I know this is going to be about the fourth time you’ve read this, but some things are worth saying more than once (or more than four times in fact).  Whether you want to contribute to an excellent cause, show that Latics fans are the disparate bunch of bickering bods, that everyone thinks we are, or just have a jolly good time, let me point you to Latics United and the attempt to raise money for a fellow Latics fan to get the help he needs.

Latics United plan to run a series of fund raising events over the coming months, the first of which is the ‘First Avenue’ Soul Night on the 22nd October brought to you in conjunction with the Orrell Soul Club.  It’s sure to be a top night with good music and a chance to meet fellow fans and put a few faces to usernames.  Even if you can’t make it then you can still make a donation via Paypal at the website which is situated at www.laticsunited.co.uk.

For more details of the event click on the flyer below.

Anthony Ramsdale who was involved in a near fatal motor accident in 2007. He was in a coma for quite a while, received permanent brain damage and is now situated in a specialist centre in North Wales where he can receive the 24 hour care he needs.  Anthony’s rehabilitation is now being hindered due to the family being told that they must find up to £4,000 for a specially designed armchair. As a community, all of the major Wigan Athletic groups are coming together to help to raise the money to pay for the new chair.

Anthony is the son of Bernard Ramsdale, editor of the excellent Ye Olde Tree and Crown, virtual bar and repository for all things Latics related, but the cause is supported by all the major Latics websites, the club and we hope all Latics fans everywhere.

For more information on the appeal visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/anthonyramsdale/journal/1 and http://bigrammysblog.blogspot.com/

So instead of a preview, let’s look at the week with this perfect hat-trick.

It’s not over yet – The Klaxons

It’s all ok again now then?  Fabio and his makeshift team have made up for their lack of effort in South Africa?  Well in the normal run of things they might, but with Wazza playing away and the press pack’s lust for blood still not satiated two comfortable victories have only just about started to tip the scales back in favour of the national team.

If you’re not sick of hacks still moaning about this summer then you soon will be as King ‘Arry appears to have chucked ‘is ‘at in the ring for the job come 2012.  Expect two years worth of reminders that foreign managers are, well foreign and that Redknapp isn’t, and obviously that makes him a better coach. Or something.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4yxoHwNzEE

Burning Down the House – Talking Heads

Nothing to do with football but I can’t let the chance to point out how bloody ridiculous it is that world has so quickly fallen into chaos because of one religious lunatic.  Nine years ago today, the world changed and it appears that we’ve learned precisely nowt.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnAvTTaJjM

Slight Return – The Bluetones

Welcome back to the small club with no fans that helped you with a leg up to Brucey, Cats and Tites, just remember that stepping stones can be a bit slippy when you go back over them.  Don’t get your feet wet.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUpoFBm_QSw&feature=fvsr

It’s hard to say what would have happened had England qualified for the world cup in 1994 but chances are that I’d have spent more time watching football than courting and could be sat here now with no kids and no mortgage living the life of Riley, not that it would suit a man of my increasing age.  That summer changed my life for the better in most ways, I got a beautiful girlfriend, some new friends (who I ultimately managed to drag down to Springfield Park, and further) I also got a new outlook that kick started my life from the dole-drums. 

I started enjoying watching Latics again, got my backside in gear and went back to college and here I am now with a (sort of) career two wonderful kids and the same beautiful girlfriend.

1994, Graham Taylor and all that, are also to blame for my increased waist size.  Up until then, I’d been used to walking almost everywhere but now I had a girlfriend who lived on the other side of Wigan and as much as I didn’t mind the walk between Shevington and Orrell, she had access to a car which, as well as saving time, allowed for a little more privacy than we got in her mum and dad’s front room. 

The car also gave me a new angle on putting together mix-tapes.  No longer was it just about self-indulgence or trying to impress someone.  I had to compromise.  They weren’t just for me to listen to, or to send someone away with.  Mrs Perm has always had different music tastes to mine and it was enough of a challenge to get my music on the stereo without me having to try and get her to enjoy it as well.

Anyway, I managed it in the end, which where we end up today after I found one of said mix tapes when I was having a bit of a tidy-up the other day.  Carbon dating (well a quick check of the track list) suggests this is a few years older than 1994, but it seems pretty reflective of the brit-pop, dad rock and soul that became the presentable face of my music tastes back then and with no literary licence whatsoever I’ve reproduced it for you here.

Find the play list on Spotify or Sharemyplaylists.com, or view the (slightly amended) youtube version.

Track listing:

Whippin’ Piccadilly – Gomez
Just Like a Woman – Bob Dylan
Give Me Just a Little More Time – Chairman of the Board
Who Do You Think You Are? – Saint Etienne
Car Song – Elastica
America – Simon and Garfunkel
End of a Century – Blur
Herman Loves Pauline – Super Furry Animals
Girl From Mars – Ash
Drive My Car – Beatles
The Weaver – Paul Weller
Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Peace Frog – The Doors
Sure Shot – The Beastie Boys
Liza Radley – The Jam
Waterloo Sunset  – The Kinks
Slight Return – The Bluetones
Babies – Pulp
Inbetweener – Sleeper
I Never Want an Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There – The Charlatans
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones
Your Star Will Shine – The Stone Roses
She’s Electric – Oasis
Catch – The Cure

httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C09CB3F7C903B99E

It’s been a fair old week.  Battered by Chelsea, professional at Hartlepool fingers pointing and backs being whispered behind; no fear though because we’re only going to visit the fourth best team in the country last season.  Still, instead of throwing yourself off the nearest “reply to thread” button maybe you should watch some cricket and listen to some music?  That should get you all calm in time for three o’clock.

And to get you started on the music front here’s this week’s perfect hat-trick.

Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum

It’s here more for the band, than the title, and a minor celebration of our Carling Cup win in midweek.  Remember, we always get to the Carling cup final when we win our games in all the other ties, so this is a good start.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcI5-nOEsYM

Then again you can take the title an run with it as well if you want to, but why bother when you can have the beautiful chaos of.

The Fall – Bingo Master’s Breakout

You don’t need an excuse to listen to genius like this, but thanks to Charlie boy, I’ve been able to fit this one in.  He’s the Bingo Master, get it?  Not that I’m wishing him a lonely death on him, I fully expect an hat-trick as an apology.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFWuHNYflo

Finally, I don’t particularly like the song, but it neatly describes what we don’t want to happen again down the lane.

Panic! At the Disco – Nine in the Afternoon

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoQYdVAlZ5A

As always you can find this on spotify and there’s a YouTube version below.  I’m also playing with sharemyplaylists.com to see if it helps out.

Tracklisting:

Noah And The Whale – My Broken Heart
Tokyo Police Club – Cheer It On
We Are Scientists – Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
The Charlatans – White Shirt (re-mastered)
Belle & Sebastian – We Are The Sleepyheads
Hot Hot Heat – Bandages
Cajun Dance Party – The Next Untouchable
Bloc Party – Price Of Gasoline
The Libertines – What Katie Did
Modest Mouse – Float On
Scott Walker – Jackie
Pulp – Pencil Skirt
Beth Orton – She Cries Your Name
Nico – Chelsea Girls
The Coral – Two Faces
Primal Scream – Treasure Trip
Elliott Smith – Ballad Of Big Nothing
The XX – Heart Skipped A Beat
The La’s – Come In Come Out
Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!
Bombay Bicycle Club – Dust On The Ground
Two Door Cinema Club – Undercover Martyn
Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure
The Cribs – Cheat On Me

Have fun!

httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=65794F69EE865210

This time around, we’re beefing up our match day content and starting off with a link to today’s game.  It gets more obtuse after that but stick with us.

I don’t want to go to Chelsea – Elvis Costello
Bloody obvious really, Tall Kenny used it for an article about his failed attempt at getting away tickets a couple of weeks ago, Jimmy over at The Mudhutter used it for today’s match preview.  The irony of course is that we do, of course we bloody want to go to Chelsea.  That’s what we’re in this division for, to play against these teams, whatever the outcome, right.  So buckle up and enjoy the ride.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aAG9iGCBa8&feature=fvsr

I can’t stand up… – Elvis Costello
You see, my overall theme is a little shaky, but I’ve gone for the back-up of picking three Elvis Costello songs.  You can take your pick on this one, I’m fully expecting this afternoon’s visitors to be spending their fair share of time on the floor and for the referee to also be falling for it, but perhaps it’s a more poignant reference to Bobby’s attempts to actually achieve something worthwhile with our little club.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZrBw6mcSM&feature=related

Shipbuilding – Elvis Costello
Honestly?  It’s in because it’s my favourite Costello song (although I have a slight preference for the Robert Wyatt version).  It seems a little petty trying to draw a connection between Latics and a song about the difficulty of dealing with tension between an unwanted war and the prosperity that it brought to some traditional British industries, but it’s there if you look for it.  But just remember,no one dies over a football club.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LNB6M7yTBo&feature=related

We missed the Latin atmosphere of the Hyundai Fan Park (because we didn’t go it will forever retain a image of being part Barcelona, part Asuncion when of course it was only ever a sunny Castlefield) and instead we got Ritalin fuelled doormen, over confident students, burger and chips and the big screen of the Tudor.  Just like Wigan on any Saturday night, but without many people, so more like Wigan on any Sunday night.   I assume everyone else was barbequing somewhere or other, which made for a pretty laid back night (not that my head or guts would have agreed with that statement on Sunday).

Still the main event was the football including Latics’ last representation in World Cup 2010.

Germany’s dismantling of Argentina in the afternoon meant that you were starting to suspect that the rest of this world cup was going to turn out to be a rather dull affair, the most disappointing in my memory?  Quite possibly with only Paraguay, the honorary notapatchon team of the tournament, left in the hat to fight the underdogs corner.

Antolin Alcarez has arguably impressed the most of six Latics players that went over to South Africa, even though, strictly speaking, he wasn’t a Latics player yet.  He’s been solid, got the goal against Italy and overall been a star for telling the world to “sod of, of course he was happy to have signed for Wigan Athletic” in the aftermath of that first game.  Here was his chance to put a major flourish on the end of what was already a classic story for La Albirroja.

They came close as well, not as close as Ghana, but bloody close all the same.  Paraguay looked, for large parts of the game, a better side than Spain, but unfortunately fell foul of Spain’s fitness, experience and an extremely nervous looking penalty taker.  Alcarez had another decent game, barring giving Spain a penalty that they missed, to great uproar, at the second attempt, after being made to remake the first, successful effort.

Of course they’d have walked it if we’d been outside shouting at a massive screen with Vuvuzelas and customised hard-hats to boot, but we weren’t and they didn’t and with no last train to catch it was looking like the long haul for the rest of the evening.  It’s amazing how much more amenable going home at midnight is when you’ve just got off a train.  Unlikely all the same, but amenable none the less.

So it was off to The Anvil a surprise meeting with Martin “Jimmy” Tarbuck, a good old chinwag and a reminder to plug the new Mudhutter website and their summer special e-zine.  They may have been at it longest but there’s still no sign of the quality wearing thin, so you might want to think about popping over and leaving the lads a quick line to let them know they’re appreciated.  Oh, and prepare yourselves for a potential WEP front page splash involving school kids and retro Latics t-shirts.

Plan B had been Club Nirvana, Gods Cop, Bez and the Urchins.  It was supposed to be abut the St Helens based, Coral influenced “ones to watch” but because one of our number had developed some kind of moral objection to the taxi driving, maraca shaking (and as it turns out non-DJing) DJ for the night we ended up stopping off at the Boulevard (is it still called the Boulevard, I’ve just realised that I stopped looking at pub signs a few years back?).

This meant we got in just in time to see the drums and sound desk being packed up, a shame because these lads really do sound promising and this would have been the first time I’d see them play as “headliners”, if you can headline a one band bill that is.  Find out for yourself at Myspace or ReverbNation.

The Bez thing was all a bit strange, not a great turn out but a reasonably full dance floor, until he let people on the stage with him then it looked like no one was in.  He wobbled about shouting a bit, mostly about pies and making noise from what I could hear whilst some kid did a reasonably decent job of spinning disks in the corner.  Not quite 1990 all over again that’s for sure.  By the time he’d finished there was only two of us left, the others having “flagged” and gone on wanders (or home to bed if I’m more honest).

Not that I should be bragging, the last of us managed a little while longer, managing to get a kebab despite the scrum of barely post-pubescent boys drooling over the be-basqued hen night girls at the front of the queue and then with seconds to spare got to Wigan Northwestern in time for the, surprisingly less scary than it is in the afternoon, Skem night bus, it was almost as if I’d planned it.

Have fun, I did.

It’s been a while since the last notapatchon playlist predominately, as with most things around here, because I’m lazy.  I was thinking about that after the little perm dragged me out of bed at way too early o’clock this morning when I was trying to put a plan of attack together for my afternoon/night out in Manchester (a bit hard when your cohorts are safely tucked up in bed).  “Manchester, so much to answer for” sang Morrissey all those years back, his line might have had more sinister connotations, but the line is true on so many levels, not least in regard to my music tastes.

Whether it be through The Smiths, Factory Records, it’s proximity for gigs, dance music or all end of other knobs and twiddles Manchester’s influence looms large across my music collection.  It might not all be from Hulme or Ardwick or even Didsbury or Wythenshawe but just like all roads lead to Rome, all middle eights lead to Manchester in one way or another (actually they probably all lead to a hut on the Mississippi delta but not until they’ve stopped off at Aflecks for a pair of vintage 501s).

Anyway, on with the show, and some examples of what the hell I’m waffling on about.

Get the playlist on Spotify or scroll to the bottom for a youtube version (with some replacements).

Track listing:

Transmission – Joy Division
Something’s Gone Wrong Again – Buzzcocks
The Only Rhyme That Bites – 808 State ft MC Tunes
The Storm – World of Twist
The Perfect Kiss – New Order
Kathy Come Home – The Mock Turtles
John, I’m Only Dancing – The Chameleons
Rockin’ Robin – The Hollies
Pounding – Doves
Won’t Stop Loving You – A Certain Ratio
Kuff Dam – Happy Mondays
White Rabbit – Duritti Column
Fat Kids in Photographs – I am Kloot
Acrylic (acoustic) – The Courteeners
Connected – Stereo MCs
How High – The Charlatans
You Make No Bones – Alfie
Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter – Herman’s Hermits
Disillusion – Badly Drawn Boy
Beautiful Thing – Haven
Powder Blue – Elbow
Your Star Will Shine – Stone Roses
Bingo Master’s Breakout – The Fall
What Difference Does it Make? – The Smiths

We’re all football fans here, aren’t we?  So you get the left foot, right foot, head thing?  It’s your perfect hat-trick, it’s our new feature and just to be completely contrary, it’s got nothing to do with hat-tricks, goals or football particularly.  It’s just another excuse for us to shove some music down your throats under the guise of (sort of current affairs), so you take an event, a period in time, a story or what have you, come up with three songs and tenuously link them back to what you started with.

Simple as, hopefully you’ll enjoy it, maybe even join in, but to get the ball rolling Let’s have a look at the sporting weekend and see where we end up.

Spanish Dance Troupe – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
I’d picked this one before the match, honest.  It was meant to be about Murray v Nadal, but as my lethargy means I’ve only just got around to typing I’ll switch it’s allegiance purely to Nadal in tribute to his impersonation of a brick wall in his none shall pass performance against the Scot.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG6yOcUfjO8

Dreadlock Holiday – 10CC
“I don’t like cricket, I love it!” and it’s a bloody good job too as it’s possibly the only way we’re going to get any sporting joy this summer.  Saturday is hopefully going to see Strauss and the boys finish their demolishment of the Aussies, not quite a whitewash but maybe it’ll do ahead of the Ashes this winter and definitely ahead of the visit from Pakistan starting later this month.  The only problem, I thought this was going to be my Sunday ‘getting over a hangover’ viewing, turns out it’s on Saturday, Bugger!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGLsAkeRd84

The Gambler – Johnny Cash
Getting the most obvious question out of the way first, I’ll be blatantly honest, Johnny Cash is cooler than Kenny Rogers int he?  The answer to the second most obvious is, no it’s nothing to do with the World Series of Poker.  It’s an extremely shoddy pun on polka, more specifically the Paraguayan polka.  It’s Paraguay v Spain on Saturday evening and your correspondent is off into Manchester supporting La Albirroja and taking in the fan park at Castlefield.  It might sound on the corporate side, but hopefully be awash with Latin atmosphere.

If not, there’ll always be beer.

Anyhow- What of our Headline? During the last couple of days some deeply upsetting news of an impending  Rock ‘n’ Roll hiatus has broken. Not that of Motley Crue, though devastating  that must’ve  been for their peroxide- stained fan in Bradford, nor that of The Killers, a slightly less welcome interuption, but that of Moco.

It seems growing older, starting families and having other projects on the go have brought Steve, Rigby, Nick, Simon and Lindsey to a place where discussions about the future must be had. 

Wigan’s Moco have been lighting up the local gig scene with the crazed antics of frontman Steve Jones and  their infectious brand of Garage Rock ‘n’ Roll for over ten  years now. For the the last four or five years they have drawn on the towns musical roots, infusing a good dose of Northern Soul influence, even a brass section at times, but as reported in articles by Manchestermusic.co.uk, The Wigan Evening Post and in the bands’ own Facebook posts, their time is up, sort of. An indefinite time away that shall, in our opinion,  leave us with a chasm of  Northern rock ‘n’ soul emptiness so wide even Jason Scotland could find the middle of it,  yeah that wide, only to be re-filled on their return.

We’ve been lucky enough to catch Moco in a variety of local venues, The Tudor, Club Nirvana, The Tavern, The Boulevard, some shed of a place in Leigh possibly called DeeJays as well as delighting bigger crowds at Haigh Hall Festival. There are, of course, many others who have seen them many more times in many other venues, and to be honest you’ll be lucky to find a better gig anywhere.

They received the accolade of NME single of the week back in 2002 for “Where She Goes”  had the backing of Clint Boon, XFM, Radio 1 and Elbow’s Guy Garvey, and nearly,very nearly bagged themselves a deal with the big boys. Mercury’s A & R people played it safe and southern and threw their cash Razorlight’s way instead (massive tut).

The band’s own wonderfully named Roaring Psychedelic Octopus night at The British Legion,  the black and white place near what was Gems, shall host their “farewell for a bit gig” tonight. Prepare to cry Uncle Joe’s flavoured tears as Wigan’s best Rock ‘n’ Roll band escape behind a murky cloud of black Octopus ink.

Expect : Singer Steve Jones’ own skeleton-less frame to take on that of the Octopus’ before being bounced around all four walls until black and blue.

Do Not Expect: A quiet game of Snooker in the games room.

Support comes from local singer-songwriter Chris Jameson and St Helens based Indie/dark SKA pedlars The Urchins.

Doors open at 8pm and the charge a meagre £3. Get yourself there, or get a lift. 

For a succinctly written Moco profile by Cath Aubergine of Manchestermusic.co.uk go here http://www.music-dash.co.uk/news/news.asp?item=2667

For a taster of whats in store take a gander at the Miss Mantaray vid below.