A-Z of Games, Caches & Songs – ‘A’

A weekly A-Z of Games, Caches & Songs through the alphabet. 5 games, 3 caches and 10 songs. This week it’s ‘A’.

Games

• Acquire – Sid Sackson
• Agricola – Uwe Rosenberg
• Airlines Europe – Alan R. Moon
• American Rails – Tim Harrison
• Automobile – Martin Wallace

Caches

• Aladdins Cave - Northking
• A(queduct) Ray of Hope - Roobydoo
• Are you game enough? - Hanando

Songs

• 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street - The Jam
• Absolute Beginners - The Jam
• Acquiesce - Oasis
• Action Packed - Jonathan Richman
• Alison - Elvis Costello
• All Around The World - Lisa Stansfield
• All the Same to You - Laura Cantrell
• All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
• All Woman - Lisa Stansfield
• Alright - Supergrass
• Anarchy In The U.K. - Sex Pistols
• (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes - Elvis Costello
• Away From The Numbers - The Jam

And in more detail ...

Games

My 2 favourite games and 3 other very strong ones.

Acquire

I’ve only recently discovered this classic Sid Sackson title, originally published in 1962. It is basically a stock trading game against a backdrop of hotel growth and takeovers. It plays like a new Euro and I’m looking forward to lots more plays of it.

Agricola

Whoever thought faming could be fun? An ‘event’ game – the experience being more important than the winning. The sheer number of cards means that each game will be fresh for years to come. My second favourite game after Automobile.

Airlines Europe

Acquire meets Ticket to Ride? Well almost – stock-holding certainly meets route-building but this is a very strong game in its own right. This is Alan R. Moon’s latest re-working of Airlines and Union Pacific and therefore has a pedigree dating back to 1990.

American Rails

Another stock-holding and route-building game – a theme seems to be emerging here. Similar to both Chicago Express and Steel Driver, but superior to both.

Automobile

Martin Wallace’s finest moment and my favourite game. Excellent theme and straight-forward gameplay. Often wrongly dismissed as overly maths-heavy, it contains many of Martin’s favoured mechanics and can be wonderfully confrontational. As Kenny Rogers sang in The Gambler – you got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. Except in this case, it’s all about car manufacturing …

Caches

Aladdins Cave

Sadly recently archived. This was a simple puzzle cache in central Nottingham with the final in a large ammo can in an army surplus store! The reasons why the cache was outstanding was the enthusiasm of the store owner who we discussed caching with for more than 30 minutes and also the store itself – the best army surplus store I’ve ever been in (“hey make sure that you give a discount to my geocaching buddies”).

A(queduct) Ray of Hope

The primary reason why caching in Swindon is in such good shape is one man – Roobydoo (Keith Shailes). He has placed more than 200 local caches (at the time of writing I’ve found 199 of them) and really gave the hobby a boost. This is one of his best – the cache was placed in a pipe with a hidden entrance so that you are literally standing on top of the cache but can’t understand why you can’t find it. The other end of the pipe is close by though so you can use this as a guide to discover the main entrance.

Are you game enough?

A fun local puzzle cache that combines Euro gaming with caching, how can it not be on the list?

Songs

A distinctly punky edge to this first batch. There are also 13 tracks – I was unable to pick out a favourite ten.

'A' Bomb In Wardour Street - The Jam

A song that captured the mood at the time. One of the stand-outs on All Mod Cons. I first heard it at the Brunel Rooms on a mini-tour to promote the forthcoming album.

Absolute Beginners - The Jam

With its soaring brass, this was a forerunner of the direction for Weller post-Jam. Also a great book by Colin MacInnes.

Acquiesce – Oasis

Superior ‘B’ side of Some Might Say.

Action Packed - Jonathan Richman

From the 1989 Jonathan Richman album. Recorded some great stuff around this time.

Alison - Elvis Costello

Seminal single from first album.

All Around The World - Lisa Stansfield

I’ve always had a soft spot for Rochdale’s finest. #1 hit in 1989.

All the Same to You - Laura Cantrell

Along with Jonathan Richman and Erin McKeown, Laura Cantrell is one of my favourite singers. Taken from the 2002 album When The Roses Bloom Again, the album that got me into her work.

All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople

Bowie written song from 1972. One I remember from the youth club, still sounds great today.

All Woman - Lisa Stansfield

Incredibly just a minor hit in 1991.

Alright – Supergrass

The feel-good summer track of choice.

Anarchy In The U.K. - Sex Pistols

I first heard (and saw) this on an EMI promo video in Harrods Music Department in December 1976. Great sneering vocal, although it sounds a bit twee now.

(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes - Elvis Costello

From a time when EC was routinely churning out fantastic pop songs. I love the lyric Oh, I said "I’m so happy, I could die”, she said "drop dead," then left with another guy.

Away From The Numbers - The Jam

Apart from In the City, the standout song from the first Jam album.

Wilko Johnson

The Fleece, Bristol 6th May

Growing up in the seventies, I liked T-Rex and I liked Slade and, of course, I fancied Suzi Quattro and Linda Ronstadt, but the first group I was really into were Dr Feelgood in 1976. I still remember coming home clutching the seminal Stupidity album the week of it's release with it's classic cover picture of Lee Brilleaux and Wilko. That album remains my #1 favourite live album, and yes, even better than the Johnny Cash live prison albums.

I finally got to see Dr Feelgood live in Autumn 1978 at Brighton Top Rank. Of course by this time Wilko had left, but nevertheless they were still storming live. I saw Wilko live for the first time shortly afterwards at the Marquee. I’ve seen him since, of course, and also with Ian Dury (on the DIY tour). To my mind, Wilko is a national treasure that needs preserving and it's great that he's still strutting his stuff over 30 years later.

So to the Fleece on a Friday night. It is warm and packed, almost definitely sold-out. Just the sort of atmosphere you want for a slice of R&B. First band up were Billy Whizz: dire. Second up were 3-piece The Soulvents whose musical influences were given away by the singer's Fred Perry shirt and Mod-ish haircut. The guy was one excellent guitarist and his repertoire was impressive, unfortunately he had no stage presence whatsoever. Anyway Steve Marriott & Weller influences aplenty, he covered one Weller track and finished with a crowd pleasing All through the City. Definitely worth catching again.

And so to Mr Johnson, who as per usual was joined by Blockhead Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe on drums. Wilko looks more and more like Alf Garnett every year and Norman is like the butler in a Hammer Horror film. Pretty they ain’t, but my God can they still brew up some R&B! Wilko is as energetic as the very first time I saw him and this is music as it should be – R&B in a small sweaty bar.

As usual the Dr Feelgood songs go down best – I remember Back in the Night, She Does It Right, Don’t Let Your Daddy Know, Sneakin’ Suspicion, Keep it Out of Sight, The More I Give, Paradise and Twenty Yards Behind. Wilko was joined by Jerry Tremaine (I think that was his name) on vocals and harp for a storming Woolly Bully and Roxette. Dr Dupree was also in the mix somewhere. A single encore – a rollicking Bye Bye Johnny – it is always good to see Mr B Goode, the patron saint of R&B, make an appearance!

I’m already looking forward to the next time Wilko and co. are in town!

John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett

Reading South Park, 5^th May

I first saw John Otway live around 1981/82 on the same bill as UK Subs and Gary Glitter (go figure!). I need to point out that this was before Mr Glitter had been outed as a paedophile. On the night, the UK Subs were Sh1t, I was totally underwhelmed by the young-ish Otway and Gary Glitter (and the original Glitter Band with 2 drummers) were superb!

Rolling forward to about 2 years ago, on a whim my friend Jarrod and I caught a JO & WWB show at the Windsor Arts Centre. I remember saying at the interval that what we had witnessed was either total cobblers or absolute brilliance, but I didn’t know which. Anyway after the second half we decided it was the latter and are both now confirmed fans. We also saw him last autumn in Gloucester, with his ‘Big Band’, although I drank so much that night that frankly, memories of the show, and the afternoon rugby game, are somewhat hazy!

Anyway to Reading: instead of the usual tiered seating at the venue, there were just chairs on the floor. The audience was perhaps 200-250 people, mostly fat fifty-somethings (yes … like me!), but with a smattering of people outside that profile. As usual a fair number were diehard fans and, again as usual, both Otway & WWB mingled with the audience before the gig, in the interval and after the gig. Pretentious they are not.

Seeing Otway is an event rather than a gig. The songs don’t change much, the patter between songs is familiar, Otway’s boy-ish enthusiasm, honesty and showing off would be totally daft in other settings but just works. Add in WWB’s excellent musicianship and dead-pan humour and you have a winning formulae. As Otway says … Wild Willy is just a Musician, whereas I’m a star!

So what was new on the night? It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a wheely-bin used in an act for a start. It housed Wild Willy’s amp for his electric guitar and was open and closed as appropriate. Totally idiotic, but it worked brilliantly. WWB also introduced a Pete Townshend guitar wrecking segment, although the damage was done DIY-style with a hammer and saw! After the show the guitar was flogged for £35! Musically, the highlight may well have been a touching(!!) rendition of Rolf Harris’ ‘Two Little Boys’.

An Otway concert is like a Jonathan Richman concert (another favourite of mine), in that you smile all the way through it and all the way home. It is that kind of experience.