Concerts.

Emeli Sande
Booking concert tickets is always exciting. Selecting a seat to view the person or band you hear every day on your iPod, and having the opportunity to look them in the face. I love pressing the find tickets icon on ticketmaster knowing that you have the potential to watch a favorite artist perform on stage.

Today I am booking Emeli Sande tickets and I am very excited to go in a couple of weeks. A Scottish singer/ songwriter she has a strong, powerful, and beautiful voice. She began writing for singers such as Susan Boyle, Tinie Tempah and Leona Lewis and then went on to collaborate with U.K rapper Chipmunk with their song Diamond Rings coming in the top ten in the U.K charts.

This year she released her first album Our Version of Events, showing off all the dynamics of her voice. Although she is not on my top 10 artists she is a superb talent. I’m excited for the concert and it’s always nice to see a fellow Brit in America

Gers

Rangers Football Club (or the Gers as some of their loyal fans call them) recently won the Scottish Premier League title. This is the third title in a row they have won.

unfortunately in the SPL it is almost always only a competition between two teams, Rangers and Celtic. This year followed that. Rangers finished the season with 93 points in front of Celtic who had 92. The third place team? They had 63 points.

No other team in Europe has won as many trophies as Rangers, yet on the international scene they don’t get much credit. among many other large numbers, Rangers have won 54 league titles. 54! People are raving about United’s accomplishment of 19 (including me) but 54…that is incredible.

Granted the SPL is nowhere near as difficult as the EPL but it is still amazing.

I love Rangers because of my Protestant Scottish heritage, I’m no bandwagoner. But for those people looking for a team outside of the EPL to support, look in to Rangers.

They play pretty football for a Scottish team partly because they have players from all over the world. They have fanatic fans that give the atmosphere a great feel (usually) and they are a succesful club. They really deserve more credit.

But who deserves credit most of all is Walter Smith. After the last game of the season, Smith retired as coach of Rangers. During his time the team won 21 major titles including 10 times league champions. He has been a wonderful representative of the Ranger organization and he will be honored and missed. I cannot stress enough what a great coach and a great asset he has been. There is a great article on his importance here.

So go Gers! And for any Hoop fan reading this, don’t count on us stopping at 3.

Tommy Reilly.

Tommy Reilly!

Tommy Reilly is a singer, songwriter from Scotland. In 2009 Channel 4 hosted the show Orange Unsigned Act, Tommy was one of many contestants competing to win a recording contract.

The viewers, of the show, took a strong liking to Tommy’s individuality along with the judges. The emotional connection he held with a song often reduced him and his viewers to tears. He was unique because he was true to his heart and sang for his pleasure rather than to impress. With much support Tommy ultimately won the show.

After his triumph his first single “Gimme a call” was instantly released into the U.K charts. The song reached 14 in the single charts but unfortunately for him, his success didn’t last long.
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Racism in Football

This weekend’s friendly between Scotland and Brazil saw an ugly display of racism, one that cannot be tolerated.

I support Brazil in the international game because of how great they play football. Most Americans are incredulous on how I could not support my home country but the fact of the matter is I support Brazil because they play the best football.

During their friendly against Scotland (which was played in England), the Brazilian youngster Neymar got two goals. Being 19 years old, that is extremely impressive. But when Neymar went to take a penalty kick, a fan through a banana on to the pitch.

For someone who does not know Neymar this might seem irrelevant but Neymar is black. This is a unexcusable action that should be heavily punished. Neymar and the other Brazilian players are out showing the world their skills. They do not show hatred towards anyone.

Neymar is a young kid who is making it in the crazy world of football and he does not deserve this.

I support Scotland in most games (except when they play Brazil ironically) because my heritage is from there. But the Scottish fans who were involved in the throwing of the banana and the usage of racial slurs against the Brazilians should be ashamed of themselves. I am embarrassed to say that I support Scotland after this incident.

This is not the first time Brazil has had to deal with intolerance. going back over 50 years, Brazil has taken the brunt of many racial insults. Argentina fans often refer to Brazil as being the (n-word) team because Brazil has many more blacks due to colonization than Argentina.

France, with its large population of black soccer players, has also had to put up with racial prejudice. I will say that FIFA does everything they can to stop the hate; banning certain fans they catch on tape and even banning some teams from playing in front of spectators.

But FIFA should not be the ones who have to get people to stop, it should be the fans. As a football fan I want to say enough is enough. Supporting the other team is no excuse for being racially intolerant. Let us enjoy the wonderful skill and appreciate what there people are giving to us.