Went to Wembley last night - almost wish I hadn't.

I can't remember looking forward to a match so much in ages. It's not every day you get to see the World and European champions in the flesh, including two-thirds of perhaps the greatest club side ever.

Well, what a disappointment. I really should have known better. After all, it was a 'friendly' and especially in the first half Spain didn't look particularly interested. And I thought England were dreadful throughout, although they took one of their very few chances, which is obviously more than Spain did.

Second half was better, as once Spain went behind they did make more of an effort, and really should have equalized.

We left five minutes from the end in an attempt to beat the rush, my young son not having enjoyed at all a very unpleasant crush on the Jubilee line on the way to the game.

Random thoughts -

- The new Wembley really is great. We were quite high up and the view was sensational. I can understand the nostalgia for the old ground, but it was awful from a spectator's point of view;

- We went for drinks and snacks at half-time (on the expensive side of course, but not outrageously so) so were spared a performance of the new single by 'The Soldiers', thank God;

- And although there were loads of kids there and the atmosphere was generally very pleasant, there are still a few ghastly people following England. The nutters in front of us seemed to feel the need to constantly scream and flick V-signs at the very good-natured Spanish fans below, and we heard an enthusiastic rendition of the Anton Ferdinand song as we were leaving.

We're thinking of selling our car. Money's tight, it's costing us a fortune to run, and basically we can barely afford it any more.

Now before we had kids we never had a car, and never wanted one. Public transport did the job just fine. But after our first child was born, it soon became apparent that life would be a lot easier with a car. Not just for the school run (we can walk that, although it's nice to drive when it's pouring with rain) but for ferrying the kids to after school activities, friends' houses, day trips, out-of-town-shopping, holidays ... you name it.

We also have friends and relatives who live a long way away. So we would of course be using the train a lot more (and that's not cheap either these days).

We live in a suburb of London so public tansport links are pretty good.

So, my question for the Massive, particularly those with young children, is, do any of you manage without a car?

As I write this I'm listening to Five Live's Tour de France preview show. There are some excellent guests, and it's an enjoyable listen.

That, however, is in spite of the presenter, ex-rugby player Matt Dawson.

Now I wouldn't expect a rugby player to be an expert on cycling, but you would think he might have done a bit of research. Well, his performance as presenter here would indicate not. He appeared not to even know that drugs were involved in Tom Simpson's death.

Two of the guests on the show are Ned Boulting and Simon Brotherton, both experienced broadcasters. Why couldn't they have presented this?

The BBC do seem keen on employing ex-sportsmen and women for some reason. Radio 5 are currently trailing a programme presented by Andrew Flintoff. I haven't listened to it. He doesn't strike me as the natural successor to Des Lynam.

Anyone else seen this? It's just wonderful. Senna had this amazing presence and there's some incredible footage of him both on and off track.

I must have had something in my eye at the end.

Highly recommended, and certainly not just for petrolheads.

Yawn, it's another list, this time the top 30 albums released in Q's lifetime. And it's the usual suspects, Radiohead, U2, Oasis, etc, etc.

However, there is one entry in there which really demonstrated to me how out of touch I am - at number 16, it's Neutral Milk Hotel, and I have truthfully never heard of them, never even heard them mentioned in passing.

Are they any good?

Any of The Massive apply for Olympic tickets? I applied for early rounds of the athletics, basketball (both morning sessions) and football (plenty of tickets available for that, you would think).

Well, today was the last day when they would take the money from my bank, apparently, and as none has been taken, I appear to have not been successful for even a single ticket.

Bit disappointing really, and slightly surprising.

How did anyone else get on?

One of the recent weekend newspapers listed some of the festivals in the UK this summer. That's festivals with a general pop/rock/folk flavour. I think there were 60 or 70 of them, mostly spread over two or three days. There may be others which didn't make the list, I don't know.

So I was just wondering, how many of them will actually turn a profit or break even, and how many will be sparsely attended and make a loss?

It can't be cheap to put on a festival, and in these belt-tightening times expecting punters to pay between £100 and £200 for a weekend ticket seems a bit optimistic (unless you're Glastonbury or Latitude of course).

Anyway with any inside knowledge of these things?

There are bad reviews, there are very bad reviews, and then there is this review of Robbie Robertson's new album, headlined "Absolute Disaster":

http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/absolute-disaster-robbie

A few highlights:

"I try to avoid writing bad reviews … but, for Robbie Robertson’s new album I’ll make an exception."

"It is surely the worst work he has ever done"

"right up there with the most awful albums ever released by a major artist"

"an embarrassing disaster from beginning to end"

Well that was some game! I know that the odds are still that Barcelona will win the return and go through (2-1 at home in a European first leg is not usually enough) but that shouldn't stop us from acknowledging a magnificent Arsenal performance.

I can't remember watching quite as entertaining a match for a long time.

Arsenal will probably win the Carling Cup next week and I really think that could open the floodgates as far as their chances of adding more silverware go. And who knows, in a few years this could be eventually be recognised as Wenger's third great side.

Or am I getting carried away?

Anyone else watch it last night?

Chief Waterboy Mike Scott has blogged about how many Waterboys there have now been:

"I'm amused to observe that with the advent of An Appointment With Mr Yeats and its influx of 8 new Waterboys, we've now had more musicians pass through the band than English group The Fall, previously thought to have been the combo with the largest past or present personnel in the world. 51 musicians have performed onstage with The Waterboys as touring members, plus another 20 or so who've guested regularly onstage or appeared on TV as part of the band, etc."

An impressive number, and unbeatable I would have thought. Unless, of course, the Massive knows better ...

In Fopp today, I noticed that loads of stuff which came out in the 50s (i.e is now over 50 years old) is available on all sorts of small labels, and certainly not the major labels they were previously released on.

It was mainly jazz and blues. For instance loads of Miles Davis CBS albums, Frank Sinatra's Capitol albums, John Lee Hooker, etc etc.

So my question is, in two or three years time, will the likes of The Beatles, Dylan, and The Stones be out of copyright, and will we start to see them re-released by anyone who fancies doing so?

Anyone watch this? I really loved it. Very stylish, perfectly cast, all performed in English of course but thankfully with no dodgy Italian accents.

Tonight's episode was the last in the series and also the best. Hope they make some more.

So I'm watching the BBC news and they've just devoted several minutes to the fact that the alarm function on the iPhone wasn't working properly this morning.

That's right, a minor glitch in a mobile phone and it makes the main national news bulletin. Are they kidding?

And they had an interview with a bloke who appears to have made a special trip to the Apple shop in Regent Street, just because his alarm clock didn't go off!

Normally I hate the expression "Get a life", but really ...

In honour of an absolutely barnstorming show at The Lexington this week, here's Steve Wynn and his fantastic band playing the superb Amphetamine.

Anyone watch the first episode of the new series? Very good, I thought. Particularly liked the man who forgets to put out the bins, and their view of farmers' markets seems to chime with mine: