This collective FEAR. What's it all about ?

Can someone please help me with this....Up until the $700bn bailout of the U.S. banks I thought I understood what was going on. That seems to have failed and now the world's markets are in free fall.

Are the united countries of the world saying that they ALL no longer have any confidence in any of their governments ? Certainly Leadership is a very scarce commodity at the moment. People are looking for a strong leader to make sense of what is going on but instead we just see small , frightened men, seemingly out of their depth, trying to play catch-up.

Maybe the computer banks that are triggering selling should just be turned off for a few days...

So farewell then Rick.

It was very sad to hear the other day about the death of Richard(Rick) Wright, the long time quiet keyboard player of Pink Floyd. He was always there producing some of the most harmonic and beautiful chords that set Pink Floyd apart from other bands. Listen to the Great Gig In The Sky from Dark Side Of The Moon to understand the true impact his playing and singing had on the essential and individual sound of the Floyd.

Therer are many people out there who for one reason or another never quite "got" what the Floyd were about and certainly some of their earlier stuff was quite pretentious but in the latter years with Dave Gilmour's strong and soulful guitar influence the band developed into a solid rock outfit but never losing the essential magic that made their music the soundtrack of so many early lives.

To many people under the age of 45 the Floyd are often regarded now as obsolete. Perhaps they are but their wonderfully soulful and evocative music will always be part of my time when I was starting out and for that I'm extremely grateful. So goodbye then Rick. You truly were a gentle man and a fine musician. We will miss you.

(Rick was aged 65 and died of cancer early this week. He was one of the founder members of the band .The Pink Floyd Pulse tour in 1995 filled Earls Court every night for 12 nights)

Confidential's Travels

During the summer break Confidential Rick eventually stopped sobbing over events at the Valley and took himself off with his lady-friend to explore some of the more wierd and wonderful traits of this country including an antique motor-bike rally and a steam fair with traction engines and our friend in the picture, Mr Hudspith, who has invented the steam bicycle.

He's seen here riding the machine in full steam. He originally had the extraordinary and unlikely vision of a steam bicycle back in the 1970s but then spent the next ten years learning about engineering, welding and brazing etc. because he had no formal training. Eventually in the 1980s the bike started to take shape and after years of development and continual changes and improvements he now has the only Hudspith Steam Bicycle in existence and rides it at steam rallies all over Europe. Apparently he's very big in Germany and Denmark so draw your own conclusions.....

Mr Hudspith is British to the core. This traditional, slightly eccentric British inventor of yesteryear has made an intricate,beautifully designed and built machine - even if Health & Safety would no doubt have a seizure with it's calibrated fuel mixtures of petrol and paraffin - and while the rest of us sit in our sat-naved motorised euro-boxes , he's out there steaming and whistling along with his own personal achievement. He's also invented a Steam Gramophone ! (not sure if it takes CDs though).

Legends - Is It Curtains ?

Well it's actually the blinds that are Confidential's latest beef. Let me explain. For those unfortunate souls who have never had the Legends experience, let me paint a picture. The Legends restaurant is situated inside the new North Stand with large plate glass windows providing a glorious vista overlooking a sea of modern bright red football stadia and the lush greensward of the Valley pitch, which on a sunny matchday afternoon, must gladden every Addick's heart. Inside the restaurant, the atmosphere is warm and convivial with fans enjoying excellent food and drink with great service.

(In fact it's rumoured by some of my fellow bloggers that certain people have been known to take advantage of this fantastic and very reasonably priced hospitality and NOT STAY TO WATCH THE MATCH !)

Imagine if you will the scenario during a Legends lunch. Surrounded by excellent company, food is being savoured, drinks are being quaffed and the truth is being embroidered on many a table. Towards the end of the meal Fine Wines and Belgian Chocolates are being enjoyed, when out of the corner of one's eye, a stealthy movement is detected as a mysterious squad of shadowy figures move among the diners and slowly proceed to blot out what is probably the best view in SE7. Yes folks these sadistic operatives are closing the blinds on the view of our beloved Valley. Why is this ? Is it to save the embarrassment of the people enjoying themselves in Legends from the poor unfortunate lower orders in their cramped plastic seats ? Or perhaps like a Dickens novel, some of the luckier ones outside have been able to press their noses against the warmth of the Legend windows ?

Of course the real reason is to get people out of the restaurant and into their seats in an orderly fashion, but it's a shame we can't sometimes enjoy the game, drink in hand, from the Legend windows .

And while we're at it, how about changing the name to Lennie's ?

Two Worlds

Police were called to Sparrows Lane the other day to eject a shambling and incoherent red wine drinker found in the fertiliser shed. The bedraggled figure was believed to be a Mr A. Curbishley. When challenged by a groundsman Mr Curbishley is reported as saying that he just "wanted to be left alone to think about life....". It's understood that Mr Curbishley used to be in the employment of CAFC during the so called "glory years".

A friend of Confidential's was belly-aching the other day about the price of petrol and the useless state of Charlton, the housing market, the UK in general, when another one of the group piped up and said he'd won the Lottery. When asked to expand, he pointed out that he had had the best ever odds to have been born is this country. He went on to say that the odds on having been born in Britain instead of Dafur ,or elswhere in Africa - where children are often chopped up with machetes for fun - or Iraq, or any of the hundreds of other war torn countries around the world, where people grovel on the ground for the sort of food that we put out on our garden bird-tables, are millions to one.

Keeping Ketts Happy

Confidential was shocked to find out recently that certain sections of the blogging fraternity were critical of his output levels. Speaking to him the other day via satellite phone at his remote Arizona desert retreat he sounded like a broken man. His speaking voice was slurred and breathing heavy as he rounded on his so-called "fans" accusing them of being "turncoats" and "fair weather fans" and not supporting the output even though it's been patchy. Just before the shaky voice faded from the phone line he was heard to say that "this was the time to get behind the blog and give your full support ...."

With nothing particularly significant happening at CAFC at the moment, Confidential has been reading up from http://newyorkaddick.blogspot.com/ and http://chicagoaddick.blogspot.com/ excellent articles about Obama's successful run for the Democrats.

One thing that was not mentioned ( maybe because people don't want to even think about it) is the possibility of Obama being the subject of an assassination. In America there is still a high degree of inbuilt racism in many parts of the country and the history for U.S black leaders is not good. Maybe the fact that Obama is of mixed-race precludes him from the full ire of the rabid good 'ol boys. I hope so. The alternative is too frightening to consider.

C'mon 'Arry - SMILE!

Contrary to some other blogs old Confidential quite enjoyed the FA Cup match. Actually I more than enjoyed it, I thought it was a blast... At last here were two real teams with real identities battling it out for something that mattered to them. A real credit to the two managers, both coming from difficult years but still producing the best (with the exception of Big-Shorts of course. What WAS all that bullshit about, while the fat one steered his ocean going present from Charlton down the river surrounded by roadies.. ?)...and a good day out for all concerned.

So c'mon 'Arry give us a smile, you've cracked it. You've got Portsmouth the cup for the first time since 1939 and what better addition to the old HR CV. Admittedly you and old Tony Adnams do come across as the Odd Couple but so what ? Between the two of you you've been able to get the best out of your players by understanding what they need and both being excellent and perspective human beings where spirituality and family come first.

How good to see a modest success at this human level, in this increasingly materialistic, all gloss-no content and bloody boring, media driven circus we find ourselves living in.