

There's also a nice piece in the Liverpool Daily Post today, which you can link to here.
We'll be toasting at 9pm tonight.A new list for the end of the week. I did one on films, which you can see here. But this is the one to start us off.
For me, how the crowd contributes to the occasion of a football match is of paramount importance and interest. My first ever game was Lancaster City v Barrow and me and my Dad cheered for the wrong team. My first league match in 1972, Preston North End v Burnley, was made memorable for several pitch invasions (and me getting a bobble hat stolen). When I first started going to Rovers in the 1970s Kevin Bradley grassed on me to the other lads that he'd spotted me crowd watching (It was Mansfield!). No wonder I ended up studying sociology and became a journalist.
I think the whole experience is more sterile and lifeless these days. I miss the edge and I miss the banter, the songs and the clothes. If you like this terrace retro sort of thing, look here and here.
Here are my ten thoughts on... football fans
* The football fans with the wittiest banner - Liverpool v Galatasary, 2002, "Hell - My Arse, You've never been to the Grafton on a Friday Night"
* The most pretentious banners - Liverpool, 2004 "What we achieve in life, echoes through eternity" (my arse)
* Biggest annoying boasters/unsporting whingers on radio phone in - Spurs (before/after the 2002 Worthington Cup Final, after we won 2-1)
* The best dressed - Liverpool 1984 (trainers and tweed)
* The worst bullies - Newcastle 1981 (I was only 15...)
* The most racist - Chelsea 1983 (shamefully booed every touch of their own player, Paul Cannoville)
* The most stupid - Burnley 2000 (smashed up their own town centre, after we won 2-0)
* The most loyal - Manchester City 1999 (Third Division season, crowds went up)
* The most carried away with their own self-importance - Manchester City 2000 (there weren't THAT many of you at Ewood Park)
* The most polite - Fulham (for as long as I can remember)
A new end of week series starts here. Ten thoughts on...
I don't get to the cinema as much as I used to, but there have been golden eras when I'd go all the time. As a yoof in Lancaster, or when I was paid to review films in Perth and Melbourne, or when in Bristol in the 1990s an 8 screen cinema opened five minutes from my home/office, which was perfect for task avoidance.
In 1998, at a charity bash, I foolishly bid £250 for a cinema pass and a Warner Village leather jacket. Never fancied the George Bush look, but the pass was well-used. Read on...
* First film ever seen at Lancaster Odeon: Gold, with Roger Moore
* Best film ever seen at Lancaster Odeon in the 1970s: Star Wars
* Best British gangster film of the 1970s: Long Good Friday
* Best British gangster film of the last ten years: Layer Cake
* The worst: The Business
* Best British film of last ten years: The English Patient
* Best American thriller: Heat
* Best scene to quote when pissed: Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
"Son, we live in a world that has walls..."
* Second best: Michael Gambon in Layer Cake
"You're born, you take shit, get out in the world you take more shit, climb a little higher take less shit until one day you're up in the rarified atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like; welcome to the layer cake, son."
* Best kids films: Cars and Finding Nemo (can't decide)