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So, the night arrived and Sarah and I were on our way to Brixton Academy to see The Specials. At 29 and 24 years of age respectively, (with the tour famously being a 30th anniversary reunion), we haven’t seen The Specials before and were hoping for something brilliant. We weren’t disappointed.

With Jerry Dammers being the only original member not to appear, The Specials sound was as authentic as I am likely to hear in my lifetime. After Pama International filled the pretty thankless opening slot (everyone was here for one band only) with some decent tunes.

I saw them last year on the Reggae for the People Tour so knew more of the songs than the rest of crowd. They play a mixture of reggae, ska and pop with some catchy numbers, and without regular guitarist Lynval (busy apparently) they still managed to keep the crowd entertained.

So Pama International left the stage and the massive black curtains opened to reveal….. a massive white curtain.

With silhouettes of the band projected onto the curtain. The moment had arrived. The curtain raised and the band launched into Do the Dog. The crowd, crammed onto the sloping dancefloor, would celebrate every song with the same joy and exuberance from this moment.

Shouts of ‘rude boy’ echoed around the venue between every song from ageing skinheads in new-looking Fred Perry polos. It would expect that trilby sales may have rocketed pre-gig too as I have never seen so many before. I felt a little normal in my jeans and t-shirt. Maybe I should have ‘dressed up’ too.

Anyway, as the band played their extensive catalogue of hits, it was easy to understand why the tour was so popular. Blank Expression, Too Hot, Friday Night Saturday Morning and Nite Klub are some stellar tunes to name just a few.

The biggest hits of Ghost Town, A Message to you Rudy and Too Much Too Young would inevitably raise the biggest cheers but tonight was about all the songs as each member of the crowd seemed to have a different favourite.

The band performed the first half of the gig without their touring horn section and their introduction seemed to raise the crowd’s spirits even further. With more people packed into Brixton Academy than I have seen on any of my previous umpteen visits, it would surprise me if they didn’t do this again.

Maybe Dammers might even make an appearance at the next one. Who knows? As long as it not in another 30 years time, although Neville will still be powering across the stage like it’s 1979.

As we left the venue we both paid too much money for t-shirts to remember the night. It didn’t matter as this was a truly special night.

We enter the final straight. Two games to go, plus Man Utd versus Wigan Athletic.

After a long, hard season with many twists and turns, Sheppey Boys look to have sealed their second consecutive fantasy football league title. It’s not over yet but with 100 points between the Sheppey Boys and their nearest rivals Toadamobo UTD – the champagne is on ice.

But, i will not be taking my foot off the gas. As my avid followers, you will no doubt remember the tenth commandment – Beware the End of Season Circus. Last year with one game to play, the title was in the bag as i held a hefty 60 or so point lead. Middlesbrough managed to hit seven past a lacklustre Man City and my dreams were almost shattered. My nearest rival in that title race had Stewart Downing in his side. Luckily, Downing proved just as rubbish as usual and made little difference. But, the warning was there.

So, as the final games approach, I will fill my team with players and teams that have something to prove. It may be worth trading in some of the Big 4′s players for relegation battlers as all four Champions League places could be wrapped up by last day.

So, hopefully if nothing goes horribly wrong, I will be crowned champions of the Holiday Extras dream team league for the 08/09 season and successfully defend my title. The title race has been pretty fierce this season with plenty of twists and turns along the way. In contrast to last season, there hasn’t been one stand out player but a few periods of high point earners. Gerrard, Ireland, Anelka and that man Ronaldo again are just some of the players that have proved invaluable at certain stages of the season.

I will be putting my Dream Team of the Season online once the campaign is over so have a look and see who did the business for me this year. Expect a couple of surprises as I did mix it up a bit this year, but you won’t find Scott Carson in anyone’s best team.

Thanks for reading, you deserve this victory as much as me so don’t stop now – we’re almost there.

In the last decade, the internet has grown at such an exponential rate that Andy Warhol’s famous phrase that ‘everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes’ becomes more of a prophecy than a prediction. Warhol’s interest in celebrity and fame is now replicated throughout the world as the ambition to be famous is more common in children than ay particular profession.

Those searching for their fifteen minutes of fame could do a lot worse than appearing on the internet’s video sharing sites. There are plenty of sites on the web where one could find their time in the spotlight, YouTube, MyVideo, Flickr and Vimeo to name just a few. So what makes a video star on the internet and how do they become the next internet phenomenon?

As mobile phones become increasingly powerful, some of the best internet videos have been filmed on these pocket-sized inventions. One such video appeared on a variety of video sites showing two men arguing aboard a bus in Hong Kong. The six minutes of footage show an older gentleman, known as ‘Bus Uncle’ verbally attacking a man for asking him to be quiet.

The film was taken by a fellow passenger in order to provide evidence in the event that the altercation turned violent. As the clip circulated, its popularity rocketed and became a media phenomenon in Hong Kong. Various phrases from the clip have entered popular culture in Hong Kong, with the words of Bus Uncle appearing in songs and on t-shirts.

A camera phone on public transport caused similar controversy in South Korea in 2005, when a woman was photographed refusing to clean up after her dog. The lady, aboard a Korean subway train, watched as her lap dog defecated on the train’s floor. Refusing to clear the mess up, she even accepted a lady’s tissue, only to wipe the dog’s behind and leave the mess on the floor. After leaving the train at the next stop, her actions would be national news.

The owner of the camera phone posted the images on a popular website in Korea, leading to internet groups discussing and identifying the woman in question. As the vigilante campaign gained momentum, the lady was forced to quit her university course and made a public apology as a plea for calm. Despite her actions, the woman’s punishment at the hands of internet vigilantes seemed to far outweigh the misdemeanor.

Hollywood films have also used the internet’s vastness to promote word-of-mouth advertising. From The Blair Witch Project to Cloverfield, viral advertisements have been used to create a buzz around a film’s release. One film that appeared to do a lot more with the internet interest was Snakes on a Plane, referred to as ‘perhaps the most internet-hyped film of all time’.

As the movie gained popularity with internet users and in chat-rooms, the film’s makes went as far as incorporating online feedback into the script. The movie had become an internet phenomenon long before its planned release, performing disappointingly at the box office despite the intense anticipation. Maybe this is indicative of the internet’s dominance of media in the twenty-first century, or perhaps because internet clips and chat-rooms are free.

‘Never work with children or animals.’ Actor, W.C. Fields, made this comment long before the internet had made stars of so many children and animals. Two of the biggest hits will forever be known as Star Wars Kid and Dramatic Chipmunk. These two video superstars have amassed over a billion views between them.

The Star Wars Kid, as he is affectionately known, is the star of a short video he filmed himself. In the film, Star Wars Kid is seen mimicking Darth Maul with a golf ball retriever in the place of Maul’s double-ended lightsaber. It is estimated that the video has been seen in various guises over 900 million times, making it the most popular video in internet history.

However, the story of the real Star Wars Kid is far more tragic. After being found by one of the boy’s classmates, the clip was shared at school via file-sharing tools and led to him facing taunts and bullying at the hands of his peers. His family eventually won an out-of-court settlement after filing a lawsuit against the perpetrators and their families.

The dramatic gopher or dramatic chipmunk, is a five second clip of a prairie dog (not a gopher or chipmunk) turning round to look at the camera. Accompanied by humorous music to emphasise the sinister look in the prairie dog’s eyes. The dramatic gopher/chipmunk/rat-thing has been duplicated and replicated many times, with more musical remixes and parodies than can be named here.

So, what have we learned from this handful of internet phenomena? There appears to be no guidelines or rule-book when predicting or monitoring the success of viral ads, video clips and online promotions. With such a vast number of video clips being uploaded every day, it is almost impossible to predict the next phenomenon that will grip the internet and its users. Fifteen minutes of fame is now attainable with just a camera and a funny-looking nondescript animal, and for that alone let me say… God Bless the Internet.