veloman

I have forgotten the Economic detail of 'Terms of Trade', 'Comparative Advantage' etc. - it was many years ago since I had to learn it but .. I would be interested to see the figures to back up your assertion/suggestion. As an adjunct to bickster's post re. Hirwaun in Wales - if you went to the Stoke game you may have gone towards Longton and turned left at a Hungry Horse pub towards their ground. That used to be Hem Heath Colliery where my bother in law worked. He reckons they poured 100's of tons of concrete down there on £1000's of equipment and very large reserves of coal in an act of what can only be described as vindictive vandalism. I wonder if more details of The Belgrano affair will emerge now; I am led to believe there is more to that than has been made public.

That is very interesting Leviramsey; I thought I was the only person to think that Plant was the luckiest person alive to be in a band with such great musicians as Bonham and Page. Judging vocalists is very subjective I realise; for instance, it is easy to say that Steve Gadd is a better drummer than, say, Alan White(Oasis) or whoever is putting up that shed on U2 records, but who would be a better Rock vocalist than Plant and there's quite a long list ! (possibly starting with Paul Rogers or David Coverdale).

It seems that "The British Council" have conducted a survey in Pakistan prior to elections; widely reported on internet. The results showed that 38% of young Pakistanis didn't think Democracy was working/effective and preferred Sharia Law and 32% favoured Military rule. Hmm - is that slightly worrying?

Ford cars ! I inherited my late father's fiesta; it had done 11000 miles in 3 years. Took it to that Ford dealers in Perry Barr on the Aldridge Road for MOT, where he had it from and they gave me a bill for £500.New discs, new ball joints + God knows what else. Wrote to Ford complaining and they basically said "too bad". Got rid of it as soon as possible and had a Clio; no trouble with that !

Some really good news in the papers today; ant and dec have signed a new contract with ITV and thus will continue to entertain us with their subtle humour and hilarious antics for some time to come. All I want now is for harry styles to be knighted and my life would be complete.

My laptop came with this at a 'special price' and it could be installed on a number of computers so I had it. It has worked well and I don't think it has slowed the machine down; something I heard it was prone to do. Anyway - it is due up for renewal; I know there is quite a bit of free stuff out there, so is Norton worth having ? Cheers (about £30 to renew)

And Ian Bell second top scorer. Anyway back to more important matters; anyone noticed Warwickshire's performance v. MCC ? Excellent - but ... with another great performance from Chris Wright and Varun Chopra will England be looking at them for the summer. Warks look like being without Bell, Trott and Woakes already - we don't want to 'do a Lancashire' !

As it was Eddie Mair, I believe Boris was lucky that a SCUD wasn't the only thing he got up there.

Yep , Cryuff for me too; 1978 at VP. I have never seen a player so light on their feet; reminded me of a ballet-dancer.

Can't really add much to the discussion but ... when I played in the 70;s we had to fill-in a PRS return at certain venues, Mecca for one. At the same time, the Musicians Union, which we had to join, were running a campaign called "Home taping is killing music " .This ,in my opinion, was helping the 'big boys' not ordinary musos; what was really killing music was the use of DJ's instead of musicians at functions and cabaret acts using backing tapes instead of backing musicians. Would be interested to know if DJ's have to fill in PRS returns.

Hated that place. Tried to buy a single once for a quid but I only had a £20 note and the geezer told me I was taking the mick, and to come back with sensible money. I thought to myself "no wonder you've got a broken arm chap" and never went back. Idiot. I was glad they closed down in the end. As much as I hate seeing vinyl shops having to close, he was an idiot. Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that ! Also, if you tried to sell them vinyl they offered you derisory money or 'credit notes'. Wish I had kept my vinyl now but one of the few I've got left is "Viva The Villa" issued after the 1975 League Cup final victory. Picture of Ray Graydon on the front. Any offers

'Bankers integrity' = perfect oxymoron.

re. above; I may have misunderstood this but I believe the EU want to cap bankers bonus levels . I thought I saw it reported that Cameron wants to resist this move in order to protect 'The City' and discourage 'talent' from leaving. Has anyone else heard this and is it entirely serious? Although we all know that it is the evil Public Sector, specifically teachers, who have caused our monetary problems I would have thought that the financial 'talent' had played some small part in this, LIBOR being a possible example. Any thoughts ?

Mr Mooney makes complete sense. Poliphony was perhaps 'jazz/rock', the band I played in before (who have their name on the wall of the Livepool Cavern) was heavy rock (for the time) and the band I played in after played everything - much of which I loathed. Birdy Dance anyone ? But . it made me versatile .. although it didn't make me into Carl Palmer ! So - by the time I was 30 I had a handle on pop, disco, strict tempo etc etc. If one wants longevity in music I reckon it is important to be versatile. As an example; we once appeared on the same bill as Brotherhood of Man (sorry !); their backing band were amazing, warming up playing Herbie Hancock's 'Chameleon' ! None of the above makes me any good or even an expert; it is just my opinion based on some experience.

Hey Xann - thanks for that ! I had been told that it had been on Ebay but couldn't believe what it went for. It's value may have increased 'cos of Dave Bristows' status in music . The bugger of it is that I had a box of these years ago and chucked 'em !!! The bass player, Bob Boucher, is still in Brum and was offered £70 for as many as he had; but he only had one copy too. We couldn't give the effin' things away when we were playing. On a very slightly 'smutty' note; can I just say that The Opposite Lock' club, off Broad Street, used to be packed with classy snatch on a Friday night.

http://youtu.be/etZ-JVFjQoo This was my band from 1972/73, recorded at ZELLA studios in Edgbaston IIRC. Probably sounds dated (or just crap) to many VT'ers now. We used to play at the Opposite Lock (now defunct I guess) in Gas Street on a Friday night. The keyboard player in the band went on to fame and fortune in that he worked for Yamaha and helped develop the DX7.

Very good - I should have known better than to ask ! Incidentally - 'moelleux' . I can never pronounce those French words with a diphthong though.

Hmmm - the Canterbury Scene ! Never really my cup of tea but featured some ace musos. Robert Wyatt = excellent drummer, Hopper = bass (?) and Soft Machine generally were very clever RIP Without Googling, where did Wyatt get the name 'Matching Mole' from Mr Mooney ?

So - the Bears have announced that Dougie Brown is to replace Ashley Giles. Warks through and through so is he a good appointment or should they have pursued a bigger name - Ottis Gibson was mentioned. Have seen DB at Edgbaston several times coaching a young squad and Warks tend to appoint internally; Ashley will be a hard act to follow I reckon. What do you Bears fans think ?

There has been extensive academic research, in cycling circles (well, with my mates anyway) re. fig rolls - it is an important topic ! The consensus is that they have the lowest fat for the energy they provide and digest easily when cycling (or running I guess) to help avoid 'the knock'. Far better than Mars Bars for example .

An excellent post by tarjei (IMO). He just did what many pro cyclists did but took it to extremes; particularly by involving others. He now seems to be reviled as if he had been a mass murderer ! Cyclists have gone to quite extreme lengths to avoid detection; perhaps the best was a Belgian ( I think) called Freddie Maertens who had a system of tubes under his clothes with clean urine in and squirted it out into the sample bottle when tested after winning a stage in Le Tour ! But amphets have been around since the 60's at least, Pervitin and Tonodron being the most popular (TinTin and TonTon as the French called 'em. I think it was tonodron that did for Tommy Simpson. I didn't particularly like Armstrong BUT he raised the profile of cycling quite a bit; I hope his admissions don't drag it down. NB Even Merckx got caught!

I know that there are a lot of very knowlegeable people on here when it comes to cycling - and I am feeling particularly crabby as a result of this broken hip and limping round on crutches but ... Nicole Cooke has not handled herself very well. This is not just my opinion but (amongst others) the bloke who started her off when she was young - an ex International road man from North Staffs ; very well-known and respected in cycling circles. She should have made a fortune with her ability but doesn't seem keen to take advice and seems, shall we say, a tad selfish. I submit the business with Lizzie Armistead to support my point. Bloomin' shame but there are quite a few cyclists who seem to suffer from this sort of malaise. One,from Wolverhampton, should have been an Olympic rider but refused to ride the team sponsers bikes cos they were crap ! So team dropped him and his replacement won Gold in Bejing(sp) . I never suffered from this problem .....as I am hopeless. I also don't think it was very clever to mention being beaten by 'chargers' - smacks of sour grapes.

Thanks for above - and then to have to endure Sunday !!

No more effing cycling for me for quite a while. Came off on black ice last Sunday and broke my hip bone !!!!

I have just received a very alarming email from Warks CCC reminding me to renew my membership before 31/01/13 - fine. But ... it also said they were promoting a 'special offer' to see SHA at home in December - 2 games for £20 !!! Apostasy.