Phil Meloy

Hans, you are totally wrong: the English are terrible kickers. Oh I don't know - Rooney got a good one in...

You could always put forward Emile Heskey as a candidate for that honour but I suppose you would have to try and make some kind of case that he was actually a striker in the first place.

Naked protest in Brazil Three men have staged a naked protest in Brazil - against football. They walked round the city naked while locals watched Brazil's match against Ghana. The men staged their protest as they disagree with how "the whole country stops to watch the football matches at the World Cup but meanwhile the enourmous problems Brazil has in lack of education and health keep getting stronger." A local police spokesperson said: "Someone called us to check this out but it was not a violent crime and we were watching the match so we decided not to do anything about it. "They only wanted to get attention, but they couldn't even get this as everyone was watching the match."

Thierry Henry in the aftermath of the Champions League final against Barcelona, during which he got a bit of kicking said... "Next time I'll learn to dive maybe, but I'm not a woman" After last night's performance it seems the lessons are going pretty well.

They also sneakily rearrange the symbols each time so the same symbol doesn't pop up all the time which would give the game away.

Australia vs Italy

Just heard on the grapevine that on Friday after performing the last gig of their residency at the Shaw Theatre, Harry Connick Jnr and Branford Marsalis later arrived with their crew a small club, the Octave in Endell Street, Covent Garden for a late supper. After listening to some local musicians finishing their sets (Estelle Kokot and Emma Blake), Marsalis and Connick then got up on stage and performed for the club audience.

Maybe they ate them?

I'm sure he'll be back sidewinder. He was given a standing ovation at the early concert which was sold out and when we came out the foyer seemed to be filling up with people arriving for the 10.30 show.

Purcell Room perhaps? Saw Kurt Elling supported by Ian Shaw at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday night. Elling was absolutely amazing as were the Lawrence Hobgood Trio who accompanied him.

Just thought it would be an idea to let any board members out of range of London know that BBC Radio 3 are recording a number of concerts and you will be able to access them online. Some that I know of are McCoy Tyner Trio, Uri Caine, and the World Saxophone Quartet.

Thanks John - yes it was Lee Pearson - that's the name I thought I heard but wasn't absolutely sure.

I'll be at Kurt Elling on Friday night sidewinder at the 7.30 show - tickets came in the post yesterday. There's also a second show at 10.30. John S - did you manage to catch the name of the rhythm section with WSQ - I don't think they were the same as listed in the programme?

Must admit I haven't heard any of their stuff but it's a pretty attractive bill. I've wanted to see Tyner live for a long time now so it should be a good night. On another thread Adrian mentioned he saw him in Edinburgh last night and that he played beautifully.

I'm going to McCoy Tyner tonight and Kurt Elling/Ian Shaw on Friday.

I've got tickets to see him tonight at the Barbican in London.

I believe that when Jim Jarmusch won the Camera d'Or award at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival the prize itself was an actual camera worth $25,000. On his return to the States he had to leave it with US Customs for several months until he could come up with the $2000 customs duty imposed on it.

One of Jarmush's earliest backers was in fact Wim Wenders who gave Jarmusch a supply of film stock left over from one of his own projects to use in the making of Stranger than Paradise. The film subsequently won the Camera d'Or award at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and went on to become regarded as one of the most influential movies of the 1980s.

This is the interior of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho in London.

Apparently a popular dish in China is called "The Three Screams". A live mouse is pinned with a fork (1 scream), dipped in boiling oil (2 screams), and swallowed alive (3 screams). Quite a delicacy they say but I would recommend that it's probably not a good idea to order this for dinner if you're on a first date.

Happy birthday Chris.

Yeah I read that too.

Sorry to hear of the loss of your mum Berigan. My deepest condolences to you and your family. Phil.

I saw Tube man shot - eyewitness A passenger has told how he saw armed police officers shoot a man on a Tube train at Stockwell. Mark Whitby said: "I was sitting on the train... I heard a load of noise, people saying, 'Get out, get down'. "I saw an Asian guy. He ran on to the train, he was hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them was wielding a black handgun. "He half tripped... they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him," he told BBC News 24. "As [the suspect] got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox. "He looked absolutely petrified and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him, [they] couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor and the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand. "He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him. Heavy coat "He [the suspect] had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat - it was a coat you'd wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket. "He might have had something concealed under there, I don't know. But it looked sort of out of place with the sort of weather we've been having, the sort of hot humid weather. "He was largely built, he was quite a chubby sort of guy. "I didn't see any guns or anything like that - I didn't see him carrying anything. I didn't even see a bag to be quite honest. "I got into the ticket hall. I was approached by a policeman and London Underground staff asking me if I needed counselling. "I was just basically saying I've just seen a man shot dead. I've seen a man shot dead. I was distraught, totally distraught. It was no less than five yards away from where I was sitting. I actually saw it with my own eyes." 'Popping sounds' Another passenger on the train, Georgia Law, told BBC Radio 5 Live she heard the shots. "I heard all these popping sounds, it sounded like gunshots, but quite quiet ones. "I could hear shouting, 'get down' and people going 'run, run'. I thought there was just someone shooting randomly. "So I lay on the floor of the carriage and then I decided to get up and have a look out. "I could see someone lying on the floor and police all standing around. "But it was all quite panicky so I then ran up the platform and out of the Tube." Commuter Anthony Larkin, who was also on the train at Stockwell station, told 5 Live he saw police chasing a man. "I saw these police officers in uniform and out of uniform shouting 'get down, get down', and I saw this guy who appeared to have a bomb belt and wires coming out and people were panicking and I heard two shots being fired." 'People were crying' Jason Dines was a passenger on a Victoria line tube train which arrived at Stockwell station as the shooting was taking place. "When we pulled into Stockwell there was just a lot of panic on the platform," he told News 24. "Everyone who was on the platform was just running from one end of the platform down to the exit as quickly as possible. "There was a real wave of panic on my train, people were banging on the doors saying, you know, 'come on, open the doors, let us get off, we want to get off the train'. "Because of that panic, you couldn't actually hear what the driver's announcements were, what he was telling us to do which was a bit of a problem. "The doors opened, we got onto the platform, then you could hear the PA address system on the platform - the drivers were basically saying get back on the train. "There were people very, very shaken, a couple of people crying. It was quite an unsettling experience."

The early reports were a bit misleading. It has now been confirmed that the devices were actual bombs rather than simply detonators however the explosives did not go off. This may have been because the explosives in the rucksacks which as in the case of the previous attack were probably home made and a mistake was made in their preparation. All the bombers appear to have escaped in the confusion however police believe the unexploded portions of the bombs may contain fingerprints and some DNA evidence. They also have at their disposal a huge amout of CCTV footage as well as eyewitness descriptions of at least two of the bombers.