BROOKSIE'S BASH

The Legend Himself

What a great night we had last night. We were invited to the retirement party of good friend and legendary Cheats guitarist Chris Brooks. He was retiring from work not from playing and a good job too, for he has lost none of his old skills. In fact, as I told him, he must have been studying the ‘Play In A Day’ series of books since he left us six years ago, for his dexterity on the guitar to have improved so much. His band, a four piece with a guest appearance by the best sax man around Paul Jolly, ripped up the atmospheric Italian wine bar in his home town of Luton until the early hours of the morning. There was even an appearance from the local constabulary during the night, the irony of which was certainly not lost on me!

Featuring a mixture of reggae and folk, rock and blues classics the band’s two set were warmly received by an appreciative audience who danced the night away with vigour and verve. Brooksie had told me to bring my bass along for a jam, and by the end of the evening I was wishing I had. Good luck in retirement Brooksie mate. Like me you have earned it and you will enjoy it too. Now, if you ever need to play ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ again, I’m your man!

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Music Is The Best

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Sorry it's a bit dark but the music is good!

A RIGHT RESULT

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But you can see the goal!

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The White Hart Lane saga seems to have reached a most satisfactory conclusion. I have waited until now to give you blog readers a good laugh because for much of the time it wasn't funny.
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It all started at the beginning of the season in September when we took up our mini season ticket package and arrived for our first game. Luckily the pillar that was obstructing our (expensive) view was a welcome one as ten men Manchester United fought back from 1-0 down in the first minute, to run out winners 3-1. AT the price we were paying I expected a clear view of whatever mayhem was being presented out there on the pitch and wrote to tell them so sending them the above picture. They replied saying that it was not obstructed as 'you can see the goal'. I informed them that if I wanted to see just the goal, I would have asked for seats right behind it!
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We were moved. When I looked at the stadium plan I was delighted. We had been moved nearer the halfway line and 13 rows back, perfect! With eager anticipation we took up our new places at the Wolves game. What a view and position! We were soon to realise why these seats were vacant. About 10 minutes before kick off the family from Hell arrived. Son from Hell sat in the seat next to Trish. Dad from Hell and his three mates sat behind us. Son from Hell had tourette's and a twitch. At any moment, and usually in a quiet passage of play, he would suddenly, as if an electric current has suddenly passed through him, (actually not a bad idea!) grab Trish's leg and shout out 'you f-------, c----' at whatever player or official was passing by. What made this worse was the fact that his 'friends' and family thought this to be funny and I soon was to realise where he got it from as they turned out to be the most foul mouthed and abusive morons I have ever had the displeasure to encounter.
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How I wished for a Star Trek phaser set on vaporise, and believe me I would have used it! They were an embarrassment and to think that the world's resources were being wasted on keeping them alive made me more angry.
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Anyway, this story has a happy ending. Yet again I complained to the club, threatening all sorts of exposure. Our second match in these new seats had revealed these sub-humans to be season ticket holders! We could not be expected to tolerate that for the rest of the season could we?
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The club responded. They moved us. Across the ground to block 13. We took up our new seats for The Villa game. I can actually say having sat there twice, these are the best seats I have ever had in any ground anywhere in the world. I just hope they have sorted out the other problem A solution would be for the club to have an 'ejector' fitted to each seat as in fighter jets. A quick fix and no parachute! Good old Tottenham, some faith in customer service in this country has been restored.
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View from our new seats.....'how are you today Harry!'

THE LAST TIME

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There is an old saying that everyone knows and that is ‘all good things come to an end’ whether it is death that separates us from loved ones or the passing of time and changed circumstances that does it, that it will happen is a certainty. For my band The Cheats, this happened last night at the inauspicious Buntingford Sports and Social Club when singer and guitar player Steve Ratcliffe made his curtain call.

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Steve has been with us in The Cheats for four years but incredibly had decided to swap playing live for his pipe and slippers, content to slip into advanced middle age in the bosom of his expanding family. Recently grandaded Ratcliffe thus took off his guitar for the last time at midnight last night. We wish him well in his dotage and will be auditioning his replacement this week and next. The King is dead…..long live The King.

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Steve's final curtain call