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How far Qatar? World Cup 2022 #1 (20th Nov)

Qatar. Trevor Francis’ favourite musical instrument.

(There - that’s that gag used and out of the way right at the top)

I’ve been in the Middle East for a couple of days now experiencing my 5th World Cup for talkSPORT, and the experience thus far has been the usual mix of acclimatisation, decompression and readjusting to being 3 hours ahead of home.

Our home is a hotel on the outskirts of the capital Doha, which will be my permanent residence for the duration of my stay - thus making it the most unique World Cup I shall ever attend.

Creatures Of The Night at 40!! The KISS album that needs more love…and is set to get it!!

“Guys, you carry on without me - I need to get back home with THIS…”

I was with my school friends in October half term 1982 on a trip into Birmingham city centre, and I think we were heading for the big cinema on New St to see some blockbuster or other.

Suddenly my plans did a huge 180 as we walked past the HMV store near the Odeon theatre. There, in plain sight on the ‘new release’ racks, sat an unmistakable image of Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr and Paul Stanley in a malevolent looking, blue-lit close up shot.

December 31st 2021 - New album incoming! The story of 'Rule Of Three' (years)

I’m pretty sure I said to myself that I would probably struggle to come up with a set of songs to make enough for a 3rd solo album in the immediate aftermath of “Second Time Around”’s release in late 2015. I didn’t really have anything left over from those sessions and also felt that I’d exhausted my back catalogue sufficiently too. But I actually hadn’t in truth on that latter point, and it was deciding to go in a slightly different direction that has ultimately led to a brand new 11-song collection ready to be unleashed.

24th May 2021 - The 2020/21 season - Life on the (empty) road with talkSPORT

Whilst the previous football season was divided into 2 unequal chunks pre and post-1st lockdown, this past campaign has been almost exclusively about empty stadia, bringing your own sarnies and, in my case, utilising a selfie stick for a decent, worthwhile reason (i.e. not taking a selfie) using it instead to conduct socially-distanced manager interviews on my iPhone!

January 19th 2021 - my Championship mid-term thoughts

Allowing for those in catch-up mode due to COVID-19 related postponements, the EFL Championship is into its 2nd half of the campaign. And looking at the table I have to immediately offer an apology to fans of the 3 relegated clubs who I believed - before a ball was kicked in September - would not ALL be a competitive force this season. Perhaps one or two of them would compete up there in the top 6, but not the lot of them. I reasoned to myself that the division was weaker for the promotion of Leeds, West Brom and Fulham coupled with the 3 coming down.

27th July 2020 - The season that was...(and wasn't for a good while)

Another season draws to a close - one that nobody will ever forget for very obvious reasons. I thought I’d attempt to pick my way through it from my perspective as a commentator, particularly after last week (22nd July) where the Championship’s final set of regular season fixtures threw up the sort of stuff that still has you gently shaking your head and unable to sleep hours after the fact.

April 21st 2020 - In the Barmy (old podcast) Now

First of all, I do hope this blog finds you safe and well in amongst these extraordinary circumstances we’re all experiencing.

At present, there’s not a lot of work on for football commentator types, and the lockdown made me think that it was time to revisit the past and do something I’ve been threatening to do for well over a decade - namely, bring my old BRMB & Heart FM comedy shows back to life.

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