charlierc

Interesting. Hadn't considered that

If I don't get Apollo tickets and Twickets continues to be a challenge, I'll have to see if extra tix are released for Finsbury Park.

Yeah that's a fairly fundamental thing. And given flights now have their own internal WiFi, would explain why that all worked fine for me on that Valencia-Gatwick route last week. Lots of these mass scale events have shit signal tbf. Coventry for The Killers last year had pretty much none after the support act, and my expectations are pretty low for Muse at MK Bowl or the AM show I'm seeing in Middlesbrough being any better.

Ooo that's a good song. And one of the most enjoyably strange music videos to go with it.

I remember the fan-art after his last TW Derby goal which was an equaliser against Sunderland in 2012. Proper meme stuff. Made him into a Batman character. Kudos to the imaginative types who make such stuff.

So today, one of Luton or Coventry is going to be winning Premier League promotion, ending a journey that saw both in League 2 back in 2018. Both pretty remarkable stories, not to mention that both have been out of the Premier League for a long time and that both are more interesting stories than the yo-yo vibes Watford, Norwich, West Brom and a few others have been up to.

It's that bad at Leeds? I was surprised my contactless payment card worked on an EasyJet flight the other week, though I'm guessing if this is referring to pay-by-phone apps, that might be it's own problem.

A few keep popping up on Twickets but it's like what happened when I tried for Arctic Monkeys day at Reading last year - I get the e-mail through of a ticket available, but by the time I try to get it, it's gone. Not had that problem seeing AM this year (they're doing enough shows for it, and I now have the tickets I was looking for) but Pulp in Finsbury is proving similarly elusive. There a price for Apollo noting it being cheaper? Tbf I might prefer it as much as I would be slightly sad not to see Wet Leg, I don't particularly like Finsbury Park as a venue.

As noted, Pulp have announced additional London and Manchester dates as part of their upcoming tour.

Royal Blood are doing an October theatre tour

That is quite the vivid design choice. We talking proper ClipArt style stuff here.

The fruitless search I've been having so far for Finsbury Park tickets means that, even though Hammersmith isn't likely to have Wet Leg as well, could go in for that next Friday. Or at least attempt to go in for it, get frustrated and miss out.

So, after the rain made Imola a bust, Monaco. Ordinarily, not a race I look forward to but if somebody can outqualify the Red Bulls on a track where this spec of F1 car makes overtaking borderline impossible, that could make things very interesting indeed.

Shola Ameobi scoring in the Nou Camp and then grabbing a brace in a win over Bayer Leverkusen on Bobby Robson's birthday #preciousmemoriesoneandall I saw a member of the public write to Football365 suggesting this could still have been possible had Mike Ashley shown the inclination and maybe that's the case, but equally, it was pretty clear long before 2021 he'd lost interest in the Newcastle project. Even then, pre-season, I'd have been happy with qualifying for the Conference League, given it's been so long since we've been in Europe. Howe has done something brilliant to even get us in the convo for the big 4 and get us back on track after a Jan/Feb wobble.

It's too early to predict next season. Looks like everyone is going to be investing heavily with some big changes, so we won't really get much of a picture until closer to August, to say nothing of the fact that a few clubs are something of unknown quantities. We don't know how much this year has broken Chelsea, or if Liverpool will get the right midfielders to reboot their project, or if Spurs will manage to stop being Spursy for once in their ridiculous existence, or indeed if Brighton or Villa end up pushing on from their success this year. Newcastle, I think, will have an interesting summer. For me, this is a challenging window as we will need depth to be able to compete in both Prem and Champs League, and also maybe challenge for one of the domestic cups, as well as the fact a number of this year's back-up players are said to be on the way out, but many of our prospective targets will see us as walking cash machines thanks to getting the UCL windfall. I'm wary of repeating the messy 2012/13 season, when after finishing 5th and qualifying for Europa League, Ashley and Pardew seemed to underestimate the depth required, made just 1 signing while letting a few go, then when injuries struck in the autumn of 2012, we stuttered into a relegation battle.

I saw them opening for Kings of Leon at Milton Keynes Bowl in 2014, along with Haim and Twin Atlantic. Seeing that I didn't know Twin Atlantic were still around until they were announced as Royal Blood's stand-ins to open for Muse in Glasgow as RB are at Glastonbury instead, that makes two members of that bill who I've been given reminders of existing this year. Neat.

It is curious to me how it just seemed to stall tbf. I saw Friendly Fires at Reading Festival in 2011 and thought they were amazing, and then it just kinda stopped for them. Looks like their shows earlier this year was also all just playing their first album in full in smaller rooms. But I'm not sure what numbers those will have pulled in.

Now this is hardcore pun posting.

I'm expecting a close final day. On paper, Everton should beat a Bournemouth side with nothing to play for and who were many people's pre-season relegation favourites, but the lack of depth is catching up with them. Leicester have a winnable final day game with West Ham having a Conf League final to prep for and Spurs' implosion means Leeds beating them can't be ruled out, although Leeds' awful display at West Ham and own lack of strikers doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

There's a childhood nostalgia for me tbf - an early season as a kid being a Toon fan was seeing them in the Champions League with Bobby Robson leading a team of Shearer, Bellamy, Ameobi, LuaLua, Solano, Dyer, Speed, Robert, Given, with the drama of Feyernoord and being the first team to get out of the group stage after losing their first 3 games, and being unlucky not to beat a star-studded Inter in San Siro. So I'm happy to see them back in the fold. People are free to voice an unhappiness both that we've spent our way there with big dollar and that they don't like our owners, and I'm not going to stop people from making these points, but even accounting for this, I don't think anyone expected us to get to the top 4 so soon. I'd have been happy to maybe sneak top 6. We've done really well to get 3rd with a squad that is still fairly reliant on players that pre-dated the takeover. It'll make an interesting summer tbf. Many of those who were back-up this season are set to leave, plus I think some midfielders were targets anyway, but this is a new dimension to prep for. I'd be happy just to make sure the depth is all there given our last European campaign in 2012/13 saw the depth required underestimated, an injury crisis and a relegation battle.

This was unquestionably a golden chance for Arsenal to win it and they couldn't make it happen, so there's unquestionably gonna be a disappointment they missed out. Equally, their defence just stopped being as reliable when William Saliba suffered a season ending injury, plus those who watch Arsenal more often I do said that Saka and Martinelli have looked burnt out in the last few weeks. They were good at St James' to beat us, but that's been one of the few occasions of late, and losing at Forest kinda hinted they've run out of puff. As far as we go, I am wary that the last time Newcastle qualified for Europe in 2011/12, we underestimated the squad depth needed for Europa League in 2012/13 and when we suffered injuries, we pretty much had nobody else to play with and spent the whole thing in the bottom 6. We're kinda getting a taste atm as our midfield depth has disappeared with Longstaff and Willock injured and Joelinton a doubt for Leicester tomorrow. If Leicester win at SJP, they'd be out of the bottom 3 and could well beat West Ham on the final day. It's an interesting one tbf as, like I said, Newcastle's lack of depth in midfield is why I'm happy we're pretty much at the end as our depth is kinda hitting the wall. However, Leicester's goalkeepers and defence have been awful all season long, and Dean Smith has yet to really convince that he was worth sacking Brendan Rodgers for. Guess tomorrow will give us more answers.

On this note, Foo Fighters have just confirmed Josh Freese as their new drummer. Guy has previously played with Nine Inch Nails, Guns N Roses, Paramore, Weezer and Sting and played with FF at one of the Taylor Hawkins memorial shows last year. So that answers the question of what the hell they do.

I know there's a lot of arguments over whether Arsenal blew the title. It's a curious one imo - on the one hand, you can say that having lead the league for so long and had 8 point leads at one point you're going to have to question how they let it slip, while at the same time wonder what they could've done when Manchester City managed to find an unstoppable tactic tweak and had the depth to just smother the competition.

After Brighton thumped Arsenal, I was nervous about last night. Didn't need to be in the end. Managed to mainly keep Brighton at arms length and got the goals when needed. We shouldn't blow this now.

Roma v Sevilla is an interesting one. Jose Mourinho has never lost a European final, but Sevilla have won a crazy amount of Europa League titles in the last 20 years. Somebody is going to be bucking a trend in Budapest in a few weeks time then. Though I would also agree in saying it could be more interesting game than Man City v Inter unless Inter do something remarkable.