England out – Lampard’s goal that never was is  a bitter pill to swallow and could have changed the game – but at the end of the day we were just not good enough – in fact woeful in the second half.  Forty years of hurt…as the song says ”We’ll keep on getting bad results”……A low ebb at the Totnes Arena…beers are needed…..DL 5.25 PM June 27th

The valiant USA went out of the World Cup last night in a 2-1 defeat to Ghana.  Overall they can be well proud of their efforts in the tournament.  England’s destiny is later today and once again it’s Germany who block the way. Yes we have been here before for sure…. they are by no means invincible, but it will be a difficult task to overcome them. Here’s hoping Fabio get’s the team in the right frame of mind, the team selection is right and we do ourselves justice.

It willl be a nervy old morning here as we once again prepare the Totnes Arena (our living room) for the tension ahead.  Beers will be needed, so it will down the shop for me later – and some inspired uplifting anthems will  need to be on the player – The Boys Are Back in Town, Thin Lizzy, Town Called Malice The Jam, Faces Stay With Me, Carly’s Nobody Does It Better, Bowie Starman, Bruce Born To Run , Led Zep Rock And Roll mixed with the usual soccer fare Three Lions -World In Motion,  you know the stuff.

I might have Monty Pythons’ Always Look On The Bright Side of Life lined up ready in case of penalties…

We need positive thinking so I’m off for a run to clear my head for this day of emotions .  Here’s hoping we can get the result we so need again..

I’ll be reporting back with another World Cup Update  after the match…(DL 7.30AM June 27th)

June23

Well it was more than a slog at times, but England did enough to grind out the result we all needed. Great to see Defoe replicating some of his Spurs form to net the all important goal, and well done to the USA –  group winners who also go marching on.  Beers were drunk here as Tom and myself and Max wandered down to the Fox to bath in some much needed post match feelgood factor.  It’s Germany on Sunday and that won’t be easy of course, but for now it’s a good feeling to know that this World Cup has at last provided an England high. Evident here by my slightly spinning head at the end of a long day.

A very long day in fact as I got up at 4.30 am to get some work in early. Not only that, but I also went for another early morning run to clear my head for the day ahead.  My legs are telling me that really is enough of that for now. The icing on the cake of this marathon June 23rd, was  the phone call from an old friend and former Our Price collegue Nigel Glazier about an hour before kick off – Nigel was lucky enough to be in attendance at the last ever Led Zeppelin gig on July 7th 1980 in Berlin. He has has sent down some great photos he took on that special night which will add to the ever building source material I am collating for the Over Europe book project.

June 21st was the longest day of the year as it was back in 1977 when Led Zeppelin were commencing a glorious six night run at the Los Angeles Forum. These dates always have me pulling the old CD faves such as Listen To This Eddie, For Badgeholders Only, Last LA Forum etc. During that week for Badgeholders the band were on a crest of a wave – the camaraderie and positively of that LA run led to some of the most enjoyable performances of the latter era. I hadn’t played anything from these tapes for ages until yesterday and had forgotten the rollercoaster high of those set lists. I’d recommend you pull out these iconic recordings (thanks to the late Mike Millard) and revel in that last hurrah in LA – and look out for a TBL 1977 Badgeholders archive special later this week.

Caught the excellent Steve Winwood English Soul profile on BBC 4 last weekend. A perceptive overview of that other (often underrated) blues wailer from the Midlands. Quite a lot of parallels with Robert and Zep – Winwood being one of Jimmy’s choices as a vocalist to work with way back. In fact there’s a slight Your Time Is Gonna Come feel in the refrain of Traffic’s Dear Mr Fantasy. As for Winwood’s mega MTV generation success in the mid 80’s with Back In The Highlife and Higher Love etc, I can’t help thinking that Robert could well have chosen that path and the Grammy’s to go with it had he not taken a left turn to Shaken’ n’ Stirred land. All in all a top documentary that has had me eagerly searching out Traffic’s back catalogue (Paper Sun, Here We Go ‘round the Mulberry Bush are two of the finest singles of the era), plus Steve’s classic 1981 Arc Of A Diver LP (that’s sounding particularly great this splendidly sunny morning) and the Blind Faith album which has stood the test of time remarkably well.

Father’s Day was a little muted as we naturally missed Ken, though with the sun shining our trip to the cemetery was a quite upbeat. Did catch my good friend Terry for a quick Father’s Day beer and the day before  I’d caught up with Tom as we gazed in awe and wonder at those photos we took of the Over Europe tour of 30 year years ago

Running progress: The old legs were not good after last Thursday’s debut but braved the second run early this morning. It was tough, the novelty’s definitely worn off and the legs quickly sussed what was instore for them, but I got around just about Ok as the sun beat down upon my face ( hey good line for a song that). Not sure I’ll manage three times a week yet but twice isn’t too bad. It’s certainly cleared the head to get down the multi tasking ahead, which includes packing t shirts (order now!), collating Over Europe ’80 photos, planning TBL 27 and various other bits and pieces.