I have been watching the story of Elisabeth Fritzl who was imprisoned in a cellar in her family home in Amstetten, Austria for 24 years by her father, Josef Fritzl. I am not shocked easily but this really shocked me, especially that the crimes were perpetrated by her own father, and supposedly the mother knew nothing of it; which I find extremely hard to believe! Not only was the 18 year old women imprisoned; she was also sexual abused and gave birth to seven children fathered by her father. It’s hard to imagine what it must of been like for Elisabeth being locked away without seeing so much as a glimpse of the outside world for 24 years. Not only the effect on the daughter, but also the effect on the children she gave birth to. I really find it hard to believe that any father could do such things to his own daughter. The ordeal may now be over for Elisabeth but what about the future, can her and her children function in society after being so isolated for so many years, quarter of a century without daylight has to have taken it’s toll on the [now] 42 year old woman.
I’m now going to talk about a football club that I rarely mention, Manchester City. I have been reading today that manager Sven Goran Eriksson will be fired as manager at the end of the season. The Swede only signed a 3 year deal for the club at the start of the season but was told by owner Thaksin Shinawatra that he was “not the right man for the job” despite guiding City to a top 10 finish. I don’t know what the hell Shinawatra was thinking about when he brought Eriksson to the club, Champions League football after just one season of building, it doesn’t work that way Mr. Shinawatra. Noel Gallagher has branded Shinawatra “a nutcase” and “living in cloud cuckoo land” and I can only agree with that. It really seems to be complete madness to me to fire a manager that has led the team to their highest league finish in years after only a year in charge. It seems that there are too many team owners with loads of cash who don’t know anything about the game firing managers willy-nilly. I have said it time and time again, stability will bring success, not a new manager!
I don’t know why I am so annoyed with what I am about to write about because it’s nothing that I didn’t expect to be honest. Saturday night was Black Catz and Simon who runs the night is trying to put live music on every month, and last Saturday was Welsh industrial band Acid Tongue. I met the guys and had a chat for about 30 minutes while setting up for soundcheck and found them to be very nice guys indeed. So I did the soundcheck, things were sounding good if a little feedback like because the system [and room] was cold, but I knew it would disappear with some people stood in front of the system. People were coming in steadily for the two hours before the band were due on and it was starting to look quite busy so I had hopes that the band would get a decent crowd. But of course as per fucking usual in this damn city, 60% of the crowd went downstairs or outside when the band started playing. I felt really bad for the band as they gave it their all and the end of each song was met with complete silence. If the band were assholes then I wouldn’t have minded so much but they were top guys and deserved better. They were very understanding saying they have played to worse crowds in the past, but they must have been pissed off with the reaction of the crowd. It baffles me because it was the sort of music that these people supposedly like, but it seems that if it isn’t from a commercial band [e.g. signed/known band] which was proven as they played Head Like A Hole by Nine Inch Nails as the final song of their set. But as I said, why I am even surprised, Plymouth is such a backwater and ignorance of live music is rife unless it’s a covers band playing popular songs, but they’ll pay a small fortune to hear a DJ play what they can hear in their own homes any time.