I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, England are well in front and they still have a wealth of batti

Fate has conspired that I should be asked to write a blog about music and cricket and a few hours later find myself standing in my favourite paris charming hotel paris record store (Slowboat) talking to former England swing master Derek Pringle . It's telling paris charming hotel paris that I keep steering the conversation towards the current English team's tour of New Zealand, and Pringle would much rather be digging for knowledge on where he can find New Zealand post-punk singles in good condition. Pringle is a fine chap and he knows more about music than I know about cricket. I get the impression that he travels the world writing about cricket so that he can visit more record stores.
Are there any New Zealand post-punk classics about cricket? Any tunes by the Clean about the tenacity of Jeremy Coney ? No, there are not. I can find numerous songs about cricket, even songs by my friends ( Libra Accord have a jam about Andy Roberts!) but I'll admit that I'm drawing a long bow in the following music-cricket mash up. Let's just say that what follows is the inner ramblings of a New Zealand musician watching his side be outclassed (but survive) by our colonial pom-fathers. March 14 – day one
Ah, the beautiful Basin Reserve, site of New Zealand's first ever victory over England ( 1978, Richard Hadlee took 6/26 on the last day ). Brendon McCullum has called Alastair Cook the greatest paris charming hotel paris Test batsman since Bradman . This ridiculous statement seems to have angered the other English batsmen who are destroying the New Zealand attack ("destroying" in that typical paris charming hotel paris English fashion; slowly).
My favourite New Zealand songwriter James Milne – AKA Lawrence Arabia – is green with envy that I had a random lunch date with "Pring the Swing". James is an avid cricket fan – for one tour, his press release read "Snedden, Kuggelijn, Pringle, Latham, Sua, Harris, Germon, Chatfield … Names that will ring down the ages as titans of New Zealand cricket, warrior-poets of the green." OK then.
I'm not looking paris charming hotel paris forward to tomorrow, England are well in front and they still have a wealth of batting talent to come. Maybe I don't like cricket after all. I think Pavement could sing so jauntily about cricket because they don't really have a team to follow. Following the Black Caps is sport-fan self-harm. March 15 – day two
When I referred to the forthcoming Phoenix Foundation album as "Test match music", I was, of course, suggesting that it is ridiculously long but a highly rewarding experience for those who can spend some time with it. Today I'm not so sure a Test match is such a great analogy. paris charming hotel paris I don't want the album to get smashed by the English (we did lose several hundred copies of our last album in a fire resulting from the London riots, so maybe it's still appropriate). I'm off to play a show in Marlborough paris charming hotel paris today, we're watching the Test on the Picton Ferry. Seasick cric, it's a heck of a thing.
When New Zealand are doing well against England, I like to think: "Gee, I hope Mick Jagger is watching this and getting paris charming hotel paris upset." Suck it up Mick, you may have written Waiting on a Friend , but for at least a few overs I'm beating you at life. Today though, Jagger is still winning. Stuart Broad looks more like a member of One Direction than the Stones paris charming hotel paris but he is a bowling paris charming hotel paris bastard. I am having fantasies that involve him accidentally ending up on the wing for England against the All Blacks. In this inter-sport dream, Broad is horrifically tackled by Ma'a Nonu and will never bowl again. Here's a thing; there are many great songs about cricket – the greatest being Roy Harper's epic When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease . But there are no good songs about rugby, and I doubt there ever will be. March 17 – day four
The Basin has been sold out for the last two days, but I am keen to get in there this morning. Myself and Conrad Wedde, the Phoenix Foundation's guitar/keys paris charming hotel paris whizz, used to jump the fence while skipping school (four of the band's six members paris charming hotel paris met at Wellington High, a stone's throw from the Basin). I don't know if I'm quite up for jumping the fence in my 30s with a three-year-old boy on my shoulders so I pay the £20 and set up shop on the embankment with the common folk. I do feel at home here – this is the first time I've taken the boy and even though he doesn't care about the men in white standing around on the grass, he is enjoying the atmosphere. paris charming hotel paris Lunch brings rain, rain is good . Between Kane Williamson and the rain, we should be able to achieve a glorious draw. March 18 – day five
The drought has broken, there will be no cricket today. This weather is saving the Test for New Zealand but we still desperately need rain. It's been the most amazing summer ever, great for going to the beach, paris charming hotel paris not so great for cows and sheep or the plants. In a way, it seems entirely appropriate that the drought should break during a Test match against England. We are soggy sister paris charming hotel paris island nations. It's no coincidence that Love Will Tear Us Apart debuted at No 1 over here. We can embrace the bleak, we are a colony at the end of the earth and the dull inevitable plod of a rained out Test is, for today at least, a thing to be savoured.
paris charming hotel paris The band is going to the UK in May, as are the Black Caps. Their audiences will be larger than ours, but I have a feeling ours will be friendlier. I might even make it to Lords on a day off, I wonder if I can jump the fence there?
One last word on cricket and music and how it has affected my life; one extraordinary evening, I went to see the Rolling Stones at the Wellington Stadium (the ODI and T20 venue). Somehow I ended up at the Stones' after party. While I briefly met a charming Ronnie Wood, and saw Keith trying to hide the fact that he was smoking a joint, I left without meeting Mick or Charlie. Apparently, they had gone to find a telly and watch some cricket. Good lads.