It was tough for James as he was probably been told in his eye (and he confirmed today that 5 people were arguing in his ear to stop Adele (for Blur)). Would have been great to hear Adele thank who she wanted to. Her acceptance speeches are usually funny (her 1st one was) and passionate and you can tell how much it means to her.

The Brits is all live so you can’t really delay the news etc. Saying that though, the news was delayed by a couple minutes apparently. Just an couple minutes and what difference would it have made.

Damon Albarn waffling on and on …. and on

As it turned out, we could have done with cutting the Blur performance as it was awful. Part of the reason, Adele had her speech cut short was because Damon Albarn blapped on for ages when accepting the award for Outstanding Contribution. The bosses/producers have apologised and James Corden apologised to Adele afterwards in her dressing room.

I think what they should do, and I think they have done it before, is have the rest of the last act on ITV2. They could have ended the ITV1 coverage whenever they needed to and show rest on ITV2 (which was on straight after). I think it was 2-3 years ago (??) when Robbie Williams was the last act. ITV1 had 1 or 2 songs and then he continued for half hour on ITV2. It may not have been Brits but it was something like that.

Anyway, back to the actual Brits and the music/awards.

Coldplay and Rihanna the best performances at the Brits. Adele was pretty good but it was never going to be better than THAT performance last year. Bruno Mars was good but would have been good if he sang a medley of songs.

Happy that Adele, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars won. Personally would have liked Jessie J to win something – shes had a great year. As usual some strange nominations – James Morrison for Best Solo Male Artist – he had 2 songs out in 2011 – one got to no.5 & the other no. 30. Kate Bush was nominated – she is every year no matter what. She had 2 songs out in 2011 and they didn’t even get into top 40. One was 73, other was 87!). Surprised Annie Lennox wasn’t nominated! Also, are Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds a group or solo act?? Brits seem to think its a solo act??

The odd couple(s)

Presenters of awards were a bit random as usual. Oddest pairing was Rob Brydon and Will.I.Am. Rob Brydon was one of the better presenters who didn’t some drunk/stoned or mess up his lines. I did like his little joke. Will.I.Am introduced himself and then Rob said “Hi, I am Rob I Am”. A few of the awards are voted by radio listeners e.g. Radio 1, Radio 2, Capital Radio. The one voted by Radio 2 listeners was at least presented by people on Radio 2. But the Best Breakthrough – voted by Radio 1 listeners was presented by Cesc Fabregas and Nicole Scherzinger ?!?

You would have though George Michael would have calmed things down after whats happened recently and not present the award drunk/stoned!! Also, what was that all about flying from Australia!! The way he said it was like he was showing off and was smug.

Blur #fail (Oasis FTW)

As I mentioned before, the Blur performance at the end was rubbish. It was like Blur karaoke. Apparently they are the headline act in the Closing Ceremony at London 2012! Oh dear. Back in the 90s, in the whole Oasis v Blur “battle” I was always Oasis. Seems like most people were if you compare there chart success. Oasis 1st song reached just 31 but the lowest position for the rest was 12 (in the UK) but vast majority were top 5. Blur’s last song in charts was in 2003 (excluded a limited edition single in 2010) and have had much less success.

Other highlights:

• Olly Murs entrance when he was shot out of the thing was good. Rest of performance was OK
• Rihanna’s act. They threw so much paint about, you couldn’t see her at the en
• Rihanna’s dancers …. wow
• The random people walking infront of the camera. The first one was by mistake I think but he didn’t seem to either notice or care. The 2nd was the DJ/producer guy Labrinth – possibly deliberate??
• One Direction were always going to win award voted by public. Didn’t know they were that popular outside of the UK – credit where credits due I guess. Helps being trending on Twitter all the time. At least its not Bieber and they seem alright.

PS – Whats the big deal with Lana Del Rey?? Over-rated if you ask me. At least shes a happy, cheerful person though. Would be great fun at a party! *sarcasm*

PPS – If your not a Chris Moyles fan, you will have no idea why I put “shabbatronic” in the title of this post :p

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Its been a few weeks since Suarez was banned for 8 matches. I originally planned to blog about it right after he was banned but decided to wait for the FA Report.

Past “cases” involving Evra

Before I talk about the actual Evra v Suarez case, I just wanted to mention what lots of people were saying about how Evra is an “unreliable” witness. They bring up that he has claimed racism against him previously and they were unfounded. Even in the official LFC statement it mentions it – (HOWEVER, that statement is an embarrassment).

The 2 previous cases were involving that Chelsea ground man and the other was against Steve Finnan. The Chelsea case was not Evra who claimed racism.  The Steven Finnan case was actually a member of the public. I believe is was a fan who was hard of hearing so lip-read what Finnan apparently said.

Suarez v Evra

I think we will never know 100% exactly what was said because it was kind of Suarez’s word against Evra’s.  Suarez actually admitted using the word “negro”. Suarez said he only said it once but Evra claimed he said it several times. Either way, the word may be acceptable in his home country but is not here in the UK. He should know this since he’s actually been playing in Europe for a few years. He said he never used it on a derogatory way. Why bother saying it to Evra?? Personally, I think he knew what he was doing and was trying to wind up Evra.
An apology – kind of
Suarez has kind of apologised for it. He said “I never, ever used this word in a derogatory way and if it offends anyone then I want to apologise for that.” So he’s not apologised for saying that word but just saying if someone was offended . Maybe if Suarez, right at the start of all this and just after the match, admitted that he used racist language. Said that although the language he used was acceptable in his home country, understands that it is not accepted here in the UK and that in the heat of the moment, acted like an idiot and used the racist language and was sorry for doing so. Maybe then it would have been OK and not all drawn out like it has been.
FA Report
I admit I have not read all of the FA Report but have read the key bits and read articles on people who have read it. Its not nice reading some of the things which are alleged to have been said and done. Of course, there are 2 sides to every story and there are discrepancies between what Evra and Suarez said. Reading the report and the points it makes, it makes the laughable statement which Liverpool FC released even more embarrassing.  One of the most laughable points from the LFC report was about the fact that Suarez’s granddad is black. Its like that automatically means he can’t be racist and its not possible he used racist language???

Some points :

• Suarez said he “pinched Mr Evra’s skin in an attempt to defuse the situation”. WTF??! How does pinching someones skin defuse a situation.
• The FA’s case, according to the report, was that Evra asked Suarez why he had kicked him, to which the forward replied: “Because you are black.”
• When Evra challenged him to repeat the answer and said he would “punch him”, Suarez said: “I don’t speak to blacks.”
• According the the report, Evra then told Suarez he was going to hit him, to which the Uruguay international replied in Spanish: “Dale, negro, negro, negro.” That translates to “okay, blackie, blackie, blackie”.
• Suarez denied the charge. The report stated that Suarez said he “used the word ‘negro’ in a way with which he was familiar from his upbringing in Uruguay”.
• Suarez has said he said “Por que, negro?” to Evra, which was intended to be in a friendly way.

If these things are true, its shocking terrible behaviour from Suarez. In fact, he could be lucky its just an 8 match ban!

It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes back especially if when playing United – which could be his first game back! Also, United play Liverpool in FA Cup next week so will be interesting what LFC fans reaction is to Evra.

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Took 1 video on way to gym. Was about 5-6 fire engines, police and spotted an ambulance (but no sirens or flashing lights so a good sign). There was a fair amount of smoke – didn’t see any flames. Smoke was coming from top of building. 

The building isn’t residential and I think may be completely empty. There are offices next door I think – hopefully no one was inside and everyone is OK. On the ground floor it used to be a club called Baby Grand and only recently building work was being done and scaffolding was around building.

On the way back from gym there were more fire engines – about 10. No sign of the “normal” ambulance but walked past an incident support ambulance – didn’t seem to be doing much. Most of the firefighters appeared to be standing around watching another firefighter go up a ladder. There was less smoke about but smoke was still coming from top of building.

Pretty much the whole of Peter Street in closed.

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Tempura prawns & also Firecracker Bangkok Prawns. Followed by a duck and gammon.

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