thinking with any semblance of originality or self-awareness. "That next re-shuffle just might - just might - bring me a junior position." So, regardless of the intelligence of arguments against, the new legislation comes in next year, and businesses - from Pubs and Clubs to successful (yet relatively unknown) bands will go to the wall.

Jesus. Is this what I voted for??