I just think people should get equal criticism.

If they'd committed equal sins then I'm sure they would.

I'm off to see Ojos de Brujo tonight in Liverpool - possibly the worlds' only Catalan flamenco/hip hop fusion band. Looking forward to a serious party night.

Sounds very interesting, I'll have to check them out.

I've been listening to the new Animal Collective non-stop since around January, it's such a brilliant album. Also I was very surprised to find the The Horrors new one (Primary Colours) is actually very good. Last time I heard of them they were a gimmicky band seemingly famous because the singer was with Peaches Geldof. Primary Colours is quite dark though, it has Joy Division feel to it. It's biggest flaw is that it's not original at all, but it's still a good album if you like that sort of music.

One easy way to really increase the interest in the UEFA Cup, or EUROPA Cup or whatever it is now, is to let the winners into the champions league. Several other changes could be done to make it more interesting, but in one easy change that would lead to any club that made it to the knock-out stages really taking it seriously. You certainly wouldn't see a repeat of what Villa did this year.

You haven't left your laptop unguarded in the bar or something have you? That's quite a good idea.

It is a bit stupid that teams spend all season trying their best to get in the UEFA Cup, then when they get there hardly even try to win. All seems rather pointless!!

Ironically they've been awful in the league since then and surrendered their hold on the 4th Champion's League spot, in fact they'll probably finish 6th behind Everton now.

Spurs also threw their chance away, although they have been more justified in doing so as they've surged up the league and away from the relegation spots. Whether they could have done that and played in the UEFA is another matter.

I do find the apathy surrounding the UEFA Cup very strange. Even ITV, who you would assume to be desperate to promote any top level football they can screen, demote UEFA games to ITV4.

Both players told they will never play for Scotland again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ers/7981287.stm

And rightly so IMO.

I get the feeling neither of them will be that bothered about the decision. Not that I want Scotland to do well at all, but they deserve a lot better than those two.

Just stumbled on this piece of news completely by accident: Faith No More are to perform again.

Where on earth did that come from?! I'm going to have to go to whatever festival they end up at.

Come on , Bucky . You can't compare the legalisation of drugs with horseriding FFS .

If we went down that road the we'd have to ban cars , trains and planes and nobody would be allowed to get out of bed in the morning...

Phil, you got the completely wrong end of the stick on that one. Bucky isn't suggesting for a moment those things be banned, simply pointing out how ridiculous the law is on ecstasy - which it is.

It's a good album but I much prefer Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and the Young Liars EP, probably because Staring At The Sun appears on both and I absolutely love that song.

The supermarkets screw down the prices so much that producers have in many cases no option but to cheat and then screw huge prices out of misguided consumers. The term 'Fair Trade' when uttered in the same sentence as the word 'supermarket' is laughable and should really start within our own shores. There is little 'fair' in the tactics used by supermarkets in bludgeoning their suppliers until the pips squeak and screwing ever increasing profits that do not make it to the shelf and the consumer but rather to the pockets of the shareholders. Le Chuck no offence meant but the naivety displayed in your post is staggering.

You've managed to write a whole paragraph there without actually saying a single noteworthy thing, it's merely cynical tittle-tattle.

The difficulty I have with the whole thing is retailers are using a whole bunch of catchphrases, which actually mean nothing to persuade us to buy their product – fairtrade, organic, locally grown, traditional etc.

I have to pull you up about these Paul...some things like that are buzzwords that can be plastered on packaging at will (traditional, local, fresh etc), but you can't just stick things like 'Organic' and 'Fairtrade' on there. If something claims to be organic then it has to meet certain standards, it's unfair to say it 'actually means nothing', and the same goes for Fairtrade. In fact, Fairtrade more-so because it's a far more worthy cause than organic.

- Bella Italia, Deansgate and Picadilly gardens: Nice food and decent prices.

Finally got round to eating here (PD one) last week and was pretty good. I had a spicy pumpkin soup for starter which was absolutely delicious, but the mains (we split a Caprese pizza and spinach & ricotta cannelloni) were a little disappointing, although the cheesy garlic bread side was excellent. The atmosphere was good though, busy but not-to-busy, and the service was very good. Can't say it did enough to guarantee I'll go there again, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

Having just returned from the local chippy though, I can honestly say that sometimes even restaurants can't compare to a big plate of chips and mushy peas.

I'm amazed to see Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is the Christmas number two...obviously not happy that the X-Factor's version has beaten it to number one, but still...it's rare for such a great song to get anywhere near the charts, especially at Christmas when it's generally filled with novelty crap.

It inspired me to listen to the album 'Grace' again, I haven't heard it for years and kind of forgot how good it was...especially this song.

We had a seriously big sell-on percentage on Garner.

It's a shame he didn't leave Carlisle for as seriously big fee then. We're still going to have made a lot less than £1 million from him, and I think his value is going to be quite a bit more than that now he's proved he's good enough for the Championship.

Joe Garner has just scored a beautiful 30 yard chip for Nottingham Forest apparently.

He seems to be coping well in the Championship after struggling with injuries early on, that's 4 goals now. Along with not signing Pongolle or Valencia when he had the chance, letting Garner go so early looks like one of Hughes' poorer decisions. At the very least it looks like we could have loaned him to Championship clubs and built his value up, we let him go for peanuts.

Waggy's had that point explained to him a few times today. I'd love to think this is all a wind-up, but I think that's giving him too much credit.

Everyone bar the lead guitarist I think, he left in 2005 and I think he's in other bands now.

I think I might go and see Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster over Christmas, they've got a new album out next year after reforming. I hope it's as good as their first album, I love that one.

That's an even bigger insult!

Hah, sorry. I did say 'it's a good list', and that was begrudgingly said at that because I find it difficult to say anything positive about NME.

Anyway, I'll stop now in case I dig myself any deeper.

TGM - Can I just apologise for being very blunt in my first post, I was skim reading and thought it was an NME chosen list. The scary thing is you didn't even mention NME, so I have no idea what happened in my head.

I might have a crack at doing this tomorrow, I think Blonde Redhead would probably come in at number 1.

I nearly went to the Go! Team (no. 9) but didn't in the end. Seen a lot of the bands there but not at those actual gigs. It's a good list but seems to fall apart at the end with bands like The Killers and The Zutons thrown in.

I'm going to see Animal Collective in January and I know for a fact that gig will far surpass anything those two have done, whether or not it makes any lists is another matter though.

Err...yes, you're right. I got confused with Arnside.

Shows how much attention I pay on that journey.

I'll give you a wave when I'm on the train that passes through there...best I can do I'm afraid.

Out of interest, why did you choose Ambelside uni? Just seems like you'll miss out on a lot of things (clubs, gigs, events) that you'd associate with being a student.

Went to the Al Nawaz in Manchester's Curry Mile yesterday and it was excellent. The decor is interesting, not least the big fish tank in the floor by the entrance, it's a strange feeling walking over that. It only came to £54 for 6 of us, although that didn't include drinks as we took our own in. Can't fault it really, the service, food and price were all great.

Think I'll be trying Nando's for the first time later on. Really looking forward to the refillable Coca-Cola as I've got a stinking hangover.

Still would like to fnd that thread where people said he was better then Torres and Ronaldo though.

No-one in the world can touch Ronaldo, expect maybe Messi.

All 3 are completely different players though. Rooney will never be a 30 goal a season man like Torres, but then again Torres couldn't link play and go through the all the work that Rooney does in 90 minutes.

Your infamous English anti-bias aside neekoy, you have to admit that an on-form Rooney is as good as anyone in the world bar Ronaldo and Messi. His form this season has been scintillating.