Wednesday, July 06, 2005

David Essex

It is nice to return to these pages after a week or two’s break. My muses were needed elsewhere for a bit.

The South African Quinton Davids has signed for Gloucester. By all accounts this fellow is a bit of an underachiever and has perceived fitness – and possibly attitude – problems. Dean Ryan is building him up to be a key signing though and, as ever, I’ll give any new signing the benefit of the doubt. He is certainly a big chap and is being billed as the perfect foil for the more lightweight and effete Alexander Brown. We need a burly bruiser and I hope it works out. A South African colleague of D rates the guy. Fingers crossed, eh?

It seems that Alan Tait may be on the way to Kingsholm to replace surly David Ellis as the club’s defensive coach. I welcome this news. The new Scottish contingent on the management team shall certainly bring a professional outlook and a pleasing ambition to the Cherry and Whites. The Davids/Tait news has cheered me and I merely long for a new full back to complete the squad. My current opinion is that we must include Olly Morgan somewhere in the fifteen next season, possibly on the wing. I’d quite like a speedy, hard-as-nails guy to don the 15 shirt as well.

I got the new Saint Etienne album today, Tales From Turnpike House. It has received generally fine reviews apart from Q Magazine who panned it. The Guardian gave it five stars – a rare accolade – and on the first couple of listens I have grown to appreciate its wit and sunny textures. It is dubbed a ‘concept album’ because it features songs about a fictitious block of flats in London. I can cope with this. I detect a Free Design influence on the first track. David Essex is a guest vocalist on one song. I can cope with this too. I quite like the bloke. Rock On was a cracking number although I never fully appreciated the darker soundscapes of Winter’s Tale.

I popped into Gloucester’s best – well, actually I mean coolest – record shop, Pulp the other weekend to see of they had the Saint Etienne album. It hadn’t arrived in but the manager, a bit of a dude, was blasting out The Friends of Rachel Worth by the wonderful Go-Betweens. I know that S will hate me for this but I engaged the bloke in conversation about the acclaimed Antipodeans and probably sounded a bit of a pompous know-all to onlookers. However, I managed to drop into the chat that I had seen the band recently as well as proffering advice on Grant McLennan’s solo output. Frankly I feel I emerged from this encounter with great credit. I shall certainly stroll into the Pulp emporium next time with head held high.