Three years ago, we were in Bilbao for the Challenge Cup final. What a difference a pandemic makes. Also, the sun was shining, at least in Spain.
Regarding the Little Cup, Flair99 says: “To find Montpellier there is quite stunning, they’re fighting to avoid relegation, and they’re certainly not pleasant to watch. How about Leicester?”
Same, Flair, same.
La Rochelle v Toulouse will undoubtedly be a more interesting match. I’m calling it for La Rochelle, because I would like them to win.
Onna telly this week
Friday 21st May
| Leicester v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 22nd May
| Sharks v Stormers | 12:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Lions v Bulls | 14:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| La Rochelle v Toulouse | 16:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 23rd May
| Nada |
Ovally Balls 
Am hoping for an endless draw between Leicester and Montpellier then.
I like both LaR and Toulouse so won’t mind if either win.
LaR for their first would be nice. Toulouse seriousy depleted in the backs (Huget, Guitoune, Tauzin, Holmes would’ve been amongst the 23) but any team showing up with Dupont, Ntamack, Kolbe and Lebel should stop moaning. More importantly, Marchand will be missed, he got a 4 week suspension after a game in which he should’ve received a RC, can’t remember the circumstances.
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Thanks Thauma! Hope to complete the Cameroon trip this weekend. Or next week. Or in a space-time continuum slightly less random than Larry’s match reports.
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I’m saving the last part of the Lions, the Witch, etc. for closer to the actual Lions tour. Or it might end up being more than one part, since I haven’t actually written it yet.
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Spare a thought for poor old Iks. He’ll be bereft as his footballing hearthrob Nuno has left his job as manager of Iks’ (Would Have Been If Not For Injuries And Selling Their Best Players) Mighty Wolves.
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Speaking of Wolves and Wolves fans: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/may/20/robert-plants-teenage-obsessions-stourbridge-was-our-beverly-hills
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Oh NuNo!
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The comments btl are well worth reading: apparently Bob sits in the stands with the plebs. Many accounts of meeting him there, as well as various pubs with music.
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I’ll read the article later Thaum, but “Percy” as he is known to his mates, for reasons I don’t know, is a frequenter of folk festivals and Fairport’s Cropredy especially.
He stands in the mud with the best of ‘em.
I think he knows a few of the Fairports from way back, as they are Black Country people too.
I remember as a kid watching Pebble Mill at One at lunchtimes and Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol were on it a lot.
Decades later I actually got to know them a little bit, it turns out they lived around the corner in Birmingham and whenever anyone cancelled they got a call to fill in the music slot.
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although I am not a great fan of his, I really hope that George Ford has a top game tonight – win or lose.
I think he deserves a bit of credit as man and player in these boshy times.
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Ticht – yes, I wondered why people were referring to him as Percy! Cropredy is mentioned.
That’s the only festival I have any desire to attend, and it’s only just down the road from here. But Richard Thompson must be there!
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Lots of Saffers involved tonight. Leicester’s back row is all South African – Cyle Brink’s a big mate of Malcolm Marx, Hanro Liebenberg ex-Bulls player and brother La Rochelle’s Wian, plus the boshman Jasper Wiese, who’s getting whispered about a lot for the Lions series..
Keep an eye on Robbie Rodgers on the bench for Montpellier. Only 19. His dad was a Springbok, played in the late 80s and early 90s.
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The article’s great Thaum! And the comments (unusually?) are mostly positive. I do like a lot of his solo stuff, but the only time I saw him live was at the Barrowlands, might have been The Fate of Nations tour when he was just starting to re-introduce Zep music into the live show. I think he might have started with “In The Evening” from In Through the Out Door, which isn’t the most obvious track to start a show with. Might be wrong though.
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Another funny BT Sport camera angle with Hagrid at the big end, he even makes Warbs look tiny, never mind Healy
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BB – I saw the Shaken ‘n’ Stirred tour, plus a couple of others where Zep was introduced, and finally the horrorshow with Alison Wossname. The others were very good though!
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And thanks for the fresh oxygen, Thauma.
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Think Fate of Nations was indeed one of them – seem to remember the In the Evening opener. Well, it was evening. The crowd went nuts.
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Iks – if only I could export it to India.
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I’ve just checked, it was six years ago that I was at the Stoop for the Edinburgh Glaws final of the Challenge Cup.
For once that seems about right, usually you think, “whit?”
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Ticht – I may have mentioned this before, but we were watching a documentary on Freddie Mercury fairly recently, when they mentioned he’d died 30 years ago. We both went, NO FUCKING WAY, and … it’s true.
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Thaum, that makes me think, “whit?”
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1991 it was.
I think it’s a huge internet conspiracy. It can’t possibly be 30 years.
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He’s been deid well over half my life then.
That seems weird.
I’m not a huge fan of the music, though I recognise him as one of the great “frontmen/women” of rock
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Hell of a finish by Rattez.
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Well, both teams looking like they want this so far, although Tiggers dominant … but Montpellier might just have scored!
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Oh great burgler try from Montpellier
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Brave Frenchman takes Nadolo out off the ball.
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And it is a try!
Ticht, I liked Queen’s early stuff (yeah, I know), but wasn’t so keen on some of the later stadium-rocker type songs. A Night at the Opera is sublime.
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Bit of loose defence let’s Rattez in for Montpelliier
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The one song I really can’t stand is Radio Gaga. Like Crazy Little Thing… though, which was a bit of a later one.
What I like best is the operatic vocals, something that no other band could really carry off.
What was interesting about the documentary was that all the band members seemed to actually like each other, unlike most other superstar bands!
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The commentator has just mentioned ‘Ronnen’ O’Gara. O tempora, o mores.
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I like all of the band Thaum, I like that they are friends and I like their motivations. Mercury’s voice was phenomenal, each of them was a terrific musician and May’s guitar sound is all his own.
I just found them a bit mainstream, but I have nothing against them, which might be an insult, but it’s not meant as one
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Queen always makes me think of this:
From a London Review of Books article in 1997. The person who identified himself that way went on to be nicked for the murder of Jill Dando.
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Ticht – agree on the mainstream-ness, but that doesn’t apply to ANATO, which was completely out of the ordinary. Bohemian – 9-minute (or thereabouts) single, with that kind of sound? Unheard of! I was disappointed that they abandoned it and went for stadium-rock.
Love Brian May: most of my favourite Queen songs are his. And the fact that’s done a PhD in physics, and the badger thing. Do you remember the Brian May Cif article about badgers?
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TomP – blimey! I’m assuming he wasn’t actually related?
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Montpellier player binned,
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Think the commentator said his name was something like Leconnerie. Surely not?!
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Tiggers try, and the jizz starts flowing from the commentators.
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Fair play to the Leicester maul but they’re setting it up illegally as often as not.
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I don’t dislike the mainstream songs, and they were more than worth their world-wide acclaim, I just would rather listen to The Pixies, Sonic Youth or Husker Du if I want rockish music.
Or Motorhead
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Ah, it’s Becognée. Not sure what exactly I heard, but it sounded rude in French.
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Ticht – yep, agree.
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Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is the best rock band ever, of course.
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Killerline liked the Blues Explosion
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Well, he’s pronouncing it ‘Beconnier’. So I think I heard ‘Leconnier’.
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I have never heard of JSBE. Something to check out later!
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Thaum, start with the Now I Got Worry album, that was where I first heard of them.
It might have even been through the Graun.
I’ve seen them live half a dozen times.
Best live band…. ever.
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Vincent Rattez: the archetypical French winger: just exactly like the mythical Paris waiter……..oozing disdane
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Slade, I’m sure I’ve heard that description of Rattez before
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Ikm goung to attemt to watch the second half, as oppsed to looking at an ipad keyboard and typing about Queen
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Best live band…. ever.
Oooh .. them’s fighting words! I may have to check them out to decide.
Best I’ve seen live: one of Santana, Richard Thompson or George Clinton.
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