When you analyse the development of rock over the last forty years or so, all roads lead inexorably back to one man.

Lou Reed.

How so? Without the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed there would be no New York punk deriving from the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie and Television. Therefore no exportation to the white British Working Class of this art school generated sound. Vis no Sex Pistols, Joy Division or the Clash. Moving it on you have the Smiths, Springsteen, REM, the Stone Roses and then Nirvana and Radiohead following into the Libertines and the bands inspired by them.

The Beatles and U2, although mighty and deservedly massive sellers, really just reflected and stylised what was going on in music at the time, whereas Reed was genuinely innovative and what he produced spawned countless other artists, the old cliché being that the Velvet Underground album shifted only 2,000 or so copies at the time, but each person went on to form a band.

Our Sixth Form was universally mainstream as far as music went, the most experimental we got was Bob Dylan and you would have attracted derision for anything more offbeat.

It was only at University and coming into contact with Belfast Grammar School boys who had smoked pot, and listened to more ethereal music such as Lou Reed, Nick Drake and early Pink Floyd (Mike Fisher please stand up. He’s gonna kill me for this!) that I became exposed to stuff out of the conventional 18 year old standards.

Mike played me Transformer and the Velvet’s album, which I got. Eventually.

But Berlin… I just never understood it, and I think you need much more life experience than I had at the age of twenty or so, as the themes are pretty full on and something that I got a handle on from my teaching career and more recent work at the sharp end of people’s personal misery.

But anyone with an ounce of empathy, and more maturity than I possessed as a privileged (and it was a privilege in the mid ‘eighties) University student couldn’t be fail to be moved by the story of love, hurt and rejection narrated in this very special record which has the feeling of Cathy Come Home about it.

Reed released it in the direct wake of Transformer, and clearly the world wasn’t ready for it. But now, revised and revisited some thirty years on, it feels really fresh, and above all relevant for our times.

The show was stunning, and it helped that Rich somehow obtained second row tickets, so it felt incredibly intimate, but still with the innate power to move.

Reed is clearly passionate about the record and put his heart and soul into an incredibly intense performance, ably supported by his band, choir and wind section. But I was relived that the children crying section from “Kids” wasn’t present, as I can’t cope with it.

 This event was possibly in the top five gigs I have ever been at. A total privilege. The Boy Robinson Dun Good.

Graham Napier has just this minute written himself into cricket history with the most incredible, staggering and amazing innings.

I am sitting here tinkering with an essay on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy versus Person Centred and Psychodynamics, with Essex v Sussex on the box due to Yorkshire v Durham radio commentary being interrupted by rain.

Essex are 35/1 off 6 overs. Nowt special by Twenty/20 standards.

Enter Graham Napier.

66 minutes later and the 28 year old perennial unachiever has belted an incredible 152 runs off 55 balls, including a world record 15 sixes.

Simply the most destructive innings I have ever witnessed.

November and $5 million will be available for the England players who line up against a Sir Alan Stamford All Stars eleven in a winner takes all match.

 I would want this bloke in the team if I were Paul Collingwood……

This was a brilliant match which showcased Twenty/20 at it’s scintillating best, a great advert for the game of cricket as modern and relevant for the 21^st Century…. And this is coming from someone who values Test and Championship cricket as the pinnacle of the sport.

But the 50 over game, which has been ailing for some time, had another nail smashed into it’s coffin by the tedious and badly organised 2007 World Cup. The success of the IPL and the projected Champions League must mean that cricket has two wonderful and successful brands in First Class and Twenty/20.

Yorkshire were cruising to victory, and top spot in the group as Durham required 28 runs in just two overs. And nearly got them as Tim Bresnan capped a disappointing afternoon by being carved over extra cover for six by Gareth Breese off the last ball of the game to level the scored.

The game ebbed and flowed and despite the howling gale that swept across the venue and necessitated layers of clothing reminiscent of autumnal football attendance, the players participated with a very high level of commitment, hardly surprising given that both Clubs are in with a shout of qualifying from the group which offers a window of opportunity for Champions League riches. Both Harmison and Vaughan, ODI retirees the pair, took part with gusto and performed well, although the Durham paceman’s four victims came at nine an over.

The England captain, initially be calmed, opened his shoulders for a 24 ball 34 (5 fours) which helped Yorkshire enter the second half of the innings eyeing 170.

But once McGrath (65) and Rudolph (33) were dismissed, matters subsided somewhat and when Mustard and De Venuto teed off at ten an over to start Durham’s knock, the home teams 159/7 looked eminently gettable.

Cue 4/20 from Pyrah and Yorkshire were clear favourites until the unlikely combination of Plunkett and Breese secured the tie for Durham.

 The Western Terrace was three quarters full, and in grand good humour and voice. A great way to spend ten quid for an afternoon of entertainment.

When Kumar chases his friend Harold out of the aeroplane loo brandishing a bong that looks suspiciously like a poison gas canister there is only really one way that things can go…

No stereotypes are left unchallenged in this riot of a movie, which is childish, gratuitous, crass, offensive and thus extremely funny. I haven’t laughed out loud at the cinema in absolutely ages.

The brilliant thing about this over the top and in places foul (Fed: “This is what you can do with the Bill of Rights”. Rubs. Kumar: “Urgh! Don’t you EVER wipe man!?) film is that it challenges our political and social expectations. No really.

There is no slack in this film. It is truly breakneck stuff and a testament to the brilliant screenplay that the time just flew by and you are completely engrossed (and grossed) for the whole of the picture, something often lacking in comedy.

Dumb and Dumber meets Midnight Express, with a dash of Fahrenheit 911 thrown in for good measure. A gem of a film.

We saw this at the Odeon mainly due to the idiotic show times for other films at the Vue. Either 6.30 (too early if you have kids) or 9.30 (too late if you have work in the morning.

Watching a film at the Odeon is like watching a portable in the corner if you have a wide screen telly, after going to Vue.

 7.30, 8.00 and 8.30 please Mr. Vue Showing Times Organiser. Ta.

I was not a happy camper when Peter Sharp was shown the door by Hull FC, not because of results (which were dire), but because of the level of “performance” and the dreaded phrases “Player Power” and the Coach “Losing the Dressing Room”.

Lee Radford’s name has been mentioned in dispatches across the City in recent months when personnel issues and back stage bust ups come to light.

If he wants to be the Coach, or do his job for him, then fine. Confine it to his role with Easts and remember that he paid to bust his balls on the field as Skipper of the Airlie Birds. No more. No less.

This idea of “Player Power” comes from the worst side of the soccer Premier League and was epitomised by Tim Sherwood and a cabal of Blackburn Rovers players doing for Roy Hodgson, and more recently Hull City players ensuring Phil Parkinson got the boot.

We don’t need it in League as it breaks that sacred bond between players and spectators so singularly lacking at the top end of soccer where sheer unadulterated decadence rules the day. Ashley Cole? Nuff said.

I am glad that Richard Agar has been given a chance. It’s great to see British coaches in the top jobs, but I just hope he is not in awe of certain people and has the authority to stamp his mark on the Club.

Despite four straight defeats in Super League performances against St. Helens and Leeds give us hope that all is not lost for this season, and a magnificent Challenge Cup performance at Odsal saw FC overturn the odds to progress at Bradford’s expense to a semi final against Wakefield Trinity at Doncaster’s Keep Moat Stadium.

Part of me is delighted by the change in fortune, but another part of me is pretty hacked off that the players seem to have raised their performance since Sharp’s demise. I don’t expect we will ever really know what went on behind the scenes, but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

There are no prima donnas across the City, and if there were the Coach, and especially the fans would not allow it.

The great thing about rugby league is that I can leave my house and be in my seat within fifteen minutes, a record set at this game.

We dominated this game from the start and it was a thoroughly invigorating performance against a very decent footballing side.

Castleford are a purists, if not a pragmatists dream and it was great to see such an attitude going forward with plenty of off loads and running rugby, which is the positive benefit of no relegation this season. Don’t get Andy or me started on THAT one!

But Cas really are shocking in defensive situations, and we were carving them up at will by the mid point of the second half, Craig Hall helping himself to a hat trick, Kirk Yeaman crossed twice and young Lee Briscoe, in for the injured Raynor had a storming game and capped it with a well executed try.

Mr. Bentham had a mixed afternoon with the whistle. He was inconsistent about lying on, offside and the ruck area in general. In addition he bafflingly over ruled the touch judge, giving Cas a st from which they scored, and he sin binned Carvell for blocking when he simply stood his ground when faced with a grubber kick.

But overall the Black and Whites put on an encouraging show with excellent performances around the team and I feel that we will have a good end to the season. We may be slight favourites for the Semi and a return to Wembley.

If only we could sort the disastrous Derby situation out….

Hull FC: Byrne, Sing, G. Horne, Yeaman, Briscoe, Washbrook, Dykes, Dowes, Berrigan, Carvell, Manu, Tickle, Radford.
Replacements: Thackray, Houghton, Wheeldon, Hall.

After consultations within the CLP and a day spent fending off the Press, my  gut reaction that we shouldn’t stand in the Haltemprice and Howden by election which will result from David Davis’ idiotic and vainglorious stunt, proved to be the consensus within the local party, and unless the Leadership impose someone Davis will just have to go and play nicely with some other Right Wing headbanger such as the lamentable Kelvin McKenzie.

What a waste of £80,000 of taxpayer’s money to stage an absolute non-event.

But Davis’ stunning act of self-indulgent folly may at least serve to remind people of just how potty some “mainstream” Tories really are.

 Cheers David! If I see you in the Wheatsheaf I’ll gladly get the beers in, to repay the enormous favour you are doing for the Labour Party.

Any moral authority this Labour Government had left was washed down the plughole last night as Gordon Brown scrabbled around in the gutter to bribe and persuade a bunch of homophobic, misogynist racists to shore up the Government vote over the total shambolic fiasco that has become the 42 day detention without charge issue.

The DUP dutifully filed into the Government lobby, so delivering a pyhric victory that keeps Brown if Office, but not in Power.

But just as I thought things couldn’t get any worse, David Davis delivered the first bit of good news we’ve had in ages.

In a bonkers move he has quit his seat in our Constituency of Haltemprice and Howden in order to trigger a by election on the way that we have eroded civil liberties in this country.

Pots and black kettles spring to mind.

He claims to be in favour of the principles of Magna Carta but this didn't stop him voting for 28 days in 2006, plus he is favour of Capital Punishment, where if you are innocent you die, as a pose to being locked up. Strange.

I’m sure that those miners who were beaten and locked up during the Strike, when the Tory Government used the Police as an arm of the State would ringingly endorse Davis’ stance.

As would all of us who suffered harassment at the hand of the Security Services for the “crime” of being Irish.

I don’t remember Davis sticking up for his Irish constituents when the scandal of Operation Pre Empt was uncovered.

Where was Davis when Liberty and all the other pressure groups, plus the Labour Party were opposing the annual renewal of the “any Irishmen will do” Prevention of Terrorism Act in the ‘nineties?

Last night Parliament expressed it’s will. I don’t agree with it, but it did. That’s democracy, so all Davis is doing is taking his bat and ball home because he lost the vote.

How “democratic” is that?

The people can decide in the General Election, thus we should not in any way shape or form get involved in Davis’ pathetic stunts, and not run a candidate.

Whilst I profoundly disagree with the Government’s policy on Civil Liberties, elections are about the whole, and at the moment folks are rightly concerned about the soaring cost of living and economic uncertainty.

 So a stupid circus about issues which, though important don’t really affect everyday life around here just proves that, as ever the Tories just don’t get it when it comes to what ordinary people think about or need on a day to day level. So out of touch it's almost unbelievable.

England won this Test, and the series at a canter against a very poor Kiwi outfit who, despite showing guts and fight a plenty until the Sunday at Old Trafford, folded like a pack of cards, despite having us at 85/5 mid afternoon on day one. Only a marvellous rearguard action from KP and Ambrose saved England blushes.

The selectors named an unchanged eleven for the fifth consecutive Test, the first time that has occurred in over a century, and you would imagine that this signals stability and that all is well.

You would be wrong.

Three of the top six batters are in absolutely wretched form and we haven’t posted 400+ in the first innings, which was the bedrock of the Ashes triumph in 2005, for over a year and this includes six Tests against New Zealand.

Bell, and especially Collingwood can’t buy a run at the moment and yet there is no hint from above that they will be axed for the more formidable series against South Africa, which begins next month.

No one wants to go back to the ‘Eighties nadir when the revolving door policy saw England fail to win a single home Test match, let alone series between 1985 and 1990, but the persistence with this top six produces inertia in the squad and burning frustration for Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and County pros across the Nation as it seems that the selectors in no way rate the First Class game in any way, shape, or form despite recent scintillating form from these two.

But, if you are a bowler it seems there is no mercy. On bad game and you are out, witness the axing of Hoggard and back in the Winter Trent Bridge hero Jimmy Anderson.

Cook has got starts and looks likely to get runs, but the axe must fall on Bell and Collingwood in order for them to get some cricket, and form back in time for next Summer and the Ashes.

Bowling wise we are in rude health as the effectively second string pace attack have been the ones to deliver the victories, thus I would start with Anderson, Sidebottom and Broad for South Africa with the rejuvenated Harmison (four wickets in three overs yesterday) Simon Jones, hopefully Flintoff and Hoggard to come.

Starting Eleven v South Africa.

Cook, Strauss, Vaughan*, Pietersen, Shah, Bopara, Ambrose+, Broad, Sidebottom, Andersen, Panesar.

 Reserves: Simon Jones, Ramprakash.

I was attracted to this book by the strong reviews and the fact that it was on the Booker Prize Long List for 2007.

It must have been a slow year.

The blurb on the back bears little relation to what goes on in the story, and the stuff about the interrogation of Rudolph Hess by a Jewish émigré proves to be a side plot rather than the main course.

The book is set in the later part of World War Two and we are privy to three lives, that of the eponymous Esther, Rotterdam the interrogator, and Karsten a German POW captured on D Day and sent to a Camp in Wales.

Things start promisingly enough and the encounter between Hess and Rotterdam in intriguing, but then it all goes a bit flat in the middle and I found it a bit of a slog to get through, reading Amsterdam in one go towards the end of this promising but ultimately disappointing tome.

Amsterdam (1998) by Ian McKewan.

I loathed Atonement with the same strength that I loved 2003’s Saturday, set in the shadow of the Iraq War.

The former is pompous, meaningless crap filled with stupid upper class twits and their pathetic “problems”. Complete drivel.

The latter book is set in one day, delves deep into the psyche of the main protagonist and contains a brilliant critique of Blair's folly in Iraq.

Amsterdam falls between the two. I quite liked the story where a politician is caught in flagrante and the editor of a major tabloid has the photographic evidence. This causes friendships and loyalties to be tested to the limit, with plenty of moral dilemmas for the reader to muse over.

 I didn’t like any of the characters, but the strength of the story over rode this, but I found it an average read and was flabbergasted that Amsterdam won the Booker Prize.