James Brown 1933-2006

James Brown performing in 1969.

If that wasn't enough to convince you the man was a genius, check the dance moves out in the clip below. The young fella in the dark glasses and the powder blue jacket did.



When I was 15, I wrote an essay about my heroes. James Brown was one of them, as were Otis Redding and Roland Alphonso. I actually met Roland Alphonso five months before he died in November 1998 and I used to joke about meeting James Brown one day - because I never thought I'd meet Roland Al, there was always a chance I'd meet James Brown or see him perform. I never did.


Skatalites from 1992, including solos from the Roland Alphonso (about 6:00m in), Tommy McCook and Lester Sterling.


Otis Redding performs 'I Can't Turn You Loose', 'Shake' and 'Land Of 1000 Dances' with Eric Burdon of The Animals and Chris Farlowe on 'Ready Steady Go' in September 1966, around the time James Brown was recording 'It's A Man's World' and The Skatalites had turned into The Soul Brothers.

But here's one of my favourites to finish with.



Play JB LOUD if you're having a party tonight and keep diggin' the new breed thing into 2007 and beyond.

There is no joy in Oaktown now...

Read it and weep.

The stark truth: the Oakland Raiders cannot compete in the NFL. What's the point of any sort of football if your favourite team can't compete? You can't get relegated in the NFL, which is a shame because that's exactly what should happen to the Raiders for being so chronically poor over the last few seasons.

It's predictable, hilarious...and it hurts like hell. It diminishes my enjoyment of the season. The only upside I can think of is that when you look at some of the poor teams that within a half decade turned themselves around (the Cowboys, Bills and...through gritted teeth...the Bucs) and did really well then the law of averages indicates that at some point the Raiders will return to prominence. Until then, I won't be holding my breath.

It would be nice if all the teams I support did well, but you can't have everything. And the one that's always frustrated just as much as the Raiders do on is doing very nicely thank you even though this is the wrong Scott Murray.

'Our' Scott Murray

Nottingham Forest lost 1-3 at home to Latent Orient, Scunny Rovers lost by the same score to Blackpoo and now Bristol City are second in Division 3, four points behind Forest and a point ahead of Scunthorpe - after having beaten Millwall by a goal after sixteen seconds by The Incredible Levitating Murray.

If you think I'm going to have a pop at Millwall FC here, then you've come to the wrong place. They looked a poor team on Saturday but we should have done better than 1-0. Still, the old truism applies: we played badly and won. Next time we meet them it's the last away game of the season, unless we get them in the Cup.

Madame Zaza predicts: it could be an important game for both teams, but we'll have no talk of...well...you know what. The 'P' word.

Of course Millwall have still got some undesirable elements attached to them, but so do we and so does every other club up and down the country, including our old rivals The Gas and Swindle, who covered themselves in glory on Saturday with an exchange of furniture and some alleged racial abuse of the Sikh referee. I can't believe I even wasted that many words on either of them.

Division 1 got much tighter yesterday as Chelsea pulled one out of the bag against Everton and WHam beat Manyoo. Just to prove I'm not biased, here's a gratuitous picture of Bobby Moore who was one of my very first sporting heroes when I was a little kid all those years ago.

Proper.

Sunday Stuffing

Manyoo are nine points ahead of Chelski in Division 1 (although they have played two games more than Shabby Peasant's mob), the bottom three (West Ham, Charlton and Watford) already look in serious trouble. It's Chelski v The Arse this afternoon at Stamford Bridge and I find myself in the position of wanting Obscene's lot to win, even though I don't think they will; they've never liked it up 'em as this clip from earlier in the season shows.


West Ham just beat you. West Ham!

Peculiar Division 1 stats of the week: Man City have only conceded one goal at home this season (19 let in away!) and despite being eighth and three points away from a potential European Cup spot, Spurs haven't won away.

Ten points separates the top nine teams in Division 2, Birmingham City and Derby County lead the way. At the bottom Southend United and Hull City have an air of despair about them (even though Southend beat Southampton yesterday) but quite what Leeds United are doing down there is beyond me. Perhaps I should investigate.

Ten points also separates the top six in Division 3 but there's a five point gap between Nottingham Forest and second placed Scunthorpe United who are now ahead of City by two points. It's knees up cockney ding dong time at the bottom, with two of the four clubs in the drop zone coming from The Smoke, although next week's opponents (Millwall*) managed to pull themselves out of the bottom four after beating Bradford 2-0 yesterday.

If you take the Man City stat above and reverse it, you have Northampton Town. They've only let in six goals on their travels this season (as many as Forest and Scunthorpe and five less than City) but they've been absolutely dreadful at Sixfields this season.

Story of the year is Rotherham United. Having been docked ten points for going into administration, they've clawed their way back up the table and if they'd not had that penalty they'd be a potential play off team. We got a point up there yesterday and that's a bloody good result.

Walsall have a seven point lead in Division Four despite having lost to second placed Swindle on Saturday. It's pretty tight after that. Right at the bottom of the league we have Paul Inces' Macclesfield Town, seven points adrift of three clubs on 20 points.

In the Nationwide Conference, Oxford United lead the way. 20 years ago they were in Division 1; 30 odd years ago they played Sunderland in the first ever league game I saw.

Oxford United's old Manor Ground: now flats apparently.

On the other side of the pond, there are only three weeks left in the regular season and the play off picture is a little clearer.

In the AFC, both Indianapolis and San Diego (currently on a six game winning streak - they can clinch the division title today with a win over Denver and put £3.20 into my pocket!) have 10-2 records with New England and Baltimore leading their respective divisions but a game behind. After that it gets messy again with five teams on 7-5 records, including the 'surprise of the year' New York Jets. In the NFC Da Bears have clinched their division but there doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence in Rex Grossman; Dallas, New Orleans and Seattle top the other divisions with 8-4 records but then it's a pile up with the possibility that a team with a .500 record could reach the post season.

(There's still a long way to go yet, but the application of the 'offense wins games, defense wins championships' theory still seems to indicate a Ravens/Bears Superbowl in February. But the angle for that one could be Steve McNair v Brian Griese...)

Now on to the only possible interest left for any Raider fan: the race for first pick is currently between Oakland and Detroit. What are the odds that 2006 Heismann Trophy winnner Troy Smith won't end up with either of them? Probably not that bad: a lot of self proclaimed experts think that if Detroit ends up with the initial choice they'll take Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn.

So that's Scott Mitchell, George Plympton, Jon Kitna and...

But that would be underestimating the Raiders ability to self destruct even further. Including today's games, the Lions have a slightly easier schedule: their opponents are 27-21 for the season and their last two regular season games may be 'meaningless' as Chicago has already qualified for the playoffs and Dallas may not need the win in the last game. On the other hand, Oakland plays three teams with post season aspirations (Cincinnati, Kansas and the Jets). It's not inconceivable that the Raiders may end the season 2-14 and be rewarded with the overall first round pick.

Oh God, I'll consider what a potential disaster that could be when the season is over. It'll happen and we'll pick the wrong player.

MSK's games of the week: Baltimore at Kansas and New Orleans at Dallas. Stuffing: Oakland at Cincinnati.

* I feel a midweek post coming on.

Manyoo Throo

While I was nodding off in front of the TV last night, Manyoo beat Benfica 3-1 to qualify for the knock out stages of the European Cup. The draw will be interesting as Manyoo, Chelski, The Arse and The Honorary Blue Team are all through, along with Celtic. So a nice British presence for a change: just like the old days of 30 years ago.

What we didn't have in the old days was a weird link between what seems to be a cross between an old school political assassination by the Russians and The Arsenal Stadium Mystery*

Mind your tea lads, Stalin might have put something in it.

Spring is almost here: no Division 1A College Football this weekend. The Bowl Season kicks off on December 19th when TCU (10-2) takes on Northern Illinois (7-5) in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. If I can be bothered, I'll post a full listing of Bowl Games but don't hold your breath; there are some interesting ones ahead, including the Orange Bowl between Louisville and Wake Forest.

The big event will be the Heisman presentation on Saturday night, although it looks as if Troy Smith of OSU has already wrapped that one up.

So nothing more to report tonight; there will be an update at some point over the weekend with a distinct possibility that 'soccer' may take precedence over 'footbrawl'...well, I've been in hibernation since August so I need to get re-orientated with the movers and shakers. Who, pray tell, has the best away record in Division Four? I need to know and more importantly so do you.

* Far be it from me to put ideas into anyone's heads, but The Shabby Peasant and Obscene Wank3r aren't exactly best friends, are they?

Champion's League and other stuff

Right, time is of the essence so here's a quick round up of all the essential nonsense that matters in MSK Today.

1. The Raiders were horrible on Sunday against the Texans. I could have watched the Giants/Cowboys game but I watched two awful teams. Houston deserved to win even though the Raider defense improved - but as the D was dire last year, the only way is up in any case.

After Betty Everett, now Otis Clay* gets in on the act.

BTW, here's a picture of Raider defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan:

And here's one of ex-Welsh national rugby coach Scott Johnson.

This must be some kind of 'I'm not having my hair cut until we win' thing going on, although Johnson has now departed to help coach The Dark Side (ie Orstralia**)

2. The BCS Championship Game is (as exclusively predicted by myself!) is...OSU v Florida.

3. Barcelona and Chelski got through to the next stage of the European Cup but Manyoo need to beat Benfica at Old Trafford...wait, I'm getting some interference from the past here...

Now I'm excited.
More tomorrow.

* Not 'kin Yazz. Not here, not ever.

** Or the 'proper trouser' game. It's WINTER here, fer Chrissakes.

'Will play...'

Two parter today that is going to be split into 'BG' and 'AG' (Before and After Gillingham - with a soft 'G', like a 'J') with the distinct possibility that the AG section may contain delirious ranting.

Half the excitement of the FA Cup is not knowing who you're going to playing next. This concept seems to be obligatory in the Bowl Championship series in College Football because there have been some very interesting results from the USA overnight: USC lost to UCLA, throwing the entire BCS series into absolute confusion (especially as Notre Dame beat UCLA). For what it's worth, here's a very quick overview using my take on how things should shake out:

Florida v Ohio State in the Championship game...because the best blogs about college football are Tressel's World and Every Day Should Be Saturday. I've got a spreadsheet I knocked up a couple of weeks ago that does some headline analysis of schedule strength, but I can't find it now - it did seem to suggest that USC/UCLA and Florida/Arkansas would be crucial to finding out who Ohio State would be playing - and it's turned out that way, as Florida won the SEC.

Of course, the next week is going to give the opportunity to the world and his wife to have an opinion about who should be in the title game. To some extent it doesn't matter, because as long as the game itself is as good as last year's was I don't care who wins as long as it's not Ohio State.


When it's all over this year, this one will be worth watching again - great fun.

Oh and Wake Forest won the ACC. Jim Grobe seems to be a consensus Coach of The Year; I can't imagine that this real life Cinderella story won't be registering some degree of interest in Tuscaloosa when the folks down there read their papers this morning.

Thus endeth the 'BG' section today. I have a 1:00pm Kick Off to attend.

I hope we win today. Third Round, Third Round, Third Round...

After AG begins here...

One of the best things about having friends that are football fans is that sometimes the following scenario happens: after having avoided each other's teams for the best part of thirty years, fate brings you together.

This afternoon, having watched City storm into a three goal half time lead courtesy of a Phil Jevons hat-trick, I spent the last ten minutes worrying that Gillingham were going to snatch an equaliser to make it 4-4 and possibly steal what modest FA Cup dreams I have away from me. We won (but the Gillingham goals were sloppy) and after a trip to the newsagents I got home in time to watch the draw for the Third Round.

'...will play Coventry City...'

As soon as the initial...well, shock and bewilderment actually...had subsided (about a nanosecond) I immediately shouted 'Dave!' and tried to find his phone number. For you see, Dave is a Coventry fan; when I rang him he said he knew it was me and that it was about time our teams played each other. I'll attempt to find out when this was, but I suspect the 1979/80 season when Bristol City were still in Division 1.

There are a number of angles to this game already and as it's more than a month to go I'll be attempting to give some detail about them later: but two things are significant. With the assistance of the mustachioed chin wagger above, both clubs were able to escape relegation at the end of 1976/77 season. More recently, Louis Carey had a season so unremarkable at Cov that they sold him back to us.

Well, we got a home tie (thanks Ricky Hatton) against a team that's in a higher division than us (thanks Amir Khan) so I can't complain. It could have been worse...Liverpool v Arsenal...LOL.

He wouldn't have got us a home draw with the gloves on.

Another mad weekend

How great are the dangers I face to get across St Augustine's Parade

I don't know. The weather here is abysmal: it's dark all the time, it never seems to stop raining and despite the best efforts of the worst drivers in the world to stop Buchephalus (my bike) and I getting home in one piece on Friday, I am here and I'm writing this again.

OK, to business.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Tony Romo was no Tom Brady. I'm going to have to retract that after he lead the Cowboys offense to a win over the previously unbeaten Colts and then spanked The Chucky All Stars with five passing TDs on Thanksgiving Day.

Tom Brady is the one at the bottom right. Hold on, isn't that Chucky on the bottom left?

'What are we doing? What's the coverage? Ah, shit!
We can't run! We can't throw! We can't tackle!'

Romo's been getting a lot of rave reviews and he's apparently going out with Jessica Simpson, who is blonde and sings.

I'm assuming that's Jessica Simpson on the right?
It's definitely Al Davis in the middle.

Having said that, the problem with all the good publicity about Tony Romo is that he only took over from Drew Bledsoe a few weeks back and is already being compared to Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach who - in case anyone forgets - won a few Superbowls in the last century; there are some comparisons between the Jimmy Jones era and the current squad, notably that they have an obnoxious dickhead with a big mouth at wide receiver.

Terrell Irvin? Michael Owens? Oh who cares.

Enough about the bloody Cowboys already. There's something about them I've never liked.

In a move that shocked no-one, 'Offensive Co-ordinator' of the Oakland Raiders Tom Walsh got the old heave ho tin tack treatment earlier this week and will not be replaced by former England Rugby Union head coach Andy Robinson* but by John Shoop. It was 'Bye, Bye Baby' rather than just win baby for Walsh as it became obvious that 'The Shoe Don't Fit' and the number of critics of the Oakland offense meant newspaper columns in Northern California were 'Getting Mighty Crowded'; Andrew Walter apparently said 'I Can't Hear You No More' from the huddle, but if you wanna know if Shoop likes to throw, I'll post some stats on Monday from the Raiders/Houston game...by the way, that may be the best thing I've ever written.

Betty Everett songs and the Raiders in one paragraph. Perfect.

There have been various rumours this week that West Viriginia's Rich Rodriguez is being lined up for the Alabama job, which are apparently enough to make his wife cry. You can tell that the football season is over down there: the lead story on rolltide.com at the moment is swimming.

Even if Rita Rodriquez doesn't like the idea of Tuscaloosa, her husband's offensive philosophy actually fits the material available that Bama has at the moment. It's not too difficult to imagine John Parker Wilson spraying the field with passes to DJ Hall, Keith Brown, Will Oakley and Nikita Stover, but there are big shoes to fill at running back as the seniors have gone and Jimmy Johns is probably the number one back next season. I can't remember where I saw/heard it this week, but Alabama now seems to have recruiting issues: it's been a generation since The Bear died and Bama hasn't really had the same type of profile that it once did.

Underlining that, the SEC Championship game this weekend features Florida and Arkansas. Bama lost by one point to the Razorbacks at the end of September for their first defeat of the season, lost to the Gators the following week and were 3-4 the rest of the way. Exit Mike Shula stage left; this programme needs success and a higher national profile in a hurry. It's a huge job and good luck to the coach who eventually gets it.

News just in: Bristol Rovers dodge a bullet, Brighton don't.

Having beaten Forest on penalties on Wednesday night, City avoided 'local rivals' Bristol Rovers in the regional semi finals of the Whatever It's Called Cup this season but were drawn against the other team that begins with B and plays in blue and white that every self respecting City should have a very special place in their hearts for.

I don't mean that in a nice way either.

Tomorrow City face Gillingham for the second time in three weeks only this time it's in the Second Round of the FA Cup. Lose and we're left to concentrate on the league (and the Whatever It's Called Cup), win and the possibility of a draw against one of the bigger teams gets closer.

'Dear Santa...'

Magic number: 48, apparently.