Madrid o6

This weekend PFFC travel to Madrid for the 13th Football friendly tour.

We go to play football, to eat, and to talk (as well as seeing the long-lost Filipo Ricci).

We also go in the belief that football can promote peace and friendship across both pitches and borders.

This year saw the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. As we visit Madrid we will be commemorating those who died in the struggle for freedom and those who lost their lives in the Madrid bombings of March 2004.


Bombing Casualties: Spain

Dolls' faces are rosier but these were children
their eyes not glass but gleaming gristle
dark lenses in whose quicksilvery glances
the sunlight quivered. These blenched lips
were warm once and bright with blood
but blood
held in a moist bleb of flesh
not spilt and spatter'd in touseled hair.

In these shadowy tresses
red petals did not always
thus clot and blacken to a scar.

These are dead faces:
wasps' nests are not more wanly waxen
wood embers not so grely ashen.

They are laid out in ranks
like paper lanterns that have fallen
after a night of riot
extinct in the dry morning air.

Herbert Read

Recommended by Club Treasurer Owen Mather

Philosophical poetry

To start off a series of sporting poetry, a poem about a cyclist who likes to read philosophy books

sent by Harry Zevenbergen

The Philosopher (for Pedro Horillo)

the law of the Tour de France says
you may never ride in the back of the bunch
it's an absolute truism
an often used cyclist's wisdom

sportsman's wisdom what use are they
to a normal human being
irrefutable yet still it doesn't add up

I really would like to discuss them with
Pedro Horillo the philosopher
with a suitcase full of Nietzsche
nihilism instead of Epo as a stimulant

for example:
in the Tour de France you
may never ride in the back

Horillo:
someone has to ride there
the road's not broad enough for all
the racers to ride next to each other
that really is just possible in case they
cross the road broadwise not lengthwise
but that way the stages will be to short

or a Cruijffism:
if you're in possesion of the ball
the opponent can't score

Horillo:
that may be right but
when both teams stick to
those tactics in extremus
you need two balls

Horillo would prefer to stop in each town
to admire the architecture and local museums
an old cyclist's wisdom however teaches
that way you never get to the finish in time

Image courtesy of Supermietzi photostream on Flickr

Fall Heads Rock and Roll Again

The Fall at The Galtymore, Cricklewood, London , 15th September 2006.

For trivia fans The Fall are the band that named themselves after an Albert Camus novel and were the all time favourite band of late legendary DJ, John Peel. Indeed it was Peel who summed up The Fall perfectly when he said that they were "always different, always the same". They certainly lived up to his wise assessment here. The changes of personnel in the band since it's inception in Prestwich 1976 have been well documented with at least fifty musicians having come and gone since. Front man and founder member Mark E Smith has clearly stated that he hates all musicians and he certainly appears to enjoy sacking them. Tonight The Fall were missing the bassist and guitarist from the previous night's performance not, surprisingly, because they had been permanently ousted but because the pair had to attend a wedding in the US, they were duly replaced by those waiting on The Fall substitutes bench. The band were in the last night of a two night residency but all the changes did not detract from a wonderful performance. Smith once compared himself to a football manager, ever ready to ring the changes when necessary, to replace, suspend, banish and transfer his players to keep The Fall at the top their game. Some critics appear happy to simply brand Smith a tyrant. However, this wasn't the impression I was given on meeting his mum and sister at the gig. They were keen to divulge that he was taking them all on trip to the London Eye and they were accommodated at the best hotel he could afford. Bless.

However eccentric you consider Smith's tactics they paid off tonight and they continue to enhance the bands reputation as one of the most unique and influential in British music. Smith enters the stage wearing what can only be described as a pullover purchased for Christmas by his nan...in 1982. They start the evening with a couple of new numbers possibly from an eagerly awaited 26th studio album, highlights from 2005's 'Fall Heads Roll' album included 'What About Us' and the tale of modern day football violence in 'Theme From Sparta FC' which, incidentally, BBC's Football Focus results service deems appropriate enough to use as its title music. Smith prowls the stage amp twiddling (to surprisingly good effect!), chewing imaginary gum and hectoring into two microphones at the same time. The encore includes long time Fall favourite and cover version 'Mr Pharmacist' and 'Blindness' which seems to last for about ten minutes in a swirl of hypnotic and droney bass.

There is always a risk when attending Fall gigs as you are never truly certain about what will transpire. It could all end in chaos, for example, the now infamous Brownie's show in New York in 1998 when Smith chose the opening chords of the third song to hand his band their P45's on stage, equally they could end in qualified triumph. Tonight it was the latter but Fall gigs always guarantee, in the words of Smith himself, a "ludicrous, majestic and exhilarating" event.