Stopharage

I'm really not used to England playing this well. (Typed prior to that Grealish chance)

Time for Harry to bury a few demons..

That was the probably the worst set of national anthem renditions I've ever heard. Which is apt for the likely 0-0 shitfest to follow.

Read this recently and it was really interesting. Exit Stage Left by Nick Duerden. The curious afterlife of pop stars. It’s various tales of pop stars as they’ve faded into obscurity and also tells of those who’ve had great longevity or who rose from the ashes of their previous success. What makes this so great is the sheer range of stars that feature and not in a stolen quote here or there but decent interviews that inform and entertain. Shaun Ryder, Robbie Williams, Billy Bragg, Suzanne Vega, Leo Sayer, Lisa Maffia, KLF and many more are all featured. It’s mostly British artists or various genres and even the ones you’re not that interested in prove engaging. Recommended.

11. Billy No-Mates: How I Realised Men Have a Friendship Problem by Max Dickins The writer is a comedian who is struggling to think of anyone he could ask to be his best man for his impending wedding. Gets him thinking about how his male friendships have largely evaporated and wonders why this is the case and what he can do to rectify this. Its a mixture of personal quest, academic investigation and sociological analysis that makes for an engaging read. It's not perfect and there are a few parts that drag but overall its well worth a read for anyone who has questioned the erosion of their old friendships and helps to make you realise that this is a fairly common male problem (and I'm sure female too).4/5 12. Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton Sci-fi novel, soon to be a Bong Joon Ho film starring Robert Pattinson and Toni Colette. Humanity has branched out across the galaxy for a number of reasons and for each colonising group they tend to have one 'expendable' - a human that can be replicated upon dying. They are then used for dangerous repairs, treacherous missions. The book concerns Mickey 7, the 7th iteration of one such expendable. There's the odd bit of science in there (discussion on anti-matter) but this is no hard sci-fi tome. It rattles along at a. decent enough pace and whilst the writing isn't top tier the plot and characterisation is solid. It's not the kind of book I'd reread but would definitely watch the cinematic version 4/5

Pretty much in agreement with that. As wonderful as it was, seemed like it needed a bit of editing towards the end. Really enjoyable film though and nice to see the Oscars deviating from their predilection for biopics, historical recreations and by-the-numbers fodder.

The best bit of Fall was when one of them To which I uttered ‘lovely bit of squirrel’ to the amusement of my viewing chums. In further Fall news I was chatting about it with one of my classes, when one kid remarked ‘Fall was utter wank’. Although I made him pay 20p into the swear jar, I let him off a detention as I was in broad agreement with him.

Fall. Utter rubbish. Stupid people making stupid decisions with a stupid plot. Utterly predictable throughout. I get awful vertigo and there was only shot in this film where I felt on edge, so I didn’t feel they did a particularly good job of making the height genuinely terrifying. Might be because the characters were so irredeemably unlikeable, so I wasn’t fussed if they fell to their doom. I like a good B-movie but this was guff. That they’re making a sequel is disappointingly unsurprising but obviously did well on a minimal budget, so kudos there. 1/5.

Emily St. Mandel’s The Glass Hotel is 99p today.

Great goal in the Classico by Kessie. But the game seems so flat and lacking in pizzazz compared to the games of yesteryear; still place for lots of snide fouls and a smattering of play acting.

I really enjoyed Chime. Spent hours chilling out to that.

@velma, if you like Aldous Harding, give Rozi Plain’s new album Prize a go. Spotify is great for discovering new music. ‘Discover Weekly’ ever Monday delivers 30 songs for you to work though, based on what you’ve previously liked. Friday gives you a ‘Release Radar’ with another 30 new songs/remixes by artists you’ve either liked or the algorithm thinks you’ll like. I also go to artists I like at look at their own playlists. Ben Watt (of Everything But The Girl and Buzzin’ Fly records fame) has a cracking playlist of 1400+songs which I’m working my way through. The BBC Radio 6 playlist is updated weekly and always seems to have a few decent songs on, as does the various Gilles Peterson ones. To assuage my guilt at using Spotify I either buy merch of some artists or throw them a few quid.

The first goal was bad. Then he got chipped whilst stood on the 6 yard line. He is dreadful. Brennan Johnson is probably better between the sticks.

Fuck me, Danny Ward may well be the most useless keeper Leicester have ever had. If we stay up, a new No. 1 must be our priority signing.

I've just finished that too. 9. The Game - Micah Richards. Would have to agree with that review. However, I was sick to death of him dropping 'Youngest defender to ever play for England' in every single chapter. That's some achievement but after the 3rd time I'd got the message. Anyway, comes across as a decent guy who pretty circumspect about how injury ravaged the end if his career. Decent enough but Nedum Onouha's recent books was far superior and more intellectually challenging. 7/10 I also reread 10. Lord of the Flies - William Golding. This was largely due to my eldest studying at school and wanted to be able to help him with his revision. Thing I'll get more out of analysing the themes etc. than I did from reading through it but that's in part due to familiarity. 6/10

@dizogg, you've got your digs in, can you leave it there now? Feel free to carry on in the generic football thread. As we're cutting him some slack, the same is afforded to @Nicky. Alternatively, carry on and the mods will have to stop watching Countryfile and wield the godforsaken ban hammer.

Luke Shaw shouldn't be on the pitch, bet United fans wish he wasn't. Fernandes, classy as ever pushing the linesman.

Unfortunately yes. I thought leading with Iheanacho/Daka this season with Vardy coming on as a 20 minute impact sub would work well but it hasn’t. I don’t think the move to 5 substitutions has helped him either; has meant opposition can more easily bring on replacement defenders if they’re looking leggy, I further reduces his potential impact. Also when Maddison is out we lack creativity. I wouldn’t be surprised if his wife’s court case has taken more out of him than just cash. Club and league legend; he might be a scrote but he’s our scrote.

I like Ben White too. Didn’t really like football and only started playing because his mum’s hairdresser took him to play, as his family had zero interest in the game. Seems a pretty clued up and decent guy off the pitch. As for how relegation dogfights go, Leicester may well be dragged into one. Iheanacho has reverted to his ‘couldn’t hit a barn door phase’, Vardy offers little and Daka looks a step below the Premiership. We don’t look like scoring without Maddison and Tielemans is now out for 5 weeks. And when you have Danny Ward in goal it must give the opposition a boost.

Another top-tier car crash of an episode, with the crowning glory being Tim’s ‘thank you for that Avi, it’s really appreciated’ finishing it all off with aplomb.

Turns out when I did the list that only half of the deals had been added. So more bargains below: They - Kay Dick £2.99 Mona Lisa Overdrive (The Neuromancer Trilogy) - William Gibson I'll Never Write My Memoirs - Grace Jones Memories of Ice: (Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 3) - Steven Eriksen Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia - Peter Pomerantsev £2.99 A Prayer for Owen Meaning - John Irving Murder in the Neighborhood: The true story of America’s first recorded mass shooting - Ellen Green Just Kids - Patti Smith £2.99 A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr Red Country: A First Law Novel - Joe Abercrombie The Appeal - John Grisham The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives - Jude Rogers I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai Blacktop Wasteland - S.A. Cosby Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro £2.99 Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (Milligan Memoirs Book 5) - Spike Milligan Star Wars: The Last Command - Timothy Zahn Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine - Hannah Fry £1.99 Dominicana - Angie Cruz The Collector - John Fowles Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne I Love This Game - Patrice Evra

This month's offering are pretty poor. There also seemed to be a lot of feminist literature on offer, which I don't know an awful lot about. If that's your thing, probably worth having a delve. Pyramids - Terry Pratchett £1.99 Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People - Julia Boyd £1.89 My Fourth Time, We Drowned - Sally Hayden Men Who Hate Women: From incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all - Laura Bates And Then What?: Inside Stories of 21st-Century Diplomacy - Catherine Ashton £1.89 A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City - Edward Chisholm A Short History of Russia: From the Pagans to Putin - Mark Galeotti Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them - Tom Phillips & John Elledge Mercury Pictures Presents - Anthony Marra Star Wars: Choices of One - Timothy Zahn Fishers of Men - The Gripping True Story of a British Undercover Agent in Northern Ireland - Rob Lewis £1.49 Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest - James Aldred £1.89 Lioness: My Journey to Glory - Beth Mead Eyes of the Void - Adrian Tchaikovsky The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson The Thousand Earths - Stephen Baxter Eversion - Alistair Reynolds I'm Sorry You Feel That Way - Rebecca Wait Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Thanks for this, I was in 2 minds as to whether to get it, so will give it a miss.

I think he’s a decent ideas person but is a really poor writer; suffers from the Stephen King/BBC drama series issue of struggling to write a decent ending. However, his books are real page-turners though, he’s a sci-fi Dan Brown.

This is absolutely top tier Apprentice. This is going to go down as an all-time classic.