Rich NATA

Exactly and that makes the commentators reaction all the more pathetic. In their eyes, everything is seemingly stunning if a big team or big player does it.

I've now seen it and I'm not really understanding the hype......... I'm sure I've seen better overhead kicks.

A wee review for you... Seventeen Seconds (1980) Very dark and atmospheric. Key songs: Play For Today, In Your House, A Forest, M, At Night. Faith (1981) Misery in abundance with The Holy Hour, Other Voices, All Cats Are Grey, The Funeral Party, The Drowning Man and Faith. Six thoroughly miserable, but enjoyable songs and the reasons I love this album Pornography (1982) My least favourite of the five I have listed, however, it does feature the brilliant One Hundred Years, A Strange Day, The Hanging Garden and The Figurehead. Disintegration (1989) An epic, panoramic album......... The Cure's Joshua Tree if you like. Filled with beauties such as Plainsong, Prayers For Rain, Fascination Street, Disintegration, The Same Deep Water As You and more......... In fact, I would say it would have been near perfect had they not included Lullaby on it (which is a bit of a daft song). Bloodflowers (2000) It took me months to get into this, then it clicked for me and I've loved it ever since. Oh, and on a visit to Krakow it was the album I chose to listen to on the train to Oswiecim (Auschwitz). Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers make up the Trilogy concert DVD, which you can probably catch on YouTube.

I was going to mention them, but intentionally left it for someone else. Great band. One of my favourites. Serious? Yes, absolutely, but do they have an proper miserable album?

And rightly so. It a cracking song.

As a 7 or 8 year old, I had the good fortune to walk in on my pals Mum having a pee......... I can still see the big black hairy triangle.

Genuine question (cos I've never stood there): can you actually see the pitch from the front row of the east/West stands? There's no elevation and there are advertising hoarding's just back from the goal line, aren't there? That suggests to me that fans can't actually see the pitch nor the ball when it is played along the ground... or is it not quite so bad as that?

Any of you heard 'The Holy Bible' by Manic Street Preachers?

Men get broken hearts too I've seen The Cure a good few times... Maybe 10 times since 1992... Saw them 4 times in 2016 including a jaunt down to Montpellier; somewhere I visited and liked during France '98 (saw the Italy v Cameroon match there). I would say The Cure audience is mainly male, but not extremely. No more than any other rock band; I think most rock audience's are predominately male. On the other hand, an Adele audience or a Simply Red audience is predominately female. Re. The Cure: I would be quite happy if they never played Lovecats, Let's Go To Bed, In Between Days, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You, Hot Hot Hot or Friday I'm In Love ever again... ... Keep Just Like Heaven in the setlist though Thankfully, they play very, very, long gigs, so you get all the dark songs as well as the all-out-pop. A few years ago they played 2 x Teenage Cancer trust gig's at the Royal Album Hall and I attended one of them... They played for 3 hours and 40 minutes and they were f*cking brilliant. A journalist from the Guardian wrote a review slating the performance; telling The Cure they should have played the pop hits and no more. At the length of the gig, she even asked, 'Do The Cure not realise people have babysitters to relieve and jobs to go to in the morning?' F*ck... How rock 'n' roll is that music journalist, eh?!?! The Cure play a 3 hour, 40 minute gig for their fans and FOR A CHARITY and she criticised them for it......... The backlash on the comments page was utterly scathing. Anyway, although they're my 2nd favourite band, they confuse me... How they go from one extreme to the other... From Killing An Arab to Friday I'm In Love?!?!?! How can the same band do that? It's bizarre.

Funny you mention Adele... Her Mum was/is seemingly a big Cure fan and apparently took a 6 year old Adele to a Cure gig. Adele has also covered The Cure's 'Lovesong' (and has told the Mum/Cure story before playing the song live). I nominated The Cure's 'Faith' album (it's certainly the most miserable album in my collection) and on the back of this thread, I listened to it again this morning......... F*ck me it's bleak, but I love it. I also mentioned 'Seventeen Seconds' (which I would place at number 2 in The Cure misery charts) but never even mentioned the album's, 'Pornography', 'Disintegration' or 'Bloodflowers'. They actually played all three of those albums in their entirety at a concert in Berlin a few years ago and released the DVD, 'Trilogy'. Depeche Mode must have something miserable (?) And The Cult?

Well, that's really what I'm getting at... Miserable, but great albums. ... And not so much miserable, but evocative, I'd say Bowie's Low and Heroes albums. On the subject of Bowie, knowing what we now know, the final track on Blackstar always gets me.

P.S. the album which prompted this thread was, The Twilight Sad's, 'Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave'. recommended.

I've been listening to The Twilight Sad recently; a band whose own Twitter page describes them as a 'Scottish band who enjoy making miserable music.' Which got me thinking; which miserable albums do you actually enjoy listening to? I'm going to go for some early Cure; a band I love for their serious/miserable material, but who confuse me when they go to the other end of the extreme with their pure pop... I mean, the band who gave us Killing An Arab and A Forest also gave us The Lovecats and Friday I'm in Love (?!?!?!) So, my miserable album nominations go to The Cure's, 'Seventeen Seconds' and especially 'Faith'. Love them both, but especially the 'Faith' album and especially the songs All Cats Are Grey, The Funeral Party and the title track.

TV - Costa Rica 1990 (I think). AWAY - Norway in Bordeaux (France '98) What a beautiful occasion; one of the best ever; the Scots, the Norwegians and our French hosts; what a day... night... and next morning. "Were you in Bordeaux?" HOME - Sweden at Ibrox 1996......... 'The Jim Leighton match'. What a night he had; absolutely outstanding.

The woman I encountered wasn't young; definite MILF age. Very attractive, mind.

... Not to mention you'd be too busy banging her like a drum on your hallway carpet!

I quite like that... especially the Claire Sweeney / Carol Vorderman looking lassie... I'd happily unzip her red Postcode Lottery fleece.

I'd heard about this before I visited Budapest a couple of years back. Was she a glamorous blonde MILF type? If so, I've met her. I'm not entirely sure what the scam is, but I knew to be weary of her. She promptly asked me if I'd buy her a drink, which I refused to do simply because I thought there was a scam coming - plus I saw the expression on the face of the waitress, which indicated, 'don't trust this woman'. There was a story about waiting on a friend who would be there in 2 hours. Like I said, I don't know what the scam is, but something didn't seem right. Ignore her and she'll soon piss off.

I've only seen/heard bits and pieces from him (An Audience With... for example) and to be honest I thought a lot of it was clever rather than funny. Going back to my previous post about the advert promising a 4 hour long show last year and the long tours; I must admit I was intrigued by that... Intrigued at how he could have 4 hours of fresh material and intrigued at who his audience might be; a loyal, long-term-fan audience was my conclusion. Dara O'Brian tweeted today that he had attended one of Dodd's shows and it was 5 hours long (!)

They play 22/23 songs now, so 2 hours. Saw them in '95 on the Voodoo Lounge tour. I was right down the front and they were absolutely outstanding. Had tickets to see them in Barcelona a few years later, but Keef fell out of a coconut tree (if you believe the tabloids) and the gig was cancelled. Seen them on TV and online since and they are still absolutely fantastic - but the cost to see them now is outrageous. I've been lucky enough to see them - at a sensible price - and were it not for the astronomical cost, I would urge anyone and everyone to go and see the dinosaurs in the zoo before they become extinct.

Ah, the STC tie... I still have mine - still in its cellophane wrapper. They gave you a choice of a scarf or the tie and I already had a scarf. Little did I know when I opted for the tie that it was so old fashioned (even then) and I would need to wait another 50 years before I could ever wear it. It will come in very handy if I join a bowling club in 30 years time.

Hit or miss? Yes, very. There have been some good gifts... the DVD of the 2006-2007 qualifying campaign and the cotton 60's and '78 style shirts spring to mind, but there has been a lot of tat (for example, the plastic pin badges and the polyester scarf we received). They've reduced the price (good news) but for the price they have set, there should probably still be a gift. To put it into context, I pay about the same to a band for access to tickets and today I received a pack of 4x10" vinyl's, which are only available to members; even if you don't have a record player, you get the downloads too and the vinyls will fetch a handsome price in 5+ years. I've no problem with the SSC ditching the gifts, but I do wonder if the cost of membership could have been reduced further.

Have they scrapped the gift/s?

Sunderland had a pink kit recently. That was quite good. Better than ours. I was not happy with ours being pink, but the design - or lack of - with ours, is my main problem with it. It may have sold well, but was it a great design of a football shirt? I don't think so. it was bog standard. I could do better than Adidas... I could design the best selling kit Scotland has ever had. At times, these kit manufacturers lack imagination.

They don't often strive to design something f*cking awesome; the fans could do better. Re. the pink kit: forget the colour for a moment and think about the design... There was next no no time spent on it.