The Riverboat Captain

A post written back in the day, originally for Vital Sheffield Wednesday, now lost to site upgrades. So here it is once again.. sport hurts! 1997: Owls fans had a season much like the one we’ve...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/blast-from-the-past-1997/

A post written back in the day, originally for NZ football site In the Back of the Net, now on permanent hiatus. So here it is once again.. the anti-VAR stance. The English Premier League, three ...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/var-no-ha-ha/

I don’t post very frequently these days, so this is mostly an archive. Recently though, I’ve ventured into the world of podcasting with my old mate @ElTele. It’s going well, I think. You ca...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/radio-radio/

So what do you do, when you have a chance to meet your heroes, either fleetingly, or if you’re lucky enough to be in the same room with them for a goodly period of time? You’re in a quandary,...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/just-like-me-they-long-to-be-close-to-you/

When you’re northern, you’re northern forever and you’re instilled with a certain feel for life that you can’t get rid of. You just can’t. The very early sixties: my grandad, with a Yor...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/moon-river-me-morrissey/

or.. A Baker’s Dozen of Debut Albums. All the activity on Twitter over selecting 50 Debut Albums got me thinking, and what I wanted to avoid was reprocessing my own lists, because if you look t...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/get-on-the-good-foot/

A regular haunt when I was at University in the late 70s was The Star, in Back Hope Street, Salford. Ignoring the rather more easily accessible delights of the student bar at Castle Irwell (and t...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/salford-folk/

A particular highlight from last year was the Pet Shop Boys’ Electric album, a fine record chock full of the kind of spot-on English synth-pop wizardry that Messrs. Lowe and Tennant present us ...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/song-for-a-friend/

News this week that one of my old haunts is set to feel the merciless punch of the wrecking ball – The Cobbler’s Thumb, in Brighton, is finally to be demolished after years of structural negl...

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/closing-time-at-the-cobblers-thumb/

..it looks like fun. Part 2 here.

http://www.riverboatcaptain.com/i-dont-want-to-go-to-chelsea-oh-wait/