After much deliberation late last year, I’ve decided to start a series of posts here on the ‘Spill. Inspired in part by Philip King’s (he of Scullion fame) weekly show on RTÉ Radio 1, South Wind Blows, I’m going to take anyone who decides to follow the series on a rambling journey through whatever the hell is interesting me at the moment. This could be music, books, films, life, interestingly-shaped clouds…
(On that note, when typing this I accidentally wrote “interestingly-shaped clods” and yes, I may indeed discuss Wayne Rooney, being as I am a Utd fan and all that…)
And continuing the theme of interestingly-shaped clods, I’m going to start this inaugural miscellany with a childhood hero of mine, Mr Shane Warne. Despite looking like a shambling, good-natured slacker, Warne was a sublime spin bowler. Here’s him bowling the ‘ball of the century’, the young player’s first ball on English soil, which dismissed the redoubtable Mike Gatting (apologies for the poor video quality):
And here he is demonstrating his brilliant fielding abilities in his favoured position of slip (for the benefit of those who come from non-cricketing nations, the three slip postions are arguably the hardest positions to field in because you’re very near the batsman, so you have to react incredibly quickly to stop – let alone catch – the ball):
One of Warne’s most appealing characteristics was that despite his bulk (there’s an oft-repeated story that at the beginning of his career, when he was 12th man – that’s basically a substitute – for Victoria, two cricketers walked by as he sat on a bench watching a match. One was one of his teammates, the other was a respected Australian international, possibly Alan Border. The teammate pointed at Warne – a hefty, almost baby-faced teenager – who had a margarita in one had with a cigarette fixed between two fingers and a slice of pizza in the other, and said “See him? He’s one to watch.” The senior player replied “Nah, he’ll never play for Australia.”) he was always incredibly agile. More to the point – at least from the perspective of three-year-old me – he always looked like he was having fun.
Since his retirement from international cricket, he has worked as a commentator for Sky. This is always guaranteed entertainment: he’s remarkably insightful about cricketing matters and I’m sure any other cricket fans on here will agree that it’s a great treat to get him and Michael Holding commentating together. Of course, being Shane Warne, he’s also prone to spectacular gaffes. One time, discussing a Pakistani Muslim bowler who had completely lost his form, Warne stated (quite reasonably) that the player was probably over-thinking his technique and training too hard, which would only make his performance worse. He then added “He needs to relax, have a few margaritas…” to which his fellow (and equally gaffe-prone) commentator David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd (the nickname says it all…) replied “I think you’re missing something here, Shane…”
This is all by-the-by. The real point that I’m driving at is that we had the Australian open on the TV the other day when this happened:
Face it, the man’s a legend!
So, on to today’s music. Some of you may have noticed me raving on RR about getting the opportunity to interview Hearts Under Fire for my university’s newspaper, so of course I’m beginning today with the girls’ most recent single We’ve Come Too Far To Live In The Past:
It’s an appropriate sentiment to begin the new year with, and one that’s very close to my heart at the moment.
Continuing the theme of new beginnings, here’s The Gaslight Anthem with 45:
News of a Fall Out Boy reunion has been doing the rounds over the last few days, even trending on Twitter. Of the music blogs and websites I frequent, Property of Zach say it’s happening, Alternative Press and Punknews aren’t sure and Rock Sound haven’t mentioned it. Lead guitarist Joe Trohman took to Twitter to say it wasn’t happening, but everyone knows not to believe a statement about the band until it’s confirmed by Pete Wentz. Given that his ex-wife has announced she is to release a new single called Bat For A Heart (an obvious reference to this image, which at various points has been the logo for Wentz’s label DecayDance Records and his clothing company Clandestine Industries), Pete will probably be re-entering the musical fray in some way, shape or form later this year to engage in a slanging-match with the missus. Can’t wait.
Property of Zach concluded their article on the potential reunion with the lines: “Stop refreshing for a journal update. Welcome, it’s here.” Here’s what they were referring to: Thriller by Fall Out Boy feat. Jay-Z:
Enjoy!
The music is not really “my bag” ( as you youngsters say) but I applaud your effort here.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks
Some of it might appeal to Ubette though! I was listening to Northern Lights, Southern Cross earlier so who knows what’ll appear on this in the future…
Cricket pedant writes:
“… the young player’s first ball on English soil, which dismissed the redoubtable Mike Gatting.”
Not quite true. It was his first ball in test cricket in England. He had a warm-up match against Worcester and was hammered around the ground and thus dismissed by one and all as rubbish. Of course, he’d just been holding back his array of tricks. Very crafty is Mr. Warne, not to mention brilliant. Excellent post
Well I was about two at the time!
Ha! Good point. Only two.
As an Englishman I have nightmares about English cricket from just before that perod and for a long while after. So I’ll stop now talking cricket now and do something useful like brush the kids’ teeth, tell them bedtime stories and make sure they’re sleeping soundly. I’ll tell them a story about a ball that spun so much it spiralled into space where it was discovered by an alien species who came to earth to learn how to play cricket.
Good story
Being brought up in England by an Irish, cricket-loving father, I was conditioned to support Australia! Funnily enough, my brother, who only lived in Ireland for a couple of months, supports England…
Great idea!
Thanks!
Hi AIP, is the picture at the top of the page your filing system? I only ask because it ;looks rather like some of mine. I quite enjoyed the tracks, especially Fall Out Boy, even though the music isn’t what rings my bell, and cricket doesn’t float my boat. It tends to take me a while to get into new music (sometimes a decade or two) so I will pop in from time to time to see what’s going down.
Well my filing system used to look like that, I recently got some cheap CD shelves, which I’ve nearly filled already! Please do pop back, and remember it’ll be different each week
Glad you liked FOB!
I listened to that FOB track with trepidation, fearing it might be the Jacko classic. It’s rather good, isn’t it? And the Jay-Z intro is pretty powerful compared with all the lazy guest-rap breaks I’m getting used to hearing from him (the new Justin Timberlake track being a prime example). Shame it cuts off mid-song!
Hi Bish! Nope, that’s the full song, after what you hear of Jay-Z’s second appearance the song segues straight into “The Take Over, The Break’s Over” and there’s no more rapping. It was the first song on the album Infinity On High (which was their second signed to Def Jam), and they thought they’d get their boss in to introduce it, so sadly there isn’t much rapping. One particular (pretty poor) live version on Youtube has all these comments about how they’re butchering a classic to the point where it’s unrecognisable, which always gives me the giggles: surely it’s obvious once you listen to it that it’s just a song with the same name? Glad you liked it!
If you want a laugh, FOB played the VIP room at the MTV awards in 2007, the year Infinity On High was released. They played one of the songs from it, The Carpal Tunnel Of Love, bookended by Jacko’s Beat It (if you’re wondering, the bald burly guy is one of their roadies. He’s there because Pete overdubbed the call-and-response screaming on the middle-eight for the album). The performance was so popular they ended up covering Beat It with John Mayer…
Ah I see! Yeah, I liked it far more than I expected. I may even listen again…
I nominated this: this Irishman’s take on that Shane Warne delivery for songs about embarrassment.
They’re a great band DP, I’m a big fan of Neil Hannon and all of his works.
…and now I can’t stop singing “Everybody Knows That I Love You”. Dammit, that’s all chances of getting any work done tonight out the window!
*pulls The Divine Comedy’s Greatest Hits off his CD shelf*
My children love the song, he’s such a tunesmith. I was delighted that my not-very-athletic lad learned to bowl overarm this summer, aged 7 – but watching Shane Warne on YouTube has unfortunately made him try too many twisty wristy things too soon, and his radar has suffered…
I spent every summer of my childhood and teens playing cricket with my family and trying to learn to bowl like Warne. When I was 19 I finally achieved it. The next summer it rained for three solid months and I never got to play. The summer when I was 21 (i.e. last summer), I went back out to play and had to teach myself how to bowl leg-spin all over again!
We have something in common then. I was a teenage keg-spinner, though it was adolescence, growing gangly and clumsy that did for me. For a year or two, the ends of my limbs were a mystery to me…
the first time I listened to this I cried with laughter, love the band too.
haven’t had time to listen yet but excellent post – will try again tomorrow.
Cricket’s great. There’s a cricket ground in the village with benches facing south where you can snooze all afternoon with a pint from the club house. Don’t ask me anything about the game, though.
Ali, you’ve won the Spirit Of Cricket Award, hooray !
Hi AIP. Just forcing myself to pop in to say I’m too busy to pop in, but please keep it up; I should be back with you (all) by the middle of Feb.
Must add my cricket anecdote though, as I rarely get to give this particular memory a trot out: I love to watch – can’t play for toffee. I was last shanghaied into a game half a lifetime ago by my then girlfriend to play in a specially-arranged 20-over trial friendly match for her brother’s village team, who were rather short as they’d double-booked it with a rearranged league match. Came in to bat at no.10 for last three overs or so. Played like Tavare trying to save a Test Match with two days to go: blocked everything, but couldn’t hit the ball off the square to save my life. Even asked the umpire at one point what the hell else I was supposed to when they kept bowling dead straight! Finished with the grand total of 1 not-out* from about 14 balls The rest of the team reminded me it was only a 20-overs game, but joked I was down to open the next week!
Was then initially made to field at a kind of short cover point. Caught out the opposing captain in first over (he dollied it up, and walked off grumbling about not getting his eye in on a crappy pitch), and ran out another in the third over with the spawniest direct hit in history (seriously, I was aiming to throw chest high to the bowler standing marginally to the right of the stumps, but actually released a one-bounce skidder that hit the bottom of the left stump). Mid innings I got moved right out to the deep mid-wicket boundary (not to stem the flow of runs, but just to make retrieving the ball quicker from the multi-six pounding we were getting from a massive Young Farmer-type proto-Botham). Very next ball he hit a steepler that stayed in bounds due to the extra height. At the expense of a plum bruise later the same evening, it came down with snow on it, and wedged between my face-defending hands and borrowed cricket sweater! At this point I thought my excitement was over, but horror-of-horrors, it came to the 18th over and they all looked at me. Trial friendly: ALL bar wicketkeeper MUST bowl two overs each. My complaints that my fingers don’t listen to my brain telling them when to let go of a ball went unheeded, and I had to do it. But WTF, I finished my stint of ultra-slow, right-arm floaters with figures of 2-0-5-1. That, though, rather masked the ELEVEN wides that didn’t go against my name in the scorebook (I did warn them!), and my wicket came off the last ball of the innings when their batsman swiped in frustration at one I managed to get straight, but he was through his shot WAY before my ball got there and it just kissed the middle stump hard enough to dislodge one bail!
I retired to the pub with my bemused girlfriend and teammates, and promptly retired from the game, as I was smart enough to realise I’d just used up a career’s-worth of luck in three hours flat.
And with that, it’s bedtime. G’night all.
Ha! Ha! You’d be perfect in Finnish cricket. Our devillish New Zealand spinner stood at mid-wicket. The ball was hammered to him at head height. Cool as you like, he weighed up the speed of the ball and moved his head to the right and let the ball pass. He continued to roll his cigarette in left hand while holding his beer bottle in his right; his journey to the boundary to fetch the ball accompanied by jeers, cheers and piss-taking.
Sadly, we then got a league and it all became too serious
Sounds like Tuffers in a black cap!
I’ve never played a proper game. Living in Limerick there wasn’t much opportunity until Ireland’s recent run of World Cup appearances brought cricketers out of the woodwork. The university has a team that keeps disbanding and reforming, but I’ve never had the time
The cricket bit is kind of lost on me, son, but i will say i thought that Mr. Warne was a lot hotter when he used to be a bloke. Before Lizzie morphed him into a metrosexual.
I do miss Fuel’s former RR avatar, (before your time), of the Stones in cricket garb.
I’m music’d out for the day after Shoey’s list – still seem to need long stretches of silence, hopefully will check back in for that. But i will keep checking in with your new series.
Warney isn’t a metrosexual… just a synthetic man what with all the bleach, hair restorer and so on!
I like cricket, it’s nice and quiet and Test Match Special is always worth listening to, even when it’s raining. I actually downloaded the Hearts Under Fire single, from iTunes, I like it lots. Thanks for introducing me to the band!
Yes! YES! A convert! OK, I’ll calm down now… although I would advise anyone who’s on that there tweetmachine to follow the drummer, Lexi Clarke, because she’s ‘totes hilaire’ as the kids (at least in Ireland) say.
Thanks DsD and Fuel for cricket memories, lovely stuff.
I can really recommend this book – it starts off as a very funny book about a cricket team of mates, who embark on a ridiculously complicated world tour, and turns about to be about all the (other) important things in life, poignant and still very funny.
Harry Thompson – Penguins Stopped Play