"Die Macht der Massen" / "The power of the masses"...

 

(from Kicker magazine's Premier League supplement, September 18 2023)

Fan culture in England was once considered mythical, but commerce has changed it too. For some clubs it's now about the atmosphere again.

Tottenham Hotspur sent their thousands of season ticket-holders and members an important email this summer.

It wasn’t asking for advice on who to appoint as manager after going through three last season – Antonio Conte, Cristian Stellini and Ryan Mason – as the club failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in 14 years.

Nor was it about the England captain who still hit 30 goals during the campaign, taking him past Jimmy Greaves as Tottenham’s all-time leading scorer.

Harry Kane’s “one of our own” spell at Spurs would end of course with a £100million move to Bayern Munich, although a painted mural in his honour remains on a brick building around the corner.

What club chiefs wanted to hear from fans instead was how to improve the atmosphere at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019 on the footprint of their old and now-demolished White Hart Lane ground.

"And in the end..."

“It’s been a long, long, long time” (obligatory Beatles reference out of the way early), but sad to say today finally marks the end here - and for too many far finer others - at favourite newspaper Metro.

Sorry especially to be bidding farewell to so many cherishable colleagues - and with fond memories of dozens more from the past - while grateful to not only them but everyone who has helped on stories. And also, such readers.

One of the earliest glimpses here into just what human good could be done - and galvanised in people picking up a copy each day - came when writing way back when about Odette Mupenzi, a young woman whose family had been slaughtered by Hutu militias during the Rwandan genocide.

Just a minute (and then some...)

The Moby Dick of celebrity scoops here, that man Macca, has unfortunately remained out of reach - but many years at Metro have involved pitching in with a few 60 Second Interviews.

A favourite was with Jerry Lee Lewis, before seeing him play live at the Palladium - although he was dubious about his chances of understanding anyone with a British accent.

An eyebrow or two might have arisen on the Tube that morning at "The Killer" somehow insisting: "Some people have said they are afraid of me, but I don’t know why. I’m a really nice guy."

Searches still amid quake rubble, "survivor's guilt" - and scarce hope as Syria's civil war enters 13th year...

Syrian families are still desperately digging in earthquake rubble - not for survivors anymore, but any last possessions finally lost after 12 years of war.

Wednesday this week marks another grim milestone in the civil war-torn country, as it enters the 13th year since President Bashar al-Assad launched a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters now thought to have seen upwards of 500,000 people killed and as many as 16.5million forced from their homes.

Millions of children have grown up not knowing any different, while few families have escaped losing not only shelter but also loved ones in a bombardment of shelling, village invasions and panicked escapes into neighbouring countries and beyond.

Al-Assad’s regime faces worldwide condemnation - other than from key allies including Russia, China and Iran - but sanctions have hindered much-needed aid deliveries, amid widespread fuel shortages.

The country was also suffering the impact of a nationwide cholera epidemic even before the 7.8-magnitude earthquake which hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, so far killing more than 50,000 people - including at least 6,000 in already-war-ravaged Syria.

Aid workers on the ground have now told Metro how today’s latest anniversary throws into even starker relief the suffering upon suffering endured by those who have not managed to make it out of the country, such as to struggling-neighbours such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

"They need your help now"...

Desperate pleas have been made to help hundreds of thousands of people left homeless after the devastating earthquake battering Turkey and Syria, as the official death toll passed 19,000.

Daniel Craig and Tamsin Greig have fronted new televised fundraising appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee, with Sir Michael Palin presenting radio adverts.

And aid workers on the ground told of terrified families sleeping on the streets in below-freezing conditions, with infections spreading while many people remained trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The British government has agreed to match donations of up to £5million to the appeal launched by the DEC, an alliance of 15 charities.

Rescues were continuing with two-year-old boy was picked out of the rubble by a Romanian and Polish rescue team in Hatay 79 hours after the Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.

The boy, wearing a striped sweater, cried as he was gently lifted from the hole where he had been trapped.

But recovery efforts have been hampered by freezing weather and dozens of aftershocks, as well as already-damaged infrastructure and blocked aid corridors in civil war-torn Syria.

"Harry Pain"? - "He's one of our own..."

Harry Kane holds many records, including setting some in the Champions League - yet his long wait to hoist a trophy aloft goes on.

He was the first player to score nine goals in his first nine appearances in the modern-day version of the European Cup.

He was also the fastest to 20 strikes in the Champions League, his 24-match tally two fewer than previous pace-setter Alessandro Del Piero.

He just hasn’t lifted up the Champions League trophy yet - nor indeed won any other team title in his professional career, other than a pre-season friendly Audi Cup after Tottenham Hotspur beat Bayern Munich on penalties in summer 2019.

A recent Museum Of London exhibition was dedicated to the Spurs striker and England captain, showcasing his life and achievements.

This display included a cabinet full of golden boots, hat-trick balls and player-of-the-year prizes.

Yet for all his feats, record-breaking as he goes for both club and country, rival fans will nevertheless taunt about his apparent “failure” so far to go all the way to a team trophy.

RIP Elizabeth II...

Queen Elizabeth II has been laid to rest and reunited with her beloved husband Prince Philip after a day of tears, cheers and pageantry saying farewell to Britain’s longest serving monarch.

The new King Charles and the royal family accompanied her coffin for a stately while emotional funeral at Westminster Abbey and then her final journey out of London, followed by a poignant committal service on the grounds of her Windsor Castle home before a private burial there.

She now rests in King George VI memorial chapel inside Windsor’s St George’s Chapel - not only beside her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, whose death she mourned sitting alone at his funeral in April last year, but also her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her sister Princess Margaret.

The committal included the Queen’s Bargemaster and a Serjeant of Arms removing from the coffin her sceptre and orb and finally the Imperial Street Crown she first wore at her coronation in 1953, before the Dean of Windsor placed them on the chapel’s high altar at 4.40pm.

Shortly afterwards her coffin was seen in public for the final time, when slowly lowered into the Royal Vault - ahead of the later non-televised burial.

Last night’s final act of dedication came after a day when hundreds of thousands of people came out on to the streets to celebrate her 70 years on the throne - not only in London but in towns and cities across Britain, following the Queen’s death aged 96 on September 8 at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.

"Let me know when we can throw a party every night..."

“Chasing tomorrow - get ready to run...”

/

“On the day that I die, I’d like jokes to be told

And stories of old to be rolled out like carpets

That children have played on

And laid on while listening to stories of old...”

Well, it was 13 years ago this year, Paul McCartney sprung a second album in two years upon us - fresh from critical acclaim far from “Frog Song” mockery of the Eighties and Nineties.

And did so by inviting us to imagine...his dying, albeit in sombrely, richly resigned and inviting tones.

Now, here we are again, a rejuvenated Macca still standing - even in this far more dispiriting of times, splaying McCartney III upon a world in need of, well, any more McCartney.

Paul is live? Paul is loving living, it sounds, happily jamming and drumming and riffing and fiddling in his Sussex studio while others (present company inclusive) might have considered it a major feat to merely manage fixing a hole where the rain gets in.

Not that this is your stereotypically-blithe Fab Wacky Macca Thumbs Aloft. Just as on 2018’s seriously-ranging, alternately-deep-and-daffy Egypt Station, he can’t help but come across as a little more reflective than in the past - now he’s 78.

And yet the melodies keep on simply pouring from Paul.

Remembering Rene...

Words from my mum on her mum, January 16 2020:

REMEMBERING RENE

It was 25 years ago today … that we said a sudden and far too early goodbye to my totally outrageous, unashamedly outspoken, embarrassing, but irreverently witty “Mum” known to officials, neighbours and grandchildren alike as “Rene”.

In the mucky, murky West Midlands town of her birth, Tipton - she used to boast to newcomers in a pseudo posh voice, “I come from the country: the Black Country” - Mum was known as the News of the World. What she didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. But because she knew everyone, she cared about them deeply too and her other nickname was “Rene with the ‘eart of gold”.

"In our winter city, the rain cries a little pity..."

"In our winter city, the rain cries a little pity..."

Thousands of volunteers are gearing up to provide food, warmth and what little festive cheer they can to record numbers of homeless people this Christmas - amid fears of rising risks to life.
The homelessness charity Crisis is opening up festive shelters in major towns and cities across the UK, including not only worst-hit London but also Birmingham, Coventry, Newcastle, Edinburgh, South Wales and elsewhere.
Other charities, both nationwide and more locally-focused, are also stepping up relief patrols, setting up shelters and encouraging members of the public to donate either supplies or their time to help feed, clothe and shelter those in need as temperatures plummet this Christmas.
The relief efforts come amid mounting concerns about Britain’s homelessness problem, with soaring numbers of people sleeping rough - up by 169 per cent since 2010.
And the latest official figures suggest 726 people died while sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation last year - up 22 per cent on 2017, with the average ages being 45 for men and 43 for women.

"Homeland actor's goal is to save children's lives..."

(Past pieces here from Sierra Leone:

http://aidanrad.blogspot.com/2008/12/sierra-leone-in-september.html

https://metro.co.uk/2012/04/27/sierra-leones-scars-run-deep-despite-charles-taylors-comeuppance-3822522/)

A Hollywood star who helped break England’s penalty shoot-out curse hopes to repeat the feat this weekend - while bringing help to children struggling to grow up in a country ravaged by civil war, famine and the ebola virus.
David Harewood saved two penalties to help the England side win last year’s Soccer Aid game in a shoot-out at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground a year ago.
And he has been encouraged in his hopes of further success by the senior England side breaking their spot-kick curse and winning shoot-outs against Colombia in last summer’s World Cup and to beat Switzerland in Saturday’s Nations League third-place play-off.
He is also keen to point out he conceded just one goal during regulation play last time around, whereas team-mate and former England and Arsenal stopper David Seaman let in two.
This Sunday’s match will be staged at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium for the first time, as an England side featuring former internationals such as John Terry, Joe Cole and Michael Owen - and managed by Sam Allardyce and Susanna Reid - faces a Rest Of The World XI including Terry’s former Blues team-mates Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, as well as Eric Cantona and Robbie Keane.

In memory of a very Great-Uncle Reg, one D-Day hero among many...

Some words from my mum on her late uncle and my great-uncle Reginald Brownhill, proud former Para and brave D-Day veteran...

My dear Uncle was a Para and landed in France on D-Day 1944 on the secret mission.

On the plane, he was seated beside a 17 year old Private Hopkins who said: "I'm scared, Corp."

Uncle replied: "We all am mate, but we gorra get on with it. Stick by me I'll mek sure yo'me all right."

"You go out thinking you're joining a Boy's Own adventure..."

A D-Day veteran who feared he would not survive a night of bombardment after landing on a Normandy beach is among those returning across the Channel for an emotional 75th anniversary commemoration.

Ninety-four-year-old Arthur Hammond - known to friends and family as "Les" - was desperate to sign up to train as a fighter pilot aged 18, only to be turned away after failing an eye test.

Yet he found himself called up six months later for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the eager then-19-year-old was among those descending on Juno Beach as part of the Normandy landings.

Only, none of his colleagues lived on - and the enthusiasm he felt beforehand very swiftly turned to fear, when confronted by the death and destruction all round and enduring a night of bombardment at the foot of Hill 112 he felt sure he would not survive.

"Things are happening..."

“This type of emotion - without football, I think it’s impossible to live...”

“And in the middle of the celebrations, I break down...”

“How can you be afraid to be happy?”

- “Because whenever you get too happy, something bad always happens.”

　

It’s a little bit funny, these last few months. That is, oscillating between all of a sudden breaking into laughter or breaking into tears. Cracking into a grin or crinkling the eyes - abruptly and inexplicably so, any which time.

Ah, come on, you Spurs. Never again #Spursy, or so this our Champions League campaign might - nay, must - suggest, having us somehow grasp not defeat but victory from the jaws of not victory but defeat, and just so incessantly.

And now here we are, this weekend. Somewhere even the most optimistic Tottenham supporter - should such a someone exist - could not have dared to dream, let alone see us do.

All while hoping my eyes do see the glory of that cup at White Hart Lane, while also knowing to appreciate all they are seeing in the meantime.

Beaming. And yet tear-ing up, at the littlest thought of what’s ahead or maybe more all significantly all those precisely-recalled moments of every goal, every assist, every near-miss, every tackle or deflection or save or hoof or, er, VAR that’s added all the more glory to the story.

Tears, eh - ah, 2019 and too many years before have produced plenty, here, there and everywhere. Many as vaguely unexplainable, if asked, as those suddenly smudging through even while commuting by Tubes these last few weeks and simply thinking once more of those magic words: “Here’s Dele Alli...here’s Lucas Moura...oh, they’ve done it! I cannot believe it!”

The new Tottenham Hotspur stadium: "Das Teuerwerk"...

(Kicker magazine, Monday 08 April 2019)

For some it's been 18 months in the waiting, or for others 18 years in the making.

But patience has finally paid off for Tottenham Hotspur fans after English club football's second largest stadium finally opened for business.

Heung-min Son went down in history as the first man to score a goal in an official game at the North London side's £1billion new ground on the footprint of their old White Hart Lane stadium, almost 120 years after the old venue was opened and two years after it was demolished.

Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen added a late second on Wednesday night as Spurs marked their homecoming with a 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace, ending a five-match run without a win and ahead of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg against Manchester City.

For all its stunning appearance and stirring unveiling, the new stadium has come late and at quite a cost.

Wednesday's grand opening began with mock-operatic singing on the field, as well as a marching band, before a burst of fireworks above the north London skyline - as well as a roar of relief fromfans who have spent almost two seasons exiled at Wembley.

Yet years of delays may well have done Spurs and their supporters plenty of favours - at least in learning lessons of local rivals' new-build hitches.

"Nowhere is home for us" - Rohingya massacre survivor's sorrow, one year on...

A Rohingya refugee gang-raped by soldiers before seeing her family slaughtered and burnt to death in front of her never wants to return to Myanmar, a year on from the massacre.

Dildar Begum only has 11-year-old daughter Nur as a comfort and fellow survivor of military-led ‘scorched-earth’ violence that broke out a year ago on Saturday.
They are among those who managed to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, where it is now estimated almost 1million of Myanmar’s persecuted ethnic-minority Rohingya refugees are living as a result of the latest crisis.
Aid agencies such as Unicef, who have been helping Dildar and others, are warning on ongoing torture, monsoon flooding risks and a lack of access to food, water and medical aid.
Dildar, 30, told how haunting memories of the atrocity - including her husband being stabbed to death in front of her and her daughter being attacked with a machete - are seldom far from her mind but have been exacerbated by the approaching anniversary.