Football and Music

Proof (as if it was needed) that the U.S. media are only interested in one thing (and care little about the other) : We’ve heard or read nothing about the LA Galaxy and how they are getting on since Derek’s injury. (They actually won last night).

Time now to look at Scotland and their next Euro 2008 qualifying match which is a mouth-watering one - away to France. The Groundskeeper Willies won their last meeting in October by the one goal to the nil so the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys will be looking to exact revenge.

The last time that Scotland played on French soil Bertie Vogts was in charged and steered them to a 5-nil gubbing. I’m sure the travelling tartan army will still have painful memories of this and will hope that their lads put it up ‘em on Wednesday. - Some news from the Saturday Italy v France match (ended in a nil-nil) - Thierry Henry got booked in that game so he’ll be sitting this one out.

On the music related side I found the usual suspects, such as Ally’s Tartan Army but then I stumbled across an excellent website from some Scotia fans based in New York. They go by the name of the Tartan Specials and like the above linked song, they rewrite new lyrics to go over old familiar tunes too.

On their latest outing they sing about the current team. Euro Vision 2008 (Heedrum Ho) is sung to the tune of Ghost Riders In The Sky which you can hear and download below.

The Tartan Specials have recorded a few songs which they’ve made available for download free from their website (links at the end of this post), plus a few of them have an accompanying video. My favourite from their repertoire is “(I Love) Sex & Drugs And Sausage Rolls (But Nothing Compares To Archie Gemmill’s Goal)”.

Have a look around their site, as mentioned all their songs are free to download and there are some good cartoons to go with the tunes too.

A sampling of their wares:

» Tartan Specials - Euro Vision 2008

Websites:
www.tartanspecials.com
myspace.com/tartanspecials

Extra Pav linkage: When Pavarotti met the Godfather of Soul, plus links to a few other YouTube clips.

Update: On the original posting I got my history
mixed up, corrected now. But I'm still leaving in the references to Graham Turnip Taylor because as I wrote below I do believe that with the events right now we are going the same way.

At the moment it feels like (with the current England set-up) that history is repeating itself and we are heading into another Turnip-type era. I fear that - and there is a strong chance - we are not going to qualify for Euro 2008.

Nearly 20 years ago - the Euro ‘88 Finals - there was an England song released which doomed us all.

It wasn’t Lineker’s lack of goals that did it. It was this song - produced and released at the height of the Stock Aitken & Waterman reign of terror.

England Football Team* - All The Way:
* Which it obviously isn’t

In Euro ‘88, as MickMills points out in the comments below, we qualified easily and then lost every match in the group stages.

“Do I not like that Phil Neal ?”  

MSNBC: Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C’s and ebullient showmanship made him one of the world’s most beloved tenors, has died, his manager told The Associated Press. He was 71.

His manager, Terri Robson, told the AP in an e-mail statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and underwent further treatment in August.

“The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer, which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness,” the statement said.

Watch: (click on the image)

Listen:

D/load:
» Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma

[BBC] Tributes paid

“The BBC World Cup theme for Italia 90… Gary Lineker…. an evening with him ? Marvellous.”