Why Not Watch The Support Band

Went to a gig last night as I was asked to take some photos of the undercard a band called Under a Banner, they were very good indeed and the room was about a third full of very appreciative people who were royally entertained by a very fine band,if there is any justice they will go far.

So an enjoyable hour and then about thirty minutes later the main act came on and suddenly the room was pretty well full and I asked myself why,you pay for a ticket that entitles you to see a band plus support so why not take advantage.

Now I've seen many duff support acts over the years, Liquid Landscape last year was particularly painful and believe it or not many years ago Queen were absolutely dire supporting Mott The Hoople but I have seen many many more superb support acts who music has sustained me for many a year.

So if you are going to a gig turn up on time watch the support because if they're crap just go get a pint but if they're good like Under A Banner you will be in for an unexpected treat

Football Finances

Elsewhere in social media I've been part of a rather interesting discussion on advertising and its morality,this got me thinking about the part advertising plays in keeping Non League Football afloat.

I was at Redditch Utd yesterday and they seem to be very successful in getting adverts from local and national sources in the programme and around the ground ,you can be pretty certain that without the income from this Redditch would not be where they are today.

There was however one billboard that caught my attention especially bearing in mind the rumpus that it caused when put up at nearby Kidderminster Harriers earlier in the season, that being one from UKIP

UKIP are  a divisive force with their being no middle ground you either love them or hate them but should they be advertising at a football ground,well at the end of the day they are a legal organisation and their money is as good as anybody else's so why not.

Of course there is another way that Grassroots and non league could be funded and that's the Pork Barrel Buffet that is the TV rights to the Premier League soon to be sorted to the tune of around £4 Billion,,the tiniest percentage of that could help fund non league across the country,during half time at the Redditch match I I noticed on the internet that for 20 days "Consultancy" work for Manchester Utd Alex Ferguson had been paid £2 Million.

People may not like some types of advertising or even advertising per se but until the vast fortunes at the top of football start filtering down the tree its a major way that football at the level that I love is going to have to be funded

Keep Taking

In the BT add but more importantly on a Pink Floyd track Stephen Hawking told us to Keep Talking ,that's fine  but I want to you to Keep Taking as well,keep taking what you may ask and the answer is photographs
What do you mean keep taking photographs there are more taken than there have ever been you say ,well yes we all see the photographs on Facebook and Twitter but what are most of them,they are People and Selfies very relevant in their own right and they will show future generations how we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

However I have seen recently on the Flickr Photo sharing website a number of shots from the early part of the century of assorted everyday scenes,traffic in the street,train stations,people going about their daily business  basically what is defined as Reportage Photography  not carried out by "Proper Photographers"  but by people in the street with their cameras and phones.

We need to ensure that everything that goes on from day to day in the world and the places we frequent is recorded for future generations to see,and believe it or not its not illegal, don't go out to embarrass your subject just record what is going on and in 100 years our descendants will get as much pleasure looking at what our world looked like from the point of view of the average Man and Woman in the street as we do looking back on shots our Ancestors took

Oh and you'll probably never win any awards for them but you'll have a lot of fun taking them I promise

A few I have taken in the last 12 months

I'm Back And Its Still Footy Time

4 months since I last posted no idea why I've done nothing in that time ,just one of those things I suppose.

Anyhow since I last posted my Non League Football life has changed and I am no longer club photographer for AFC Wulfrunians (I guess most people who read this already know) and I'm not going to go into the reasons why.

So now I am a freelance Ground Hopping photographer just looking at the Non League Paper every Sunday morning and planning where to go everywhere from Step 3 to Step 7,I must admit its very liberating,new surroundings each week different people to meet and the chance to get differing views on Non League football at its various levels.

It also gives me a chance to vary my style of shooting,when you are a club photographer you feel duty bound to get the action shots that can go on the website and in the programme,when you are freed from that you can look at the Non League world from a different angle, a style I was introduced to by a very fine and innovative photographer called David Bauckham (And yes he's heard all the Beckham jokes), you can find his work here and its well worth looking at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccpub/

So now in addition to all the action shots these are few of the weird,stupid offbeat (Whatever you call them) shots I now take

So hopefully I will be posting here a bit more regularly,not just on footy but anything else that takes my fancy

Banging On About Referees

I was asked tonight by someone whose views on football I very much respect why I keep banging on about refereeing standards at step 5 football in the Midlands.Well the reason is that  as a former ref (At a very amateur level) I enjoy seeing a good performance by the officials almost as much as by the players and I am not seeing that in the Midland League

Business has taken me to the South West a fair bit in the past 12 months as a result of which I have seen a fair few games here at Step 5 in the Western and South West Peninsula League's. Here the quality of the officials is light years ahead of the Midlands,they work as a team use common sense and generally look to make the game an enjoyable experience for those watching and playing

I have raised these observations with the Midland league that their South West cousins are doing things better than them but I didn't even get the courtesy of an acknowledgement let alone a reply. So I will continue to drone on in the vain hope that one day officials in the Midlands will be in the same ball park as those south of Bristol.

The Undiscovered Country

For those not familiar with the Star Trek films the undiscovered country is the future and of course this is going to be about England's future post Brazil 2014.

Although the knives are not out yet there are rumblings and to be honest the names being bandied around totally depress me, we'll give Roy another 2 years to bring on the great crop of youngsters and then either Gary Neville or Gareth Southgate will have been groomed to take over,in other words same old and same old, a nice safe pair of hands who will say the right things in press conferences and not upset the establishment,in other words the same old mistakes we have been making since Alf Ramsey was sacked in 1973.

Why must it be a safe pair of hands or a big name with lots of Champions league and big team experience,that's not been a rousing success over the past 40 years has it so lets think outside the box for once.
You look at the Costa Rica managers CV nothing Champions League there but more importantly Jogi Low, what chance would anybody have becoming England manager with this CV but the Germans saw something

1994	FC Winterthur (youth)
1994–1995	FC Frauenfeld
1995–1996	VfB Stuttgart (assistant)
1996–1998	VfB Stuttgart
1998–1999	Fenerbahçe
1999–2000	Karlsruher SC
2001	Adanaspor
2001–2002	FC Tirol Innsbruck
2003–2004	FK Austria Wien

So why cant we do the same ,why cant we look at Tony Pulis or Kenny Jacket both of whom have a record or turning around total basket cases, why shouldn't Nigel Clough be considered for the job  that his father should have had but never got,the old ways have failed miserably so why not think totally differently and see what happens,it can't be any worse.

And so to the players,we have a great crop of youngsters and new Golden Generation, well sorry but what did the last lot win and really just how good are they, would Welbeck,Jones and Smalling be considered were they not Man Utd players,does Henderson get in an any grounds other than that he plays for Liverpool and don't get me started on Glen Johnson.

Now some will turn around and say what about the Southampton contingent and yes that is refreshing but they had a good season,why weren't players from lower ranked sides taken,Tom Huddlestone of Everton would surely have gone but Tom Huddlestone of Hull well no,back up centre halves well the aforementioned Jones and Smalling have spent the season warming the bench so why not those hardened in the battle of a relegation fight like Curtis Davies or Stephen Caulker,and before you say players at that level aren't good enough I give you the Costa Rica goalscorer yesterday that famous Fulham reject Brian Ruiz.

And why not be even braver and look below the EPL,in 1990 Bobby Robson took a Third Division (Thats League 1 to you youngsters) player to the world cup and Bully didn't look out of place in a side that got to the semi finals, why not try Danny Ings or Jamie Vardy they must be perfectly suited to international football you never know without trying.

But of course none of this will happen the FA are to gutless the media to obsessed with the EPL and Champions League and sadly in many cases to sneering of anything outside the Big 6,so when we fail again in 4 years and probably 8 (We can blame the heat for that) and its same old same old again remember there can be another route to The Undiscovered Country

Book The Plane Home

So its confirmed England are on the way home after Costa Rica's stunning win over the Italians,our most embarrassing result in any World Cup for over 50 years,however its not the team and manager that I want to go on about enough will be said about them over the coming months,no its the reaction of the EXPERTS that my ravings are about today.

Many of you will have heard  Chris Waddles impassioned outburst on Radio 5 live last night berating the almost impossible decline since South Africa,the failure of the FA to use their unimaginable riches to fund coaching and then the embarrassing performances of so many of the players,when the chips were down they went missing.

He does however appear to be a voice crying in the wilderness

Alvin Martin -Plenty of positives to take out of the tournament
Martin O'Neil- I thought England did very well
Henry Winter (A journalist I much admire) Hodgson is doing a good job he must be given more time
The FA- Roy will see his contract out

and on and on they go.

And then you listen to the phone inn's and ;look on Social Media and hear the voice of the fans

Hodgson to negative
Rooney one goal and suddenly he's world class,no way over rated
Gerard ,when he last have a good game for England
Welbeck and Henderson are not the future they get in because of who they play for

So has there ever been such a gulf between the "Experts" and the fans,those who actually pay to get in feel let down and yet their voices appear to be ignored,yes  a large crowd will still turn up at Wembley for the next match because they are the hardy souls who follow through thick and thin in the vain hope that one day it will all come right,the rest of us well we can keep our Plebby mouths shut because we know no better and should leave commenting on England to our betters, Chris Waddle excepted