Wednesday July 2nd 2025 "Pop festivals are back - but audiences will need nerves of steel, sadly !!!!!

Well, it's here again, isn't it - pop festival time and pub live music time, but for audiences it isn't all "beer and fiddles" (!), to put it mildly. Because so much can go wrong, can't it, to be frank!! See this story in this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire, and weep! 

And weep particularly if you've got "family" in the pop business !!!!

Poor Brandon !!!!!

And reading that story here in nearby Liphook, Hampshire, my medium-to-hard-pressed wife Lois and I have to admit to having a sudden pang of worry for our own grandson and budding vocalist, Isaac. who, we know, started on his own pathway to potentially global 'pop royalty' last night during an 'open mic' session at a pub just over the county line, in Guildford Surrey.

flashback to May: (left to right) Lois, our daughter Alison (49)

and her son Isaac, seen here in a car-park in nearby Godalming, Surrey

Later today, a social media post by Isaac's mum - our dear daughter Alison (49) in nearby Churt - lets us know that all went well last night at the pub, and that Isaac's band is now setting their sights on the next daunting stage in their campaign -the Tilford (Surrey) village fete, a 'gig' notorious for being a bit of a 'graveyard' for up-and-coming new pop groups. But we'll see !

Fingers crossed!!!

Break a leg, Isaac (not literally !!!!!) !!!! Lois and I missed the Guildford 'gig', but we hope to be there for their next performance, at Tilford village fete, so watch this space!

As our daughter Alison said in her post, it was super hot in the pub last night, but the good news this morning is that the recent heatwave has broken, which is quite a relief to Lois and me, especially as we've got some appointments today, starting with a visit from Angie, who gives quotes for electrically-powered garage doors, and after that we'll have a 2-minute drive to the library, because Lois's books are due back. And that's not the end of it - we'll somehow have to fit in a walk before our usual afternoon in bed.

Busy busy busy!!! It's no picnic being retired is it !!!! 

[You should have my job, Colin, to put it mildly! - Ed]

at last the recent heatwave has broken, with high of only 75F (24C) today

down from 88F (31C) yesterday - what a crazy country we live in !!!!

(left) us this morning on our walk round the "rec", and (right) the cooler weather

has brought out the local young mums exercising with their weights etc in the rec car-park

What madness, isn't it!  And it's so nice to get into bed this afternoon to "nap off" this morning's frantic 'round' !!!!

And we've got the perfect excuse for doing it today, I might add!

You see, all fired up after seeing all those sweaty young mums showing off their muscles in the car-park, Lois and I now have got to get in training ourselves, before we start watching even more sweaty young women in tonight's much-awaited viewing of "Copa 71".

It's the extraordinary story of the unofficial Women's World Cup, staged in Mexico City in 1971 in front of capacity crowds in the city's Azteca Stadium, an event which, under pressure from national and international football associations, was afterwards quickly excised from the record-books, as though it had never happened. 

Just the thing to get Lois's hackles up, to put it mildly!

The England team didn't do particularly well, it has to be said, but they almost qualified in the opening heats, and they were expecting some sort of welcome when they flew back into Heathrow after the tournament - but no luck, as England captain Carol Wilson from Newcastle, only 19 years of age at the time, reports: 

But wait - it got worse! 

Later Carol was invited to a special dinner at her local men's professional soccer club, Newcastle United, as she tearfully recalls in tonight's programme:

Surely now at last Carol would be getting some recognition for her achievement, you might think?

But no luck again!

And tonight a sports historian explains why, back in the 1970's, the world's football associations were so keen to kill off women's football:

Those days are gone now, and the Women's Euro tournament is starting just this week, which is a comfort. But, as Lois points out, there are still questions to be answered.

And surely, the excising from the record books of some major world event couldn't happen today, could it, just because a few rich, powerful interests wanted it "deleted"?

Or could it?!

Women's football flourished in England during the Victorian era and Edwardian era into the early 20th century, with over 100 clubs in operation, with more on the horizon. And during World War I (1914-1918) women's football was all that was on offer for the home crowds, with all the men being away on military service over in Europe.

women's football in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Then after the war, the men came back to Britain, wanting to take centre stage again, and all sorts of doctors were writing articles in medical journals saying that football was potentially dangerous for women, because they had such fragile "lady parts", breasts, wombs, ovaries etc. Who knew?!!!!

Is it too late now, perhaps, to hold these doctors to account?

I wonder.....!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!!!