Grapple

I've no idea as to whether they actually had wrestling on in this venue in the 1970s but it looks like the kind of place where grapple fans might have gathered. So I battled my way through the wind this morning to take a few photographs, spurred on the new Luke Haines album, 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early '80s.

Luke's been with me a long time, right from the early days of The Auteurs. I remember buying their debut album at the same time as the Wu Tang Clan's from Nottingham's fantastic Selectadisc and I can't remember which was the more unique, Luke's wordplay or The RZA's rhythms. Fellow blipper Hector's House has been with me all the way on my Haines-related journey and indeed, it was him I first heard this new one from. Off to spend the last of my Christmas money on a proper copy for mesen though, Luke deserves it. And besides, you get a free, erm, calendar with it apparently.

If I'd heard this album before I started compiling my top ten of the year it would undoubtedly have been in there, somewhere in the upper echelons, if not the top spot.

And it does contain my favourite lyrics of 2011 -

"Bomber Pat Roach, said on the coach
We'll bring bloody mayhem
When we reach the big time
At Wolverhampton Civic Hall"

If you don't believe me, best hear for yourself