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Thanks to Mohan for this, and comments from Sandeep and John...

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Must be a slow news day ... erm, month

Click here for the latest on the Wenger - Mourinho feud... Gimme strength!

More songs

Following on from Baz's top songs of the year, I should take this opportunity to add a little more to what I have already said.

Kaiser Chiefs are great. "Oh my God" is a great single, as was "I predict a riot". However, on a technicality, I would suggest that the latter is not eligible as it was only a re-release, and therefore would have been one of the top singles of last year... I would certainly nominate them for their brilliant lyrics - "I predict a riot" could be the anthem for the ASBO generation!

I have been pleasantly surprised by Gorillaz' singles; I was very disappointed with their first album, and "Dare" and "Dirty Harry" are very good. The animated live performances looked amazing as well (I only saw a few seconds on TV, but I would love to go and see them live).

I don't have the Green Day album, but I am pleased to report that the protest song is back. I didn't like "American Idiot" (the song) when it came out, but I do now. However, my pick of the bunch is "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" - sharing the same chord structures as "Wonderwall", "D'you know what I mean?", most of "Writing to reach you" and many many more...

And I agree, Meg White is rubbish at drums. I could do better than her.

As before, there are bound to be songs that I have forgotten, so there is a strong possibility that there will be more to follow...

Songs of the year

It has been a rubbish year for music. The quality of new music released has reached a nadir. The obvious highlights that come to mind have been:

• The emergence of Kaiser Chiefs and Magic Numbers, plus a new album from Hot Hot Heat
• I think that I liked Elbow's new single, but as I only heard it played once on the radio (while I was negotiating Sainsbury's car park, so was concentrating on other stuff), it is hard to make a real judgment
• I like Athlete's new album, which was a bit of a surprise, as I wasn't really expecting to like it that much
• Mylo deserves a mention, most notably for "Drop the pressure" (which doesn't qualify as it was released last year), and it's bootleg offspring "Dr Pressure"
• I think The Killers' "Somebody told me" was released this year, but as it was a re-release, it doesn't really qualify (and the best bit is the keyboard segue between the chorus and second verse)
• The band that impressed me the most were the Zutons - I didn't like them that much until I saw them supporting REM at the City Ground in July, and they were really good. I have listened to the album loads since, and really like it!

On a personal note, it was brilliant to see my friend and former musical colleague Chi Taylor enjoying such success with The Go! Team.

I am sure that there is a lot of stuff that I have forgotten about, but off the top of my head, these have been my favourite three singles of the year:

3. Amerie: "One thing"
2. White Stripes: "My doorbell"
1. Chemical Brothers: "Galvanise"

Let me know what you think - leave a comment!

Forest stuff

Just to let you all know that my latest match report is available through either the Nottingham Forest website, or alternatively on my brother's new blog (I will put up a proper link soon).

My latest article for the BBC Nottingham website is also available by clicking here.

Living a boy’s adventure tale

When I was just a little boy, I didn’t ask my mother what I would be. I already knew that I wanted to play guitar. I was in an imaginary band with Baz, Cyrus and Zubin, called “The Brillo Pads”. We used to stand in the hallway, playing imaginary instruments to some of our favourite bands of the time, such as Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and A-ha. As I grew up, and I learned to play instruments, and my appreciation of music grew, I kind of grew out of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, but I wished I had seen A-ha play live.

Then, about three years ago, A-ha reformed. I recently bought a live DVD, and it was quite disappointing, to be honest. They played the songs quite proficiently, but it wasn’t exactly a great show. But by then, I had already bought my tickets to go and see them at the NEC Arena. The gig was last Saturday, and this time I was not disappointed!

Firstly, I did feel a little sorry for the support, a Norwegian lady with an acoustic guitar - would have been great in a café, but unfortunately did not work so well in an arena. She was obviously very good at guitar, and had quite a good voice, but the songs sounded quite samey after the second or third effort.

Then, the main event, from left to right: Magne Furuholmen (guitar, keyboards, vocals); Morten Harket (lead vocals); Pal Waaktaar (guitar, vocals). The three were ably supported by a bass player, an excellent drummer and an equally excellent keyboard player. They played most of the big hits, but thankfully omitted the awful “Cry Wolf” and the iffy “Touchy”. They also included a couple of surprises from the first couple of albums, in “Living a boy’s adventure tale” and “The weight of the wind”. Interspersed with two or three new songs from their forthcoming album, it was a crowd-pleasing setlist.

Song highlights included “Manhattan skyline”, “I’ve been losing you”, “Crying in the rain”, and the incomparable “The sun always shines on TV”. However, the most pleasing aspect was that they mixed it up a bit, changing the arrangements on many songs, with Mags playing a lot more guitar. “Stay on these roads”, “The living daylights” and the aforementioned “Manhattan skyline” were particular beneficiaries of this approach.

The new songs were, well, OK. The pick of the bunch was probably the title track from the forthcoming album, “Analogue”. This was the first song of the encore, and if a new young band were to release it, I think it would get played to death on Radio 1 and probably go high into the charts. But as they are old, it may only get played on Radio 2 and get ignored by much of the public, despite the fact that it is an excellent pop song.

I have to say that this was a major improvement on the performance showcased in the “Live at Vallhall” DVD. The use of extra guitar instead of keyboards added a new dimension to several of the songs, and the band dynamic seemed a lot tighter. Interestingly, both on the night and in the DVD, it is quite apparent that although Morten is an excellent singer, he is not really a frontman. It was left to Mags to provide most of the introductions and between-song banter. Pal remained very quiet except when introducing one of the new songs, preferring to let his guitar do the talking - incidentally, he is an excellent guitarist, with a dynamic that would seem out of place on the records, but he manages to incorporate into the live show; it is almost a jazz-blues style of playing, which wouldn’t necessarily sit so well with the synth-pop on so many of the records.

So, a great live show, and a good time had by all. Unlike Faithless last week, the evening was not ruined by a drunken idiot behind me. However, it was a shame that two people in front chose to stand up all the way through, with little consideration for those of us whose view was obscured. Poor old Nicola was not having a great day, and was too tired to stand up, and she wasn’t really able to see much of the show at all. I think it is fair to say that everyone left satisfied, and I am certainly happy that I have finally seen one of my favourite bands from my childhood. Unfortunately, going to see them made me feel really old - the average age of the crowd must have been well into the 30s, if not older! Still, I suppose to look at it another way, Nicola and I must have been amongst the youngest in the crowd (apart from the handful of children dragged along by their parents)! So thanks to A-ha, keep it going and I may even be tempted to buy the new album!

Christmas is coming!!

If you are stuck for ideas for people's Christmas presents, then here is a great idea for you: make a charity donation on someone's behalf. For as little as £6, you can buy 100 school dinners through Oxfam. There is a whole range of similarly worthy presents available through http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com/.

Our "Secret Santa" at work lets us spend up to £5. Although I don't agree with requesting presents, it seems as though we are being encouraged to do so. So I have requested £5 worth of raffle tickets in support of the British Epilepsy Association: http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/involved/raffle.html.

Obviously, you may think I am being preachy and over-worthy, but if you are stuck for ideas, I think it is a great idea. It is awful that we live in a world with so much material wealth, which is so appalingly distributed. Please - just think about it.