tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138369972024-03-06T03:05:52.129+00:00Aiming to misbehaveJimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-40159629444455760112023-12-28T11:18:00.000+00:002023-12-28T11:18:08.320+00:00Football survey 2023<div class="GzjsW" style="background-color: white; border: none; font-family: Favorit, "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Started this last year, so why not make it a tradition?</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 5 games of the year?</span></p></div><ol class="RihjV" style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0.75em 0px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 2.8em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1, 4th March, Selhurst Park (Continental Cup final)</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Haywards Heath Town 2 Chatham Town 4, 12th November, Hanbury Stadium (FA Cup 1st round)</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Valerenga 4 Avaldsnes 0, 17th April, Intility Arena (Toppserien)</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Arsenal 2 Bayern Munich 0, 29th March, Emirates Stadium (Champions League quarter final)</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Arsenal 2 Wolfsburg 3 (aet), 1st May, Emirates Stadium (Champions League semi final)</li></ol></div><div class="GzjsW" style="background-color: white; border: none; font-family: Favorit, "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px 0px 15px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Total number of matches?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eight, slightly down from last year but life got in the way (also there wasn't an international tournament hosted in my country).</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First match of the year?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gillingham 2 Grimsby Town 1, 14th February (yes, I spent valentine's day in the most romantic place on earth!)</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last match of the year?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gillingham 0 Crawley Town 2, 26th December (yes, I spent the day after Christmas at the most magical place on earth!)</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most surprising game?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal 2 Wolfsburg 3 (aet), given Arsenal's injury woes I wasn't expecting them to run Wob so close! </p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most disappointing?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The first half of the Gillingham game vs Grimsby - this was my first men's game in England in nearly five years and the quality of football was 10x worse than the women's game I was used to for much more money. It was cold, abject and nearly turned me off men's football for life. If it wasn't for the next train being cancelled I would've left at half-time - thankfully I stayed, saw a significant improvement in the second half and a last minute winner!</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Farthest travelled?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Intility Arena in Oslo, around 1000 miles/1,600km from my front door.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">States attended games in?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, bored, knackered and achy.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stadium most visited?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gillingham's Priestfield stadium and Arsenal's Emirates, both twice.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Worst injury?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I got surprisingly sunburnt for the Champions League semi-final in May.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most expensive ticket?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gillingham, for £22. This was cheaper than a Champions League quarter final (£9) and semi final (£20, in the club lounge!). I can't even bring myself to joke about paying more for quality. </p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Player seen the most?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I saw a number of Arsenal players at least three times. </p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best new discovery?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I've really enjoyed watching Victoria Pevlova play.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m not sure how to make this football related, but I’m open to suggestions.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Friends made at games?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">None, I've kept myself to myself this year.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Footballers met?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After the Valerenga game I saw while on holiday, which they won 4-0, they had a meet-and-greet with the entire squad in the stadium canteen afterwards. I got chatting with the American goalkeeper as we were both quite pleased to talk to someone in our native language and joked about her having a quiet game ("I let them have a corner because I was bored"). Due to the post covid landscape, and an abundance of small children holding suspiciously well written signs begging for players' shirts, I've not met any at English games. However, while out for my morning run around Brighton earlier this year, I passed a number of the Man Utd squad (including Leah Galton and a pre-Arsenal Alessia Russo) who were out for a stroll ahead of their FA Cup game at Lewes.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best souvenir from a game?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I didn't get anything from games, but the new Gills home shirt really makes my eyes pop.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Longest time in line?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I've not really queued up at any games.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Games seen from the front row?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal’s game at Meadow Park I’ve seen from my favoured spot on the front row of the northern terraces. I spent the second half of Haywards Heath Town vs Chatham Town on the barrier, close enough that the Chatham players could hear <em style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and follow</em> my joking time-wasting suggestions!</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most games in one month?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">March and November tied for two games apiece.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most games in one week?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Two - a Thursday night game Continental Cup game at Meadow Park, then a Sunday lunchtime FA Cup game at Haywards Heath Town, both in November.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Biggest crowd?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal vs Wolfsburg in the Champions League semi final at the Emirates set a record for a domestic women's game in England, at 60,603 people.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Smallest crowd?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If Haywards Heath vs Chatham broke three figures I'll be surprised. It's more likely that more people finished ahead of me at Lancing parkrun - one of the smaller ones in Sussex - the morning before, than were in the crowd.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Any drunk encounters?</span></p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I did not get to drink at my annual game abroad, as the Valerenga game only had alcohol-free beer. I did take advantage of attending a non-league game at Haywards Heath Town and was pleasantly merry for the start of the second half.</p></div><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 5 best 2023 footballing moments:</span></p></div><ol class="RihjV" style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0.75em 0px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 2.8em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">An injury hit Arsenal taking Wolfsburg to the last minute of extra time despite having about three fit players at the end. </li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Making a women's game abroad an annual thing</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Seeing matches across five different competitions this year (League 2, Continental Cup, Toppserien, Champions League, FA Cup)</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">The Youtube algorithm seems to keep showing me Argentinian games live whenever I have the TV to myself for an evening!</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">Taking in a football match with my dad for the first time in a decade.</li></ol><div class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 15px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: var(--post-padding); padding-right: var(--post-padding); padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: 540px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 3 worst 2023 footballing moments:</span></p></div><ol class="RihjV" style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0.75em 0px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 2.8em; vertical-align: baseline;"><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 8px 0px 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">I've been on holiday to Italy three times and still not managed to see a Serie A game. The original holiday was booked to coincide with a Gillingham friendly there but was postponed due to a family tragedy (the second of the year). We rebooked it for early September, thinking that the season will have started and at least one of the three clubs that play around Milan would have a home game, only to find that the season didn't begin until October. Maybe next year? </li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">As mentioned above, the first half of Gillingham vs Grimsby was <em style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dreadful</em>. Even by Gillingham's standards. <span style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Especially</span> by Gillingham's standards.</li><li class="k31gt" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: RGB(var(--black)); font-family: var(--font-family); font-feature-settings: "tnum" 0; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; min-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve; width: initial; word-break: break-word;">More of a personal one than a footballing one, but after the Arsenal vs Bristol City game in November, I happened to notice a tweet comparing the turnout for a midweek cup game - which was a sell-out weeks before the game - with an equivalent fixture in 2019, which was sparsely attended. My initial positive thought about the growth being good for the women's game quickly saw my mood <em style="border: none; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">plummet</em> when I realised that it didn't need my help any longer and led me down an existential rabbit hole when I realised how little difference it would make if I didn't attend any of the matches/gigs I've got lined up next year - after all, Taylor Swift isn't gonna see a space in the crowd and think "wow, James isn't here, I hope he's ok", is she? Thankfully I managed to snap out of it, get some sleep and park that train of thought to pick up again with a therapist in the new year, but it was a concerning thing.</li></ol></div>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-33564581764493435812023-12-06T19:52:00.000+00:002023-12-06T19:52:04.071+00:00Gig survey 2023<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> As ever, previous years can be read at <a href="http://jamesv-t.tumblr.com/tagged/gig-survey">#gig-survey</a>, and this year’s one can be found below.</span></p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Top 5 shows of the year?</span></strong></p>
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<ol><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Boygenius w/ Muna and Ethel Cain, Gunnersbury Park, 20th August</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The Warning w/Dead Pony, Islington Academy London, 26th June</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Beyonce, Johann Cruijff Arena Amsterdam, 17th June</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Madonna, O2 Arena London, 14th October </span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Zara Larsson, Brighton Pride, 5th August</span></li></ol>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Total number of shows?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Seventeen - more than the last three years combined.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">First show of the year?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Subways, at Chalk in Brighton, on February 3rd.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Last show of the year?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Against The Current, Kentish Town Forum in London, December 1st.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Most surprising show?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Honestly, Madonna. After her US leg was postponed our gig was unexpectedly the first night of the tour so we had no idea what to expect, but we got two and a half hours of a whirlwind tour through an extensive discography that wasn't phoned in at all!</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Most disappointing?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Who came on stage and immediately slagged off their support act, which meant that it got off to a <em>great</em> start. </span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Farthest travelled?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Johan Cruijff arena in Amsterdam, 296 miles/477km from my front door.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">States attended shows in?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, terrified, bored, knackered and achy. </span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Venue most visited?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Chalk and Resident Records in Brighton, both twice.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Worst injury?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Got pelted with confetti after the second Carly Rae Jepsen gig at the end of the tour - it was the dregs so rather than raining down gently upon a euphoric crowd, it rained down heavily and we're still finding bits ten months later.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Most expensive ticket?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Beyonce, hands down.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Band seen the most?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Carly Rae Jepsen, The Warning and Dead Pony, all twice.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Best new discovery?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Dead Pony supported The Warning at their second gig in London this summer and were great enough to make me immediately buy tickets to see them in Brighton a few months later. Also I hadn't really paid much attention to boygenius before their gig (I was mostly interested in Muna and Ethel Cain) but loved them. </span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">None!</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Friends made at shows?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">None! There were nice interactions before The Warning in Islington, though. I tried my best in Amsterdam but the Dutch were having absolutely none of my charm.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Band members met?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Billy from The Subways and Carly Rae Jepsen at their (separate) Brighton gigs in February. Jay-Z passed behind me at his wife's gig, too, and Chrissy from Against The Current mocked my baseball team from a third floor window while I was queuing.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Best souvenir from a show?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have worn the heck out of my Warning tour tee and my boygenius "always an angel never a god" tee. I'm yet to wear my Against The Current t-shirt, as I'm saving it for work tomorrow.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Longest time in line?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Several hours baking in the hot sun before Beyonce. </span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Shows seen from the barricade [front row]?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was fairly close for the Warning fan show in May, the Carly shows, and Zara at Pride. Right at the front - uncomfortably close - to Dead Pony at Green Door Store in Brighton. </span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Most shows in one month?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">June had three, but should've had four...</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Most shows in one week?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">...however we didn't manage the Sabrina Carpenter gig two days after Beyonce, so only the two Carly Rae Jepsen gigs in a week in February (either side of a Gillingham game!)</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Biggest crowd?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Probably boygenius at Gunnersbury Park.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Any drunk encounters?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Not really - I was drinking but never drunk.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Top 5 best 2023 concert moments:</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">1. The Warning. I got into this rock band formed of a trio of sisters from Mexico around the beginning of 2022. They announced a UK and Europe tour for this summer, mostly supporting bigger bands (Muse, Royal Blood) and playing festivals. Wrapping up the tour was a June date at Islington Academy, and I got tickets as soon as they went on sale. Perusing the tour dates on their social media I noticed a private show the day after their first UK date - I hopped on the discord and found out how to get tickets, managing to see their first ever headline show <em>on this continent!</em> They were as fantastic as expected and with the label support they've got are gonna be big in the next few years.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Zara Larsson - I saw her in Brixton in 2019, at a gig I was encouraged to go to by my lovely wife who thought that my ironic fandom would dissipate with a live gig (in her defence, this plan worked amazingly with Dua Lipa). I had a wonderful time and my ironic fandom quickly became an actual fandom. For some reason she didn't play many gigs over here since, only an unfortunately timed club show (August 2021, Dana was away so missed out) so when she was announced as the de facto Brighton Pride headliner - Black Eyed Peas closed the night but nobody cared about them - I spent the intervening months hyping her up...and she exceeded my expectations! A rip-roaring set cramming in everything she's released as a single over here (including the Euro 2016 anthem!) saw me at my most enthusiastic, least self-conscious giddy self watching her.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Carly Rae Jepsen was fantastic, as ever. At a pub in London before her Ally Pally gig I saw a flyer for a <a href="https://www.gooseisland.com/beers/barrel-house-beers/bourbon-county-stout-2022">strong, tasty beer</a> so I ordered it with our food. The woman behind the bar was very new at the role - possibly her first day - so was unaware of how to find it on the till, opening and pouring the beer so I could start drinking while she found out the price. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Two minutes later a very nervous bartender approached me with a card reader and a request for £25 for about half a litre of beer. Fortunately for her I was expecting it to be pricy, and had had the sort of news that week which justified a hedonistic outlay, so when I paid it the relief on this woman's face was palpable!</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Boygenius, Muna and Ethel Cain was a great afternoon up in London to take the disappointment of England losing the World Cup Final away. I knew Muna would be great after last year's gig; I had high hopes for Ethel Cain, and was prepared to be wowed by the boys. All of them exceeded my expectations and I got to spend a great evening in the sun in south west London with my wife and my sister-in-law.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: arial;">Top 3 worst 2023 concert moments:</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">1. With a purchase of her album and an extra £20, we got to see Mimi Webb's album launch gig that lasted less than an hour, had half a dozen songs and spent more time on a pre-selected Q&A session than her playing music. To make matters worse, she's from Whitstable, and sounds like it as well. Her <a href="https://youtu.be/sTkg1bALgFg?si=ykUWEuXhuOJPPBYg&t=64">accent</a> is the Kentish accent that our parents deliberately trained out of my brother and I; hearing it in the flesh (and unexpectedly so as well) was such a jarring shock to my system I went from hyped up to hating an artist in an instant. Even listening to a brief interview clip to find the link above has set my teeth on edge and I need to go and have a bath to calm myself down.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Back near the beginning of the year we didn't have any big gigs lined up, so when The Who were announced to play at the local cricket ground we booked tickets, paying expensive prices to get to the front of block B - not right at the front but with a decent view as nobody would be in front of us (we thought). The gig got off to a bad start when I queued up for 45 minutes for a bar that had run out of all but the bland IPAs. During this queue the Who came on stage and immediately - before playing a chord - spoke dismissively about the support band. When I got back to our seats I found people standing in front of us on the barricade blocking our view, despite repeated requests to move, signs stating "no standing" and a stewarding team fresh out of school. After being verbally abused by a pensioner for asking her not to stand in front of the seats we'd paid £80 each for we decided we had better things to do than watch a Brexiter and his nonce bassist go through the motions and went home.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: arial;">3. The total shows should've been even higher, but we missed several. In the spring we missed a pair of hometown Maisie Peters shows due to a family tragedy. In August I missed seeing be your own PET! for the first time in fifteen years due to a <em>different</em> family tragedy, and we missed seeing Sabrina Carpenter headlining at the Hammersmith Odeon due to being stranded in Amsterdam after easyjet cancelled our flight home. It's not been a great year, all things considered.</span></p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-13378134631905625102023-04-03T19:00:00.001+01:002023-04-03T19:00:00.174+01:00Intestinal Issues, Intestinal Fortitude - the Brighton Marathon write-up<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Third time's the charm?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yesterday I had my third attempt at running the Brighton Marathon. The first attempt, in 2018, saw me eschew any form of training and quickly regret it about 10km into the 42km distance. The second try a year later I course-corrected, over-trained, injured my IT band (down the outside of the thigh from hip to knee), didn't rest, made it worse, tried to push through on the day, and tapped out just after halfway round, at the 24km mark. This year, I trained properly, didn't push myself too much, and rested when I had problems. I was confident that I could finally nail it this time!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Up at the usual time for a Sunday run, but I'd been awake for two hours previously, wracked with nerves and fitfully dozing. We got to the Preston Park start area with plenty of time, milling around trying to stay warm. At 9:30 I bade goodbye to Dana who went to get a good spot for photos, had a final wee then entered the starting chute. I did my best to get myself psyched up for the run, but not too much that I'd shoot off too quickly and burn myself out - it was a marathon, not a sprint after all! The first km was a slow amble back on ourselves up a slope behind Preston Park - the road wasn't particularly wide, everyone was still bunched up, so I didn't feel too bad about being slower than my planned race pace. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">That picked up around the north edge of the park, as the route headed downhill to the main road into town from the north. Unlike the last two times we swung left, heading up the London road and back for a 3km stretch. This, as well as a couple of other additions to the route from my last attempt, meant that the soul-destroying stretch past the sewage works to the power station and back wouldn't be included any longer, so I didn't mind the leafy Withdean area being added! Back down past Preston Park, 5km done, a parkrun under my belt already and I was going faster than intended. I'd stuck to the centre of the road to try and avoid cheers, I wanted to focus on the task at hand.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Down into central Brighton and the sun had come out! I was glad I chose not to go for my tights, but was still starting to feel warm, and at the first water stop of the day outside the library, I grabbed a bottle and doused my head with it. Thanks to the supplied water being in bottles rather than cups I could close it and keep it in my pocket for later, spraying myself whenever it became necessary. Round the front of the Pavilion and back up I spotted Dana twice, posing for photos. I was still feeling good, but not as tip-top as I would've liked. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2LnJXtRBCWee_D9FlE3885v-HqJjtkOqV3LKqnZKjhvlKqraxS3sqp655_0cPwCXLn4gBBDw7CS-s58NZfVKbXdtMAY4wP78jLKWjkbXX-dIF4z6cRWPZsEIsI-wh4etZFspvf7atONwQre_NwfJGzTi4qAf_7lQEIK2OtOKUslL902vMYA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2LnJXtRBCWee_D9FlE3885v-HqJjtkOqV3LKqnZKjhvlKqraxS3sqp655_0cPwCXLn4gBBDw7CS-s58NZfVKbXdtMAY4wP78jLKWjkbXX-dIF4z6cRWPZsEIsI-wh4etZFspvf7atONwQre_NwfJGzTi4qAf_7lQEIK2OtOKUslL902vMYA" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">An icon, and a Pavilion</span></i></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back up through Brighton, around the top of the Level, and I realised that the route didn't exactly match the one of the Half Marathon around this bit. We'd need to head up Lewes Road, then climb the steep slope of Franklin Road. With this bit under my belt I'd done 10k already, roughly a quarter of the way done, and it was downhill towards the sea for a bit. The breeze picked up, cooling me down, and it was reassuring being on my 12th km and seeing people just on their 8th going the other way. The course took a turn up another slope, this time along St James's Street, and a cunningly positioned photographer near the top.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2_HAstoWbvyENGPUyr7UigVBoszJ2vqZi-fq9PJTMj3BKXr7HUL6aoBehmt9L0fMnpA3ty3qTp7rOnGFMEruXg0Z9cw_j02kDykldkTtuKvggl2ITxJXZBQfLp8CoiL45hNluYphGeG7k8F6zvMhRZ9gHtPtUhUKGFhgj2CHaMzVQ2qP59Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="943" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2_HAstoWbvyENGPUyr7UigVBoszJ2vqZi-fq9PJTMj3BKXr7HUL6aoBehmt9L0fMnpA3ty3qTp7rOnGFMEruXg0Z9cw_j02kDykldkTtuKvggl2ITxJXZBQfLp8CoiL45hNluYphGeG7k8F6zvMhRZ9gHtPtUhUKGFhgj2CHaMzVQ2qP59Q" width="240" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Not a fan of where they were placed</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back to the sea, turning back on myself for a short spell to the aquarium roundabout and back, and the first supply drop of the day. I swapped my water bottle, got some more energy gels, and a protein bar as I was starting to feel it a bit. Back up the slope and I trotted along scoffing the protein bar, refuelling, as well as picking up some more water and a spare gel from the stand. The more fuel the better, right? A great pace along Marine Parade, the sun high in the sky above the sea somewhere off to my right, and the crowds thinned out as we left the residential area. I knew that there was a fairly aggressive slope by the marina so kept my music on until after I'd reached the top. Over the 16km mark and I could focus on a podcast, so swapped out my audio. I knew that there were two smaller hills before the Ovingdean roundabout so chuntered on, keeping my pace up.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At the roundabout we veered left into the village of Ovingdean and I hit a bit of a wobble. I was terrifyingly aware of the size of the task ahead and needed to slow to a walk. The length I'd gone and the distance ahead - I wasn't even at halfway yet - got on top of me. I didn't want to quit there and then, as I was in the middle of nowhere, so I got on with it. Switching my podcast back to music helped, and I picked up the pace on the way out of Ovingdean. I knew that there was a horrible hill coming up, on the road towards Rottingdean, but from past experience we'd only be going halfway up before coming back down, so I could cope. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One of the additional bits added to the route to make up for the power station/sewage works loop that was no longer in place meant that not only did we go to the top of that hill, we carried on nearly into Rottingdean itself, so the climb wasn't immediately rewarded with the gravity-assisted trot back down. The windmill looked nice in the sunshine, though. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Down past the roundabout and I was halfway done! Unlike times past, where the halfway marker was on Brighton seafront thronged with crowds and with a big banner arch, this was marked by a single forlorn mile totem. Still, from there I'd done more than I had ahead of me, and that was a mental relief. I had less than 21km ahead of me, then it would be less than a ten miler, then less than a 10k, then less than a parkrun. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It was at this point that my tummy rumbled intriguingly. I wasn't hungry - the opposite, I was digesting in a way that I wasn't entirely comfortable with. I plunged on, aware of the grass verge to the left where - if needed - I could sink to my knees and vomit. I had water to rinse my mouth out with if it came to that, and the St Johns Ambulance people were dotted regularly along the course. I took things slower, increasing the blood flow to my digestive organs to get them to settle. I saw the tail end of the course heading the opposite way, a good 6km behind me. I also saw a man running with a washing machine on his back, and decided that I should use some of the water to cool off, concerned about heatstroke. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Twenty four and a half kilometres down I saw a portapotty on the other side of the road and decided that as my stomach hadn't settled, I'd pay it a visit. This toilet had been sitting in direct sunlight for the last five hours, so was stinking hot - and I mean that in <i>both</i> senses - as I settled in. I checked the football score and saw that less than five minutes into the game Arsenal were already 1-0 down against Man City. Things were not going well, although this did reduce my chances for sacking off the rest of the run and watching the match in a pub instead! Five futile minutes later I needed some fresh air, so rejoined the course. It was around this distance that my knee gave out on me last time, so I was pleased that this year it didn't have a peep of a complaint!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The course headed down the slope of Duke's Mound to the seafront road. I picked up speed for a bit, until my stomach gurgled threateningly. I slowed back down to a quick trot, which was all I could manage, lest I suffer the trots. The crowds lining the road cheered me on, mistaking my slow pace for mental fatigue, and I didn't have the heart to explain. I picked up my final supply drop from Dana outside the Haunt and explained the situation. I told Dana I was going to continue - people had sponsored me to finish this after all, and I was still confident that my stomach would settle down shortly. My 5 hour target was still feasible! A few hundred metres further along I spotted some more St Johns Ambulance volunteers and had a quick chat. I explained my situation and asked if they had anything that would help - advice, medication, a large cork - but sadly no dice. The volunteer suggested that I lay off the gels and limit my drink intake to small but regular sips, so I carried on. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For a few hundred metres, anyway. Then I heard a gleeful "James!" from the crowd and realised that Ellie and Jasmine, the colleagues who came to support me for the half, had given up their Sunday <i>again</i> to cheer me on! This quick chat with them lightened my spirits and I pushed on, heading into Hove. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWbIg5yjBzOpY-WVlT0xvlzTaJYiGg8r-5zNKkHcwsRPujUBK9j0WxuJIFByMzWcTDXmop4557gFXs6Tl9dCLTY8G17ZFz3-VQWbR7dYf5veRGhkxK_q3qi83x79c8bPs2VaNDM7TkBtGa5WFVI73w83K8BZHxmIOu5E0SDR3J1CTzSM7D3A" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="708" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWbIg5yjBzOpY-WVlT0xvlzTaJYiGg8r-5zNKkHcwsRPujUBK9j0WxuJIFByMzWcTDXmop4557gFXs6Tl9dCLTY8G17ZFz3-VQWbR7dYf5veRGhkxK_q3qi83x79c8bPs2VaNDM7TkBtGa5WFVI73w83K8BZHxmIOu5E0SDR3J1CTzSM7D3A" width="180" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sign of the weekend</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">By now I was averaging around 9:30 a kilometre, well below my projected race pace, and the time I'd banked by my earlier swiftness was nearly out. I turned away from the seafront and pushed into Hove, past work, and past the Tesco traffic lights. This was the point where I'd thrown in the towel on my last attempt. Due to the course changes I knew I'd already surpassed it in distance, but it was motivating to leave it in the dust, albeit at a slower pace than I would've liked. Ten metres further on I passed the library, relieved that it was closed on a Sunday and that I wouldn't be tempted to go inside, and kept going west towards Portslade. New Church Road is a familiar one, from commutes to previous jobs, and I was intrigued to see what had changed. Not much, it turns out, but the resurfaced tarmac was at least gentle. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The turn down Boundary Road took me metres from one of those old jobs, and the devil on my shoulder whispered that their doorway would be an ideal place to relieve my ongoing stomach issues, until the angel on the other side pointed out that I would be easily identified as I'm wearing my name across my chest, so I carried on. My watch beeped 32km along Seaford Road, showing I had roughly 10km left. The signs for every 5km had not matched my watch - being as different as 500m at one point - so I had a vague idea of the remaining distance but nothing concrete. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back along New Church Road, and a turn to take us around the border of Wish Park. I checked the football score and saw that Arsenal had come back to win 2-1! Pleased, I spotted the toilets in the park and took another break. Five minutes in a cooler, less grotty loo - my local knowledge really helped with this, as I don't think many runners used it - and I was back on my way. I saw the 5 hour 30 pacer amble past and pushed ahead to try and keep him behind me. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This lasted until I got back into Hove before I realised I couldn't keep up the pace. My stomach had mostly settled down now, though, so I made a deal with myself. I was at 36km. If I didn't hear any gurgles, grumbles or squeaks throughout the next 2k, I'd risk another gel and go from there. By this time I was on the Kingsway, the course narrowed to allow traffic to pass, and the water stalls had run out of bottles. I was beginning to get dismayed. I knew I had less than a parkrun left - how much less I wasn't sure of, but definitely less - and just wanted to get it over with now. I ingested a gel, scared and slightly intrigued about what it would do to me, and carried on past the Lagoon. Thunder Road came on my playlist and I made a little bargain with myself - I'd alternate between running for one song, then walking the next. This lasted all of about 3 pairs of songs, before not even Britney Spears' Work Bitch could rouse me. I had turned the final corner and was heading towards the finish. The ending to Stephen King's short story The Long Walk, about a young man who outlasts his competitors to win the eponymous walk, but ends up hallucinating and dying, kept returning unbidden to my mind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Forty one kilometres down. One and a bit left. Up the slope to the promenade, past Fatboy Slim's house, and I get a congratulation text from my mum. This was rather confusing. I knew my watch and the course distances hadn't often synced up, but that was usually showing I'd gone further, not less. Had I passed the finish line already? Was it over? Was I hallucinating? The tracking app had already alerted them to my finish, but I still had to pass the beach huts and Dave Gilmour's place to get to the end. I plodded on, dodging crowds enjoying the sunshine on the beach, knowing that I just had to make it to Hove Lawns to finish. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Past the King Alfred. Along a path I've run so often before, albeit usually only 1km in rather than 41km in. A sign alerted me to 500m to go and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoHnffhBwqs">perfect finishing song</a> came on my playlist. I sped up, just wanting it to be over with. People called my name, spurring me on faster and faster. My vision narrowed to the finishing line alone. The crowds blurred in my peripheral vision. Kylie Minogue herself could've been cheering for me and I wouldn't have known. Faster I sprinted, passing other runners on their last legs. I leapt over the finishing line, punching the air in delight, nearly taking out the timer, and landed on legs that really didn't need to be dealing with a jump after five and three quarter hours of persistent movement. My right leg locked and I stumbled forward, nearly face-planting the ground but retaining my balance. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwo_ZJrAqRtZWu7K-v0wx5fqTItIYB128THBLcXWSC98oMYNy44HLwqFOfYysP7i4xz1NEo91SJo4M' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'd done it! I'd got a new personal best time, six months after I'd <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2022/09/slowing-down.html">resigned myself</a> to never getting one again. I'd killed the demons from the last attempt. And I'd proven to myself I could do it, which meant I could retire from marathon running.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It's just too damn long. For someone who never really exercised at all before turning 30, to be in the position where I've run three marathons, completing two, is astounding. I've nothing else to prove in terms of races this length any more, so I'm going to stick to half marathons going forward. A decent training plan ahead of the Brighton Half next February, though, and I might very well crack the sub 2 hour mark!</span></div></div><p></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-2827775230941921702023-02-27T18:00:00.001+00:002023-02-27T18:00:00.196+00:00Brighton half<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yesterday my training plan took a more social turn, as I ran the planned half marathon with around 10,000 others. Thankfully I didn't need to talk to all of them!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Oddly, despite living in the city for 13 years, and this being my fourth time running a half marathon, this was the first time I'd run the one in Brighton. My first half, in 2017, was in Worthing, purely because a friend had suggested I do it and I couldn't think of a reason not to. 2018 and 2019 were focusing on marathon attempts of various degrees of success, and 2020 was hastily moved to Eastbourne after the Worthing one was called off due to a storm. The late notice of that postponement meant that Brighton was fully booked, so further along the coast I went. 2021 didn't have many races for some reason, and 2022 saw me finally cashing in the literal rain check at Worthing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The marathon training plan I've been using called for a half marathon on the 26th of February, the same date as Brighton's half was on, so it made sense to go to the one I could catch a bus to. I'd rested and stretched, and stretched and rested, and was 98% confident that my body could hold up. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The day was intended as a trial run for the full marathon five weeks hence, and started well with a bus trip into town. I'd packed everything I needed for during the run (drinks, gels, protein bar) and after (deodorant, change of clothes, phone charger, more deodorant) in a handy cool bag and lumbered Dana with it, who dragged herself out early on a Sunday morning on support duties despite being unwell. I ran through the spots with her for where I could see her, and get a supply drop, and posed for photos by the pier before we parted. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMnnouqDIad5QmvISXoBbkVS1OqTXIlzxU2os_Yqk9_sPMLEex9fPUOQbTijvcATj-hVPO3fZa-236uGFWoJsC2kT4QHLOAhvLl1mkoCFyLVh0CjVJ9C_ZIjKhAMi8BNrzFmaGxEPUuxZ7NqwCud3ylrI5PJmj3ddYc_t8Vsob6ZyLHxYRcw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMnnouqDIad5QmvISXoBbkVS1OqTXIlzxU2os_Yqk9_sPMLEex9fPUOQbTijvcATj-hVPO3fZa-236uGFWoJsC2kT4QHLOAhvLl1mkoCFyLVh0CjVJ9C_ZIjKhAMi8BNrzFmaGxEPUuxZ7NqwCud3ylrI5PJmj3ddYc_t8Vsob6ZyLHxYRcw" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">James, look at the birds!</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I waded through the crowds and found my starting pen. My estimated time of 2 hours to 2 hours 15 was inaccurate - I intended to run at race pace for the full marathon, 7:07 per km, which would see a finish of around 2 hours 30. I tucked myself away near the back of the pen, getting warm in the sun that had broken through the clouds. I mulled over whether sunglasses would have been better, but decided against it - I would only have a short time running east with the sun in my eyes, as the final return to the finish line would be around midday and the sun would be higher (if it reappeared). I overheard other runners discussing their targets, and chuckled to myself. I wasn't running for a particular time - in fact, I emphatically didn't want a new personal best, as this would involve running a full minute and a half faster than my intended pace per km. Instead my goals were trying to stick to race pace, not injuring myself further and hatching as many eggs as I could in Pokemon Go!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The race started and we shuffled forward the 450m to the timing mats at the start line. I played a familiar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYI09PMNazw" target="_blank">psych-up tune</a>, focusing on the run ahead. I ambled round the front of the aquarium and up the only real incline of the run - or so I thought. I knew Dana would be on the inside just past the bus stop so positioned myself to pose for photos. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzI0mRW7TJ5-I4JAvLdxJz8XNnoTly2O3PN4G7zeUQT6i4NGmYHAOBJ1W66ahxvy6aja6p4PHytaP_luHNg7vu84BbuikZfTaVmnyd1bs2oSq_adxBq5bKvYlvMbIYFOlcFfRjlwn8EI8M3cwEPBzFYtkSOlS944ABIuPTL_hPJbT5PQ4Hpw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzI0mRW7TJ5-I4JAvLdxJz8XNnoTly2O3PN4G7zeUQT6i4NGmYHAOBJ1W66ahxvy6aja6p4PHytaP_luHNg7vu84BbuikZfTaVmnyd1bs2oSq_adxBq5bKvYlvMbIYFOlcFfRjlwn8EI8M3cwEPBzFYtkSOlS944ABIuPTL_hPJbT5PQ4Hpw" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I look happier than the two chaps flanking me.</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The route along Marine Parade is one I'd done regularly on my Sunday runs, but usually a) on the pavement and b) running west, so this was a pleasant change. I was a bit miffed to not hear my name called out - I'd had it emblazoned on my chest for a reason (attention), was it all for nothing? The crowd thinned out and I switched to a podcast episode for the out and back to Roedean. Round by the cafe, and to distract myself from the smell of bacon sandwiches I checked my pace to find that I was running at 1:50 minutes per kilometre! If I kept this pace up I'd obliterate the half marathon world record by around 15 minutes! This was obviously a GPS glitch and I paid it avid attention for the next few minutes until it settled down to something more sensible, glad that I wouldn't need to replace my watch. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I scoffed my first energy gel on the slope down to the first water station, finding a bin to dispose of my litter and using the supplied water to cool myself down. I'd got enough drinks with me to stay hydrated, so the water was just about reducing my body temperature. I chuntered along back towards town, being passed by people running their own race, keeping an eye out for Dana and thanking the volunteers who had given up their morning to enable the race to go ahead. By scanning the crowd and making eye-contact with more people I got more cheers and shout-outs from the watching public, so that's clearly where I was going wrong during the first few km when I was largely ignored. Down the initial incline and I spotted Dana, so posed again. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEipoCp4c-Rxyr93OZMbx3583WrayMmSCPGug2d3fDa7ISH7uZydhgIk-ko1tcT8wyghHH8Q36JhXjAGDxfE-RnB_T9jjMLknz6cC8Tg9MljVBe7Yt_osX2OCxfcuuNJ4oEEmHutNhuWFEs5ES-yTDSj01MZmf3Vyzh3pGYD5BnU_sod4y8M-Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEipoCp4c-Rxyr93OZMbx3583WrayMmSCPGug2d3fDa7ISH7uZydhgIk-ko1tcT8wyghHH8Q36JhXjAGDxfE-RnB_T9jjMLknz6cC8Tg9MljVBe7Yt_osX2OCxfcuuNJ4oEEmHutNhuWFEs5ES-yTDSj01MZmf3Vyzh3pGYD5BnU_sod4y8M-Q" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I never outgrow my MySpace camwhore phase</span></i></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The route swung away from the seafront and up through Brighton, along a route I'll take in the full marathon. My pace wasn't too taxing so I had a nice time taking in the architectural delights. I passed a runner from a local running club called The Eagles - even though, on this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=884VNMgJxpA" target="_blank">long run</a>, I was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CV_dLvZmRY" target="_blank">taking it easy</a>. I amused myself thinking of more Eagles song titles I could cram into this report, which you'll be pleased to know I managed to forget. One of these nights I'll remember them. Back down towards the sea and I had my second energy gel, diverting from the course across a cycle lane to a nearby bin, much to the amusement of a nearby runner who thought I'd just given up and dashed off to the pub! Passing the Pavilion I hit the halfway mark, and got a surge of speed. Whether that was from the gel kicking in, or Carly Rae Jepsen's Run Away With Me playing on my headphones, I'll let you decide. I was going at a comfortable enough pace to sing along, regardless! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcoJN7A_DPA_5DkKrFt7hqTcPyM770xQIObQ4846faLGIG0EBX_BO8L05TmHe1ibyaG3OkI1HypmWgrPDPmtJME8jkp0C6wkCyR-FPYWMMHGHyDPeov4UWISb9J3Q5kBIEj8VX4s6QJHGfNn3vKohIkryghBEO_qh7kZlcN3xuSzHMlhgOyA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1417" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcoJN7A_DPA_5DkKrFt7hqTcPyM770xQIObQ4846faLGIG0EBX_BO8L05TmHe1ibyaG3OkI1HypmWgrPDPmtJME8jkp0C6wkCyR-FPYWMMHGHyDPeov4UWISb9J3Q5kBIEj8VX4s6QJHGfNn3vKohIkryghBEO_qh7kZlcN3xuSzHMlhgOyA" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">An iconic sight, with the Pavilion as my backdrop</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I saw Dana for the last time, and swapped out my empty water bottle for a cool, full one, then headed into Hove. This was a fairly straight run along the seafront, familiar territory, and I kept an eye out for friends I thought might be cheering. I motored along the Kingsway, enjoying a steady pace, smiling and waving, and almost soaking the poor woman behind me at the water station. We passed the King Alfred Leisure Centre and I was on familiar turf, the route of my regular flat 10k to the power station (albeit we'd be turning by the Lagoon instead). The last time I ran this route my Achilles protested - but that was after 3km, and by now I'd racked up five times that distance. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjuFbWxhqRTEU7fEPuD383Joqtt4QUmgwJ1TUpY0QAlNTZodCuckcIKlK-uJLca7uqj6o9FAzjdV6GcZteEPfYVM34vbVFhCGjEIg9qDwE7k7kKcG1-CNqci_hFP4nAONmprJGMOlEKReEJwhM1O1BryJklHGEs64Sgr9h3aSMLuDze4ntNlA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjuFbWxhqRTEU7fEPuD383Joqtt4QUmgwJ1TUpY0QAlNTZodCuckcIKlK-uJLca7uqj6o9FAzjdV6GcZteEPfYVM34vbVFhCGjEIg9qDwE7k7kKcG1-CNqci_hFP4nAONmprJGMOlEKReEJwhM1O1BryJklHGEs64Sgr9h3aSMLuDze4ntNlA" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Coping better with the distance than others</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Around this time I felt a familiar wobble. A bit of a dizzy spell, but no matter, I was prepared for this. I slowed down on the approach to the Lagoon and scarfed down a protein bar. A few spectators mistook this as me struggling and shouted out cheers of encouragement - to which I rebutted that I was fine, just having my tea break! Not thirty seconds after I picked up my pace again I heard my name being called out with far more enthusiasm, and spotted Adam and Simone from my parkrun cheering me on. This helped spur me on, and I turned back towards the finish line, 5k away. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Five kilometres. It's a parkrun, it's nothing. It's a fifth of my run the week before, I'd already covered three times that. I eventually got my head to think of the remaining distance as that, a much more digestible term than running from Portslade, across most of Hove and Brighton to the Volk's railway. I took my final energy gel, a more water based one which immediately coated both hands in stickiness the instant I opened it, and soldiered on. The beachfront promenade between the Lagoon and the leisure centre is quite narrow so I don't usually run along it, so had no real concept of how well I was doing. It opened out on familiar terrain and I picked up, aided by the sight of two colleagues who had given up their Sunday to come out and cheer for me. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The final water station, and I stopped to wash my hands and soak my head. Three kilometres to go, and barring a brief top up of my bottle from a water fountain I've used many times before, it was all go from here. There wouldn't be any more wasted time, I'd take it to the limit. I didn't realise at the time, but I was in a much better mental state than those around me. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDb6I9TD1mwHwqBkUgp1SXtjQ1o5dm9NAWOxELmDWumKRq3KWJRUVkDAbfl12w0L3JxvC_CnGztcPjNPpxmr73MeSmagF3jSv1yZPaSFJ8j6MQ6kYoeQEmXWMXig78D1wDUwhJoE--r5n3F1tDfirjmJegjp2RnSKOLl_RHQDDmT52rREjUw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1415" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDb6I9TD1mwHwqBkUgp1SXtjQ1o5dm9NAWOxELmDWumKRq3KWJRUVkDAbfl12w0L3JxvC_CnGztcPjNPpxmr73MeSmagF3jSv1yZPaSFJ8j6MQ6kYoeQEmXWMXig78D1wDUwhJoE--r5n3F1tDfirjmJegjp2RnSKOLl_RHQDDmT52rREjUw" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">I swear I've not been photoshopped into this picture.</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The course swung back from the prom to the Kingsway by the Angel Of Peace statue, giving me a fresh view on things, as I normally run alongside the beach from there. The crowds thickened and I sauntered towards the finish line, responding to supportive comments in kind. My watch bleeped 20km done as I passed the cinema and I let Dana know that I was around five minutes away. I fought the urge to speed up for a sprint finish - I didn't know how much I had left in the tank and didn't want to blow up too early. We passed the pier and I was dismayed to see the finish line wasn't as close as I remembered - still 500m away. Passing several runners being attended to by medical personnel, I saw a line opening up ahead of me and positioned myself to practice my planned finish line pose for the full marathon.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgEZsbwovNLRJVwlxVD3XtuN7AWygSvtq0gcJZD2xvc9XOKWccSotouvBz3Ez5PoUd3_ujMhTjc90OQjeiyox0h9Yu_4ydm_wBJzhew6zPUHLd8zzIIPmJHF6mrYQ3CkjttFdvmoO6rml2JeeV3N7D0UgAwi4Di85eZif1IfSZwVpfPjpc2WQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="628" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgEZsbwovNLRJVwlxVD3XtuN7AWygSvtq0gcJZD2xvc9XOKWccSotouvBz3Ez5PoUd3_ujMhTjc90OQjeiyox0h9Yu_4ydm_wBJzhew6zPUHLd8zzIIPmJHF6mrYQ3CkjttFdvmoO6rml2JeeV3N7D0UgAwi4Di85eZif1IfSZwVpfPjpc2WQ" width="160" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Five seconds before finishing</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I crossed the timing mats again, leaping up and punching the air in delight. "This will make a cracking photo" I thought, as the MC gave me a shout-out for my spectacular finish. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There was a man running a minute or so ahead with me carrying a 25kg fridge on his back. Fair play to him for doing it, and breaking a world record in the process, but his finish drew a lot of attention, and the crowd around him meant that my finish line photo wasn't quite as cool as I would have liked. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqJyJQ4AowSMdKAaB_ECZL3JPWO2lezTy6IAMzNbttoCvM3oLZm-qSmo8iPGmUDL1Ty8_CNISiymCQIcm1ygNdC_xOswDYS9jUDwnPjA5h0twddYfrMltgJCsD9wSMib8rIrneETJq2a5wk2pIKp2o5llXjkzFNIGma_zJ7DWihd_Sg5Pcqg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqJyJQ4AowSMdKAaB_ECZL3JPWO2lezTy6IAMzNbttoCvM3oLZm-qSmo8iPGmUDL1Ty8_CNISiymCQIcm1ygNdC_xOswDYS9jUDwnPjA5h0twddYfrMltgJCsD9wSMib8rIrneETJq2a5wk2pIKp2o5llXjkzFNIGma_zJ7DWihd_Sg5Pcqg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">About to lay the smack down on this volunteer</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I found Dana, then decided to stop clogging up the finish chute. We sat on the beach and I used the ice packs which had been cooling my drinks to ice my Achilles as recommended. (I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty chuffed with the dual purpose to these.) Were it not for that I felt fine, well enough to find food, but I figured the person with a degree in Sports Science knows more than someone who eschewed exercise for the first thirty years of his life, so I sat and chilled. After rehydrating, and posing for more photos, we went off in search of food, walking without issue. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSe9_-oXCu20K8YOjIp_8KBzHzmaI2_PREJhPg5thPKZKiTykYrpgLn1ZEXRh8M5pRrwRcKzjZCx2i-ZHkw-RK6gDDzdGGLLICOUYJoqAMLuO2__1NtJZ3KhMMdbaVOV1p8VTECtDzDqL_i3EqdHog3AkhpB23UKrbWMjQNjj73Ezivmfx4Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSe9_-oXCu20K8YOjIp_8KBzHzmaI2_PREJhPg5thPKZKiTykYrpgLn1ZEXRh8M5pRrwRcKzjZCx2i-ZHkw-RK6gDDzdGGLLICOUYJoqAMLuO2__1NtJZ3KhMMdbaVOV1p8VTECtDzDqL_i3EqdHog3AkhpB23UKrbWMjQNjj73Ezivmfx4Q" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /><i>A proud finisher</i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfjIeP9Xvg8xL48hekMktcx9R6tZcmcGdQb1Fbha7-uQ2SaYbQ7JGP1_89HO755aQIXPHIyr_NWdnzm05kkHbO4JWphqJafx-WcNUFR_KlBRLHN7n7WtigQndXiuCGlFYywOIO3Ra0R5pKQNnpxnDv07cHbyRmDRx2f5OJVN3Sbiigigicrw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfjIeP9Xvg8xL48hekMktcx9R6tZcmcGdQb1Fbha7-uQ2SaYbQ7JGP1_89HO755aQIXPHIyr_NWdnzm05kkHbO4JWphqJafx-WcNUFR_KlBRLHN7n7WtigQndXiuCGlFYywOIO3Ra0R5pKQNnpxnDv07cHbyRmDRx2f5OJVN3Sbiigigicrw" width="135" /></span></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A proud finisher, six years previously. </span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Compare and contrast.</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a few days rest, the training plan resumes at the weekend with the longest run in the schedule - 32k/20 miles, and I'm gonna throw in some hills too! </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span></div></div><p></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-20492906345821636532023-02-25T11:13:00.001+00:002023-02-25T11:13:57.657+00:00Third time's the charm?<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> Attempt one: 15th April 2018</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiM_Sk5MsARjjQ40oF7mPWG5RT41XsPmksLwARKqa0jlk9n-PSaHsYYBmIFpgR7zAAD5ABoT1s38vtkl3qKHPXesuo1zammTWtuLBReYxy7vc05RB0cIBqNA8MR3_jmjQCPSXtDZC9cPvUGqvXodLxB0QPvMBc9Z8TsseAjfQQJ9ZoilmMTg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="281" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiM_Sk5MsARjjQ40oF7mPWG5RT41XsPmksLwARKqa0jlk9n-PSaHsYYBmIFpgR7zAAD5ABoT1s38vtkl3qKHPXesuo1zammTWtuLBReYxy7vc05RB0cIBqNA8MR3_jmjQCPSXtDZC9cPvUGqvXodLxB0QPvMBc9Z8TsseAjfQQJ9ZoilmMTg" width="142" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Attempt two: 14th April 2019</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXzIRm3NMI7915-vde-g0AmnM-2hTA6_8YXcBKnZ9-IgKlj4IUsNj4xwxNpTBOEDpnWlP0DMScrYlQZctiKCShF6E9Cdsf1It8UhZzrCwrDOfWJCtOU-sjafblrExvdpmHQ5QFlZzvfzZVmSkSOT1-MuJ-FVClzq0Y-LwqeEjGpSnrVsWSlg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="500" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXzIRm3NMI7915-vde-g0AmnM-2hTA6_8YXcBKnZ9-IgKlj4IUsNj4xwxNpTBOEDpnWlP0DMScrYlQZctiKCShF6E9Cdsf1It8UhZzrCwrDOfWJCtOU-sjafblrExvdpmHQ5QFlZzvfzZVmSkSOT1-MuJ-FVClzq0Y-LwqeEjGpSnrVsWSlg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Attempt three?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a break from attempting Brighton marathon - partly to build up my strength, partly enforced by a global pandemic - I'm having a third bite at the cherry. I'm aiming to do better than 2019's attempt, when I tapped out just past halfway, after my IT band issues <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-big-day.html" target="_blank">flared up</a> again. I'm also aiming to do better than 2018's <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2018/04/snickers.html">completion</a>, which took me over <i>a quarter of a day</i> to do. Sub 5 hours is the goal this time. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, my training plan started in earnest on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8QV5fa7xa4">new year's day</a>. The plan called for me to run 16k/10 miles in just under two hours - I managed it, but didn't stick remotely to race pace. No matter, that's what training plans are for. It's practice to get me in the habit of it, so that I can nail it come race day three months later. Two days later came a sterner test. The plan called for 10k, with a 1.5k warm up/warm down jog, and the middle 7k at 5 minutes 41 seconds per kilometre. I've managed that at parkruns without issue, but they're when I'm fresh on a Saturday morning. This was after my first day back at work for nearly a fortnight, still feeling the effects of quitting caffeine for January, in the dark, and with it bucketing down. It was also in the dark, so I couldn't make out my pace on my watch and dodge both tree branches and uneven pavements. While I managed the distance, the timings were nowhere near where they needed to be. An utterly dismal day on Thursday saw me eschew the planned slow 8k and regroup. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Saturday 7th saw an early start to see Dana off to the airport, before returning home to breakfast before knocking out a slow 5k (albeit still 2 minutes faster than planned). The following morning had an 11k in the calendar, to be completed in just under two hours. I managed it at 1 hour 15. Going slow was proving to be an issue. I know that it'll serve me well going forward in building up a good stamina base, but I can't adjust my mindset well enough to slow down. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Tuesday brought on some interval training. Again, after work, but this time around Hove park. Six pairs of 2 minutes at 5 min/k pace and 2 minutes jogging to recover. Managed it, mostly, but I realised that Hove park isn't terribly well lit, and <i>neither are a lot of people walking round it in the dark</i>. The number of runners dressed all in black, or dog walkers with LED collars on their pooches but not making themselves visible and leaving the leads stretched across the path like tripwires made this a frustrating and dangerous run. I decided to invest in a chest light - while people might see me and think I look like a prat, at least they'll see me, and I can see them in turn. I took it out for a test on the Thursday night slow run to the pier and back and it paid dividends straight away. The run was 8k, in 55 minutes - closer to the 57 minute target.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">These evening runs midweek were out of my normal, early morning running comfort zone, but they had a benefit that I didn't realise until the above run. By running at the end of a day of work, past several chippies before dinner, I was slowly getting myself used to running while tired and hungry - two states I'll probably be in towards the end of the marathon. It'll help my mindset knowing that I've completed runs at race pace on tired legs and an empty stomach. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The following Sunday I loaded up a playlist of podcast episodes, pointed myself east and ran to Rottingdean and back. It was a glorious sunny morning, hindered only by the strong east wind and the Indian takeaway the night before that necessitated a brief stop at the public toilets 4k in. Again, good training for race day. The pace didn't drop much after I turned into the wind and going up and down hills, only the last two kilometres being an utter slog when I ran out of fuel. Half baked plans to nudge the distance up to half marathon length were out the window, I circled the nearby co-op until my watch bleeped 20 and I could stop and shovel food into my mouth. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Another Tuesday interval run, five lots of 4 minutes at 5:30 min/km pace, with 400m recovery jogging in between. I had fewer obstacles around Hove park now that I was lit up like a Christmas tree. I didn't quite manage the distance of 8k, but a slight detour on the way home saw the purchase of a pair of flip-flops ahead of April's holiday - ideal for wearing around the flat and protecting my feet. Thursday came, with ice on the ground despite a sunny day. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I made several mistakes for this run. First of all I needed to do 10k in 69 minutes (nice) - I did 11 in 72 instead, so longer and faster than planned. Secondly the speedy pace was necessary - at the halfway point of an out-and-back I realised that the digestive issues weren't going away, and had a hurried, frantic run home. This would've been alright, except about half an hour after I got home, I felt like somebody had stabbed my right heel with a hot poker. The pain lingered for the rest of the evening, and the following day I could barely hobble around the flat, let alone walk the 15 minutes to the office. Working from home was on the cards, resting my leg as much as possible. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A Google suggested that it was my Achilles tendon causing me issues. I had to be careful about how I posted about this on social media - the opportunity for a pun was ripe, but then everyone would assume I'm just making a joke and I wouldn't get the sympathy and attention I so desperately craved. The resting, and the ankle brace, helped ease the pain and by Sunday I felt ok walking around a boot fair - still wearing the ankle brace, but able to cope with the steps. Walking back to the bus stop to leave I noticed the inside of the ankle aching a bit, but assumed that it was rubbing on the inside of my boots. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I felt well enough to walk to work and back on the Monday, but decided not to run the speed session on the Tuesday night, thinking that the slower 11k on the Thursday would be good to ease myself back into a run. I worked from home that day too, to ensure maximum rest, and headed out before dinner. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Three kilometres in, and my Achilles went "nope, we're not ready yet". I slowed down, slower than race pace, and the pain eased but didn't fully fade. A gentle jog home, finishing the run at 7k, and I knew then I shouldn't run without seeing a physio. A notification popped up after I finished my run congratulating me for reaching 100km for the month - a nice round number to end January on. For context, this is the same distance I ran from 9th October to 31st December 2022 - compressed into a much shorter time span. No wonder my legs were complaining!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My first physio appointment went well. It was my Achilles, but I was right to stop when I did rather than run through the pain - I've learnt lessons from four years ago!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC5U93UX9SjBwz8YLZ_cfY6M9zOf4UXiQZXZQOYg6yH-LPVu9LxrPmvy0W5-msU1NZ5CSk9WDVERsteCdzgA8yuvg45J9OZm05xml_kCML0gvogP5YAPz7gWyRrdzx-y_Jthe3VB2qvSqYW1JB4kiNWply4HrQf6KtHETbh0zfohpQpjbcCQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="400" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC5U93UX9SjBwz8YLZ_cfY6M9zOf4UXiQZXZQOYg6yH-LPVu9LxrPmvy0W5-msU1NZ5CSk9WDVERsteCdzgA8yuvg45J9OZm05xml_kCML0gvogP5YAPz7gWyRrdzx-y_Jthe3VB2qvSqYW1JB4kiNWply4HrQf6KtHETbh0zfohpQpjbcCQ" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I was given a plan of stretches which I kept up with, until real life slammed itself in the way. A test 5k run on Monday 6th February stuck to roughly race pace, but with my Achilles grousing - not painful, but I was aware of it more than I should've been. In addition, I noticed the pain on the inside of the ankle returning, and a bonus swelling beneath it too! A return to the physio gave me more stretches, and was immediately followed by a day of laser tag, a gig in Brighton, a trip to Kent and back to see my family and watch Gillingham play surprisingl</span><span style="font-family: arial;">y well (eventually), then a gig in London. It's fair to say that stretching - and indeed, resting - weren't high on my list of priorities, but my feet didn't complain. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, I decided to test them. Back during <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2019/03/clear-skies-full-sinuses-newish-shoes.html" target="_blank">my last marathon training</a>, I got the train to Littlehampton with the goal of running back home, around 32k/20 miles. I didn't want to go quite as far this time, so caught the train to Angmering, a few stops closer. This had another bonus too - in the village there's a lovingly restored 1930s petrol station, which I passed on my way to the sea. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiD_et2iiy9rh3eDZzRdJwd80e1_3iIwJ5shns5Te-SVWqc2HvtlpcQGOMZlTmKmH5vtDM0mwouPGlqVcrg5IwafNJ_Zr6toCnE_oqtT_9EpPzBXsn-JbCctea51OwEroN-mPJZwoCsYtyido7-SXLreMoRGfVBrmTafsULR6zxCVxOz7Grrw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="707" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiD_et2iiy9rh3eDZzRdJwd80e1_3iIwJ5shns5Te-SVWqc2HvtlpcQGOMZlTmKmH5vtDM0mwouPGlqVcrg5IwafNJ_Zr6toCnE_oqtT_9EpPzBXsn-JbCctea51OwEroN-mPJZwoCsYtyido7-SXLreMoRGfVBrmTafsULR6zxCVxOz7Grrw" width="180" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Angmering and East Preston are very odd, full of private roads that aren't technically a public right of way, and so locals will look at you weirdly because you're not from round there. I made my way to the sea and picked up the route from four years ago. I chuntered east, trying to stick to race pace, fully aware of where the nearest railway station was at all times. Unsure of how long my ankle would last I had purchased a return ticket and at the slighest hint of an issue I'd stop running and hobble, Paul Shelton style, to get a train home. Into Ferring and a slight kilometre long detour along the river and back, after I followed the public footpath signs rather than running 100m through a car park. Back by the sea and the route opened out to the western part of the Worthing Half Marathon course, so I was on familiar ground. I could stop paying so much attention to navigation now, it was all coastal paths the rest of the way home. Through Worthing and out the other side, I approached Lancing - the rough halfway mark, and the place I'd planned to get a water top up.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unfortunately the Brooklands area saw a hitch. A faint, light-headed feeling came over me and I slowed to walk several times. No problems with my injuries, this time it was a lack of fuelling that hindered me. I knew the Lancing area well enough, so stopped off at a local corner shop to pick up and gobble down a protein bar. This helped, and I decided to carry on. The water fountain at the Green was broken, so a partial top up of water from the cafe was better than nothing. Refreshed and replenished, with 15k down and no hint of pain from my feet, I decided to run the 3k to the end of Widewater Lagoon, along the Lancing Beach Green parkrun course. I'd decide there whether to cut inland and take the shorter route to Shoreham station, or carry along the seafront a bit further and take the scenic route. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the eastern end of the lagoon is a toilet block. This was where my knee gave up four years ago. This time, no toilet break, but I crouched down to what I hope was a freshwater tap to top up my bottle, and carried on without a peep of complaint from my legs. A psychological barrier smashed through I stayed along the coast, taking the longer route to Shoreham. As I crossed the Adur my watch beeped 19km. I was feeling fine, and the stations between Shoreham and home are numerous, so I elected to see how far I could get. A run to Southwick - the next stop - would see me get a half marathon distance covered, so I wanted to see if my legs would hold up to it. Along past the industrial estates, and weird to be going in this direction along my normal route to parkrun. I ticked off the half marathon distance by Shoreham lighthouse, still a good kilometre from the next station, so carried on running. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At this point I was checking past runs to see how long the runs I'd managed over the last few years were. I tapped out of the Brighton marathon in 2019 at 24km; my longest training run came to 25km. Both of which were halted due to knee pain. Passing Southwick station I'd hit 22km and decided to push on further, to see how far I could get. 800m later I chose not to swerve inland to Fishersgate station, carrying along past Shoreham harbour, the day by now a lot warmer than I'd dressed for when leaving the house all those hours before! At the 24km mark I'd entered the residential areas and, knowing that it would be busier (and that there was a sizeable Tesco nearby), didn't push further home. Instead I ran around Portslade, ticking over more distance until my watch beeped 25km. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'd run the furthest distance since my marathon in 2018. My legs hadn't given me any issues. I'd had a wobble halfway - but this is what training is for, to diagnose potential problems and sort them before race day. Tomorrow, when I run the Brighton Half Marathon, I'll take my gels sooner and carry some spare fuel with me. I don't know how far along this journey my body will take me, but I can't wait to find out!</div><br /><br /></span></div></div></div><p></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-17188967019596617172022-12-23T18:10:00.002+00:002022-12-23T18:10:00.160+00:00A Christmas Karol Poborsky<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the club, not a player was roaming, they were all in the pub</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-929a6237-7fff-2167-64e8-cd64fe21c4b5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Christmas Eve. A pause for breath before a run of three games in a week, then four days off before a tricky FA Cup 3rd round tie away at Chelsea. After a strong season vying for a European spot last year, we’d regressed to our mean and were now scrapping against relegation. Our usual spot, true, but after last year the fans were upset. Pride of Kent? We’d struggle to be called the Pride of Medway. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was frustrated and angry. After all I’d done for this club, dragging them up from the doldrums of League 2 to give Premier League football to the masses, and this is how I get repaid? Talking heads talking utter nonsense on tv about how I was nothing without my old assistant manager. A new consortium, demanding to know why I wasn’t winning games 6-0 while blooding five new youth players a match. Fans banging on the dugout - MY DUGOUT - after a late equaliser got us a point at home to Fulham, calling for my head. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve turned a profit in every season! Buying cheap, selling high, finding diamonds in the rough. Always sticking to my wage budget, and why spend money on transfers when free agents are just as good? Record transfer fee? Much good may it do them! </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I flung a stapler across my office in frustration, narrowly missing my new assistant manager as he barged in.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, what do you want, Robert?” I sneered at him. I’d brought him in to inject some fresh blood to the side, in the hopes that we could push on and take the club into Europe - not that being in Europe appeals to the Kentish masses - but instead we’d butted heads on almost every decision.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“News from the board, boss. They said you’ve got three games to turn it around or you’re out.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Right then! Those defensive drills I told you to run are going to come in handy! Two banks of four, a low block, stick Murray and Allen up front for any loose balls. Defend defend defend! We can’t lose if we don’t concede, and they won’t sack me if I’m undefeated after those three games!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Alright, ok.” We’d had discussions before about tactics, Cratchy and I. He had a “revolutionary new formation” that would get the best out of Murray, but I’d always shouted it down (sometimes literally) as it left us too open at the back. “They also wanted to remind you - again - to bring through more players from the youth side.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s it!” I roared. “I’ve had quite enough of their ‘children are the future’ rubbish. Contact every single player on the U-23 and U-18 teams, tell them their contracts are cancelled, we’re closing the academy. They can’t make me bring through players from the youth side if we don’t have a youth side!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Boss, it’s Christmas Eve!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good, then try their landline numbers first, they’ll probably be at home with their families!” I allowed myself a brief smile. While it wouldn't do to show emotion in front of my lessers, it felt good to get one over those busybodies from CJHD. There’s no place in football for investment firms!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What’ll happen to the players?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Are there no Swindons? No Maidstones? Smaller clubs will be happy to pick up our rejects!” I quickly considered a different approach. Could we offer the players on a free with a sell-on clause? No, there’s no money down in the Football League. It’s not worth it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But boss, my boy’s in the Under-18 squad, he’s done his ACL, nobody’ll take him!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nobody would take him anyway you muppet, he’s only here as a favour to you! Hopefully he’s got his mother’s brains so he’ll have a prospering career outside of football, at least! Now, show yourself out, you’ve got calls to make!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No sooner had Cratchy left than I departed as well, with a growl. My hopes for a pub dinner were dashed by the oiks that frequented the local taverns, so I sat with a microwave meal in front of the tv. A peaceful evening, ruined when my door slammed open.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Ebby! Me old mucker, can’t believe you’re still hanging on at that club!” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Marlborough - a right geezer, proper football man, and my former assistant manager up until his retirement seven months ago this very night - had dropped by.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Marley! I thought you’d moved to the Canary Islands! What brings you back?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nah, couldn’t stand it there, too many Norwich fans! Had to come by, see me old mate, didn’t I? ‘Ere, what time is it? One? Stick Sky Sports News on, they’re running an interview with a familiar face on the hour!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I changed the channel to be confronted with Dan “Danny” White, former club captain now playing in the Bundesliga, talking about the relegation battle.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Useless workshy sod, ‘e only went to Germany because of the winter break, the lazy git!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hushed Marley, and paid attention to the interview.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“...such a sad sight, y’know, to see a once proud club down fighting to stay in this league, y’know? When I were there like, before I left for Hamburg…”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Bah! Hamburg!” I shouted at the TV.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“...we were on the cusp of Europe, y’know, things was looking up, but me old gaffer’s holding them back! They need someone more forward thinking, y’know, like Erik van Schmidt!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I turned off the TV in disgust. Marley looked up at me from the sofa.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I ‘ate to say it, but the boy’s right. Remember our League One campaign? Putting all them sides to the sword? Remember when you lost that drinking competition and had to play a 2-3-5 formation at ‘ome to Mansfield? That 10-4 win’s the stuff of legends! That’s the Ebby that people should remember, not this “quick on the draw” merchant! My history’s already been written, but you, Ebby, you can change yours!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, what is this, Marley? Get out, and take your KFC with your optimism! There’s more gravy than grave about you, what’s happened? You’ve gone soft!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You still have a chance, Ebby. A chance and hope of escaping my fate. But you need to change, mate.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At that, Marley left, slamming my door behind him. I turned the TV back on. Danny White was still spitting pearls of wisdom. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Really, y’know, me old gaffer’s lost the dressing room. ‘E’s got no control there any more.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I bloody haven’t! I have the power to make those lazy sods happy or unhappy! To make their training light or heavy! A pleasure or a toil!” I roared, not caring that he couldn’t hear me, and forgetting that I’d long since delegated the training duties to my assistant. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Danny turned to the camera, his eyes burning deep within my soul, and somehow becoming more eloquent. “He's scared, that's what it is. All his other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of the sack. His nobler aspirations have gently dropped off, and now all he cares about is hoarding points, not entertaining football.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I turned the TV back off. What did he know? </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Bah, Hamburg” I repeated, as I went to bed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After what felt like hours of tossing and turning, I was still no closer to dropping off. I was interrupted at the stroke of midnight by the grand sonorous bells of St Martin’s church ringing out - I’d set them as my ringtone, and they were chiming out the sound of a video call from Cratchy. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Ah, Cratchy! Finally seen the light and come to terms with my low block, have we?” I greeted my assistant.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No-o, not that boss. We’re letting the kids open a present early, then they’re going to bed to wait for Santa. Just thought with you being all alone you might want a bit of familial Christmas joy!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Christmas joy?! Have you learned nothing over the last seven months?! And Santa? Cratchy, your youngest child is the 17-year-old giant with one leg stinking up my youth academy! Aren’t they a little too old to be believing in Santa?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But boss, just you wait until you see the childlike wonder on their faces! I’m just hiding my phone in the tree, they won’t know you’re there.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tutted while he positioned me near the top of the tree, where my club will be once the defensive drills are in place. His family filed in, with the youngest, Timmy, hobbling in on crutches. Heh, I chuckled to myself, Cratchit’s Crutches would be a good name for a business, maybe there’s hope for them yet. They exchanged gifts, but before opening them, Robbie stood up to say a few words.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Now, I know we all had high hopes when I took on this assistant manager position. A Premier League club, my first proper coaching role, it’s not going well but I’m confident that we can turn this around, avoid relegation, and then I can start earning a proper wage. A toast! To the man who gave me my start in football!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, I’d give him a start alright!” his wife piped up. “You’ve been nothing but unhappy ever since you started working for him! All he cares about is clean sheets and long balls, nothing good in life!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Honey, please, not in front of-” a glance towards my vantage point in the tree “not in front of the children.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was distracted by an email from the club doctor. By sheer chance, it had the results of the younger Cratchit’s latest scan, and insomuch as I could understand the medical gobbledegook, it didn’t look good for his future career. I returned to the call, and it seemed like he knew it too, as his toast was half-hearted and distracted. I didn’t want to be watching any longer.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two hours later. Normally two paragraphs of a puff-piece on The Athletic about Pep Guardiola’s revolutionary tactics would be enough to send me to sleep, but I’d read three full articles - including comments! - and was no closer to slumber. I turned on the radio app on my phone, to hear the latest attempts at punditry from ex-players trying to earn a quick coin.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And what of the battle at the bottom, what do we think there?” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, it’s not looking good for the bottom club. You know what they say, bottom at Christmas, almost certain to go down! They’ve held on to that Scrooge fella for far too long.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was shocked. I’d brought them up from League Two, is there no loyalty in the modern game?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But he brought them up from League Two,” the host continued, “is there no loyalty in the modern game?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Welllll, there’s loyalty, and there’s loyalty. If they want to stay up, they need to pay him up, and get someone new and forward thinking in place! They did the right thing, forcing him to get a dynamic young assistant when his old mate retired in the summer, maybe it’s time to let Cratchit take the reins completely? Otherwise, they’ll get stuck in their ways, and regress to bouncing around between League One and Two like they usually do. And with those bank loans they’ve taken out to pay for the new stadium, eesh, it’s not looking good. This could be the peak. A tumble down the league, successive relegations, administration and bankruptcy aren’t out of the picture for them. They need a change of ways, and fast!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Spirit FM!" I cried, tight clutching at the phone, "hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for these nightmares. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? I will honour attacking football in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The ideas of entertaining football shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that it teaches!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A jolt of electricity from the phone, and I dropped it, smashing it on my cold wooden floors. Finally I felt like I could rest. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I awoke with a start, on a cold crisp morning. Hurtling open my bedroom window I gazed down on a snow-laden street. I felt elated, joyous, like I could skip down the touchline. A new man! It wasn’t over yet, and I decided if these were my last three games, I’d go out in a blaze of glory! But I felt so rested, had I missed the Boxing Day game? A young urchin in club colours was rolling a snowman on the street below.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You there, boy! What day is it?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fuck off out my club you useless waste of space! Let someone else take over for the derby tomorrow!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tomorrow. The match was tomorrow! It was still Christmas Day! That foulmouthed little brat was right! </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a covering of snow on the pitches, there was no hope for training. I reached for my phone to let the players know, only to find the shattered remains beneath my bed. No matter! I dressed in my best club tracksuit, and strode towards the Cratchits, jovially greeting the few runners that passed me. No sooner had I begun to hammer on Cratchy’s door than it opened, and I was greeted by my assistant.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Boss! I was just leaving for training, I swear!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, no need for that Cratchy, you’re not taking training today!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What? If you’ve turned up at my house to fire me on Christmas morning, that’s low, even by your standards! Heck, that’s low even by Crystal-Palace-firing-Trevor-Francis-on-his-birthday standards!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, no, don’t worry, I’m not firing you! Why would I fire the man who has such revolutionary ideas about ginger-pressing!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Um, boss, I think you mean gegenpressing, and that’s not my idea…”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, whatever, I need you to tell me all of your wonderful ideas! But please, surely you can let me in? I come bearing good news - we’re signing that attacking midfielder from Turkey that I kept telling you we didn’t have the funds for!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cratchy let me in, reluctantly, and I burst into the warm front room - which rapidly became colder than the outside when the family Cratchit saw it was me. Understandable, I </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">did</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sign their patriarch to a contract slightly under a living wage. But that was going to change.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Good news, everyone! I’m not stealing your father from you today - training is cancelled, so you can keep him all day!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How generous of you,” Mrs Cratchit muttered, with a possible hint of sarcasm.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And that’s not all! I’m going to start listening to him more, and try the Diamond Destroyer (ZaZ - Blue DM - Martin Snoop 433 Hybrid) tactic he’s been recommending! While my time at the club may be drawing to a close, at least we’ll have some fun!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their faces brightened. I had one more card to play, to show that I really was a changed man.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And what’s this? Santa seems to have dropped a present at my place by mistake! Open this, will you, young Timmy?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The young man hobbled over to take an envelope from my outstretched hand. I probably should have not made the kid with the ACL injury move about, but this whole “being good” thing is a work in progress.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, young man, what is it?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He ran his finger along the text on the front, mouthing the words as he read them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s…it’s a new three year contract!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Yes, we’ve seen your potential, and want to nurture it. I know we’re waiting for the result of your scans to come back, but I wanted to give you a guaranteed income, just in case the worst happens.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Wow! Thanks Mr Scrooge!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From that day, I was a changed man. Each game was approached with the principle of out-scoring our opponents, putting them to the sword with wave after wave of attack. Sure, we lost a few, but with Cratchy by my side, we clawed our way into Europe. I didn’t even consider packing the defence, and even spent some of my transfer war-chest. The younger Cratchit even returned to playing, making a last ditch tackle in the Europa Conference final to win us our first proper trophy. As the final whistle blew, we locked eyes, and I swear he said “God bless us, every one!”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What was that, Timmy?”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I said, ‘Get in! It’s gonna be a messy one!”</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-68462610767503866722022-12-11T20:01:00.000+00:002022-12-11T20:01:36.119+00:00Football Survey<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For the last decade, if not longer, I’ve done an end of year gig survey, giving a bit of an overview of the gigs I’ve attended this year. For the first time since I had a half season-ticket for Gillingham’s glorious promotion winning season of 1999-2000, I’ve attended more football matches than gigs in a calendar year - so I thought, why not rejig the survey for football? </span></p><div class="media-holder media-holder-draggable media-holder-hr" contenteditable="false" draggable="true" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: grab; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -20px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 20px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><hr class="tmblr-truncated" data-label="Keep reading" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 15px auto; max-width: none; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: auto;" /><div class="media-button icon_close media-killer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: #ff492f; border-radius: 50%; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 73, 47); box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 21px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; right: -11px; text-align: center; top: -7px; transform: scale(0); transition: transform 0.3s cubic-bezier(0.175, 0.885, 0.32, 1.275) 0s, opacity 0.3s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; user-select: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 21px;"></div></div><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 5 games of the year?</span></p><ol style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 38px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">England 2 Germany 1 aet, Wembley, 31st July</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">BSG Chemie Leipzig 1 Berliner Dynamo 1, Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark, 13th March</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal 7 Aston Villa 0, Meadow Park, 1st May</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Germany 4 Denmark 0, Brentford Community Stadium, 8th July</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal 2 Ajax Amsterdam 2, Meadow Park, 20th September</li></ol><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Total number of matches?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Eleven, first year in ages I’ve hit double digits!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First match of the year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chemie Leipzig 1 Berliner Dynamo 1, 13th March</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last match of the year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal 1 Everton 0, 3rd December</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most surprising game?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I honestly didn’t expect England to come out on top in the Euro 2022 final!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most disappointing?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">England 0 Czech Republic 0, 11th October. I’ve had hangovers more fun than that.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Farthest travelled?</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px;" /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark in Leipzig, 600 miles/1,000 km from my front door.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">States attended games in?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, drunk, bored, knackered and achy.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stadium most visited?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amex/Falmer Community stadium in Brighton and Meadow Park in London, both three times.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Worst injury?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I had a horrible attack of hay-fever during the second half of the Germany vs Denmark game that sent me scrambling for antihistamines in a nearby Sainsburys afterwards. This was mid July, in the middle of a hot spell that I thought had burnt up all plant life in the country, and after not being affected by hay-fever all year prior to that I thought I was safe - evidently not!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most expensive ticket?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Euro 2022 final ticket was £25, that was my highest. The perks of watching women’s football! (Or 4th tier German men’s football)</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Player seen the most?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I saw Lena Oberdorf play four times for club and country - the first two, in club colours, I didn’t really appreciate her style, but I came around quickly after she tucked Pernille Harder in her pocket for Germany! I think Leah Williamson and Beth Mead top her with six appearances apiece. Shoutout to Karen Holmgaard who was the only player I saw play twice for two different clubs - Turbine Potsdam in May, and Everton in December. She didn’t make it off the bench for Germany’s massacre of Denmark, otherwise I would’ve seen her play three times for three different teams, with a combined scoreline of 0-9 in those games! </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best new discovery?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Definitely Lena Oberdorf! Her tough-tackling style, complete with Wob buying up two of my other favourite German players (Merle Frohms and Jule Brand), plus my partner being in awe of Wassmuth’s cheekbones and Jonsdottir’s...general awesomness, means that I’ve been streaming more Wolfsburg games than I expected this autumn.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m not sure how to make this football related, but I’m open to suggestions.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Friends made at games?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t know if they count, as I knew Joel online before the matches, but in May I flew to Cologne all alone for the German cup final (Wolfsburg vs Turbine Potsdam). A 50,000 seater stadium, and I knew only one other person there. Walking out of the toilets before the match, guess who I bump into? We sat together and had a great time, even if the result didn’t go our way. Two months later, having sat with Jamie, Mary, Adam and friends before the match, I made my way around the Wembley concourse to find my gate for the Euros final when I hear my name shouted from a queue. Guess who it was?!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Footballers met?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tricky, in this post-COVID era, and with the general increase in popularity of the women’s game this will become rarer. But after the Arsenal vs Villa game at the end of last season I met and got a photo with then-England keeper Hannah Hampton - a player I’ve both enjoyed and been frustrated by watching whenever she’s played against a team I like. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best souvenir from a game?</span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px;" /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My Chemie Leipzig scarf is soft, comfortable, and confuses the heck out of people as it’s green and white. (”Who’s that? Celtic? Plymouth? Yeovil? St Etienne?”) </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Longest time in line?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Aside from Wembley, I’ve had very little queuing.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Games seen from the front row?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arsenal’s games at Meadow Park I’ve seen from my favoured spot on the front row of the northern terraces. I was pretty far forward for the Wolfsburg vs Turbine game and as a consequence couldn’t see much action in the opposite goalmouth. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most games in one month?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">July had four, a result of my country hosting an international tournament.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most games in one week?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Two! Austria vs Norway and England vs Spain within five days of each other.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Biggest crowd?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wembley, for the Euros final! 87,192 in attendance, the largest crowd for a European Championship game ever, of any gender. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Any drunk encounters?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I took advantage of being able to drink beer in the stands at the two games in Germany. The England vs Czech Republic game was so dull I made good use of Harvey’s being on tap in the lounge nearby, too. I also had a fun encounter with a drunk Portsmouth fan at the England vs Spain game.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 5 best 2022 footballing moments:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. There were three iconic goals that did the advancement of the women’s game in England no end of good this summer, and I witness two of them in person! Chloe Kelly’s winner against Germany in the goalmouth at my end in the final is an obvious one, as well as Russo’s cheeky backheel in the semi. But Ella Toone’s equaliser in the quarter final against Spain was just as important. This was the first of four quarter final matches, and after a rampaging group stage the Lionesses had really captured the attention of the country. Had they gone out the first time they played a decent team it would’ve deflated the mood; attendances probably would’ve dropped, the usual sexist bores would’ve trumpeted the usual remarks, and it would not have come home. With Toone’s header - and Stanway’s winner - they really got the country behind them!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. For sheer luck, bumping into the same person in crowds of 50,000 and 87,000 on separate occasions was great!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Chatting to a drunk Portsmouth fan next to me at the England vs Spain game. I was wearing an old Germany away shirt, for fun.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"So, <cod 'allo 'allo style accent>, ver you 'oping vor Germany tonight?" </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Me: "No, my friends thought it would be funny if I wore a Germany shirt to the game."</i></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After discussing the tournament so far: "What was the last club match you went to?" <i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Wolfsburg vs Turbine Potsdam in the German cup final"</i> "Is that your team then, Wolfsburg?" <i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Nah, I'm a Gillingham fan!"</i> I genuinely think I broke him. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Me: <i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Weird seeing a match from this angle, it's like a Football Manager game!" </i>Him: "Dare I ask which team you're managing?" <i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Pisa, in Italy"</i> "You fascinate me, man"<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none 0px;" /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. On the subject of Football Manager - in March 2020, Red Bull Leipzig were getting a lot of puff pieces in the English press, as they were due to play Spurs in the Champions League, and so the media were fawning all over how they had <strike style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bought out a village team, renamed them after a soft drink and shovelled millions into the club</strike> built a team up from nothing to be title contenders. When lockdown hit, and I was bored, rather than spend my time improving myself as a person I decided to prove that it could be done properly - I took over an actual Leipzig side, then languishing in the 5th tier, and with only my skills and no influx of cash beyond what I could earn from promotions and player sales, tried to make them bigger than Red Bull. In that save my Chemie Leipzig side have won ten times more league titles and four more Champions League than RB. In real life, they’re in the German 4th tier, but while nearby on holiday in March I took advantage of the fixtures and went to see them grind out a 1-1 draw against the league leaders. It was cold, I missed both goals queuing for beer, but the atmosphere was amazing and I was so glad I got to see my beautiful football boys in the flesh! </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Steve Evans and Gillingham parted ways. I had been boycotting my childhood club while that odious crook was in charge, so I was glad to call myself a Gills fan again. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6. BONUS! While on a run in a tiny Czech industrial town I found the football stadium. And broke in (went through an open gate) to take a picture of me in the main stand! </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 3 worst 2022 footballing moments:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Prasnikar’s goal for Frankfurt against Potsdam in the league at the end of May. A point for Potsdam would’ve probably seen them qualify for the Champions League - the influx of cash certainly would’ve helped keep the team together. Instead, following a 4-0 hammering in the cup final, a large number of players left, to be replaced by recruits from the 3rd division; they were followed by the manager and president. Turbine are now bottom of the league, and this once great club who play in blue and white are now odds-on for relegation. Remove the “once great” part and it could describe Gillingham’s season too - clearly I have a type!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. I regret wearing my Germany shirt to the Wembley final.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. I regret going out into the cold to watch England 0 Czech Republic 0.</p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-92148960362414137432022-12-04T17:25:00.000+00:002022-12-04T17:25:00.313+00:00Gig survey 2022<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">It’s back! After the last two quiet years (2021 had two gigs, 2020 half that), my annual gig survey makes a return. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Top 5 shows of the year?</span></span></div><ol style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 38px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Muna, Chalk, 11th November</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Against The Current, Chalk, 31st March</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Poppy, Shepherds Bush Empire, 27th November</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lights, Chalk, 24th September</li><li style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">Carly Rae Jepsen, Somerset House, 11th July</li></ol><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Total number of shows?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ten, significantly more than the last two years combined!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First show of the year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Foxes, at Islington Assembly Hall, 2nd March.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last show of the year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Poppy, at Shepherd’s Bush Empire,<i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </i>November 27th.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most surprising show?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Three different shows are tied for this, all of which took place at the same venue. In mid March Dana had been to see Bastille at Chalk, and while in the chippy that same night I noticed a pop-punk band were due to play there at the end of the month. I dropped £10 on the tickets, not expecting to go, and had a fantastic time watching Against The Current! Six months later I went along with Dana to a gig she’d bought a pair of tickets for, being vaguely aware of who Lights was, and had another fantastic time, so when she gently reminded me that she’d got an extra for Muna (a band I only knew from one song with Phoebe Bridgers) I didn’t hesitate to accompany her, and was rewarded!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most disappointing?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Foxes, two years of not really going to gigs had made a lot of people forget their manners.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Farthest travelled?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wembley arena, 56 miles or 90km from my front door.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">States attended shows in?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, terrified, bored, knackered and achy. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Venue most visited?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chalk in Brighton, three times.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Worst injury?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My legs were terribly achy for the Sigrid gig, after Muna the night before and a day around London.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most expensive ticket?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I think perhaps Olivia Rodrigo? Or Carly?</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Band seen the most?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No repeats, everyone was one and done.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best new discovery?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As alluded to above, I didn't pay the greatest of attention to Against The Current, Lights or Muna before seeing them live. Witch Fever were a fun support for Poppy.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bands seen this year that also broke up this year?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">None!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Friends made at shows?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">None! Just the two gigs on my own (ATC and Poppy) and I didn't feel particularly social at either.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Band members met?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">None that I've seen live, but I've hung out with Billy and Camille from The Subways a couple of times in Brighton.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best souvenir from a show?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just the two band t-shirts this year, a £10 Against The Current one and a £30 Poppy one. I wanted to pay a fiver for a Foxes hoodie but they only had small sizes left.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Longest time in line?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The longest was before Olivia Rodrigo, which ended up queuing round the block but that didn't take long to clear.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shows seen from the barricade [front row]?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But as a consequence, we didn't make the front row for any.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most shows in one month?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">November had three...</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most shows in one week?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">... Including Muna and Sigrid in successive days.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Biggest crowd?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Probably Christina Aguilera at Pride.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Any drunk encounters?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No, surprisingly! I stayed restrained with my drinking, and nobody around me was annoyingly drunk either.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 5 best 2022 concert moments:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. As Sophie Ellis-Bextor launched into her 2001 number 1 Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) at Brighton Pride, I casually remarked to Dana and her sister Sophie that it was the first song ever played on an iPod. One of the lads in front of me, apparently within earshot, turned to me and asked if it was true, then immediately said to his friend group "guys! You'll never guess what I just learned!"</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. On a similar note, talking to Ian before Carly, the conversation turned to Avril Lavigne and I brought up my planned jukebox musical (Complicated: An Avril Lavigne Musical). He thought I was joking right up until I showed him the Google Doc with the song list and rough plot outline. After reading through and conceding that, yes, I was serious and yes, that could actually work, one of the girls behind asked if she could read it as well!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. A small one, but during the blisteringly hot Sunday at Brighton Pride, the sight of a goth chap dressed head to toe in black leather, white face paint and all, cheerfully tucking in a 99 ice cream (flake as well!)</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Against The Current felt like the first proper gig since, well, the last time I did one of these. Chrissy commented that with the state of things, they didn't know how many shows they'd get to perform, so were committed to throwing themselves into each show 100% - and it showed!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Muna was amazing, everyone in stage and in the audience were fully up for it, and the crowd was genuinely the nicest crowd at a gig I've ever been in!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top 3 worst 2022 concert moments:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Foxes showed that some people had forgotten how to behave at gigs in the two years without any - the most egregious being the woman listening to WhatsApp voice notes, without headphones, <i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in the front row.</i></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Sigrid was unfortunately timed directly after such a great gig the night before, and off the back of a full day in London, I was tired, achy and grumpy.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. This should've had more gigs to choose from. We planned a trip to Germany to see a couple of Aly & AJ gigs in March which were cancelled; we ducked out of Wet Leg in April because I really didn't see the hype; Dana had to miss the Olivia Rodrigo and CRJ gigs because of real life getting in the way; Pale Waves cancelled an in store because one of the band was ill; we didn't go to Sugababes because<i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I</i> was ill; and finally didn't attempt six hours of travel for Tove Lo because of rail strikes.</p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-50647129079948865672022-09-29T18:08:00.001+01:002022-09-29T18:08:52.959+01:00Slowing down<p> <span style="font-family: arial;">I'm never going to get another PB.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For those of you not in the running world, PB means Personal Best. I have a chalkboard on our living room door, made for me one Christmas by my lovely wife, on which I have my PB times for a 5k (3.2 miles), 10k (6.4 miles), half marathon (21.1k/13.1 miles) and marathon (42.2k/26.2 miles) distances. It also has a place for my race numbers, and hooks to hang my medals on.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Every time I've broken my PB in the past, I've come home and wiped the old, outdated time off the board before my shower. (Usually using the sweatband drenched in the efforts of the record breaking run - I'm not sure if this is superstitious, or just gross.) This was a fairly regular occurance - one of my resolutions at the start of 2020 was to get a new PB at least five times, which I managed at the end of September by breaking the 10k PB I'd set back in January. I broke the September PB in January of 2021, and with the return of parkrun later in the year I gradually chipped away at my 5k times, bringing it down to 24:18 in November 2021.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So what's changed? Well, for a start, I've stopped doing such a physical job. Six months ago I left a role that was soul-destroying but excellent for my fitness - I'd regularly cycle 12k a day, and walk a further 15 - for an office job. More restful, but my tummy has grown while my stamina has dropped. The Worthing Half in late April would've been ideal - a few weeks out from leaving that dreadful role, still with the residual fitness but after a few weeks of rest - except the heat, a boring course and issues with my sciatic nerve meant my time was two minutes slower than my last half marathon, which took place two years before and on a harder course. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">No matter, I could take the handbrake off and really go for it after that, right? Well, no. Coming back from a weekend in Cologne I felt a bit rough, coughing a bit and generally feeling unwell. After a quick test it turned out I'd contracted the wonderful COVID-19 virus, and while I only missed a weekend of running due to it, the after-effects took a while to get over. I started telling myself that it was the heat, as by the time I was up and running again it was mid-June, the temperatures were exceeding 20 degrees and I never do well in that weather. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was lying to myself. My 5k time since has been around the 26/27 minute mark, I've not had a 10k take less than an hour, and I've found myself slowing to walk during longer runs too. The virus and the slovenly job have taken their toll on my body. I'm not as fit as I was six months ago. My last 5k PB was set nearly a year ago, my last 10k PB in January this year (52:30). Comparing my times post-COVID I'm around 10% slower. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm never going to get another PB...and that's ok. I've had a good run. Heck, a decade ago I did no exercise at all, now I'm annoyed because I'm prohibited from running this weekend. I'm much fitter and healthier than I was back then, and given the way the body ages, I was going to hit a point where I'd never get another PB. At least this way I'm aware of it and can pinpoint it, rather than realising I hadn't got one in a year, pushing my body harder than it is capable of, and doing myself damage. I've reached my peak, and now starts the gentle decline, as my body ages. As long as I can keep my 5k time in minutes smaller than my age in years, I'll be happy. </span></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-36466770417073582442022-07-12T21:10:00.000+01:002022-07-12T21:10:21.053+01:00Alternative Phonetic Alphabet<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">…For when the customer’s just too annoying to deal with normally.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A for horses</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">B for chicken (beef or chicken)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">C is a harsh mistress</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">D for double-U</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">E for eye</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">F for vesscent (Effervescent – fizzy)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">G for gnome</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">H for hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmingbird</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I for an eye</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">J for Gillingham</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">K for knot</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">L for leather</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">M for mnemonic</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">N for Nicompoopery</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">O for the wings of a Dove</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">P for pterodactyl</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Q for stamps at the post office</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">R for army</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">S for sea</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">T with milk and two sugars, please</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">U for me and me for you</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">V for Vendetta</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">W for two lots of you</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">X for Exeter</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Y for the love of god, why!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Z for Xylophone</span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-1864864349319534452022-04-25T20:36:00.001+01:002022-04-25T20:36:15.595+01:00Worthing Half Marathon - race report<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A long, long time ago - January 2019 - I bought an entry to run the Worthing Half Marathon. I'd run it before, two years previously, only this time it was a means to an end instead of being an end of itself. The early February race date meant it slotted nicely into my training plan for <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-big-day.html">Brighton Marathon</a> that year. Unfortunately the training plan sharply increased my weekly mileage, which brought a sharp pain in my knee, and I rolled over my entry to the following year as I rested most of February. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">February 2020 rolls around, my knee is a lot stronger, and this was part one of my marathon plan. I intended to run two half marathons that year, one in the spring and one in the autumn, and if my knee passed them without complaint I'd register and train for the Brighton Marathon in 2021 - volunteering at the 2020 event. A man, a plan, a goal, no problem! Well, apart from the weather. Storm Ciara saw the postponement of the Worthing Half until the autumn, so I ran <a href="https://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2020/03/eastbourne-half-marathon.html">Eastbourne Half</a> instead, on the first day of March 2020. If you've not clicked the link to that write-up, it finishes with the following:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><span face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;">I can very probably beat that at the rescheduled Worthing Half this autumn. It's a flatter course, I'll have an extra half a year to get fitter, and I'm confident of shaving 74 seconds off my time to get below two hours.</span></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That was written on 2nd March 2020.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For some reason, there weren't an awful lot of organised races after that, for a while. The Worthing Half can kept being kicked down the road, eventually being taken over by the organisers of some races in south-west London, and the new date being announced earlier this year. Instead of being a February run it would be the weekend before the May bank holiday, but the weather won't be that hot, right?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Like Eastbourne two years prior, my journey was hindered by the common sight of a British weekend, the Rail Replacement Bus service. Unlike that one, the entire journey would be on a bus, but surely that was a good omen - I'd set a personal best time for a Half the last time I travelled to a race by one! Also taking place in Worthing that weekend - a craft beer tap takeover, with around a dozen breweries showcasing their wares in pubs and bottle shops around the town. My <a href="https://www.unbarredbrewery.com/collections/frontpage">favourite</a> local brewery had pledged to bring along their elusive, festival-only Old Fashioned Imperial Stout, so I had an extra incentive not to back out!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a largely uneventful bus journey, enlivened only by showing Dana my usual running route to Lancing parkrun, and helping a drunk passenger after he collapsed, we got to the start around 45 minutes before kickoff. I managed to clip my race number to my top despite the wind's best efforts - I've made a mental note to do this before setting off for the next race, and will inevitably forget to do so - and tried to spot any of the Lancing parkrun lot. I had a goal in mind so squirreled myself away ahead of the 2 hour pacer. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgw5T3S8C7gTGVWuhivjrCiXTbIJk1FUDynGPWX2dx4JtGORsCJZV8xySnz4EX3cO7JT9Fn7mvmpno24vH3JnJ8KBrYz3hoMK_cTWSICr_OYmq8W45XqIHklI2MgJRZOCNTCMSb6cOuaCIrBeLTYMhTOISi34_n46k47NROuO8pak1ElsByRQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="707" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgw5T3S8C7gTGVWuhivjrCiXTbIJk1FUDynGPWX2dx4JtGORsCJZV8xySnz4EX3cO7JT9Fn7mvmpno24vH3JnJ8KBrYz3hoMK_cTWSICr_OYmq8W45XqIHklI2MgJRZOCNTCMSb6cOuaCIrBeLTYMhTOISi34_n46k47NROuO8pak1ElsByRQ" width="180" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Very long queue in this Subway restaurant</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bang on 8:30 and we were off! The route took us along a brief meander through town for the first mile, and I'd planned a podcast for the first half before switching to music for the second, to keep my speed up when I expected to be flagging. My planned km pace was 5 minutes 40, and the podcast might help from shooting off too quickly. It worked too well, and after two minutes I scrapped the podcast plan, jumping straight into my five and a half hour long running playlist. I was immediately justified when shuffle threw up Carly Rae Jepsen's aural performance enhancing drug, Cut To The Feeling. People streamed past me but I didn't mind - my watch was my pacer. Besides, I surmised, I'd go past them later on, when I've got energy to spare and they're crawling along! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Two kilometres down and we turned onto the seafront to head west. The wind was at our backs, the sun too, and a ray of sunshine shone ahead of me when I saw my wife taking photos. The route was more or less an out-and-back course covered twice, and we'd arranged for her to wait in a suitable position for a supply drop just after halfway - and, also, to grab content for social media. I sped on, settling in to my rhythm, my calves having finally warmed up. (Pre-race stretches are not a part of my routine - that's what the first mile is for!) I'd run part of this route two months prior, so had no surprises, and tucked in behind a few people going at the right sort of pace for me. The two hour pacers were somewhere behind me - I had no idea how far, but as long as I was ahead of them, it would be a good thing mentally. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Five k down. A quarter of the way through (more or less), and the equivalent of a parkrun. I was chuntering along past the inter-war bungalows, with the 10k runners intermingling, and I spotted a familiar face. Mark Brockenhurst, local parkrun legend and a strong reason why I kept up with my running during those difficult early years, was doing the shorter run as part of a recovery program. We had a brief chat before I pulled ahead, wanting to keep my pace. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The sun beat down on us, close enough to the sea but protected from a cooling breeze by a stubborn string of flood defences. With very little shade I made good use of suckling at the plastic teat of my water bottle, knowing that I could swap it for a fresh one at the halfway point. I was confident that I was staying hydrated, but the appearance of a parrot dressed as a pirate in the road ahead of me had me questioning this - especially when he started cheering me on by name! I put this down to having my name visible across my chest, but took a cup at the water station and doused my head with it anyway, just in case. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Amberley Drive was planned to be another part of the planned garden city of Goring-By-Sea, but World War 2 put paid to that, and it's now just a concrete road around a 900 square metre field. Not many trees, so no protection from the sun, but I motored along, around the field and heading back towards town. The next time I did this, I'd have less than a parkrun to go! What was concerning, though, was my left foot steadily going numb. This had happened once before on a run to Lancing two weeks prior - after slowing to walk on that run the feeling came back, and I did the same this time, taking 30 seconds longer on to traverse the 8th kilometre until the blood returned. At this point I made a deal with myself. If I knocked it on the head now I'd have to walk the next 3km back to Dana anyway. As I had to travel that far, I might as well get back up to my usual pace - slightly quicker, to make up for lost time - but if the numbness came back I'd quit straight away and get this checked out before I ran any further.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I carried on, back along the wide seafront road, back up to pace without any issues. By now the faster runners were passing back on their second lap, but I ran into the sun, glad I'd put my sunglasses on. My playlist churned out banger after banger, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGU1P6lBW6Q">Ride of the Valkyries</a> segueing into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcitjrrV8s">pop rock</a> into dance remixes of dream pop <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akhmS1D2Ce4">songs</a>. I spotted Dana and sped on, glad that I knew I'd see her again soon after for a fresh drink. The course split for the 10k runners to finish, while us Half-Marathoners took in the loading bays behind Worthing High Street as we turned round for the second lap. The soundtrack was Holding Out For A Hero, and I was holding on to the fact that I'd have the wind behind me again soon. I swapped out my empty bottle for a slightly cooler and significantly more full one and headed off. This was a psychological blow, running away from the finish, knowing that each step was one I'd need to make again on the run back. I consoled myself by looking at all the people streaming towards the end of their first lap, knowing that I was ahead of them, and told myself that I'd done this lap once before so I know I can do it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Back past the bungalows and I could feel my legs getting heavier. This was nearing the longest run I'd done all year, and I still had more to go. The pounding sun was draining and it felt like I was running through treacle. The thrash-metal <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0obBdrfUMzU">soundtrack</a> was asking a pace of me that I couldn't keep - I skipped to the next track and not even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic">pure pop pleasure</a> could give me a boost. This was a severe cause for concern - not even Carly could help! I could hear a group behind me getting closer and closer and I knew it was the two hour pacer group. They sauntered past me, and this was a kick in the tits. I tried to tell myself that as long as I kept them in sight I could possibly reel them back in with a sprint finish near the end, but I knew this was it for a sub-2 hour time. I grimly kept with them as far as the water station, drenching myself again, but I was fighting a losing battle.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyaq2r0VRe5_iJxtjGFIiNzA6f53d6c3wL-7lVR9As6o_CbyAvejr2cEJB3IHwqyVwVo2z8YHucT1E' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Footage from the official Twitter. I look shattered.</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I chuntered around the field, telling myself that I had less than a parkrun to go, seeing the gap to the pacers increase with every step. With just over 4km to go I passed a copse of trees and decided that if I was going to finish this, I was going to do it with an empty bladder and watered the plants. Relieved and with a fresh spring in my step, I bounded back onto the route, with renewed optimism!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This lasted all of 500m before I realised how far ahead the pacers were and the rest that I'd given my body wore off. Seeing them disappearing in the distance, I slowed to walk a couple of times, catching my breath and finishing my cola bottles. Sub-2 was not an option. A Half-Marathon Personal Best time was out the window. But I was damned sure I was going to set a personal course best, and if the 2:15 pacers tried to overtake me, I'd trip them up! <span style="font-size: x-small;">I wasn't going to trip them up.</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Probably. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rihanna gave way to Chvrches, and I turned the corner onto the home straight. The long, final 2km. The end was in sight, I guess, I assumed that blur on the horizon was the finishing line. I told myself that if I slowed down to walk then I would not get a beer afterwards. I fixed my stare on the nearest person in front of me and slowly reeled them in, passing them and doing the same on the next person. My hips barely moved, it seemed that my knees and feet were doing all the work. More Carly on my soundtrack. I stopped looking at my watch, I didn't want it to demoralise me. The crowds deepened as I approached the final 100m. A few paces ahead of me was an older guy running for a local hospice. Just me and him. I could easily beat him to the finishing line, but he was running for charity, I was doing it for fun. I wasn't gonna take it away from him. I hung back, raising my arms to gee up the crowd and raise the noise level, then hung back even further to make sure he didn't block my finishing line photos.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieKwVb-Mos_Pyp2cuY2JA1LDxSsUuZNQnHcqX43ytWjbIT9ejXWRFHkpi26VCNHdAjy5iXFMrvJD9aRtp0x_yXPbgG3jxH7mwawtdg7Eoph65jtmeG8WkfsXSC2EkoGNoU3AGGcC2unRZf_Gzc1wqXRgPplDUMNdQz4OALo_4m4Ko-QiDDhg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1414" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEieKwVb-Mos_Pyp2cuY2JA1LDxSsUuZNQnHcqX43ytWjbIT9ejXWRFHkpi26VCNHdAjy5iXFMrvJD9aRtp0x_yXPbgG3jxH7mwawtdg7Eoph65jtmeG8WkfsXSC2EkoGNoU3AGGcC2unRZf_Gzc1wqXRgPplDUMNdQz4OALo_4m4Ko-QiDDhg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Poser.</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I stumbled through the finishing chute, grabbing as many goodies as I was offered, and found my wonderful wife. We retired to sit in the shade, and I dunked water over myself to cool down. I knew I'd lost a lot of fluids so rehydrated as quickly as I could. I felt good, slightly disappointed that I hadn't beaten my previous time, but proud that I'd done it. Eight years ago I struggled to complete a 4.5km run, averaging a pace of 7 minutes and 40 seconds. Even my slowest km during this was half a minute faster. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhI50SCI_xhmgtdkr_ikOoi_gH2AG41LOsjGbmlAmFRZubxg4UJynZLFgkNpk-0i-1gmWQtBkWc2kWZbpWYlbNCgftWTOlUNOaxDGNv_s26mZ_m2qJcNXENYQ3WRl_Fvo_XNo8bqb-UsHSL7V2lBRhWZvV-dtKxYqTXVVt-8MpXyK5pmsgXHQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhI50SCI_xhmgtdkr_ikOoi_gH2AG41LOsjGbmlAmFRZubxg4UJynZLFgkNpk-0i-1gmWQtBkWc2kWZbpWYlbNCgftWTOlUNOaxDGNv_s26mZ_m2qJcNXENYQ3WRl_Fvo_XNo8bqb-UsHSL7V2lBRhWZvV-dtKxYqTXVVt-8MpXyK5pmsgXHQ" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">It's a cool picture, but not for £16!</span></i></div><br /><br /></div></div></span></div></div>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-18539367928174143672022-02-21T16:36:00.001+00:002022-02-21T16:36:06.450+00:00The Curious Tale of Stephan Bleibtrau<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parts of this story might have been slightly embellished because while Football Manager is detailed, it’s not that detailed. Yet.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32e4e6e-7fff-bfc3-fe4e-8ff0f9cbfea5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s March 2040. My Chemie Leipzig side are gunning for a fifth straight Bundesliga title, being run close by the noisy, energy-drink-fuelled neighbours from across the Elsterbecken. My hard graft, buy-low-sell-high attitude coupled with my innovative win at all costs tactics (nicknamed Lady Amalthea) had seen us overtake RasenBallsport to become the dominant side in Leipzig. The first game back after the international break saw us hosting our local rivals from deep in the bowels of the former Zentralstadion. A win would pretty much guarantee the title, adding it to the Club World Championship won earlier in the season, and we could concentrate on the upcoming Champions League quarter final against Liverpool. Lose, and it could break our season. Draw, and we’d hold our lead, but I wanted the sticky, sickly, Taurine flavoured club to suffer. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was at this point that I realised having two goalkeepers from the same FIFA region might not have been a smart decision. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I welcomed the majority of my international superstars back from their travels without incident. French winger Yaya Toure (not that one, obviously) had barely played and was whizzing round the training ground like an 8 year old after a bag of Haribo Tangfastics. Oyvind Skollerud, the Norwegian striker who had the all time Chemie record goalscorer, um, record in his sights, had scored twice in a 10 minute cameo off the bench and wanted to add more to his total. Marius Wirtz, my €78m defensive midfielder poached from Mönchengladbach and my missing puzzle piece, was telling everyone who would listen how he two-footed a crate of Red Bull drinks at his local supermarket the night before. My team, my wonderful boys, were up for the derby.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The outfield players were, anyway. I looked across to where Jan Zimmerman was warming up the keepers with the goalkeeping coaches, and instead of seeing Luis Garza and Luis Vela debating the merits of Stetsons versus Sombreros, all I saw was Jan kicking footballs at a spotty 17 year old who looked like he weighed all of 50 kilos soaking wet. I called him over.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Jan, where are the Luises?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Uh, Ontario, the last I checked.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh, how lovely for them! Are they visiting Her Majesty, Carly Rae Jepsen? They do know we’ve got a game tomorrow, yes?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Flight’s delayed, boss. Snowing, innit. Due in Berlin tomorrow at 12:30.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But we kick off at 12:30. In the derby. They’ll still be showing as on international duty, we won’t be able to select them!”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, boss, I’d like you to meet Stephan! As soon as I heard about the delay, I pulled him out of the Under 19 squad to train with us. He may have the agility of an angry dishwasher, and the communication skills of Marcel Marceau…”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I looked at Jan expectantly. He had a butface.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But…?”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But I also left a bottle of whiskey in your office, with another one packed for tomorrow at 2:15.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I put a brave face on, though I’m fairly sure my smile didn’t meet my eyes, and turned to my saving grace. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Always glad to make use of our excellent youth facilities, Stephan! Jan will warm you up and then we’ll take you through the defensive drills - should be familiar to you, we play it my way across all age groups and genders at this club.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I threw him a freshly printed “Bleibtreu 30” shirt, and he caught it. At the third attempt. I glanced at Jan.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s the strong whiskey, boss.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Matchday. After an unsuccessful night of begging, pleading, crying and cajoling Lufthansa to divert to Leipzig, or at the very least drop my two keepers off on the way - I offered to pay for parachutes, too! - I was resigned to starting with a goalkeeper who wasn’t even born when Marcus Rashford was elected the UK PM in 2023. Rather than flood the defence and midfield and protect Bleibtreu as much as possible, I stuck with my attack minded "Lady Amalthea" approach, reasoning that if the ball was up the other end I was less likely to suffer a coronary whenever Red Bull attacked.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This lasted all of seven minutes. In their first attack their left winger whipped a cross into the box. Bleibtreu watched, gormlessly, as it sailed over his head to the grateful Andy van Eck who slammed it home. As the five thousand away fans burst into a chant of “dodgy keeper” Bleibtreu looked around, desperately wanting the ground to swallow him whole. My opposite number goaded me from his technical area with a bizarre crotch-chop gesture. I heard a voice in my ear.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“My daughter’s standing next to his Mercedes with a rock, boss. Just say the word.” My coach, Pol Lirola, hissed in Spanish-accented German. “Just say. The. Word.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I could respond to my right hand man press ganging his eight year old into acts of vandalism again, we kicked off. A fired up Skollerud exchanged passes with Ognjen Ilic, brushed off a half-hearted challenge from an RB CB and burst clear of their defence! With only the keeper to beat, he wound up, put his laces through the ball, and slammed it against the post.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Barely had the 46,000 strong Chemie faithful sucked in a breath for a disappointed “awww” before the ball rebounded back, off their goalkeeper’s skull, and into the net for an equaliser! The awwws turned to cheers and I had to restrain Lirola from getting another FA charge for “comparing an opposing manager’s mother to farmyard animals”. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toure woke up and started to demonstrate every single point of his leadership rating. Dictating play, pinging cross field balls to stretch the RB side, pointing at things, he took the game by the scruff of the neck. Both sides settled into a pulsating rhythm, but neither managed to test the opposing keeper until 25 minutes in. One of my “elite” centre backs got his left and right mixed up and suddenly van Eck burst clear with only Bleibtreu to beat. Our fans were already preparing the “chin up Stephan” chants when he leapt, catlike, across the goal to turn van Eck’s shot around the post. From the resulting corner he made a superb double save, once with his hands and one with his face, to keep the scores level. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While this was going on, the RB left-back had been goading Toure with the usual attempts at gamesmanship - “Johnny Halliday is overrated! Amelie is dull! Victor Hugo’s work is padded out with pointless digressions!” - and Yaya had had enough. He picked up the game by the scruff of the neck. A mazy run through the home defence, twisting and turning and leaving his nemesis flat on his arse, ended with Toure slamming the ball past their still shell-shocked keeper. We held a two-one lead at the break, and I confiscated yet another flick-knife from Lirola as I bundled my backroom staff into the dressing room.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ignoring Jan’s suggestions for a team talk I calmly reminded my boys of the perils of complacency and lavished praise on my defence. Bleibtreu seemed to grow three sizes with confidence, and I sent the team back out accompanied by the roar of the home fans in the Kai Druschky stadium. Toure picked up exactly where he left off, with a second goal two minutes into the half, and we were 3-1 up and purring. Jan suggested we see out the second half by shutting the game down, but I wanted more! I wanted to humiliate the jumped up village team from Markranstädt! </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dictionary defines hubris as “excessive pride or self-confidence, often leading to a downfall”. In persisting with my attack based strategy, holes appeared at the back and by ‘Eck, van Eck slammed home his and Red Bull’s second of the game with fifteen minutes to go. Our two goal lead had been reduced to one and I switched to the Schmendrick defensive tactic I kept in reserve for tight games. Off came Skollerud, on came the mercurial Italian centre back Bennati, and we bunkered down for a nervy fifteen minutes. Our only outlet for pressure relief was Toure, and he did his best to keep the ball up the other end, but after the RB LB was taken off with twisted blood, the fresh legs of his replacement easily outpaced our knackered Frenchman. Shot after shot piled in, pinging off the frame of the goal, being blocked by various body parts of various Chemie players, but as the 4th official held up his board we were still leading. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">90+4. We’d had the allotted injury time, and amidst the deafening whistles from the fans imploring referee Wischer to blow up for full time, van Eck picked up the ball on the halfway line. Easily evading the despairing lunges of my worn out defenders, he slalomed his way towards my nervous puppy in goal. Two of his team-mates had made similar runs into space, keeping up with him, but he only had an eye for goal and the match ball. As he entered our area Bleibtrau summoned all 9 points of his rushing out rating and came out to meet the Dutchman. van Eck steadied himself, picked his spot, and placed his shot carefully against Bleibtrau’s big toe. The ball ballooned harmlessly into the home fans where it promptly disappeared, suddenly reappearing seconds later after Wischer blew for full time. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the full time huddle I had nothing but praise for my last minute stand-in. Making his debut in a 1st vs 2nd clash, against our local rivals no less, I couldn’t hold back.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Nice work, Stephan! Am I proud of you! When you go home tonight, there’s going to be another storey on your house!”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He looked at me blankly. Jan whispered in my ear.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Boss, I keep telling you, nobody understands your classical literary references.”</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I came up with a more understandable reward. The very next day Stephan Bleibtrau signed a five year contract, no negotiation on the wages and bonuses he requested, and as long as he wants to stay here there will always be a place for him at Chemie. If he leaves I’ll retire the number 30 shirt in his honour. I can’t see him playing another first team game for the club, outside of dead rubber CL group stages, but it won’t matter. He saved my bacon in that derby game, and I’m forever in his debt. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unless he starts agitating for a move to Lokomotiv Leipzig. Then the little sod’s banished to the reserves until the end of time.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-44962263407367645722021-05-03T18:38:00.001+01:002021-05-03T18:38:06.462+01:00Hove Story (James's Version)<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At the end of last year, I was in a bit of a running rut. My attempts at crowdsourcing routes/distances/soundtracks were ok, but I could sense that the appeal amongst my followers would rapidly wane. I needed something new to keep me going - in the continuing absence of parkrun I'd need another spark to fire my running neurons. A post on the running subreddit (since sadly deleted) provided that spark. I could run every avenue, road, crescent, villas, street, drive, close, way, mews, terrace, walk, grove, square, gardens, lane, leas, brow, croft, esplanade, place, rise, dene, and green in my town!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But where to begin? I found a useful (and free!) website in <a href="https://citystrides.com/users/7422/map#50.84313504675177,-0.16989010116969894&12.547318520760715" target="_blank">Citystrides</a> which, when combined with my Strava account, would show me everywhere I've ever run - in Hove and elsewhere. It would be useful to have a visual indication of which streets I'd covered, and which I still needed to go. I deal very well with statistics, and having a list of streets to tick off would greatly benefit me - being able to put a number on my progress was a massive help! </span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I Wanna Know What Hove Is</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I also needed to define where I was running. Hove hasn't been a separate town since 1997, when it merged with next door to become Brighton & Hove. An afternoon searching for a boundary map just showed the borders of the unified city - I was unsure if I'd complete all of Hove in a calendar year, and didn't want to add the larger area to an already daunting goal! I sought other methods to define the area. <a href="https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=50.83816&lon=-0.15745&layers=168&b=1">Historical maps</a>, while a fascinating way to pass a few hours, were not forthcoming, and the telephone dialling code of <a href="https://www.geopunk.co.uk/phone-area-codes/01273-brighton">01273</a> covered an area that made me whimper like a chilly puppy. It did send me down a promising rabbit hole though and I realised that the outgoing postcode area of <a href="https://www.getthedata.com/postcode/BN3/where-is-BN3">BN3</a> fit squarely over Hove. A browse on Google Maps for landmarks to signify this both <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.8267552,-0.1544138,3a,21.8y,152.98h,92.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seKSmgt2ZXY_8B96tfacpoA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192">old and new</a> (the name of the alleyway, and the change in parking zones) confirmed this. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This made things easier for my spreadsheet - there are a few sites that list every postcode in a certain postal area, and a copy and paste with some formatting tweaks gave me a solid list to start. Next to the list of roads were two columns to check each road off - one to signify I'd run the street prior to 1st January 2021, and one for 2021 and beyond. I'd run approximately 25% of the roads in Hove before, as part of my normal runs, and wasn't sure if I'd manage all of Hove in a year so wanted to give myself a cushion in case it proved to be too tricky. A third column turned green (from red) when I'd run a street - a nice visual indicator. </span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm Outta Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Looking at the spread of Hove on a map, our flat is based fairly centrally. The town was my oyster, I could go in any direction to start, rather than needing to (say) head west for every run, duplicating the first km or two nearly each time I'd go out. I elected to cover the south east corner for my first run, on new year's morning. I realised that 9am on new year's day during a government lockdown would be the smartest time to run down Hove's main shopping street and that was the first street I completed in full, sprinting down deserted cobbles. I pushed on further towards the seafront, doubling-back around some minor streets as I passed them, and running along the north side of the seafront road Kingsway, covering the small parallel streets mostly used for parking that I knew would come to haunt me if I ignored them. I hopped back and forth across the border between Brighton and Hove, zig-zagging around listening to Poppy and cursing the Georgian architects for their love of little fiddly mewses. My times for this run were slower than usual, partly as I was planning my route on the fly (and thus peering at Google Maps on my phone) and partly due to the hangover. I finished with a satisfying 5% of the streets ticked off, and had a well-earned nap that afternoon!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwgoIhkboaAcS_YXAs4EGYkTdy8dnDqNTgzrIrIz8ER9CKFOhgy0XvdtoDS-tpAVTt3tShER2kFVbgHlDm3ksQXtqRsNC8w1a5y0e39hhnV-6VnKwmq7bveH04h9Vjn5PxrBW0/s2048/01-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1766" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwgoIhkboaAcS_YXAs4EGYkTdy8dnDqNTgzrIrIz8ER9CKFOhgy0XvdtoDS-tpAVTt3tShER2kFVbgHlDm3ksQXtqRsNC8w1a5y0e39hhnV-6VnKwmq7bveH04h9Vjn5PxrBW0/s320/01-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hove Minus Zero</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ten days later, and a chilly start to the morning blew away some cobwebs! I wanted to cover more of the south east side, so built on the previous run to cover some more streets. Another run of route planning on the fly - I knew which area I wanted to cover, but the order of streets was done en route leading to several unnecessary doublebacks. I crossed to the opposite embankment on the bridges across the railway - while I wasn't going to finish those roads in this run, I did future James a favour by saving him a few metres of running when he came back to complete those roads! An 80's hair metal playlist soundtracked this run, which included a frosty sprint past the place Dana and I held our wedding reception. Again, to help future me, I covered the fiddly little mewses off the long straight road, leaving that road to a sprint another time. I ignored the road leading to a trading estate on the old goods yard - Lyon Close didn't look like a proper road after all, more like a private road. I also <i>added</i> a street to my list - Julian Road doesn't have any properties facing onto it, so hasn't got a postcode assigned! I'd need to keep an eye out for this in the future.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kUP5Vo6KVo9ukJ7abPiIqEKw9Low8rV-JeCaaRY-8CM1uVFQanpZ7q7Prv_m2LMWLpoLT_QfdmB9Ui22kxcK0ULeP3y1p55Hje9U0uuByez8dGhgR-UPy-czT9OlWx3deW40/s2048/01-08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1942" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kUP5Vo6KVo9ukJ7abPiIqEKw9Low8rV-JeCaaRY-8CM1uVFQanpZ7q7Prv_m2LMWLpoLT_QfdmB9Ui22kxcK0ULeP3y1p55Hje9U0uuByez8dGhgR-UPy-czT9OlWx3deW40/s320/01-08.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Gimmie Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(These song title puns are going to be a constant thing, just to warn you.)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The following weekend, I decided that the western side of Hove needed some love. Half of Old Shoreham Road would get covered; several small estates either side would be ticked off as I passed. (Not the little stub of a road - English Close - next to Hove cemetery, though. That was to another trading estate, so didn't count, right?) This was a cold, soggy run, but I was honing my route planning skills now. I divided the run into segments for each estate and reducing the amount of double-backs from the previous runs. What looked to be a trio of cross streets on Google Maps turned out to be a row of garages - these didn't have a street name so could be safely ignored, unless I needed to use them as a shortcut! At 11k I still had some run left in me, so ticked off another small area near Hove Park and took the run to a total of 13k. A bit of a change up for my soundtrack this time, too - a half hour comedy podcast first, and then my running playlist on shuffle.</span></p><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSaiqbuWALZu2W9OLTcfE5L6Xii7pvUFjVJD7WFZfM_J8xnIQ_rfqk2q9CDBlO1LzHDSQXplWQqAReZwx6PsQC_06OICNoITQGAbzMmpqCUaFMch_V4MFUy9gK-CVooXgWzxlZ/s2048/01-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1997" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSaiqbuWALZu2W9OLTcfE5L6Xii7pvUFjVJD7WFZfM_J8xnIQ_rfqk2q9CDBlO1LzHDSQXplWQqAReZwx6PsQC_06OICNoITQGAbzMmpqCUaFMch_V4MFUy9gK-CVooXgWzxlZ/s320/01-15.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sea Of Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">One of the more concerning aspects of the last few runs was that they were taking a lot out of me. After each run I'd needed an hour long nap in the afternoon, not something that had been necessary post-run in years. I wasn't sure whether it was a side-effect of having to think more while running (planning a route was requiring more thought than just running) or a consequence of not having had any caffeine since the turn of the year. To test this and work out what to tweak going forward, I didn't plan a run to tick off any streets - just to run down along the straight flat road to the power station (in Portslade) and see whether this would tire me out enough to need a nap. I pushed myself a bit faster than I had done for the last few runs as well. Seven km in and I was flying, so tweaked my route back to cover a portion of the Kingsway. The streets around this part of Hove were laid out in a grid formation (thank you interwar street planners!) so when I returned to cover this area I could run along the parallel New Church Road to start, then work my way back going up and down the north/south aligned streets without worrying about "filling in" the gaps on either east/west road. I turned up Walsingham Road and stopped my run when it beeped at the 10k mark...5 metres from the end of the road. I realised my mistake, let off a string of words only usually used when Gillingham concede a last minute equaliser, restarted my watch and logged my <a href="https://www.strava.com/activities/4665778905" target="_blank">shortest run</a> on Strava!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwcYbfBj3-bKHaRHP3Htag1QYEFyG8r-GXco5CbgdZEW8eutF0Z1QqDM1g75w4evKrSpA-K0V5NNrq0VRPNVafz4OdTFWPUmokGLJ094UWyPSOMA9UESHSvo_Yd4o4rjv5g6rm/s2048/01-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2036" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwcYbfBj3-bKHaRHP3Htag1QYEFyG8r-GXco5CbgdZEW8eutF0Z1QqDM1g75w4evKrSpA-K0V5NNrq0VRPNVafz4OdTFWPUmokGLJ094UWyPSOMA9UESHSvo_Yd4o4rjv5g6rm/s320/01-23.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Your Hove Keeps Lifting Me Higher</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A lack of nap after the last week's run showed that it was the en route thinking, rather than lack of caffeine, that was wearing me out. The caffeine break was only for January, so I needed to change things going forward. I tweaked my pre-run morning routine and actually planned a route in advance, rather than just picking a direction and figuring it out on the go! Using the Notes app on my phone I kept a list of roads to run in the order that I'd take them. I'd still need to refer to a map on the go but it would only be for a glance rather than any real thought. I headed off to the furthest point from home while still being in Hove, in the north west corner; it turned out to be a post-war estate of bungalows overlooking Benfield Valley. With over 250m of climbing and plenty of double-backs this didn't set any personal best times, but I got to see new places, and get 16km under my belt. Partway round I noticed that I tended to run in a clockwise direction, keeping to the left side of the street, and taking more right turns than left. I wondered if this was why my left ankle had been aching lately (as that would be required to "push off" more when turning) and tried to keep things roughly equal between my ankles from then on. I've not had a peep of complaint from either joint since, so that was good to resolve! I'd also settled into a regular routine with my soundtracks of 30 minutes of comedy (thank you BBC Radio 4) and the rest of the time filled with my personal best playlist on shuffle. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIYUYKUkSGAj40uCyAM5NERC_tSl-BdNDHhoDNGO-s7lPra_FBkI_TdS4Z7onFVeoneVNbDLK42jz0QLnsC0Jwxeom5iBRan6Obi-7UhLI5UW8A7zGKv4o9hBo82kHRhTQjoyZ/s2048/01-30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1948" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIYUYKUkSGAj40uCyAM5NERC_tSl-BdNDHhoDNGO-s7lPra_FBkI_TdS4Z7onFVeoneVNbDLK42jz0QLnsC0Jwxeom5iBRan6Obi-7UhLI5UW8A7zGKv4o9hBo82kHRhTQjoyZ/s320/01-30.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Higher Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">While my ankles were now in a better condition, one downside to that realisation is that while testing it I missed a road. Not just any road, but one of the most inconveniently placed <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/The+Meadows,+Hove/@50.8496418,-0.2069605,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4875900b6dc00173:0xe5b911d09899ef41!8m2!3d50.8496384!4d-0.2047718" target="_blank">roads</a> that I could've missed out - 3km away from home and slap bang in the middle of an estate I'd ticked off! To return there would require a fair amount of covering old ground. I was annoyed, and also glad I realised it when I did, rather than at the end of this whole ordeal. This prompted me to buy a map to colour in - CityStrides had been dispensed with early on as I couldn't find a way to make it only show my runs from 2021, and a physical map would be a backup to my spreadsheet. I wanted to get this street covered before I forgot I hadn't done it, so resolved to do it at the earliest opportunity. Buoyed by my realisation that covering the "border" of an area will make it easier to complete, and with some intriguing podcasts lined up (as well as the comedy one there was a now-infamous episode of a podcast dealing with race in the workplace, and a cracking episode of another about one-hit wonders) I chose to run the entire eastern border of BN3 north of the railway line, then downhill towards Hangleton and the missing 40m stub. While this wasn't a run that ticked off a lot of roads on my spreadsheet, it was one that covered a lot of ground - as well as the northernmost (and highest!) point in Hove, it nearly covered both the furthest east and furthest west points as well!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpURw3C5hqzywLgjwxG-5d7u-chMLSY05x93Tb3U6gz1FBfXASb_SjbMEi9Hh5ieDkqJHzvaNfH0wVq3005YKlBL_ws0j46lRfcYYplbxiCcC3taBCcYnsIcCT_Rzvzf6buwB-/s2048/02-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpURw3C5hqzywLgjwxG-5d7u-chMLSY05x93Tb3U6gz1FBfXASb_SjbMEi9Hh5ieDkqJHzvaNfH0wVq3005YKlBL_ws0j46lRfcYYplbxiCcC3taBCcYnsIcCT_Rzvzf6buwB-/s320/02-06.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Crazy Little Thing Called Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Due to some outstanding holiday I took a few days off in February. Without much open all I could really do to kill time was run, so I headed out on a flat, residential run towards Portslade - I wanted to cover the western border. My plans for a longer run (I wanted to fill in everything south of New Church Road to the previously-run Walsingham Road, but a faulty fire alarm back at the flat led to me cutting it short (at "only" 10k) and heading back to fix it. By now my street map had arrived so I could begin colouring it in! Unfortunately it didn't cover the western-most part of Hove so I had to bodge it as best I could.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU492AKHFsP1shGkENm2DV5KLSc0wx-xlznKnqsV4NSK0fjyg3DmoT3H8gc24lKzHCmzJJkNXtIWQOyv1fOAgdxLhk4Gx8qCOhanUvsVlzVTI2A4qlNhNVkCAUvqptlqXFspW2/s2048/02-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2029" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU492AKHFsP1shGkENm2DV5KLSc0wx-xlznKnqsV4NSK0fjyg3DmoT3H8gc24lKzHCmzJJkNXtIWQOyv1fOAgdxLhk4Gx8qCOhanUvsVlzVTI2A4qlNhNVkCAUvqptlqXFspW2/s320/02-10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hove Goes On!</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back out the following weekend, and my decision was made for me - I was going to cover the rest of the ground I'd intended to during my days off. Covering a large portion of Portland Road made things easier going forward, when planning the streets running between that and New Church Road. A flat route with a pleasant breeze coming off the sea kept me cool but didn't drown out my podcasts - this time, as well as the regular Saturday morning comedy one, an interesting episode about the "<a href="https://chris.molanphy.com/hp-the-ac-dc-rule-edition/" target="_blank">AC/DC Rule</a>". By now I had covered over a third of the total streets of Hove in just six weeks - while one of those weeks had a bonus midweek run, I'd taken a break from a run dedicated to covering new streets on another weekend, so was confident I'd manage it before the year was out. I had already cleared the "pre-2021" column on my spreadsheet and was not ruling out the possibility of completing it before my birthday in August!</span></p><p></p><p></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3d1oA4PfmHewHUjLEmKL2nGQXc7TdUnUfk6G2jIo4EWBPs4uVPDA0oj3W1h9u_IOLBJcmZR-8PZFKNDlO92E2xGA-6soeOfaUd4ujlNYvwazj1-QcMr7xHAjd9Y8kjPJKswf/s2048/02-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1977" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3d1oA4PfmHewHUjLEmKL2nGQXc7TdUnUfk6G2jIo4EWBPs4uVPDA0oj3W1h9u_IOLBJcmZR-8PZFKNDlO92E2xGA-6soeOfaUd4ujlNYvwazj1-QcMr7xHAjd9Y8kjPJKswf/s320/02-13.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Can't Help Falling In Hove</span></h4><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The addition of the paper map really showed clearly which areas I was missing. It highlighted that Western Road wasn't quite covered, despite small areas being run in the first two runs of the year. I had also run back along it on my Christmas morning run so wanted to cover it fully before I forgot and conflated the "12Ks of Christmas" run with one of my dedicated Streets runs. I plotted another general borders run, covering Western Road and then the rest of the Kingsway after, before filling in the rest of the area south of the big Tesco on Church Road. About halfway through I did something that I'd somehow never previously done in seven years of running - I tripped! Luckily I didn't go sprawling, my other foot providing enough support quickly to style out of the stumble, but I was surprised that it had taken me this long to find an uneven pavement (especially given the number of tree roots pushing to the surface)!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwQ9Ogaq51kq7LOLaV1WQJrTwCekbE22mjlFUkOz62s2yk0EPQWUU9l6Cq7_LEnrMiF2X417Sa0_SNR6axm_dXXGjlULkrKNNL9izdDf1RxchwPiBc3j-WV_L_sxM1n5sbntl/s2048/02-20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1898" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwQ9Ogaq51kq7LOLaV1WQJrTwCekbE22mjlFUkOz62s2yk0EPQWUU9l6Cq7_LEnrMiF2X417Sa0_SNR6axm_dXXGjlULkrKNNL9izdDf1RxchwPiBc3j-WV_L_sxM1n5sbntl/s320/02-20.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">HoveGame</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">By this point, my terrain preference was obvious. The flat roads by the seafront were all but complete - the hills north of the railway line were vast swathes of unrun roads. I needed to change this, so I set off north up Sackville Road, towards a hillside estate with a royal naming system. This was the sunniest run of the year so far, and the exposed, south facing hill took a lot from me. I climbed around 250m in total, quite a shock to the system after the last few weeks of flat runs! After the comedy podcast had ended I tried something new to listen to. Ryan had sent me a playlist of Lady Gaga album tracks he recommended, and the fresh music helped distract me from running up and down the hillside. A couple of songs were added to my running playlist for future use too. MANiCURE went on straight away, and Gypsy was added with the knowledge that 75% of the time it'll be skipped, but the other 25% it'll come on at the perfect time to give me a mental boost! After finishing this run I was 43% complete with my list of roads - not bad for the end of February!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYSQ0X3SVX24lyKxZKzEMG-b6sR_dMK7laQfWcP2Aa0SnufWEgWyFSB9JJNHKfuB9CWobD55_wcgjwT6o-vB8tFaCSgDG843zbChyphenhyphenUtRtbzEQW7GIgbSMSou1kcnhGh99DqpU4/s2048/02-27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1924" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYSQ0X3SVX24lyKxZKzEMG-b6sR_dMK7laQfWcP2Aa0SnufWEgWyFSB9JJNHKfuB9CWobD55_wcgjwT6o-vB8tFaCSgDG843zbChyphenhyphenUtRtbzEQW7GIgbSMSou1kcnhGh99DqpU4/s320/02-27.jpg" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Crazy In Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well, after that hilly session, my legs deserved a break, so I returned to the flat, and headed west to Portslade. The earlier run along (most of) Portland Road helped me cover the smaller areas to the south of the railway, ignoring some private roads, and then worked my way back from Boundary Road on the north/south streets. The many short streets pushed me past the 50% mark - I was now well on the way to completion. I took the following weekend off from running the streets, as I had banked enough time, and ran from Lancing Beach Green back home - it was on the anniversary of the last UK parkrun weekend and I wanted to commemorate it by running that course (and beyond).</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOsnkWEIlLo_BwPCzGSzPCXAp-Hzmdgf87-0LVzq05dmntRtgBpGMYmISaJjQvQ0zPAd9wp0H9sr7o2-DpOdA_iqiiI7AVS3dslwDfvG_1FhIOLgCkZsphUSOleEKINFiYeBq/s1953/03-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1953" data-original-width="1836" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOsnkWEIlLo_BwPCzGSzPCXAp-Hzmdgf87-0LVzq05dmntRtgBpGMYmISaJjQvQ0zPAd9wp0H9sr7o2-DpOdA_iqiiI7AVS3dslwDfvG_1FhIOLgCkZsphUSOleEKINFiYeBq/s320/03-06.jpg" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Addicted To Hove<span> </span><br /></span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With the halfway mark passed I could plan the different areas a bit better. This time I went back up to do more of the hills - this time on the houses built either side of the old railway line to Devil's Dyke. Another hot, sunny run with little shade, not helped by a footpath shown on the map that was blocked off leading to unplanned doublebacks. By now I'd given up the idea of any personal best times to come from this experiment and just focused on ticking off the roads. I'd like to say the slow pace of this run was to boost my stamina, but really I was just knackered. The return of a second comedy podcast to a weekend drop added to this - I've noticed I'm slower listening to spoken words rather than music.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_nH0i93r4HSn5cpe4f2CNFbFzlVvhMLnZ-SxdJgh0mSZ06D6n37uE4VqhOvqboFDJYz7iBlLQIFrQ7vCcHxuR0naC5iLxvrsXfgAFxYeihAkVrqV2Bhsm10Pm-CxonqgB3y-/s1817/03-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1694" data-original-width="1817" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8_nH0i93r4HSn5cpe4f2CNFbFzlVvhMLnZ-SxdJgh0mSZ06D6n37uE4VqhOvqboFDJYz7iBlLQIFrQ7vCcHxuR0naC5iLxvrsXfgAFxYeihAkVrqV2Bhsm10Pm-CxonqgB3y-/s320/03-21.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I Believe In A Thing Called Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With the Easter weekend looming I planned to use the two bank holidays to tick off the Tongdean estate. With a weekend before that, I juiced my stats a little bit. The section between Old Shoreham Road and the railway had a large number of roads less than 200m long - so I cleared them off. I had an extra bit planned, running down The Drive to the seafront and doing the Avenues towards Palmeira Square, but I got south of the railway and decided not to push myself any further at risk of injuring myself. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With around two-thirds of the streets completed, I went through the rest of the spreadsheet to tidy up any postcodes that wouldn't be valid (private roads, apartment buildings, etc). In doing so I realised that I'd missed another street that would be downright awkward to tick off - English Close, by Hove Cemetery. (Not quite a private road on a trading estate as I first thought!) With the maintenance done my new total was 71%, after three months of running. The comedy podcast finished and I fancied some hair metal, but as I hadn't finished listening to the new Evanescence album the day before the mixture of Poison/Whitesnake and goth rock was quite a shock!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfeJcKlCwcc0xtJt2-z63tnf9UOa7XZgPB02Hi7coGrzDxjvq0wnQUpkf05SHfP0FwzGuHF-8ZU8tk3ear6rLGVq4Vi_SZQsZQ7lCSfOZjZbYxf9JZj5uKgnwRg8cPsZZMW12/s1827/03-27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1669" data-original-width="1827" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGfeJcKlCwcc0xtJt2-z63tnf9UOa7XZgPB02Hi7coGrzDxjvq0wnQUpkf05SHfP0FwzGuHF-8ZU8tk3ear6rLGVq4Vi_SZQsZQ7lCSfOZjZbYxf9JZj5uKgnwRg8cPsZZMW12/s320/03-27.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All You Need Is Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A Good Friday run! Well, an alright Friday run. Tongdean was my easter goal and I started with a warmup jog across Hove Park, listening to 80s wrestling themes, before switching to my regular running playlist. Hills, and the knowledge that I had another three days after to finish this run, lead me to cut it short at 14k. I was now at 77% and took a fortnight off to rest after some headaches and trouble sleeping deeply. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaDlOky-LIrWNcWQz8CJxAi0yNKoNHzKfc39mdygLYZW4jab79evDhN98zgHxmwxyoSArezMQ_dbv7g_jB9bgc_y6Mn4301FRNAnl05RPi7xCf9ZNaVhVHeTwQIbaQ5Ulgg3U/s1875/04-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaDlOky-LIrWNcWQz8CJxAi0yNKoNHzKfc39mdygLYZW4jab79evDhN98zgHxmwxyoSArezMQ_dbv7g_jB9bgc_y6Mn4301FRNAnl05RPi7xCf9ZNaVhVHeTwQIbaQ5Ulgg3U/s320/04-02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You Know You Hove Me</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What was supposed to be a light 5k to finish off Tongdean got extended when the music podcast previously mentioned dropped the first episode of a two parter about Taylor Swift's rerecordings (the titling format of which inspired the title of this post) and the Gossip Girl podcast, which usually drops on a Tuesday, was delayed until Friday (and inspired the title of this <i>section</i>). With nearly two hours worth of content I quickly expanded my route to give me more time to listen to these pieces! I decided to fill in the area around West Blatchington, tick off the elusive English Close (at last!) and then, if the mood took me some more of Aldrington as well. As long-time Jim Steinman collaborator Meat Loaf once sang, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad, but I could only struggle to a round 12km. I was now over the 80% mark and confident I would finish this before parkrun's return.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFTvMRbvSXEqmrNlqR1wQJLXq1LJnfWVI6ST95EImfAB4TeZpkTeoLJPqnLNouxi8sGeZTcVyeToFP6u6AQZwtVf8N0nwXqhb19CCJiVw_dnyclkHPBO-_O59CN8tTngVmKTj0/s1875/04-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1770" data-original-width="1875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFTvMRbvSXEqmrNlqR1wQJLXq1LJnfWVI6ST95EImfAB4TeZpkTeoLJPqnLNouxi8sGeZTcVyeToFP6u6AQZwtVf8N0nwXqhb19CCJiVw_dnyclkHPBO-_O59CN8tTngVmKTj0/s320/04-17.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Stark Raving Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the week preceding this run two important things happened. Firstly, we lost music producer Jim Steinman. His Wagnerian rock wasn't to everyone's tastes, but was something I was raised on, so I paid tribute to him by queuing up a playlist of his music to listen to after the comedy podcast. (My times also improved when this happened.) Secondly, I discovered <a href="https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/highway-search-information-map?fbclid=IwAR2He3eCdS7bP51U2LOHFouRs4CxY5DIrcVz1g-oWbB9UTnzI4MIw8Sq4I8" target="_blank">this</a> incredibly useful map on the Brighton & Hove council website, showing clearly which roads were public and which were private. While this would've been handier four months before, it set my mind at ease about missing certain roads (<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Miles+Walk,+Hove/@50.8290194,-0.1788898,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x48758549424d28c3:0xb96a3363d764e06b!8m2!3d50.829016!4d-0.1767011" target="_blank">Miles Walk</a>) but also pointed out a road I'd ignored that I really needed to cover (<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Lyon+Cl,+Hove/@50.8320588,-0.1596837,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4875856907ad573b:0x9045b425cc451c1d!8m2!3d50.8320554!4d-0.157495" target="_blank">Lyon Close</a>). Regardless, this warm 10k cleared off everything remaining in the south west corner, plus more residential streets around the centre of Hove. 89% done, and I could see this finishing in two more runs!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVP3WyQsAm938OKY-PepnTzqNgVS2dz6_8kduStNL_0znYf2SH9Dn4A_tMydIsnV3vvbAOSHHetWqP6P9wnH9w65xfoPtyxfpC9ZAqElVNk4ql4q8FJEYClqR4JY3zztgyF8e/s1875/04-24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1769" data-original-width="1875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVP3WyQsAm938OKY-PepnTzqNgVS2dz6_8kduStNL_0znYf2SH9Dn4A_tMydIsnV3vvbAOSHHetWqP6P9wnH9w65xfoPtyxfpC9ZAqElVNk4ql4q8FJEYClqR4JY3zztgyF8e/s320/04-24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We Found Hove In A Hilly Place</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">May 1st. The hilly section in Hangleton that I'd been pretending didn't exist needed to be ticked off. Fortunately I had the second part of the Taylor Swift podcast, in addition to the usual comedy podcast, and I'd saved the Gossip Girl episode for the weekend as well. I knew this would be a long run, but the mornings had been cooler over the last week, so I could cope with it. I'd had a Hangleton route planned for a month or so, and after reviewing it I planned a route for the remaining streets in Hove just in case. I scuttled back and forth around the interwar housing estate, baking in the sun, giggling at the Gossip Girl podcast taking three minutes out of the episode recap to talk about how dull a certain pop star is. At the 10k mark I started to feel hungry - I could cope with the rest of this estate, but the plans to finish all of Hove in one run would be too ambitious, so I gave a little nod to the Taylor Swift episode by finishing at 13k and heading to Waitrose to pick up lunch. With 29 roads left out of 432 to complete, I knew I would finish it on the bank holiday Monday. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiET-k7nz_DqZLYKaXViyWojytap80zuszlurG5hKIpZg7vIEwGbMkDhi9D6shUjSzN1gY2_jwwCnXkLRylJuZ378bxDT2oDog9k7edbv1VSYcnbX5fMuu6R0_0nqT8EJk5we2_/s2048/05-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1840" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiET-k7nz_DqZLYKaXViyWojytap80zuszlurG5hKIpZg7vIEwGbMkDhi9D6shUjSzN1gY2_jwwCnXkLRylJuZ378bxDT2oDog9k7edbv1VSYcnbX5fMuu6R0_0nqT8EJk5we2_/s320/05-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Whole Lotta Hove</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Bank Holiday Monday. I had a free day, and I knew that I had around 10k left. I had a new episode of my regular Monday podcast listen, plus a holdover - the "apology" episode of Reply All, the show that looked at racism in another workplace that prompted criticism of racism at <i>their</i> show. I went out early enough that there would be few people around, and just went for it. The doubleback to tick off Lyon Close added an extra km to my run, but I probably would've strung out the run to 10k anyway - I dislike finishing a run on an odd number, unless it's a multiple of five (or the number 13 - listening to Taylor Swift for a decade has done a number on me). Whether it was the extra caffeine or the knowledge that I was so close to the finish line I don't know, but I had my fastest 10k time since September last year. The extra speed wasn't enough and I ran out of podcasts, so for the final time in this project, I switched to my running playlist. The boost of Ride Of The Valkyries warmed me up, and then I finished with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpm6aT-F5Tg" target="_blank">Gypsy</a> - the song that I discovered on an earlier run around another part of Hove, and I knew would hit perfectly in a moment like this. I sprinted down the final road, no medal or finish line waiting for me, but pleased at what I'd achieved.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OBAFtvdnDTymFcCkpM-jDD0LGbfUVObbkI_KoeA097l-pDLIaE8TOHfuBX3x3MbQ_muMMfAqMPhzamBVB3e0Mii8Dn6JYfb0XYxo6LiImp21VMzD4KNvaNp4laDXZqw2fjWd/s4000/IMG20210503172532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OBAFtvdnDTymFcCkpM-jDD0LGbfUVObbkI_KoeA097l-pDLIaE8TOHfuBX3x3MbQ_muMMfAqMPhzamBVB3e0Mii8Dn6JYfb0XYxo6LiImp21VMzD4KNvaNp4laDXZqw2fjWd/s320/IMG20210503172532.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We Found Hove In A Statsless Place</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm really looking forward to running just for the sake of running again. While I've enjoyed seeing different parts of Hove, going places I've never been before (and probably won't ever go to again, The Meadows), I'm looking forward to just putting on a podcast and running where the mood takes me next weekend. I've run around 205km over the course of trying to complete this project, and I estimate that around 13% of that was running over old ground. With better route planning I could get this down to 7-8%, if I do this again. (I won't do this again.) (I might do this again.) But for something that I thought would take me a whole year to do, and that I might need to pull in the roads I'd previously run in years gone by, to be over before the first working day of May? That's something I'm proud of. </span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-82382598279427074422021-03-30T20:56:00.002+01:002021-03-30T21:15:21.797+01:00Ten years of Taylor<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ten years ago was a different time.The internet was generally nicer, unless your parents had bought you a music video for your 13th birthday and it had gone viral. I was living in Canterbury, in a long distance relationship with a girl from Germany who was living in London, and I was working at BT. Working hard, in fact, because I was working ten hours days, six days a week, to assist with the roll out of a new system, and had been since mid-February. This was the final week of the launch and I needed a break. I was physically and mentally drained and needed live music as a carrot to get me over the line, to take my mind off work.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b79862a6-7fff-1525-d147-4ade48fb94f7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had been idly browsing the ticket sites since I realised how gruelling this work would be and found something promising. A gig on Wednesday 30th - I had an early start that day, so would be able to make it to London in time, plus a later start on the day after so I could sleep in if I got back late. It was at the O2 Arena - the right side of London, and I could ride up rather than faff about with trains. It was only an hour’s ride (or an hour and a half if I stuck to the speed limit!). Tickets were £38 for a seat up in the Gods level with the stage, but I’d dropped a similar amount on other gigs before. The only surprise was the artist.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taylor Swift was, at the time, a country star dabbling in pop music. To 2011 James the former was more important than the latter - being raised on a healthy diet of The Eagles, among other country-adjacent artists, I was more interested in the twang of a steel stringed guitar than the bounce of a pop hook. I had left pop music behind as a teen, after all, the idea of liking a female pop singer was naive and foolish! (I missed out on some excellent Kylie gigs, among others, before realising my error.) Still, I’d enjoyed another pop album in Teenage Dream the year before, I could cope with some mild ribbing and threats to my masculinity. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still, just to make absolutely sure people knew I was a man’s man, no homo, totally straight, I delayed my spring shearing until after the gig, and rode up still rocking my shaggy hair and winter beard. As well as my leather jacket covered in patches showing my love of classic rock bands - not completely a fashion choice, I’d also be riding home late on a March night and this jacket was warm - I wore what was to become my standard pop gig uniform of a Rammstein t-shirt. I polished off a pre-gig Nandos (I’ll say this for the O2, it doesn’t lack for food options - a lot easier than having a BBQ outside Brixton Academy) and took my place in Block 402, row G - pretty much slap bang in the centre of the block. As I sat down I felt uncomfortably out of place - my attempts at a counter-cultural appearance coming home to roost - and shrunk down in my seat, trying desperately hard to fit in. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(My Rammstein t-shirt choices have paid off at subsequent pop gigs - the door staff at Brixton never asking to check my ticket at Sigrid/Camila Cabello more than once as “literally nobody else at this gig is wearing a Rammstein t-shirt” - and the flip side of wearing a Carly Rae Jepsen shirt to see Rammstein making somebody’s day! But combined with a biker jacket and my approach to hair/beard styling being to grow it until I got bored, it was not the best look.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pre-show playlist teased a theme of “acts I’d seen at the O2 previously” by playing BOB’s Airplanes, featuring Hayley Williams, but sadly wasn’t followed up by any of Metallica, The Eagles or Avril Lavigne. I busied myself on my phone, killing time until the headliner came on at a surprisingly early 8:30pm - nowadays that sort of start for the main act is wonderful, as it signifies either a long set (or even better, an early night) but at that time, just a baffling time. Comments that it led to an early finish so that her fanbase can get home before their bedtimes were unnecessarily snarky and probably accurate. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comparing the <a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/taylor-swift/2011/the-o2-arena-london-england-53d25321.html">setlist</a> to that of the tour DVD she later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_Now_World_Tour_%E2%80%93_Live">released</a>, we got a shorter set - only 13 (ha!) songs to the eighteen she performed in the US. I didn't care. After a rollicking first half (standouts being The Story Of Us and the now-memory-holed Better Than Revenge - the two faster tracks), by the time Taylor had made her way to the B-stage with an acoustic guitar and was strumming her way through her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_(Taylor_Swift_album)">second album</a>'s title track, I was so overcome with feelings I was an accidental thumb-press on "Send" from tweeting a proposal to my then-girlfriend. As someone who tended to suppress any showing of emotions, both publicly or privately, this was uncharacteristically passionate for me and probably would not have had the desired outcome. Instead, in a twist that would be great foreshadowing if done on a TV show, that was the first song we heard as a married couple just under five years later! </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not even the interminable <a href="https://jamesthegill.tumblr.com/post/158672980983/joetsantos-themomentiknews-im-sorry-but-how-do">Dear John</a> could put a dampener on things, as the set closed with the two BIG songs from the tail end of the album, in Enchanted and Long Live. A brief encore of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXzVF3XeS8M">Love Story</a> and we were making our way out, past shuttered restaurants, into the cold night air. None of the merch on offer was nice enough to tempt me - for the best, as I picked up a <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c4/fa/a6/c4faa618c3d32668583b36008f0b1ff2.jpg">tour shirt</a> in an online sale for $10 a few years later. A swift ride home (let me have that one) and I was opening the garage to put my bike away at the same time that I would normally be queuing up to get food for the hour long train ride home. I had a couple more long shifts ahead of me, but I felt like I could cope with them now. I was a Swiftie - I just wasn't capable of admitting it to myself yet! </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As soon as tickets for her next London gig went on sale, I was there to buy them. That gig wouldn't be for nearly three years after this one, and in that time I'd not only openly admitted to being a Taylor Swift fan, I'd roped in several others to come with me as well. The three of them expressed some cold feet in the week leading up to the gig, and were surprised that I was again happy to go on my own, certain that I'd have a great time! (And I was right, too - despite a shambling idiot appearing on stage nearly spoiling it, and <i>after</i> Ed Sheeran's cameo there was a <a href="http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a548319/taylor-swifts-uk-red-tour-debut-interrupted-by-stage-invader.html">stage invader</a> as well.) In terms of performance, it may not make my top ten gigs of all time, but in terms of importance to me, my first Taylor gig is one of the top three.</span></p></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-6996365967653541862020-10-18T15:22:00.001+01:002020-10-27T16:01:57.300+00:00Crowdsourcing my runs<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Over the last few weeks, I've hit a bit of a creative slump with regards to my running. In the absence of parkrun and the social aspect therein, I've been doing the same routes and getting bored of it. I decided to shake things up a bit and ask my friends on social media to choose for me. A soft launch on Twitter using a carefully selected series of polls (to prevent people telling me to run a marathon in 20 minutes) kicked things off.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlO0V04zgqmvFCPnGeTgD9PHzGpfZDfALWItPTrhojqBFvPV-oqHhgitWumZvs2ldSoY6EoDegQlFDtYWVryfSR3L5dslPGbY7dM9-Nu5ttJN__NM-aJR-rwThxKSMUg3T24b/s3239/IMG_20201018_122504.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3239" data-original-width="893" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlO0V04zgqmvFCPnGeTgD9PHzGpfZDfALWItPTrhojqBFvPV-oqHhgitWumZvs2ldSoY6EoDegQlFDtYWVryfSR3L5dslPGbY7dM9-Nu5ttJN__NM-aJR-rwThxKSMUg3T24b/s320/IMG_20201018_122504.jpg" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Manipulating polls to get the results I wanted</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The week after, I tried Instagram, giving followers who cared enough to interact with my stories the choice of a fast and flat run, or hills (hills hills). Unsurprisingly they picked the hills, with a follow-up question seeing 2/3rds choose hill repeats over one big hill in a poorly worded question. Due to wanting a beer on a Saturday night, I elected to do these the morning after watching the film/war-crime Cats, but on the bright side after three 2km reps up a steep hill my hangover was gone! With a nice 2k to get there warming me up (and down afterwards), and the hill being a kilometre high, it was a great route to discover for the future.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, with a bit of success from these, I opened things up to user submissions. Knowing that they'd probably send me on a route that includes Land's End, John O'Groats, Mordor, Atlantis and Venus, I kept things simple and asked for music submissions. The rules included one track per person, and outlawed any repeats. I also pledged to listen in the order of submission to avoid any suggestions I was adjusting the playlist to make it easier on me. I also privately promised to run for the entire length of the playlist - had I admitted this, I could pinpoint exactly who would submit the longest song they could find just for a laugh (and one of them couched their suggestion with "the longest version of this song you can find", proving me right).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I was nervous about it, especially knowing what the second song was, and only familiar with about a quarter of the songs submitted. How would they fare as running songs? How would they hold up as songs at all? How far would I have to run? Where is the love? Do they know it's Christmas? D'ya know what I mean?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>1. MØL - Bruma </b>(Patrick)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Straight in with something new, a shoegazey metal band from Denmark! If the two coffees to start the day hadn't woken me up already, this definitely would have done. I really liked it, it reminded me of Arch Enemy and I'm going to check out more of their work later this week.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Suitability as a running soundtrack: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>2. Crazy Frog - Axel F</b> (Conor)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And the first of the troll submissions. (To be fair, with the amount of shots I've taken at Swindon Town on Twitter, I deserved it.) This started as a "grit your teeth and pray for it to end" song but the steady beat and 80s synths really helped me click into my pace - it's just a shame about the ringtone championing amphibian singing all over it! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 3/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10 (I'll add the original to my regular running playlists)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>3. Bastille - Joy</b> (Dana)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Any song after the preceding one would be a blessing, but this just clicked with me. Maybe it was seeing the sun breaking through the clouds above the piers, maybe it was just the general pleasantness of the song, but it definitely uplifted my spirits ahead of what could turn out to be a gruelling run. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>4. Bill Withers - Lovely Day </b>(Kerry)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And another nice song. A steady beat, a song that moves along at a fair clip, it was a surprise that I found it so easy to run to but I'm pleased it was added. I don't know that it would've clicked quite as much if it had been chucking it down but it really was a lovely day for running!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 7/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>5. Vidiots - Dog Rap</b> (Ryan)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I was nervous about this song to start with. I had absolutely no idea what to expect and was slightly scared of what I would have to listen to. Luckily, within about 10 seconds I realised it was exactly the sort of rap parody you'd see on SNL or an episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I had a great time with it! I did have trouble keeping my cadence to it, unfortunately.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 7/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 6/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>6. Turbowolf - Domino</b> (CJ)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I won't lie, I was half hoping that this would be a metal cover of a Jessie J song. It wasn't, but that wasn't much of a detriment - just three minutes of full on rock 'n' roll, and another band I'll check out more of later!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>7. Rammstein - Deutschland</b> (Sophie)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, a familiar song! I've run to this track before, and it's not the only one of theirs that I've run to, so I could relax into the run a bit easier. I really should remember that my mask blocks infection but not my voice, as I think I scared other runners by singing along.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>8. Das Sound Machine - World Championship Finale</b> (Amie)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And from a German band to a faux-German group, performing a mash-up of Fall Out Boy and DJ Khaled. While I didn't enjoy the Pitch Perfect movies as much as people expected, this was a clever combination of two songs I was vaguely familiar with, didn't overstay its welcome, and even raised a smile!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 7/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 5/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>9. Brothers Osborne - It Ain't My Fault</b> (Dad)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Again, more expectations of pop song covers dashed, but even though this isn't a countrified <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-F_VZ2T1c" target="_blank">Zara Larsson</a> song it still rocked! A good steady beat, it reminded me of a train but that may have been because I was running next to a railway line! Another pleasant discovery. I realised at this point that this was also probably the most different male vocalists I'd listened to in succession in years.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 7/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>10. HUNGER - Light It Up</b> (Elise)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Knowing the musical overlap I have with Elise, I was surprised to hear a(nother) male vocalist on this track. It was great despite that, the song reminded me of a third act heroic run in a teen movie, which really boosted my serotonin.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>11. Prince - When Doves Cry</b> (Julia)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The first of three submissions from the same person, and reluctantly the only one I could keep. It's to my shame that I forget how good a musician Prince was, and this was a welcome reprise. It soundtracked the portion of my run along the western arm of Brighton Marina, and reminded me of that beautiful moment when two people called Milhouse finally meet.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>12. BLACKPINK - BOOMBAYAH</b> (Laura)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm glad I stuck to my guns regarding not using shuffle, as it lead to this colourful trend - mix black and pink and you get purple, the previous artist's signature colour! Another familiar song, another relaxing segment of the run, by this point along the foot of the cliffs towards Saltdean. By now I was confident of being able to run to pretty much any song - alternating between music and podcasts over the last few years had broken me out of old habits of needing fast paced songs to keep me going. I could just settle in and enjoy the mix of English and Korean!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>13. P!nk - Raise Your Glass</b> (Emily)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is a fault of my own that I associate too many songs with the TV show Glee. I noticed it working my way through Van Halen's discography the other week; I noticed it here as well. I mostly put that out of my mind after the first verse, focusing on P!nk's snarky asides that didn't make it into the sanitised, TV friendly version. It also made me realise that I really should listen to her more!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>14. Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema</b> (Jess)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was the first song that genuinely threw me off my pace. I stumbled and said (probably too loudly, I'm sure that people overheard) "what the fuck is this?!" when the French jazz came on. Over five minutes long, I felt myself slowing, and willing it to end. My colleague's attempt to throw me off worked - I'm just glad she didn't choose Ed Sheeran!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 2/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 0/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>15. A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away)</b> (Charley)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyGviOHholFwJYASA7-JpyJ08_f-UZUr2yfTgZ_LWBAwujQn2nIyDLfIehY3hQqweSOGPSv6gf7jrdJjdEkcYhn_5pUS0blnMygch58cHWifEOeSVZXTCk2xhbFJMIpE8T6LI/s540/La-La-Land-la-la-land-42636248-540-200.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyGviOHholFwJYASA7-JpyJ08_f-UZUr2yfTgZ_LWBAwujQn2nIyDLfIehY3hQqweSOGPSv6gf7jrdJjdEkcYhn_5pUS0blnMygch58cHWifEOeSVZXTCk2xhbFJMIpE8T6LI/s320/La-La-Land-la-la-land-42636248-540-200.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>(This worked really well, but the plan for using the gif came to me within seconds of the intro and I couldn't not do it)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>16. The Walkmen - The Rat</b> (Garry)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">By this point I had hit the turn around point and was heading back towards town, along the undulating clifftop. It was also the penultimate song that I had no idea about, and another surprise! Chock full of driving drums, it reminded me (to no detriment) of The Bravery's An Honest Mistake, and I was pleased to find out later that the two songs were released within six months of each other! Another song that'll find its way onto my regular running playlists in the future.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>17. Chemical Brothers - Galvanize</b> (Eveline)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I could've sworn when I was listening to this song that it had been used on an advert, or TV show, perhaps as part of an exercise montage - but Wikipedia is remaining mute on the subject. Regardless, it made me <i>feel</i> like I was in one, so this is going on the playlist from now on. You might say it...galvanised...me into running faster!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>18. Russ Abbot - Atmosphere</b> (James)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The final song on this list that I knew nothing about - and within seconds I was convinced it was a hastily written song to cash in on the popularity of Agadoo. According to Google this was written by <u>Joy Division</u>, but I'm certain that's incorrect. Spotify credits the singer, and it's really not good. I'm just glad it had some semblance of pace to it so it didn't drag!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 1/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 1/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>19. Britney Spears - Toxic</b> (Adam)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">About ten years ago the branch of German budget supermarket Aldi in Canterbury closed down, and the cramped site was taken over by upmarket supermarket Waitrose. The sudden increase in quality is a perfect metaphor for the vast uptick in quality between the last song and this. The Grammy award winning track is the musical equivalent of doping - listening to it makes you run faster, lighter, easier and happier.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 10/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 11/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>20. Faithless - Insomnia</b> (Laura)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was a song I was convinced I knew, but two-thirds of the way into the song it still wasn't ringing any bells...until the bells kicked in and I recognised the bit played on Invicta FM on the car rides to school all those years ago. Another great song to run to, soundtracking my run along Marine Parade back to the pier.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>21. Garbage - Temptation Waits</b> (Charlie)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The opening track on the first proper album I ever owned, and the third track on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" original soundtrack album...this is very possibly one of my most listened to songs, ever. A slow burner, it explodes on the listener partway through - and I guess knowing I only had ten minutes left of my run helped boost my motivation too!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>22. Focus - Hocus Pocus (live at the Rainbow)</b> (Jack)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was submitted with the caveat of "hopefully a 15 minute live version". The longest one I could find was "only" eight and a half minutes, but the yodelling and guitars sped me to a fast finish on Hove Lawns. I really need to give the studio version another listen!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Song: 8/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Running: 9/10</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Had I just been listening to podcasts, I probably would've called it a day at 10 or 12k. I tucked another 6k under my belt (two more pints in my beer total), covered a more interesting route, and good lord are my legs feeling it now! <br /><b><br /></b></span></div><p></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-19385865701283401832020-10-15T15:31:00.001+01:002021-04-17T10:50:41.993+01:00I follow too many football teams<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Decided to sit down and compile a list of all the various football teams I'm following at the moment, across different leagues and countries, and note the reason I started supporting them as well as the extent to which I follow. I was surprised.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Arsenal WFC:</b> started following the club on 4th July 2018, when they signed my favourite footballer, Tabea Kemme. Bought a season ticket and attended as many games as my work pattern would allow; from the first game I was amazed by Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema, the best forward I'd seen play since Robert Taylor's purple patch in 1999. Despite missing all 4 of Tabea's appearances for the club, I bought a shirt with her name and number on it which I've worn to every game possible, home and away. The last match I saw in person was a 4-0 win at Brighton back in January (easier to get to than home games, so of course I'd go) during which I realised that despite Tabbi's injury worries, I was in deep enough to care about the other players. This turned out to be prescient as two days later she retired from playing. Thanks to the FA Player, I can watch (almost) every match streamed live to my tablet. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches seen: 5 home, 5 away (Lewes, Brighton [Amex], Crawley, Spurs [new White Hart Lane], Brighton)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: 1 - 2018/2019 home shirt with Kemme 22 on the back.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><strike>Gillingham FC</strike> (mens): </b>Where it all began. Attended my first game against Doncaster Rovers in April 1995, taken by my dad and granddad. The Gills won 4-2, my younger brother and I had room enough to chase each other around the <a href="https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/gillingham-priestfield-stadium-town-end-terrace-1-bw-august-1969-legendary-football-grounds.jpg" target="_blank">terrace</a>. Since then I've experienced <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/8632662.stm" target="_blank">nauseating lows</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Football_League_Second_Division_play-off_Final" target="_blank">dizzying highs</a>, and creamy middles. As of 21st May 2019 my support for the club has been on hold - they appointed Steve Evans - a man who had previously convicted of tax evasion and falsifying accounts, a man who had previously sought to incite Gillingham staff and players whenever his teams played against the Gills, and an all round nasty piece of work - as manager of the first team. I could not in good conscience support a side managed by him, in person or remotely, so I packed away my shirts/scarf/badges, muted the club's social media accounts, and my Saturday afternoons were a lot more fun as a result. He's still at the club, they're currently fourth in the League One table, but this summer they cut loose the associated women's side, so I don't know if I'll ever go back.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches attended: bloody loads. In the three figures, easily. Had a season ticket one year. Attended at least 1/3 of all games - home and away - in the promotion season linked above. Been going at least once a season for the past 20-odd years, mostly more than that. Away games at Crawley a few times (making it my joint second most visited stadium, apart from Priestfield and tied with Meadow Park), once at Spurs (old White Hart Lane), West Brom, Millwall (that was fun, got the tickets through work, ended up with the home fans, Gillingham got a last minute winner that we couldn't celebrate), Charlton twice, a reserve game at Leighton Orient, the above linked game at Wycombe where we went down, strangely not Brighton though.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: had plenty over the years. I've still got the shirt we got promoted in with Thomson 27 on the back, signed by a number of the squad, somewhere. Currently I only have two - the 2009 promotion shirt because it looks pretty good, and the 2011 home shirt because of fond Football Manager memories!</span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;">Borussia Dortmund (mens):</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> Over a decade ago I started a relationship with a German woman. In the getting to know you stage, I asked her what her nearest Bundesliga* club was. (My small talk has since improved. Slightly.) She replied "Dortmund", and I started following the club. I'm not saying that I'm responsible for the team's subsequent uptick in form - they won the league two seasons running after I visited the ground, adding the Pokal (cup) in the second season as well - but I'm not <i>not</i> saying that either. The availability of streams plus the free-flowing, attacking football made them an easy follow, especially at a time when Gillingham went 35 games without an away win in all competitions. I look forward to the club starting up a women's side next season, especially as they're starting from the bottom rather than expecting to be parachuted into the Frauen Bundesliga.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: just the one so far in person, an entertaining 2-3 loss to Wolfsburg in December 2012.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: had a 2004 home shirt that was horrible material, very plasticky. Also have a really comfortable and stylish 2012 away shirt that I couldn't wear for a few years due to it having Hummels' name on - thankfully he's returned from his Bayern defection now. A Munich fan who stayed with us a couple of years ago found the whole thing hilarious.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">*I'm glad I specified the country, as while she grew up nearly 100km from the Westfalonstadion, she was only 20km from FC Twente - but it was complicated enough explaining to people in the early days why I was following a German team, and I think trying to tell them I was following a Dutch side due to my German partner might've been far too much!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>BSG Chemie Leipzig (mens): </b>Dortmund aren't the only German side I've hitched my wagon to, but they're the most high profile. Faced with an indefinite period of time with nothing to do during lockdown, and growing tired of my other FM careers, I set about giving myself a challenge. Due to the high praise dished out by the media to Red Bull Leipzig, a team funded by the energy drink conglomerate who bought their way up the league, I decided my challenge would be to - in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson - "knock them off their f**king perch. I wanted to make another team the biggest side in Leipzig. Scouting around the Wikipedia page for the city, and aided by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/fwkfot/but_why_leipzig_a_not_so_short_analysis_on_why/">this</a> thoroughly informative Reddit post, I settled on Chemie due to their political leanings and colour scheme. Six real-life months and a dozen fictional seasons into the career, I'm one Bundesliga and one Pokal away from equalling the energy drink's trophy haul. I've taken an interest in the real life side as well, languishing away in the fifth tier of German football (an unholy hell of regional leagues and village sides).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: not yet. One day I'll stand on the terrace of the Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark, Freiberger in hand, cheering on the side. But the raging pandemic that brought me to start the career is, ironically, preventing me from properly indulging.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: none, as I rarely wear football shirts these days. But this <a href="https://www.chemie-fanshop.de/produkt/t-shirt-retro-gruen" target="_blank">t-shirt</a> is pretty cool.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Gillingham WFC:</b> Simple thing here - when the side were cut adrift from the parent men's club as part of a cost-saving measure in the summer, I decided to go with the team who were <i>not</i> managed by an odious berk. I'm kooky like that.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: one so far, a pre-season friendly away at Lewes last summer. I was the lone Gills fan. There were more dogs supporting the home side than humans cheering on the away team.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: none, as the club have switched to red after no longer being under the men's umbrella.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Valur (women's team):</b> Some of these have deep, meaningful reasons behind my follow of them. Others, less so. In the early part of 2019 a friend of mine and his Czech girlfriend moved to Reykjavik to live for a bit. We visited them and were surprised to see floodlights from their balcony. Their flat overlooked a football ground, where Valur play, and so it was a simple thing to follow their side to feel closer to Paul and Barbora. It was weird seeing Valur's main striker, Elin Metta, posting Insta stories of playing with the same friendly cat that Paul does!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: just the one streamed so far, due to a dearth of matches available online, but Valur won!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: christ don't give me ideas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>ACF Fiorentina Femminile:</b> And if you thought <i>that</i> was a tenuous reason...last month we took a tour around Italy, stopping in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Venice. I wanted to get something football related to remember the trip by. Venice was out - I was going to the Venezia store anyway to pick up a few things for a mate who had guided them to glory on Football Manager, and didn't want to tread on his toes. Rome was unsuccessful - Lazio's <a href="https://www.footballkitarchive.com/lazio-2018-19-home-kit/" target="_blank">kits</a> have been cool in the past, but their right-wing fans aren't for me, and Roma had some lovely coloured merch but nothing that grabbed me. A surprise heavy shower sent us scurrying into the Fiorentina club shop, a place I'd earmarked to visit anyway, and a lovely flattering jacket jumped off the shelf at me. (It helped that it was reduced from €100 to €30!) Why the women's side over the men's? Women's football is just much more fun!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: just a 3-1 streaming loss to Sassuolo a few weeks ago. Who loses to a Phil Collins single?!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: no shirts, but a sexy jacket.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Ashwood City FC (mens, fictional):</b> Ashwood City are Kent's only Premier League side. One of the founder members of the Football League, they've never been relegated from the Premier League. They're also fictional, the main subject of football podcast The Offensive. Now in its third season, it's been a weekly highlight, weaving current football events into an ongoing story arc. It's occasionally sweary, frequently hilarious, and clearly written by someone who's lived in Kent judging by the accurate jabs at Kentish people/Gillingham! It also used an entire episode as set-up for a reference to the 1992 Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner film The Bodyguard, which still frequently makes me chuckle at random moments.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Matches: tricky, as they don't exist. Like Steve Evans' moral compass.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Shirts: nope.</span></p>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-31375549995788479842020-03-02T12:25:00.000+00:002020-03-02T12:25:13.543+00:00Eastbourne half marathon<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After April's <a href="http://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-big-day.html" target="_blank">failure</a>, I decided to rethink my marathon strategy. Too little training would see me plod over the line after a quarter of a day, ashen-faced and regretting ever trying this running lark. Too much training would aggravate my runner's knee, and I'll end up seizing up 14/15 miles in again. I needed to strengthen my legs. I decided not to do a full marathon in 2020 (a decision partly made for me by the London ballot) and instead split it up - a half in the spring, and another in the autumn. I picked Worthing for the spring half - just along the coast from my regular lovely parkrun, it was one I did in 2017, flat, fairly well attended, decent support, flat, and near to a pub I'd been meaning to try but never had an excuse to. I refreshed my knowledge of the route, used Google Street View to adapt to the slight tweaks, did an 18km (11ish miles) Sunday run up and back down a 300m hill that had defeated me during last year's marathon training, visited the town to eyeball the route, and tapered my exercise the week before in preparation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The more observant among you will notice that the title of this post does not contain "Worthing" anywhere in it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately two days before Storm Ciara put paid to the event, and it was rescheduled. I frantically tried to book in for Brighton Half - much closer, but also much more popular, and I was denied. Not believing I could raise enough for a charity place in two weeks I was pointed in the direction of the Eastbourne Half by my lovely wife Dana instead. I'd never run it, only supported my baby brother when he ran it three years ago, so I signed up. The last few days in the run-up were spent analysing segments on Strava, a wonderful run report on Runnit, and Google Street View until the hill got too scary and made me cry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oh yes, unlike lovely flat Worthing, Eastbourne had a whacking great hill after the first 5k or so. Still, I should be warmed up by then, and it'll be all downhill after, mostly flat along the promenade. I could do this. When I signed up I put down my predicted time in the 2:00-2:15 category - a PB, as my current PB was 2:18 at the time, but I was secretly hoping to crack the 2 hour mark. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Day Itself</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After an earlier start than I would've liked, brought on by rail replacement buses (well done Network Rail for scheduling work blocking all trains to Eastbourne on the day of this event) and several trips to the bathroom, I bade goodbye to my wife and nestled myself quietly on the right hand side of the starting chute. I then edged my way across to the left hand side when I got a text from her giving her position on the left of the course as we headed out - I didn't want to miss the photo opportunities! A brief pose later and I decided to start taking it seriously. Plugging in my headphones I queued up a comedy podcast which got immediately quiet. Great. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On a previous long run I had an issue with my phone in cold temperatures, as the metal case would contract ever-so-slightly, pressing down on the volume button and making whatever I listened to go silent. I had prepared a backup this time round though - an old Nexus 5 without a sim card stood in and I opened up the podcast app...to find none of my podcasts had downloaded last night! I hoped that Spotify wasn't facing the same issue, as then I'd have a very quiet run, but thankfully it was up to the task and I could listen to some banging tunes instead. As well as this technical issue, my smartwatch GPS decided not to connect, leading to a reset around 3 minutes in, which ended up working as well as a stroppy teenager and became little more than a glorified stopwatch. All these issues in the first five minutes made me think that those Luddites might've had a point!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The music didn't let me down, serving up <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlsu7RhOnsQ" target="_blank">pop banger</a> after <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HDEHj2yzew" target="_blank">pop banger</a> as we ran through the town and out the other side. Five kilometres down, and we started going up. I knew this section would be hilly but it was fine, we wouldn't be going as high up Beachy Head as I went the other Sunday, so it'll be easier, right? I forgot that the gradient up Devil's Dyke is a lot more forgiving than this and I regretted leaving my crampons, pitons and Sherpa back at base camp. After breaking through the cloud cover, ducking an airplane cruising at the usual height, and getting higher than Snoop Dogg on an average Tuesday, we turned and descended back to town. This was somewhat easier than the preceding few kilometres!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Breaking out of the trees and along the seafront I was greeted by a cool breeze at my back, refreshing and pushing me along. I passed the five mile mark and with some frantic maths (fingers were involved, I'm not ashamed of admitting that) calculated that I was slightly behind a 2 hour pace, but it was all flat from here so I was confident of getting that back. The crowds started picking up as we ran through the main part of town, emphasising again the morale boost from having your name printed on your shirt and people cheering for you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Under the pier at the six mile point I fired off a quick text to my wife with a rough ETA for when I'd see her, and politely requesting more water. We had walked this part of the route a couple of hours earlier, from the station to the park where the start/finish line was, so it was nice to be on familiar ground. I raced two small spectating children for a brief 50m portion of the course (and beat them - if they're going to challenge me I'm not going to let them win), did a bottle swap, bade goodbye to my wife and then embarked on the second half of the race as Britney's Toxic filled my ears.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Dana managed to swap drinks and take photos at the same time</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a psychological blow of having passed my wife/the finishing line and now having to run away from them both, each step taking me further and further from them. I tried to shake it off, cursing myself for not putting any Taylor Swift on my running playlist, and a Dua Lipa track was not the right mood. A quick skip brought up a much better <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdhkaPZtQF4" target="_blank">song</a> and the ensuing endorphin rush settled my mood. I tucked in behind a guy in an orange vest who seemed to be going at much the right pace and turned my brain off for a bit - I didn't need to calculate my pace, look out for a supply drop, or acknowledge anybody cheering for me, so I could let my body go into autopilot for a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Around mile 9 Rammstein gave way to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeccAtqd5K8" target="_blank">best song</a> of the last decade and I rejoined the real world. Either my pacer was flagging or I discovered a fourteenth wind, as I decided I could go a bit faster and left the guy behind. The route took two right turns in fairly quick succession and I was fairly certain I was heading back towards the finish again. (I suppose the relative position of the sun would've been a bigger clue, but at this point such intelligent thoughts were beyond me.) In the shade of the marina, a nice cool breeze lowering my temperature nicely, I whipped off my sodden head ruff and stuffed it into my pocket. My rough calculations had me still on course for around a 2 hour finish - the 2 hour pacers I kept up with up and down the hill had disappeared in the distance, but my estimations still had me on for a good time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wanted to give myself every possible boost I could and delved into my pocket for some jelly babies. Pulling out the bag I was surprised that I only had two left - had I really been ploughing through them without realising? Delving deeper, passing my sweaty head ruff, I realised that they were tumbling around loose. Slightly disgusted I contemplated going without before reasoning that any additional liquid would be good rehydration, especially if they included bonus sodium crystals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apologies if you're reading this while you're eating anything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A triple header of Chvrches tracks kept me motivated through an intricate course around the Sovereign Harbour - I think I've now seen it from every angle barring underwater - and I passed the eleven mile marker at around 1 hour and 40 minutes down. Just over two miles to go, twenty minutes to get sub-2, I'd need to pick up the pace slightly but it was possible. The opening drum roll of Born To Run filled my ears and I grabbed a bottle of water to cool me off from the final water point. There was a slight gradient up to the promenade but then it was all flat from here. I chuntered along, grimly focused on the leisure centre by the finish line, gradually reeling it in. I tucked in behind a broader gentleman to deflect the wind at mile 12 to give Dana an ETA for finishing. Spotify did its best to keep my pace up, the shuffle supplying two songs from Master Of Puppets and Black Sabbath's Paranoid to keep my blood pumping.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The final 500 metres of the Eastbourne Half Marathon course features a flat straight road, a slope down to a pedestrian subway, an echoey tunnel under said road, a slope back up to the road, a sharp right angle and a grassy finishing chute to the line. Not ideal for a sprint finish but I motored past my windbreak and gave it my best. I was expecting to see Dana at the finish line (somewhere in the crowds) so she caught me by surprise at the 500 metre marker, snapping away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>A lone runner</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wasn't sure how much time I'd lost in the earlier technical faffing but estimated it to be around 3 to 3 and a half minutes. Checking my watch I saw it was going to be close to finish below two hours but went for it anyway. Turning the right hand bend to the finish line I could see the clock showing 02:01:40 something. I knew I hadn't crossed the start line just as the clock started, but doubted that I'd taken two minutes to start. Sub two hours was gone, but barring a catastrophic collapse - I was fairly certain I could crawl over the line in time - I was going to get a new PB. I decided to make future James's PB attempts a little bit harder and carried on my pace rather than ease up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I crossed the line, grabbed a medal from a youthful volunteer (almost barrelling into the poor little mite and knocking him over), and stumbled to an open space. Dana had caught up with me fast enough to take pictures and found me napping peacefully a few metres from the finish line. I'd run my furthest distance since last year's aborted marathon attempt, and barring a slight stiffness early on when attacking Beachy Head, my knee hadn't whispered a peep of a complaint. I had earned my post run banana and non-alcoholic beer!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Was I disappointed that I didn't get under two hours? Yes, briefly. But when the blood returned to my brain and I could think rationally, I saw the positives of yesterday's run. I took nearly seventeen minutes (16 minutes 49 seconds) off my previous PB for that distance, which was on a mostly flat course to boot. I'd done a long run with poor preparation on unfamiliar roads with no detriment. And I left everything out there - there was no point looking back on the race where I thought "oh, if only I hadn't slowed to catch my breath/posed for a photo/stopped for a pint, maybe I'd have done better". There was no way I could have physically gone any faster. I'm proud of my chip time of 2 hours, 1 minute and 13 seconds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can very probably beat that at the rescheduled Worthing Half this autumn. It's a flatter course, I'll have an extra half a year to get fitter, and I'm confident of shaving 74 seconds off my time to get below two hours. For now though, the most important part is that I beat my brother's time at Eastbourne when he ran it!</span></div>
Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-12045714762798912432019-12-31T15:52:00.000+00:002019-12-31T15:53:40.259+00:00Decade Songs - 10 to 1<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.656; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring...well, you'll see.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">10. Lana Del Rey - Venice Bitch</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg3DxELVPj4" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3hwQhakFwm9soLEBnSDH17" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 9:36</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 18th September 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 40</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">A late entry to this chart! I had my top 100 locked and loaded as of my self-imposed deadline of August 14th this year. Then a trip to Redhill two weeks later had me listening to Lana's new album on the way, and walking round the quiet county town listening to this track on my good headphones as the sun rose, pre-run caffeine coursing through my veins, had me somewhat grumpily rewriting my list. (Then we had several other artists in the top 20 also release new music, but they've not released anything as good as the songs I'd included already.) This track completely surpassed my expectations of Lana (previously thought of unfavourably), being a 70s psych-pop/folk-rock vibe, with a post pop synth outro - not what I thought of from her! The album had several repeat listens that weekend and has turned around my opinion on her completely. I don't know that it would've clicked with me had I listened to it in the background while doing chores, but the combination of mood, weather and attention hit perfectly on that August morning.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9. Ariana Grande - One Last Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPgEgaPk62M" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7xoUc6faLbCqZO6fQEYprd" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:17</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 10th February 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 2 (2017 re-release)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 65</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Ooh, a post-apocalyptic pop video! A nice dance-pop tune about Ari pleading for a former lover to spend a final night with her before they move on completely, this probably would not have been high on my radar were it not for the events on her Dangerous Woman tour in Manchester two years ago. A friend of mine put it better than I could in a <a href="http://xrrf.blogspot.com/2017/05/manchester-manchester-england.html" target="_blank">post</a> at the time, about how the gig "would have been the first gig for so many there; the first real gig; the first gig without a parental chaperone. Becoming an adult; becoming grown-up."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">It's impossible for me to listen to the song without thinking of the emotional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cshg5ktpPtI" target="_blank">performance</a> at the OneLove concert in Manchester a fortnight later. The song has taken on a meaning bigger than itself, the hopeful tone becoming less about a final dalliance and more a statement of defiance, of not being cowed by circumstance, of hope for the future and remembrance of the past. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8. Haileeee Steinfeld - Capital Letters</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj6k-EFxqAI" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6l0Ky2PycJV1Bz88kFeVGL" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:39</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 12th January 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 39</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 53</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Let's face it, anything that followed the above was going to struggle. So, we've got my favourite song of last year, an ideal summer song released in January on the soundtrack to a film franchise with issues! I'm genuinely not sure whether Hailee sees herself as an actress or a singer, as she seems to keep bouncing between the two - following support slots in a Katy Perry arena tour with a big budget spin-off movie from a summer blockbuster franchise, or hinting at finally releasing an album only to headline a TV series instead. The music she has put out over the last few years in dribs and drabs has been great enough to keep me on tenterhooks waiting for an album and headline tour, though!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMpFmHSgC4Q" target="_blank">Love Myself</a> - which is "</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">an empowerment record...ultimately about taking care of yourself and indulging yourself, whether that be emotionally or physically or with material things" and is definitely not about masturbation. Despite the title. And the clothing emblazoned with "self service". And the line "I'm gonna put my body first/And love me so hard 'til it hurts". And the line "I'm gonna touch the pain away/I know how to scream my own name". Definitely just an empowerment record. It's also another Julia Michaels track that missed out on the countdown!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7. Lucy Rose - Bikes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJe_ofKqC4o" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0Q8wd2l00zpUraEmBVnpXb" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:35</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 14th August 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 44</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 25</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2012 was a fallow year for gigs. Getting to grips with living in Brighton, adjusting to new responsibilities, live music fell by the wayside - until Dana discovered Lucy Rose, through the Brighton tag on Tumblr of all places, and bought us tickets for her gig at a seafront nightclub in town. Did Lucy make a good impression? Well, she's the only artist I've got a gig total in this decade of double figures! It's gotten to the point where we've become friends, where she misses us at London/south east gigs (we've gone along the coast to Southampton, Portsmouth and Ramsgate to see her) and where she's specifically asked to look at our wedding photos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Note: the "gigs" total above includes the Brussels gig where I passed out three songs in and only recovered for the encore.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o84y-5-cO0" target="_blank">Shiver</a>, a wistful ballad, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsHDThmr_ZQ" target="_blank">Floral Dresses</a>, featuring some terrible over-acting from the handsome yet modest fan portraying the bartender in the video)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Camila Cabello - Havana</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ0mxQXmLsk" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1rfofaqEpACxVEHIZBJe6W" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:54</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 2nd March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 45</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's difficult to write something new about an artist who's featured three times already in this chart. This was a very strong single from someone who had previously only popped up on my radar as the subject of <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesv_t/statuses/810735173931335680" target="_blank">poor</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesv_t/status/810735241900003328" target="_blank">jokes</a> referencing her departure from a girl group, and drew my attention (as the other three songs featuring her on this list will demonstrate). The pint-sized Latina quickly became someone to listen to regularly, and while her second album singles were very strong, thankfully they weren't quite as good as Havana so I didn't need to worry about rewriting this rundown! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFZz8wHL2a4" target="_blank">Havana live on the Ellen Show</a>, the performance that made me realise with the right team behind her she could push her way out of the second tier and become a superstar; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp_P_e1cPOE" target="_blank">Shameless</a>, the track that made me understand what the kids mean by "thirsty"; and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogalmk6K0zs" target="_blank">Cry For Me</a>, which (along with Shameless) teased me with the crunching guitars and made me long for a heavier album.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Lorde - Green Light</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMK_npDG12Q" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6ie2Bw3xLj2JcGowOlcMhb" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:54</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 2nd March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 45</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">An artist that's probably the last one that hit big, but for who I was ahead of the general public. Not by much, but Selena Gomez's performance of Royals at her Hammersmith Odeon gig in September was about a month before the single hit UK radio, and six weeks before we saw Lorde opening for Iggy Azalea (who dat?) and Bastille at a Vevo gig in Hackney. Lorde's first album was appreciated but not loved by me, but then she released this track as a prelude to her second album, and it blew me away. Her SNL <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHB_ZpbTi30" target="_blank">performance</a> took me from intrigued to eagerly anticipating Melodrama, and I remember consciously leaving my motorbike at home so that I could walk into work on the day of release and fully listen to it all. I'm quite verbose but still, I'm in awe at her turn of phrase.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also listen to: all of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2B87zXm9bOWvAJdkJBTpzF" target="_blank">Melodrama</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Lena - Satellite</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QSgNM9yNjo" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2UjNsh4ipNrmog6wdS2JVv" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 2:55</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 13th March 2010</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 262</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">This is my most listened to song on Last.fm, a music tracking site I've been using and contributing to since 2005. Lena won Eurovision (a pan-continental singing competition, sort of a cross between Glee and The Hunger Games) with this song in 2010 and leveraged the ensuing fame into a strong pop career. Sadly she seems to stick to German speaking countries, despite the songs all being recorded in English, but one day I'll see her live. One day. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jzpLfcw9fM" target="_blank">Skinny Bitch</a>, a vicious response to press and stan criticism that would make the next artist nod approvingly; and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1J41MQh3Ss" target="_blank">Thank You</a>, a kiss-off anthem unfortunately overshadowed by Ariana's <i>thank u, next</i> being surprise released a fortnight before.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend / Dancing On My Own</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ImxY6hnfA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/15hut9fX33giUAMyycwvsV" target="_blank">Spotify</a> / </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcNo07Xp8aQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6aqNCrRA7vs7v6QvRpI50t" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:46 / 4:45</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 1st April 2011 / 1st June 2010</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 55 / 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 119 / 125</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Yes, I'm cheating. My list, my rules to break. I genuinely couldn't choose between these two tales of love - one from the prologue of a relationship, a confident swagger of a woman approaching a potential partner and informing them to break up with their girlfriend, as she's bored; the other a shy plea to be seen, that if they would just witness the heartache that the narrator is going through, not being noticed, having the possible partner distracted by somebody else, they'll see that the narrator is the best choice. (This was very nearly a trilogy until I realised that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKf_cQCdeo" target="_blank">With Every Heartbeat</a> - a track about post-relationship heartbreak - was released in 2007, and the Pete Tong <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u7lFfiqvns" target="_blank">version</a> featuring Zara Larsson was released too late to be crowbarred in.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Taylor Swift - All Too Well</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7EexjQdT0s" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6GNRkaWUB0Lwc19SdkTgx8" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 5:29</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 22nd October 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 59</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 4</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't think anyone can be surprised to see Taylor so high up. After purchasing a cheap ticket to her O2 gig on the Speak Now tour partly as an excuse for a break after working 10 hour days, six days a week rolling out a new system at work, I was surprised at how effective it was in turning me into a fan. I picked up her three albums cheaply second-hand and delved deeply into her back catalogue. My enthusiasm spread, and caught, with friends realising that I wasn't enjoying her material ironically but genuinely liked it, and thus checked her out themselves. Each subsequent album release was An Event, calendars marked and each eagerly anticipated. She followed up</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Speak Now</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Red</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'s sonically cohesive nature hiding a wistfulness among the pop nature of the singles. Next came her imperial phase -</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">1989</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">being the crossover into super-stardom. She was everywhere and had the material to support it (New Romantics, a song that 99% of pop musicians would sell their souls for, was hidden away as a bonus track!) but that blanket coverage had a downside, as some got sick of her and looked to bring her down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Her response to the backlash, <i>reputation</i>, took a long time, a live show and a helpful nudge from professional wrestling to click with me properly, and is still hindered even now by the guest vocals on track 2. <i>Lover</i> was definitely a return to form and no artist has soundtracked my decade as consistently and thoroughly as Taylor has. With such a wealth of material to choose from, some might be surprised of my choice of song but it encapsulates many things I like about music - building songs to a big climax, storytelling in lyrics, amazing phrasing ("You tell me 'bout your past/thinking your future was me" and </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"I forget about you long enough/</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To forget why I needed to") - all in a track surrounded, but not overshadowed by strong singles, in an album that was generally overlooked by award shows and fans. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Also try: blimey, where to start? Check out m</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ost of <i>Speak Now</i> (tracks 3 and 5 are rather dreary, and track 10 is a banger that unfortunately hasn't aged well), all of <i>Red</i> except the duets, all of <i>1989 </i>(<u>deluxe edition</u> - this is very important, as Wonderland/You Are In Love/New Romantics would easily appear in the top 20 of the decade if I didn't have the one song per artist rule), the <i>reputation </i>tour movie on Netflix (and thus <i>reputation</i> the album), and her latest album <i>Lover</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Bella Thorne - Bitch, I'm Bella Thorne</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kffno4qg-5E" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW, but if you get fired for listening to this classic, it's not a job that deserves you) // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5HhFQfdaPyiC4mjt2TFxxP" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:14</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 18th May 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 269</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0 (sadly)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Of course it is.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i>Of course it is.</i> Who else would it be? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Who else has run away with my music tastes throughout the decade, who I've tweeted too much about, who I've been completely dedicated to, who my fever for has gone higher and higher since the first time I listened to her? It just feels right, she gives me everything I need, for sure. Now that I found her it's like finding my favourite colour, she was there when I needed her, you could say I really like her.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeccAtqd5K8" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7xGfFoTpQ2E7fRF5lN10tr" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 4:11</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 17th July 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 58 (SCANDELOUS)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 102</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 3</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course it's Carly. Initially dismissed as a one hit wonder with Call Me Maybe in the early part of the decade, I ignored her until a work trip left me kicking my heels in a hotel room in Warrington. Dana suggested (in that lovingly direct way of hers) that I give Carly's new album, <i>Emotion</i>, a try. And then another listen. And another. I had it on repeat on the five hour train ride home the next day. I travelled up to London mid-afternoon to get to her gig hours before doors opened, on a cold and bitter December day, in order to get Dana and I a decent spot. <i>Emotion </i>became the yardstick against which all other albums would be subsequently judged (it's been noted that the two Taylor Swift albums that have been released after Emotion have not clicked with me in the same way as the ones before have). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It seeped into other areas of my life as well. One Saturday morning I cued up a playlist for a run consisting of related songs (<i>Born To Run</i>, Foxes' <i>Feet Don't Fail Me Now</i>) which included this track. When the saxophone opener blared out, I felt myself relax. My pace quickened, and the muscle aches faded away. I had conditioned my body to release endorphins at the sound of this song. Across the 71,000 tracks I've scrobbled, and the hundreds and thousands (if not millions!) of songs I've listened to over the 35 years I've been alive, there are very few songs that have such an instant gratifying effect on my mind, my body, my soul - and certainly none that have been released this decade. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Also try: look, if the above hasn't convinced you to listen to <i><a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1DFixLWuPkv3KT3TnV35m3" target="_blank">Emotion</a></i> then nothing I say here will. We are truly blessed to be living at the same time as Carly is releasing new music. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even the collection of off-cuts from the album (</span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/31776n0a6xHYMHSlK4983u" target="_blank">Side B</a></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">) has songs that far exceeded other artists' entire discography. And to prove she's not just a flash in the pan Carly's latest album,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i><a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/25it7uSpNFuRoD6uNc0Tfu" target="_blank">Dedicated</a>, </i>shows a career maturity in an album of unskippable songs.)</span></div>
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Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-41020195672872972192019-12-30T15:54:00.000+00:002019-12-30T15:54:30.492+00:00Decade Songs - Stats and Trivia<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few little stats before the top ten tomorrow.</span><br />
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" width="640" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think anyone can be surprised by the "solo female" category dominating my chart, really. It would be slightly higher if I'd categorised Poppy correctly, rather than according to her gimmick (she is the sole AI entrant). </span><br />
<br />
<div>
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td colspan="2" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Year Breakdown"}" rowspan="1" style="border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Year Breakdown</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2010}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2010</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":12}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">12</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2011}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2011</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2012}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2012</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2013}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2013</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":8}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2014}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2014</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2015}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2015</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":11}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">11</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2016}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2016</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":11}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">11</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2017}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2017</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":12}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">12</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2018}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2018</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":11}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">11</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2019}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">2019</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was interesting to review. Apparently there were some fallow years in the early part of the decade. I wonder if this is down to me starting to compile my list in 2017, and recency bias playing a part? Certainly this year there were very few new songs to topple established ones - as the list was pretty much set in stone two thirds of the way through the year that left less time for 2019 to make its mark. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td colspan="2" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Month Breakdown"}" rowspan="1" style="border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">Month Breakdown</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"January"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">January</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":7}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">7</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"February"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">February</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":8}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"March"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">March</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":16}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">16</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"April"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">April</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":10}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">10</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"May"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">May</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"June"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">June</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":10}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">10</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"July"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">July</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"August"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">August</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":7}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">7</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"September"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">September</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":6}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">6</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"October"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">October</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":9}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"November"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">November</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":6}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">6</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"December"}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">December</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4}" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 3px; text-align: center; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was more for my own curiosity than anything else! It looks like March is a good month for new releases, a strong showing through spring and early summer, then dropping off in the Christmas period.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few bits of trivia:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Oldest song:</b> Timberland ft. Katy Perry - If We Ever Meet Again (18th January 2010)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Newest song:</b> Tie! Zara Larsson - All The Time and Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello - Senorita (21st June 2019)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Most listened to song:</b> Lena - Satellite (262 scrobbles)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Shortest song:</b> Melissa Benoist - Super Friend (2 minutes 14 seconds)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Longest song:</b> Iron Maiden - Empire Of The Clouds (18 minutes 1 second)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Most represented artist:</b> Camila Cabello (featuring with Machine Gun Kelly, duetting with Shawn Mendes, as part of girl group Fifth Harmony, and solo)</span></div>
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<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-60930747471585433032019-12-30T08:19:00.000+00:002019-12-30T08:19:23.971+00:00Decade songs - 20 to 11<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring artists from all over Europe! Take that, Brexit!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20. Clean Bandit ft. Zara Larsson - Symphony</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatr_2MstrI" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW - there's no boobs or anything, but it's emotional) // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1x5sYLZiu9r5E43kMlt9f8" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:32</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 17th March 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Didn't discover this track for nearly a year after release. I'd heard it on the album, which didn't click with me on first listen, and I'd probably heard it in passing, but it wasn't until channel surfing on music channels that I paid attention to it. It's a fantastic combination of two artists who, this time last year, I didn't care deeply for until two live sets changed my mind. Clean Bandit were the main support act for Kylie at Brighton Pride this year and having collaborated with a lot of female singers I like (and Demi Lovato) I was in a receptive mood for them - and they delivered more than expected! A dive into their back catalogue over the next week made me glad I gave them a second chance. This is still my pick of the bunch, a stirring track that climbs and climbs, with Zara's vocals complementing the strings perfectly. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZs1AHQBz24" target="_blank">I Miss You</a> featuring Julia Michaels, who has a wonderful knack of clever lyrics and has written some great songs by artists I love but unfortunately none of them are in this chart, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlznpxNGFGQ" target="_blank">Baby</a> ft Marina and Luis Fonsi)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">19. Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth - See You Again</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2JzZzZUQj3Qff7wapcbKjc" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:49</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 10th March 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 7</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Oof, this is an emotional opening to this section. I was fairly certain, when Dana and I got tickets for Batman vs Superman, that it would launch our fandom of a film franchise. What I didn't expect was that said franchise would end up be Fast and Furious, due to wanting to see more of the wonderful Gal Gadot, and Dana's insistence that we can't start watching a film series at the fourth entry. By the time Giselle's story arc had ended at the sixth (for now...) we were in too deep with the family, and ended up attending the European premiere of the eighth movie. This track soundtracked the seventh film, specifically the last goodbye of the late Paul Walker's character, and tugs on the heartstrings in just the right way. A fitting send-off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18. The Killers - Just Another Girl</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BwzP1laWkQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3aVyHFxRkf8lSjhWdJ68AW" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 4:22</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 11th November 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 83</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 5</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Phew, a positive song! Hopefully the rest of the songs from here will be a bit more upbeat, or at the very least number seventeen isn't a song about bereavement and depression! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Anyway, you might be assuming that this song is only on here for the appearance of an androgynously styled Dianna Agron in the video. And while that's the main reason I watched it in the first place, it's a strong enough song to justify this position. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17. Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2ihCaVdNZmnHZWt0fvAM7B" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 4:26</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 20th December 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 12</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 65</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">I've no idea how I discovered this song. All I know is that for a period of a year or so it was a regular mainstay in playlists, despite hopping between streaming platforms and playback methods. I built the song up so much in my mind that I didn't want to try anything else by the band, worried that it wouldn't live up to how highly I thought of this song. It's another cheerful, jolly song that is incredibly bleak when you pay the slightest bit of attention to the lyrics.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Having a long weekend in Iceland over the summer, I picked up a copy of the English language local newspaper. In it was an article about Of Monsters And Men, promoting their latest album (as well as giving me the interesting trivia that they, not Bjork or Sigur Ros, are Iceland's most streamed artist). I downloaded it for the flight home and enjoyed it so much in my sleep deprived delirium that it's been one I've returned to regularly.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also try their newest album, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3srD2n5pHVaexmp5mJlQFz" target="_blank">Fever Dream</a>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16. Dua Lipa - Be The One</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rey3m8SWQI" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1ixphys4A3NEXp6MDScfih" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:22</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 30th October 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 21</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">After a set at Brighton Pride that did enough to pique my interest in her, I've followed Dua's career path since, at arm's length. She's released several singles that have climbed the charts, but none are as good as this cracker. It wasn't until it came on a Spotify playlist earlier today that I was able to put my finger on why this is head and shoulders above the rest of her discography - you actually feel like she believes in what she's singing with this song! Rather than her usual indifferent monotone she gives it her all, with her voice cracking from the emotion heading into the final chorus. The video linked above emphasises the difference, showing a playful, yearning side to her that seems to have been sanded down subsequently. Ironically, this is the only single on her debut album in which she didn't have a songwriting credit!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Also try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2qgadSvNyU" target="_blank">New Rules</a>, the best counting song since How To Be A Heartbreaker)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15. Tove Lo - Talking Body</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRyxGBGiAE" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW probably) // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7cgu4JBW3hq1GwTM1ilkKQ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:58</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 13th January 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 17</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 38</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">When (and if) I get round to doing my Albums of the 2010s post, Tove's debut will feature prominently. A concept album (catnip to me) based around the three pillars of pop music being sex, love and heartbreak (also catnip) from a Swede (more musical catnip), it's no surprise I loved it from the first time I heard it. This is the highlight of the first third, and Tove's subsequent releases from both this and later albums really demonstrate the difference in having a songwriter who is sexually confident to most mainstream pop music. Tove knows what she wants and if you can't provide it, she'll find someone who will rather than settling for less.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8tbQgXyn1c" target="_blank">Moments</a>, also from Queen Of The Clouds and probably also NSFW; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMsok5m5yD4" target="_blank">True Disaster</a>, from the follow up Lady Wood; and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qanl1s7K2Kc" target="_blank">Glad He's Gone</a>, featuring one of the best music videos of 2019)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14. Selena Gomez - Back To You</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1eFxgRR-k" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/514rhnksEwHUh6LxXsQ4Y9" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:27</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 10th May 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 13</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 46</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">There are things about this track that I have problems with </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(it's probably about Justin Bieber, it's the soundtrack to a Netflix show that glamourises suicide)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, but the song is strong enough to overcome those issues. It's been a busy decade for Selena, rising from the Disney stronghold and leaving the Scene behind to forge a solo career. Stars Dance was a good enough first album to convince us to see her live in London (which also featured a cover of Lorde's </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Royals</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">) and she built on that with Revival, one of my favourite pop albums of the decade. Unfortunately medical issues have stopped her putting together a run of form (but haven't seemed to hinder her career - at one point, two years out from her last album, she was the most followed person on Instagram) but she's continued to release odd singles and pop bangers - such as this light, acousticy electro-country ballad that never slips into being maudlin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZKXkD6EgBk" target="_blank">Bad Liar</a>, a Julia Michaels penned track featuring Selena pulling quadruple duty in the video; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMlcn-_jpWY" target="_blank">Hands To Myself</a>, the third single from Revival about the closeness of touch; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TsVjvEkc4s" target="_blank">Good For You</a> - basically, give <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3Kbuu2tHsIbplFUkB7a5oE" target="_blank">Revival</a> a listen)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13. Harry Styles - Sign Of The Times</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN4ooNx77u0" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5Ohxk2dO5COHF1krpoPigN" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 5:40</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 7th April 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Another artist on whom my views changed over the course of the decade. Previously written off as a Gen Z Gary Barlow, his SNL performance of this track turned my views around. The rest of the album held up to the lofty standards set by this opening single, and what I've heard of the second album (leave me alone Mina, I've been busy) is a continuation of his maturity. Plus, he seems like a nice, affable bloke too! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-x3uD5z1bQ" target="_blank">Watermelon Sugar</a>, which may or may not be about oral sex but is a pleasant tune; and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yezDEWako8U" target="_blank">Adore You</a>, a lovely song about a man's relationship with fish.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12. Zara Larsson - All The Time</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMKtzB7zNrg" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3OTSBoYKO7HzGVj8Bu2OH9" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:48</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 26th June 2019 (Joint newest track!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 70</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 25</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Zara is an artist who I didn't take seriously until very recently. Her stuff was mostly pleasant to listen to, but I got more out of liking her ironically as a way of teasing my wife than fully appreciating her oeuvre. That was until this spring. She announced a small gig in London, and I was gently encouraged to go by Dana (who was, admittedly, expecting another Dua Lipa experience where the lack of stage presence would put an end to it). I duly went, and was impressed - despite it being a significantly smaller venue than she usually plays, and which struggled to sell out, Zara didn't phone it in at all! It was the sort of high energy, total fun gig that makes me see an artist in a new light - and midway through the set she threw out this banger, which has sadly gone underappreciated relative to the quality of the song. It's so good, even by Swedish pop standards!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11. Sigrid - Plot Twist</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNuCNZK-r5A" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7yNSKfs3tjnh44of1FIF5k" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:25</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 14th July 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 34</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">One good thing to come out of my gym membership while working in Brighton - apart from the general "keeping fit" aspect of things - was discovering this track on the treadmill. Looking like the offspring of Emily Browning and Lauren from Chvrches, I was intrigued enough to listen to the song properly (i.e. without the soundtrack of me struggling to keep pace while running) and from there, the rest of her EP, eagerly awaiting her album. When we finally got to see her live at Brixton Academy last autumn I was so enthralled I very nearly wet myself to avoid missing a single second (only the fortuitous timing of an encore break prevented me from having to reason that "my jeans needed washing anyway") and I was so impressed I was unable to speak for a good ten minutes after the set finished. While her album has been underappreciated (a running theme with my artists, it seems I love an underdog) her output has been high enough for me to keep following her as much as possible!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Next time...we enter the top ten! Featuring:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The obvious choice, but lower than you might expect, and not with one of the singles;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The other obvious choice, but not with the song everyone knows;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The surprise choice, unless you've been paying attention since the very <a href="http://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2019/10/decade-songs-missing-out.html" target="_blank">first post</a> in this chart;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">That Swedish choice, because the song is a certifiable banger, despite the weedy cover version by that bloke a few years ago;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The ponytailed choice, with a song that features the correct capitalisation;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The singer-as-a-side-career choice, also related to capitalisation;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The European choice, who you haven't thought of in ages;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The Cuban choice, from Florida;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The Antipodean choice, from her critically acclaimed but low selling second album; and</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">The tea-drinking local choice.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-32473880419693852422019-12-27T14:10:00.000+00:002019-12-27T14:10:17.297+00:00Decade songs - 30 to 21<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring a number of acts who have appeared alongside, fallen out and then made up with, taken shots at or been adopted by Taylor Swift. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30. Katy Perry - Teenage Dream</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WtmW-lfeE" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6b4IqYnduSQl3fE5YIbYVs" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:47</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 23rd July 2010</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: 56</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 38</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Also known as Katy's imperial phase. This was the second single from the eponymous album, and the second US number one of a run of <i>five</i> from the same album - only the second to do it (after Michael Jackson's Bad). This is Katy Perry at the top of her game, playful and sexy, confident and coy, at once aloof and relatable. Subsequent albums have been patchy and chasing trends, which have dulled her star somewhat, but Teenage Dream (the song, the album, the tour) remains a highlight of the decade.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4" target="_blank">California Girls</a>, the single that announced this era. Featuring Sasha Banks' cousin on additional vocals, it's redolent of a more optimistic time. Also try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uGeaOj7DnQ" target="_blank">Roulette</a>, which I know I plugged in the "missing out" section but it deserves more love. Even if the dice/playing card motifs in the live set suggest that they're not exactly sure how to play the game.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">29. Little Mix - Shout Out To My Ex</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDzhKdrN9M" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1pwo8l3Ko7idwaz4LVUEC4" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 4:06</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 16th October 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Three years on I'm still in awe at this song. A strong opener for a new era, it not only fires back at tabloid rumours about how the split between Perrie Edwards and her former fiancee Zayn Malik went down (and that's the only time you'll see him mentioned here), it also works perfectly as a dancefloor filler for scorned women. It's the track that made me take notice of a girl group I'd written off as reality TV fodder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">28. Paramore - Renegade</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvs2JJuZwJ0" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6M9Da8TDERZzTdBYkxMRji" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:28</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 11th October 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: 54</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 58</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">It's been a tumultuous decade for Paramore. Only one band member has remained with the band for the full ten years, with both Farro brothers quitting (and one later returning) at the start of the decade. This track was the lead single from an EP written in response to their departure, and released to demonstrate to fans how little the band would be affected by them leaving. Their sound did mature as the last few years went on, away from the Paramore sound that I prefer, but this track is still a banger. (Ended up writing this entry on Hayley Williams' birthday. Procrastination pays off!)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoTEnaAI9Fo" target="_blank">Monster</a>, another track from the Singles Club EP, which features a superb drum kick at 2:50, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblL026SvD4" target="_blank">Still Into You</a> - a lovely track clearly written about a person which will now be amended to be about the fans)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27. Shawn Mendes ft. Camila Cabello - Senorita</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkh8UtuejGw" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0TK2YIli7K1leLovkQiNik" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:10</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 21st June 2019 (joint newest track!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We'll never know how much of their relationship is true, or promotional. But, given how this is just "Especially For You" for Generation Z, I'm not going to think about it too much, or make fun of anyone for how legitimate they believe it is. This is a cracker of a song, a great summer tune with Latin influences - one of those songs that I heard being played <i>everywhere</i> this summer and never once got bored of. Could that be due to Camila's vocals? Count up her number of appearances on this list and you'll have your answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">26. Jonas Brothers - Sucker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAmeh0-E-U" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/22vgEDb5hykfaTwLuskFGD" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:01</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 1st March 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 11</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0 (happy, Mina?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another nice segue - from this decade's cover star of "Non-Threatening Boys" magazine, to last decade's! Another act I've been aware of, through relationships with my pop girls (Nick for having songs written about him by Miley and Selena, Joe for the same with Taylor and Aly Michalka, and Kevin...<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hWWe-ts2s" target="_blank">well</a>) but it wasn't until their reunion this year, launched with this belter, that I properly gave them their dues. The Disney boy band have become men.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">25. Kacey Musgraves - High Horse</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbNDJRwXKGc" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2U2Z1IXnmJIvlknWizFykZ" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:33</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 26th June 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">I'd heard a couple of Kacey tracks before the Sigrid gig in November last year, Shazamed them to listen to them properly later on, and promptly forgot. It wasn't until Dana suggested that I check out her album Golden Hour early this year that I properly appreciated my favourite Bella twin - it's a great country album, without the problematic tinges that affect country music. (For example, the line in this track "you're classic in the wrong way" - *chef's kiss*) I do wish she'd stop taking jabs at Taylor, but I can imagine the constant lazy comparisons might get a tad wearing (I've seen similar complaints from any rock band with a female vocalist being incessantly compared to Paramore).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8xqyoZXCc" target="_blank">Follow Your Arrow</a> - Kacey sets herself apart from the other country barbies by not sticking to the drug-free, anti-LGBT country message)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">24. Fifth Harmony - That's My Girl</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3rIlrTTh8" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0F2HPooQ20wUQxOOued2JV" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:23</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 27th September 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 26</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 35</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Discovering Camila Cabello's solo efforts sent me scurrying off through her back catalogue, eager to devour more of her work. This inevitably led me onto Fifth Harmony, a band I'd previously only recognised in a sly Tove Lo lyrics, and appreciating their output properly. (Over the last few years I've stopped trying to hide my love of pop music.) Surprisingly, considering my entry point, my favourite 5H track is one that barely features Camila outside of some backing lines and vocal flourishes. That's My Girl is a proper anthem; a hands-in-the-air appreciation track that probably wasn't a response to a CW show lightly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lmojePnA0" target="_blank">poking</a> fun at their approach to feminism but never fails to boost my mood whenever I listen to it. Despite not being a girl.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL9JoH4Sws" target="_blank">Work From Home</a>, an ode to the benefits of not commuting, including but not limited to: reduced environmental impact, mental health improvements, a healthy work/life balance, and getting absolutely railed.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23. Jenny Lewis - Just One Of The Guys</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irvcf6dCk-k" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2tmL6BDmK6SwOt2ETIgmfo" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:51</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 3rd June 2014</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: 18</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 30</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">One of my favourite singers featuring Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson and Kristen Stewart (two Oscar winners, and a future winner) in the video. I don't need to say anything more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">22. Echosmith - Cool Kids</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSCzDykng4g" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/13P5rwmk2EsoFRIz9UCeh9" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 3:57</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 31st May 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: 17</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 56</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Looking through my Last.fm stats for Echosmith, they seem to have an increase in listens every spring. The days get sunnier, the evenings get lighter, the temperature warmer, and that optimism and uptick in mood is perfectly reflected by the Sierota clan. They've never been able to top the track that launched them into the general public's consciousness but when you've got a song this good in your catalogue you don't need to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21. Bruce Springsteen - American Skin (41 Shots)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQMqWAiWPMs" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4fpgB0FJiQ2bH7SVBHcT7j" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Track length: 7:22</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK release date: 14th January 2014</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last decade's chart: 34</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listens as at 8th October: 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">One thing I've become aware of over the last ten years is how many artists choose to use their platform for the power of good. Mr Springsteen had a working class childhood (as detailed in his excellent biography <i>Born To Run</i>) but other than that, as a white male, you'd not expect him to have faced much prejudice. It's good to see him using his fame to raise awareness of the police shooting of an unarmed black man (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Skin_(41_Shots)" target="_blank">Amadou Diallo</a>) and the issues that his audience may be too privileged to be aware of. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Next time...a duet between two artists you'll be full on shocked to see here, the last male vocalists on the list, and artists from Albania, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. It's like Eurovision, but sober.</span></span></div>
Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-28001608416667529212019-12-18T17:02:00.000+00:002019-12-18T17:02:16.249+00:00Decade songs - 40 to 31<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring two all male bands, two male solo artists, and a song called Boy - this may be the most man heavy set in the entire chart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, we've reached the point where every song from this point forward is an utter banger, to the point where I'm wanting to listen to each track repeatedly when writing their respective sections.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">40. Rammstein - Deutschland</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeQM1c-XCDc" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW - probably) // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2bPGTMB5sFfFYQ2YvSmup0" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 5:22</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 28th March 2019</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 98</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: 10</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 14</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 3</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">I like songs and videos that tell a story - Taylor Swift is a master at this. I also like history, knowing where we've come from. Rammstein launching their new album with a ten minute short film about the history of Germany, incorporating their new song (Deutschland is German for Germany - years of Duolingo finally paying off!) is right up my street - and then <i>making absolutely sure</i> no right-wing idiots misconstrue it for wild fevered patriotism by making the character of Germania a woman of colour? Wonderful! The video itself is explained by an Oxford University professor rather well <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/we-got-an-oxford-university-professor-to-explain-what-the-fcks-going-on-in-that-rammstein-video" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Also try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0NfI2NeDHI" target="_blank">Radio</a>, another NSFW video which nevertheless has a subtle feminist message shown, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pat2c33sbog" target="_blank">Ausländer</a> - a comment on immigration (which is also NSFW))</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">39. K.I.D. - Boy (reprise)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCFX08o2v2s" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6CZi8ge3RpMtj48826c2hx" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:22</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 8th November 2017</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 15</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">This came up as a suggestion on a Spotify playlist (it may even have been the same one as Poppy, thinking about it) and immediately stuck with me. This acoustic version is better than the original, due to the emotion and feeling put into every word by Kara Lane, the singer. It's a song that sums up those confusing teenage feelings of love, lust and loss, and what more could you want from pop music?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">38. The Chainsmokers - #SELFIE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdemFfbS5H0" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1HOlb9rdNOmy9b1Fakicjo" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:03</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 29th January 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 11</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 18</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">About a week after this came out, Dana and I attended an acoustic set and signing in south west London by pop-punk band We Are The In Crowd. The average age of the audience was about 19, and this song came on as part of the pre-show playlist. It was one of my favourite gig experiences of the decade listening to the conversations gradually die down as people started paying attention to what on earth was playing over the PA. I've no idea if this song is meant ironically or played completely straight, but in a time capsule to define the 2010s, this deserves to be included as it sums up the decade wonderfully.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">37. Kesha - Praying</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Dur3uXXCQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0jdny0dhgjUwoIp5GkqEaA" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:50</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 6th July 2017</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 26</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Another of my gig highlights came with a track played over the PA at Kesha's gig in London in 2017, but I've detailed that in my <a href="http://jamesthegill.blogspot.com/2017/12/gig-survey-2017.html" target="_blank">gig survey</a> for that year already. After the legal struggles against her producer and his legal team dragging her name through the mud, most people would've expected Kesha to fold, and her career would be mostly known for Tik Tok. Instead she returned stronger and harder, with this absolute belter of a song that, really, nothing I write can really do it justice. Go and listen to it. Repeatedly. (If you can - it's a powerful song and I struggle to handle it.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">36. Nick Jonas ft Tove Lo - Close</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgJFqVvb2Ws" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW)// <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3lSDIJ2abCrOdDJ6pshUap" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:54</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 25th March 2016</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 25</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 23</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think this might be the only "loophole" song in which <i>both</i> artists feature on tracks later in the chart? Anyway, my favourite Swedish musician brings her trademark sexual chemistry to this track, and Kevin's younger brother matches her in every respect. It's tricky writing this section, knowing that we'll be returning to both of them later in the chart. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">35. Pale Waves - Red</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tzXWrTk8pA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5b9FRMhGHLmc1kl05asZcS" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:56</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 14th September 2018</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 19</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">I heard a lot of buzz about Pale Waves’ album from friends on Twitter when it was released in October last year so I figured I’d give it a listen. I wasn’t disappointed with what I heard, but oddly the song that stuck out to me was an album track rather than one of the singles. A band who’ve built on Chvrches’ synthpop and made something fresher, this is one of those songs I can listen to on repeat without getting bored of it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">34. Dagny - Love You Like That</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnQBqinwlwQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2IClzYyvgwrsmVVipYsx5T" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 2:57</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 13th October 2017</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 14</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Dagny came to my attention late last year, as one of her songs was played before Sigrid came on stage and I liked it enough to Shazam. Scandanavian pop became my niche interest throughout that autumn and Dagny filled that with aplomb. I wasn't the only one impressed with the track - in May this year, Katy Perry released "Never Really Over" which was <i>heavily</i> influenced by Dagny's song!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">33. Mark Ronson ft. Miley Cyrus - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hcJgtnm6Q" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW)// <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/27rdGxbavYJeBphck5MZAF" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:37</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 18th December 2018</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 9</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">It's Miley again! For the last time, there's no Ashley O/Hannah Montana to follow. This country tinged track gave Miley her highest charting UK single since Wrecking Ball. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">32. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Cast - You Stupid Bitch</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgUKQCVieWM" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5YIyPIZseBVqumEiZfsv41" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 2:22</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 8th February 2016</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 12</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The website AV Club had several articles promoting Crazy Ex-Girlfriend before it premiered in 2015 and as they'd been spot on with Jane The Virgin, we decided to give this a try, despite the hangover from the last musical TV show we watched. I'm glad Glee didn't put us off, because CxG is one of the smartest, funniest TV shows I've watched over the last decade. This is from the climax to a season one episode where all of Rebecca's chickens come home to roost, producing this song which perfectly encapsulates feelings we've all had. (To show it's not all bleak, the episode also features a hair metal song about sending a text to the wrong person - featuring the ghost of Steve Jobs - and two characters speaking the lyrics to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzY3EaJTuJk" target="_blank">theme song</a> in conversation. It's on Netflix. Go watch it.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">31. Sia - Chandelier</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4VrWlk8IQxevMvERoX08iC" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Track length: 3:36</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK release date: 17th March 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">UK chart position: 6</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Last decade's chart: N/A</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Listens as at 8th October: 25</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a03e25d-7fff-ad14-1b98-d5d3cd40d27d"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gigs this decade: 0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">I like Sia. Even though I've never actively listened to her, whenever a track of hers has come on it's always invoked a nod of approval and I've let it play out - her music inspires positive feelings in me. (Even if Shape Of You nicked the opening to Cheap Thrills, so I accidentally end up nodding approvingly to Ed bloody Sheeran.) This is very much another track where you can hear the emotion in every letter, and it paints a vivid picture of someone desperately clinging on to the lifestyle as it wrings them out of everything they've got.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">(Plus, Karen Gillan has done a great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1sRO9wAWD0" target="_blank">cover</a> too!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small; white-space: normal;">Next time...two artists who Taylor Swift has written songs about, one who has appeared in the video for one of said songs, an artist who produces indie records much cooler than Taylor's, and the non-Sasha-Banks Boss.</span></span></div>
Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-65768838906191224892019-12-11T20:02:00.000+00:002019-12-11T20:02:11.781+00:00Decade Songs - 50 to 41<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring three Buffy fans, more actresses turned singers, an artist acting <i>while</i> singing, and a Grammy winner...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Also, just a heads up here - most of the videos linked to feature attractive people wearing very little, so just be careful where you watch them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>50. Meg Myers - Sorry</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym1J5IAk2P4" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/00dgK4Nln0AJQvI66SLRDb" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:56</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 3rd March 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meg is one of those artists who I know I'll never see live, without visiting their home country for the specific purpose of seeing them, but it won't stop me hoping. For a period she became a channel for frustration at work I didn't realise I had until reflecting on it - her early EP and debut album were frequently listened to on the walk to work to psych myself up for another day in the office, or to decompress on the walk home. It's angry music, but relatably so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR5u9jb0PJE" target="_blank">Desire</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQqZg5BisE" target="_blank">Monster</a>, but you might not want to watch them at work. They're not explicit but you might get a frown)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>49. Mean Girls cast - Apex Predator</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiIi7STG3e0" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/649R9kCgcTrjHaKSMUooia" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 18th May 2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">My first Broadway show! Not having enough limbs to pay for a Hamilton ticket, we decided to go to a musical re-imagining of the best teen film since Clueless and before Easy A. This was a standout highlight of the soundtrack when I listened to it in preparation of our trip, and the staging lived up to my expectations - the only thing that came close was introducing Regina George with a Bond-villain esque score! This track introduces the conflict you know is coming from the film, while subtly foreshadowing Cady's arc as well.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>48. Kylie - All The Lovers</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frv6FOt1BNI" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/18JKvOJ3cXbGUePQWT3bLW" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 11th June 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 3</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">95</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another music video you probably shouldn't watch in an open plan office. Kylie is my test to see <i>just how much</i> social networks and search engines know about me - if the first result is the lesser Jenner sister, then they've not got a handle on me yet. Ms Minogue is probably my first crush, back when she was the sassy mechanic Charlene in Neighbours, an acting career she transitioned into a music career with some success in the UK. This is her highest charting single of the decade, and at time of writing (literally, if this paragraph takes me longer than 15 minutes I'll have to deduct one from the total) she has four more chart announcements to get a number one and prevent the 2010s being the first decade since the 70s in which she's not topped the UK singles chart at least once. That alone should demonstrate her longevity. She's the princess of pop for good reason. Have I elevated her in this chart because I'm ashamed of how low she was for Can't Get You Out Of My Head last time around? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's because of how she's a cultural institution in the UK, because of how she's adapted her output over the last four decades to keep up with the times without losing her style, because I saw her live over the last two years and realised what I'd missed out on, or because she's <i>Kylie goddamn Minogue</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqtzMue6Izw" target="_blank">Your Disco Needs You</a>. It's from January 2001, but you need to listen to it.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>47. The Pretty Reckless - Make Me Wanna Die</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txBfhpm1jI0" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0KGIbrNYktDXYyHopcDI2L" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:55</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 14th April 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 106</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A band who - indirectly - got me listening to podcasts regularly! While surfing music channels at home I came across this chugging riff, before a blonde frontwoman picked up the vocals. I was intrigued. A hair metal sounding band, with a female lead singer? That's my catnip, why hadn't I heard of them before? I put out a tweet about them while googling the singer, Taylor Momsen, and got several responses referring to "Little J".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This just lead to further questions, as I couldn't see whom the initial "J" referred to. After much befuddlement I was gently pointed in the direction of Gossip Girl and realised that Taylor played Jenny Humphrey on the show. This discovery, coinciding with seeing Dana every weekend and her watching the show, led me to watching season 4 (weekly, with her) and the earlier seasons (to catch up on the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite) in between playing the album, which helpfully was released about a month after I first heard this track. They became my 4th most listened to artist of 2010, which isn't bad considering I didn't know about them until late July. I've kept up with the band ever since, eagerly awaiting each release as they neatly fill the Donnas shaped hole in my life!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7VGOnV2QhU" target="_blank">Just Tonight</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzuSVxuGW64" target="_blank">House On A Hill</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>46. Halsey - Nightmare</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_dqfcvTZik" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/340UVheS8z3ncW9TTUhAbc" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:51</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 17th May 2019</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 26</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Having been on Tumblr since mid 2010 (jesus, where does the time go?) I was aware of Halsey when she was being heralded as the electro-pop queen. I drifted from her, preferring more sugary pop, until Dana got us tickets to see her performing at the Electric Ballroom in London (capacity 1,500), so I thought I'd better get caught up - starting with this track, her then most recent single. It was much heavier than I expected, but also far stronger, angrier, and well earned middle finger up from a woman who won't take shit any longer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>45. Anavae - Forever Dancing</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8sISLYggY" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3l6T5UCnSBmsMvUZjMyLN8" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 27th October 2017</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A band I was recommended back in 2012, the London duo have slogged through so much this decade (label woes, lazy Paramore comparisons, more label woes) that you'd have every sympathy with them if they just jacked in being musicians and decided to stick to normal careers. Thankfully for us they persevered, and earlier this year released their first album (titled "45" - I had a quick reshuffle of this batch of 10 as soon as the title was announced!) which shows a harder, more resilient edge to them compared to their earlier stuff. It's been great watching the band grow and evolve over the last seven years, and this track - from the Are You Dreaming? EP - would have provided my MSN name for months if I were still using the service. Truly, no higher honour could be bestowed upon it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WaiPzIGOEQ" target="_blank">Shy Girls</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgIN0wahIo" target="_blank">Human</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMW1l-O9ads" target="_blank">Feel Alive</a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>44. Foxes - Let Go For Tonight</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pecj5GGjQi8" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/59lq75uFIqzUZcgZ4CbqFG" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:58</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 23rd February 2014</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 105</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A lot of this chart is going to be artists that aren't as successful as they deserve to be. Foxes is a prime example of this. Her output is the sort of effortless fun that other artists can only dream of attaining, cheerful pop that isn't shallow. Dana discovered her a couple of months before this was released, and we saw Foxes live on the day this charted in the UK top ten. Sadly that turned out to be her peak in terms of chart performance, as later singles have stumbled and after the release of her second album in 2016, she appears to have parted ways with her label - teasing new music in February last year and January of this, with nothing more concrete than that. However at time of writing she's been back in the studio, so hopefully 2020 will finally see some new music!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>43. Chvrches - Clearest Blue</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZyzX4c1vIs" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0ptjIq1XKNYBtfjzXQ3dXE" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:53</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 10th September 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 195</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 36</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Had a bit of an odd relationship with Chvrches. Their first album should've been right up my street but didn't click with me, the second one did immensely, and then the third barely made an impact (not helped by the band repeatedly taking swipes at pop stars I'm rather fond of in promo interviews). This was the third single from the second album, <i>Every Open Eye</i>, and hits that sweet spot of "one of those bangers that just builds and builds and builds until it explodes" that I'm weak for! Hearing it live at the Royal Albert Hall was one of my gig highlights of this decade. Still, one of my favourite authors (Chris Brookmyre) is a big fan of theirs, so I'll probably give album 4 a try out of curiosity.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(It's pronounced "Churches".)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>42. Aly & AJ - Church</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXpTOdVB-p4" target="_blank">YouTube</a> (NSFW WARNING)// <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5R6POw0G6lOqrXb7jg00jd" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 29th March 2019</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I've done that thing again where I've given myself ideal segues between songs without realising. The sibling duo we met at number 63 recur, under the act name they're known for - there's some record label shenanigans that we're not party to that have been going on, but luckily for the Michalka sisters it means they can appear here twice! Over the last few years they've been quietly releasing some mature synthy pop songs across two EPs (<i>Ten Years</i> and <i>Sanctuary</i>) and this is the best of a strong bunch, to the point where I've gone back and forth before I finally settled on the video with the butts in, for some reason.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqmxHwLI9yg" target="_blank">Take Me</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3OeZvnxxAY" target="_blank">Sanctuary</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>41. Zedd ft. Foxes - Clarity</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxxstCcJlsc" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/60wwxj6Dd9NJlirf84wr2c" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:31</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 14th December 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 27</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The only song on this list to win a Grammy! (Probably.) Would not have given this a listen were it not for the appearance of the lovely Foxes providing vocals, a genuine delight whenever we've seen her live and deserving of more success than she's had so far. This is a bouncy cheerful tune, a regular on running playlists, and from the sort of genre that I have to check the info box on Wikipedia to identify! Fun fact: In the US, the main artist is known as "Zee".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Next time...two boy bands, two male solo artists, a song first performed in a TV show, and the only use of punctuation in a song title in the entire chart.<span id="goog_433422754"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_433422755"></span></i></span></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-71327818677151544452019-12-03T18:27:00.001+00:002019-12-03T18:27:36.453+00:00Decade songs - 60 to 51 <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The last part of the first half! Featuring last decade's number one artist, singers from Norway and Greece, and the same person appearing twice in three songs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>60. M</b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">Ø</span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> - Final Song</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUcXQ--yGWQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4qqArAiTPueDxIp7cf87h7" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:55</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 13th May 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 21</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Oh look, another Scandinavian! Despite two sets at The Great Escape festival earlier in the decade, I didn't really click with Mo until another Norwegian artist (who we will meet later) had a pre-show playlist comprised of Norway's best and brightest, which sent me scurrying to make a Scandi-pop playlist and rediscovering this gem, which had cropped up on several algorithmic Spotify lists without me realising. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>59. Rilo Kiley - Let Me Back In</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXZR0rwhXvs" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6jnp07vFunSrnr1TqDeabh" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:23</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 2nd April 2013</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 23</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Also known as "I Love LA" to the purists. A bit of a fall for last decade's number one artist, but it's tricky to keep up that level when you spend the entirety of the 2010s <strike>on hiatus</strike> broken up, and the only thing you release is a collection of B-sides and remixes. This song had been performed live a few times when the band were still together, and was retitled and used as the lead single to the compilation. It's a lovely song, and the second best ode to Los Angeles on this chart!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>58. Troye Sivian ft. Ariana Grande - Dance To This</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhxhNIQBKJI" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2NjO87HyT80fsgejd3PLYW" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:51</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 13th June 2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 64</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Speaking of songs that are just utterly lovely...This is another one I came about due to the Spotify algorithm thrusting songs it thinks I'd like onto my Daily Mix playlists. It's a song that brings warm feelings of a long-term couple, having a cosy afternoon together on the couch, happy just to be in each other's company. It's an unexplored aspect of relationships that doesn't get covered much in songs, which is not detrimental to the song at all. Every time I listen to the song it makes me feel happy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>57. Iron Maiden - Empire Of The Clouds</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbAhn7iKLPc" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7C6K5CQkYOqCS1qcmGUQfV" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 18:01 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 16th April 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fun bit of trivia for you - this is the longest song in the top 100! Came about this completely by chance, listening to Planet Rock while washing up of a morning, and the DJ gave this track a bit of promotion before an exclusive first play, detailing the facts behind the event that the song is written about. Everyone knows about the Hindenburg airship (which itself has a rock pedigree, as the infamous image of the airship crashing was used as the cover of the album Led Zeppelin) but very few people are aware of the maiden flight of the British airship <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101" target="_blank">R101</a> and the tragedy that occurred. The wikipedia link in the previous sentence can shed more light on what happened, but if you prefer to read with your ears and like your tales accompanied by piano-led metal, give this a listen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>56. Gabrielle Aplin - Miss You</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAXUcXOoKt8" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0W5uDMhD0LwNu0ibe9MJ3Y" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 9th November 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 5</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It's been quite a good few years for Ms Aplin. Shooting to fame with a number one in the lead up to Christmas 2012 after covering The Power Of Love (the Frankie Goes To Hollywood one, not the Jennifer Rush one or the Huey Lewis & The News one) for a popular department store's annual ode to capitalism. Since then she's found a comfortable niche for herself - one of the few artists on here that I genuinely feel is producing and releasing the music that she wants, rather than at the label's behest. This track was initially overlooked by me in my longlist in favour of three others, before regular listens made me slap my forehead at what a doofus I was being to miss this out. It's about another part of a relationship, where you're playing it cool and trying not to let the other person know how lost you are without them - until they admit it first.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Also try: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLdTcr98fSs" target="_blank">Panic Cord</a>; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kkJgvAXzk" target="_blank">Light Up The Dark</a>; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3YiS62WPo8" target="_blank">Sweet Nothing</a>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>55. Rolo Tomassi - Cosmology</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcGzuDZRjIY" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3Xuaw3vDysw4b0HMT7Ex6u" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 7:43</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 24th May 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: 59</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 66</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 6</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Big, epic sounding, album- or set-closing tracks are my kryptonite. I find that Rolo Tomassi blow hot and cold with me, sometimes I don't click with the screamo parts of their math-rock sound, but when it's good it's <i>really, really good</i>. This track just builds, layering on elements, pouncing and receding until the three minute climax hits you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>54. Sainte - Technicolour</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aImYc9AFbOE" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/70HE1ubLgFK6u3r6d1ZhMU" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:31</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 11th October 2016</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It's difficult to write this up, because Sainte are 60% of the band We Are The In Crowd, just poppier, and chronologically later - but the WATIC piece will appear after this one. Hmm. I'll just go with it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">...but thankfully that curse doesn't apply to the two members of We Are The In Crowd who aren't in Sainte! In fact, when we saw the band live at their first ever gig in 2016, we ended up having a nice chat with Tay about Orphan Black. This is definitely a poppier sound than WATIC, and far more colourful, but also a well I've returned to many times since release.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>53. Marina & The Diamonds - Bubblegum Bitch</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1eQLw0Nwto" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6IbnUaczZBT34DhaD6S18F" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 2:34</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">27th April 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 34</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm all for a strong opener to an album, and this track's a Statement in itself. The opening song on Marina's second album, it lays down a marker, stating "I'm improving on The Family Jewels". The song itself is two and a half minutes of strong femininity over a crunching guitar riff, each individual part of the track leap-frogging over the rest to reach the end first. It's feminism without compromise, and when I finally got to see Marina live this year, I was utterly impressed!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>52. We Are The In Crowd - Attention</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8bf-FVRGlw" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5wlGKboBACJZdbCugOdWVg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 20th August 2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 63</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 4</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">We Are The In Crowd are a band who I've loved pretty much since I've heard them. Frontwoman Tay Jardine's similar taste in TV shows to me has certainly helped, but after the Paramore comparisons (comparamore?) of their first album, the second had a harder edge to it and this lead single garnered everybody's attention. Unfortunately I've had bad luck with their live shows, missing three due to the untimely deaths of both grandfathers and also to a flat eviction. I'm beginning to think that they might be cursed...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>51. Timbaland ft. Katy Perry - If We Ever Meet Again</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDKva-s_khY" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/360UM2DaiHZPRu0EsrOvMp" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:52</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 18th January 2010 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 3</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 50</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Hey look, it's the oldest song on the list! The start of this decade coincided with the start of Katy Perry's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_phase" target="_blank">Imperial Phase</a>. After the success of One Of The Boys marked her out as a star on the rise, she had a few "featuring on..." credits to keep her in people's minds before the second album. The first one, Starstrukk (a collaboration with 3Oh!3) achieved mild success, as did this, but this is included for more personal reasons as it soundtracked the early start of the relationship with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">That's my wife Dana, not Katy Perry.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Next time...the first (but probably not the last) ten song segment comprising of all female vocalists, the only song from a musical (and not the one you're thinking of), a Grammy award winner and the Princess of Pop...</i></span></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836997.post-82928126614097057422019-11-24T12:37:00.001+00:002019-11-24T12:37:48.813+00:00Decade songs - 70 to 61<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Featuring the female leads of no fewer than three separate CW TV shows, Robyn, and a song in a completely different language (but not the one you're thinking of. Probably.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>70. Leighton Meester - Summer Girl</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZqx0ALCdlU" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/64nxCkjlszl6PG6CdpyHJw" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 22nd January 2011</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 25</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The first Country Barbie I actively listened to, even though this was just a part in an underrated and overlooked movie. Her character is <i>probably</i> not based on Taylor Swift, and I'm sure there's no end of wide eyed female country vocalists on the Nashville scene. It's a shame that the only Leighton songs on Spotify are her soundtrack releases (and even then only just from this movie - I'd love to hear her cover of <i>Bette Davis' Eyes</i>, or her version of <i>Inside The Black</i>, in a more phone-in-pocket-friendly format) and the song she did with Cobra Starship, as her 2014 EP <i>Heartstrings</i> is great!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>69. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PULdPep_xfs" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/14OF4JQOIm4hb0GfG5nfyF" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 2:56</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 21st February 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 73</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two days after I posted the final entry to last decade's rundown, I went to see a gig in London. Fresh off the release of her first album (and of <i>Remedy</i> appearing prominently in an episode of the TV series Dollhouse - I've gone to gigs on more spurious reasons!), Little Boots was headlining Shepherd's Bush Empire. Supporting her that day was a blonde singer who I realised I'd seen busking around Canterbury. Three months later she released Starry Eyed, which took her from bubbling under to mainstream success. This track soundtracking some early dates and MSN conversations with Dana has seen it beat off other releases of hers that I've listened to more (c.f. <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJtDXIazrMo" target="_blank">Love Me Like You Do</a></i> - oh look, there's that film franchise soundtrack again) but nothing she's released since gives me the happy feelings quite like Starry Eyed does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>68. Glee Cast - Wrecking Ball</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY5PpDfsMko" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5fZE0TVp6FFesXodTd8Uvx" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:39</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 14th November 2013</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: 23</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Poor Miley, being beaten out by a cover of her biggest UK solo single. (I'm sure she's avidly refreshing my blog to read all these posts.) The gigs total above has a caveat as well, in that the Glee cast I saw didn't include the singer of this track - Melissa Benoist. With that out of the way, it should come as absolutely no surprise that I've cheated my own rules to get another song with her in this list, because she was the sole highlight of Glee from season 4 onwards, a TV show that got so bad I resorted to alcohol to make it through the final season. When I posted <i>Don't Stop Believing</i> in my 00's chart and recommended people watch the show, it was still great - I firmly believe that if the show had been cancelled after the first season it would frequently crop up on lists of TV shows gone too soon alongside Freaks & Geeks, Veronica Mars et al. Instead it stumbled on, becoming the very thing it was satirising, but Melissa has thankfully come out of it well - she gained a husband, and leads a well regarded TV show which has also given her a second husband, and she just seems lovely.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>67. Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7RVw3I8eg" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1Cj2vqUwlJVG27gJrun92y" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 7th December 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 29</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Saw this performance crop up on Tumblr a year or so back. I was intrigued, I love me a good cover, and this was much more mellow than I expected. Any metal song with strings gets an immediate bonus star from me as well. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>66. My Chemical Romance - Sing</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgnDLWeeaM" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1mX6SYJ1ZpcoxQUiER8wOI" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:30</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 3rd November 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 50</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: 51</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A poppier sound than expected from MCR, but a similar defiant anthem to <i>Teenagers</i>, the track of theirs that made last decade's chart. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>65. Marmozets - Why Do You Hate Me?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGSWfuiO0Ps" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3MawDYt42Iz7aq7LqYXHHg" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 17th March 2014</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 35</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I first saw Bradford's finest export opening for Rolo Tomassi at Camden Barfly in October 2011. Since then they've grown into the UK metal scene, at one point being the token female fronted band on their label (long-standing rumours that Roadrunner passed over another female-fronted band because they "already had one") and overcoming several hospital bouts and operations to supplying the theme for an NXT Takeover PPV. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>64. Rihanna - California King Bed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhBorPm6JjQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0uIGzK6ukV0A5yWoCxPkRL" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 4:11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 13th May 2011</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 8</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 25</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Growing up with the parents that I have, I've got a certain weakness for power ballads with guitar solos. They're few and far between nowadays, seen as an 80s relic (and shockingly the penchant for 80s throwbacks has ignored this goldmine) but this track from Rihanna is an absolute belter. Even when I realised it <i>wasn't</i> Slash from Guns n' Roses playing the guitar solo, it's still my go-to Riri track (and an excellent answer on Pointless, I imagine)!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>63. 78Violet - Belong Here</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgVp9eH-edM" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/4oaUbO6zxlOWrmpTUXCXlf" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 30th November 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 1</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">One advantage to bands having legal troubles with their labels - and this is not a sentence that can come up too often - is that name changes enable me to crowbar the group in to my <i>highly prestigious</i> decade charts more than once. Aly & AJ, for it is they, only released two songs under the 78Violet moniker, and while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwr9JwyOHqA" target="_blank">Hothouse</a> is a lovely track, this one wins out by virtue of being the theme song to the TV show Hellcats. Hellcats - basically Glee, but about cheerleading - only lasted for a single season, is remembered by about a dozen people and remembered fondly by about half that, but was thoroughly entertaining and my go-to answer when I'm asked which TV show I'd bring back for another season (well, now that Veronica Mars has returned anyway). Plus, it featured my favourite telegraphing of a plot point when it cast AJ Michalka as a new character in an episode when main cast member Aly Michalka was trying to track down her estranged dad, and ended on the reveal that AJ was her half sister - which would have been dramatic <i>had they not cast a well known sibling of their lead!</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>62. MNEK ft. Haileeee Steinfeld - Colour</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMmwDy-27AM" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7haQE5nOcxwk0HXahP0aV3" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:21</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 26th June 2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: 92</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 2</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This was one of my favourite tracks released last year. Thanks to seeing both artists in support slots, and copious showings of the video before Little Mix, I managed to hear this song at three separate gigs that year too, which may be some form of record for me. Another nice, lovely song that won’t storm the charts or break the internet but it will make the day seem a little less grey when you listen to it - and isn’t that the point of pop?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>61. Ang</b></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>è</b></span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">le - Balance Ton Quoi</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi7Rx3En7-k" target="_blank">YouTube</a> // <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2jX5c5RFp0A9E1GDsvGxIa" target="_blank">Spotify</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Track length: 3:09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK release date: 15th April 2019</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">UK chart position: N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Last decade's chart: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">N/A</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Listens as at 8th October: 7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Gigs this decade: 0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I discovered this track completely by happenstance. Earlier this year the Women's World Cup took place in France, and this was used as incidental music on a podcast I listened to regularly. About three days in I Shazamed it to find out more, as my attempts at Google what I thought the lyrics were just lead Google to suggest health advice for people suffering a stroke. It's a really sweet song, a melodic throwback to 60s French pop, but if you're going to check this out watch the video on YouTube with English subtitles translating the lyrics and you'll soon see how biting it is - given the changes over the last decade and the steps we, as a world, are taking towards equality (even though some are trying desperately hard to drag us back) I can't think of a more fitting subject matter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Next time...Last year's number one artist, both the longest song and the oldest song in my top 100, a YouTube personality who had a UK number one single, and the biggest example of my loophole as the same artist features twice in the space of three songs.</i></span>Jimbohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11088485344863875568noreply@blogger.com0