all sixes and sevens

Both myself and my good lady wife are awaiting the imminent arrival of our fourth child. It was due today, but in typically Irish fashion, it's late. Most people are quite bemused when they hear its our fourth. Isn't that an awful lot they ask? Well not really. Once you've gone past two kids it doesn't really make much odds. As an old relative of mine used to say 'Sure you need four to carry the box!' What a nice sentiment.

I haven't wandered too far from home but I did go to watch the Arsenal match in a friends house today. I won't be invited back in a hurry. The last time I was there we got hockeyed by Tottenham and today it was 4 - 0 to Man Utd. I'm quite sure I watched in his house when we lost the Champions League final to Barcelona. i think its best for all concerned if I just watch all future matches on my own somewhere. Anyhow the match was shite but when I arrived home my seven year old son was watching TV and an advertisement for the 25th Anniversary Edition of Thriller came on. My son looked at Michael Jackson, looked back at me and said 'Dad, he looks like Mully!. This kind of stuff is the reason to have kids, they come out with some great shit. As Mully, an old pal of mine, is a Man Utd fan that really served to soften the blow of the result. We may have lost but at least I don't look like Michael Jackson. Well done son.

I also got my copy of Mr Amperduke by Bob Byrne in the post yesterday. It was worth every penny of the €14.95 I paid for it. Support Irish comics and go and buy it.

In terms of musical activity I picked up some nice seven inches in All City Records on Friday. Both are brand new recordings but have a massive soul sound of yesteryear. The first is a new seven by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings doing a cover of an old Kenny Rogers song 'I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in'. These guys are great. I didn't bother buying their recent album (100 Days, 100 Nights) but I'll most likely go and buy it after hearing this tune. If you get the chance you should check them out live in The Button Factory here in Dublin on April 10th.

The other seven is by Baby Charles doing a cover of 'I bet you look good on the dancefloor', the Arctic Monkeys tune. Baby Charles a UK based soul band who mix up quirky covers with their own material. They seem to be flavour of the month at the moment and deservedly so. They're the British version of Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

Finally, I'm a man who likes to keep my finger on the musical pulse. Well that's not entirely true. When things are hyped I tend to give them a cooling period before i touch them. I ignored the entire Radiohead 'In Rainbows' furore of a few months back. In fact it wasn't until this week that I got the album. I'd seen them perform a couple of numbers on Jools Holland's Later some weeks back and was really impressed. I'd also bought the first single from the album and I really like it. Unsurprisingly I like the album. I'm not a big fan of theirs, never have been, in fact I own nothing else by them. This album is great though. I listened to it when I was varnishing the back door today. They can put that on the album: 'Great for varnishing your back door to - Matt Vinyl'.