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To the Essex Sport Arena!

…on Sunday evening.

Volleyball one evening, basketball the next.

Whaddya mean we’s hopeless Sport Billies, left with little other sporting entertainment during the stupid international break?

The Rebels men had a home court game against Worthing Thunder.

This was very much the evening after the evening before, when Rebels stormed to a stunning away win at Birmingham in the final few seconds of the game on Saturday evening.

They were paying the price as well. The signs weren’t good when Skipper Tom Childs limped through the warm up with a dead leg, ahead of bench warming for the evening.

Worthing had a BIG DAWG of a baller bully. The fella was almost as wide as he was tall.

They also had a shocker of a purple patterned kit. It looked more like the clothing for a nursery rhyme character than a serious athlete.

But make no mistake: Worthing were bloody serious ballers.

Rebels seemed to understand this from the start. Playing with a short bench, the plan seemed to be sink the three pointers, and failing that, make no mistake with the rebounds.

But what happens if both of these fail to come off?

Oh.

Rebels had a decent first quarter, but then the game got away from them early in the second. The scoreboard was only going one way.

A HT score of 36-66 led to heads dropping as the Rebels headed back to the locker room.

Coach Hart cut a lone figure, staying on the bench, and choosing not to address what he had just seen.

The second half was all about damage limitation for the Rebs. But Worthing didn’t hold back.

Oh dear.

The final scoreline of 85-132 tells you all need to know. The only surprise is that the Rebs managed to reach 85.

Worthing were superb.

To the Table of Dreams!

The Estuary Wilds sun and dry weather was for once too good to resist. It was our first outdoor game in a couple of weeks.

Wellies were worn. Which is something that you are unlikely to see at an Olympic wiff waff gold medal game.

They were needed as well.

Worms casting were at each end of the table. This wasn’t a firm foundation for a serious game.

We opted for the uniform ball, rather than the extra heavy wind design. This allowed me to arse around with spin.

It also allowed me to come close to taking each game, only to showboat with silly spin, and not quite take the glory.

Still, the spin looked cool as fuck YEAH?

The bloody Church bells kicked in. This seriously put me off.

STFU etc.

A 3-2 defeat.

It’s like I’ve never been away.

We had two crews for WivGigs Super Sunday.

Well, that was the plan, anyway.

I made my way down to the Sailing Club hard, shortly before the arranged 8am meet up.

Oh, it looks a little sparse.

Varuna’s crew was ship shape and all set to launch. VERY organised.

Meanwhile, my crew in Audacity was struggling on the numbers front.

We need a minimum of four rowers and one cox, right? How about three rowers and a cox? Or even four rowers and no cox?

Gosh.

Life shit gets in the way for everyone. We were two down from the planned crew. We were also rather experienced, and so decided to press on with the launch.

Who needs a cox, anyway? Overrated.

We were pretty much rowing blind down towards the edges of Brightlingsea. Our cox was able to navigate us out into the estuary, and then he added his muscle power so the boat was pulling equally on both sides.

This is fun, isn’t it?

It actually was rather liberating. Having no one tugging away on the rudder could be physically felt. Audacity was rowing in a pure style with no external interference.

Just how the chuff do we steer this thing?

We developed a technique largely centred around communication, and then reacting.

“OI! There’s a buoy coming up on my bow side!”

Time for stroke to ease off a little as bow puts the blades down with some extra pace in the water.

Thankfully the estuary was calm and empty of other river traffic for so early on Sunday morning.

There was little time for the usual observations. If it ain’t a buoy or another boat, then it’s not worth focussing on.

I did think at one stage that I saw a seal by White House Beach. But it was a dog, natch.

We cocked up the turnaround at buoy 20. You try turning a HULK of a boat with no one steering it.

The incoming rain we could see over Brightlingsea got the better of us. Now was no time to be all at sea.

Back to base!

It was quite an effort heading towards Weird Wiv, even with the help of the incoming tide.

But we made it.

That was quite a Sunday morning adventure. For someone who is most deff not a team player, I thought I played a blinder.

There was a most unexpected and welcome surprise for the four-fer with Robert Elms on Saturday: Flowered Up’s It’s On.

CHOON!

The subject for the four-fer was youth club anthems. This is going to be ACE, I thought. Memories of early 80’s, with a wide palette of pent up teenage frustration to choose from.

Wrong.

It turns out that I am about a decade or so older than the average demographic of Elms listeners.

Instead we have early 70’s ska and bubblegum soul. It was all fine, but it wasn’t the racket of a youth club four-fer that I was expecting.

And then some fella called in and suggested Flowered Up.

OH MY DAYS.

Disclaimer: the 1991 release date was WAY BEYOND my own youth club experiences. I should have been selecting The Specials' Nite Club, or something similar.

Flowered Up were more of an undergrad sound for me. Weekender was a constant favourite at the SU Friday night discos.

Gosh, they were heady times. And a little fucked up as well.

And then around ten years later, I think I saw them in London around the turn of the Century.

This was when all things Madchester still had something of a bad name.The guns and drugs had taken over a few years earlier. The Stone Roses imploded spectacularly,

But around 2000 - 2001, there was a feeling in some of the circles that I moved in around the time that Madchester wasn’t dead; or it at least deserved a reappraisal.

The trouble was that all the original bands had long since cleared off.

I remember going to a club at Embankment one Friday night for a Madchester revival. I’ve no idea what the club was called.

In the back of my mind, Flowered Up were booked in to play a reunion gig - their first together in years.

This was a very messy scene. I can’t remember the exact details, but I don’t think Flowered Up actually played.

It might have been that some of the band turned up, but not the full outfit. It may even have been a cringe PA mime set that followed.

I was pretty fucked up tbh…

The fella on the four-fer described the Herberts perfectly: Youth Club Rave. I like that genre, but can’t pin anyone else down to it.

So yeah / no, I did / didn’t see Flowered Up.

I most deffo didn’t see Paris Angels whilst an undergrad. They split up en route to a gig at Colchester Arts Centre.

Musicians: messy.

Chris Froome’s retirement limbo leaves the sport of cycling to grapple with a difficult legacy

To the Essex Sports Arena!

…on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday afternoons are BALL GAME afternoons, right?

Erm yep, if that ball happens to be volleyball.

Gosh.

Time and tide - and fixture dates - kept me away from the Rebels volleyball teams for most of last season.

But here we had a rare Saturday double header as both women and men teams took on strong opposition from Durham.

The Rebs were not only in it to win it, but there was ambitious talk of SMASHING the UK crowd record for an indoor volleyball game.

The Rebels already hold the current record. Once everyone was inside the Arena, a final crowd tally of 653 confirmed that a new benchmark had been set.

It may not compete with Premier League crowds, but getting over 600 people into an Arena in Colchester on a Saturday afternoon is no mean feat.

It’s not just about record breaking, either. The Rebs are keen to push volleyball, leading the way domestically. They also offer a genuine pathway for some very talented young athletes to compete and study.

I arrived slightly fashionably late. The women were one set down in a first to three race.

This was a top of the table clash. The Rebs have won both their games so far. Durham are serious championship contenders.

The third set went to the Rebs, but Durham then pulled away with a 3-1 road victory.

Entertainment in-between matches included the ever enthusiastic (and rather good) University Dance Team, as well as an on court volleyball competition that involved wearing granny pants.

The Rebs know how to put on a game day.

The men followed, with most of the bumper crowd remaining. They lost the first set.

Steady the buffers, etc.

Some killer serves from the home team turned it around. Rebels walked away with a 3-1 home court win.

The organisation continues to grow - basketball, volleyball, and also women’s cricket at an elite level, all now added to the roster.

Up the Rebs, etc.

The new album from Tortoise is very, very good. They’re a band that hasn’t really troubled me. But each time I hear about them, I only hear good things.

I’ve had little more time this week to listen to new music. Ive finally cleared the Gilles Peterson backlog of downloads that were sitting on my phone.

Much love, as always, to GP.

Plus the stupid international break has led to less Forest podcast action.

And so instead, Tortoise’s new Touch album has been on the online turntable.

It reminds me a lot of Ozric Tentacles - without the tie dye.

I’m increasingly drawn towards instrumental albums these days. It’s far from background music, but it’s what I need whilst I’m working away.

Touch isn’t exactly a… light touch. It’s incredibly unsettling in places. The distorted and out of sync drums add to the sense of confusion.

Post-rock - whatever that means these days - has become a feature for me in recent weeks. Bark Psychosis, Tortoise, and even some Clinic.

None of these are going to be pushing for that Christmas number one.

“It was difficult to tell what song he wrote and what song he didn’t write, because sometimes I noticed that he said he wrote a song and he didn’t, and other times I thought he didn’t write a song and he did.”

Richard Williams on Box Set 18 (1!) of the Dylan Bootleg Series.

Free bike schemes in deprived communities improve people’s health, wellbeing and social mobility, report shows

It’s always a joy seeing one of the five hundred orange framed bicycles distributed for free to some communities around these Estuary Wilds parts.

We had a rare Friday Film Night - a double header as well. With the bloody Estuary Wilds rain pissing it down all day and all evening, this was no time to be tripping the light fantastic outdoors.

And so we went in early. Work tools were downed at strictly 5pm, and then the first screening soon followed. A short break for an evening meal, and then the second sitting of Film Night.

Being screened was That’ll be the Day, and then Stardust - the David Essex films from the mid 70’s that document the rise and fall of a rock star.

Sounds familiar? Both films are rock ‘n’ roll cliches; both draw heavily on The Beatles, Bowie and Bolan.

I’ve seen That’ll be the Day before, although I wasn’t overly familiar with all the plot twists and turns. Stardust was new to me.

My interest was prodded through a casual name check of both films in the excellent This is Clobbered podcast - a YT channel that is taking up my time, and my monthly clothes allowance.

The two Marks explained how the first film gets the look and style of early UK rock ‘n’ roll spot on; Stardust meanwhile was referenced as being something much, much darker, and a very different proposition altogether.

They weren’t wrong.

That’ll be the Day is bloody great.

Ringo! Keith Moon! Shagging!

Plus more SHAGGING!

You couldn’t get away with some of the scenes and scripts these days, etc.

It roughly tells the story of working class dreams and failures. BALLS to The Man and the life path you are expected to take. Why not run away and join the fairground instead?

There’s a fantastic soundtrack throughout. You really can’t go wrong with early rock ‘n’ roll.

I’d forgotten that the film has anything but a happy ending. It was a bit of an oh, is that it moment, when the end credits rolled.

Not so.

A brief break for a meal, and then we streamed Stardust.

wtf.

Where to start?

tl’dr with a MAJOR spoiler:

It’s a classic tale of a Rock ‘n’ Roll suicide. But there’s still some unintentional comedy moments to be found.

Both films have roles from actors either on the way up, or on the way down.

Blimey! There’s JR Ewing - or rather Larry Hagman - muscling in on Adam Faith as the business manger for David Essex’s rock star role. And he’s basically playing JR in an English music movie.

The storyline goes BONKERS way too early.

It was however a clever move to trackback with a funeral for a character from the first film. This allows the connection to be made. Without this, That’ll be the Day and Stardust would have little to no narrative between them.

The timeline takes a huge leap. One moment we’re all Buddy Holly in the first film, and then without much cultural explanation or reference, we’re BALLS deep in the world of Bowie and Bolan.

That’ll be the Day is by far the more authentic film; Stardust is more interesting.

Robert Elms had another ACE Cover to Cover on BBC Radio London this morning. Up for consideration was Tainted Love - Gloria Jones Vs, well, you know what.

As ever with Cover to Cover, the original was played first. I always thought the Soft Cell cover was the original until relatively recently.

The Gloria Jones Northern Soul stomp was first released in 1964. The Soft Cell version followed seventeen years later.

It’s not a major lapse of time in the chronology of popular music. But they sound worlds apart. One is huff and puff Northern Soul, the other is the future.

SHOUT OUT to erm, Ed Cobb who originally wrote the song. Plus Glenn Campbell weirdly plays guitar on the Gloria Jones version.

I found the original to be lacking in any hook. That synth double beat riff which defines the Soft Cell version is so underplayed. The song is pretty much over before it’s started.

Soft Cell meanwhile is a youth club classic for me. The highlight of each month for me was dancing away to the 12" at the youth club disco as Tainted Love morphs into Where Did I Love Go?

It’s a killer drop, especially the segue, which still has me dancing more than four decades later.

The reason for Elms selecting Tainted Love was of course the passing of Dave Ball. His production and synth arrangement here is magical. It sounds like seedy Soho of the time.

As soon as the opening seconds of the synth whip kick in, you know you’re there.

No surprises that Soft Cell won.