Alex

Nice one, Rents. Welcome back to the public sector. Has anyone told you yet that you’re Ian Cusack’s line manager?

Exactly what he’d say tbh.

It’s been a while but we got us a live one here

You lucky duvel

Yeah, agree wholeheartedly with SpongeBob on the quality of that piece. It actually encapsulates a lot of how I even felt at the time. And I feel qualified to comment as I was actually young and very into music and various scenes back then. Not exclusively related to MDMA consumption. He nails it with ‘Britpop’ in general, with so many of the bands not floating my boat at all. I think I mentioned on here previously about me and a group of mates pudding ourselves laughing at a contemporary news report about the battle for the number one spot between Blur and Oasis. As we were a group of young lads for whom it meant absolutely nothing. The mentioned death of Diana provoked something similar. Not laughter but just a bemusement at how everybody was forced to care so much. Why? I honestly barely gave a fuck and most people my age I knew weren’t arsed beyond a morbid fascination. As to the main topic of Blur - they were alright. I quite liked Damon. But they only did a handful or so of good songs. The albums were generally shite, man. And I gave them a go on the basis of the songs I did like. Them and the rest of Brit pop isn’t my idea of what was good about the 90s. With a few exceptions

Don’t mind Grealish at all but apart from the injury problems of the last two seasons or so, I don’t think the way he’s been utilised at Man City has improved him as a player. He hasn’t represented good value either and it’s a bit of an odd one, as you’d think they could’ve gotten someone from the continent for half that price who could’ve done the same job. Which is the route they normally go down

Because it was the easy option for the ref ( and another example of him being absolutely fucking hopeless). Agreed, though. His booking was ridiculous anyway but even more so in the context of what else went on.

I haven’t been in for ages but it used to be the only beer they sold in there. Rest was wine or cocktails

Reminds me, I went to a lowkey leaving do once. There were only about 5 of us and we ended up spending the night in The Vineyard. The lass who was leaving had had about 5 bottles of Duvel. She stood up to go to the loos and uttered the immortal words “Eee! What’s happened to me legs?”

I think the pub is ancient but it was originally accommodation for travelling pilgrims or something. Always gets rave reviews about the food iirc

Ooooh! Lah-dee-fucking dah!

I’m not giving my phone number out on here though. So we’d all have to meet under the clock in the station and wear a red carnation

I’ll be honest, I don’t actually fancy watching the match in town, as it’ll be bedlam. However, if you do get across we could maybe have a massively long overdue Toontastic drink / meet up on the Saturday. Open to everyone but I’m not going to Hooters

There’s a direct bus service runs to and from right next to that hotel in Gateshead from Newcastle central station (Q1/Q2 bus). And the metro goes from the airport to the central station

Should move the cup final to the Saturday night tbh. But they won’t

Apparently he found out Arteta and Emery were members of the Bilbao Black Cats and he’s been ripping the piss out of them for it ever since

Loads of old pros say that in a sort of thing in a nostalgic way. Irrespective of that though, under the current laws of the game and the way they’re meant to be applied, loads of their players were treated far too leniently by the ref. There was intent to injure, it wasn’t just getting stuck in.

I couldn’t find part 2 anywhere. There were definitely 2 parts to it when they did it s little while back. I wonder if there was some licensing issue with one of the tracks used in part 2.

It was me. He is from doon sooth. He’s married to the cousin of one of my best mates. My mate, his cousin and I were all in the same year at school. She moved down to London after university and met him, got married and had kids. The family relocated to Newcastle maybe 3 or 4 years back so he lives up here now. He still travels a fair bit for work but it’s obviously easier to work remotely these days so he doesn’t need to be based in London anymore. I must’ve first met him about 25 years back when he was just starting off in sports journalism. Me and my mate used to stop at his now wife’s place in various London locales and go clubbing etc back in the day.

The only Wham song I like is Everything She Wants. I thought it was important that I mention that. In fact I think Villa should have included it in their account of what went on at SJP. It’s about as relevant as the hoodie

If you don’t mind walking up a steep fucking bank to get into town

@Isegrim I’ve never stayed there but when I worked in Gateshead guests visiting the office used to often stay Leonardo Hotel. It’s Gateshead Quays but it’s right next to the Millenium Bridge (footbridge) and a short walk to the Ouseburn where there’s some great bars. And easy access / walking distance to the town centre. Good midrange option I would say

Do you want to be in the centre though?

I only caught the Shilton bit as I was cooking but my lass had it on in the front room. They were supposed to have woken Josh Widdecombe up unawares at 1 am (funny how they are never having a shite, a wank or have passed out after drinking or whatever when they pull these ‘stunts’). The ridiculous pantomime that ensued was a recreation of Maradona’s infamous ’hand of God’ goal.

It was more I’ve seen him jogging round here and also encountered him during a slightly awkward Pinot Grigio incident at the local Aldi