onionbagblog

White Bike Cyclist Memorial for Irene Leardini in New Cross Road

via @Transpontine

This was a bit of a weird one. I was convinced I already had some Buddy Holly in my collection. But nope. No worries. There’s endless options on ebay. But where to start? Most of the Best Of collections looked like telly advertised K-Tel quality. I took a punt with this at £2 and hoped for the best.

Something wasn’t quite right when it arrived. It was box fresh and sealed. I pressed play. Mmmm. That doesn’t sound like Buddy. Is it a covers band? ChatGPT tells me not so. I’m not convinced. The sound quality went downhill for the final six tracks or so. It sounds like a bad pressing, distorted as fuck. No one wants that from Buddy.

A replacement was arranged, which I’m still waiting for. The lesson here is not to disrespect Buddy with cheap as chips crappy CD compilations.

B.A.D. II’s Kool Aid usually sells for a price range that is out of my reach. This copy appeared on ebay for £6. I managed to get the seller down to a grubby fiver. Small wins, etc.

Kool Aid is far from grubby. It captures B.A.D. in transition from the original band, to Mick Jones reinventing himself once again with a new set of players around him. It’s also VERY rave, not to mention a little chill out in places.

£5 seemed like a fine price to pay. My wish list still has an original B.A.D. corduroy cap. No cap is worth £100, mind.

“No more news without community involvement. Let’s make it community published. How does that sound?”

via @DaveWiner

I love it when we wear all red. It’s a Munich thing, innit. I hate it when we wear all read and play pants. It’s a DIRTY Leeds thing, innit.

OH MY DAYS. This was a shocker. I thought that we had seen the worst of Dyche ball with Bournemouth away, the two Everton games, and Villa away. Not to mention Sturm and Braga on the Euro jollies.

But gosh. This was a performance that has a Head Coach checking the diary to see when the next international break is. Phew. Lucky for Dyche that the Sacking Fortnight isn’t around the corner. He’ll probably last longer than the PM now.

It became clear right from the start that we’re crap on corners. OK, so we’re not privy to what takes place on the training pitch. But the name is something of a dead giveaway.

Corners are your set piece advantage. You get to deliver a cross without being closed down. Your own players should know what is coming. It seemed at times that Forest didn’t even know who should be taking them.

The first Leeds goal was unforgivable. The defence was split wide open. What made it worse was that it had to be an ex-D***y player who benefitted.

The second goal wasn’t much better; the third was a disaster, coming so soon after the break. Like the previous Dyche ball disasters, I really felt for the poor Forest fans who had made the trip on a piss poor evening weather wise.

This season will be remembered for many things: three Head Coaches; Edu loan deals that have gone wrong. But Forest losing in the rain, again, again and again is my lasting memory.

The DIRTY Leeds scarf twirlers did my nut in. So did the substitutions. MGW coming off for Yates? wtf is that all about?

The Big Fella up front at least understood his job description. Pizza Crouch did well to make contact with a high ball and head it in. I don’t think the other Forest players were even given a job description by Dyche.

And so it seems that Dyche ball is our only route to survival. Deep, high crosses, all hit in the hope of the Big Fella muscling in. One nil wins here and there, goalless draws. A fourth from bottom finish, and then pray that the Big Fat Greek calls time on the whole experiment.

I hate having my weekends ruined by constantly having to look out for other results to see where that leaves us.

3am Eternal

In Kardboard, Komrades #23

A private tour inside Lambeth Fire Station, London Fire Brigade’s Art Deco HQ

via @JanesLondon

“Lime bike boss proposes adjusting traffic lights “to reward safe cyclists”

Good luck with that one, as they say.

This sounds more like a mix tape than an album. I love the chopping and changing of styles and references points between each track. You can’t imagine it being recorded anywhere but East London during a particular time. Like all the best albums, it borrows from just about everyone, without ever trying to hide this. It’s disposable music that deserves to be revisited every now and then as a reminder of what was possible.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

It’s difficult to approach a Dire Straits album without all the headband bullshit that exists around them. As ever, it’s me that’s got the problem, not them. As a debut, this is very strong. The songwriting and musicianship is a million miles away from what was making headlines in the music press at the time. I kinda like that. In their own way, Dire Straits didn’t give a shit, and just did their thing. I also like the very English approach to blues and singing with a Geordie accent. Forget the band name, enjoy the music.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

“So if you want a £5 English breakfast, to get your watch fixed, to buy some jewellery or get hold of an egg timer, go in whilst you still can and say hello.”

Left Lion on the demise of the Vicky Centre Market. And yep, I use to work there.