Zambinos Create Fairytale Ending

Although Dundee beat the Binos 2-1 in the Cup this year, there was a silver lining to the day. Despite the early exit, the Binos had a new fan because witnessing the game in the crowd was 19 year old Zambian Kelvin Chasuaka.

Kelvin was a guest of this very magazine that day and post-match was delighted and proud to have been presented with a signed Albion shirt by Stuart Brown, Operations Director, on behalf of the Club.

Kelvin celebrated Darren Smith’s opener like everyone else in the DDT that day and little did anyone know that just four months down the line Kelvin would witness his home nation win the African Cup of Nations for the first time in their history.

That dramatic 8-7 penalty shootout victory over Ivory Coast ensured Zambia commemorated and celebrated the Zambian team of 1993 in sensational style.

Tragically, all the players and staff aboard the plane flying to the country’s 1994 World Cup qualifier in Senegal died whilst flying over Gabon, the very same country of their shoot-out triumph 19 years on.

Zambia had made it to two African Nation finals prior to eliminated tournament favourites Ghana 1-0 in this year’s semi-final stage. The tournament win was sweet enough without the knowledge it was nearly 20 years ago the nation fatally lost a golden generation of players. The only survivor of that team being star striker and now Zambia FA head Kalusha Bwalya. Bwalya scored a hat-trick in the only other game that comes close to matching the achievements of this year, a 4-0 win over Italy in the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Zambia (or Chipolopolo, as they are also known as, meaning copper bullets on accounts of the country’s main export), were offered little chance by pundits. Despite Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria’s failure to qualify for this year’s Nations Cup, Zambia were still rank outsiders to the likes of Demba Ba’s Senegal, Yaya Toure’s Ivory Coast and Asamoah Gyan’s Ghana.

However, coached under Frenchman Herve Renard, the Chipolopolo proved to be formidable opponents who were extremely difficult to break down. Somewhat controversially, Zambia had reappointed Renand after sacking former Dundee (it’s a small world) assistant Dario Bonetti as Head Coach despite successfully qualifying for the tournament in 2011. It proved to be a masterstroke decision in hindsight.

Despite not being pit against Africa’s greatest teams in the tournament’s qualifiers, they only lost once in finishing their group’s winners which featured Libya, Comoros and Mozambique. They continued their resilience into the tournament held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon stunning Senegal in their group’s opening fixture. Strong at the back and quick on the counter attack, Zambia continued to surprise teams and only conceding three goals in their six games on route to lifting the Cup and putting Zambia firmly on the world’s football map.

Renard galvanised a team of players who predominantly ply their trade on home soil into a solid unit who overcame the odds and created a fairy tale ending the tournament and their own history in Gabon.

Through, Kelvin and Africa on the Ball, for whom Kelvin is project manager, there’s a good chance the club will continue to have a link with Zambia. Africa on the Ball is a non-profit organization which was started in Stirling. It uses the power of football for social development in deprived communities of Africa. As Scotland’s first league club to be 100% owned by the fans and community, it’s great that both entities can continue to grow and develop alongside each other and the respective communities they work in.

To find out more about Africa on the Ball, please visit www.africaontheball.com.

The Albion Podcast

Check out the first ever 'Albion' podcast with special guests and football journalists David Ogilvie and Graham Ruthven joining me on first episode. Includes interviews with Stirling Albion manager Jocky Scott and captain Brian Allison.

Dykeenies provide Sounds for the City of Stirling

Fubar was the last stop on the Dykeenie’s latest tour promoting the release of their new album Canyon of Echoes. The band released the album off their own back following the decision to stay independent from a record label.

I caught up with the band to find out how life was own their own.

AJ: The new album has a very different sound to ‘Nothing Means Everything’, what was the thinking behind the production of the album.

Dykeenies: We never had a definite plan for the direction of the sound. On the first record, we recorded it with lots of different producers in lots of different studios and it was a matter of finding a producer we could click with. It was almost as if the first album was research. The second record was all made in the same studio with the same guy and we were all comfortable with that. I think the fact that we’re now independent made a big difference as well because we could take our time with the recordings and we could do a lot of experiments at home on our computer. We felt a lot less pressure with this album because we could do a lot of recording on our computers at home without it costing us money like it would if we were writing songs in the studio. So on the second record, we were a lot more prepared to record because we’d had that time to experiment at home.

AJ: What’s it been like being your bosses, is it all a much more fulfilling experience now or not?

Dykeenies: When we were on Sony, they wanted to control everything, including our haircuts and clothes. Now we can dress how we want.

AJ: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being independent?

Dykeenies: You can make your own decisions first and foremost. We always said to the guys from Sony that if we chose how to spend the budget they had allocated us, we would have been ten times better off. But now we don’t have the big massive budget, but we can make our own decisions.

AJ: Do you think going independent is the way forward for a lot of young Scottish bands?

Dykeenies: I think it’s going to have to be to be honest. Our music lawyer has only signed three bands to record labels in the last two years and he’s one of the best ones in the industry in Britain. Now the artists they mostly sign are pop acts that either look good or can sing fairly well but don’t write their own stuff, but that’s what it was like before Franz Ferdinand and the likes of the Strokes, so I guess it goes round in circles really. I think there’s been a lot of trial and error with bands releasing their own music and I think it’ll still be some time before they work out what the best way of releasing music is.

AJ: How do you see yourselves fitting into the current music market?

Dykeenies: I think we were perhaps a couple of years too late to fit into the surge of guitar music that occupied the 00s. There was a big thing for a while when all you ever heard was another band from another town in the UK and then people got fed up with that. It’s changed now to pop acts and things like dubstep, but even now people seem to be getting fed up with that because it all sounds the same. It’ll go round in a circle.

AJ: The video for Sounds of the City was good fun, was it as much fun to make as it is to watch?

Dykeenies: We took all the photos ourselves. There were 3800 photos in the end video, but I think we took over 10,000 photos overall. It was an absolute nightmare to edit! It took us 11 days to edit it.

AJ: What’s the reaction been to the new album?

Dykeenies: it’s been great. Nothing beats the sound of the crowd singing your new songs back to you, that’s when you know people are enjoying your music. 

If you're a fan of Scottish music, noise makers Sucioperro will be dropping into Fubar next week (11th November) to blow the roof off - Tickets available for £7 from Ticket web / Europa Music / Barton St Music

Macbeth, by SUDS: Review

SUDS ‘Macbeth’, hyped as Shakespeare meets Guy Ritchie, actually had very little Ritchie but plenty of what you would expect from one of Britain’s literary greats. Straight from the off, it was the pure brilliance of acting and recital of ludicrously long pros that drove the play forward. Dressed in modern attire, but still conversing in the archaic nature true to that of old Bill’s original script, the actor’s ability to portray the sense of chaos surrounding Mr and Mrs Macbeth was extremely impressive. Macbeth, played by Adam Welsh, was exceedingly good at convincing the audience of the increasing psychological problems haunting his soon to end life. The intensity and madness in his eyes was simply menacing. As they say, behind every great man there is a great woman; Macbeth was no exception. Along with Ross Middleton and John Bruce, Katrina Allen playing Lady Macbeth stole the show as she showcased her talents and persuaded Macbeth into her plans of regicide. Like Welsh, Allen succeeded in luring the audience into her increasingly guilt smothered psyche, to the point where the audience were taken to the core themes of the Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play’. Director Halon’s creative touches to the play added much in places and the stand out scene was that of Banquo’s (Middleton) return to haunt Macbeth at a banquet; his makeup horrifying. However, whilst the acting on average was extremely high, the lack of props and the minimal mise-en-scene maybe lacked a little originality to accompany the high standards set by the performers. It really was the acting and direction of the play that made it so gripping and one of marvellous art showcasing some terrific talent along the way.

Tracks of 2011 so far: Playlist

He's a 10 track playlist of some of the best songs released this year - feel free to comment or create your own in response!

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: A Review

Anyone that was slightly disappointed with Liam Gallagher’s attempts to prove he was the brain behind Oasis will probably be more than uplifted with Noel’s response. Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds would mostly definitely be one of Oasis’ finest releases since the release of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory were they still together today.Such highly anticipated albums by artists such as Noel Gallagher, one of Britain’s most successful singer songwriters over the past two decades, have in the past had a habit of not living up to their hype. Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds is an exception. It seems this album is where he’s been storing a back catalogue of songs for a number of years.

The long awaited release starts with “Everybodys on the Run”, an epic opening anthem with a beautiful mix of strings and female vocals accompanying an irresistibly catchy chorus, which bleeds emotion.

However, like most of Oasis’ albums since 1996, only half the tracks are of an outstanding quality, but when it shines, it shines like the sun, to use Noel’s lyrics. Three tracks in and you’ll find ‘If I Had A Gun’, one of the most beautiful songs he may have written. Its delicacy shows maturity in Gallagher’s songwriting. Whilst in the past Oasis wrote anthems, this is a ballad that has the perfect blend of sentimental emotion and raucous guitar backing his impressive vocal range, fully showcased for the first time.

Any doubters of Oasis in the past may want to reconsider their stance on Noel. One of the main criticisms of his former work was the inflexibility of his songwriting and an inability to produce anything other than generic guitar based anthems. His latest single from the album, AKA What A Life, demonstrates he’s catching up with contemporary ‘popular’ music with a track more based on the melody of the piano rather than that of his guitar. It is a track he confesses is the first song he’s ever written which “you can dance to”.

And it is AKA What A Life, along with Everybody’s on the Run and If I Had a Gun that standout on an album people can genuinely get excited about. Upon the release of the first single from the album (‘The Death of You and I’), Noel noted the fact it was the only single in the 40 by a) someone over the age of 45 and b) a guitar based track. It has already proven a hit, beating the debut album of last year’s XFactor winner Matt Cardle to the top spot in the album charts in its first week, something Noel might consider a small victory for music. It appears one of the true greats from a hazy period of great music, which formed the soundtrack to many people’s golden days, still has it.
4/5 Stars.

Brave Hearts Can't Beat The English

Tottenham’s 5-0 thumping of Hearts last week illustrated a definite bridge in quality between a Europa League finish in the SPL and the EPL.

However, just how big is the gap in class between the two leagues and why?

John Hartson today wrote how he believed Stoke would win the Scottish Premier League should they join. If you said that to a fan of the Old Firm, they’d claim you were mental. But in reality, it’s not too strong a statement to make.

What would happen if Celtic and Rangers joined the EPL like they’ve been trying for years? Realistically, it’d be hard to see them in the top half of the table with the squad of players each have. If Samaras wasn’t good enough for Manchester City when they were a bottom half side, he certainly isn’t going to be in a team pushing for the Champions League spots now.

Kris Boyd has currently scored more goals than any other player in the history of the Scottish Premier League with 164. He scored just 6 during his stint with Middlesborough, who were playing in only the second tier of English football. It’s hard to find players who’ve scored bags of goals in England and made the transition to Scotland because it hasn’t really happened.

However, the real question here is why is there such a gulf between English and Scottish football? For many years Celtic and Rangers competed at the highest level of European football, Celtic winning the equivalent of the Champions League in 1967 and Rangers the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972. For them to today win the Champions League seems unimaginable.

There really are two major factors which link into each other fairly well. The first major factor is that there simply aren’t enough fans to support Scottish football the way English football is. One statistic that sums the problem up fairly well is that the population of Scotland is the same as that of London’s, just one of many major cities in England.

Should Sheffield Wednesday, a League One side, be playing in the top tier of Scottish football, they’d have the third highest attendance in all the leagues, averaging a huge seven thousand larger attendance than Hearts, who do currently have the third biggest attendance in Scottish football.

This in turn leads to the more explainable factor that the just isn’t the money to finance a really quality side. Comparing the champions of each league demonstrates the proof really is in the pudding.

Rangers last year produced a turnover of £56 million, which sounds a lot, until you look at Manchester United’s, which was a whooping £286 million, more than five times the amount of Rangers’.

Today, a lot of revenue is based on television rights, and because of the amount of fans the country boasts, the money goes down depending on who might watch the game. Therefore it comes as no surprise that Manchester United’s revenue from TV rights dwarfs Rangers by generating over 27 times more money annually.

Of course, money isn’t everything. Teams in England have done well without throwing around vast sums of money around. But to be able to compete at the highest level, it’d be foolish to ignore the fact that financial support plays a pivotal part is sustainable success.

Is there any way of closing the gap? Well, no, not really. Unless extreme measures of bringing in caps on squad’s wages are brought in, the gulf will widen between the English and Scottish game, and the best Scottish clubs can do to ensure longevity is to focus on their academy’s and realising that producing quality youth players will go a long way in playing the part of team’s existence and success.

Many poorer teams in Scotland have acknowledged this, like Stirling Albion, who have a job simply competing with teams in and around the third tier of Scottish football. The average age of their squad this year is just 23 years.

A Dodgy Night Out In Fubar

“music isn’t bringing people together and making it work together, I mean at the moment you’ve got JLS and Tinie Tempah, what’s that sorting out?” - Matthew Preist

When most people talk of Fubar on a Friday night, the term ‘dodgy’ is mentioned almost without question. However, as part of Bulge Promotion’s attempts to re-ignite Stirling’s music scene, one forgotten band from the 90s played an intimate set featuring some of the biggest anthems from a hazy golden age of British music.

You might not even remember Dodgy as a band, but two lines from the chorus of their biggest hit ‘Good Enough’ (if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me) will instantly ring a bell. That song hit the heady heights of 4th in the UK Singles Charts whilst their other high hitter ‘Staying Out For The Summer’ was their first foray into the top 40 and paved the way for their future successes.

That song epitomised and embodied much of a new and exciting period in British music. Feel good festival anthems with a ‘summery’ vibe. However, they’re still very quick to distance themselves from the label of being a ‘Britpop’ band. Despite lead singer of the band Nigel Clark describing the phase as ‘spectacular’, he claims they never wanted to be a part of it. When speaking to Brig newspaper, he said “That whole period was to do with imagine, and we were just too much influenced by music to really care”.

In fact, in a damming critique of the music industry and the media, Clark lambasted the significance of image on record sales. “Many artists rely upon their image, where as we’ve always relied upon our music”. Matthew Priest, the band’s drummer said “looking back, you can see, the bands that do go down in history are the ones that really carefully crafted their own myth and were very pretentious about what they said in interviews, and the image they wanted to portray. Damon Albarn was very calculated and pretentious in what he did and in shaping the image of Blur and we would look at him and go ‘what a cunt’, and that’s what journalists lap up. All those bands did well, not necessarily because of their music but because they were very good at cultivating their image and we were never were”.

During the 90s, the band toured tirelessly around the world, racking up well over 250 shows in 1994/1995. Clark jokingly claims the band “never knowlingly turned down a gig” pinpointing the band’s success to their graft.
True musical romantics, Dodgy feel music has the power to unite, however the current music scene is doing the opposite. Matthew Preist said “today, music is about attitude, I’m not so keen on that, music isn’t about attitude its about opening your ears and getting into something. Music isn’t bringing people together and making it work together, I mean at the moment you’ve got JLS and Tinie Tempah, what’s that sorting out?”.

BEYOND THE NEIGHBORHOOD (01-10)

Following the release of their award winning single ‘Wires’, Athlete shot to fame. To date it remains their most recognised song. That’s not to say they weren’t already acknowledged artists. Their debut album Vehicles and Animals itself was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and a platinum seller, not a bad feat at all from a new band struggling for a foot hold in an increasingly hard music climate to break into.

Following the commercial success of their second album Tourist (which headed the UK Albums Chart in the first week of its release in 2005), it seemed they were destined to be subject of slate from music critics and general snobs. Like many bands before, and many bands in the future, they were unable to turn their commercial success into critical acclaim and have indeed been chucked into the group of bands merely described as ‘middle-of-the-road’, joining the likes of Starsailor and Keane.
Brig Music caught up with drummer Steve Roberts who feels the criticism was unjustified. “Every album we’ve tried to do something different and we’ve attempted a different sound but I don’t think a lot of people choose to see that”.

Perhaps the biggest change in sound between albums was between that of their debut album Vehicles and Animals to the more sombre Tourist, it also gained significantly more radio time. There was a much lighter electronic bubbly sound surrounding the Mercury Music Award nominee Vehicles and Animals which they’ve never since be able to replicate successfully.

It was a big change in attitude from the press. In just four years following the success of Vehicles and Animals which did seem to get a balanced response from public and press. Fresh sing-along indie tunes such as El Salvador and Westside, neatly accompanied by an electronic vibe throughout the album did offer a lot of promise for their future. However, following the release of Tourist which saw them being viewed as one of many British ‘bland’ bands, they’ve never been able to detach themselves from it, and seem happy enough not doing so.

Their previous two albums, Beyond the Neighbourhood and Swan Song have seen single success with ‘Superhuman Touch’ and ‘Hurricane’ generating radio air time, however, there’s very little deviation from the sound. Catchy three minute sing along choruses have become their forte and ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ appears to be the ideology they’ve adapted.

This does bring into question the ambitions of such bands that seem content to plod along the middle of the road making the most of what they can produce. They’re latest release is a collection of their all their singles between 2001 to 2010, which is currently being accompanied by a nationwide tour to promote it. It must be said however, that due to pressures from record label’s accountants, many bands are rushed to produce marketable content, something Roberts was critical of. “It’s a fact of matter that once your on the accountant’s spreadsheet, then you’re always under pressure to release new material – which has been the downfall of many bands in the past”.

The band have however achieved significant success State side, an achievement many more renowned bands haven’t been able to boast. The ability to crack the States is something that has evaded the likes of Oasis and many others, however isn’t an easy thing to do. Roberts said, “it’s very different from being successful in Britain. For starters, it might take you a couple of weeks to play a nationwide tour in the UK, in America it could take you several months to cover. You’ve then got to worry about gaining airplay on significantly more radio stations than in Britain”.

Despite their apparent inability to escape the shadow of their previous successes, they still put on an impressive live show, which does brag an atmosphere of enjoyment and gives off a vibe of a band enjoying what they’re doing.

Does Aid Work?

Over the last 50 years, over $3trillion has been ploughed into Africa and its development. It remains the only continent to have become poorer in the last three decades. Based on this fact alone, it’d be easy to say ‘aid’ simply isn’t working.

We live in a culture dominated by theories that donating to Africa will help solve their problems and stop their plight. Western aid, given from a sense of pity, is very difficult to challenge. How can you fault someone who tries to help you, especially when our first experience of aid resulted in such a positive outcome (The Marshall Plan in 1945)? Unfortunately, when it comes to Africa, things are never as simplistic as they would be anywhere else – in fact, Zambian author Dambisa Moyo argues aid essentially disadvantages Africa, and with good reason too.

In her book ‘Dead Aid’ she essentially two major reasons aid in Africa doesn’t work.
Unlike other historically successful aid interventions like the Marshall Plan, aid in Africa will always be needed such is the extent of the problems, therefore its continually in need clearly making development unsustainable.

Perhaps most importantly is the fact aid money often doesn’t go into productive causes and consequently corrodes the incentives system in many African countries (Ethiopia and Uganda, for example). Aid is essentially "free money"; therefore, governments do not see the need to generate revenue by growing their economies. Why work with local entrepreneurs when you can always go cap-in-hand to beg the white man stemming sustainable development. As the old saying goes “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In this context, should you continue to feed African governments, they’ll continue to take, knowing they’ve got cod for dinner all week.

The aid-driven development model, as Ms. Moyo argues, has not and will not deliver economic growth. The money is simply misused by governments. Her solution? Stop donating. It seems like a shocking heartless response however it would teach many governments to become more self-reliant and use what money they have more sustainably. The major downfall of her solution is that the short-term consequences of this would simply be catastrophic. The effects would be that the less advantaged and most under privileged would certainly lose out and many deaths would occur across the whole of Africa.
Aid has created something of a vicious circle. Because governments simply assume there will be a continuous stream of aid trickling into their pockets, many chose to neglect developing and sustaining many social services – leaving charities to pick up the slack. Similarly to aid, this also can have a negative knock-on effect as governments won’t address this issues in the future a third party is attending them.

There are other solutions all of which have pros and cons. Donating to charities that directly do grass roots work in Africa is often a very productive use of funds, however, you often have to accept only a percentage of your money will go towards what you’ve donated to – and the rest might seep into the corrupts hands, the question is, is it worth accepting that so that someone disadvantaged might receive the majority of it? This again comes back to the ‘Dead Aid’’s solution to simple turn the tap to stop aid trickling into Africa. But then who really loses out?

A very complicated complex argument, which still has no flawed solution I’m sure you’ll agree!

Alive and Kicking

Sub-Sahara Africa is the poorest region in the world and was ravished by the HIV/AIDS virus. The only continent to have become poorer over the last three decades, Africa suffers from mass unemployment. 64% of Zambia’s 12 million population earn less than the equivalent of one US dollar a day – which in turn causes a whole series out various problems relating to social development. However, there is one organisation that is determined to offer its workers well above minimum wage in good working conditions. Alive & Kicking is a football (and netball and volleyball) production enterprise, offering disabled and HIV/AIDS infected workers the chance of decent income and an escape from their desperate situations. I came to find out about Alive and Kicking through the two Sport NGOs I’m working with out in Zambia. EduSport and Sport In Action both purchase their footballs from Alive and & Kicking. Our equipment cupboard at the house is packed to the rafters with their products. Each ball proudly displays their logo, a warning of the dangers of malaria and their real signature, the writing ‘Against child labour’ around the ball’s air supply. A massive fan of their ideals and interested to find out more, I managed to organise a meet with their Managing Director, Chad. We spoke for a while, about Alive and Kicking, and also about the IDEALS project I was proud to be apart of. Each stitcher has the aim of making 3 balls a day – which doesn’t sound a lot, but Alive and & Kicking balls are of the highest standard. Even in the terrains of the compounds the IDEALS students operate, the Alive & Kicking balls are hard wearing and do not fall apart – something more famous production company’s products could be accused of. I sat with Chris, one of the stitchers (pictured below). He told me about his average day at the stitching centre, located at ZamLeather, Zambia’s biggest producer of leather.



All of the stitchers seemed to enjoy their job and enjoyed a good standard of living, all of which is of course relevant to the country in which they live. It was a pleasant environment to be around and seemed nice enough to be working in. There was a good atmosphere and additional activities were encouraged by the management. The workers were very enthusiastic about their work football team, playing every Saturday morning in a league. There are reasons to remain optismistic – since their company’s birth, they’ve created over 150 jobs for Africans. Despite their American managing director, they stay true to their roots boosting of the fact their products are: made by Africans, in Africa for Africans on their company t-shirts. Through their work, they’ve targeted over 40,000 children with the intention of educating them about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. They’ve distributed over 300,000 footballs, netballs and volleyballs all together. You can order personalised footballs or organisations such as EduSport and Sport In Action can have a specific design for their required desires. Or you can simply buy or donate balls from their online shop. Friend of EduSport, a UK charity supporting the work of EduSport last week created a formal partnership with Alive & Kicking. Supporting their work and ordering ten footballs for their Go! Sisters world series to be held next year, Friend of EduSport are more than happy to give Alive & Kicking business.




Made in Africa, by Africa, for Africa – Alive and Kicking.

You can find out more about Alive and Kicking on Twitter (@ballsforafrica), Facebook (www.facebook.com/BallsForAfrica) or their website (www.aliveandkicking.org.uk)

The Day I Caught A Bus To Meet Simon Fowler Of Ocean Colour Scene

To be published in Brig, March edition 2010

The Day I Caught A Bus To Meet Simon Fowler Of Ocean Colour Scene

In 1998, Stirling Castle was just one of thirty-six stops on Ocean Colour Scene’s arena tour of Britain. Their arena tour became the biggest selling arena tour of any UK band in that year.

They played three consecutive sold out nights in the grounds of the castle off the back of the unexpected success of ‘Moseley Shoals’ and ‘Marchin’ Already’ on the way to becoming one of Britpop’s greatest gems.

Six studio albums later and twelve years on, the band returned to Stirling to play the Albert Hall whilst promoting their latest album ‘Saturday’.

As I waited patiently through the Birmingham act’s sound check to meet with Simon Fowler, lead singer of the band, the significance of their latest tour struck me.

In a world of declining CD sales and ever youthful chart topping acts, here was one of the 90’s best discoveries, 21 years after their emergence, in the words of fellow ‘Britpoptorian’ Liam Gallagher just ‘f**king havin’ it”.

Although their three consecutive sold out nights at Stirling Castle might have epitomized the height of Ocean Colour Scene, when reminiscing, it certainly wasn’t all it was cracked up to be in their eyes.

“What I do remember is when we got there is that we were bitterly disappointed. I don’t know what we had imagined, but when you playing Stirling Castle, what you are actually playing is Stirling bloody car park! I don’t know if we thought we’d be playing ram parts or what!”

Despite this, the gigs marked what had been a dramatic change in fortunes for a band that just eight years prior, had been dropped by their record label and forced back onto the dole.

Things had originally started out well for the band with the release of the single ‘Sway’, however, when their record label was bought by the larger company Phonogram, conflicts sparked.

At the time, Phonogram were looking for their singed artists to be conforming to the then popular Madchester music scene which had been fronted by bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.

It was here that issues arose as the band had their own ideas they wanted to pursue, leaving their debut album a culmination of directions.

The album was critically and commercially deemed disappointing and the band fell into disrepute with Phonogram, leaving them with little to work towards and no outlet to project the songs they were writing.

However, there was never any doubt in the mind of Flower that they would eventually make the break through and 1993 saw the year it all changed for Ocean Colour Scene.

Paul Weller invited the band a support slot on some dates of his tour and then asked OCS guitarist Cradock to play on one of his singles. He later asked Fowler to accompany him with the vocals on his album Wild Wood.

This was the start of something big for the Birmingham band.

“He (Paul Weller) was a huge influence on us in the fact that he gave us confidence and made us realize we had more than just a hobby. Steve (Craddock) has been playing in Paul’s band since 1993 and I was the support act”.

With the money made by the support slot and Fowler and Cradock’s income, they were able to finance an outlet for their music.

Noel Gallagher, then lead guitarist and backing vocalist of a working-class Manchester band known as Oasis, was wrongly cited by the media to giving the band their break through when he invited the band to play a support slot on their tour as they exploded onto the Britpop scene having heard a tape of the band.

However, when I quizzed Flower over the early days of the band, he was quick to attribute any success to Chris Evans and Paul Weller.

“Chris Evans broke the band, it was almost 100% down to him. When we went on that tour with Oasis, no one came to watch us at all. Chris made us record of the week two weeks in a row and got the Radio One morning show and that was it. The album went in at number two (in the charts) and stayed there for 6 months”.

Although Flower was in little doubt the band would eventually make the break through onto the scene, he admitted the success of Moseley Shoals was unexpected.

“It was a complete surprise. We were making it for a Japanese label called Ponycannon and it fell threw at the 11th hour. There was only 15,000 albums made”

With songs such as ‘The Riverboat Song’, and ‘The Day We Caught A Train’, it was never impossible for people not to sit up and notice the band.

By the end of 1996, Moseley Shoals had sold 1.3million copies in Britain and the rest as they say is history.

The band went from strength to strength, following up their initial success with ‘Marchin’ Already’, and playing a supporting role at Knebworth in front of 250,000 people, a now iconic moment in British music.

The band have since added another six albums to their discography and still turn out to strong crowds.

Although the Britpop era made famous by the likes of OCS and co is but a lingering memory, the band’s popularity hasn’t wavered as they recently added a second night to Edinburgh Picture House having sold out so quickly.

In a career that’s spanned 21 years, produced six studio albums, seen the band play the likes of Knebworth and headline Stirling Car Park, it’d be hard to pick a particularly high point, but Fowler did his best.

“The Albert Hall (London, not Stirling!). Top of the Pops should have been one of our highlights but it wasn’t. The others mimed and I had to sing it live. We got there about 10.30am to sound check and then basically everyone else got off their face whilst I had to nervously try not to drink more than two pints. There’s about forty people in the audience and all your childhood dreams are crushed in front of your eyes!”

Fowler had just one piece of advice for hopeful musicians.

“Don’t listen to anyone older than you!”

The Day I Caught A Bus To Meet Simon Fowler Of Ocean Colour Scene from andrew Jenkin on Vimeo.

I met the man behind Stirling Albion fan's take over bid, to talk about Oasis...

'Buystirlingalbion' is a campaign launched by supporters of the 'Binos' (also known by some as the 'Yo Yos' - on account of their frequent leaps between the Scottish leagues) to buy the club from Chairman Peter McKenzine. Created in May of this year, the trust aims at taking the club, currently sliding into financial obsess and putting back in the hands of the community from where it first started.

Supporters can pledge £40 for a say in the future of their beloved side. This donation allows them to cast votes on how the club should be run for a more sustainable financial future. Similar to the mould of non-league Ebbsfleet United (bought through the website, myfootballclub.com), decisions will be made democratically, however, the footballing side of things will be left to Allan Moore, who under his guidance, has seen Stirling at the right end of the Scottish League 2.

Fronted by Paul Goodwin, the trust had a six figure bid club rejected by chairman McKenzie just 2 months ago, despite having had the club up for sale for 7 years. Paul Goodwin of the trust came and met with me on the Air 3 Sport Show. To hear the interview just head over to www.air3radio.com and go to listen again.

Paul comes from an incredible marketing background and we spoke at length about the bid and it's current situation. Since the original bid was rejected, a new timeframe for the bid's completion has been put in place for the end of this current footballing campaign (next May). Amongst other topics of conversation regarding the bid was Cristiano Ronald's donation, the fluctuations in value in case of promotion and what new projects were being introduced to speed up the take over process.

We eventually moved onto the topic of music and such which led to the incredible story that whilst head of marketing at HMV, Paul almost completely manufactured the Oasis v Blur rivalry through the fabrication of leaked stories. In an attempt to recreate the Stones v Beatles war of the 60s and 70s, Paul and his HMV colleagues masterminded a fictional furor which captivated most of Britain and epitomized the Britpop era of the 90s.

He also gave me a free 'Buy Stirling Albion' key ring :) - head to the website now to hear the interview.

The night I met a Zambian National Hero

It was a strange strange situation when I first heard of Lyson Zulu. When out on placement in Zambia, I met Sally Pandor, the national football manager. He sold me the last official Zambian football shirt in Lusaka and we had a photo together, it was good times.

I later learnt whilst I was in Zambia, the national team, also known as the Chipolopolo (translating as the 'Bullets' from Nanja to English), would be part-taking in a friendly game against fellow Africans Ghana....in London. So whilst I, Johnny English, was in Zambia writing about sport, the Zambian national team traded places. I'm sure at the time of arranging the friendly it seemed like a good idea. In between international qualifiers against Egypt, Algeria and Rwanda, a chance to have a look over the first team selection would have proved beneficial.

What happens wasn't foreseen was an inability for the majority Zambian national team to actually get to London, due to a lack of passports, which is usually a problem let's be honest. After this realization, panic spread across the Zambian management team and in a desperate attempt to field a team, called up many Zambians already residing within Britain, cue Lyson Zulu.

This is where it becomes all very interesting. Lyson Zulu is currently on a scholarship at Loughborough, having already attended Bath University. He was offered a chance to shine at Bath having impressed their students during their time on the IDEALs Project (the project through which I too went across to Africa). He was a peer leader at EduSport, the non-government organization I was writing during my placement. I therefore was required to write a news article about the man himself which is on the EduSport website and can be seen here.

Despite the situations in which he gained his called up, the amount of pride that a product of Kalingalinga (one of the placements students carried out their sport's coaching during the project) gained a cap for the Zambian National Team was insurmountable.

Then, last night at the Stirling Zambian Fundraising Ceilidh, who should I meet, but Lyson himself who had made the trip up from Loughborough. Probably the nicest guy in the entire world, we quickly got into conversation once I mentioned I had written an article about him for the EduSport website. Both being men, the conversation quickly led onto the topic of football and his call up.

"I was very surprised to get a call up, it was the proudest moment of my life. Despite the call up, I wasn't really expecting to a game and perhaps only play the last 10/15 minutes of the match. However, during the warm up, the coach said he liked the looks of me and less than 15 minutes before kick off, was told I was starting".

"I was playing as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation which is a very hard position to play and requires a lot of hard work. Although we lost, it was still amazing experience, especially to be playing in London".

Leyton Orient's home ground 'Brisbane Road' does seem one of the last football grounds in the world you'd find a 4-1 win for Ghana over the minnows of Zambia, but never the less, it was a fine setting for Lyson Zulu's proudest moment who has since become something of a national hero in the eyes of everyone how acknowledges his moment.

The Rise Of British Cinema

The rise of the American Multiplex under Thatcher’s reign coincided, or perhaps for a more accurate description, triggered, the demise of British Cinema, a once hugely prominent and influential figure in world wide film production. While Hollywood continues to rise in productivity, everyone else seems to be sinking into unsustainable financial mire of film production investment; a common trend since the creation of the Marshall Plan back in 1945 following the economic crisis within Britain post World War Two.

But I believe there are many reasons to be a cheerful Brit as even in these dark times, there has never been a lack of talent or potential. Although in prior times Britain has been stereotypically known for more dour socially realistic productions and ‘Costume Dramas’ than for light hearted entertainment, there has been a change in the wind and more ‘feel good films’ have been capturing the hearts of cinema goers including Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ adaption which gained both critical and commercial success, indicating potentially promising signs for a resurgent Britain and while it’s hard to claim them truly ‘British’, runaway productions in the form of James Bond and Harry Potter franchises continue to reap financial rewards.

While it is much more financially risky for British Production Companies to ‘gamble’ on a film with unknown talent and a considerably ‘different’ script, the UK Film Council will fund UK productions with £8million for more established directors on top of the £5million it invests in new and upcoming innovative film makers, which in respect is hardly anything compared to the bill of a US production, is still government financed and a massive benefit and opportunity to film makers across the country.

But the real potential lies in the talent Britain has always held which could be gradually combined with the upcoming talent. For instance, ‘The Dark Knight’, the fourth highest grossing film of all time and already heralded as a modern great was directed by Christopher Nolan, who unknown to most, was born and lived in London for early stages of his life before moving to America. The fact he is yet to reach the age of forty promises endless potential for years to come. Likewise, fellow modern directors also stamp British talent within America with ‘The Bourne Supermacy/Ultimatium’ director Paul Greengrass illustrating this. Meanwhile, Shane Meadows is an example of a home grown talent whom continues to produce quality productions on small scale budgets for British audiences such as Somers Town and This Is England while there is hardly a lack of prolific actors starring in films on either side of the Atlantic with Daniel Craig, James McAvoy, Gerald Butler, Keria Knightly, Orlando Bloom and Paul Bettany fine examples of such.

In conclusion, it’s fair to state that these are potentially promising times for the UK in terms of productions and while it will be a long time before there will be competition with US films in the Cinema Screening schedules, a gradual and steady approach could see the continuation and extension to the golden crop of British Film Making.