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The Duckworth Lewis Method on Frank Skinner
By Will last year, at the end of June, 2 Comments »
I’m a bit of a Frank Skinner fan, and have been pestering his agent for an interview for several weeks to talk about his love of cricket. Alas, you’ll have to wait a little longer for that, but in the meantime you can listen to the Duckworth Lewis Method on his Saturday show.
Their album is available to pre-order. Publicists, agents, similar people – whack me over a copy and we’ll advertise the pants off it.
2 Comments »Music to inspire England in the Ashes
By Will last year, mid-June, 5 Comments »
I’ve recently become a bit of a fan of Spotify, the peer-to-peer music-streaming service which rules all. Even more recently, I see you can create and share playlists, which lends itself perfectly to me to ask you the following: what music can or should inspire England in the Ashes?
Spotify users, create and share a playlist with songs you think might rally the troops this summer. Non-spotties, offer yours below. Suggestions should ideally be English, without wishing to sound like that turbo-powered racist arsehole, Nick Griffin.
I think Elgar needs to be included at least once, possibly as a replacement to the drone of the UK’s national anthem. If we’re talking about the national anthem, and it appears I am, I’m all for Billy Connolly’s suggestion – a comedian and character I would happily forsake two limbs to pick his brains – that it should be replaced by the theme tune to the Archers. And that’s saying something, considering I’ve often veered off the road in sheer depression when inadvertently listening to a programme containing a character called Shula. Cracking theme tune though.
So, Elgar, the Kinks, something from the Rolling Stones, or the Stone Roses and…?
5 Comments »The Ashes Song by Tuffers and the Wooden Urns
By Will last year, mid-June, 4 Comments »
Time will tell whether this Marmite-sponsored song really does become The Ashes Song of the summer, much as Embrace’s Ashes did in 2005. But it’s good fun, takes a healthy dig at the Australians and helps to create that friendly rivalry which will no doubt become fever-pitched in the coming weeks. Proceeds for the single, which is available to download on iTunes, goes to the Cricket for Change charity. A worthy cause and worth your pennies.
Or listen to it below for free (at Youtube), you tight bastards.
4 Comments »The Duckworth Lewis Method (DLM)
By Will last year, mid-May, 2 Comments »
Fear not, you catalogue of champions. This has nothing to do with those two irritating figures of mis-calculation. Instead, The Duckworth Lewis Method are a newly-formed band by Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash), to celebrate the great game. Their album will be released shortly before the Ashes, and some of the lyrics take a little pop at Australia and her citizens. “Jiggery pokery; pure Aussie skullduggery”. Well worth a listen. I particularly like Jiggery Pokery.
The Ashes creates bonkers things like this. If you spot any good videos lurking, or have any cricket music you’ve made, drop me a line.
2 Comments »The DC are back
By Will 2 years ago, mid-October, 2 Comments »
Eight years of silence is over. My favourite band in the history of me, AC/DC, are back. I’ve got it, and haven’t even listened yet – that’s how worried I am that it could be aural excrement. But it won’t be. So buy it now!
Ronnie Drew dies
By Will 2 years ago, mid-August, No Comments; be the first!
The lead singer of one of my favourite bands, The Dubliners
Roots Manuva: Again and Again
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of July, No Comments; be the first!
One for hip-hop loving cricket fans sent in by Raf Rundell, Roots Manuva’s Again and Again.
Click here if you can’t see it above.
No Comments »Shocking revelations from Ross Taylor
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of May, 8 Comments »
Musical tastes in the team are split. Jamie, Iain and Michael Mason are keen on bogan music (heavy metal and pub rock bands; they wear black t-shirts). Dan, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel and myself are into R&B. Being from Oxford in North Canterbury, Peter must have thought R&B meant Red and Black when he produced his rugby team’s theme song.
I, too, need to get my act together after leaving the New Zealand flag in my room more than once. Still, it’s time we were much tougher on duty evaders and the time for bigger fines must be near. In Peter’s case, surely the words “you’re fired”, from The Apprentice are not far away.
I’ve suddenly lost all respect for Vettori and Oram. From Ross Taylor’s tour diary at Cricinfo.
8 Comments »Harmison the iPod
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of December, 6 Comments »
Great line from KingCricket on Steve Harmison:
We see and agree with the reasons for omitting Steve Harmison, but it does underline why we like him. You can’t pick a guy whose bowling line is set to ’shuffle’, but he’s resolutely not an English seam bowler. He’s 12 feet tall and he bowls quickly. It’s not that he’s capable of bowling quickly, it’s that he just does it. It’s his natural speed. In Sri Lankan conditions the ‘effort ball’ is pretty much an impossibility. Effortless speed is the only option.
Talking of nothing at all, I was pondering some songs which might accompany cricketers to and from the crease (Twenty20 style) the other day. I didn’t very far – The Police with So Lonely for the trudge back to the pavilion was an early idea though. What might England’s team have on their iPods, I wonder?
Update: AC/DC’s Shake Your Foundation for Adam Gilchrist. And possibly the theme tune to The Archers for Kevin Pietersen, in a “I’m more English than thou” sort of statement.
Video of Iron Maiden at Brixton, June 24, 2007
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of June, 2 Comments »
Sorry for lack of posts lately. This is why:
It was rocktacular, epic and sweaty. The only possible link to cricket this post has is, after the gig, Miller and I decamped in the nearest pub and met a very old Jamaican and slightly younger Jamaican. Cricket was discussed, among other things…
2 Comments »Butcher on lead; Ramprakash on vocals
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of June, 1 Comment »
If you haven’t seen it, you’ve not missed out a great deal. But it’s a bit of a laugh anyway. Here are Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash in Surrey’s Twenty20 promo video.
Via Nathan Ross on Youtube
1 Comment »Singing in the style of Brian Johnston
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of April, 3 Comments »
“Is it the Ashes … yes, it’s the Ashes, England have won the Ashes!” Those words, memorably and rather wheezily uttered by Brian Johnston in 1953, are often impersonated in Cricinfo. And on a rare day in which we had no cricket to cover, I discovered a brand new game with which to irritate my colleagues: singing in the style of Johnners. It is a game of infinite possibilities and variations. Be it punk, metal, folk, garage, rap, you too can sound as daft as me. I had particular fun with Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer
Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go
They’re ready to go now
They’ve got their surfboards
And they’re going to the discotheque a go go
But she just couldn’t stay
She had to break away
Well New York City really has it all
Oh yeah, oh yeahSheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now
She’s a punk punk, a punk rocker
Punk punk, a punk rocker
Punk punk, a punk rocker
Suggestions welcome
3 Comments »The Geoffrey Oi!cotts (disGrace on bass; Alan Knott on drums)
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of March, 4 Comments »
Further to Scott’s post, and Andrew’s piece, comes this example of YouTube at its brilliant, bizarre best. Among the historical gems, a lot of the other videos there are fairly drab’n'dull recollections of fans playing village cricket. Boring. But searching for “cricket” throws up the odd seemingly inexplicable video, such as this: a band called the Geoffrey Oi!cotts. Their MySpace entry reveals the following:
Band Members
Freddy Skintoft (vocals) W.C. disGrace (bass) A.P.E. sKnott (drums) Devon Malcolm McClaren (guitar) The Dickie Birds (backing troupe and groupies)
Influences
Yorkshire pride.
Sounds Like
The thwack of willow on leather on a sunny yorkshire afternoon..
Record Label
hahahahahaha
What a brilliant image that is. Alan Knott on drums (still equipped with wicketkeeping gloves, and a toothy grin); Devon Malcolm, massive 1980s bottle-top glasses, attached to a Fender and – best of all? – several Dickie Birds, rolling up their sleeves and tottering in the background. The Geoffrey Oi!cotts, based in Leeds, also do a passable cover of the Cockney Rejects’
All of this musicery begs the question: which five cricketers, past or present, would be in your band? The stupider, most unlikely the better. Tony Lewis would have to be lead vocalist for a start, closely followed by Mike Smith on drums…
4 Comments »Mark Butcher on ‘Just the Two of Us’
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of January, 2 Comments »
First there was Darren Gough. Then Mark Ramprakash. And now, Mark Butcher is the third recent England cricketer to swap his whites for the mic. It’s passed me by until now but, on a drizzly Sunday evening, what else can you do but wade through the TV channels and find some nonsense to watch? The nonsense is called Just the Two of Us and is one of these reality TV things. I hate them with furious passion.
Whereas Gough and Ramprakash had no dancing ability whatsoever, yet still somehow managed to win, Butcher is a guitarist and musician of repute. So he’ll probably win it like his two England colleagues did.
All is not lost, England. Andrew Flintoff is a keen Elvis fan so look out for him on this show next year, with Steve Harmison on maracas and Chris Read and Geraint Jones fighting for the drumsticks.
“It’s not a blood sport; this is music,” Butcher said. “It’s not about hurting people it’s about making you feel good, and hopefully we did that tonight.”
God help us all.
Update Superb work from Will. Moments after posting that, Butcher was cast off into oblivion. Sorry!
Get in the mood for the first Test
By Will 4 years ago, mid-November, 10 Comments »
What better way (for an Englishman at least) to get in the mood for Wednesday night than to listen to the BBC cricket theme tune, Booker T and the MG’s Soul Limbo. Listen, loop, and enjoy.
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