italian dave

Nice, isn’t it? They’ve long had white with that band as an away kit, but it’s taken City to show them where is the right place to put the band ?

I went to a Milan game end of last season and much the same as far as tickets was concerned. Dead easy via the AC Milan website, print at home or put on your phone, you have to provide a passport number - and remember to take your passport to the game because they do check.

It would be very unusual to be as little as two weeks. And then it would likely be because of other unknowns like playing in Europe. The first four weeks of the new season, through to 20 September, have already been done. And I’m not sure ours are much better - especially at PL level. It’s by no means unknown even for ours to change at 5 weeks notice when Sky have their say. I agree though; best way is to just make the most of it and have a long weekend if you can do that. There’s plenty to do in Milan - and it’s not impossible that you get another match in to that same weekend. Monza is no distance at all from Milan for example.

The TV schedules usually come out a month to six weeks beforehand. So, you can either book flights and make a long weekend of it (Fri - Tues) or wait til the schedules are confirmed.

Those Sunday dates and times are the default until the TV schedules are announced. So don’t assume it will be a Sunday in December.

This one’s quite effective, if you’re looking for recommendations…..?

The Who at Bath Pavilion. They were quite big then (Won't Get Fooled Again era) but those were the sort of venues they played then!

Three Lions…….The Lightning Seeds

Ooooh! You missed Bowie ???? Apart from the Colston Hall gig, I saw him at the Milton Keynes Bowl ( @PHILINFRANCE was probably there too!!) and those are probably the two best I’ve seen. Second best would be Leonard Cohen. No-one who hasn’t seen him believes that, but truly outstanding.

Ha ha! Not just parallel lives but sharing a pavement for a night!!! I didn’t see Rod Stewart. Roxy Music, yes, but I think it was either at the Hippodrome or even in Bath. I have a vague idea that I saw Roxy Music at the Bristol Uni Student Union before they got very well known, but I may be wrong about that!

In fairness, if they keep taking down stands tents and then not being able to replace them then pretty soon they will be selling out. And, to be even more fair, 'redevelopment' implies improvement, so they're already 25% there with what they've taken down so far.

An interesting paper……but has it been peer reviewed?

Thick cotton shirts was more ‘50s, wasn’t it? You’d never have caught Kevin Mabbutt in a thick cotton shirt. ‘70s was more about tight shorts and mullets!

I bet those who've bought season tickets there will be a bit more interested come August!

I still reckon that evening, and another one with J Geils Band, probably explains more than anything else the current state of my hearing! What with the Colston Hall and Ashton Gate it sounds like you and I were living parallel lives at the time! Some great gigs at the Colston Hall in those days though - the best of all being Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour. I spent the whole night on the pavement outside the Colston Hall to get tickets for that one!

I don’t remember either, to be honest. Although it was a long time ago! I think I saw Suzy Quatro play there around about the same time, supporting Slade (along with Thin Lizzy). Did you go to that one too?

I’ve seen lots of memorable gigs over the years, but probably my biggest regret is not seeing Queen live in their prime, at a big venue. Although weirdly I did actually see them at the Colston Hall in 1973 when they were support band for Mott the Hoople!

Just watching on BBC2 an old ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ Kinks concert from 1977.

6 Inch…….Beyoncé

Lost me mate. Who's performed sexual acts with someone who's 17? Who's said that's fine?

It's getting harder though. I've not been signed up to either Twitter or Facebook for ages, and the past few weeks/months they've made changes to restrict access to those like me who don't want to give them my personal details and the OK to deluge me with crap I don't want. Twitter particularly is all but inaccessible now. Take the second point though. Very often it's on here!!

Thank you for the tribute, Fordy. RIP. And thoughts with his family.

Same answer as above, I guess........ ?

To be fair, Houghton had an all but impossible task. Disastrous tenure, to be sure, but that was 99% circumstances and 1% him!

Noooo....he was just a pain in the arse!