Daily Post

Sports Heritage Collection

The long walk. Alan Ball, of Everton, is sent off during a match against Newcastle United, in 1968 Saint or sinner? Liverpool's Ian St John was sent for an early bath during Liverpool's match against Fulham in February, 1966. He was later fined pounds 100 by an FA disciplinary panel

A Cut Above ; David Powell Talks to Pop-Rock Stalwarts the Saw Doctors Ahead of Their Faenol Festival Appearance

IT'S midday and Saw Doctors' songwriter Leo Moran relaxes in his Northampton hotel room after a concert the night before in Atlantic City, New Jersey. That's Northampton in Massachusetts, USA. Being on tour, he's missed the news in Britain so I tell him by phone that former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam has died earlier in the day.

Coasting Along with the Stranglers ; Paddy Hoey Talks to Jean Jacques Burnel of Punk's Infamous Survivors, the Stranglers

JEAN-JACQUES BURNEL is a busy man, busy like he's never been, maybe even a wee bit too busy for his own liking. After 30 years as the bass player in the Stranglers, the former punk hero thought he had seen and done it all, or at least as much as he was ever going to do. He certainly didn't expect to launching into a renaissance in his career at this stage. But The Stranglers are back with a bang again, gigging all across the world and with an album relased last year, Norfolk Coast, which has ...

Champions League Triumph Spurred Rock Legend to Greater Heights

GET excited, folks, the never knowingly rehabilitated Pete Wylie, legend, ligger and cultural barometer is back on stage. The Mighty Wah maestro, back on form again with 25 new songs for his own Pete Sounds label, plays Liverpool's Zanzibar club on Sunday.

Culture Vulture

THE very welcome annual arrival of the multi-talented Iain Burnside at the North Wales Theatre last Monday can only mean one thing - the launch of the International Concert Series. And what a belter it promises to be! As ever, Iain ran us through the eight concerts by picking out highlights on the piano keyboard. Kicking off on Sunday October 9, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gabriel Chmura will be performing Tchaikovsky's fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, a ...

Pet Sounds From a Punster Poet ; Big-Name Presenters Record Absurdist Verse

TERRY Wogan and Jeremy Vine, journalist John Humphrys and actors Roger Lloyd Pack, Prunella Scales and her husband Timothy West can't all be wrong. They've each been persuaded to recite a poem by 58- year-old accountant-turned-poet Les Barker for a charity CD called Guide Cats for the Blind Volume 2. Hang on a minute. Guide Cats? What's that all about? To learn more I scrolled down Barker's website (mrsackroyd.com, after his late dog) and was pleasantly surprised. Tickled, even.

Gog Sound

'B ATTLE of the Bands" translates in Welsh as "Brwydr y Bandiau", as Java, the subjects of this week's column, know well. Not satisfied with winning the 2004 Brwydr y Bandiau competition organised by Radio Cymru's C2 programme, they promptly scooped the prize for Cymdeithas yr Iaith's at last year's Newport Eisteddfod too!

Spiegel's Havana Real Party with Lady Salsa

LOST men return from a stag weekend with little to show for it apart from empty pockets and sore heads. For theatre producer Adam Spiegel the experience was rather better He returned from one with an idea and one that would turn into one of the most successful of all recent musical shows. "I went to Cuba for a friend's stag weekend and was able to get around Havana and saw all these wonderful bands and listened to the Cuban music. It was a marvellous experience."

Books: Free Speech That Fanned the Hatred ; Justice On the Grass: A Story of Genocide and Redemption by Dina Temple-Raston Published by Simon & Schuster/Fireside, Pounds 17.99

1994 is a year Rwandans will find hard to forget. The genocide which claimed 800,000 lives as Hutu were pitted against Tutsi, plotted Rwanda on the word's consciousness - and then passed into the history books. Dina Temple-Raston's moving account, charts the genocide as a curse everyday Rwandans still live with - and as an event which has set a precedent for the world's perception of free speech.

Games: The Ghost Rules in the Machine ; Title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike Platform Xbox Genre Third Person Shooter Price Pounds 19.99

Ghost Recon offers pretty much all you could want from a third person tactical shooter. The original whetted the appetite, Ghost Recon 2 improved in almost every way: Summit Strike brings a whole new dimension - without being full price. This expansion pack features 11 exciting new single player missions, through some of Kazakhstan's harshest terrain, in addition to 16 multiplayer maps.

Games: Title Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2 Platform Ps2 Genre Survival Horror Price Pounds 34.99

You know the drill by now. Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2 continues the story of an outbreak caused by a secret biological weapon infecting the people of Raccoon City. Citizens are turning into flesh-eating zombies and the few desperate survivors must get out before they fall victim.

Films: Yeeeee ... Urggghh ; Damon Smith has a Bad Ol' Time with the Good Ol' Boys of Hazzard County

'Y EEEEEE Haaaaawww!" in The Dukes Of Hazzard is an (overused) catchphrase desperately in search of a decent movie. There are only so many times you can listen to fun-loving cousins Bo (Scott) and Luke Duke (Knoxville) scream with rootin' tootin' delight before you begin to long for a return to the golden age of silent films. And while the car chases are certainly thrilling in this unabashedly stoopid revamp of the cult '80s television series, there has to be more to life than staring at the ...

Classical

THE Tchaikovski Violin Concerto is deservedly a mainstay of the concert hall repertory, ever popular with its opportunities for barnstorming virtuosity. But violinist Joshua Bell feels that there is more to the piece than that, and is particularly interested in the often neglected intimate moments, when he says it almost becomes chamber music. And so his new recording with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is to be welcomed. The producer, Andrew Keener, has ensured t...

Films: Only the Title's Pants

NEVER judge a book by its cover, or a film by its unwieldy title. Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants sounds alarmingly like a chick flick about mobile lingerie saleswomen. Although Ken Kwapis's enjoyable feature is indeed a chick flick (targeted at teenage girls), the pants in question are denim, because for our transatlantic cousins, pants are trousers. Carmen (Ferrera), Bridget (Lively), Lena (Bledel) and Tibby (Tamblyn) have been best friends since their mothers met in a prenatal aerobics ...

Music: Melancholy Touch to Upbeat Anthem

DAVID GRAY The One I Love Those expecting another piano ballad from David Gray as he makes his return to the charts will be disappointed. The One I Love is a surprisingly upbeat, punch-the-air anthem that will sound great live. But David's distinctive vocals still give it his trademark melancholy edge

Cd Review

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -Howl THEY'VE lost and retrieved their drummer, lost their old recording contract, but it all seems to have done good for BRMC. On their best album yet the band have dropped their trademark dense guitar sound to play around with the folk and soul influences that they grew up on. Might lose them some fans but will also gain them some new ones

So You Want to See Shire Horses

STATUESQUE shire horses have a habit of stealing the limelight for many visitors to every summer country show. And now devotees of these big, beautiful and immensely strong equines can admire them close up at the North Wales Shire Horse Society Open Day tomorrow.

Dvd View

The Right Spectacle - The Very Best of Elvis Costello The Videos (E ONE of the greatest adopted Liverpudlians, Elvis Costello never quite tickled my fancy until witnessing for the first time the full intensity of his live act when he played with the Attractions at the Summer Pops a couple of years back. It was topped by a separate guest spot with Burt Bacharach in which Elvis rang his hospital- bound mum - who comes from Birkenhead - live from the stage to say how excited he was before beltin...

The Big Picture: Hazzard-Ous Waste ; Dukes of Hazzard (12a Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson and Lynda Carter; Director Jay Chandrasekhar. 106 Mins Rating

THERE was a time when the cinema industry feared competition from television. Today they are raiding the television archives in search of inspiration. Sometimes it works as with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller's Starsky and Hutch and to a lesser extent last week's Bewitched.

Film: Now Showing

DIRECTOR Robert Rodriguez hit a rich seam with his Spy Kids series, including one in 3D. For this outing, he has gone back to 3D but come up with a silly story that makes very little sense.