Susan Boyle : A singing sensation, really?

Well a month later this story is still running strong. Here in Scotland every day there is a news article in the press, from the haircut, the dressing gown, the previous TV appearance, the charity CD through to what song she might sing next. The YouTube clip that has seen the interest in her spread around the world is fast becoming the most viewed clip of all time in YouTube history, ITV.com has had a 700% increase in traffic on their own website and until a deal is struck between Google & ITV/ Simon Cowell the lost revenue is estimated to be about a million pounds, which would certainly cover any recording contract or costs & gives an insight into how these shows work & really is a win win situation for all involved.

So why all the fuss? Half the joy is seeing the judges preconceptions shift as Susan Boyle demonstrates that even a 47 year old spinster can have the proverbial voice of an angel. A lot has been made of the audience reaction being ugly & only too keen to dismiss her as an artist purely for the way that she looks, I think a better adjective would be sceptical, the sniggering didn't start until the embarrassing shimmy of the hips & the sexual innuendo (this from someone who's never been kissed). Of course in hindsight half of these characteristics add to her appeal coupled with the fact that we love to support the underdog & celebrate the rags to riches story but the truth of the matter is, in this modern day media driven world that we live in image is more important than ever. It doesn't matter if you are a singer, an actor or even serving in a shop or a bar, first impressions rightly or wrongly influence us all. In the same way that you'd never expect to see Robbie Coltrane play James Bond you'd expect your average international singing diva to a bit more glamorous than Susan. Half of the story / reaction to her performance is it was the last thing you'd expect when she walked out onto that stage but if she'd been drop dead gorgeous would we still be talking about it now? I think not.

There is no doubt that Susan Boyle can sing & has a good voice but is it a great voice? Her closest comparison would be Paul Potts the first winner of Britain's got talent in 2007. Potts too did not conform to the stereo typical image but surprised everyone with his rendition of Nessun Dorma & went on to sell 3.5 million copies of his debut album going to number 1 in 15 countries but I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone that had been classically trained to agree that he was any better than the thousands of graduates singing in chorus's up & down the UK. The music business is rare in that someone with less talent can have a bigger career that someone with more talent. Luck, location & determination plays as big a part as any talent.

So what next for Susan Boyle? The bookmakers have slashed her odds of winning to 2/5 although thankfully for the producers there looks like being a couple of contenders that will give her a run for her money. There will be numerous more TV interviews & appearances. Oprah has sent a film crew to Scotland, her idol Elaine Page is talking of a duet and she's already turned down the chance of dinner with President Obama. The album will be rolled out at the end of the series come win or loose and no doubt will be a huge hit for all involved, I wish Susan the greatest success & hope that her & the cat Pebbles will be very happy, she should certainly milk it the max but singing sensation?

Don't believe the hype!

Watch the audition & pre interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

A Bowl Of Credit Crunch For Breakfast.

A week ago this post might've been a bit more pessimistic, it's been all boom & gloom, we've had bail outs & rescue packages with plenty of anger and un-certainty. An email doing the rounds this week, summed up plenty of feelings :

"If anyone has difficulty understanding the current world financial situation and shoring up the banks, the following may help.... Once upon a time in a village, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.' The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere! Welcome to WALL STREET. "

For years we've all enjoyed a credit boom generating as a nation over a billion pounds of personal debt. As the property market has risen it has been only too easy to take out loans, credit cards and of course mortgages. Coupled with low unemployment, low interest and inflation rates, all seemed rosy. We seemed to have learnt from the decadence of the 80's but are we still all about to suffer?

As the American sub prime market has collapsed this has obviously had a knock on effect here, not just because plenty of our banks have invested in this but because they also have lent irresponsibly themselves. We've seen the nationalisation of Northern Rock who themselves famously once had a 125% mortgage, the collapse of Bradford & Bingley's buy to let market, presumably because these landlords over stretched themselves and plenty of banks would've sold you a mortgage between 5 & 10% of your annual salary especially in places like London.

There's an old saying: "when America sneezes the world catches a cold" and as our own government cracks out the Beechams, as in any epidemic you wonder about the vulnerable. I think most of us have little sympathy for the banks and executives who continued to pay themselves excessive wages & bonus's and few of us will have invested that much in the stock market, (my own modest investment of company shares will have lost hundreds rather than thousands) but most of us will see the effect dilute to all of us if not already. For those about to retire they will either have to bite the bullet or keep working, eight out of ten pension schemes are now in the red with a shortfall of 44 billion pounds, house prices are already falling, it's already harder to get the loans and money so readily available only a short time a go. Unemployment is up, food costs are up and as previously mentioned in this blog utility prices are at a record premium, although with the price of oil falling there is a chance we will at least see the price of gas & electric reduce, but when the likes of my beloved West Ham feel the heat you know it's serious! First the collapse of shirt sponsor XL now our beleaguered owner has had his Icelandic bank bailed out and has been sacked from the board of directors by the Icelandic government and he is not alone. Chelsea's Roman Abramovich has lost an estimated $230 billion dollars in the last five months, Newcastle's Mike Ashley's Sports Direct company is now only worth 168m pounds compared to 1.7 billion in February and the FA chairman Lord Triesman has recently warned that the domestic game is 3 billion in debt.

So how much will all this cost? The global bail out is estimated to be reaching 1.9 trillion pounds,(to put in perspective this is 36 times the aid sent by the richest nations to the poorest each year) with the UK tax payer paying close to 40m, which will cost us individually thousands which will have to be clawed back in one form or another. As for how long this will last it could be anything from two to ten years.

I've always joked about being a glass half full kinda guy and the other side of the coin is maybe things aren't quite as bad as some of the media are making out? House prices seem to be dipping rather than crashing, (depending on where you live) and if you've owned your property for more than a couple of years there's a good chance it's still worth considerably more than you paid for it, the same could be said for any shares that you've owned for awhile. Credit is indeed harder to get, but if you have a good credit rating and have adopted a sensible approach to borrowing, it is still readily available at competitive rates. If there's one thing this crunch will force us to do, is review our finances and budgeting.

Cup of tea anyone?

Club Statement Regarding Bobby Moore Fund

We might have lost the battle but not the war! The petition is now sitting at nearly 10,000 signatures and members of WHO (westhamonline) are now looking at working with the fund to produce our own shirt. The club have really missed out on a good thing here, for the sake of chasing the corporate dollar they've ignored the voices of the fans and instaed will produce a new shirt which will sell at the fraction of the proposed one.

Statement from West Ham posted on club website tonight:

West Ham United can confirm that the first-team players will wear squad numbers on the front of their shirts for Saturday's home game against Newcastle United.The decision follows consultation with the Premier League with regard to the various options open to the club following the termination of the relationship with XL Holidays last week. This decision still allows future dispensation from the Premier League to change player and replica kits to a new commercial sponsor once an agreement is in place.Although aware and respectful of the supporter-backed campaign to replace XL Holidays with the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, the commercial reality is the club has a financial duty to secure the best possible sponsorship package to help with the continued development of the first-team squad.Extensive talks have taken place with several parties and the club is actively looking to secure a long-term deal, although this will not be signed before tomorrow's game. In the meantime, the club continues to support the Bobby Moore Fund, having agreed a three-year partnership back in July, and has further increased its exposure on key club platforms.Stephanie Moore MBE, Founder of the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, said: "Our new partner, West Ham United has done so much to ensure that Bobby's name, and the charity founded in his memory, is at the forefront of people's minds. This is helping us fund invaluable scientific research into the disease which claimed Bobby's life, while also raising vital awareness."I am looking forward to this partnership continuing to grow over the next three years and am grateful to all of the supporters for their ongoing fundraising efforts. They really are incredible. I am also touched by the thousands of fans that have asked for the Fund's logo to be used on the players' shirts, but fully understand the club's position and the complexities involved."For more information about the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK (Registered Charity No. 1089464), please visit www.bobbymoorefund.org

Campaign for Bobby Moore Fund on West Ham shirt

As you will have seen from the previous post, I mentioned how West Ham United did not have a shirt sponsor at the moment due to the demise of XL. One idea as previously mentioned was for the club to maybe follow the likes of Barcelona & more recently Aston Villa & adopt a charity. With this being the 50th anniversary of Bobby Moore's debut for the club and the recent retiring of the famous number 6 shirt it would be the perfect time for West Ham to add the Bobby Moore Fund to the shirt, at least for the rest of this season allowing the club plenty of time to negotiate a lucrative deal for next year. The idea was to maybe give a small percentage from each shirt to the fund. I started a discussion thread on Saturday after the match on facebook, by Sunday somebody posted this idea which apparently Mike Parry on Talk Sport Radio had also voiced, I posted my blog on Sunday night, emailed the club and The Bobby Moore Fund. On Monday I received an email from the fund who had been in touch with the club that day, that night I posted my first thread on west ham online & that is when the ball really got rolling. http://www.westhamonline.net/article.php?2954233 In just over 48 hours there are now 250 replys and the item is currently sitting on the home page, Aaron Hinton posted the mock shirt as seen above, groups have been started on facebook ( West Ham to sponsor the Bobby Moore Fund) and now we have a petition http://www.petitiononline.com/RFCMOORE/petition.html currently sitting at just under 2,500 signatures! Today the Evening Standard have now picked up on the story as have the Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1057131/ even non West Ham fans seem to be getting behind this campaign, in light of some of the negative press the club has received lately this could be a masterstroke if they were to do it, as well as no doubt being their best selling shirt ever! I really hope for once the powers that be listen to the fans for a change, please sign the petition..

Let's make this happen!

Football Shirt Sponsorship

Sat. 13th saw West Ham play West Bromwich Albion with neither team showing a sponsor on their team shirts a throwback to a bygone era and something I guess we’ll not see again for awhile and could well feature in a sports quiz question in the future. West Ham’s lack of sponsor was due to the recent demise of XL holidays who during the week went into administration, the shirts have been removed from sale and the team took to the pitch with hastily patched up replacements (literally).

By contrast, last season T-Mobile were West Broms' shirt sponsors and they remain one of the clubs sponsors. Various companies have been mooted in the local press/media as sponsors for this season, LDV/Ladbrokes and Carlsberg (another of the clubs' sponsors).As I understand the amount of income from shirt sponsorship offered by the names mentioned would be in the region of £600K - £800k.It would appear that WBA are holding out for a more lucrative deal which is understandable now that they are playing top-flight football again. However if you ask the Albion fans, most appear to be happy to be sponsor-free. Replica shirts are selling like hot-cakes in the club shop who are selling them blank with the promise of being able to return them at a later date to get the sponsors name added should they so wish. It will be interesting to see how many bother especially if the club does opt for an alcohol or betting company. When you consider how many of these shirts are worn by kids, some parents would rather they wore un-branded replica tops however when a friend of mine who’s club was sponsored by a well known lager company enquired whether he could purchase an un-branded child’s shirt he was told no.

The very first club to use a shirt sponsor in the English game was Liverpool in 1979 who were sponsored by Hitachi and the rest have all since followed. Barcelona have famously resisted a shit sponsor for over a hundred years and even now instead of cashing in are advertising Unicef the children’s charity and also donate a further million pounds to Unicef projects. As a West Ham fan I would love to see the club go down this road ( if we can’t leave them blank). The XL deal was worth about 2.5m a year and although there does seem to be some serious cost cutting being carried out over the summer, 2.5m would only cover about one first team player’s wages if we’re to believe all the stories and any loss might be reduced by an increase in sales if left blank ( i.e. West Brom.)

Discussing this with other fans over the weekend, a lot of fans would like to see a blank shirt, one that does not carry any embarrassment advertising a company you either don’t like or have never even heard of. One idea to come up was the Bobby Moore Charity Fund with a small % from each shirt going to the charity, a shirt that all fans would be proud to wear. The club have recently retired the no.6 shirt to mark the 50th anniversary since his debut so this would be the year to do it and given the current circumstances the ideal opportunity, so let’s see how serious they are......

Who'd be a football manager?

A couple of years ago my brother in law had a mock newspaper front page made up for me as a birthday gift, claiming that I was about to be installed as the new West Ham manager. Now that the situation has indeed become vacant I'm now waiting on the phone call! This week has seen two high profile premiership managers resign from management, Alan Curbishley from West Ham and Kevin Keegan from Newcastle and there seems to be more than one common denominator here. Both clubs have recently had a change of ownership which brings with it a change of strategies and ideas and most controversially both clubs now employing a European idea of a director of football. Both managers have cited that transfer decisions were made without their knowledge and that the creation of a director of football role has left them feeling undermined and powerless. Both managers are also now being portrayed as liars by their respective ex-employers although Curbishley's exit seems to have been cleaner and he seems to have left with his dignity intact.

Could this be the death of old school football management? Where the role of a D.O.F. could work, is as a link between the boardroom and the dressing room leaving the manager free to manage. However there has to be a link & common ground between the D.O.F. and manager when it comes to transfers. There is no point buying & selling players that the manager has not agreed to. Managers tend to be judged on their transfers as much as results and although Curbishley scored low in this department, you don't want a situation like Martin Jol at Spurs who lost his job after a string of transfers that he did not authorise. Curbishley was under pressure to sell before he could buy, partly because of the spending spree authorised by the previous chairman Eggbert Magnusson, but how much money will have been saved now that Curbishley will now need to be paid off? and was this just a ploy all along by the board to keep money back for the next transfer window and the next manager? Which makes you believe that Curbishley was a dead man walking, a victim of a behind the scenes re-shuffle rather than a lack of attractive football, which was also a problem with the fans.

So what of the future? Both clubs have seen ownership transfer to out of area investors, rich men who are in this to make money, Mike Ashley in particular looks to now be trying to sell the club on at a profit (which ironically could see the return of King Kev. for a fourth time) and neither club has invested the millions needed to compete with the bigger clubs. The D.O.F. role still needs to be defined, at the three clubs that have employed this, West Ham, Newcastle & Tottenham it has been a disaster and whoever the new managers are will need to identify the boundaries and who exactly is in charge.

Should I get that call, I will make Ray Winstone my number two, should be good for those motavitional team talks!



Now who's the Daddy? ......

Olympics Review

Well the last month has been dominated by the Olympics and I like millions of others have been caught up in all the excitement. Now that we have had a few days to catch our breath and look forward to London 2012 lets reflect on the highs and lows.

Before the Olympics began we had the controversy, talk of boycotts and demonstrations, even previous posts in this blog highlighted this. The West complained about Darfur, Tibet, human rights and pollution, the East retorted with Iraq and look who's talking. In the end everyone came, there was the odd controversy, demonstrations were minimal and the world enjoyed a party and a celebration of some amazing performances starting with the opening ceremony. The budgets for 2012 is likely to be half of what China has spent and we are unlikely to see anything as vast and spectacular as this again. Some 14,000 performers were involved including an amateur pipe band from Dundee, "The Mains Of Fintry Pipe Band" spotted by Chinese officials playing in France last year, they've never previously played in any major competitions and found themselves playing to an estimated TV audience of 4 billion people.



Some of the fireworks ( the 29 giant firework footprints) were computer generated and the little girl singing was lip synced, picked for being prettier, as were the different ethnic minorities represented by children all from the one area, something the BBC in the current climate would not be able to get away with.

What made these games so great for us was the medal haul of Team GB, 19 golds compared to just one in Atlanta. The cycling team alone won more gold medals than the whole of the British team in ten of the last twelve Olympics. The target this year set by UK sport, ( the distributor of Lottery funds to athletes) was 35 medals and eighth place in the medals table. 90 million has been invested since Athens and a total of 3 billion since it was launched 14 years ago. Lottery funding also helped finance the Manchester Velodrome where Britain's cycling team perfected their skills.

Swimming and the cycling led the way, with Nicole Cooke winning gold followed by Becky Adlington's double gold, who also picked up a pair of gold Jimmy Choo shoes as promised to her by her local Mayor of Mansfield, Tony Egginton. Chris Hoy won three golds at the same games in three different events; Ben Ainslie added a third gold in as many Olympics; Rebecca Romero won a gold in cycling adding to the silver she won in the last Olympics for rowing; Christine Ohuruogu overturned her Olympic ban to win gold on the track and Bradley Wiggins has equalled Sir Steve Redgrave's record British Olympic medal haul. Other highlights was Tom Daley reaching an Olympic final at 14 years old and Louis Smith winning Britain's first medal in men's gymnastics for a century.

Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals was amazing to watch as was the Jamaican sprinters with Usain Bolt cruising to his golds and world records despite the Jamaican team being drug tested 32 times in a seven day period with some being tested up to three times in four days.

The disappointment for Britain was the lack of success on the track and field. 26 million has been invested in athletics reaping only five medals including one gold out of 47 events. Archery, shooting and Judo also yielded no return after a further 15 million of investment. Was also disappointed we did not do better with the professionals in the tennis.

As the government prepares to put another 400 million into Olympic sport for 2012, the target was fourth place will we now demand the bar is lifted even higher? A fifth of any investment was due to be raised by the private sector but in today's economic climate this could be a struggle, given the rise of public enthusiasm after the Beijing Olympics it would be a brave government that denied the resources needed for sporting success in its own backyard. We will need to make sure that the investment made in the various sites does indeed leave a legacy without creating white elephants, that the games are accessible to everyone and with no empty seats. I look forward to seeing what new events might be added as we aim to compete in all 26 sports. Will we indeed see a GB football team? A debate which I'm sure will get an airing in this blog at a later date. The problem will be getting all the FA's of the home nation's to agree without any repercussions from FIFA.

The top ten of the medal table finished like this, I'm sure that the Americans will have published it in order of total medals won which would put them top, this chart lists by number of golds won. Either way Team GB finished 4th. Now what could I do in 2012? .........

Nation : Gold: Silver: Bronze: Total:

1. China 51 21 28 100
2. USA 36 38 36 110
3. Russia 23 21 28 72
4. G.B. 19 13 15 47
5. Germany 16 10 15 41
6. Australia 14 15 17 46
7. S.Korea 13 10 8 31
8. Japan 9 6 10 25
9. Italy 8 10 10 28
10.France 7 16 17 40.