m_thomp

Really really good. I didn't know I was going either, it was an early birthday treat. They ripped through Bandwagonesque, performing the full version of The Concept which was just sublime - I've only ever heard them do an abridged version before. They came back out and did another set of later stuff, but nothing from Thirteen unfortunately. They welcomed original drummer Brendan O'Hare back on for Everything Flows, went off and came back on for an encore of Sparky's Dream which cued up plenty of crowd surfing and pogo'ing. It was sweaty given the heat inside and out, but definitely worth

In honour of last night's gig. Nice to see Brendan back.

NP: Squarepusher - My Modern Bass Guitar taken from his new album Hello Everything It's streaming now over on the Warp website. Fuckin' bonkers, fuckin brilliant.

I'm with solace on the Cut Chemist album. It starts off really well and loses its way towards the end, and it doesn't hold up that well to repeated listens. It's much more amiable and lighter than both Shadow and RJD2 - more funtime. Try before you buy.

Definitely Hot Chip for me. Editors came out 25th July last year, so that made it in by a week, if they take a year as being from when the shortlist was announced.

Who'd have thunk that one of the modern era's greatest ever players would seek inspiration from Boris Johnson??!

The sad thing for me, being an England fan, is that I know our boys could've performed so much better. They didn't let anyone down though, the inept stewardship did. I looked at all the teams left in the semi's and thought "meh!". None of them have been that special, with the exception of Germany, who have come on leaps and bounds since the tournament started. Knowing that all these guys were beatable just makes me feel so sad. The winners will be deserved, but there have been no teams that have come in and ripped the tournament apart from start to finish like there usually is. Argentin

This should clear it up, it's a video clip that shows Rooney clearly being man-handled.

Cough..cough...Graham Poll

What that guy said. Terry Butcher, former England captain, speaking his brains on England's exit and Sven's legacy. He's pretty much got it spot on - he tended to pick all the 'star' names and then try to fashion a formation and a team around that. It just doesn't work like that.

Is the World Cup still on? I thought it all ended at 7.15pm UK time on Saturday? Can this thread be deleted now?

It's not from that album but Handcream For A Generation is a fantastic record, with Spectral Morning in particular being the best thing Noel Gallagher has appeared on. NP: Finally, got round to hearing this last night. I was half expecting 10 re-writes of The Gloaming, which would have been awful. What I actually heard was a wonderfully opaque, deftly constructed album.

Me neither, but when I did I really objected to their taste in music - Bros, A-Ha and Joey Lawrence. I shit you not.

Certainly seems a mouth-watering clash, but when they get hyped up like this they usually end up a 0-0 draw with the Germans winning on penalties. There's usually a bit of bad blood between the two teams also, so expect cheating, diving, a few cards and spitting. Difficult one to call, the home nation against most people's favourites. I'll stick with my tip of Argentina - which should Germany a safe passage through to the semi's.

Blimey, that's a blast from the past. I have that on tape somewhere. Not listened to it in ages.

Me like.

Been away for a few days so here's my take on what's been going down. Czech Republic bowing out (my dark horses) - as soon as they lost Koller - and with no Baros - they were going to struggle, a lack of firepower cost them dear. A bit like if England didn't have Rooney or Owen..er, hang on. Beckham scoring - well despite the goal, he didn't really do anything apart from water the pitch (I thought it was the Croatians with the exploding guts?) I just feel quite uncomfortable with the fact that he's effectively a specialist player - only really doing anything at dead ball situations. I do

there's a chance the U.S. can still go through, but my money is on Czech Republic and Ghana to qualify. I desperately want the Czech's to beat Italy (particularly after DeRossi's flailing elbow). I'm not too bothered about the U.S. and Ghana, but I think Ghana will sneak that one.

Yeah, undoubtedly, Beckham is a great passer and from dead ball situations he's outstanding, but it's wrong to keep relying on them, because then it's like carrying an extra player for the rest of the time, he's become too much of a specialist player now without offering much else to the team. He's never really been able to beat players with skill like say Joe Cole can, and he used to be quite combative and have the athleticism to get up and down the pitch. Now though that seems to have gone from his game, he's not as mobile as he used to be. Apparently, Gerrard had an argument in training

Had a discussion with someone last night, and we came to the conclusion that Sven has basically 'got lucky'. Like the bloke who pretended to be Stanley Kubrick and dined out under his name, Sven is the same. He doesn't know the first thing about football but has managed to blag and bluff away along so far, keeping us entertained with his ineptitude and bedroom hi-jinx. Mind you, I'd have a go at keeping up the pretence for

I think dropping Beckham would be the right thing to do. But I also agree that he would never be dropped, Sven is not that brave. Beckham has played that withdrawn Hargreaves role before, and to be honest it didn't really work. He received a lot of the ball, but much of the time he spent trying to splay inch-perfect 50 yard passes to the wingers with varying degrees of success, and effectively by-passing our best players Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard. I think we need somebody who is both combative and comfortable to take the ball off the back four and 'quickly' shift the ball up into midfie

Hopeless? That's a bit of a doomsday outlook? We drew a game finished top of the group and march on. Granted we're not playing fancy care free football, but then again we aren't exactly conceding hatfuls. For me, this could force Sven's hand a little to play to our strengths, we've got an abundance of attacking midfield talent, so how about we flood the midfield and play them. Keep the back four as is, shove Rooney up fron on his own, bring in Hargreaves (who despite the xenophobic masses had a good game last night) to sit in front of the defence. But it needs a big decision to make i

I think the referee was absolutely diabolical against you guys last night. The first sending off for the US was deserved, but the second? Pope actually won the ball. Still you put in an almighty effort, and if the refereen hadn't been so blinkered you should at least have had a penalty when Nesta slam dunked the ball to the floor. Looking at the game though, I think Analogman was right when he said 'soccer' is a non-contact sport. Oh, hang on..... DeRossi's foul was aboslutely disgusting. He should be banned for life for waving his elbow around like that. Fair play to McBride for n

Hate to say it, but Ian Wright cracked that joke during half-time. Do you see how far down the barrell you're scraping with that joke? Not good.