Vote of Confidence

Today Bath City Football Club issued an astonishingly strong statement about the future of manager Adie Britton.  The final paragraph reads:

For the avoidance of doubt, the Board wholeheartedly and unanimously backs Adrian and Arch, thanks them so much for the time, effort, expertise, emotion and passion they bring to the club, and has no intention at all of changing the management team whatever happens in the remainder of the season…that is a decision, not the start of the next discussion, or a precursor to a change of opinion.

Wow. Ever seen anything worded like that in any form of life, let alone in the world of football?  A breath of fresh air in a profession in which the manager usually carries the can for a run of poor results, where loyalty is a foreign word and contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.  I find it a truely admirable statement, especially given the situation Bath City currently find themselves in; rock bottom of the league with 7 points from their opening 18 games.

However, as admirable as I find the statement, I disagree with it. I think he should be sacked.*

No doubt things have been stacked against him; he lost the side’s two best players in the summer as both moved off for league football at Cheltenham, the team are punching above their weight in a league with an increasing number of full-time professional teams and the club’s attendances in the bottom three of the division, so I’ve no doubt resources are scarce.  But having said that, for a long time this season, the football played this season has been dour and negative (as it has been for much of the last two seasons, to much greater effect).  Adie has recently switched to a more attacking 4-4-2 formation, which has brought some more attacking intent and goals, but apart from the season’s solitary win against a truly piss-poor Darlington side, results haven’t really improved.  Is it all Adie’s fault? Of course not. But I think a change of manager might bring around a change in fortune, and I have expressed this opinion on twitter, and I doubt I’m alone, otherwise today’s statement wouldn’t have arrived.

But of course that’s just my opinion. Which I am entitled to. I can still support the team and criticise the manager. I don’t belive these are mutually exclusive positions. I’ve still been turning up to support the team, I pay my money, and will continue to do so, because after four years of following my local side, I’m now a loyal fan. And as such, surely it’s pretty much my duty as a fan to criticise some aspect of team, rather than sit back, accept the mindless optimism that things will get better if we simply all get behind the team. This is not a hollywood blockbuster, this is Ken Loach-inspired grim socio-realism.

*ok, maybe not sacked, perhaps his loyalty should have been rewarded with an “upstairs role”, maybe with the potentially ground-breaking new U-21 academy that was announced today in conjunction with Bath University.

The Rolling Stone 500

I’ve been enjoying the service provided by Spotify for ages now, and have been a full subscriber for a year, and frankly it’s the best £10 a month I spend.

Recently, my best mate Dan has returned to Spotify after we7 started charging for content. I’m attempting to make his (& my) Spotify experience greater by sharing some playlists with him, and I thought I might share some of them with you, so we can all have a greater experience.

I love discovering new music. But new music does not necessarily mean released yesterday. Much music has been released over the years that I’ve never heard, or even heard of. As coldbrain recently, and eloquently pointed out Spotify is great for dipping in and trying out all music, new and old, and deciding what you should go and spend your hard-earned cash on.

But what old stuff do you go and try to if you’ve never heard of it?  Well, people who listen to music for a living (lucky bastards) are always making lists of great music. One of the most famous, and perhaps the most contentious list is Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. These types of lists are always controversial based as they are on that most subjective of things; personal taste, but this one is a pretty comprehensive place to go and find some unheard of “classics”.

I love the album format, since it is generally the way an artist intended their music to be listened to. So I do find the presence of so many Greatest Hits albums on the list a little annoying. However, given that some game-changing artists, such as Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson and Chuck Berry released much of their finest material in the days before the long-player, perhaps there is some justification. The list might be considered a little out of date now, having been published in 2003, but given the object of this exercise is listening to old music that matters not.

I’ve put together a series of Spotify playlists, breaking the list up into groups of 10 for easy use and easy for off-line listening (the key to using the Spotify mobile app IMO). Some albums are greyed out, because they’re unavailable, but were in my files, others I’ve not added at all because I don’t have them AND they’re not on Spotify. In some cases (Greatest Hits in particular) I’ve substituted a slightly different European version of the American release found in the list.  If you spot any that become available, or that I’ve missed, do let me know.

I started listening to them, starting at #1 around 6 months ago.  Not that frequently though, so I’m sure you’ll soon catch up if you want to do that. But if you want to listen along with me, then this morning I listened to #57, Beggar’s Banquet by The Rolling Stones.  I’ve also started using the hashtag #RS500 on twitter when discussing the albums, if you want to join in. Remember it’s not a crime to have not heard (of) them, unless you’re Dan and you’ve never heard London Calling (only kidding) – I still can’t believe I’d been 30 years on this earth without hearing Patti Smith’s Horses, but there you go.  It’s also cool to not to like something, I for one can not see what all the fuss is with The Doors, each to their own, as they say.

I’ll put the next 100 albums together soon, but enough blathering, here’s the music:

Rolling Stone 500 (1-10)

Rolling Stone 500 (11-20)

Rolling Stone 500 (21-30)

Rolling Stone 500 (31-40)

Rolling Stone 500 (41-50)

Rolling Stone 500 (51-60)

Rolling Stone 500 (61-70)

Rolling Stone 500 (71-80)

Rolling Stone 500 (81-90)

Rolling Stone 500 (91-100)