A tribute to treasure

A Sunday morning to remember at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport as the Puppet Folk Experience introduced a special screening of The Muppet Treasure Island with a tribute act. (The film is 30 years old this year.)

The Puppet Folk are puppeteer and singer Liam and guitarist Andy, who also proves to be a handy banjo player as well. Liam performed with Kermit and Ernie who appeared for a rendition of 'Rubber Duckie', which is one of his signature songs.

Costume change for Kermit

I was impressed with the way Liam captured Kermit's vocal inflections in the songs. I have read about plenty of fan criticism of how Kermit sounds in recent Disney productions. It's a hard voice to do well, and Liam gets him sounding like "original Kermit" (Cathy's words).

Overall what came through was the clear love and respect that Liam and Andy have for the characters and the source material. There was a mix of songs, some of them in a medley, covering everything from the original Muppet Show theme through to a song from the 2011 Disney reboot. (Which is itself a shocking 15 years old now!)

After the tribute was over, we watched the movie. It had been a long time since I had watched it. I had completely forgotten one set of characters until they popped up in a proper 'oh, yeah...!' moment. The gags were still funny. I enjoyed it. 

Like several other fans in the audience, Cathy and I wore suitable t-shirts for the occasion. Kermit commented on Cathy's t-shirt after we queued up for the post-film meet-and-greet.

After taking the photos with Kermit we chatted to Andy afterwards as he was on the merchandise stand. He told us there might be another show introducing The Muppet Christmas Carol at the end of the year, so hopefully that will be coming to South Wales!

A "Corinthian" football weekend

This weekend I saw games featuring not one but two "Corinthian" teams!

Friday 13th - Cardiff Corinthians v Seven Sisters Onllwyn

My matchgoing companion, Paul, bailed on this Friday night game, which was probably just as well. It got chilly! I was glad I took my big coat. But despite the cold there was a lovely, brief sunset and after it the gibbous moon was an extra floodlight. 

Cardiff Corries look a decent outfit this year and were towards the top of the Ardal South West. The game was at Cwrt Yr Ala, home of Caerau Ely because the Corries' ground in Radyr is shared with the cricket team and it's still just about summer.

I saw Seven Sisters get walloped 6-0 by Cardiff Draconians last May. Either they were missing a few players in that game or they have had a rebuild, because this was a much better team tonight, marshalled from the back by a bossy, lanky goalie.

Corries started brightly with a chance in the first minute but then conceded on a break after just six minutes, a low shot from the edge of the area wrongfooting the Corries keeper. 

I hoped to see more goals because the combination of relentless 'home' team pressure and "Sevens" capacity to move the ball forward rapidly when they got possession felt like the perfect alchemy for goals, goals, goals.

Twas not to be though. Sevens defended resolutely through nine minutes of time added on, including pinball in the six yard box at 90+8. The ref blew for full time during another melee mere feet from the goal a few seconds later.

Final score: 0-1. Somehow.

I also saw a great trivia challenge scenario - have you ever seen a player shown a first yellow card and then get ordered to leave the field? Well it happened in this game. The reason is at the bottom of the post - see if you can work it out.   

Saturday 14th - Newport Corinthians v Caldicot Town

My mate Ben had told me he wasn't playing in this game as he had work commitments. But I still wanted to go. It was already my back up game after my original plan to visit South Gower fell through. And I wanted to get some pictures with the transporter bridge in the background! I'd seen the backdrop in several other people's photos and wanted to capture it myself.

This was a new ground for me and Paul. Newport Corries have a nice little clubhouse. There's memorabilia on the walls including stuff from the 60s just after the club was founded. They also have a nice new stand. 

Corries were ahead after 7 minutes although Paul and only realised that after about 15 minutes when we discovered it was Corries playing in blue and Caldicot in yellow rather than the other way round!

After the opening frenetic burst from the home team, Caldicot clawed their way back into the game and had turned it around to lead 2-1 at the break.

The second half was mainly Caldicot. They went 3-1 up before conceding to a diving header from a corner. They then went 4-2 up. 

However, the Caldicot left back was sent off for a second yellow with about 20 minutes to go. Caldicot missed a couple more chances to nab a fifth even though they were down to 10. But the momentum swung back towards the Corries.

Newport got a goal back with a point blank header that seemed to go through the Caldicot keeper. Then very late on a defensive mix up saw the ball squared to an unmarked Corries player right in front of an open goal. 4-4!

Caldicot had two more good chances to win it in injury time. But the whistle blew and a fabulous knockabout game of football came to an end. Well worth the trip across the Usk.

There was another unusual refereeing incident - the first time I've ever seen a physio sent off. It was the Corries physio who was shown a straight red, possibly for coming on to the pitch without permission. 

Trivia scenario 

Why was the player asked to leave the pitch after just a yellow card? He had been receiving treatment on the sideline and came on without being authorised by the referee. So he was booked and then told to go back off the pitch and only come back on when he was told to!

October 2022 round-up and review

Well, another month, another new Prime Minister. Time will tell whether this will be an improvement. At the moment it feels like more of the same corruption and cruelty. 

However, while the news was full of politics, our personal news was that we resumed gig-going after a few pandemic-filled years. I've already blogged about the gig we went to in the middle of the month in Manchester, when we heard Counting Crows return to form. At the end of the month, we saw another long-term favourite, when Tony Wright, the singer from Terrorvision, visited Le Pub in Newport on part of his acoustic tour.

Being a very small venue we could get photos with him afterwards. We also got him to sign a copy of his new album. 

And yes, he did play some classic Terrorvision songs including a thumping version of Alice, What;s the Matter? that had the audience singing along. 

Something I first noticed when we went to see Garbage in 2015 was that the audience of gigs from bands that were big when Cathy and I were in our early 20s all seem to have aged at the same rate as we have! This was no different. We were probably some of the young 'uns. 

I went to four football matches in October, starting with Shrewsbury's game away in Cheltenham.  

It was a disappointing game for Shrewsbury fans, but I did get to sit to my old school friend Chris who was there with his son.

On the way in I also noticed this well-stickered sign bearing labels stuck there by fans from lots of different teams 

(I actually tripped on the step on the way out of the ground. Despite this sign!)

My next game was another Shrewsbury game, at home against the team from Milton Keynes that are pariahs in the game. We went to this as a belated ninth birthday celebration for my eldest nephew, Zac. The game we had planned to attend nearer his birthday, in September, got cancelled after the Queen passed away. 

Quite a gang of us went, including my mum and Cathy as well. Zac had invited some mates along and they all got to meet Lenny the Lion.

My final game of the month was in Portsmouth to watch Shrewsbury again. I drove down the morning after the Tony Wright gig and met my friend Tom who moved there last year to do a ship-building course. We took the obligatory selfie with a sign for Fratton Park in the distance. 

Afterwards I realised I knew those two cops doing the high viz photobomb. One of them, Chris, grew up round the corner from me in Shrewsbury. 

I liked Fratton Park, which was both large and somehow quite open. We were behind one goal - with a decent view when play was down our end. We saw Portsmouth score in front of us. We almost saw Shrewsbury score too, from this corner. 

And I managed to capture the split second after a Portsmouth defender had cleared the ball with his hand. It should have been a penalty but the ref didn't see it. Everyone behind the goal did though!

The game finished 1-1, a creditable draw for Shrewsbury.

The fourth game I saw was Barry beating Llanelli, which meant Barry went top of the league! Here's hoping they can stay there. 

Nooooo, not the CIA!

Cardiff's International Arena is the suckiest worst gig venue ever. It has the atmosphere of a morgue... in the arctic. I think it's been designed to suck the life out of music and stifle even the best bands with negative acoustics. It was obviously thrown together by a committee of music-hating architects whose sole criteria in designing the place was to produce the WORST VENUE FOR LIVE MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Although the fact they acheived this feat probably accords them more competency than they actually had.

I often compare the CIA to the Newport Centre, which is a leisure centre. You walk in past a swimming pool. And yet, the gigs I've seen there have been fantastic (Delirious?, Counting Crows and Terrorvision). But the gigs I've seen at the CIA - an allegedly purpose-built concert venue - have felt like you're at a gig in a leisure centre. And the bands I've seen include Counting Crows on a different occasion, so it's a fair comparison between gigs. Either the Crows suddenly became woeful, or it's the venue's fault.

So it's fair to say I hate the CIA as a venue. It's drab, devoid of atmosphere, and kills live music stone cold dead. I would rather travel to a different city entirely to see a band play. So when I heard Scouting for Girls are going to play the CIA in November my initial reaction was 'Nooooo!' Then I noticed they're playing the Civic in Wolverhampton on a Saturday. Even with diesel currently costing more per litre than red wine, it'll be worth the extra expense. At least the gig experience won't be ruined by an abhorrent, soul-destroying venue.